is um within the the project budget and uh that's the reason why we have a board item to ask the board's approval to use those fundings for the storage cabinets great to hear thank you so much thank you Mr fogan Holly is he on the line okay any other board member comment seeing none all in favor of jj2 say I I those opposed say no jj2 passes unanimously may have a motion second on o1 so moved moved by Zan second by roer public comment board member comment I have Mr fogan Holly Dr holess Mrs Hixon thank you I just have a quick question um we've asked for when we get items such as software and um things of that nature to give us in the backup the data for the usage and um feedback from the teachers and I don't see this on here but it does indicate we've been using it since 2021 so um can we ask staff to send us that backup and just moving forward it should be in the item to make this a little easier thank you Dr heurn yes we can provide that um follow up by um on the actual first page of the executive summary it does provide some dat data about um we're talking about zuan correct yes um does provide some usage data um for the past 3 years but we can follow up with additional um data too yeah no what we've asked for is like which schools Ed it what was the feedback from the teachers maybe even from the students because we keep asking for that data in these particular items especially you know it's $74,000 so I um we were getting it better before and now it's kind of slacked off so I'd just like to remind staff that that's what we're looking for in these items noted we we'll provide that any other board member comment Miss fam thanks Madam chair thank you um on1 I'm just wondering if I I know that we have to cut back on spending period we have to find what ways to do that no one's going to be happy that we we are cutting back in certain areas but I think that this may be one of them um this is for tracking of independent book reading and I'm thinking perhaps that we could have um a spreadsheet the teachers prepare a spreadsheet and they do it that way where they know exactly where where U students are reading and and a list of reading items and or um we can do it on paper where the children sign up they have something on the wall where they sign up when they've read a book but I think for $75,000 um we can do this ourselves we did it before 2021 this is hasn't been implemented very long at all and um sometimes it's better to take a step back and that's why I will not be voting for this today thank you Dr Zan thanks chair uh chair do you know uh if we put this uh on a postponement until our May 21st meeting will that impact um our ability to uh use this software for next year or is this a uh I think this starts again on July 1st um uh I I agree with my colleagues on fiscal scrutiny I also noticed that the minutes used on this have dropped precipitously from 22 million to 12 million to 8 million in the third year um I I'd love to do anything to promote children to read um but I'd really like to learn more about the data to miss hixon's point you know what what value is this driving toward our strategic goal of becoming an a district if it is and it's worth the 75 grand then great uh but I don't see that information this item uh I'm just curious though if we do uh postpone on this one till May 21st to make sure we get the data before we vote will that impact the ability to implement this on July 1 Dr heer Dr Wilson good morning through the chair um just so for a point of clarity the data is up uh through January so it's not for the full year additionally a state statute although this this is a electronic um reading log so that we can track students in their reading um habits statute requires that any teachers that have a classroom Library must have an electronic searchable platform that is on school websites so that parents can see what is curated in the classroom so uh we are in the process of implementing this before before the state gives a hard deadline for completion and at this time we have over 200,000 books that have been registered from our teachers into this platform because the platform from its Genesis was only a tracking log electronically like a reading log as I mentioned but Zoo being as a company saw what statute was requiring so the tool was expanded so that we would be in compliance Statewide with state statute for the classroom libraries so that's why there is an increase in a request for additional spend Authority Mr poogan thank you very much Shar and I think um good morning everyone but I think uh my concerns Echo everybody else's um of when it came to this I see the the time and the reading time just decreasing so I understand the reasoning but yeah I'm in the same place as everybody else I feel like thank you thank you so my question Dr heern is if we vote this down but it sounds like there's a state statute saying that we need this type of software how are we then going to be in compliance yes so it'll be very difficult to be in compliance in an efficient way utilizing Excel or or proprietary trackers and the level of variance that could happen from teacher to teacher in the in the building also keep in mind um that Dr Wilson mentioned that the data for 81 to 23 to 13024 that last uh chunk of data is only for half the year so there's a potential that that may actually double by the end of the year um to catch us back up to some of the trends um around that Co era um time so I think um it does provide some difficulty in us adhering the state statute to make sure that we're in compliance to have a repository and something that we can post online to let our parents know what type of books are in our classrooms so but to Dr Zan's point though if we delay this to May to get some more of that data upto-date data then my colleagues might feel more comfortable with voting this up I I I'm I'm going to ask Dr Wilson if this we postpone this to May does this have any implications on implementation for the beginning school year through the chair yes it will have imp implications based on the uh expiration date of the contract and we cannot receive services without having a current contract and we have been encouraged to make sure that we're bringing items forward at least three months in advance as not to put pressure on other departments that have to go through the process of approval uh with privacy legal and the like so again it is um the actual statute is 106.2 and the preponderance of our elementary schools have classroom libraries that's where we have the heaviest uh volume of classroom libraries so we're literally in the middle of building this process out although it's a newer statute that's not going to go away uh and that will thwart our process if we don't have a system in place um before the deadline of the state when they do issue that and what is the deadline they Haven an establish it as yet we were trying to be proactive since this statute came on the book so that we would be in compliance to date we really have over 200,000 books that we're actually um curating reviewing and all of that takes a lot of time to do okay Miss Batista if we don't become in compliance with the Statue then what happens good morning thank you so if um it sounds like we have a little bit more time to comp to become in come in compliance with this statute because there is no time limit set in the statute right now or or it has not been announced by the Department of Education at this point is that correct through the chair yes that is correct the only uh caution that I have is that we do have one person that is assigned although it is a small team to review over 200,000 books for the district with basically a party of one to ensure that things are appropriate in the appropriate grade band Etc is at least a 2-year task so to stop the process to then see when the stat the statute may have a a hard deadline just puts us in Jeopardy of being behind the eightball it it's just a point of caution well and it also sounds like in addition to this statute it would have ramification to other laws right that we have to have um appropriate books for this for certain classrooms and those statutes are already in you know in the books right now and we have to comply with them Dr Zan yeah I'd like to make a motion to postpone this to May uh this contract runs through June 30th uh there's nothing stopping anybody whether it's a party of one or a party of 14,000 teachers from using this through that time uh and we just need to know more I mean we should always hold the line on uh usage data uh on value to what we're trying to achieve uh when we spend this money uh I appreciate the need and I appreciate the effort put into this but i' I'd like to move forward with a motion to postpone this item to May 21st second second it's been moved by Zeman second by fogan hly public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion seeing none all in favor of the motion say I I I those oppos say no no I think three NOS few no alustin Al okay roll call roll call on the motion to postpone the item to May 21st 2024 Mrs ala no Mr Austin no Mrs fam yes Mr folen Hoy yes Mrs Hixon no Dr holess I know yes Mrs Leonardi yes Mrs rert no Dr Zan yes okay the motion passes 54 may have a motion second o13 so move move by Zan second by rert public comment Mrs fam thank you madam chair um I noticed in reviewing the contract that this for a one-year renewal and there is no penalty if we don't renew it this time it would said if I understood it correctly that um future will would be at the same rate I'm just wondering if we should delay the renewal at this time until we get the repurposing of schools figured out and just or or table this and and make a decision at that time exactly what we're looking at and how much we're going going to need thank you any other board member comment seeing none all in favor of o13 say I I I I those opposed say no no one dissenting vote Mrs fam item passes we have a motion second on 04 move by rert second by Hixon public comment no public comment for o4 Madam chair Dr holness I had my questions answered thank you Miss Fam I'm good thank you any other board member comment all in favor say I I those opposed say no item passes unanimously may have a motion second o5 so move mooved by Zan second by rert public comment we have one registered speaker but I do not see Miss um Kim mohorn in the audience well we did have one Dr holess again Dr tumer did a great job answering my questions so I'm good thank you any other board member comment yes ma'am fam yeah thank you so much um I I looked at the um statistics on injuries UCL injuries for um AstroTurf and it's greater for football and boy uh football teams or male football teams and male soccer players have um a greater likelihood of low um leg injuries as well as tears uh asot is considered more of a luxury item as opposed to a necessity I would say that not at this time um due to the budget restrictions that we're considering and um the fact that there are specific data set out about injuries being more um prevalent with the use of asurf and just one student it takes more than seven months to repair from um to recover from an ACL injury which can be the the difference of receiving a scholarship and not so I would a on the eyes um conservatism and and stay with grass at this time in the maintenance of gas thank you Dr holess I'm good on that item okay um what schools um Dr heurn is the astr turf being installed in Dr tumer the three schools that were selected were South Broward High School uh Dillard High School and Deerfield Beach High School thank you Mr pool oh those that your only question question chair yes um so no I just wanted to address this um of course this is an item I'm excited about um regarding to injuries to to board member fam's point I think I made my view very known that I personally have witnessed my kids get hurt on fields that have potholes and different holes all over the field and playing on dirt so this is an equity issue um I do want to follow up on that question board uh chair of the schools that did receive the fields um I guess I'll ask this question for my colleagues because one of my schools did receive the field which I'm very happy about right South Broward gets a field fantastic but my question is how do we address this to MacArthur Hollywood Hills Bland Chile what guidelines did we use to choose those schools can we share that Dr he Dr tumor through the chair it was a collaborative effort um from the office of um Athletics and also from the facilities Department looking at um schools and the uses um of their fields uh the conditions of the fields and based on that um determining the order in which we should um award these um Fields thank you following up so with um you say conditions of the fields of it's because those were in worse shape compared to everybody else like what is it that we were comparing was it data with attendance where we using um lights stands where how many people could sit in the stadium what was the guidelines I really want to know like what we're using the primary um um deciding points was really the conditions of the field the safety of the fields um those that were easily um having to be maintained for potholes for Turf um um coming up that that really could cause serious issues for students so uh that along with um make safety was really one of the primary driving factors okay now for for one as a board member I have those questions but of course our community is going to have those questions right A lot of people are going to ask why not us why did we not receive that so I believe this is a big win for our district this is a great thing that we are doing but I think it's important for us to let our community know why these schools were selected why some were being left out but also being clear that this going great I believe in the future other schools are going to be getting this hopefully in the next 10 Years everybody can have brand new fields and we talk about Equity everybody having that that equal thing um one question I did have I know a lot goes into it it's not just going in and laying down carpet right we talk about drainage so much that goes into it maintenance so I'd like to know what goes into it I know that we talked three different companies here so number one I want to know that the quality is going to be the same of all three schools right every single field is going to be the same how we're going to maintain that in the next couple years how are we going to do that are we just going to lay it down leave it not do anything um but also I want to know what kind of warranty issues we have with that as well they're going to put down these fields some Fields you'll see turf fields they look beautiful for the first couple years then you see the line start squiggling and things start coming apart how are we maintaining it so those questions I have on when it comes to these three companies how can they all assure the same type of quality same type of warranty to make sure that they're going to be maintained in the next 5 to 10 years Dr a Dr tumer and and um Miss chipowski if you want to support so I will uh defer to um miss chowski or Mr Dorset yes Mr Dorset please thank you good morning through the chair Mark Dorset executive director physical plan operations uh what we did what we're doing right now because no none of the companies were selected as yet uh we have I think there are three companies on this item the next board meeting you'll get you there's going to be a an item for the additional five vendors we're going to evaluate all eight vendors to determine exactly the course of action and a part of that whole process is for them to provide warranty for the the fields over I don't I I can't remember the the amount of years that the warranty is is included but they also have a maintenance plan they gave us specifics on on what we're supposed to do to maintain so uh within the the uh budget for these fields or equipment that we need to purchase to maintain the fields properly and that's included in this this item as well okay now this is not going to be in place in time by next season correct no not at this time um we we were trying to to get at least these three Fields done before uh uh the new season but it doesn't look like it as of yet but we we're as soon as the companies are selected we'll get a better time frame as to exactly when uh we can we can expect the three fields to be done understood and is it fair to say that Dillard Deerfield Beach and South Broward will not be having home games this season um for football for football I it's it's hard to say yet but if if we're not done absolutely not that they won't be able to have any home Fields home games this year um also so you said so now we're okay thank you for being clear about the extra companies and then design are all companies going to be on the same playing field of being able to design the fields having the same design capabilities how does that go yeah it's a it's actually a turnkey uh uh uh bid so whichever company is selected is going to do the entire uh process to include the drainage and everything so it's a turnkey operation all right thank you chair thank you Miss Hixon thank you um I'd like to direct the superintendent once the fields are up to collect data on on injuries like are there more injuries on the turf field than there are on the um on the regular fields and also the cost of Maintenance because I know that was one of the things that we were sold on this for was that it would cost less to maintain the turfs and also maybe survey the schools to see do they actually want the turf some might not I mean as we're looking across um some of the comments I know some of the community members were concerned so I think it would be prudent for us to just make sure that the schools want the turf I know that we um we voted it in the dfp and all all high schools will get it eventually but I think it would be important to make sure they want it so if you could collect that data in the process of this that would be great thank you Mr Rogan only thank you very much CH and to follow up for that question who are we serving right who are we asking I would like our athletes to be asked I'd like our kids to be asked that are playing on it every single day and when they have to show up to football fields and soccer fields that have holes all over them so I think that for us we can ask the community but it's important to ask the kids that are going to be on there the bands that are going to be using everybody's going to be using it on a daily basis so it would be our kids thank you thank you Dr Zan thanks chair um if if we want to add this which I agree with Miss six 100% And and to Mr poen Ho's Point uh we might want to be specific and so what I'd suggest is we ask for these data every six months from athletes coaches and parents and the data that I think that you asked about Miss Hixon is uh the cost of Maintenance and things related to the safety of the athletes on the field I would add to that though the additional value that you get out of one of these fields as compared to Mr fogan Holly's description of a lot of our Fields unfortunately po hold uh very very difficult to maintain perfectly uh uh and the like so if we could get that every six months I think that that's consistent with what we're asking for is that fair Miss six thank you so my question is how many high schools do we currently have have to field on them Dr currently zero okay zero and do we have a plan to uh move forward so yes these three schools are coming before us today however do we have a plan to put tur fields in all of our high schools Dr he yes that's the future plan um is it a is it written somewhere the plan Dr tumer um yes in the in the press release that went out we were doing three this year and then six for the next four years six schools per year for the next four years okay also miss Marte you want to add thank you superintendent uh Miss chair alad it's also in the dfp So the instructions to the um staff during the development of the dfp was to include to this year uh when you go over the defp they'll be funding in the out years for the board's consideration as well but the discussion at the adoption of the dfp was to begin with two and then roll it out over the future years three I'm sorry three and and how many high schools do we have 28 28 okay I'm just trying to figure out so miss Marte or Dr hurn is that 84 million M Marte for the total high schools of all high schools I'm sorry sir repeat the question what would be the amount overtime to uh put artificial turf down an estimate for all 28 high schools 30 million sorry 28 I I did 20 I'm sorry 42 million okay 42 million okay so I'm just I'm just trying to get the board to think about like yes we're approving 3.6 million today but we have to look at longterm uh the financial the cost and then my next question is how does this compared to just doing grass fields what does that cost um Miss Dr tumor Miss Martel and if you guys are have that information if not we can probably provide a followup so I um if it's okay Dr I I think it's better for us to provide a followup because um Mr Dorset may have some data on what po does there was like a a um a um cycle every year we would replace like five or six tracks depending on and I think it's a cycle that um po has CU they do a a lot of the field maintenance so it it would be better if the board would allow Dr he for us to provide a comprehensive followup to the question unless you would want to pause and give staff time to really go deep and get those answers yeah for me I can't vote on that without that answer today so I would have to vote no right now but um if we we can move forward we can postpone this we can start a workshop until staff comes back with this information Dr Zan thank you so much uh we did approve this already this is just the execution of the contract we approved it in our dfp last year to do three Fields um uh this next year so that's already in our budget this is the item just to execute the contracts to allow us to do it so that's uh that's one thing two I'd like to also ask as part of the follow-up that Chief of Staff talked about um to learn about how other districts have funded these things I don't know if others have seen this but the city of Fort Lauderdale just paid for one in Miss Leonard's District there's going to be a middle school that gets one of these fields that's going to be spectacular and it's going to fundamentally change the ability of that school to use that amazing property that they have in Fort Lauderdale um I would love other cities to think about funding um and again The Cooperative use Agreements are pretty cool because the kids get to use it when they need it and guess what even sometimes during the school day with the fence is locked the neighborhood gets to use it so they're out there playing frisbee football and they're out there doing frisbee be Golf and they're using this beautiful facility sometimes during school most time after school and on weekends and they're they're willing to spend a lot of cities like uh Fort Lauderdale are uh Park poor you know they have entire neighborhoods where they have to walk more than two and a half three miles just to get to the nearest park but there's a school and so they love these uh Cooperative agreements and we ought to look into it I would also suggest as part of that report we learn from other districts about corporate sponsorships that's right and decide whether or not we're willing to do that in Broward County but if uh Nations Bank wants to sponsor a field at a high school that is anywhere near something you don't like nation's Bank who's that who's nation's Bank nation's Bank Home Depot anybody right uh but there are uh there are local companies and National companies that uh that like to have their names on things and and I think it's something we should consider whether or not the board would like to do that or not but to me the report that the chief staff is talking about is a clear summary report of the difference between grass which is awful and Synthetic Turf which is amazing and so we should get the costs and the benefits and all that uh but the whole world is moving to synthetic turf fields um uh because of the unbelievable benefits the year- round use the the the lower maintenance and as Mr Fen Holly points out they're just easier to play them I mean there's nothing like playing soccer on a synthetic turfield compared to Grass um it it's night and day but I'd love to see that report and I'd love to open up our thinking a little bit and go to the city of X and say look uh we're going to do this over the next six years but at at this pace your school may not be till 68 years from now um if you can help us with some of the financing and we can come up with a Cooperative use agreement uh like we have with many cities already um maybe they could kick in 50% we can kick in or maybe we find corporate sponsors that are willing to put their logo on the middle of one of our high school Fields right under our High School logo uh so that U you know they can invest back in our uh traditional Public Schools thank you chair thank you m fenol thank you very much CH and I'd like like to hear from Dr heurn um about Palm Beach's fields for example um how many of their schools have natural grass fields compared to tur Fields um I would say in Palm Beach J uh quote me on a number let's say about 25 high schools um probably four of their high schools have artificial turf fields I know for sure one is a Cooperative agreement between the city um and the school where the students and and um staff use the fields during school time and for athletic events and the uh Community gets to use the field you know uh in in those off hours where the where the schools are not using them um and a brand new field was just added to one of their newest high schools which I know you visited and additional fields are are also being added on in their District um as as a former High School principal I can tell you the maintenance of a grass field um over time it costs a lot um especially in South Florida where the the the soils are Sandy they don't hold a lot of water um which causes more maintenance uh which causes the the sand under the under the grass to get very hard and concrete like which causes a lot of injuries and creates potholes during heavy rains during the fall so etc etc um over time the uh turf fields um require less maintenance um and what you would find in Palm Beach County you have a lot of uh other programs where schools are making money from renting renting their turf fields which actually brings additional Revenue to the school and also the district too so there's a lot of pluses to bring Revenue in when you actually have a turf field awesome thank you very much Dr heern and I know uh Dr W Garcia High School um if anybody wants to Google that school and see the field that's there uh me and Dr Lata had the opportunity to go to a game there and it was phenomenal um and I want to go back to the point Dr Zan I appreciate those those comments um technically Broward does have one turfield for one of our high schools and that's Coral Glades partnership with City City of Coral Springs like I said I'm the biggest fan of that how they do that because it's a community event when we have a football field there you have playgrounds basketball courts baseball fields and it's just families everywhere um and we would love to see that more see that more often and I think as a board going to the Partnerships it's important for us to make that comment time and time again um I had an opportunity to visit with MacArthur High School this past week and they had an opportunity to have Nike approach them and say hey we want to pay for everything we want to do this for you we want to give you a brand new T field build a Nike compound for these kids I think it was Vice President of Sales was a MacArthur grad right had this opportunity and this board voted it down that's what happens hurts the staff hurts the people that work hard to make this beautiful project come forward and then get slammed down so had that conversation I'm hoping to bring that back to this board so we can have that conversation again and redeem ourselves um to do something great for our community but I believe more people will step up to the plate when they see something like that happen more Partnerships to be able to make it easier for us and not come out of budget to to spend millions of dollars on a field when they can do it and they can be you know a partner in that so thank you very much for those comments Mr txon thank you I also just wanted to say there are a lot of um municipalities that have tur field so maybe we could also reach out to them for some of this data that we're looking for in terms of injuries or how they compare the maintenance on it because as Dr Zan mentioned and Mr fogan holy there are a lot of municipalities you know Parkland has it in in their field they have it in Fort Lauderdale they have it in Coral Springs so maybe we could ask staff to reach out to them and collect some of that data so we don't have to wait as long to get it but still collect ours as we're going along so thank you okay I have one more question do we know um the companies that we're possibly using if they're going to have the PFA compound in the turf which is found to be toxic Mr Dorset um I am not 100% sure I can uh verify that I I know which uh whichever uh company we select we're going to go through them thoroughly to make sure that everything that we want uh would be included in there so yeah well we wouldn't want this a carcinogen right no yeah well what we did was uh when we did do some research just basic research we found out that uh um um um after uh some uh we contacted a a turf company and they said that there were no documented uh uh issues with regard to consentant in in in the field in the product that they're using specifically crumb rubber they said there were no there were no documented uh concerns with that so we'll make sure that uh what we do uh the company that we select uh we it's in line with what we're doing and we will definitely reach out to risk management to confirm that everything that we're using are it's above board okay so the May 21st meeting we're going to have another item like this with other Turf companies so I'm going to make a a motion to just combine this item with that other item at the May 21st meeting moved by Ala second by Alon public comment good morning Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida uh I'm in favor of delaying this item and combining it um there are Ed specs for a lot of things but artificial turf is not in the district's Ed specs um Having Eight Lanes to your athletic tracks is part of the Ed specs and that was a project before the recession that fell by the wayside so I appreciate looking elsewhere for funding because if you're funding things it should be the things that bring schools up to the district standards not things that gild the Lily that other people might be willing to pay for uh you're also looking at playgrounds and if you're trying to get students into schools you get them at the beginning when kindergarten soon Tobe kindergarten parents go looking at a school if the playground looks like crap they're less likely to go there they're not thinking about whether you have artificial turf at the high school they may never go to so I'm definitely in favor of this um the price tag to do all of these is astonishing um I forget what the play grounds were to bring uh to put the rubberized surface which is part of edpc if you were to build a new school you required have rubberized surface on the playgrounds not the whole thing but part of it I want to say that price tag was similar to doing all the artificial turf and that's before we get to the equipment on the playgrounds so this is why that um long range facility master plan steering committee is important because things have to be looked at comprehensive Ely we still don't have a date for that um and nobody comes to the facilities task force before they do something which is why I typically show up after I hear that they've done it uh so we would not have been in favor of spending this money for this without contemplating tracks and playgrounds because those are two things we've been looking at this entire year um so uh in favor of looking elsewhere to get funding with partner because this is not part of the district standards this is just a nice thing to have and if you were to go to all of your high schools there are other places in addition to tracks that need um to be brought up to standards before we start gilding the Lily with artificial turf and my kids have both done soccer most of their lives and they would beg to differ that artificial turf is always better thank you other public comment Desiree Grooms PPO Beach Florida vice president PPO strong I am in favor with for the turf however I'm a little bit confused as to how these fails were considered worse than the others my son tore his ACL on a grass field at blanch elely because the field was not maintained um when we decided to get or when we got our field renovated we had a community that wanted the turf and I believe it was staff that struck it down and we were not even asking the school board for any funding we have several pro athletes that come out of blanch elely and they were working with us to secure funding from the NFL and you Struck it down so I'm trying to understand how blanch elely was overlooked in this process because if you go out there to that field it it's really bad so if you're talking grass fields then I'm assuming that you guys are willing to put the money behind it to make sure that they are maintain properly because that field has holes in it dips um it's not leveled and that is what caused the injuries of these kids thank you thank you any other public speaker good morning I am in favor of postponing it to May 21st I think that we definitely need to Kimberly mohorn marget Florida um I I definitely think that we did need to do more research um which goes back to what we talked about is bar um selection what was the selection process because again um as um Desiree stated that we did have um the NFL wanting to do our field and um the BR County Schools you know said absolutely not so um we it's always an equity issue for us because when it comes to our schools when we are the first to do anything it always gets strike down but as soon as you know it's okay for out west to get theirs done it then then it sets the standards for everywhere else so um we definitely have a problem with that um our children are important to us and as Natalie stated the playgrounds are important so if you're willing to pay all of this money for Turf then we need to also make sure that it's in the budget for the playgrounds also that they're safe too so um a cohesive um review of all of this the steering committee to sit down and talk about everything and again if you're talking about um bringing children back into Broward schools it would start with the younger ones and then you know you you definitely want to take care of of the um football fields however you need to look at those playgrounds they are awful you need to take a look at it it looks like as if we are you know slum Lords as they would call it you look at them they're off color they you know the sand they have all types of um creatures growing in the Sands so you know just think about where the priority lies thank you thank you narni Pierre Grant Parkland Florida I wasn't going to say anything because I already have a presentation later and I was going to hit yall about the playgrounds but um I appreciate the chair with your for by postponing it but I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed that you're doing this now when at the time you're were doing the what is it adfp or FP whatever that is um why wasn't all those questions then and if there were questions then why didn't we put a pause on that the district tends to keep going back and forth you guys are like one minute you dare one minute you're not there needs to be a level of consistency and staff needs to do a better job and I'm not saying you're not doing a good job I'm just saying a better job to give clear information that way the board can do their job correctly now the chair is having to make a motion to postpone which rightly so because she's now seeing as well as the rest of the board how this could be something that is um problematic um further down but I do appreciate your motion and I'm I'm off for it 100% um and as the speakers before me mentioned there's an equity lens that I hope that you all are looking through do uh fogan holy mentioned that um so as you see it in May um I'm hoping that you have some more concrete information and also set the stage on how that's going to look because you guys already approved it so um you're already in the thick of it unless you can reverse it but if not thank you thank you Dr heurn yes thank you um chair um also Dr tumer if you can follow up with Miss moh Mohan I definitely want to learn more about that situation um see how we can leverage that that also uh we will provide a detailed um followup with information about uh how the schools were chosen the all the additional ask around data maintenance and all of those concerns also so we can be as transparent as possible with the most amount of information for the public okay thank you and um if we could the board could have by the end of the day the date for the long-term steering committee meeting greatly appreciate it Miss rert thank you I I wanted to give the the superintendent an opportunity to update us on the um playground Workshop that we asked to have before the end of the school year Dr urn I'll follow up by the end of the day with that I have it in front of me now Dr Zan thank you so much chair could you give a little bit more information about the other item coming up is it another one that uh approves vendors for buying synthetic dirt field Dr heern yes so similar to this item it's a an additional list of vendors terrific and um not directly related to this motion but on this topic I want to make it clear that these three high schools are amongst the high schools that have the greatest number of racial and ethnic minorities in our school system is that correct chair Dr urn yes that's correct thank you and I and I appreciate the focus on Equity it's a huge deal to me um but I don't want Equity being thrown out when a decision has been made that already has been uh included um equity in the criteria for the decision and I appreciate Dr tumer and the effort that went into to do it I can't wait to do this last point it turns out if the Miami Dolphins and every other team outside of the AFC East because they're not allowed to do this sponsor one of our high schools we'll have 28 NFL teams that sponsor our our thing so that's just an idea for you Mr superintendent Miami Dolphins and the other 26 teams outside of the AFC East cuz we don't want the Jets and all those other uh losing teams uh Buffalo Bills no everyone else uh yes let's see if we can get them to sponsor one of our football fields million and a half I think Miss Marte I think that's a drop in the bucket for most NFL teams Miss Fam thank you madam chair um I wasn't here when they decisions to um deny Nike the opportunity to to rebuild the fot or the NFL um to come in and rebuild the field as well the football field soccer field but I'd like to understand the reasons behind those denials and I know we have some people that have been on the board for long periods of time if you can just um explain to us the rationale behind that and and why that was not considered a good option so as long as I've been a board member that never came before us oh miss rert I I actually it hasn't come up um before and uh if we could find it in the past meeting or or past minutes so that it was discussed um then we should definitely take a look at it so not in the last 14 maybe Mr fanol yes thank you very much chair and um going back to those points of Partnerships right nobody's going to know more than our high schools so I would ask superintendent if we can reach out to our high schools reach out to people that hey I know have you had partnership opportunities that have been shut down right that this board have said no to um another one is Hard Rock Hard Rock even offered it they've offer offered to say that and then they didn't want our you know Hard Rock logos on our field nope not having it so again what opportunities do we have and I think as a board Collective we can have that conversation when it comes up so if we could reach out to our high schools and just know what Partnerships we had opportunities for okay thank you thank you so I've been advised that I cannot combine it so I'm going to revise my motion to postpone o5 to the May 21st meeting second it's moved by Ala second by Altin public comment board member comment wait we got a public comment uh Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida I believe someone else brought this up but just to reiterate because uh the comment was made about making sure the carcinogens were not present and whoever was selected this is why procurement is an important function because you write that into the specifications of what's required so no you know not above a certain level not present at all that you get at the front gate not at the back gate when you're deciding which of the three because now you're sort of you said all three were equally qualified except that they're not you do it at the front end so if there's something that needs needs to be fixed in terms of the solicitation itself now would also be the time to fix that thank you thank you all in favor of the motion say I I those opposed say no no uh motion carries with Dr Zan descenting and Mr fogan Holly we have a motion second on CC1 so moved move move by rert second by Hixon public comment yes Madam chair we have Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh and Miss narni Pierre Grant um I'm going to give my three minutes to Dr Lynch Walsh six minutes thank you uh good morning again let me make sure I have the right sheets of paper Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh so there were policies that were on the agenda for the last meeting and some of these motions pertain to that but they're not coming forward today so they're a little disjointed you also should have been should have gotten a handout for some motions that aren't coming to you today but should be and I'll explain that in a second so the ones that I'm going to speak to on page one there's a DAC motion from March 21st or at least the ID says March 21st it says we as the district advisory Council support the feedback as shared at this evening's meeting regarding the policies discussed this evening and captured by Dr wano What policies were they how do you give direction on something if you don't know what policies so I'll tell you what policies the policies that were discussed were 1080 and 1020 which is the Schoolboard meetings and Rules of Order and the ethics code when those items were attached to the agenda they did have the feedback but unless they get pulled forward today now it's being taken out of context so as far as 1020 goes there was feedback from daac and the audit committee and that was on page two of the executive summary from the 16th some of the things on there um District advisory they were talking about Tak taking out a whole section um but it all centered around the time limits for either the public and also for committee chairs those of us who come down here when we definitely have other things to do but are subject to the same time restrictions as random members of the public who happen to trip their way into kcw on a board meeting date and sign up to speak and we often have information that staff isn't sharing sharing with you or information Andor information from our meetings that um you need to know uh and that's why we're here to share that with you so that was on 1020 like I said it pertained to things um the major thing removing the time restriction there was from the audit committee an additional wrinkle about adding clear language on how the board intends to set decorum expectations for itself during meetings so hopefully as you discuss that motion you have staff provide you with the um policies that related to it so the ethics code is 1080 that there was also feedback from DAC and the audit committee on that and this gets pretty detailed even for 6 minutes so that's one you had a handout where there was audit committee motions that went to the workshop and I was told when I asked why it wasn't here today that that's because those motions were passed before the process changed I said okay except that on the other side of the sheet are ESC advisory motions that were passed and went to the workshop along with the audit committee motion so it begs the question why are those ESC motions on today on the 16th agenda the only thing you're missing are the audit committee uh meeting motions one of there's one two are not time sensitive well one was time sensitive till you task assign a chief auditor but one has to do with caps and gowns which we had just done the audit and the motion was to put a process sop and policy in place for all schools who are ordering caps and gowns and other graduation regalia um and work with procurement to ensure policies and procedures are enforced and a follow-up to this report is done by January 2025 that speaks internal controls which this district is in sad need of the response and this is to our motion the teaching and learning division will work with procurement to develop a standard operating procedure for ordering caps and gowns and other graduation regalia notice they don't mention policy because that day staff did not want a policy because policies are more restrictive than procedures and this is the one not coming to you today there are there is a standard practice bulletin for caps and gowns which clearly nobody was following and we only found out about when we press the business support center to cough up all those standard practice bulletins through a public records request um and that's a to be continued there the other one is from the diversity committee from 119 also before the process changed but this one made it and it and it's an important one um it says we move that the superintendent or his design meet with the diversity committee and any other Advisory board that have a material stake be it by their policies or motions during the process of District repurposing of schools that's not just diversity it also pertains to FTF there isn't anything governing the long range facility master plan steering committee but there is a policy regarding the superintendent school site Review Committee which staff will not address when that committee will be formed and their issue is that you have a superintendent who is leaving who has never been to a facilities task force meeting and never will might be the only superintendent that never came to an FTF meeting so it's important that the Committees that are related in the diversity committee policy specifically mentions boundaries and repurposing FTF get provides input into the dfp both committees sit on the superintendent school site Review Committee and yet no response yet to that thank you thank you Dr wanza sure thank you madam chair um through the chair and the superintendent a couple of things so um as it relates to the policies that were on the agenda last week all of the different um committee feedback are included in the executive summary for each one of the policies so you know um when we went to District advisory Council when we had the conversation with the diversity committee when we had the conversation with the audit committee in each one of the executive summaries for the individual policies is the specific committee feedback as it relates to the respective policy the reason why those policies are not on today's agenda is because they were publicly advertised for rule making for um April 16th out of an abundance of caution when the meeting got um when when the chair actually recessed the meeting until today to ensure sure that we were in compliance with the law out of an abundance of caution we advised the board that we were going to advertise and those policies are coming to May 21st a couple of board members have asked that we sit down and meet with them so that they have more one-on-one time to understand the different motions some um feedback that they have and Mr Hill and I are scheduling those conversations but that is why the policies are not here today because we wanted to make sure certain that we were in compliance with the advertising rules for Ru making the last thing I will say as it relates to the committee motions it it is true when when you look at the dates of when motions were received in January the district was operating under a different um process as it relates to responding to motions however those motions were presented to the board when the board had its joint conversation with all of the advisory chairs in March and we actually started a new process which you saw on this agenda well last week's agenda that you're announcing today in this item that all committee motions as of the Motions that we started collecting I believe it was in February maybe March they actually come to the board for the board to contemplate and provide action as they deem necessary for their respective direct reports I hope I answered any questions Madam chair thank you Dr wza you're welcome Dr holess thank you madam chair and um I'd like to thank all the Committees for uh providing us with these recommendations I would like to make um a few motions on the items that are here um would this be an appropriate time to do that sure okay so for the diversity committee um which is on page two uh I would like to motion that the superintendent or his design meet with the diversity committee and any other Advisory board that have material stake be it by their policies or motions during the process of District repurposing of schools is there a second move by holess second by Leonardi public comment on the motion so thank you so much for um doing that Dr holess I appreciate it um we've asked the previous superintendent to come to our meetings and I know when you see my reports I've done for the last uh for this school year I repeatedly said I would like for the superintendent to come to one of our meetings um and there's a reason for that uh I think that uh it's important that we have um a good relationship with our superintendent um especially a committee that was created by the board um in reference to a settlement um it's been a very difficult time for um our members when we go and do site visits and we wanted to be able to have that connection in between side visit so we know that the superintendent is aware and um Can reinforce what the chair reports every month so that is one of the reasons why we would like the superintendent um now that Dr heurn is now has taken the helm I'm uh confident that he'll be to one of our meetings if not this school year but next next school year but um I want uh all board members to know that um our work that we do is by Passion and um importance for our school and for all students um I I look at an equity lens yes but I also look at all children and all kids deserve um the best education possible and I believe that Brower county has that ability to do that um we're just here to help facilitate that so I appreciate the motion Mr Dr holess and I thank the board if you all will accept that thank you next speaker uh Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida and chair of the facilities task force I also appreciate the motion and um Miss Grant for making it uh at diversity um even though it does not explicitly State FTF clearly there's a relationship there and given where we are and the relationship between facilities and school repurposing and the fact that we have theoretically an incoming strategy and Innovation officer and an outgoing facilities Chief I think I'm up to my sixth one not counting task assignments um now would be the time and I also think it's important that every time we get a new superintendent that they understand what the facil task force is and isn't thank you thank you board member comment on the motion Mr Alon thank you madam chair um excellent motion uh Dr holness um and interesting uh I appreciate all of the uh advisories um because I also recall about 20 years ago I think I was a member on many of these advisories and and the superintendent actually Mr superintendent uh then attended uh these advisory committees so when I saw this I actually thought and I didn't know that the comment will be made um I think I'm sure part of your normal course of action I'm pretty sure that you will make sure that you get to each of these advisory committees right once um at least each of them um out of the year so I do recall that um when I was on the other side um serving on the advisory committee so I don't know if there needs to be a motion or if you on your own will because you have the microphone right as the superintendent uh will commit to visiting each of the advisory committees um because they want to hear from you right you're our leader um and they want to hear your vision as it relates to these different uh advisories so I'm sure you can do that on your own I don't think the Board needs to direct you to do that uh because I'm assuming that that's the type of superintendent that you will be so that's I'll give you that opportunity m yes thank you um definitely looking forward to the collaboration um those who know me and work with me know I am Hands-On I like to engage with stakeholders to make sure you know we're focused we're we have the same priorities and and I know we all have the same priorities as as committee leaders sir you'll see me around um coming in engaging with you guys real soon Mrs Hixon thank you just wanted to take the opportunity to say happy National volunteer appreciation week we thank you so much for what you do it's actually the whole month but this week is the designated week in the month so thank you for your time and dedication Dr holness thank you madam chair so um I am very confident that Dr heurn will be meeting with the Committees but I I believe this is important for the committee to have this sort of um formally done to to sement that commitment and I think that's what they're asking so I am asking that the board support this item so we we can um we can uh uh have the confidence of the of the diversity committee and other committees that this will be a commitment that will be carried through all in favor of Dr holl's motion say I I those opposed say no no one desending vote Dr Zeman Dr hes thank you madam chair so I have a couple more items um I'd like to make a motion that all students with disabilities in a school that has a midterm exemption waiver will be afforded the same right as they have in State Statute to receive a waiver for their EOC exams to also include their midterm exams in those EOC courses as it pertains to the course grading this is uh item number from the ESC um advisory committee 0306 2401 second moved by wholeness second by Leonardi public comment on the motion board member comment Miss six oh public comment okay so it's a comment Kimberly Burke mohorn but my um question is will they do they still have to take the eocc do they still have to comp take the EC so if they are exempt from the midterm that kind of gauges how they're doing will they be exempt from the actual EOC M Hixon thank you that was actually my question I don't I mean in my 32 years of teaching I know that you can exempt midterms and exams but EOC are State tests and I if Dr heern could please address the idea of exempting an EOC because I don't think that's um off available Dr heurn yes um I agree Miss Hixon uh in my years I haven't seen um uh students being able to be exempt out of uh State exams um I know they receive accommodations based on IEPs but miss Hollingsworth is doing deep diving just to ensure that is the case so we give you accurate information but in my time I've um never seen a student be exempt um from eoc's or any other state exams it's usually adhering to their accommodations that's needed for the test any other questions Miss fam yes um thank you we're um I just want to make sure I didn't skip ahead are we on the uh appoint of Special Olympics liaison no okay coming up thank you Miss leonardy yeah I guess I'm just I'm confused about the motion then because it said like in in what ESC advisory recommended it said will be afforded the same right as they have in in State Statute so maybe there is a misunderstanding happening can someone Dr heern Miss hollor can you give the specifics around um any possible exemptions um or accommodations for EOC or any state assessments good after or good morning sorry through the chair Miss Simone hollingworth Chief academic officer uh Dr he's response was accurate we do not through our policy allow those exemptions for those um midterm um uh exams for those specific um exams so I will definitely double check I'm doing that right now but that is part of our policy that we don't exempt them from that and as Dr heer mentioned they have the ability to have accommodations and other things for their IEP but we do not exempt them from that opportunity so sorry I I guess I understand the from the policy piece is our policy in conflict with State Statute at all Dr missor no not that I'm aware of I'm double-checking but that has not been any of the practice that we've ever um implemented in the past okay I mean I understand what we've implemented in the past ESC advisory is clearly asking us to do something different so I just want to know if if what they're recommending is allowed by State Statute or if you know I just want to make sure that because the people on ese advisory are very knowledgeable um about about these issues so I just want to make make sure that we are doing our due diligence Dr hes thank you madam chair and I I concur with board member Leonardi because according to what stated here there seems to be um a misunderstanding between the what the state statute says and what the policy says so I think um if we can uh postpone this item to the end uh so they can do their research because I think that's pertinent to our um voting on this particular item we are at the end Mrs well I have a couple more oh okay I have a couple more do you want to speak on this uh yeah it's really quickly um I was going to ask the superintendent to see if um guy B MOA could be here because he he actually knows all about this and I think he'd be able to bring some clarity okay and Dr Madame chair if we cannot have an answer today then I recommend we we add this item to our next uh school board meeting to discuss is that is there a second yes second EXC me third move by wholeness second by Hixon public comment on the motion to defer yes thank you Dr uh holness I appreciate that you defer I think that um the es chair should be here to kind of explain as to why they made that motion and have the opportunity but I as you know we're all volunteers and we all have other things to do but um thank you I appreciate the motion Dr mess on the motion Miss tixon I'm on the motion on the motion Mr charson so what are we deferring just this motion or this whole item dress just this motion just this motion okay could I also just make a recommendation Miss superintendent that uh yes I'm sure the ESC advisory chair and UN members will be present but we also want the appropriate staff person so if it's the chief academic officer uh because I'm looking for the subject matter expert from your team right um I don't need us interpreting what statute is so so if someone can just you know tell us what that is um that's kind of my first point the second point is I appreciate kind of this new process that we're doing but what I also would recommend is using this as an example clearly staff would have a recommendation right so I'm assuming staff would have gone through many of these these recommendations from the advisories right so if there's a staff recommendation and then we can at that point respond to it right we'll say yes we agree with staff recommendation or we don't but this is one example where we're talking statute and law I mean that's where both the attorney and the subject matter expert on the academic side should be telling us right we shouldn't be trying to figure it out up here thank you Mr allson that's a great recommendation and it could be in that right hand column staff recommendation yes no yes no M Madam chair I have two more and then I'm done um okay well let's vote on let's just vote on deferring that motion okay all in favor say I I those oppos say no motion carries Dr Hess thank you madam chair so I motion that the school board directs the office of communications and legislative affairs to establish the continuation of House Bill 149 camera program as a legislative priority in the 2024 session and that the school board continues the program in line with the regulations set forth in House Bill 149 beginning in the year in the school year 2024 2025 second is there second mve by Hess second by hickon public comment on the motion or member comment on the motion M leonardy yeah I would just um hope to add to that uh with with the appropriate funding from the state to to carry that out um so I don't know if that would be is that a friendly Amendment a friendly Amendment accepted okay could we get clarification Dr heurn is there funding uh from the state um Mr Sullivan uh yes uh thanks for the opportunity John Sullivan Chief communication legislative affairs officer uh just as a reminder hb40 149 was a pilot program brow schools was the only one that had to implement that program uh there was no funding tied to it the program has expired so there is no requirement for us to continue it but I think that's a greater discussion to have because our uh es parents have come accustomed to have that ability to place cameras in those classrooms but there is no funding no M Fen yes thank you very much chair and I would like to hear because I see Miss Miss Marte back there doing all types of Motions i' like to hear from her please miss Marte Miss Marte thank you superintendent thank you thank you uh Mr fogan holy the estimate to to implement it in all self-contained classrooms is in the millions and it's my understanding because we had a fairly robust discussion about this at cabinet yesterday that there are um conditions in the teachers union contract where the teachers have to agree um maybe Mr azero can expand on that so it's a little more complex than uh the face of the the request okay Mr Aon this goes back to my point we are debating and I appreciate Dr Holden bringing this so it's not a you issue right it's a we are debating all of and we've gone through this right we've all seen it last time and today you're putting us in a posture um so I think the superintendent clearly knows and hears if we clearly just have right staff has gone through this right uh a recommendation from staff and maybe further board consideration right take it a step further from what the advisories have recommended um I think that would help us uh to direct you or give feedback that's kind of first point second point is yes I'm familiar with the program I think we all are but if there is a multi-million dollar impact then clearly we're going to have to absorb it right so we need to make a decision I think we have a budget Workshop coming up well should have started already um then maybe that's something that we do on our own right because we can on one hand say we want to direct the state to do something that we don't know if the resources exist so if this is a priority for this board then say that right so we're going to add uh millions of dollars and we may have to cut Millions from somewhere else so if that's what we want to do then let's just say that during the budget Workshop um if we want to make that a priority so that's where I'm at thank you 20 minutes behind Dr Zan thank you so much chair um I just want to maybe offer uh uh idea to my colleagues about these these um recommendations that come from advisory boards um it is very difficult um to assess the value of each one of these ideas absent it being baked into an item and so in some sense if there's u a great idea that comes out of one of our advisory committees and there are many great ideas um for us to uh consider it live uh can be a challenge sometimes are pretty simple things we want to uh you know do something that makes great sense and and and otherwise but it seems like we should give staff time to think about the ones that we're going to bring forward um and I don't know how to do that chair yet I mean one way is to actually write it up as an item we've had board members uh do that countless times this year uh where we take the time put it together staff then gets to look at it we get estimates we can make you know a cogent decision uh pretty quickly and sometimes it has to be put into the right agenda for the right meeting meeting so it may go to a workshop to get more depth or it may just go directly to a a Schoolboard uh regular or special uh for action but I think it's difficult to do significant changes at any one time without staff having the time I don't think it's appropriate to challenge the staff to do statutory research in the middle of a meeting um but it is something that if a Schoolboard member felt that one of these things could be reflected in an item uh that we have some process in our school board to say hey I'm going to I'm going to bring that or something like that and make it either a formal item or give staff time uh to put together their reaction to it for us to make a decision specifically in the absence of that I think would be irresponsible and so uh I love what our volunteer advisers do uh the impact is often uh to see things that we don't see um and I just want make sure that our process reflects kind of good order and discipline on these great ideas so that we get full vetting from the staff and by the way full vetting from the public if anybody from the public wanted to come and talk about this motion they may not be here because there is no advanced notice for this specific motion and unless there's an urgent need um it would be great to know that I think that's fair right the public wouldn't have known that we were going to do this today Dr Hess um thank thank you madam chair um you know these are recommendations brought To Us by The Advisory committees um that are um publicly noticed uh the motion that's at hand is not necessarily publicly noticed but the the recommendations from the Committees are and I think that with those recommendations we are here to consider whether or not we consider those recommendations what we would like to implement so in regards to the um cost factor involved with this particular item um I understand uh based on M marte's um response that this could cost in the millions so as a result of that information I'd like to uh pull my motion but have this discussed at a workshop further yes and I have one more and then I'm done okay I'd like to make a comment okay are you putting it on the next Workshop I'm sorry madam shair so I would still on this topic um it do I need to make a motion to have it on the next Workshop or is this um or you can discretion of the superintendent okay so at the discretion of the superintendent we will bring this back yes thank you anything else just one more okay so um and as I said before I appreciate the recommendations of uh the uh committees um I have one more that I think is important and so I would just like to ask a question before I make this Motion in terms of a Special Olympics liais on um Can staff or through the superintendent provide any input on uh the possibility of cost and what that may look like should we should we um have a motion on this particular um so I want to uh ask Miss Holland's word just to clarify I think we have a person that's a lean and may not be called Special Olympics Elon already at the school that's that supports some of these initiatives for inclusion um if you can clarify Miss Miss um how this work just just to make sure yes good good morning again we do have inclusion Champions at each school so that has been identified I believe starting last year they do take on some of these additional roles of liaison with Special Olympics or with their peer mentoring programs that they have at their schools um and some of them that is an optional supplement that schools can um provide to those individuals that are selected okay so based on that response then because what this um recommendation from the ESC committee is suggesting is that there's a uh Special Olympics liaison to work with the special Olympic organization to support an increase the implementation of special Olympic programs in bar count So based on that there um it seems on that response that this would be a redundant item uh because we already have that in place so I'm concerned and I wish the ESC uh chair was here because she could clarify what she means and as a result of that I will not make a motion on this item but I'd like um I hope the ESC um advisory committee chair can come back and comment on that later M txon thank you I I can clarify it a little bit um so they're asking for liaison at the district level Special Olympics used to be very large in Broward County um and lots of schools and the the participation has diminished because it's very hard for them to actually be able to figure out who those Liaisons in the individual schools are so the ask was and I don't know that we need a motion I I was thinking if we just said to the superintendent we'd like you direct you to work with ESC Department to see is there someone that could take on this role wouldn't necessarily be a huge cost Factor it could be a supplemental position um but they're looking for someone at the district level that has a better idea of the big pitcher that would know then who to reach out to through the independently leaon so that's what the ask is here okay so Bo Mak you want to make the motion to direct I don't think we need a motion I think I'd like to direct the I that's what I was going to say direct the superintendent to work with the ESC Department to see what that would look like and if it's someone that can absorb through a supplemental position to be to add this or I don't know that it necessarily needs to be its own position although it could be but I don't know if we're ready for that but I think there is probably someone in the department that would be able to to do that role point of clarification Miss fam yeah um the executive summary indicates that there is no Financial impact I'm questioning whether or not if we do create this position or add this responsibility to someone else is there going to be a financial impact and what are we looking at Dr he yeah so um we already have somebody in the ESC Department that spearheads this um since uh my since I started I've been intimately involved um with Special Olympics and trying to scale out those initiatives to to all of our schools and working with that person in the ESC department so there's more to come on these Special Olympics um initiative that I think the board and the public will be pleased about um as we scale that out to ensure that all of our secondary schools especially have Special Olympics programs on our campuses so there is a financial impact not at or there's not in the future no because we already have somebody dedicated to addressing or this ESC Le Leon in The District in our ESC Department perfect thank you for the clarification if you'll allow me one tiny comment here um it's on the cameras I know we just went past that already and you're asking for more information but I I remember there was um easily 700,000 or maybe $750,000 that we've already spent for the cameras for the classrooms I think all we might need is a few screws to actually get them up so I don't really think it's a as much as a financial burden right now than than um you know we really think it is I just you know um I thought that information needed to be shared Dr heon Mr s you got something that uh there's more cost than just associated with the cameras the bigger costs and I know uh um Mr Bradford's here if he wants to add to it from it um there's also cost of hosting the the servers to for the videos so it's more than just the cameras and although we have the cameras for the classrooms that currently had them installed if there's new cameras then that's additional funding that you have to spend for new cameras and I think we also should consider that the language for the pilot program has expired so there's even a question if we have authority to do so so I think it's something that we have to discuss further because the language has expired in that legislation thank you Dr holness thank you madam chair so um with regards to the uh Olympics slays on uh inquiry um I would suggest that the superintendent uh um continue to keep the ESC uh Committee in the loop as you make progress on that okay we need to really move forward guys miss Fam thank you I didn't get the chance to comment on the crammers before um I would ask that staff explore um whether or not the state in the future is going to provide any kind of supplemental funding for continued use of the cameras too I would ask um that you focus on any grants that may be available to support this item um and lastly um the ESC um there was extra money last year um for ESC and I'm wondering if they possibly could contribute or come come out of their budget to maintain this program because I think the parents as well as the ese committee is strongly in favor of it because this saves children that can't speak for themselves it shows exactly what's going on and when and if we need to intervene and and help these children so they're at a disadvantage and the only thing that we can do is try to supervise and oversee what's happening and keep them safe so this is a really important program to many people so I would just ask step step to prioritize this if possible and look where we can find funding outside of the district thank you thank you Miss fam all in favor of CC1 as amended say I I Dr wanza can you read the motion amended motion so there is no amended motion Mr um do Dr holess made a motion that the board um voted up as it relates to the diversity committee he uh he withdrew his motion as it related to the cameras um and provided based on the conversation with the board and then Mrs Hixon and Dr holess collectively provided some direction to um Dr heurn as it relates to the Special Olympics so basically the motion is um to approve item CC1 um with the motion made by um Dr holess right okay all in favor of CC1 as amended say I I those opposed say no no CC1 passes with one dissenting vote Mr Altin at this time Dr heper uh before we adjourn the meeting can you please give a brief update on the community meetings for redefining our schools yes good morning chair Vice chair board members and also the public at large our redefining redefining our SCH initiative is moving into a a crucial phase and I'm excited to share the next steps in our commitment to improving education across our district started next week we're hosting five town hall meetings across the county these meetings are a platform for Community to learn about preliminary plans discuss various options and provide feedback on how these plans will impact schools in the selected Innovation zones all meetings begin at 6: p.m. and doors open at 5:30 p.m. our first meeting for the South Broward Hollywood Hills in Hollandale zones is this upcoming Monday April 29th at Hollywood Hills High School uh next meeting for the Dillard in South Plantation zone is Wednesday May 1st at Dillard High School stranding hand and Fort Lauderdale zones meeting is uh Monday May 6th at Fort Lauderdale High School Everglades Flanigan and West Broward zones uh meeting is Tuesday May 7th at Flanigan high school and last meeting for marar and Deerfield Beach zone is Thursday May May 9th for additional information and updates you can visit our website at browardschools.com redefining these Town Halls are an opportunity to hear from the community to help shape the future of Education in Broward County and thank you and let's get to work uh in redefining our schools thank you Mrs zon thank you I this is the time where we share something oh that's that's Dr thank you so much uh chair and u my question is about repurposing and and and there are two significant questions the first um we have a significant amount of data that we've gathered publicly available data but organized by us for all two 239 schools will that be released by the end of this week so that people who attend the uh Town Hall sessions next week can be fully informed yes we're planning on releasing as much data as possible um and also Gathering feedback from board members as we meet with you individually throughout this week thank you very much second question is uh it sounds to me like the town halls are going off in those segments of BR County that were colorcoded in last week's presentation correct I believe that the school board will consider schools in other Innovation zones what about parents and interested parties in the community that are interested in their schools that were not colorcoded uh on the presentation last week uh should they attend one of the the other town halls or how can they get more information about the schools in their Innovation zones um Mr Sullivan's team will be blasting this information out so we welcome um individuals to come to any of those zones but the the meetings for these Innovation zones would be specific to the schools within those combined zones so most of the zones are three or four uh per meeting so uh the public is welcome to attend any or all of them terrific and I just want my colleagues to understand that you're going to have community members parents teachers employees and the like they're in one of those zones that were not color coded but will be discussed at some point during the repurposing project almost guaranteed uh the process we're outlining is to go to those that were screened in The Innovation zones that were screened in for consideration but those who are using a specific criteria to identify and have a certain magnitude associated with them if there are ideas from this board about going beyond the magnitude that we described remember we said at least five repurposing but at least means there may be a bigger number um we have to think a little bit about how to communicate with everybody in B County not just those that are in that prescribed uh Innovation zones of interest that that was a staff effort it's important to do those staff efforts uh but there's very likely to be other schools outside of those zones are considered we have to think about communicating with those people as well um so I'll just leave that for further consideration thanks chair thank you madam chair Mr Al sorry same to the same point uh and I think I appreciate kind of your questions Dr Zan um but I want to also be clear the five prescribed colorcoded let me make sure I got this right Innovation zones corre uh the board did not prescribe to that there was a public recommendation um at our last meeting where I think many of us had a series of questions um but I think you also just pointed out in my view Mr superintend another whole in the process so if the intent is Mr superintendent um that we are considering a countywide view of where we're heading on uh redefining schools right so that includes repurposing that includes adding new programs but let's get to the big one right closing schools right so if the intent is this is a countywide effort uh I believe there should be a conversation in every school board member's District because that now shows a count wide conversation not just in five um colorcoded predetermined Innovation zones in my view and still my view because I haven't seen anything to counter it um that the data has not really shown why those are the five colorcoded areas that the district is proposing okay so I want to be very clear about that um so I still am in the same camp I think I was probably the force board member up here uh to go on the record saying I'm in favor of closing many schools right it makes sense what I'm not in favor of is what I have seen to date the process um I don't think I felt comfortable on the questions uh but the team has done a great job so this is not a uh a um you know a question about the team um it's a question about the process it's a question about what we're proposing it's a question on ensuring that we're having a countywide conversation I've been very clear um even with the prior occupant of that seat um so this is me being the same Tory I don't change um and I know you appreciate that um so the second part uh what I do want to also uh state is I'm hopeful because now the recommendation is only five conversations clearly there is some dialogue somewhere and I know all board members will hear from you um I think over the next couple days um around closing so let me just jump to the the big elephant in the room so if staff has made a predetermined uh recommendation to you to only have five Community conversations I'm also hopeful that these five locations and actually I'm not hopeful but if these are the five communities where there are closings that are coming uh maybe that's another Target of the community conversations right so I just don't know if we've been uh strategic and targeted uh on where these conversations are um again I I know I can speak for myself I haven't had the conversation just yet um but we should have a conversation in every segment of brow County because it's going to touch every segment of brow County I'm not talking about closings right we all support k6 K8 K7 right we're not talking about that um but the big conversation around closing of schools um and I actually have a different perspect perspective you know I know that some believe that it's only in certain communities um I think the data shows it's in all communities so I will not prescribe to the statement that closing of schools are only targeted to certain parts of brow County um because I actually don't believe that I believe that the entire community and this entire County wants to see uh a difference in our schools a difference in our academics a difference in our Maintenance and Facilities um and I'm hopeful that when we have this uh countywide vote uh that the board I think will take uh that it will reflect that but I just want to conclude with the process to this point for this one board member um does not pass my test uh the data that I have seen uh presented does not pass my test um and all of the public officials that I've heard from Community leaders HOAs um have actually told me the exact same thing so I want to be very clear um both in my district and countywide because I think nine of us up here uh talk to uh community members all across this County so I just want to be very clear about that thank you Dr holas thank you madam chair so um superintendent Dr hebburn I thank you for moving this forward um finally I'm feeling like we're off of the diesel truck I don't know if we're on a Ferrari yet but uh we sure seems or appears that we're at least in a car um I would concur with board member um Zan and board member Alon that we need to ensure that the process appears to be uh Equitable and fair I am not so much um uh in favor of having specific zones being designated as board member Alon mentioned and Dr Zeman um because it lends itself to a perception of bias and so I want to see this happen which I've stated before as a districtwide effort it needs to appear like that when we start to pick zones and go to and and exclude zones uh it lends itself to a lot of questions and so I am cautioning that we stay away from that that we expedite the process but also ensure that it is Equitable and that the public perceive it as such and that we are not picking zones without any real rational for doing so so that would be my take Mr fogan thank you very much chair I guess I wanted to join the party because everybody's going in on this um so no want to Echo my colleagues as well right and um those who can count it's getting there right so Dr Zaman Dr holess uh board member Allon I appreciate the thoughts um yeah I just want I believe our community is starting to feel that way um having those conversations is is sort of when we feel our community is being pointed at and if our community is not feeling it's a whole conversation they start to feel a certain way and for me I can't clearly tell anybody what the plan is because I still haven't heard a clear plan like there hasn't been a concise plan it's just sort of again we're on the diesel truck right and we're moving to steps oh we're getting to the school names we're getting to the districts but it's almost like a mystery game I don't know what's what's going on so for me I want to hear a clear plan um and I believe our community wants to hear the same they want to know that the clear plan is sort of the the whole way and I also Al of course I understand last minute we're doing these town halls but I do believe that John Sullivan is trying to get me divorced by scheduling it on my wife's birthday in Hollywood thank you and no thank you for that but um but I will be there and look forward to having the conversation thank you Miss rert thank you um I have a just just a simple ask um with the communities colorcoded numbered um I think before we we go to the meetings in those areas that it should be very upfront and um non-controversial because it it should be data driven so you know be it uh we have an increase in births in this section so it may look on it may look like it they're under enrolled but by the um by the time we get there it's not going to be or not projected that way because I have some areas and I know everybody around the table has areas that that actually I'm you're not losing people in which for me is Pomo um and it's a it's a big deal to to have people nervous about it so the Pomo and Margate they feel they're okay but then the other other cities like for for Monarch and for Deerfield Beach that there's trepidation um and we're I keep trying to just allay fears and say this is not just and I said this last week if if we're not going to repurpose schools in an area and we're talking about selling land or we're talking about increasing programs whatever it may be I think that has to be clearly um brought up because when people see that chart every Everybody it starts to panic a little bit and it kind and it has like a domino effect so um that would be my ask I believe you said mine was May 9th is that right um I was listening okay yes may n okay um and I said the same thing to to um to Allan last week Mr Strauss is that you have to be clear you have to have the same message and really just work together that way because it's it's going to be a bumpy road if people get all crazed out right now so um just just that Honesty so I if you know there's areas let that be known if you know areas or are you're going to repurpose or do a K8 let that be known if there's going to be closures let that be known because uh you know I don't I'm not going to jump on the bad wi with everybody else but somebody has to have knowledge of something and we should be um part of that conversation as well so thank you Dr Dr Zan you have something to add just a quick question I wonder uh chair if we could um ask the superintendent to make sure that we have a town hall in each of the seven districts to make sure we do a full districtwide coverage we have five set already if I looking at these correctly I think that's just two more uh I hope it's only two more I really think it's important that Brower County understand this even if you you're in an area that's at or very near 100% capacity of the schools you're a Broward County resident and you're going to be a beneficiary if there's some efficiencies taken by closing some schools or selling some property your kids are going to have more dollars per FTE and so you have a a vested interest even if your schools are not the ones under active consideration um so I just feel like we have to get out to the whole County and have these Town Halls because everyone's going to be affected I doubt there'll be as many people in places that are uh I think there'll be more people where they are dramatically under enrolled schools uh those are areas where we've been publicly saying that those are schools that uh we are considering for other uses and uh so I think there'll be more people coming to those those areas of bar County but even in the other areas where there's schools at or above capacity they're going to be affected and and in some cases they're going to be uh pretty significant beneficiaries if we can figure out a way to reallocate money from Building Maintenance into actual teaching and learning okay so Dr heurn can you let the board know what your takeaway is from this conversation yes so um first I'll definitely want to say the the the feedback is noted and definitely appreciated um the team and I will work together to see if we can add these additional meetings um I can let you know that uh transparency and honesty through that transparent process will be very apparent with the public as we go out and and have some very courageous conversations about next steps for brow County Public Schools as we aim to be a school district and and make sure we're trying to reach 100% proficiency for all of our students cuz um these courageous conversations what it's going to take so transparency um will be definitely affordable about all of the things that the board members mentioned and uh for you for the board members that we haven't had those one-on-one conversations yet that's up and coming and we're looking forward to that additional feedback um before we actually go out to the public so uh more to come for the board members that we haven't met with thank you so before we end this meeting I need to get some direction from my colleagues as you know this Friday I will be negotiating the um departure of Dr Lata and the contract with Dr heern so if you could just take out your pad a piece of paper and just write these two questions down and then I'm going to need your feedback on them so so there are a few things that are negotiable items so it's the 60-day notice transition and Severance so the first question is how does the board want to handle the transition time perhaps extending to 90 days in lie of s's pay for Dr Lata point of order chair could you please read the motion from last week so that we're clear about what we already approved sure I apologize for that it'll it'll help me uh I thought it might have been ready sorry madam chair yeah why are you looking for that can I ask a question to the general Council yes uh Madam Council good morning still in meeting uh not Workshop morning um still good morning so uh I know that the chair uh is waiting for feedback from the board um and uh you've been on both sides of this so clearly my assumption would be um both the superintendent uh the current our superintendent sitting in the chair uh clearly will be represented um and I know that the past superintendent will be represented my assumption is uh uh they or their representatives are watching this meeting so are we um doing the right thing to openly give the chair um strategy which we've already empowered the chair I thought from a motion that I thought was very clear um about timing um and Direction and next steps um you know is it your legal advice that we should openly talk strategy today um because you and the chair will lose some of that strategy on Friday um and clearly and I recognize there are probably three or four big points um which there always are the same three to I'm sorry three to seven big points which there always are um in a contract negotiate and thank you Mr superintendent that was very smart and clever of him to step away while we're having this conversation thank you sir um that speaks to you um a million perc um so is would you recommend that we do that now because I'm my assumption is those uh individuals you know could be watching so what's your what's your take uh and your recommendation to the chair who we've already empowered days ago Miss Batista thank you Madame chair good morning Mr Alon my advice would never be to negotiate in the public eye However unfortunately we do it all the time and and um and we do it all the time because there is no ability of this board to meet in at the exclusion of the public to give guidance um regarding the negotiations [Music] um I believe it would be beneficial to the chair and myself going into Friday to have some parameters um without necessarily um giving us exact amount or what not but just having a sense of where the board is coming from as opposed to negotiating something that ultimately will not be accepted by the board so M do a followup I'm sorry go ahead and the only reason I haven't heard your two questions Madam chair but at least I thought I heard the first question forming that's a very yes no question right so you are asking oh here is the question sorry uh because I can't ask you out loud so as an example right um how did the you know we're the recommendation is to go from 60 days to 90 days in Li of severance you're asking several questions right so we're being very rigid in this one question right from the chair right Severance yes or no right and then it's is it as I think I heard or a comment from uh Miss Hixon in the saw in in the media is it uh you know a mutual separation as we've done before is it you know a mediate uh you know uh termination because first let me speak for me I didn't get a letter from the past superintendent about what was happening so um I think I saw it a day or two later so you you know for me having seen the letter after the board action um you know that put me in a different posture and knowing the motion that was made and approved by the board so I mean this this is this is like three or four different things jumbled as you know in this one question right is it Severance yes or no if yes how much up to what amount right uh you know is it 60 days 90 days or is it immediate right we made a motion right and we all I think have the motion uh in front of us uh so I'm just giving that one example it's going to be very rigid so I I I understand I clearly want to ask this you know in a public forum because yes I know it's a uh negotiation that's public but I think this board um elects a chair for a reason and we should empower the chair which I think we did already based on this very broad motion uh and we empowered you as our general counsel and then guess what it comes back to the board right so there's going to be some subsequent conversation uh where the board will clearly have to aine on these big issues so I'm actually in the posture and I'm not ready to take a poll I'm not polling I think I've been clear uh so don't count me in the poll um on many of these tough issues up front um because I think that that the chair should be empowered to do that with you uh because I think you have enough temperature of the board a uh B you have the temperature of our financial condition C you have a temperature of where we have been and then D Madam chair it's your motion you brought a motion for a reason right you said it was urgent right you said we must have taken some quick action so stand by those principles that you know was done publicly right and then let's have a board convers after Friday when it comes back that's where I'm at thank you thank you misson thank you um I I appreciate the questions because as the person who was the did the last negotiations with the superintendent when I negotiated with what I thought was a good contract it was ripped apart in the public and it made the superintendent look bad it made us look bad and it put us in a weird spot I think it makes more sense to give some Direction to our chair so as she's negotiating with him we don't do that post the negotiations that she has some kind of guideline not actual numbers but just as you mentioned the temperature what I think and then what happens later which is what happened before I felt like I wasted all my time negotiating with him because nothing that we negotiated was good and we changed it all so it to me it makes more sense to do that either way you're going to do it in the public it makes more sense to do it beforehand so she goes in with the understanding that if we all agree there's no severance pay she's not going to offer that as a negotiation and that it's clear heading into that or if we just agree it should be seven weeks or some kind of parameter so that when she's negotiating she doesn't come back um and and Dr he Dr LCA and and I think we should do that in terms of the negotiation for Dr heurn they don't come back and feel um as if everything was changed on them I I think it's a better thing for us to be able to have the conversation on what our threshold is or our parameters because I really did feel like um my negotiations was a waste of time by when we came back and everything was changed so that's my input do you have anything add I can answer your questions um I I'm okay with the 90 term term in term of severance pay I don't agree with 20 weeks um it it it is a mutual agreement so there's no set number of what the the severance pay would be if it is something that we decide I think it should be more in line with how long he was here I want to be fair but I want to be fair to both the superintendent and to the district so that's my input Dr Zan thank you chair um just to back up a little bit uh you know we have a superintendent who has come to us and said that um for medical reasons he is going to leave uh being superintendent he offered to do that December 31st and we came back and said uh we really would like to move forward now uh we had an excellent candidate on staff uh immediately offered and accepted um the position and so now we have to kind of figure out how to move forward the public uh will not accept um in two directions I think um one they'd like us ask act with compassion for someone who's sick and who needs a time to get better and and we all hope and pray that that he does um in many many ways I mean he is a gifted leader and has a lot to give and if he becomes healthy again he's going to figure out a way to give back to the society just is that's the way he's made and so we can hope and pray for that and the community appreciates that the community at the same time recognizes our fiscal constraints um recognizes that we should abide by our contract and our contract said specific things you know if you terminate without cause you get Severance uh if you resign um uh you don't I would like to strike a balance on that chair I and and my view is not 90 days it's more than that uh I'd like him to stay until December 31st I'd like him to be an adviser to the bar County Schools I'd like him to help us go through the repurposing of of this summer and to have the advice and counsel of him uh I just don't know about his willingness or his ability to do that and that's why uh it's subject um to your negotiations and to his uh statement of whether or not he'd be interested in something like that otherwise uh I would stick with the contract and do 60 days um and um continue to to hope and pray for his speedy recovery on the health side um uh so that's that's where I am thanks chair thank you Miss Leonardi um I could take the the Dr Zan approach in terms of you know him retiring effective his retirement date um or the the Mrs Hixon approach um I I do not support 20 weeks um so I could do the 90 days in lie of seance um or seven weeks um so I I think there's multiple conversations to have thank you um I could do the 90 days in lie of s's pay um if we have to do sance play then I would prefer seven weeks but I also had an additional um question which was insurance coverage that's a big part of a question when we're speaking uh about Dr LCA um and I don't know what that is per the contract right now I don't know where that is but I think that should be on the table that is a kind um bigit yes a kind respectable thing to do for um Dr Lata and and sorry I'm not going to get upset okay insurance coverage and then I also um I think I already spoke about severance pay and the 90 days in L so um that would be it thank you Miss Hixon just just to answer Mrs Rupert's thing M Dr Lata actually forent Insurance because I think he gets it through his wife's or some other way so we were not covering his insurance it's in the contract if you look at the contract okay any other board member want to way weigh in Dr Hess okay so um I could go with the 90 days um and if if we're going to do severance pay um at least 10 weeks 10 weeks yeah Mr fren only thank you very much chair and I did have concerns before I asked my questions on going into this um the motion was made in a situation I know it was unheard of of course against I'm against the whole process of how that happened but I did have a question of Dr heurn being in the seat now superintendent being negotiations is on Friday is he actually a superintendent right now how does that work and can you explain that to me because I just feel like he's almost it's it's almost a gap period and normally we had somebody task assigned until negotiations happen with Dr Smiley so how does that work if you can explain that before I I chime in so as you as you mentioned you know this is an unprecedented uh time the way that I understood the vote that took place on Tuesday is that the board appointed Dr heern as the new superintendent so that's the role that he is in right now um subject to negotiating his contract and um there is also going to when we come back with a negotiated contract um for Dr LCA there will be a um the time frame is going to have to go backwards right it's going to have to cover from the 16th to whatever time um is his departure date um but he's no longer in the role or or acting in the role of the superintendent even though that is the contract that he still has with the district at this point so so in essence we have an Acting Superintendent Who is the Dr heurn yeah but that wasn't part of the motion right to appoint him as an acting until the negotiations well it doesn't matter whether we call him acting or we call him you know whatever we want to call him he's the superintendent right now for the vote of the board so does vote does a vote from a board hold any weight when it comes to contracts my question to you is is he signing any documentation during this week is he signing off on contracts is signing off on change orders can somebody come back and say wait a second his negotiation he signed a contract on this date but he signed a contract with us on this date it doesn't hold any weight does a vote hold up anything yes it does so it would be okay yes and and like I said both of the contracts are going to um have a time frame that starts on April 16th so it's going to go backwards yes okay so again um not a fan of the process not a fan of how this is happening thank you to my colleagues for their comments um I was the Lone no vote due to the comments and where this is going I feel like it's a hell no vote for me still um this whole process is wrong to me I'm I'm sorry I and I understand where it is of being task assigned I'm not going to chime in similar to board member Austin um I do not think this is fair this is wrong but chair this is if you want to go into negotiations and do that is going to be ripped to shreds regardless it we can't tell you how to do that you're going to have to go into negotiations with general counsel and do that because that's the job that it entails um I'm just just not a fan of the whole process of how this is happening again I want to be vocal I feel like we're cutting out the public we're cutting out everyone there are and like I said this is not on Dr heurn I've had this conversation with him get along well qualified man but I look in this room there's many people qualified if we look at it that many people that may have an opportunity if they wanted to get the job they wanted to apply for the job people in the public that wanted to ask questions like I said Dr Lata went through a process and we are now bypassing that and giving it to someone that did not go through that process this is not somebody that Broward County selected as their superintendent again this is now somebody going to be sitting in there and as soon as something goes wrong and as soon as a board member doesn't get their way it's going to be the person that was given the job and didn't earn it I I don't want that for him I believe Dr heurn should even make the decision and say you know what I want to go that through that process if I'm the man for the job I win the job I don't want to be giving nothing but now it feels like it's almost bypassing it and that's where we're going so again me I would do things differently um I'm not a fan of this process and I'm not going to chime in on what it should look like we'll figure it out thank you CH thank you very much chair I just also wanted to give um give you some guidance although you didn't ask about the new superintendent and I'll be curious um how the offer being made to Dr heurn uh balances with Market salaries for superintendents at large urban districts and a second thing that I'll be looking for is a significant amount of resources set aside for his professional learning uh he is fully qualified as my colleague said he I think is going to make a a tremendous leader for Broward County and he doesn't have the amount of experience that others might have had had we gone through the process and so I think it's in our best interest to actually set aside a significant amount of money every year for their professional learning so that Dr heurn can take advantage of Summer weeks and things like that to uh go work with other superintendents go work with other uh districts go work at other universities work with an executive coach whatever makes a greatest sense so that he can accelerate the time that he has um into learning the things that you'd learn with even more experience thank you chair Miss Hixon thank you I just wanted to point out that both Dade County and Palm Beach County did the process that we did for the superintendents that are sitting in their District now thank you thank you and thank you so much to my Mr Alon thank you um just want to actually clarify uh the district to our South actually did something slightly different um so they actually posted their process uh if I recall for about seven days uh then that board actually made a decision so it wasn't the process that brow schools went through um Palm Beach actually did something slightly different um as well but Miami dat schools posted their process for seven days um and then the board actually selected their ultimate Choice thank you m Fam thank you madam chair um I concur with my colleagues Mr fman holy Mr Alon and Mr Zan I can understand sometimes people get on their soap box and they they go on about process process process but it seems like it's selective reasoning and when processes applied and when not um I agree completely with Mr Alon that the public needs to have um an opinion they they just need to chime in to know these are their children and this is a huge decision that will impact them um Mr Zan or Dr Zeman I agree completely with you um that I believe that Dr lato worked um he was a a steam engine that never stopped he really cared he was committed he was running 247 and his commitment was um unmatched from what I've ever seen and um I think the fact that he's out on medical leave not by choice but by happen stance and that he offered to continue to participate and help whoever was in that seat for superintendent to transition was just amazing an amazing gesture so I'd like to know if um Severance is a full salary or is it a partial 80% salary or exactly what that is because I'm in favor of his taking his offer up until the end of December and letting him help with this transition because we have a lot in front of us we're closing schools we're repurposing schools um we're dealing with a a lawsuit with a charter school there's a lot here on the table for anyone to just step into those shoes and if we can have two heads I think they're better than one and this uh might be an instance where we defitely want to tap into both and maybe it's going to be a little bit more financially but I think in in lie of the commitment that Dr Lata had to this District I think we should have the same level of commitment to him thank you Mrs fam M rert just a tiny observation um being directly appointed is not a bad thing it doesn't make you um a person that's not capable of doing their job we all know people who've been appointed and not elected we have elected um superintendents in this state some districts do and some don't so um either it's appointed or it's elected so I'm of the mind of respecting the person in the seat and um just as I am with colleagues who were appointed to their seats there is no difference in my mind it doesn't make them other it makes them my colleague and they represent that District that they are in even though the public didn't have a a vote for them at that time but you support the person who is best for that seat be it superintendent or board member and I couldn't be quiet I had to say that thank you thank you m rert thank you very much to my colleagues and thank you for all of your input and I will take that into consideration when I go into negotiations on Friday the scheduled order of business for this regular school board meeting of the school board of bar County Florida has been completed seen no obligation I now adjin the meeting e e e e e e e e e e this Workshop of the school board of brow County Florida is now called the order please identify the exit doors that are clearly marked for emergency exting while in the boardroom refrain from obstructing the exit doors once the boardroom has reached its seating capacity attendees will be directed to a designated overflow area in the room board member Leonardi will now introduce her school to lead us in the pledge allegiance to the flag Mrs Leonardi it is my pleasure to introduce the students of Norths Side Elementary School to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag and a skit good morning school board members nor Side Elementary would like to thank you for allowing us to recite the FL hi I'm here wa for me I'm so sorry I'm late I had to let my teachers know that I was going to meet the school board members today okay um where are the school board members oh oh no did they leave oh no calm down Maddy the Schoolboard members are right there oh hi superintendent Dr H and Schoolboard members I'm so excited to meet you welcome to nor Side Elementary my name is mindful Maddie and I'm in first grade guess what I want to tell you all about and you can tell them about our school later we have to set the pledge of Legion for the school board Workshop oh yeah I'm sorry I forgot about that and after n can we show our Schoolboard members one of our mindfulness exercises please sure Maddie let's start our day together with saying the Pledge of Allegiance and day and mindfulness exercise with mindful Maddie that's me please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you you may now take your seats is it my turn now yes Maddie great here at North Side we love to do mindfulness exercises today today we're going to do a breathing exercise called balloon breathing are you ready yes Schoolboard members are you ready I can't hear you Maddie they're ready so find a comfortable seated position place your feet flly on the floor and close your eyes hey guys are your eyes closed yes okay imagine you have a balloon in your belly Place both hands on your belly belly and take a slow deep breath in through your nose feel your belly rise like a balloon under your hand hold it for a moment and then exhale slowly through your mouth feeling your belly fall let's do it two more times together Breathe In Breathe Out breathe in breathe out now you can open your eyes that was great Maddie yes it was thank you thank you you're welcome thank you for joining us school board members we hope you wait are they leaving cuz I have to finish telling them about all of the great things that are happening at nor side like we have to get class oh yeah well is it okay if I draw a picture of all of the fun things and give to Mrs Leonardi so she can give it to Dr he burn our superintendent that's a great idea Maddie have a fantastic day everyone bye fabulous job I would now like to request a moment of silence for isai Estrada isaah was a seventh grade student at Ramblewood middle school he shall be deeply missed by all of his peers and teachers at Ramblewood middle school he was a Shining Light in every class period and his passion for playing the guitar added joy to his church Community please join me in recognizing a moment of silence in his honor at this time thank you for member fam has requested a moment of silence Miss Fam thank you in memory of Lisa C Nathaniel I want the district to know she was the Cornerstone of the fox care after CARE program at foxt Trail Elementary in Davy Florida for eight remarkable years with unwavering dedication and a vibrant personality she consistently brought joy and laughter to both students and to staff Mrs Nathaniel's student centered activities coupled with her invaluable support and guidance were greatly cherished by her students furthermore her current culinary skills delighted Ed US during numerous staff Gatherings where she generously prepared meals showcasing her passion for food upon entering the cafeteria for aftercare Miss Nathaniel was always met with a smile she embodied her multifaceted roles not only as an after care counselor but also as a nurturing mother figure a cherished friend and a beacon of comfort for the entire Fox Care Community she instilled in us the importance of fostering lasting relationships teaching us that meaningful connections are invaluable a sentiment expressed by one of Nathaniel's Aftercare students encap encapsulates her enduring impact most spinning L Miss Lisa was a yellow butterfly forever fluttering around and guiding us she will be dearly missed by the Fox Trail Community thank you Miss rert has requested a moment of silence Miss rert yes I'm requesting a moment of silence for Mr Raphael frim who passed away during our spring break Mr fim had been a science teacher at Coconut Creek High School since 2016 he will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him in our Cougar Community thank you for member fogan Hol has request a moment of silence thank you chair Mr Ronald Graham was the head for facility service person at Sterling Elementary School Mr Graham worked for Broward County public school for 30 years during this time he served as facility service person for Martin Luther King Jr Elementary and then transferred to Sterling elementary school he was the head facility service person at Sterling Elementary for over 20 years in addition to maintaining strong relationships with his colleagues on campus he was highly regarded among District Maintenance Personnel he is survived by his father siblings and other extended family members please join me for a moment of silence thank you thank you oh I'm sorry three uh sorry and um Miss drra D Alicia uh Miss D Alisia was as she was affectionately known was office manager at Apollo Middle School Miss Alisia worked for Broward County public schools for 24 years during her 10 years she was employed at Boulevard Heights Elementary Pines Middle and at the time of her passing Apollo Middle School Miss elicio was a friend and mentor to many she will be missed by staff throughout the district and Miss D is survived by her husband mother children and grandchildren please join me for a moment of silence thank you and Ryan Groner Hollywood Hills High School student High School uh Hollywood Hills is mourning the death of the 10th grade student Ryan Groner Ryan succumbed to injury sustained after he was hit by a car while riding his bike family and friends remember Ryan as a bright smart young man who was full of love who aspired to become successful so he could care for his family Ryan will also be remembered for his strong relationship with God his humor and his zest for life so please join me for a moment of silence from remembering Ryan thank you thank you the following topics are scheduled for board discussion at this Workshop budget Workshop number four fiscal year 2425 and 24 legislative update weapons detection program closed door 2425 property and casual insurance renewal School Board policy renewal project rule development annual diversity committee report to the School Board the first item up is budget Workshop number four fiscal year 2425 24 legislative update I'll now turn it over to staff for our presentation thank you chair Vice chair board members um public at large this Workshop will present where we are in developing the capital budget for fy2 and share some good news in that area about this year's budget also the finance staff will be presenting the plan to balance the general fund budget for fy2 it was not an easy task but during declining enrollment takes out resources to schools and offices count on to uh to service our students I've had several difficult conversations with the school leaders and departments they are ready to continue to gr services to our students and families in spite of budget reductions Department discussions are ongoing as we continue to look for more efficiencies to increase the dollars for compensation as directed by the board and complete the or chart recommendation the general fund budget as presented listens to the board Direction it increases compensation for staff and FY 25 and addresses the board mandate to find a path to compensate other non-teaching employees this year it reduces the number of clerical positions across the district as directed by the board no staff will be released as a result of this reduction it lays the groundwork to redefine the district and Begins the staff realignment related to that important work it does not rely on the fund balance to solve Revenue reduction and show sound fiscal planning we look forward to board input in discussion and please remember board members we have at least two more workshops where we will dive deeper into the capital budget discuss the referendum dollars and address any questions we don't resolve today Madam chair M sorry and only because and I want to take some quick notes and yes I've gone through this and I know we're going to hear uh at least an hour of updates from the team so which is which is fine um so you made a couple statements and I just want to repeat at least two of them for me um so the last meeting I offered a motion which the board uh adopted 90 um which uh gave direction to you on non-instructional compensation because that's been at least for me um a big point of contention that we have not uh developed a path forward so you're saying that this and I'll get to it I'll hear from the team this actually does that this will address um that that that request great so let me ask another point that I asked as uh your predecessor sitting in the seat uh who I don't think wanted to answer the question and I think you just did so let me ask the question um the budget that uh you will present I'm sorry the budget Workshop number four this information are there layoffs that you're proposing in this budget there are no layoffs thank you all right so I'll hold the rest of my questions Madam chair because there are a few other points because I think we're going to go through the full presentation correct all right thank you m Marte thank you super intendent and thank you for that introduction and setting uh what we're going to look forward to over the next approximately 1 hour and yes it is a rather long presentation uh it is an important workshop and and and uh we definitely look for for board guidance before we get into the full agenda today and I'll be turning it over to my colleague Mr Sullivan to do the legislative update first I would like to take a moment of uh Personal Privilege and let the board would know that today will be Becky's last Workshop after serving the district for 38 years so from the finance staff from the finance staff thank you and we love you very very much do she hold the record and now she's mad at me [Music] it's that's the longest Su you're going to get from B that is it because then I'm going to cry um don't cry don't cry it's been my pleasure to serve this District um I've worked amongst and with most of um my team the entire 38 years um and it's with gratitude because this um I can't do that you're brat um I'm I'm excited about our future and um and I'm always here if the team needs me so thank you for the [Applause] privilege so with that Madame chair I'm going to turn it over to John Sullivan all right uh good morning is it still morning yes good morning uh Madam chair school board members and super superintendent and the public for the public I am John Sullivan Chief communication legisl Affairs officer I normally don't read from a script but I'm still in uh time zone difference uh so we will be providing a high level overview of the 2024 legislative update uh session that just concluded last month uh please note that the budget and along with several other bills have not been signed by the governor we do expect that he will be signing that uh in the coming weeks uh but they are subject to his veto uh once the bills are signed uh then that starts a process uh goes through the Department of Education roeming and guidance we've already commenced meeting with senior leadership to ensure that the system is ready for the new laws when they uh become uh uh enacted um as it relates to the budget um Miss Marte will be going over those uh highlights from session so I won't go over that but I did want to highlight two a couple items as it relates to the budget uh so we got $250 ,000 for mentoring uh Athletics program for the second year that's thank to thanks to the great uh legislative delegation especially uh representative lamara and Senator o good who have been our Champions as it relates to these uh individual appropriation requests that the district has had so I wanted to thank them publicly we also want to thank the legislature as a whole and the governor for their continuation of an increase in Educational Funding they've done that for the last several past sessions and they continue to do so so we're very thankful for the additional funds um right now I'm going to turn turn over to miss tety who along with our contract lobbyist are the boots on of the ground for Tallahasse she's going to go over a really a quick higho overview because we don't want to take up too much of the hour so this will be brief and we will at the end of the Miss Marte Deputy Marte presentation will be available for Q&A Miss tety thank you good morning Megan tety director of legislative affairs um I'm going to start with a couple of the highlights from this session uh Senate President priority ities speaker priorities and then we'll move into a couple of other pieces of legislation um first with DG this was a m a large package um that was born from hb1 in 2023 a couple of the main priorities of this legislation are highlighted here this package was a Senate President pasido priority we're still working through that within our offices to develop how what that will mean for our district um in terms of school safety this was a a house priority speaker rener priority to have a margorie stowman Douglas public safety act um Bill hp1 1473 one thing I'll specifically highlight in here is it changes the requirements for all campus access points to be locked or manned when students are on present on campus at all times which is different from our current procedures before we go on to the next one so the the main difference in that bill is right now that a requirement from Bell to Bell uh so this is changing it as a requirement while students are on campus at any point in time even if it's after school so there is there's a potential for a financial impact uh with that change going to go on to the gate program the graduation alternative to traditional education program was the Senate President pasido priority um this legislation was to create educational Pathways for Stu for children who have withdrawn from high school before graduation I'd imagine that our technical colleges would see changes because of that outside of those three major priority packages there's also some additional legislation that I'll um highlight specifically the School Chaplain Bill I've heard a lot of um news about that so that will require uh rule development from the school board should the district choose to pursue that um and have a policy on it and just to just to be clear so it wouldn't be up to individual schools to do this this would require board action if we wanted to participate in this new legislation but it is the uh prerogative of the board to do that but individual uh schools wouldn't have an opportunity to participate uh unless the board took action I Madam chair hold question yeah we're going to do questions at the end then okay Additionally the history of Communism bill was a big bill this session um that would go into effect in 2026 2027 it does require a doe to provide standards on this instruction I'm not going to go any over any of the other legislation unless there's any questions on it I'll turn it over with that we'll turn it over to a deputy Marte and be available for questions at the end thank you Mr Sullivan before I go into the details um we're going to spend a little bit of time on the capital budget today more about how we bring recommendations to the board about what we're what we are asking them to funding capital and that is still a lot of work in Pro uh progress um I do want to share and and we we will not really have a conversation much about the referendum today there's a lot of moving parts that are still being fleshed out with that so that is to be continued and I'm I'm not prepared to answer um questions about that today in any great manner the components of what we will talk about today come together to meet the commitment that the superintendent just made to you so um yes there are funds in here for compensation for 2024 for for staff who have not received compensation yet there is compensation uh at least the initial amount of compensation that he hopes to grow as we continue to work down through the budget and get more information about this year included here um but if the board chooses to not accept any pieces of his recommendation that that would then that would potentially unravel that commitment the pieces have been put together in such a way to make that very important goal of the board come true um so if the board were not to accept some of his recommendations that would potentially uh eliminate or or minimalize the pot of dollars that he set aside that I know we can talk about in more detail in our clo closed door today but I just want to caution the board this is a a a pieces of a puzzle that were put together to get to your end goal and if some pieces are not accepted then uh we would ask the board to fill in those pieces for us because this is at this point his be best recommendation in his previous role as Deputy he sat by my side as we went through this with every single Department in the in the central office uh he has met prior to becoming superintendent many many times with our school leaders about the budget and he has worked on all of those pieces in my office with Becky the team and I so this is a budget that I believe the superintendent is quite frankly more familiar with than um generally superintendents are and I thank him for that because he has had a real fingerprint on many of these decisions they are not perfect we are in declining enrollment and that that is and you can read all the national National literature if you want me to put together a packet of it for you I'm happy to do that the most difficult budget to build for a district is declining enrollment because you are starting with a revenue loss before you get any gain so without any further Ado let me start on slide 11 uh we're going to talk about the capital budget let's share the good news first um based on estimates from our Treasurer that he has shared with irum in the last several weeks we expect interest in come on our resources that are in the bank to be significantly more than initially projected when we adopted the capital budget we expect that to uh yield a revenue increase of about 20 million in the capital budget which you all know is restricted funds what I'm going to present to you in this is that because of that and in order to meet the board's goals the recommendation will be that allow able Capital expenditures that were expected to be incurred on ARP in the amount of $10 million that we use this money to do that to free up that art money page 12 goes over how we plan the capital budget cycle and you all can read and we're already behind schedule but it is very prescriptive and and we're happy to share details with you at any time you want but every Department based on board input asks for what they believe they need in capital it is analyzed by a group not unilaterally by the budget staff and we look at priorities how difficult it is to execute that body of work and we go through a whole evaluation process until we Whittle It Down To What We Believe are the most important things and there are iterations of the asks that the Departments have to defend last year it was with super intendent Smiley they came into her office would go through it should' look at the data and should' say I'm not bringing that one forward I'm going to bring this forward and that's how the recommendation comes to the board uh we hold true to the Strategic plan as we look at capital resources and page 14 talks about where we believe Revenue based on state estimates uh for the capital millage what that yield is going to be there is no expectation that the housing market is going to have a significant adjustment in South Florida in the near future in spite of some national adjustments due to the shortage of housing uh and the continued growth in our population the um other buckets of money in the revenue uh continue to remain fairly sta stable the Appropriations cops are um something that the board cannot make an adjustment on uh you will note that the cops balance is expected to decline in the out years as we head to 2032 I know it sounds like a long way away but it really isn't uh when we have a significant reduction significant in our debt for this District because we have such a an amount of maturity of cops the technology refresh is a a cycle that the board adopted several years ago uh at the boards will they could theoretically suspend that at any time uh with proper notification the same with the fleet maintenance although um aging buses are very very very expensive to run the capital transfer uh to the general fund it covers all of our building maintenance depending on what we do with redefining that number would be adjusted in the out use facilities projects uh that's that's uh going to decline as smart rolls off the board's commitment to uh the cameras the safety uh projects remains true true the charter school Pico is just a pass through from the state and then the last one is the local millage and the legislation that requires us to share local millage with Charter Schools and that percentage will continue to go up from 20% this year uh to a full 40% UH 60 80 to 100% based on their FTE again that's an estimate but if their FTE changed that estimate would change the next slide is a little bit of a new presentation um the capital reserve we're suggesting and we're going to get into the reserve policy later today the fund balance policy we suggesting that the board develop a minimum that they keep in capital um and and that based on on the current millage uh yield would be about 45 million um and then this is some of the open items that the capital staff will work through with superintendent heurn uh project management costs for the smart program for next year any ongoing facilities projects that the board were contemplate and then the long range facilities plan and the impact of redefining our schools those are all open as well as the cost index risk projections as construction costs continue to increase so even if we were not to embark on any more uh facilities projects just the day-to-day projects that PO um undertakes uh expected to continue to cost more in the coming years um the appropriation considerations I am quite sure that the board is well aware of all of these I just spoke about the smart program Coral Glades Markham other projects uh all all ongoing so the board is aware of those uh let's go right to uh the the budget priorities prioritization Matrix is is the process that we use I want to talk more about general fund today so the major impacts uh on the budget this year are the continuing decline in our enrollment and the sunsetting of ARP all of these items have been discussed with the board in the past and their impacts continue to be integral uh in the formulation of the budget that we'll present to you today we're going to focus on those two areas the board has been very very clear that compensation for our staff is their top priority compensation is more than salary in every definition of the word compensation it includes salary health benefits in the case of Florida uh school districts it includes the Florida retirement system contribution as well as Social Security payments the superintendent will recommend a budget that includes compensation increases for all staff the I want the slides to catch up can we get to P there we go so um these enrollment these FTE enrollment figures are what was submitted to the state and agreed on by the state as uh realistic expect ations of where our enrollment will be next year enrollment in our in our traditional schools will drop is expected to drop an additional 4,400 students we will monitor that very very closely over the summer as students register in our schools and we will make adjustments over the summer in teacher allocations to schools based on those changes so if we see a school school that has an enrollment Trend that is other than we expect we will immediately uh assign you uh units teaching units to to that school so they can hire as quickly as they possibly can so we call them mini conferences but in July we'll sit down and we'll go through with the region superintendence and uh Dr heurn and the budget staff where we see those spikes and he'll authorize adding units as necessary Charter School growth uh is very small for next year anticipated at about 550 students based on all the information that we were given from the state we were told by them to increase uh the F uh Florida family empowerment scholarship FTE by 12,000 next year that is not the district estimate that is the state estimate and we were required to put it into our forecast model 12,000 is the expect expected increase mostly impacting K through three if if if it materializes that way the district will not know the preliminary impact of FTE changes until Benchmark day enrollment count late in August however the true Financial impact cannot be determined until survey 2 scheduled for the week of October 11th 2024 is completed once the state collects survey 2 Data the preliminary FTE reports will be available to District in mid November but the financial impact of what we all call the third calculation will not be given to the district until January of 2025 and I've got to go a little bit wonky and into the weeds here why is that important because in spite of what the actual student count is if overall Statewide there's a bigger number of students than the state projected there could conceivably be a pration of funds and as long as we don't know that there's some risk to the district's budget important information um we've gone over I think most of this board members but I want to put it all together into one slide so as the board knows we have an ARP funding Cliff the amount of $19.6 million is as a result of teacher salary increases last year that are recurring the 151 academic support positions this is the final year and if the board remembers when we first received the out funding the board systematically scheduled those positions to sunset on a path so initi initially there were about 500 plus I'm going to say 500 plus positions that were given out and then in the second year there were 300 positions and in the last year it was 150 so we wouldn't create a steep Cliff uh of of teaching positions and quite frankly I'm going to show you on the next slide how important it was that the board was uh thoughtful in in doing that because with that and declining enrollment and changes in state law around the class siiz categorical we have a significant decrease in the number of teaching positions so the state back in uh 2022 made a change to the class size uh funding categorical Statewide not just to briwood Statewide and it reduced that amount that we received by $23.7 million given that the district and the world was just coming out of covid the board decided to fund those positions with the AR funds to hold our classrooms uh to the class size level they had been at pre pandemic to help our students with academic recovery those funds are gone and we now need to uh address our budget for those $23.7 million less of State funding so what does that mean uh so the class size reduction positions there are 284 of them on ARP right now that are going away that is not a surprise we've talked about it every budget workshop for the last two years the academic support same thing what number of teaching positions are lost as a result of declining enrollment we estimate that at 214 for a total reduction reduction in teaching positions of 649 it's a very large reduction but historically and we have no reason to believe otherwise aside from the 150 plus vacancies we have as we sit here today on an annual basis we have in excess of 1,000 teaching retirements uh teachers who move out of state move out of the county uh decide to leave teaching ranks um or don't recertify so we don't we don't expect any um layoffs in fact we're still currently hiring because we expect to still have vacancies so Mr Sullivan talked a little about bit about the state budget I want to get into what that means monetarily for the district the Florida legislature wrapped up on March n March 8th uh during the adoption process the 2425 ffp conference report was released that provides us our beginning State funding uh in my world it's commonly called the first Cal the conference report um results with a fiscal year 25 increase of 6.2% or 148 I'm sorry 145.80 we need to we need to go through and explain exactly what that is I do want to say that the Broward per pupil and I'm going to say this twice because it's really really important the Broward per pupil based on the first Cal is 8,910 Miami Dade to the south of us gets 9,113 or $23 more per student which which if you use our current student headcount we would get an additional $39 million a year if we were funded like Miami date Palm Beach to the north of us gets student funding in the amount of 9,482 or $572 more than we do per student if we were funded like Palm Beach we would receive $110 million more so if we were funded like our neighbor to the South who everybody loves to compare what's happening in Miami day and what's happening in Palm Beach Miami day gets $39 million more per student than you know than we do based on our student population and Palm Beach 110 categoricals also uh all increased with the state budget this year the two largest increases are the ese guarant which reflects an increase of 4.1 million our population and FTE count for ESC continues to rise as does as does most large districts across the state the safe School allocation increased by 3.4 million which is a bigger increase than some of the years prior um the State Mental Health allocation also increased several million uh it is important to note and I know the board is well aware of this but more for the public than for the board the district spends significantly more and I can get the exact amount of significant for you but it's tens of millions of dollars more in services to our ese population than we get funded from the state again not uncommon because of the need so this is where I want to kind of explain how the 145 million is is is great but because we're in declining enrollment and because of the increase in Fes scholarships it really doesn't end up being that much money so the impact of declining enrollment is a minus of 39 million the impact of 12,000 students uh potentially opting into the FES scholarship program is 106 million so of the 145 million6 million of it is FES right off the top and then Charter Schools is another five million so the total new FTE Revenue breakdown total is 72 million but again of the 145 million 106 million is FES so that money simply is is in our gross budget and Nets right out we never see that money so of the 145 million FES growth is 90 million I'm using round numbers Charter Schools is $18 million it's the 550 new FTE plus their share of the increase in the BSA and the categoricals mental health to Charter Schools the safe schools piece that goes to Charter Schools then we have tsia for our teachers this is set aside mandated by legislation of 12.8 then we set aside two amounts we set aside four so historically our f s I'm sorry es population grows significantly second semester we have to set aside money for that so that money is held in the budget office for those FTE to materialize the other thing that we do is 4,400 is an estimate so as we roll the budgets out to schools we don't roll the Imp the whole 4400 out because we've got to have a cushion in the event that our numbers are off and the state doesn't fund all that money rather than going back into all the school budgets and clawing money back we set aside just a tiny bucket of funds uh for the settling of what the FTE actually are again if 4,400 is exactly right those monies will just roll out to schools so our new Revenue that we begin budget discussions with is 9.5 million again that would be significantly different if we were not in declining enrollment we know for sure of these cost increases the teacher salary the the recurring portion of 19 18.6 summer experience coming off of arp we have to have a summer program 6 million and then the last item is an estimate and I I needed to put it into balance because I didn't want to be disingenuous by saying well we have money to do compensation increases but we haven't addressed this um this is an estimate this is a back ofth envelope budget Department estimate and I will rarely present a backof the envelope estimate but in the case of the potential Charter School settlement the interest is somewhere around 11 million for next year this budget already accounts for that so we've built that into what we're proposing today and again I don't have much more information about that today and I would ask the board's Indulgence in giving us some time to vet that all out with Miss Batista and her team and get you final information projected cost increases great news this year for the first time in probably the 15 years that I've actually it might even be more than 15 years I've done budget now I've lost track this is the smallest increase we've had in F FRS in many probably two decades last year it was 20 million the year before it was 10 million so this is actually great news and and we uh we were doing this in the budget office when we got the final information about F FRS um so although personally I would have liked my Cola restored but it's you know for the good of all um health insurance we've worked with the Gallagher actuaries uh and Dr Ogburn uh Miss marala and I over and over on the assumptions around health insurance cost increases 28 million is real is real as we continue to recover post pandemic the impact of people not seeking um routine Medical Care during the pandemic is affecting everybody's plan um and it is and the cost of a lot of the drugs out there a lot of the specialty drugs continue to rise we expect 28 million to be a realistic number Fuel and utilities we're always hopeful that we are high on this number although we've been told by fpnl again for the first time in a very long time don't expect a rate increase in in fact we might have some savings there um and then instructional materials what we're asking the board to do and what the superintendent is recommending state statute allows for a three-year window to adopt a new I'm I'm going to use it adopt a new Adoption is not the right way to say that Implement a new Adoption uh the science adoption this is the first year we are asking the board to allow us to implement the science uh adoption next year very common in the past we skipped a year and did the math adoption in the second year Miami day didn't do the social studies adoption last year they're implementing this year which is year two it is very common we're asking the board to implement next year and we would use this the $6 million that's in here is for Gap material uh then we also have uh dual enrollment and some of that stuff that we have to fund so uh the plan that we're profing is contingent on the board being okay with adopting next year uh the educational leadership team here thinks it's a good move um and it gives us some time to um work through the sunsetting of ARP gives time to to do the implementation doesn't impact negatively our students because they have uh material right now and this would fund the Gap material so if you look at where we are going to profer cost reductions at this point the total cost reduction we're offering for Central off off is 10 million a combination of vacancies and non-salary reductions the superintendent has asked to reconvene every department and go back through their departments again so guarantee is 10 next budget Workshop it could be higher he's going to revisit that as he continues to work on his or chart because of the reduction in staff we're not going to have to pay quite as much so Social Security next year and I spoke to this earlier we're asking the board to shift the the 10 million that we have in op right now that's in the HVAC line to Capital uh to free up those funds to balance the budget in addition to that we have funded the summer experience for this year with ARP so that would create a budget Cliff for 25 26 we're asking to reduce non-classroom supplies by 25% that's principal office supplies and non-classroom supplies State Statute allows districts to retain 20% of the Borat I'm sorry advanced placement and Ace funds there's a typo on this it's not International Balor it's Ace um allows districts to retain 20% of those funds districtwide for administrative costs I can tell you that Miami dat always retain 20% and I know most other districts do as well this District historically has not we're asking that you allow us to retain to balance the budget 10% of those funds uh in central office they'll go to academic programs but it just won't be distributed out to the schools we're asking and the board gave very clear instruction about an overall reduction in clerical staff in this District uh the elimination of vacancies that we'll detail for central office the preponderance of those are clerical uh we've already done one $8 million reduction of clerical this year in central office we're asking to Res uh reduce the support allocation for high school clerical and let me give you some benchmarking data so and the and and and we benchmarked all grade levels of clerical with our neighboring districts our elementary and middle schools were very much in line with both of our neighbors Palm Beach allocates to high schools six guaranteed positions and then based on the size of the high school they get funds to buy more the maximum allocation of clerical in a Palm Beach High School is 16 clerical positions Miami Dade guarantees two positions with a maximum based on enrollment of 17 positions and I want to point out Ferguson High School in Miami date is over 4,000 students there are very large High School the maximum is 17 Broward currently guarantees our high school 11 positions with a maximum of 26 that's very different than both of our neighboring districts we currently have 90 vacancies we're asking the board to implement this change and implement the Miami model at a maximum of 17 again this would not result in layoffs and it would align High School clerical with our neighboring districts the next is one that we've had some conversation about um reduce the support allocation at all levels for custodial staff we have 108 vacancies again we're recommending uh the Miami model would have resulted in a recommendation of a $4.6 million reduction we're asking to implement the Palm Beach model which will come in at a 2.4 um which will adjust the square footage that each staff member is responsible for again 108 vacancies this would only eliminate 40 40 about 40 positions so if the board is to accept what the superintendent and the team are recommending you would have and the next page just does the math you would have uh 9.4 to start the known cost increases the projected cost increases is the projected reductions and I dare say we're not quite done yet we're hoping to make that number even bigger the op realignment uh will balance the budget and uh avoid any layoffs in spite of significantly declining enrollment would not touch fund balance uh at all any further than we already are and um it would provide for compensation for non- instruct uh non-teaching staff for this year I want to talk about where we are with compensation next year and I know the board is going to give us direction to find more to find more and we will do that uh we will attempt to do that so we have the tsia 12.8 F FRS and then the health insurance we're going to talk about that in closed door today the 28 million um I want to remind the board again the definition of compensation uh and and we can discuss that further the next page tells you just how dramatically the health insurance costs are impacting this District's ability to do other things for our employees uh since 2016 $50 million increase 50 million and that is uh I dare say moderated by the fact that people skipped routine health during covid I would expect that it would be much higher so we're asking the board do you accept ccept uh the recommendation of the realignment of op funds number two the exercising of the statutory option to implement the science textbook adoption in 2526 and accept the superintendent's recommendation for reductions if the board is okay with that um then the things that we committed to at the onset that Dr Dr Hein spoke to um we will be able to work through the next steps uh we have held all the budget conferences with central office they were held at zero as the board directed everybody had to justify every single thing in their budget superintendent heurn has asked that we revisit that we will continue to look for opportunities for cost reductions and continue to identify organizational chart efficiencies our next scheduled uh bu budget Workshop will be May 29th we will talk uh more about the referendum at that time talk more about capital and startop bringing you some recommendations June 25th it is our hope that we get final direction from the board so that we have very smooth uh budget hearings this year uh that that's always our goal uh especially since we all love our jobs that's why we're here but we also love spending some summer time with our our families so the more we can get done now the more time we all we all have uh to reset our batteries and get ready for another school year with that superintendent heurn and and Madam chair the budget team stands ready to answer questions thank you public comment uh good where are we oh still morning uh Dr Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida I'm going to start out by uh saying um I I love that you guys all value your volunteers but could you VA value US enough to let us know when you've suddenly changed something because I was wondering why I kept having to walk in circles so apparently because I don't have a badge of any sort I have to go out this door can't go through that door I've already been to the bathroom and then somebody had to use a courier to give me a public records request jump drive because I couldn't go out into the pre function room so just you know we keep repeating history this REM reminds me of when cartright was here and I almost got arrested because I wouldn't move but that apparently changed today they said the protocols have changed um having said that I'm going to start from the back and work my way forward on page 35 um and then before I even get to that the facility's task force is supposed to review individual needs assessments and recommend priority ities to the school board for the district facilities work program and capital budget does staff facilitate that no have we had staff to an FTF meeting to discuss the capital budget no remember I have an open bullying complaint against your outgoing facilities Chief and superintendent for withholding staff and information from the facilities task force so now would be a great time to reverse that our May meeting is coming up the agenda isn't set yet but it needs to be soon and when will staff becoming to discuss these things in detail starting with number one realignment of ARP funds as presented presented where where are they what ARP funds are being realigned because at our last meeting uh we were told it would be realigning out of capital to the tune of 30 million and oh look there's 30 million that is needed to balance the budget so if that's the case uh details cuz how are you supposed to accept unless this was in closed door and secret again I have we have no idea what what's being realigned I recognize that this is under the general fund but just because it's under the general fund doesn't mean we're not pulling It ultimately out of capital and we've been asking for a budget to actual for all the facilities ARP projects and the technology ARP projects have we get gotten that no so withholding information making it impossible for us to do our function as a as an advisory committee so that was on page 35 and also on page 32 the 10 million shifting HVAC I guess because the capital reserve has more money in it sure let's just keep pulling out of capital reserves so that we can never do playgrounds or anything like that um some of these reductions in costs the custodial uh just from having spoken to on diversity the conditions of the schools and as a parent I keep hearing about how dirty they are so uh that would probably be a hard no on reducing custodial unless you do an analysis because if they can't cover what they need to cover is the issue that they have too M too much too many square too much square footage or that there are too many vacancies so please sort that out before you agree to anything make informed decisions um as a parent who had a child in AP and Ace um reducing money that goes directly to school would be a hard no please look elsewhere um High School clerical I'm for I'm always for reducing clerical if that means that they're doing jobs that um the people above them should be doing don't waste money there uh this ties back so the 30 m the 30.1 million that's my biggest question mark and primarily why I stayed uh then getting back to oh legislative I guess I'm out of time and since we're so much next speaker the three minutes Mrs Leonardi Mr Alon sure thank you madam chair I'm happy to answer these questions um as uh presented uh from the staff so first uh great job to the team and the updates let me just kind of do a couple things first uh yes yes yes so I support um the recommendations I'm going to go through each of these um one because there is shared reward Madam chair shared pain and in my view still hopefully maintaining the Excellence of service that the district is allowing for so I want to shift in a second to ask staff kind of those questions um none of these are easy decisions or recommendations which I know um but I think I asked the first question up front and Mr superintendent you said that there are no layoffs right so I think by starting from least for me this one board member there is a strong starting place for me uh no layoffs clearly more efficiencies reducing vacancies all the things that we've talked about really for the last several months the other piece that's important to me um is doing more now for our non-instructional employees I think I've been very clear about that um many have twisted my words but I'm okay with that I can take that um but those who know how to read clearly understood um for many uh who reached out to me that this Board needs to be very firm and clear about all non-instruction employees who have actually not received anything to this point Mr superintendent so I'm good based on you following up from the direction that the board set my motion uh at the last meeting the one you didn't point out and I'm going to go through the presentation uh Madam Deputy superintendent and I believe we're going to discuss it whenever we get to it I think at the policy point so I'm going to go ahead and preview my 245 comments um around the general fund so I know you didn't ask um but I'm also hopeful that this board will give you additional Direction Mr superintendent uh to increase the general fund um and when their excess funds which I anticipate will occur um that we get us up to a certain dollar amount um I know that there's a recommendation coming um I think I've seen the number I don't think that number is good enough um so I'm forecasting already my 245 comments sir um so 4% is great um but I know Fitch has recommended a number uh which I believe is north of 4% and my assumption is the other rating agencies probably would do something similar so I'm just forecasting uh my comments to uh forthcoming let me jump to slide 17 and this is the same comment I made during several workshops ago which started some initial heartburn uh for I think the prior incumbent in the chair so we've had facility projects conversations on various schools Coral Glades Markham but I believe there are how many schools in brow County uh Mr superintendent Dr total number of schools just yeah um plus just 241 right so there are hundreds of elementary middle and high school needs I won't even get to the diversity conversation that I've gone through all their stuff so I'll wait for that presentation um but why haven't we identified overall needs for all School sites in this District it's the same it's the same question I asked for before so while I recognize that there are two needs that we've discussed probably four times this is probably now the fifth time on these two schools uh there are so many other schools that we also have not discussed Mr superintendent so I want to press you and the team if we're going to have ongoing facility projects conversations there are many more schools that clearly have ongoing facilities needs today but we've only selectively continued to identify the same two or three schools although there are so many others that have needs today that we have not identified that the Board needs to act on so I just want to be very clear about that Dr he noting the the feedback Mr Austin thank you sir um great budget prioritization Matrix so I just want to point that out um because you don't hear the good news right in the pat on the back um but I do want to point that out because it's it's for me it's important on how you get there and how the recommendation is made so I did want to just share that on slide 25 I just want to just a general question I know you got us to increases down to decreases down to net I Got It ultimately this is showing an increase in state funding is that correct Dr her I'm sorry I was a little distracted my apologies Marte M Marte thank you superintendent yes okay let me jump to slide 31 I want to ask the question again and I know I think you were given the distinction between the allocations for clerical and custodial you gave the difference or The Benchmark rather of Palm Beach and Miami day and where Broward stands in each of those categories and I think I wrote the numbers down correctly um let me just jump to custodia for a second on the on the slide it says 108 vacancies is it 108 or is that a different number it is 108 yes okay just want to make sure I think I heard that's today but obviously changing got it but just to confirm by reducing both of these allocation numbers to get us to either the Palm Beach or the Miami day Benchmark there are no layoffs in these categories correct that is correct okay uh just complete transparency yes in the case of some of the clerical they depending on how many um they have and again there are 90 vacancies so there's a lot of vacancies out there some may have to shift to a middle or an elementary school right but everybody will be offered an employment opportunity so you might want say that again so so there may there may do you want to say it sir do you want me to all right there may be a change in your seat but there is enough openings to make sure we have opportunities for all great and by the way sir as long as we're on that subject if I may continue a little bit the same is true of teachers because the recommendation is we are going to reduce the impact of class size more at the high school level than the elementary level because historically the district has funded high schools at about 24 to1 which is lower than what the state required so as we modeled the impact of class size we our recommendation is to impact the high schools more because uh a great deal of their funds are an extra period supplements and extra monies again there may be teachers asked to teach in a different School school or a different grade but there is a seat for everybody thank you for that question sir yes and then kind of my last Point um and then I'll just I'll close with this well with one point how do we guarantee and actually was a I just heard it was actually a fair statement uh from uh the chair of our one of our task forces um which is actually a Sim note that I wrote on my not sheet here how do we guarantee um kind of the level of Excellence for the district District uh both on the custodial side and clerical side right is this is this decreasing our service level is this decreasing the amount of uh support for schools um is this going to uh impact the beautification and look of our schools I mean those are fair questions um so maybe can you just speak to that no this will not decrease the level of service um one of the things um this year that I paid close attention to is how effective and efficient we are um based on the D duties and responsibilities of the role um so what what I've noticed is that we're very paper and pinhey instead of leveraging the technology that we do have in the building so that the chair likes that and so one of the things um I've talked to the team about is providing more professional development to teach our clerical staff how to be more efficient and leverage our technology that we do have that's being underutilized by by by many um on the custodial part it it goes back to better training and accountability just to make sure our custodians in the building are doing what they're supposed to do and being well trained to execute as much as possible to keep their buildings clean great so oh go ahead may I the the other item and I know the superintendent knows and there's a lot going on this board uh made a a significant investment in new custodial equipment the last two years and that had been very neglected since 2007 and the the recession the board uh invested Omar is it over a million over a million uh part of the recommendation will be to fund another 500,000 of that investment but we've had a significant significant refresh of equipment that is much more uh advanced than what they were using so that also will have a huge impact on their service delivery great Mr superintendent last point I'll make is I'm very encouraged by the recommendation I clearly have stated my support for where the budget stands today um clearly I'm not forecasting a vote because I know that there are several other uh types of decisions that have to be made between now um and those hearings um including millage right and how that impacts and where we land so uh but I am encouraged by um the reductions that have been made um and to this point um that there are no layoffs uh for positions and then the third point that for all of the non-instructional staff uh that have Tex emails sent faxes and telegrams um that they know hopefully if the board agrees today um that help is on the way so I want to be very clear about that so thank you uh for your first recommendation sir um at least it meets my test thank you Mrs Hixon thank you um just had a couple of questions and I will say I'm very appreciative of the fact that there are um there's a place in here for for staff compensation for all staff I I don't think it's just been one board member asking for that I think we've been all very clear we had just finished the teacher negotiation it was important to move on to the next step so I'm glad to know we're at that place and I wish we had been able to do that much sooner than now and hopefully superintendent heurn we are able to do this in a more efficient way for the next um next school year so I have a couple of legislative questions first so on SB 994 got to go back up to legislation um the student Transportation safety it says enhances safety measures for student transportation by revising the function and use of schoolb infraction detection systems does that come with funding drer M Marte I'm going to answer the legislative stuff um I don't believe this um comes with funding there is a for I believe was last session that does give us the abilities to install cameras on the Schoolboard uh buses uh for arms we have not U done that yet um I'm not sure if we're in qu of Silence on that so we're in qu of Silence on that um so in the future there might be an opportunity to use those funds if we do go ahead and Implement uh that program to utilize for uh this this initiative so that was kind of my question does this law come with funding for districts to implement that system that that's my general question so the answer to that question is no okay but the implementation of the system generates fine or ticket I don't know infraction is is the word I'm searching for infraction Revenue that would be a revenue source to the district um based on the number of infractions per day per bus yes per day per bus we expect that Revenue to be in the millions um but we can't budget for it yet because we haven't even got to the point of contract with the board okay yeah that was because it says enhanced safety measures by revising the function so the it's just a little clear but I and thank you for the other part cuz I know we were discussing this particular type of of Technology but we never really had a big discussion about it so I was wondering where we were at with that as well it this was really uh an attempt to adjust the last bill uh last year's bill with the cameras on the school buses okay for the infractions gotcha okay and then my other question on HB 931 the School Chaplain how is this actually different than what we have now because if they're if they're cleared through a background check as a volunteer aren't they able to come into the school already so this would prescribe the method to do it and uh if the board decided to do it there's a couple items that we would have to comply with so we'd have to list um the types of services the the School Chaplain would be providing their religious affiliation and then parents would have the opportun to opt into those Services um so right now we don't we don't do that especially as it relates to uh religious affiliation but we do allow people of religious affiliation to volunteer and provide anyone can volunteer in our schools now but this is specific to the type of services that chaplain School Chaplain would be able to provide so anyone as long as they meet a criteria to volunteer in schools currently can do it but this is specifically to allow School Chaplain into the schools to provide certain services and we would have to make it known to the parents those types of services and the uh religious affiliation of each of those School Chaplain so is there somewhere that list those Services uh so we would have to I guess we're going to have a discussion on this later if you're saying if well so the board would have to decide they wanted to um participate uh then we would have to do rule making through that rule making there are certain things that we would have to do to be able to implement in schools gotcha okay when I first saw I just I want to be clear to people people we don't exclude chaplain from being Volunteers in our school as long as they follow the process of just a general volunteer in the school district okay thank you um okay my other question and thank you Miss Marte for pointing out again people like to compare us to Dade County and Palm Beach so I appreciate the fact that you also shared with us where we stand in relation to how much money we have per student um which makes it difficult for us to do all of those things that we would want to do um so I guess I'll just answer I can't remember what my other question was now um so to answer the things that you had on here about um where we stood with things sorry I think I'm a yes to all three but let me just make sure um so re realignment of the art funds and again I I know I asked this question before but we do have to spend these funds by September of this year yes okay thank you so it's important that we do that we don't want to leave any money on the table and if it requires us to shift things around and make sure we do that I think it's important that we do that um yes to the I'm yes to number two and yes to number three but I also would like to ask I know that we you had um central office does that include all of the Departments yes so anything that's not directly a school it's all departments it's security it's it it's Transportation it's academics clumped it all together as central office anything that is not directly a school in my budget language is Central Administration so when we move to the registration part for transportation can you maybe in the next budget share with us what that cost savings was and if we could be really more specific about Transportation I know that's a huge chunk of the money that we spend and maybe there's a way to do it more efficiently and you know as we talk through um repurposing but repurposing won't affect our budget for next year in terms of Transportation so that's I think a huge piece that we have that maybe we could be more efficient on and if we we could if you could send us the department budgets in a little more detail I know we get a chunk of here's what each department gets but how does that roll out in number of positions how does it roll out in supplies that they get how does they so that we could just have a better idea of what each not the schools that's you know I know you have a handle on have a handle on all of it but I think as a board member I would just personally like to know you know how much each department has I know you said they started with a zero budget and I appreciate that because I have asked for that for um the last four years but can we have a a little more detail when you're giving us it has a a department in a total but it doesn't really break down that total how much of it is for staff how much of it is for other things because maybe we could get a better handle on where all that money is going to so I know we didn't speak before today but next budget Workshop absolutely going to cover in detail the district budgets and this is a lot more detail because in spite of um what the board with the board hears often about all the people down at central office and all the money down at central office I'm excited to dive into it with you because I did back again I did twice today back at the envelope math and in non-salary lineup items and Madame chair actually asked for this in her referral and and she's received it in non-salary light line items in central Office Accounts excluding transportation we have $214 million and on the surface you're all looking at me to say why wouldn't we' be able to cut that more right so very quickly some of the items included in that very large number are our annual audit costs which areand ated and I'm only looking at the real big items $1.3 million of SRO contracts $1.5 million of tdif which is teacher staff development that's contractual $8.5 million in this year for the salary uh for the textbook adoption for social studies 6 million of itinerant es teachers speech and language pathology contracts in the Millions and again digital instructional material dual enrollment textbooks uh accreditation advanced placement exams dual enrollment tuition all of the money for athletics the funds for Crisis Support in the mental health budget over 70 million in po budget most of that salaries which is paid for by C capital in the end anyways 27 million for property insurance I I think I'm making my point when I get done all all is said and done and I'm happy to go through it in detail with with the board 47 million of not those big numbers I just said but still important things like um ja World fingerprinting so we we're happy to go through that in detail uh and as I said earlier Dr heurn has directed us to do central office again because I think he wants to go a little bit more as far as Transportation I love talking about very few things more than I like talking about transportation and under this board's leadership when I came back to the districts one of the first things we did was Implement here comes the bus I would love to give you an update on how widely used that is by our parents and the work the board all get did to make that come true as well as the great work Mr Alvarez has done in reducing costs of Transportation every year for the last two years while having customer service surveys that are better than we've had in a decade I know the board doesn't get the calls about late buses anymore I know you don't because I don't get any calls from you so I am excited for the next budget workshop and we will talk quite a bit about Transportation great I have two questions and you're you're correct the the emails we get now are about speeding buses um um so the grant the grants that we get cuz every school board meeting I like to highlight the grants do they are they in the budget at all or are they separate because you have to look at them differently so the only Grant by definition that we're talking about today is ARP and as everybody knows ARP is the most and I've worked in Grants budgeting since 2002 ARP is the most flexible funding funding uh the federal government has ever given to to any any entity um in this nation even more flexible than the ARP funds back in 2000 I'm sorry ARA funds back in 2008 so no other budg no other grants are in here because they are for specific per purposes the board approves or reaffirms those purposes at the time Miss escandell who's sitting behind me and her team bring those o items forward to you perfect and last um question or suggestion as we do the budget um Workshops can you also include what the general fund or you know what our fund balance is and maybe ways where you're looking at increasing them or think I know we have something coming up that will increase it significantly so that would also be great to have as a way to gauge what the discussion is absolutely thank you very much thank you madam chair so I have um a few questions and um thank you Miss Marte and your team I appreciate it um that you have presented uh the budget Workshop here to us and that you are uh have all intentions of prioritizing teachers and staff so we appreciate that um so the first question I have is um I I do um agree with the science for next year um however I uh can you reiterate again uh if and how this will impact student learning and outcome and key assessments if we if we have the adoption for next year no thank you for that question um I've done a deep dive just to ensure that the materials that we currently have uh address the standards can support standard-based instruction um Can ensure that it aderes to everything that we're trying to support to move the needle when it comes to student performance and science especially at those test at Great levels um also the team has put money aside to address any gaps in instructional material be it lost stolen misplaced um to ensure that every child has the the resources and the teachers have the resources they need as we push the the the um adoption one year later okay so have we done any sort of um Research into the content gaps um for these new materials as opposed to what we're currently using the the current material materials address all of the all of the state standards there is no Gap per se um as far as not addressing in any of the state standards that we have to teach okay so uh Miss Marte I am okay with the science for next year um as far as the on page 31 with the comparison of Dade County and Palm Beach and Dade having a maximum I believe you said 17 clerical um for high schools um not sure how we can explain brow having 26 but I do support uh the 17 Max for uh Broward um however I have concerns about the custodial part of this um I believe you mentioned 40 custodial positions right is that um I am concerned about that because I have visited um uh all of the schools in my district and many of them um look great um but there has been some concerns and I know you mentioned that uh there have been added spending on equipment and so on that will help to um the custodial to be able to do their jobs better um I am a bit concerned about this item I don't necessarily want to support that now um because um uh there has always been concerns about the conditions of the schools I don't want to com compromise on the um you know the um the cleanliness of our schools and how well it's been maintained by the custodians I'm not sure I'm not comfortable with reducing custodial staff um to any significant magnitude because um the appearance of our schools is important to me um and I think the appearance of our schools um is also important in how we attract um and be competitive with with um with uh you know other entities that we're losing students too like private and chared schools and so on so um I don't want to put added burden on uh schools by reducing the custodial staff and then that impact the the look and appeal of our schools so I am not in agreement with that um but everything else is okay and I just have one more question um you mentioned that uh in the second semester there there's usually a growth in ESC uh for traditional Public Schools um can you uh I this is just for my knowledge can you explain why that happens Dr Herer yes um Miss Marte and then U Miss holl's worth may be more appropriate also I was going to defer a right to Simone because I am not an expert but it is definitely a trend that I can validate through data thank you good morning still good um it is a trend and it is true because as we like to say someone turns three every day so we do a lot of identification and determination eligibility of our prek students so at the beginning of the year as those students have exited out to start traditional k um and on programs we're continuously evaluating and determining so that's where the increase comes throughout the year through that second FTE period in February okay thank you so much I appreciate it thank you um Madam chair I'm done does any any of my other colleagues have something Dr Zan thank you chair the national average for FTE funds is $122,800 Florida provides US $ 8,910 and that's really the rub of our challenge is that Florida doesn't resource to the national average it doesn't even uh come close to where I live for 25 years up in Northern Virginia that funds Fairfax County system at $19,800 so I raised four children there and I watched what almost $20,000 a year does we're trying to do do it on less than $99,000 so the challenge to our board that I see which is our greatest challenge is we have almost 6 billion dollar next year and we have two big goals we need to become an a district to survive and we ought to because it's a right thing to do ensure that 100% of our students in Broward County fulfill all their potential which in our mind collectively is 100% at grade level proficiency so the board's Challenge and I've heard a lot of conversation about it is how do you spend $6 billion instead of a lot more which we would get if we were national average or even a significant more if we were up in Northern Virginia to get us closer to those goals I'm a yes yes yes on your three questions although I really want to get those textbooks so if there's a way to buy that back uh that's great largely because it sends a wrong signal to my community that it's okay to continue to use books Beyond an adoption of a new one I don't like that so I'd love to buy that back in fact I'd buy it back with a 20% hold back on AP and a so to me those would be my uh my trade-offs to get that science book back this budget is fine like it starts with last year's it makes adjustments I don't believe though it's aligned to our goals and zero base is exciting but zerobase says I want to be an a district I need to be an a district and I want to be 100% proficient and it says well what are the resources you need with $6 billion to get you there this board has been very generous with our instructional staff we better settle quickly with our non-instructional staff it's embarrassing that it's so late in the year but on our instructional staff a year ago we gave a 9% compensation adjustment last year we gave a 14% compensation adjustment those are two significant raises unseen in other counties in Florida on until I learn differently I think that's our philosophy we're going to continue to pay people that are closest to the problem and closest to the goals that we have if you want to become a great learning district with high academic achievement maybe you should consider paying those that provide academic achievement and we've done that for the past two years but we're not doing it anymore this budget stops at tsia and the one question I have chair I know this is a workshop but I'm going to still address you anyway what percentage increase does the state budget provide us with the tsia funds that were brief to us today Dr M morte I need a few minutes my memory says it's 1.07% of the adjustment to BSA but I I need help I think I calculated 1.7 or are you at 1.07 there there's a required minimum from the state in in the first calculation and my memory says it's 1.07 that's there's a decimal there somewhere whether it's 1.07 or 1.7 that's not enough at least to continue uh the philosophy that we've had in terms of paying people that are closest to our goals it's 1.07 thank you very much um so just know that and that's another reason why this budget is not aligned to our goals and that's that's really the biggest challenge that this board faces in my mind repurposing by the way is a way to change that fundamental number it's so great to talk about the $891 compared to the $12,800 it's a national average we can add ,000 per FTE if we do bold things with repurposing doesn't that get us to our goals that's why we need to talk about repurposing CU instead of 8,910 we could have 9,910 spend more money on curriculum Capital more on curriculum quality more instructional people getting paid a salary that they can afford to live here maybe even beating out other counties in terms of uh showing that we put our money uh where our goals are so I think we need to think bravely and we need to act courageously we need to focus on cost efficiencies with this budget does and we need to do a lot more I will challenge my colleagues right now to justify to me why we have four layers of management between Dr heurn and a principal there's no organization in the competitive world that has four layers of management superintendent superintendent staff Regional superintendents and directors before you get to a principal I have some Targets in mind in that that regard uh but I'll wait to hear from my colleagues to see if they're interested in learning more about that I don't think each layer adds the same amount of money that we could spend on instruction and if our goal is instructional Excellence why do we keep spending money on May layers of management why are we talking about repurposing obviously $1,000 per student is a lot of money we have about 60 more schools than we need fundamental truth which has been talked about for a long time why do we spend money on facilities we don't need instead of the students we do need I want to win back students we can't win them back at 8,910 per FTE we're going to talk later about policies but one of the policies that is not in the one that is drafted for today's consideration is the one that we've been living in for with for a year the pay for policy if you want something you got to pay for it so you bring something you want $4 million for a special project go find $4 million out of the budget I think that's a good policy I look forward to talking about that this afternoon as well because we continue to talk about fund balance we got to do something about it and I look forward to that as well last couple points as part of our repurposing I've advocated for selling this headquarters building it's an important part of our discussion it generates a significant amount of money and it would allow us to to locate centrally in Broward County and to locate on an former School site in a way that would be much more appropriate for a publicly funded school system than this wonderful building and the other adjustment that I'm looking forward to talking about later is adjustments to our health care System we have to think again about whether or not the Health Care system that we have is consistent with our fiscal Straits that we're in right now uh on slide 34 I would ask for one thing uh chair is for people to recalculate that slide on a per person basis it's great to show how much our health care outlays are going up but our employee base is falling and the overall cost per person uh continues to escalate because we have a plan that doesn't incentivize anything other than taking every health benefit you could possibly get and so uh as I've said before we're the last employer in the world as far as I can tell that gives away health care and doesn't ask anybody to contribute to it I don't want people to have to pay for things but I do believe that that's the right policy so that you get some kind of Cost Containment in your health care System um and that frees up money for instructional resources if your goals are instructional I think our strategy up for the past two years has been to align as many resources as we can on those that are closest to the instruction of our children and I look forward to other uh workshops and other adjustments to the budget as we go go from now to July 1st last question is I keep calling this a $6 billion budget am I right so yes but nearly a billion of that is simply pass through money to the charter schools and FES so yes on a face value sir you are right but not exactly I just want to be clear with the public because for $6 billion their expectation is that we can be an a district and uh and they expect us to spend our resources in a way that aligns to what our goals are and that's what I want to keep working about through on Workshop five and workshop ship six as we get to our uh final decision of the budget thank you chair M rert thank you um right off the bat yes yes yes and I had uh oh this is what happens when you make notes all over the place um the second semester increase for ESC growth um we heard one contributing factor what is another contributing factor that we um in my estimation get the ESC growth um from some other schools how does that work Charter Schools yeah I I want staff to answer that I know the answer but I want staff to answer from Charter Schools I was so excit who yes from from Charter Schools got it and does the money come back with them or does it stay where it went I know the answers to this I'm asking them for the public so you want me to answer are you going to answer no you please that's why I asked it depends on when they come back and much of our data shows that they come back the week after October seat count and February seat count so the money doesn't necessarily follow the child right which I think is a very important conversation that the public needs to know about and also for our legislature how can we possibly make that more Equitable I mean at this point if we don't get the money back back how about prorating it or something because it's not fair and um we need the money to help those kids all three of my kids are identified there and they they need every aspect of their IEP so that would just be one idea for me and I did want to ask about specifically the teacher um hold on it's under the legislator stuff hry hold on sorry okay maybe I'm just going to have to go without asking it's the part where they uh explained um the de regulation hold on oh here it is okay so it's uh page page six on the um PowerPoint says Senate Bill 70002 gives instructional salary flexibility etc etc fee waivers that's important um you know our Educators have to do that and a lot of them um first year teachers first fiveyear teachers older teachers uh they don't put all their endorsements on their certificate because it cost more they have to pay roughly I think it's 150th subject I do it you know I make sure that English 5-9 6 through 12 esol reading gifted everything I put on mine but our teachers are holding back for two reasons class size especially in the elementary school and they don't want to have a lot of kids added to that to their classroom because these are are p to grade three if we're going to focus and we should be focusing on that age group because you get them in early you keep them okay and that's that's just the way it is and I've often said about Head Start and Early Head Start they have tremendous academic gains and then they come into our system but they're they're used to it already they're used to being that at that school and they stay because families get um they get used to it it's Comfort it's let's keep being part of our community here um one more part okay about going back to the fee waivers and it really is about streamlining educator certificate requirements come on guys my colleagues do we not get emails all the time with with with uh pictures that shows us that they're stuck trying to apply for our our teaching jobs online I'm not making anything up here that's the truth there is a glitch somewhere and not only does it take a while um it's even tough on the uh the doe website you know you can go from from uh screen to screen but what you have to do to really look up a teacher to see if they're certified you have to hit the drop down menu and most people don't think that it should be it should be a click and you should be able to go there but um then you get it all their all the teachers that are working out of field because they're not putting their certif their endorsements and their classwork on their certifications so then they have to sign a waiver so they're out of what is it out of field out of field okay so they're out of field but they're really not out of field and then you have the state and I'm I'd like Dr heern to comment on this um kind of dragging their feet so we have teachers that are stuck in this um like hamster wheel where they've done all their stuff they're looking to get their their um cert their offer for next year and they're being told I'm sorry you need to get this this and this even though they have absolute solid proof that it's not done but it's not it's not stamped from the doe so how are we going to help with that I hope this bill um does actually um help in those areas and I look forward to um Mr Sullivan and his team to be able to work through that but it is a problem and especially as we're heading into summer and uh you have principles that are really you know struggling as to who can stay who's to stay and they're waiting to hear back from the state so if you could comment on that Mr superintendent yeah so um we've experienced some what I would say probably some bottlenecks um in that process and Mr azero and his team has been communicating with the state and working with his team to um assist the process to make sure it moves along accordingly so he when I get the concern a specific concern I send it his way and he'll do his due diligence to make sure the process moves along and just a followup if you have teachers and principls having those conversations can there be direction from from you sir as to hey you know they they re meet all these qualities can we at you know I don't know what the that's not for me to make that decision that that's a you decision but I think it would put a lot of teachers at ease as they're heading into absolutely if that's the case where they already have all the credentials we can actually absolutely provide them some Grace to make sure they they stay at their school and in the classroom okay well that needs honestly needs to be uh addressed with your principal so thank you so much thank you Mr F thank you very much chair and um so really quick I just want to so yes yes yes um I'm going to go back to hb1 1473 we talk about the gate program um because I know this is focused on Career Technical education correct um but I know that there are organizations out there that do this that work on getting kids back to high school and to get their high school diploma right do we work with any organizations right now currently doing that Dr heurn um we are working with uh a partner right now or or a uh company as we speak to provide those services for this upcoming school year got it so that organization of course looks out for kids Dro out get them back in counsel FTE right gets them back on track correct fantastic and they focus on high school diplomas not geds high school diplomas love that okay so thank you um do want to get to page 14 and we talk about technology refresh right I feel like I see the numbers go up on everything except the technology refresh and it stays stable throughout the there um is that sufficient for what we're looking for I know technology is constantly changing if anything is getting more expensive it's technology um so how would that affect new equipment new things what is that talking about there so um I know um Dr Phillips is not here today but he and I have some scheduled one-on ones for this very topic so I can really evaluate our technology refresh um initiatives and see where we are see um how many years we've been using certain technology in the classroom or in office building so more to come on on that just to make sure we're spending our money efficiently got it so I'd like to see a follow up on that and that would be really helpful um now we talk about and I want to go to the reductions if I can go back to the pages increases reductions yes so page 31 that sticks out to me shift H from ARP to Capital um and those funds now when we look at reductions and moving the word shift always scares me um how much are we talking about when it comes to negotiated raises and how much does that affect or anything Miss Batista does that have any effect to do with this so would you I didn't understand the question yeah we're talking about funds being shifted from HVAC or from marp to Capital my question is when it comes to negotiations or any raises how much does that affect these things does that have anything to do with it is this becoming I'm I'm going back to the comment that you said and I always do I do not like the words of when we say we find money the public needs to know how where are we finding money so when it was said earlier we have to find money we found money does that have to do with this situation is this why this is happening why are we shifting funds so the totality of the reductions supports the compensation adjustments so pulling out any piece of this um would impact that and I said that right up front so um I agree with you I I and my team do not find money I don't have a printing press in my office I would never profer anything to this board board that I have not researched as an allowable use of funds um every uh adjustment we have made in the op funding plan has been approved by the state without a question uh we have used our funds to enhance compensation to employees at least eight times I have every single date written down from year one of those funds and every other District did it too FYI everybody did it it was it was the plan of that funding to get staff back in their seats and get children educated so um when we do identify funds that we had not contemplated being available it is because of efficiencies or we had an estimate that something was going to cost something and it didn't turn out that way or Revenue projections come in better a budget even this large is the best work of these talented people using historical data to determine where we will end the year every single month we sit with our Brethren from accounting and financial reporting who their entire leadership team are all CPAs we sit with with Becky with irum who's a CPA with Omar with Jeff the entire team and we do a monthly projection of where we expect to be so when people think we found money we found an efficiency so um what we're proposing here meets the boards very strong mandate that we do something for non-instructional staff and I had to sit alone in an office with Dr Hein and whiteboard you know doc what do you think about this and we worked through it pretty in depth um quite frankly one of the most in-depth budget conversations I've had with my leader in quite a while um it was very detailed and he had a lot of questions but this is our best thinking that this is the right way to move forward we're still going to have we are still going to if all things hold steady have a $10 million increase in fund balance and capital as a result of all this the plan will fully expend funds that are sunsetting um we have and aside from from these funds we have over 25 million in encumbrances that staff that Miss escandell and her team have to hustle to get the invoices in get reconciled there might be additional funds that become available through that process um so there's there's still a lot of work to be done between now and September to make sure we don't leave a penny of that money on the table because I am quite sure the board would not be pleased with that understand that okay and I'm we'll hold on that question and uh I'll follow up at a different time um and I also um yes you know and I also want to address that too because I feel like we always we always talk about that right we want to point the finger we could be getting paid more money state doesn't pay enough we should be doing this should be doing that and I think highly of this team and I think this team does great but I believe in actions in the past this this board this board has directed to make some choices more money doesn't solve bad money management when it comes to choices of of this board that's that's where I keep getting stuck giving more money to somebody that doesn't know how to handle money doesn't solve the problem it just means that they waste more money so for us as looking at a district this size I feel like that's that's what taxpayers look at and have a problem with wait a second they look at their taxes and see how much has coming to the Broward School Board but yet we still find oursel in the place that we're looking and we're saying we have no money this and that we're doing this so for me I just I appreciate all the hard work but I believe as a board we need to really start working on how to start spending our money wiser doing it better thank you so much CH thank you chair if the superintendent allows me can I correct something on the PowerPoint that Mr fogan holy uh brought up um M uh on slide four the gates program is our mistake it's SB 732 uh 1473 is the school safety program so I just wanted to say that publicly and then I believe you did have a question sir on the School Chaplain I'm not sure if it was answered through the Q&A okay thank you so my question uh for the new law with the all access points that have to be locked or staffed when students are on campus so that is going to be a it's a great new law but it's going to be a huge change because we have students that are on our campuses before school start after school starts and so we don't need to get into it now but I want to know about the plan plan the plan of action and then also if there's going to be additional funding needed Dr he we need to know what that is so we can properly budget for it not that Chief alberty and the team will sit down and devise a plan perfect thank you uh my next uh comment is I'm looking forward to having a very robust conversation in regards to our health insurance just leave it at that uh one of the things that I I am struggling with it well first my question with the custodial on page 31 the when we're reducing the support that is current vacancies that we've had this school year so we didn't have these uh custodial staff at our schools currently this year correct yes okay so I I struggle with I know that we so I feel like we need to fill those positions and and I and I see the the money that you've um created from these vacancies I think our schools need more custodial staff more help and I know there's efficiencies um so the reducing the non-classroom supplies by 25% is is there a way and I don't know if this works with your budgeting process but is there a way if you put that to say something like reducing non-classroom supplies up to 50% and then on the custodial staff side maybe have some type of language to say to allow as needed based like based on if the schools need extra custodial to allow that funding to be available Miss Marte so we can almost do anything the difficulty with that is Tomorrow based on direction that we're receiving from the board and it looks like we pretty we're so far pretty in the yes column Becky and Jeff Whitney uh and Tina are going to roll out School budgets and the principles have been waiting anxiously for them because they need to know where they stand and as I said and the superintendent has been out numerous times directly meeting with principles their budgets are going to be significantly less than they've been in past years there's no question about it um we need to get them rolled out so we roll them out with formulas each you know a school of this size generates ex custodians what I'd like to to profer if if you're willing to to think about it is give us instruction about if we find additional efficiencies because we're not done the budget process yet we've not closed out this year yet we're still I'm confident that what I've given you is achievable that we can meet your mandate to do something compensation wise for non-instructional staff this year Dr heurn and I believe there might be some more so to put aside identified dollars to create a pool that based on need evaluated by Mr Dorset and the superintendent um that we could allocate from that pool out to schools on a one-on-one kind of basis and that might achieve what you want to achieve Without Really changing the plan in front of you today to direct us to identify resources to enhance the compensation part and to try to mitigate some concerns if that's the will of the board okay or can you know I'm Dr heer's listening to this conversation I know Dr holus spoke about it uh too that if it does become if you foresee that a problem next year that you can then bring something back to the board to address it y absolutely okay then I'm good with that my next question is on page 31 the summer experience will this be the last year of the summer experience because it's funded by the AR so no there's a mandatory component of Sumit experience for ESC uh extended year as well as third grade um so that would be a smaller amount but it would have to be built into the 2526 budget um in addition to that there are unique programs that are sponsored at the school level with our partners across the community I know my son attended a a great program in pemr Pines that was uh funded by them for probably his entire time in elementary school so those will all continue it will be a smaller number but it will be a cliff that has to be funded uh do you know about like three million about three million you're absolutely right yeah okay um okay so I'm I'm a yes yes yes with my consideration SL modification thank you m all right anybody else Mr Olson thank you I'll be quick Madam chair um want to go backwards on on uh one item uh that I know uh I have I also proferred so I can speak to that because I actually like profer things and I think the board is prudent u in passing many things that make sense so one is I think what you reference uh both John and Megan around the video enforcement uh in speeding zones um and I think you referenced the $12 each out of the $100 that comes back for school districts so I know that this was proferred several meetings back when I first uh proferred it uh back in October uh I think I followed up one or two times with a prior superintendent uh was developing a plan um I know that there uh at least I I don't know so kind of I'm asking uh there was at least I believe uh a process that was going to be started at least on one component of this but the one aspect that I included in here are areas that we actually can uh provide additional funding support for district priorities so I actually have it here you know I keep many of these things with me uh so one was very clear around Transportation around technology uh around metal detectors in schools and I know we're going to get to that so I'm not and I know there's another board member who's going to focus on that uh but the other piece was around compensation for employees so this was in the board item that the board passed so I don't know if Mr superintendent if staff has had the opportunity one to identify um how the $12 out of every $100 back to the district can be utilized this may be something in the coming budget right that you may want to build in because this is another mechanism of uh revenue for the district that we all forgot about because I don't know if that well I know you didn't forget right but I just rather you build it in so the board sees it and then maybe we can have a conversation on what we do with this and other Revenue to come so we're happy to do that what I'm what I'm working with now with my colleagues across the state is their estimates to to try to come up with a a reasonable Revenue estimate that I am comfortable we can meet but yes we absolutely uh are aware of of that opportunity great thank you any other of my colleagues seeing none Madam chair yes I also want to uh take this just one second to thank Mr Whitney for his first budget Workshop he knocked it out of the park and Omar for all the good work he did in capital they are amazing there you go so yes yes yes we have on your three questions thank you so much for an excellent job greatly appreciate it thank you now we're moving on to our next item which is weapons detection program we'll give staff a few minutes to get settled and then we will begin all right oh yeah yeah perfect okay okay we are next up for our weapons detection program Dr heern your team may present thank you um Mr D berie and team you may proceed good morning everybody good morning Dr heurn Madame chair thank you for allowing us the opportunity to present um on the weapons detection program um I first like to introduce my team uh to my right I have director James LaRosa he's a director of Safety and Security operations he has been instrumental in um making sure that we have our physical security components in place um he has been tasked with um helping me develop this program so he can speak some of his PowerPoint and some of the questions that we may have he can speak to some of this um also to his right is Lieutenant Carrie vesco she is with our SIU and she uh is or was in charge of the weapons randomized weapons detection program that we currently have in place um as you know um this metal detector program or weapons detection systems that we're going to go into um is just going to be an extension and it's going to be in addition to what we already have one of the questions that I may expect is you know are we stopping what we're doing no we this is going to be in addition to the randomized screening that we currently do now will continue to be on top of what we are going to implement okay if I can have the PowerPoint pulled up thank you I'm not going to go over the whole part presentation uh really kind of want like to have uh direct L Roa really address um uh slide number five which kind of explains the difference in the technology because I understand that you know people think metal detectors um they think of you know everybody going through and everything going off well technology has evolved so what we have trying to do is look for a system that kind of fits and meets our needs for this District so director L can you talk a little bit about um the difference between what we have found and and and the different systems we tested I think this particularly applies to this slide yes uh good morning through the chair director L Roa director of Safety and Security um so this slide here just it's really this slide with the with the the following slide kind of gives an overview of the three primary architectures that there are in the realm of metal detection currently right so the easiest way to think about this I know we've had some discussion about this lately is there's please silence your phone there's what we would refer to as your traditional metal detection right these are the systems that you walk through which will catch anything that's metal right you have your keys Paperclip whatever the case may be um some of those systems have advanced a little bit to where they can detect where on a person right that item may be which helps but it's still General metal detection um that's kind of the the the most basic tier the most advanced tier which I know almost everyone in this room is familiar with is like the the Evolve system right they they kind of Market that as artificial intelligence based right cuz that will identify metal on a on a person on a subject and it'll also provide you with a visual uh typically a a visual video feed of where that item is on the person how how big it is you know and that that type of thing um and then there's there's sort of a middle ground which is still metal detection marketed sometimes as Weapons detection to where that will kind of do what the what you see the AI base system doing there but there's no video feed basically if someone walks through with an item that fits however you configure that system to to screen it will go off right so if you can basically if you crank up the sensitivity it'll be a traditional metal detector and catch everything if you adjust it you can adjust adjust it to catch metal that fits a certain certain parameters right so certain density certain size certain shape and the idea is that you you tune it to catch the types of metal that are in line with you know with your common weapons right so that's kind of the middle ground so you have your basic metal detection your your Advanced kind of AI visual metal detection and then kind of the middle ground which which does both and those are really the three big baskets in this realm pend your questions and that's that's the uh the open gate system is what I was just talking about that's like the middle ground where it will it'll catch what you need um but there's no real visual feedback per se aside from the system just alerting thank you uh director l so you see here we have reached out to different um different partners that currently have uh this system we have actually visited um a couple of these uh places and um as a member of the Council of great City Schools I've had the pleasure of been speaking to my counterparts across the United States where um there's different uh systems that they have in place and we engage in conversation um in the different areas of the country of how we're implementing metal detectors um and one of the things that I will say is you know we have probably one of the most robust systems as I talked to my cont Parts across the US it is not just about having metal detectors or the randomize it is just the entire portfolio of Safety and Security starting from you know our gates to uh the Personnel the procedures threat assessment um just everything um it just becomes a robot system then this is just the right step at the right time for us to take I will skip to the implementation plans for the idea is to have uh discussion and feedback I know that Dr um hurn and I have conversation um recently about you know moving this forward and I know Dr L started the the the program and um we want to make sure that you know everybody has maybe they have a question about you know they may have in their mind so we're here to answer any questions you may have but our intent is to roll forward in the summer with a pilot program and our two sites uh that way gives us the opportunity to kind of figure out um how to you know work the system and make sure that people people um understand what things or challenges we may face so that'll give us an opportunity to get ready for the fall so we begin with four schools and then uh give us some time to work that out make sure that we're not uh we have enough flexibility for the Personnel right we're assuming we're going to need three to four people per entry point so Dr L Roa we're going to have to do some realigning on some staff to make sure that staff is trained over the summer and able to you know welcome the kids in and understand the kids from perspective what you know what that to expect I did get an email a nice email from a student that I will be involving them and see if we can get some video um to make sure students understand how to actually you know what to expect when you go to school in the 24 25 school year so the idea for next year is to do 10 schools and be completed and followed by the remaining of the high schools you know later on at this time I don't have anything further to share I you guys have their presentations so if you have any questions staff is ready to answer M rert thank you um and thank you that's a great presentation um to bring us up to date um my question is this um what was the Equitable lens for the schools and the timelines for the pilot test as well as the coordination and um moving forward with the timeline that's kind kind of part one and uh I guess in continuing those questions it's are are the two pilot schools have are they with the most weapons found no so it simply giv us an opportunity Miss ruper to the two schools we have summer it give us an opportunity for his team to train give us the opportunities for us to kind of understand the system and what we may encounter as we open up the school year next year okay but it still doesn't answer as to why those two because they're the summer school sites that are high schools they're the only ones for the county yes ma'am that should have been in here because that would have been helpful all right but what other data points were utilized for the recommendations as to 10 this year three the next whatever it is yeah so we use uh data points from incidents that occur from uh our discipline data for weapons that have been found in schools but also we relied on our uh Regional superintendent to provide input on what their area even though data only tells you a part of the picture I think that when you talk to that you know the experts that can tell you I understand what the numbers tell you but this is where it may be better to be implemented in different areas so we use their expertise on that as well okay all right thank you so much you're welcome Dr thank you very much chair um my understanding of the community's expectation is that we would do two this summer and eight for the start of the school year so just to be perfectly clear I'm disappointed with the phasin of the way it is this is a commercially available system it's operating in hundreds of sites already the standard operating procedure could have been adjusted with the two and in spread to the eight um I would ask that we either talk about that today or we can talk about it uh as a formal item at a school board meeting uh but if we set aside the funds to do this I'd like to get it out to schools in waves rather than dribbles and so um to the extent that it's physically possible to do that I'm going to continue to advocate for that and I look forward to learning more about that from my colleagues thanks chair thank you m Fam thank you thank you um two questions Chief one is in the initial um March 20th agenda item it listed in the executive summary that was I think approximately $550,000 for 10 unit to be rolled out what yes okay um I noticed it's a lesser amount though after that can you explain the difference why it's more for the first 10 to be rolled out as opposed to the following I'm not sure where you're saying it's a lesser am so the 540 kind of helps us to cover for the 10 schools approximating between three and four um weapons detection systems per site so you're coming out with approximately $55,000 per school so each school is going to have how many weapon detection devices are you between two and four it's what the present depends yeah because we're trying to it's going to affect operations right so we're going to you know director L Roa team is working with principles to make sure cuz you know it's going to affect the way that children come into the schools he also has a fencing program that he's working on to make sure that in the areas that we can address those caps that we can kind of like have a single point of entry if you will towards those entry points so if we can make it easier to make two points it saves US money it can give you another device to put somewhere else but if there's some schools that are rather large we may have three or four points so when we calculated this is approximately I think it was close to 18,000 per unit how many units total are we looking since certain schools will have two three or up to four entry points so what is the total cost for this package for the entire district for the entire district for all high schools it's about $1.8 million no no no not for the just the high schools for all the schools for the high schools no for the high schools then we're going to go to middle schools and I think then we're going to probably go to elementary I want to know what the package is for every are we not going to go to our elementary or middle schools I don't have an estimate for middle schools right now but if you I mean it's about $188,000 you know for the adding an additional middle schools but for all high schools which is what the plan calls for that's what the data tells us to go to is to go to the high schools um so that's for that plan is about $1.8 million and how many entry points are there for middle schools and elementary schools we haven't evaluated those yet ma'am because we were focus on high schools okay and well the last question I have is mar um Cypress Bay is one of the it's the largest High School I believe in Florida and um they have over 5,000 students I noticed that it's here at the end of the list where I would think that would be a priority since we have so many students that would be impacted can you tell me um why or how that fell so down lower on the line as far as importance since the number of students that they are attending you want to yeah yeah you want to know they've had gun issues this year yeah we're actually I was actually there when we got on a lockdown for bullets being found but um yeah there's been um some fighting yeah writing so we we miss fam if I may we looked at the data from you know incidents of weapons discovered couple again with the input from um the regional directors um Regional superintendents um but you know again these it's it's going to get done like all these school all the high schools are eventually going to get done you know we we want to to answer Dr Zan's point we want to have the opportunity to give our staff to train this is something is going to be revolutionize how we enter into our schools I mean school safety um is changing so we want to make sure that we get the public the students staff with enough time to gradually implement this in um as so that we do it in an orderly in an orderly fashion so to answer your question I mean it just we ried on data and we relied on area superintendent was the number of students part of that data no it's interesting thank you thank you um did you speak okay Mr Alon thank you madam chair I'll be quick um to help us catch up I think we're there um so great job from the team um mine was actually an easy question when I didn't know that you were going to ask something similar so on the separate the last conversation just around facilities I'm always looking at Mr superintendent a countywide approach so I appreciate that you know the is to focus on high schools um which I support I was also a board member who supported both metal detectors and clear back packs I want to be clear uh having multiple layers of security um for our schools and I still support that uh and I'll continue to be uh consistent and firm uh in that belief um my question though is and I support the 2324 roll out I think you were very clear on the summer sites uh clearly District 2 is one of those which I appreciate um but not to pick on uh another District uh Dr holdes I'm I'm forecasting my comment so in 2425 and on my sheet which is now public record because you all can see it um I have put on the districts that are identified so in 23 24 2 and 4 and 2425 August 7554 and 25 for January 6213 I think I got that right easy question based off of just a few uh comments and I appre appreciate and love every District um having represented a portion of your District sir uh on the County Commission um but I know that there are two schools for August 24 in one District so my question is if there is a way as we talk about spreading this pilot because I and I don't need to know the numbers I think we all get the same text messages um or text alerts um on uh weapons Etc if there is a way potentially to consider uh having one District 5 school and maybe allowing another District that's not a part of the 23 24 or the August 24th that's just a way uh to make sure that there's a countywide approach so I'm not suggesting or prescribing which school I think I know which one Dr holdes would suggest uh being an Alum of that school but um if if the board was open to it I would just suggest maybe pulling up another District that's not in the earlier roll out that may be an easier way as we talk about having a countywide approach um to this not knowing uh number of weapons you know that kind of stuff that you may not want to talk about uh publicly so that's just a recommendation okay thank you m hion thank you um just wanted to make I guess a couple of comments but I think we said this already but these schools were selected because of of concerns if I'm not mistaken the ones that the the the way we're rolling it out is based on cons you I I don't need to know the numbers but it is they're on here because these are the ones that we have bigger concerns about is that correct it is partially correct M hien so we use data as one point and the other point was the expertise of the regional superintendent because as being the area professionals they know like what things may need to be addressed in certain schools or what things may be happening that they have that subject matter expertise of you know what their needs are for that area thank you yeah you know as the countywide I believe in countywide things but I also know that um we don't have the same issues in every parts of the County so I think we need to keep that in mind what I'd like to ask though is that if you could bring back to us maybe on that six-month Cadence that we asked for something else data on you know what how effective is this what is it catching how is ited using it um so that we can see if it's if it adds value to the safety of the school yeah absolutely matter of fact that is one of the points that um it's hard to find when you're de when we develop this presentation is um it's either yes or no districts have Bal detectors but having data to to gather it was difficult uh to find Dr Zan thanks so much um on any security issue uh I'm I'm going to um request as much as possible that we approach this with the data and with the con the defined knowledge of people like Regional superintendent principles and directors and the like uh to find the places where it's going to do the most good um that that wouldn't allow for district by District thinking on this um but it will allow for optimizing security U the problem with data on this frankly is that the data we have um is really incomplete like we have data on found weapons we don't have any data on the weapons that were not found kid brought a weapon to school brought it home we don't know about that um but we do know about the police environment and in the different areas we know about um which schools um may have had increases in threats over time there certainly some uh fabulous Intel work being done with social media and other things uh to give us a pause at some schools more than others uh but for Safety and Security things I hope we continue to make decisions based on Safety and Security uh where does it have the greatest impact I also think that our plan is to get this out to all schools do we have a timeline uh chair for that is if we can do these at the beginning 8 in the summer and excuse me two in the summer and 8 at the beginning of the school year when will we come back uh with data Maybe six months into it and be able to um throw another switch to buy the rest of the systems to get us to at least all of our high schools Dr Chief Alber so so right now our Focus was to do high schools we did not have middle schools or any other extended schools um going on right now if you look at the um data for school shootings uh more than 62% of them happen in high schools so the focus for us to find weapons and Miss vesco is here Lieutenant vesco is here she can talk about our randomized weapons detection program um and the focus is high schools we cover high schools and middle schools but you know high schools is where we want to focus our I'm um acknowledge that that's where most weapons are found it's also where there's the greatest concentration of students and staff so I get that but I'm curious about what year can we get this done so we're going to do two summer I hope we do eight at the beginning of the year not not four and four but if we do two and eight and the data comes back and the systems are working they do everything that they're doing in hundreds of other sites so I doubt that they're going to find anything uh different than where they're applied somewhere else do we have a funded plan right now to do the other 18 high schools or is that for uh a subsequent Schoolboard decision it will be a subsequent Schoolboard decision although I know that we have spent Authority for $1.8 million terrific and spend Authority is great but if you don't have the funding and all you have is a spend Authority um you know that's not as good as you'd like so the board right now has committed 540,000 for these first systems and I think that's 30 systems and if we're going to do more than for the other 18 schools they'll be they'll need to be a a decision made on an item here by the board in order to move forward to Mrs Hixon point if halfway through a year so maybe it's even four months the information comes back from the two over the summer and hopefully eight at the beginning of the year halfway through the year it comes back and it's doing everything it's doing in other schools I hope that we can get an item to the board and figure out how to do it again the community will feel different if all high schools have this system as opposed to having to sort out wi did yours and not yours and yours and all that that's not that's not a healthy feeling the healthy feeling is every kid that goes to a high school has as much Safety and Security as we could provide to them and so I look forward to getting that data um so that we can make a followon decision and hopefully spread out the high schools um as the data suggests that we will thank you Dr Wes thank you madam chair so I just want to get the reassurance that the schools that are um sort of um left for year 25 26 that those schools um have shown uh less incident and uh as opposed to the ones that we were prioritizing for 2425 is that correct no um remember what I said earlier the data was one point the other point was the regional superintendent uh input so for some of the schools that were in know priority um they had their input or say on where they really wanted to implement some of these schools so to say that the remaining schools were lower in significant events uh perhaps may not be 100% accurate okay so I have another question on that then since uh part of this was based upon the input of the regional superintendent are we to assume that these inputs were more uh subjective qualitative input or was this based on objective quantitative data where what is the premise of their input I guess we would have to ask them but I we asked for their Collective input in cabinet for you know for how we're going to roll the list had the list and then they provided their input based on uh information they have from the ground you know if I may uh just to add to that discussion from input for regional superintendents uh many times we do get alerts um that a student may be in possession or weapon or um somebody saw a weapon and then um that doesn't come to fruition right um law enforcement gets involved Administration and um we we didn't find any on the on the kid based on the tip that we've received so some of that decision- making is based on some of the tip information which would not be actualized as an actual event um at some of those schools that the regional superintendent decided to um add to that list as far as input to help um um Chief alberty and his team to make some decisions okay so Dr hurn I appreciate that comment um I would have to say though that it leaves me with sort of a um um where I'm concerned as to as to I don't I'm unclear as to the specificity of the input of the regional uh superintendent and how the decisions were made and I understand that you're saying it's based upon uh tips that may not have been recorded and so on and so forth um I'm just concerned that there's not a level of uh subjectivity went into this and I'm not saying there was but um the process in involving the regional superintendent is not quite clear to me in prioritizing the schools and so the the other half of this where uh quantitative data was used in terms of incident reports that's acceptable the other part of it I am I'm really not sure what their input was based on and if that uh has a degree of um subjectivity to it that would not that would cause some schools to not get prioritized that are in the remaining balance because I think the priority here is what how are we responding to the concrete data that we have and is there any of those schools that were then uh left for year 25 26 that had a significant amount of incident reports that we did not include um as a result of the input of our uh Regional superintendent so I'm just concerned you know as we roll this out um I'm not very clear on what we used uh as um priority to to to make a determination as to which schools we should use because I'm unclear about the input of the regional superintendent and how that impacted uh the quantitative input of the incident reports that from these schools so yep um so just to in a just to add I would say uh a the schools that have S that have had significant um incidents of weapons on campus are definitely some of the schools that were imple that are going to get this system first and some of the discussion with the input from the region superintendent if you have a school that had one or two incidents it's going to outweigh the school that had numerous alerts without confirmation will outweigh that school that had one or two incidents um it provides a level of assurance to to ensure that weapons are not getting on that campus due to the constant um tip information or alerts that staff is receiving because we receive a lot of information on a daily basis and this provides another level of of security for those schools that we I appreciate that and I'll just ask one one more quick question and it's just a yes or no the schools that are in the remaining high schools or any of these schools in the remaining high schools had uh based upon the the actual quantitative data any of these schools had a a significant amount of incident reports that were not prioritized as a result of having additional input from uh superintendent I would say no yep yeah just to really quickly um I share Dr holes' concerns about the the objectivity piece um I think you know in other conversations on other topics we've talked about like building trust with the community and transparency um and I think it's if at all possible it's really important that we use um clear metrics and to whatever way to whatever extent we can to share that information with the public um I and I I'm a little bit confused as to why we would be uh looking at you know input um regarding like tips that were not actualized you know I can someone explain that to me that's just an example of one variable um that the re that the regional superintendent working with their team came to the table with as far as recommendations so it's just one of one of many things got it I guess I would I would I think it's more important to look at at actual weapon sound but um that that's just one opinion thank you thank you so I'll start with some easy questions uh will there be school logo on the weapon detection system no okay are the uh weapons detection systems going to be used at our football games or our soccer games they can be um there's definitely a possibility um I know that right now we use uh through the contracts that we have through our Guardians we have our wanders that do their wanding but it's absolutely we have the ability to do that this is why we purchase these ones because they're actually be able to be picked up and used somewhere else right great and will we um be communicating to parents about this and also any type of and communication to the students as far as best practices tips yes I want to work with Von and the team to develop a video perhaps student driven um that can help us get the message out to our students and I already have the conclusion of this meeting today I have a draft letter for Dr heurn to kind of get out to the community uh the parents notify them that we're moving forward for the next year for this system okay and uh we spoke about this last time about us needing a specific policy I haven't seen that come forward is that in the process I know I'm working with um Simone hansworth and his and her team to make sure that this reflects also on the uh on the policy uh for we for discipline in case we have to address that so we have a weap um metal detector wanding policy are we going to have a separate policy for weapons detection no we will update the policy to reflect uh the walkth through detec okay so I just hope that we get it in the Cadence knowing that we have summer school soon um we're going to be rolling that out will there be a in-depth training for staff to implement this I would let director L Roa talk about that uh yes Madam chair we have us train the trainer training scheduled next month in May to start training all of our our leadership asms campus managers and select security staff to include the initial two two schools and then follow on training prior to going live in summer school to train remaining staff and then again in August prior to the beginning of the school year and will that be inperson training that will be inperson training and we will also have Hands-On all of the systems at that time so we will we will train throughout the summer to ensure everyone is is ready to go will there be some type of procedure manual uh in coordination with the training yes we are developing anop you know once we once we develop training and sop to go out to all staff so everyone is is on the same shootting music as we move forward okay great so I was very surprised to not see any cessor data supporting the schools that we are rolling out the weapons detection systems the sessor data I would have thought would have been able to say exactly like this is why we are picking these schools um so I would like to to see that Dr heern to support what you have chosen as far as the schools to be rolled out but I have to say that I don't really want to wait I want to do all of our high schools now and I think that it's so abundantly important that we find ways this proactive layer of safety protection to keep the weapons and guns out of our schools and to just pick and choose this school or that school is not acceptable and so that means that this board has to fund it then I think Dr heern that you come back to this board with an item to fund all high schools by the start of next school year because as a parent in Brower County Public Schools I don't want to say well I think this child should have their weapons detection and that this school they shouldn't have it it's not it's not fair and and so that would be my suggestion because we need to protect all of our students in Brower County Public Schools anyone else yes Dr Mr fogan only want to call me doctor thank you very much chair she starts off with logos on there and then she drops a hammer late I love it um but no I um I agree with you chair right if we know the solution why are we going to pick and choose instead of do the whole thing it's almost like redefining schools um just do the whole thing Throne it out there but uh that's good timing I'm sorry so we talked about sensitivity um Chief if you could talk about that sensitivity levels what are we looking for are we going to be focused on just finding weapons like we talk about if we set it higher though are you going to look for paperclips or are we going to be looking to be able to find vape pens different things that we can actually stop students and and search yeah so this topic is closed door material that's it um but I can tell you that you know what we are not looking for is keys and binders and paper clips yep we're looking for weapons understood I appreciate that okay so that'll be discussed in closed door um now child gets found with a weapon now at a school what happens so normally they get sent to a different School correct so I'm going use an example of laner James somebody yeah go ahead on so um depending on the The Matrix yes a student can go through whatever is the appropriate administrative process and he or she would be transitioned to one of the um Behavior change of schools got it so we're looking at an alternative schooler behavioral school um those schools having a higher percentage I'm sure of students that would be most likely to bring a weapon to school or have that wouldn't it be wiser for us to actually move them to the top of the list of having that I agree with chair we have the opportunity to get all our schools done but if that's the case wouldn't it be smarter for us to actually look at those schools first to make sure that I mean outside of summer school and I know the pilot but to get them top of the list if it's the board's wishes then then that's what we'll do awesome so again so I'd like to see what data of course like that but again share I'm always going to be on board if we know the solution let's get to it as fast as possible I don't like picking and choosing STP the bandaid off let's do the right thing for every kid in Broward County thank you anybody else Dr Zan thank you very much um what's the limiting factor chair to doing two this summer in 26 by the start of the uh August 12th school date for the other high schools Dr heer I would say the um and I'm passing on to uh Chief Alber a minute I would say the limiting factor of starting the school year with 26 schools is properly bandwidth and implementation um training ensuring that the training um is imple whatever how staff is trained everything is implemented with Fidelity a great progress monitoring strategy to make sure it is implemented correctly being able to work out the Kinks um real time so that uh there's not a lot of hiccups along the way um and experiencing this and School District to our north um there are a lot of things to consider in implementation per school um some schools have a heavy traffic uh of students that drive and parents that drop off some schools have a heavy traffic of of of students that are actually catching the bus or walk to school some schools configuration are different with multiple entryways um in the morning to allow so all of those nuances being able to plan for all of that during the summer being able to train staff accordingly for all their configurations in the building is probably the the biggest barrier um but I'll let um Chief and his team um add to that thank you Dr heurn so yes so you're correct one of the issues Dr Seaman is we want to make sure that and we've been commended by all districts of how we're doing it by the way um we know we have a robust Dr um director L Roa has a robust security force and we have the advantage that we have security um plenty of security on our schools so that gives us the opportunity to be able to be flexible and have them in place uh but making sure that our we're working through each particular incident that we may encounter we want to make sure that we're doing things right um you know we're eventually going to get there you know what and I guess you know my concern would be um we are rolling out in 26 schools and we have uh director L Roa has security staff challenges and issues that we have to deal across 26 sites um we want to make sure that we're learning from our mistakes if you will um and adjusting on the Fly this is why we have the summer um and we'll know maybe the summer won't go great and things will will go easy and maybe we can come back to the board and say hey you know what we've tested it looks like we're going to be just fine um and we can speed up the process but we I I want to I don't want to put the car before the horse I want to make sure that we do things calculated you know not um not rushed I can I can elaborate a little bit if you like thank you sure so and I knew this I'll use a military term right slow slow and steady as fast right so I think that's kind of the best way to move forward with this which would be doing it right step at a time school by school a few at a time we do not have to I agree I I don't think we should just wait for January per say right but we can start rolling them out into the new school year to making sure everyone is trained properly everyone is executing properly you know checking the staff to make sure that's happening um I I don't see any reason why we can't do that I I think just jumping in with 28 schools in August would be setting ourselves up for failure I don't want to do that you know never mind the fact that my the vast majority of my security staff were off in the summertime right so I'm I'm going to try to pull people back in as best I can but you know again slow and steady as fast I think rolling through the fall if we get the funding to move forward with all of these just rolling on until we get to that Target I think would be best our best course of action I appreciate that um and I wanted to add if I may um Dr Zan um uh what Mr L Roa uh I referred to that rolling start that's how uh many of the Palm Beach County Schools implemented there is what a rolling start with schools you proofing the concept with some schools early on with the same configuration and then you have a rolling start um Within a month or two for another school with the same configuration because you've already proved the concept um and and and um help with the entryways and all the all the other barriers that could uh prevent it from being implemented appropriately so that's that's an option also and and thank you I appreciate that and um in all military operations uh speed kills right and we got to be careful about that um at the same time I hope that we get an item on our agenda for May 21st to secure the extra 1.3 million that we need and I hope that in that item um we provide some direction about rolling as fast as possible within safe limits so if it turns out to be uh all 26 on August 12th is not feasible and not the best course of action um if we do two over the 10 weeks of the summer and we learn from those and can start the training earlier and install more and have them in a warehouse ready to go um it will mean a lot to the community when we can say all high school students are going to a school that has this additional layer of Safety and Security it really will it's harder to say 60% 70% 80% so um I think that you may get some guidance from this board uh you might get some money uh and the guidance might say within safety limits uh roll these out um on a weekly or bi-weekly basis in a way that gets us to that complete uh L layer of security at all high schools in brard County that's when the whole Community will breathe better and that's a big thing of what we'd like to uh like to get to so thank you very much Mr Alon thank you madam chair um and I'll just kind of go backwards I guess this is round two um so the reason in my round one why I tried to write um all the different districts that were identified because this actually uh based on I think what I've heard a couple times I know Miss Rupert uh I think we've heard something similar if these suggested schools are not solely based on the number of incidents or weapons found whatever the data point is I know there were some other things considered my fear was is that this sends a different message okay so I'll put a period there but we all can count and figure out where these schools are where they're located Etc but I don't want to subscribe to that view because I've heard that already um not from you um but that they you know that these certain schools were identified for certain reasons I don't think that's a true fact I think you've said that so I don't want anyone on the board to hopefully uh make those comments because everyone is listening and words matter um I do support uh interesting enough which is and I didn't know that's where this that would be a recommendation if there is a way that we can do all schools at one time I know it's a big cost impact so let me just let's just go there because we haven't had that conversation I think the only thing that we've approved was the part the part one of this right um right in terms of costs we have not approved I'm going to call this the part two of this or the part three right so we've appr approved part one uh that I think passed unanimously M superintendent can I just go to the cost aspect of this so if we were to and I know that I've been reading uh other members have apped on this um but if we were to implement all high schools forget the date let's assume it is August right what is the cost to do it all at one time I know that there clearly is um you know regular maintenance annual cost but just what is The Upfront costs that the board would have to consider so that's kind of the first part the second part which I think I need to look back this way if we were to do that there clearly is some uh proposed budget cycle impact because we're now adding whatever the number the chief or the chief someone will say and then of course that's also going to to uh Force the board to make some other decisions or you to make some decisions right in terms of recommendations so let's talk about that I want to hear right what the number is there's a bigger budget impact um and then what other types of decisions if we were to implement all high schools in August to have these at one time uh what that would what that would mean in terms of impact yeah so if you look at slide number nine it kind of gives you a breakdown on what each system really cost uh the floor mounting system it just gives it the ability to be a little more sturdy so even though you can pick them up and take them somewhere this actually can you can click them into place and it'll be a little bit more sturdy um in addition to that they have a sleeve that protect some that we can use as a little additional cost and they also have a a training fee um along with the maintenance fee um so I would estimate between 17 188,000 um for each and then where it depends on how many we need per school so if you're looking to expand we're right now director L roa's team estimated between two to four per school okay so let's just assume four right times 20 three I say 28 why is 28 in my head 28 right 28 high schools we we give me some oh there we go we plan for 31 right we we have our combination schools right so Dillard being one of those okay right which is actually in the in the first wave so we have to consider those schools too so for our purposes we're considering 31 high schools okay um yeah roughly speaking what what Chief was saying is is roughly is correct right6 $7,000 per system and then the bells and whistles depending on what we want to do mounting them to the floor and base plates and all that stuff but that's that's our biggest cost so I think the the total cost was approximately 1.8 million right got it so if so the decision point is can we spend 1.8 milli milon dollar now or in preparation of the new fiscal year I think we just and I can give you a recommendation on some areas to cut I don't think I need to do that um because I brought another sheet that the chair actually did um which I'm actually going to pull her uh question which actually was very prudent pulling all of the salary non salary areas by division um I can give some observations Mr superintendent the point of order sir it's Capital it's Capital so we have unallocated reserves we could go to no no I understand I was making a bigger budget uh piece I understand I got it I I was I was uh highlighting work of the chair around budget but I understand I'm I'm I'm very clear on that so back to big picture is this something that we can do sorry well I didn't mean Point here is this something that we can do um all at one time comfortably Miss Marte so from a financial aspect the answer is yes as it relates to the money would come from capital and you have Capital reserves now so if the direction is for the superintendent to Bing bring a capital budget amendment to the June board meeting and not wait till next year we can do that I have been in numerous conversations with the chief around this and I'm not sure if the Staffing concerns are as easily addressed and I would defer so so part of the conversation is realignment of existing staff I don't know how much existing staff can do the chief could realign in one Fell Swoop I think that that would be the the obstacle but I don't want to speak for chief alberty you're right Mr Martin that believe that's what director LaRosa alluded to we just want to make sure that we have the enough staff to be able to understand what's going to be needed for uh you know we're estimating three people per entry point maybe we need more right so maybe we only do adjust and realignment thinking amount of contracts people having to get reassigned for new school so things like that right so we wanted to make sure we started with the four to give director loosa the opportunity to say hey chief we need to really need four or five people instead of three per entry point so now we need to kind of realign our folks in that direction that's my only hesitation um and rolling everybody in at once got it and I appreciate it and I want to build on your idea I'm not going to steal it I'm actually going to make sure it's not on the ropes because I think I heard it was on the ropes a little bit hopefully other board members uh will also uh come and support um so $1.8 million yes Staffing potential opportunity I didn't say issue because the board today could say here is where we're going Mr superintendent and you could immediately on the HR side focus on looking for these type of individuals right so now let me f Fus on the individuals who will serve at these various points are these let me make an assumption are these armed or unarmed individuals are these who who are the type of staff that will be supporting these uh the the equipment that we're referring to so the intent is for these systems to be operated and and monitored by unarmed security okay right what I affectionally call our blue shirts right right um with an armed either guardian or Sr SRO in the vicinity in case of alert in case of response so based on that if I could Madam chair just want to continue down this line of thinking so there currently already is an existing armed SRO Andor Guardian today correct right High School right no I got it so that's not the issue so if it is an unarmed individual that will uh I would say man staff these various uh systems then isn't that an easier hiring lift than a certified armed or an armed officer you agree with that statement yes yes sir great so because that's an easier hiring lift um I'm actually with you madam chair um I just want to walk through that so and I understand the it's easier to phase it in it's easier to Pilot it's easier to self select whoever you know right I get that but it's also I think cleaner to at one point just roll out here all the schools and let's make a big Point Madam chair which you have already done right Broward wants to be uh very clear that our high schools and all schools are safe right so I'm actually supportive of your idea um I believe that the 2 million I'll round up uh we have it we can do it today Staffing is not an issue because we have armed uh uh great staff already and I know that we can do four times 30 right to get to the number of unarmed uh uh security officials that we need to man or support rather um this uh weapon detection uh equipment so I'm in favor of going forward uh full steam um because I I had questions around the initial piece but you all good job again but I'm I'm ready to go now Mr fenol thank you very much chair um yes I agree with my colleague um I did have a question though we are moving forward right and I know we're just talking here um because like I said I'm in favor but my question is I know that this was a pilot program so it didn't go through the process of RFP going out looking for vendors different Technologies so can you discuss how what the next steps would be if that's the case we do move forward because they wouldn't be able to just okay this company every single school no then have to go through that whole process correct Dr hurn Chief AB no we already have an ITB that went out um and we're ready to roll got it so this VOR has been selected but it would be for all schools if that was the request of the board correct yes got it understood thank you very much sh and I think we have a great opportunity to use our local law enforcement to help with the initial training you know if we go to them and say you know will you help us train our staff I believe that they would come in with open arms to to to help us we just need to ask and and have that conversation Miss Fam thank you madam shair I just have a list of questions I have for the chief through the chair okay chief um question um how many days of training does it take to become familiar with the system so how much time will you need three days five days a week director LaRosa you answer that I know you interacted with the vendor yes so um and this is this is an important detail to the entire conversation I'm glad you asked that question so one of the major benefits of this particular system in this particular manufacturer not not not the vendor the manufacturer is they specifically come out and conduct a two-day training at every site in which these systems are these systems are installed right so that that's really um they're their kind of battle Rhythm so to speak is they come out they do a classroom training on site for anyone who's involved in the installation of the system they stay overnight and they're on the ground for instulation and there while the system goes live for the first time to ensure that everything runs smoothly right so that's their piece from our our piece as soon as we acquire these systems we will be training internally all of our staff we're going to be Hands-On all of our leadership we'll be doing that from early summer all the way through full implementation okay what is there a limit on the class size when you have people that are being trained is it three people five people you can have a dozen in the words of the manufacturer when I had this conversation they they've done up to a thousand people I don't like that I think the smaller groups the better right because you want people to get more Hands-On but I don't I don't think we'll be limited okay is there any kind of um special special ampage or wattage that's needed for this machine so we need to check the schools to make sure they're set up to carry that load no ma'am these are battery operated these are these are battery operated uh with rechargeable batteries these are uh they're they're not proprietary batteries so we could these are types of batteries you could buy at Home Depot right which is also another benefit um so they won't require any power from the school the only potential issue which we will work out with the insulation sometimes there's a little bit of interference so we'll set them up so that they're not being interfered with any current power lines which is a from what I understand a non-issue is just finding the right placement but aside from that it should be no impact and lastly is there an additional cost for the training and if so how much is that there is there is not it's it's included good news for us thank you absolutely thank you okay any other board member comment so I think I've just to kind of bring us together uh Mr poen Holly Mr Altin myself I believe Dr in all waiting on trying to bring all of our high schools to get a metal detector by the start of next school year so if board members could weigh in on that M rert um I would be okay as long as Dr heern knows the ability of our staff and I I did catch uh part of my colleague next to me kind of going through that um question and answer part and uh like him let's do it as long as it doesn't uh you know cause little craziness but um every kid deserves to go into a safe school so thank you so much thank you Miss ly yeah I guess I just um you know I I understand the the idea of doing everyone at once then I guess I wonder like what the purpose of a pilot program is Dr heurn Chief it's going to give us the ability to find out what sets it off what doesn't Set It Off give T staff opportunity to have like on Hands-On training I mean that's the whole I mean it's you're practicing on the job I mean that's the opportunity for us to figure out okay well maybe we want to stand over here maybe we need to purchase more things like these tensions behind me maybe we need to add more uh tape maybe we need more room maybe we need less room um that's what the pilot is about okay um and the Pilot's only going to be for two sites this summer right so it's not you know really indicative of like a dat today I mean it offers some opportunity for training and and suing things out but um it's not like a regular school day so I guess I mean there's a lot of logistical things that you guys have to figure out right like I'm not a security expert but I would wonder if um if we are going to expand it to the whole District um then I would hope that maybe the training opportunities would be available throughout the summer for all School staff because that's a lot to to um work out in a very short period of time yeah security staff will be taking advantage of the of the metal detectors in this summer and um director L Roa will be in charge of making sure that the staff all security staff are trained okay I mean I I support I think it's the most Equitable thing to do is to roll it out everywhere if that's logistically possible um I worry about the logistics of it but I am not a law enforcement officer so if if you you all think you can do it well then I I trust your expertise thank you Dr Zan yeah to just to to kind of put a put a fine point on this $1.3 million of additional money and a lot of hard work to pull this together will get us to a place where we can tell every High School staff member visitor volunteer student that they go to a place where we've done what we could to keep out uh U any object object that looks like a weapon and that is the goal is not to getting it to half or to 60% or 70% but if we can provide the money and you and your team could do the hard work uh we can get to a really great point where everyone in a high school campus will feel like uh there's pretty good certainty that there's nothing there that looks like a weapon and that's a lot better than the system we have today which is we're hoping somebody sees something and says something or it drops out of someone's backpack that's our current weapons detection system and that's insufficient so 1.3 million you know out of a capital budget uh is a very small amount of money to get us to that point I look forward to getting there as fast as possible Dr Hess thank you madam chair so um while I uh understand the urgency to move towards um uh safety and and rolling this out at all high schools I'm also concerned that the urgency of doing this um in trying to get everything done all at once in a very short period of time uh can also create logistical problems can lead to some level of chaos because we haven't really ironed out all the wrinkles from um pilot testing over the summer um what I would really prefer to see um is that uh I know we're only having two schools over the summer but as we move into the regular school year uh outside of the summer I would much rather see that we start in August with um a few schools maybe more than what we have here and then roll the rest of it out in January learning from the experiences of having uh a few schools between uh August and December that we can learn from whatever Kinks we had to iron out at those schools and then we'll be better equipped to do so for the rest of the school year um I'm just worried about 31 schools suddenly and trying to fix all the problems that emerg as a result um I I I am concerned about how chaotic that could be if we have is issues that we didn't see uh that comes up as a result of um you know putting these in place so my recommendation would really have been to uh use a summer as pallot testing have more schools in the first part of the school year and the remaining schools at the end so we can learn from that first level of implementation during the regular school year between August and December does any of my other colleagues have anything to say Miss 6on I'm I'm okay with doing the all but I I I share those concerns as Dr Zan said sometimes when you speed ahead with something it's kind of you know cut off your nose despite your face so I understand the thought process and I would say yes let's roll it out as well as we can but if you find that there are hiccups or there's concerns I hope that you would be um willing to come back to us and say we're doing it as fast as we can but this doesn't make sense for us so we're having to make adjustments here and be honest about it because I would hate to just say we put them everywhere and then find out it's not working right so I I just caution on that I understand what everyone's saying and I'm fine with that but sometimes when you try to do everything all at once it's like playing five sports right you're only really good at one of them and the other four are kind of mediocre so I don't want to um put ourselves in that position if we can do it and it works out fine I I think that's great but I hope you would be able if you're finding concerns to come back and say you know here's really what the concerns are and let us know that so that we could be honest with the public that our interest is to have it everywhere as soon as possible but it it's not making sense in certain places thank you Miss Fam thank you madam chair um I agree with Mrs Leonardi about equity that I think rolling them out at the same time would be great if it's possible we have to just make sure that we can do it logistically so one of the questions are have I have two questions is um my my husband works for a big international corporation and they are um they have service repair Men available that go to facilities when anything is set up I don't know if that's offered with you so and they have you know truckloads of tools and um spare parts extra parts in case something malfunctions for any reason so they can fix them on the spot because they don't get a second shot at coming back they have to do it during the installation so my question is that will you have servicemen available throughout the county that in the event that something should go wrong that they can get over there and diagnose it and repair it on the spot and the second thing that my question is do you have a backlog for ordering any of these weapon detection um devices so there would be a wait time in other words we would need to place an order now now if we want it for December or if we want it you know for January so those are my questions thank you Dr Mr L Roa so as I mentioned earlier uh so the manufacturer comes out and assists with installation for all of these right so they'll be on the ground when these are installed they also do support them the nice thing about these systems is there are no you know they're they're fully electronic meaning there are no movable Parts you know if they break they will replace them um they're under warranty and you know these my interactions with the with the manufacturer so far is is I've have no concerns I'm not going to have to rely on some um at least I don't anticipate some Broward County you know technical guy to come out to one of the schools that the company will come out and take care of it um and my apologies what was your second question backlog backlog okay okay um there is currently no backlog that I'm aware of um we've had this discussion recently they can turn around these systems as fast as we want them I would still revert back to what to my comment earlier that I I don't think it's our best course of action to really you know to to suddenly get 100 of these towers in the mail either right so they the the manufacturer will come out with the systems they essenti deliver them they come out with the systems for as many schools as we want to do at a time we get those schools taken care of get them set up do a dry run do a real world you know go live um and then it's on to the next I think if we keep rolling in that fashion then we can then we we'll be in a good place but I don't I don't want the only thing I would ask of the board is you know to just just have have faith in us moving forward we will continue to roll it's it's going to be fast as sometimes it's going to slow down at sometimes right at some points depending on the school the location the the capability of the staff how they're taking to the training and all of those factors but I think if we if we continue in that way you know I don't want to make any promises but I don't see why we can't get to every high school at some point throughout the fall of of 24 before we hit the New Year okay I will thank you to the board for supporting this I think this is a very positive layer of school safety protection that we are adding for all of our high schools and I just want to say that you just you never want to get that call as a parent Dr um so one question um is it the will of the board for us to move ahead and bring the amendment for um capital budget later for the all the items just want to make sure okay thank you yeah um and we do have to say public comment public comment Med detection Anna Fusco Brower teachers union presidents Brower teachers union Educators support every and anything that you all can come to a hopefully unanimous decision on protecting supporting all of our first and foremost our students everybody that works in our community and I mean schools and buildings the same um because we do have students that leave campuses and enter Brer County public school buildings so every single place should be thought of because you never know on any given day when they may visit because they're doing such greatness so we wholeheartedly um are looking forward to seeing that this project get done and it's done with Fidelity um there was one question out there on the um asking of the company that takes care of all of these detectors I I don't know if I heard what's the response time when they're called because if you're moving forward on getting every single school with these detectors and it's the company's job to take care of it what's the response time as something happens I don't know if that was I didn't hear that ask if that could be a thought process um because we do know that uh there's always limited availability of employees in any given company including in our own District of when we have H vacs that go down or leaks that happen or even as simple as a door lock that's not functioning well or even another simple function of a clock not working um or an intercom system we know we have limited employees that can get dispersed out to our 250 plus schools so if the money is allotted we have a large capital budget we have a large budget was it 5 billion I know it's six billion oh we're good well five six it's billions and we know that if it's properly budgeted and allocated correctly with the group that is tasked to take take care of the budget and then present it to you all as your job is to oversee it not break up every line item but it is it is your job to question wherever it goes so if this is to keep our system safe we're obviously in favor for it we also would like to have other preventive measures of keeping out these weapons but also when we have unfortunately um our students that want to engage in other types of physical violence on each other whether it's on school property or off school property they're still Schoolboard property until they reach home so we like to also have a plan and works for that thank you thank you any other speakers seeing none Dr he do you have your direction yes um chair um team and I will work together to bring back an amendment to the capital budget later to actually purchase all of the necessary uh weapons detection systems for all high schools um uh Chief alvery will work with his team to come up with a plan for implementation um and if there is any complications based on the capabilities of that team we will definitely update the board immediately um if there needs to be any adjustment in that plan um moving forward thank you at this time we will now move into our closed door session for 60 minutes all attendees for this session please remain all their guests please exit the boardroom at this time thank you 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 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 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 for e welcome back we are now at the 2024 2025 Property and Casualty Insurance renewal I'll now turn it over to staff for a presentation briefly brief presentation and then we'll go to board member questions make sure this is on good afternoon my name is Aston Henry I'm the director of risk management and uh today I want to talk about Property and Casualty Insurance uh we're looking at the 2024 225 Property and Casualty Insurance renewal does this thing workes this next slide talks about rationale purpose and the request that we're looking for from the school board and the rationale centers around the 2024 2025 Property and Casualty renewal specifically budget historical data property insurance premiums for the upcoming year as well as options that the board can explore with regards to purchasing insurance for the 24 25 school school year the purpose I wanted to ad the board of potential rate rate hikes premium increases because the property insurance renews on May 15th 2024 the Casualty Insurance renews on July um July 1 2024 so what we're looking for as far as a request from the school board we want to talk to you about the coverages the premium spending options specifically we we had a um a budget set of 33,35 th000 for this upcoming renewal okay page five okay page five or okay let's um well you mean page four okay page four we're talking about the state of the global insurance Market what we saw in 2023 what we saw in 2023 was a challenge around capacity as well as pricing and the carriers were very um they were very they were scrutinizing our statement of values not just our statement of values but statement of values across the board of all insurance they were looking for insurance to retain more risk in order to control pricing deductible Trends there was a rise in deductibles as a result of the market due to the increase in premium pricing we saw increases as far as Windstorm deductibles they went from 5 to 10% deductibles increased for severe convection storms as well um terms and conditions were negotiated and they imposed a lot of restrictive language in regards to valuations and um you know catastrophic hurricane wind coverage what are we seeing in 2024 in 2024 what we're seeing is an upward TR Trend in pricing on the property we're seeing stabilization as far as percentage increases as far as the London markets concerned where carriers are coming back into the market so we're starting to see more capacity and Aggregates so the availability is there now in 2024 so what we anticipate as far as the domestic markets are concerned if you have a loss experience that's pretty high we're seeing rates go from anywhere from 8 to 18% increases in the rates as far as C modeling carriers and syndicates continue to utilize the cat catastrophic modeling the reason being it simulates what a hurricane or earthquake damage could be why do they do that they're looking at the probable maximum loss they could incur as a result of a hurricane or earthquake talk a little bit about blanket property policy and nothing has changed since last year with regards to our self-insured retention or deductible we still have 42 carriers and syndicates that underwrite the program 55% International and 45% domestic it's still the same structure as last year what we have is 50 million excess obviously you have your first deductible comes first the first 50 million excess a second 50 million excess a third 50 million excess and then the fourth coverage excess coverage that you have is currently 12.5 million okay so it gives you a total of 162.5 million in coverage the next slide talks about your total insured values and the total District assets that are insured and as you can see year over year over year because we we start out with 2022 2023 2023 2024 2024 2025 we had an increase this year over last year in the total insured values it's increased to 3.6% this slide just gives historical data in regards to our property premiums we dated we looked back at the historical data from 1993 up to 2023 and it just talks about our policy period years total insured values you can see they've increased over the years percentage of increase I've given you that and the limits as you can as you note if you look at this Slide the limits have fluctuated from year to year and they fluct uate based on what's going on in the world the reason I say that is because you're buying on a global market so for instance when you had Hurricane Andrew the effects you saw the a decrease in coverage well yeah decrease in coverage increase in price the World Trade Center event which was September 11th you had uh multiple hurricanes you also had the world financial crisis and economic downturn so all these items have an impact on our insurance premium this next slide we talk about coverage options and I'm going to give you an update because this was done before we got more information in from the markets so we talk about option one maintain the current um coverages that you currently have in place right now and the price would be 33,35 if we EXP option number two obviously we could raise our hurricane deductible from 75 million to 100 million but yet we're going to take on additional exposure we're going to take on additional 25 million the savings isn't going to be that great option three you can decrease the coverage from 1625 1625 million to 150 million um once again you're taking on a additional exposure um some of the contributing factors that lead to your premium pricing you had the Rickards Middle School loss you had the flood loss of last year that flood loss is estimated around $10 million the Rickards Middle School on this slide it shows 15.6 million the actual payout for rickords was about 21 if not $22 million but that payout you have to take into consideration 15.6 million came from the property market and the balance came from a builder's risk policy so that's not going to count against you we no longer have that Builder Builder's risk policy in place oh sorry yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah what right now what I'm recommending is option one to maintain what you currently have in place but that's going to cost you $33 million as I stated earlier I have an update for you so the price isn't going to be 33 million so what we have here is the insurance budget that we lay out at the beginning of the year after talking to our broker and our Underwriters and as you can see the layout here is you'd have an increase in your premium from 22 million to 28 million that's the most severe increase 23% increase um we look at the terrorism policy there's an increase there and also the obtain and maintain policy what's that they can go through the give them the good news and they can read The Benchmark okay I'll I'll let them read the benchmarking okay so what I've done is I've gotten an update from the carriers and the underwriters in regards to our property policy and what we're looking at um you know we had anticipated 20 8 million right now we're standing at a price of 23 million 139 it's a 1% increase okay so um we had a lot of discussions with Underwriters uh we explained to them how much money we've put into the market how much they paid out they looked at us and they said yeah but you've had two losses within the last four years but I said yeah but if you look at the historical record as to what we've paid in and what you've actually actually paid out in losses you're ahead of the game so I think this is this is is good news for us with regards to the terrorism policy we've gotten a break on that you know last year we paid um I think it was 825 it's flat 825 same with the obtain and maintain last year we paid 1.4 we're targeting 1.4 so there is an actual savings uh we're waiting right now for the rest of the premium p uh premium pricing to come in and once it comes in I'll update the board but I think this year we're going to have a somewhat of a savings when it comes to the renewal thank you very much public comment Miss rubert thank you and you might have covered this while I had slipped out for a second um this hurricane season Noah increased the number of of storms I think to 24 which is like the highest it's ever been has that been factored in um to this uh you know equation here it's factored in but what they're looking at primarily is our historical record and when they look at our historical record historical losses we've been pretty good in that area I think since this program has been in place historical information has shown that we've only had three losses Hurricane Wilma where we paid out I think 17.5 million we've paid out we're going to probably pay out about 10 million on this April loss from last year the flood loss and um I like I said 15.6 million for rickords so those are the only three losses when you look back historically over our 30-year period it's a pretty good track record they also look at our construction and they understand how intense it is in this area when it when it comes to construction codes so that's a factor we also spoke to them about you know some of the work that we've done around roofs so that's another Factor so they've taken all that into consideration so I don't really think the prediction on the storms is going to be an impact at this time oh from from your from your lips to God's ears though hopefully we don't have any losses it'll be if it impacts us it'll be next year right right okay thank you I appreciate it you're welcome any other board member comment Mr ston thank you option one okay thank you y opt option one option one okay thank you I want to thank Mr Henry for an amazing amazing job getting a 1% increase when I know everybody around here's homeowners insurance went up way more than that was was because of his efforts and the great information he gives the market and how prepared he is for that negotiation so thank you very very much you're welcome thank you thank you so much you're welcome our next item up is School Board policy review project rural development revised Dr wanza Madam chair thank you um so we Accord as as indicated in the presentation today we have um several policies that are coming to the board the one thing that I do want to um out of respect to a number of the comments that the board has received from um the public as well as our stakeholder groups around the county today is not Ru making today is Rule development so um a lot of of our um community members have concerns about um conversations and the board making decisions today the board will give input as it always does um to staff on the policies that are being discussed today but actual rule making will not occur if if it goes as scheduled until June so today is not final rule making where many um people around the community may think that is what today is today is a part of rural development it was advertised as R development the different departments who are um working with the policies that are up for review are here as well as um our Consultants from coward and coward they are here as well so we look forward to the conversation that will happen with the board understanding that some of the um staff members are still working with stakeholder groups to get input and that final input will be um incorporated into what is presented to the board when it comes uh for final Ru making so with that Mr Hill do you want to start to Shepherd us through the policies that are being reviewed today Chief of Staff while he's doing that does that mean at June 18th we're both doing decisions about repurposing and doing rul making for our policy changes if the the if the policies are advertised for the June 8 18 U board meeting then yes sir that that would mean that it is actual Ru making thank you you may begin thank you madam chair um as um thank you um I don't really have a formal script for today the the policies have been provided to the board within the presentation and we are all set we have our subject matter experts here to answer any questions as well as our partners in review Cal and coward at the end of the table and at this time I'll turn it back over to you madam chair Mr Austin Madam chair yeah sorry sorry sorry public comment yes Madam chair we have three in um members of the community who have signed up for public comment we have um Corey Panero and I hope I said that correctly you may proceed to the podium closest to you we also have Jessica Alvarez and then we also have Dr Natalie Lynch wal you may begin Beacon can you turn the podium just okay so I guess now it's working um so yeah Cory P Corey Panero uh Parkland I am the chapter chair for moms for Liberty Broward County and I am talking about the behavioral Matrix specifically and how one it's 187 pages and it put was put out to the public recently for us to review it's not easy to read there's a couple things in the policy like policy 4120 is not for the classroom materials but Al just for classroom materials but also Library materials um a parents rights component only includes those that want the schools to teach their children about sexual orientation or gender identity evidenced by the schools recognizing two months and a day for to the group of people that group of people so truly this district is not giving parents the right to make decisions regarding the upgr and the control of their children if they're promoting these things that some parents don't want their children to be learning at school it is so I this is showing me this behavioral Matrix is showing me that the promised program has just been renamed honestly is it es is it the workb program is it EA e is it cpst it's all these acronyms that we can't understand it's not clear it's you know I understand giving children a second chance and probably you know looking at their home situation and giving them some uh assistance for that but when you're doing this and you're creating so many circumstances like for somebody to commit sexual assault two times sexual assault start a fire on campus two times burglary two times sexual misconduct two times I mean there's a combination of these things so somebody can do sexual assault um once burglary have a major fight they would all these things are in combination it's it's Collective before you even consider expelling them from the school so when I look at this you look at a a child having this offense committing this offense what I look at is a victim you have a victim of bullying four times or three times you have a victim of mistreatment of peers three or four times you have a victim of discrimination you have victim after victim after victim that is not being taken that's not even taken into account when all you're doing is a restorative justice Pro process for somebody that is committing a crime because a sexual assault is a crime and it needs to be no longer be in the school of somebody assaulting somebody sexually so that that needs to be take looked at and these policies are worse worse this behavioral Matrix is worse than what we had prior to MSD it's worse thank you so much next speaker my name is Jesse garez I'm going to give my three minutes to Corey no you had to do that before she spoke okay so I am a from Weston I am a mom of five I have all my kids in public school I went to the meeting for the Matrix and I am not agreeing about all the things that Corey said before because we don't need H kids at school that do two three four five nine times misbehaving and stay still stay at school I have a lot of moms in my group that had a his kid a sexually assault and the the classmate that did that was in his same classroom so after after she wrote um um a document telling that so that's not acceptable please review it you you meet with us some of of the board members and we H we're supposed to give feedback and they are not counting with our feedback you are just deciding what you're going to put on The Matrix and you are not asking for the parents feedback we are really tired of letting this offenses go and go and go so that kids don't have rules and kids need rules everybody needs limits so please H Pay attention on this we don't want our public schools to keep going worst every day we want a limits we want our kids to be happy and safe thank you thank you yes uh good afternoon nnie Pier from Parkland um so uh H many of you uh school board members should have gotten emails from the community uh some chairs from different um advisories in terms of policy 810 that will be or will for will be formly 5,000 your uh policy 5.1 enrollment and withdrawal as well as policy 6,400 um that will be well was was 54.1 so uh diversity hasn't had an opportunity to review those policies or be looped into the policy we talked about looping and policy uh 1164 61 I can't remember my apologies um in terms of getting us all involved we didn't get this information about until two weeks ago um and is she she going she oh okay that's my baby I just had to make sure all right she I want to make sure who she was going with um so um we didn't get that we didn't we weren't involved in a timely manner diversity will be meeting with them in uh May however we felt like uh we should have been looped in prior to this March uh April presentation I understand that nothing is going to be set in stone today um however every meeting I've been to so far have rejected all of the revisions um the revisions are removing Community stakeholders they're removing advisory voices and uh in the name of speci ivity which I think this District needs specifity um now than now than any other time um that's one thing the second thing is is that it gives the illusion that you're including us but if it's not written that you're including us then you're not including us so we don't want lip service um so we hope that you will look at these policies see what's stried out um understand that uh there is portions of it we went through a whole boundary change last year where we were talking about safety security we were talking about overcrowding and now we want to raise the the one the percentage from 100 to 110% that y'all need to make that make sense to me um unacceptable because we went through a whole Bing change where kids were stating that they were getting hurt in hallways they were getting knocked off and I asked for for incident reports still ain't got that yet but here we are so you can't do it for one you can't open Pandora's Box and think that you can you can kind of shut it down now that doesn't work like that so I would like for the board to make sure that you pay attention to all these policy changes and also uh deal with staff on how they're looping um Community stakeholders and advisories thank you good afternoon Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida and apparently fresh from the leper colony since we can't be around staff anymore um so to build on what the diversity committee chair was talking about just to reiterate there was a vers ver of this policy that aeom was working on last year that did remove the community boundary process but that was really the only thing that was removed until this version um this these this draft with its proposed changes was rejected in its entirety by North Area South area Central area and da C and understand that your staff chairs roll into your area advisories which then roll into DAC with a few more additions and the motion that everybody was on board with is due to concerns about the interlocal agreement and state requirements for educational facilities Equitable treatment of students Community boundary process Community member boundary proposals and lack of parent organization and advisory committee participation we reject the propos policy 810 changes and recommend starting fresh with Community input from the three regions because whenever you take if you don't specify that something should be done like a boundary process and say that it's up to the superintendent whoever that is then it may or may not happen so nobody was on board with taking that out the larger concern here is that you have by State Statute required to have have an interlocal agreement which you do have but this seems to be separating the boundary policy from the Ila requirements and there have been other uh signs that someone is trying to circumvent the Ila we asked for demographics to come to the facilities task force they have not been to the facilities Task Force at all haven't actually seen them in years and frankly I've never seen the version of the demographic staff that I saw that at the Central Area advisory meeting um as Miss Grant would say they chose vience um and and someone needs to get to the bottom of why they're choosing violence all of a sudden so the state statute that everyone needs to become familiar with is 163 31777 it's literally called Public Schools interlocal agreement the Ila and this draft appear to be in Conflict please figure that out because the Ila says 110% of permanent and 100% of gross um so that's a problem in terms of reconciling so if goes back and I would we would like to have them at FTF in June since they would be at diversity in May but please figure these things out we're warning you now it's going to become a problem in the future good afternoon good morning and hello to everybody uh my name is James Sparks I'm a member of a group called CCC when you say diversity our group founded the diversity committee and we founded it for simple reasons of we wanted the community to have an input and what's going on at your school we don't want to years ago George Allen had to sign on off had to sign off on everything that the school board did and he got paid for it we didn't want all that all we wanted to do was get it and get our schools in good shape policies and procedures is the way to do it but guess what there's policies that goes for one school and then when you try to use it or try to get things done at another school it doesn't work or you got to put it on hold or you got to you got to do a certain thing Miss Batista right there she fought all the way through with it she know exactly what I'm talking about things that we fought for back then when we were trying to get things done they said no you can't do that they had policies that said we had to be bust that was a lie we didn't have to be bust you bust us CU you wanted to you had procedures that you said when your kids come to our school they get in a circle by the our kids went to your school and you didn't do anything but just send us out there my kids get up at 4:00 in the morning to get ready to go to school go by 8 10 schools all that was in policy and procedures you know what I mean I listen to every school board member and all they sit there and tell me is I'm for the kids of brow County that's the biggest lie of a tolde you're for the kids in your school in your area if I'm in my neighborhood and I see a kid going down the street and he needs something his shoes or his clothes or he act like something wrong I'm going to I'm going to go out and try to help that kid my kids need stuff too now that's a fact and I used to say that all the time but listen if you're concerned about your children then you're going to be concerned about every child not just yours not just your community and see the reason I know that's a lie because you go to one school my grand went to Beachside when Beachside got the $800,000 they didn't have nothing they needed to do with that money and that's in the black community you know why School Board decided to furnish it with everything they needed to make it a priority School you had to get in line to get in that school hey you get in line you do what to say you get on and they put you in so that's what I did for my grandkid I'm not going to go against the policy you know what I mean but I didn't agree with it but I wanted the very best for my kids so that's what I would like you board members to begin to look at don't just look at your school I had a board member tell me one time I supported you at Hollandale High Hollandale High had five classrooms they were science classrooms they had as best and right now to this day there are still a few of the schools that don't have that are not back up but now how you going to support me when you know that school has the best had it bestest and you didn't do nothing about it thank you any other public speaker Mr Alon thank you madam chair um and thank you to all of those uh the public comments um thank you for what you do all of you and you know who you are in your respective places welcome again coward and coward um and to the team uh I guess m Madam chair just to make sure I understand we're now going through comments because I know there's a difference between rle development versus making so you want us to provide comments at this point to where we are uh for the before the final product comes back to us at the June meeting I think that's been clarified is that right okay so let me jump to I'm not going to go in order here fund balance let me start there so I'm going to you already know where I'm going anyway Madam CFO uh so policy 510 so looks like the recommendation uh that uh you are profer is for a 4% fund balance level is that correct Dr oh I'm sorry yeah staff that's correct got it so we're in we're going to the recommendation is to increase from 3% to 4% Fitch was very prescriptive um in 5% and I think at least I speak for me I have uh dealt with all three rating agencies just as you have I think others maybe someone else up here has as well um and clearly they've given us a road map on how to get away from a negative outlook is it your recommendation Mr superintendent I'll look back at you now um that 4% is strong enough um I think hopefully you're going to say no um that your recommendation or you're hoping for the board to shift from four to 5% because you want the district's negative Outlook removed from Fitch and any other rating agency before they even think about it so clearly I can recommend now right that we uh replace 45% and if there are four other people who will agree um but just want your thoughts at least on that one item no I would uh Mr Dawson I would tend to agree with you that stronger is better um so as we continue to go through budget Seasons My Hope Is that we continue to increase our fund balance but uh Stronger Than 4% would be definitely better all right so let me go ahead and make the recommendation Madam chair um that on policy 3510 4% should absolutely be 5% fund balance and I'm hoping that four of the people will agree um let me jump to diversity committee 1240 I'm just going to just one one of these I know we're going to come back to the full diversity committee uh item which is another big conversation so looks like the updated language is recommending I think it says three student advisors my assumption is these are three Representatives right because there's only one student advisor is that correct can you say what page you're on well I'm I'm looking first at the PowerPoint and then I'll go so on looks like it's slide 11 or 550 depending which number you're looking at uh under policy rule one so page one uh that first rationale so I just want to make sure in that there's only I'm assuming it's three student Representatives maybe including the student advisor as one of those three Andor his or her uh designate well there's only one student advisor and there's one uh alternate student advisor right so I'm just being clear about who we're asking here is it three student Representatives or is it the student advisor the alternate and a representative so it's really just a question I don't need the answer to that it's just for clarity when you all go back and work on that that everyone got that that Mak sense Perfect all right I will pause there um and I will yield time to others Mrs Hixon thank you sorry thank you um I have a couple of questions also um for the fund balance discussion that we were just having the suggestion is to move the vote to a super majority on there every time we've had a discussion about super majority we have said no um that it should be just the simple majority I don't see why this needs a super majority so my suggestion would be that it should not be a super majority um to be consistent with everything else that we have been doing um on the code of conduct wait so are you agreeing with the five oh 5% it is f if the superintendent feels that that is I guess I'm concerned about putting it in policy though ex the only reason is that we're only at we're not quite even at four right now so we would already be violating our policy so I I just concerned of what that looks like I when I read it it says if we go below it you're going to start to give us updates but I think we've asked for those updates already anyway so um what is the advantage in to to changing it from four to 5% and how would that reflect on us if we're not even close to that yet Madam chair well Dr he do you want to answer yes um um Miss Marte you want provide any expertise I'm sorry and the implications of moving from four to 5% so thank you Dr so Mrs Hixon was thinking the same way the finance team was we are already a tad below 4% so to increase it which I absolutely agree you know I'd be much more comfortable at 5% in a perfect world but at this moment in time in order to increase it it would mean that we either make further reductions in the budget or get new Revenue so that's why the staff was hesitant to recommend that I absolutely agree with Mr Alon not only is it fit it's Moody's it's government Finance Officers Association they all say 5% but that's going to mean making a significant and I don't have the calculation in my head what's another percent do you know that erum what's so so that would mean $21 million of additional um reductions in our budget next year to get there okay six and are you done um no not quite but so I I would be concerned I would say maybe change it to 4% for now and then we could revisit it again in another year when we're at at a place where we could increase it I just worry about going from three to 5 so that's my answer on that um on the code of conduct um I have to find the page so I have page it says page 75 so I'm in the actual Red Line policy so let me go to page 75 um sorry oh I went past it where it says acts against persons in the um in The Matrix that we have so I think it's I have page 75 so let's go here yes on page it says type of incident and it's under Acts against persons um and again there's the first Consequence the second consequence third consequence um I I would like to ask if we could add something on there and it's actually a conversation I had with Dr LCA but I haven't had an opportunity to have it with Dr heern but I'm going to guess that maybe cabinet did have this discussion there's a huge concern um across social media with something called Deep fake which is where they take someone's image and then they use it to um make them look as if there's a sexual thing going on and then they post it in this person's um reputation obviously so it makes them look like they're doing something but they've never been in that situation they've taken an image off of Facebook or Instagram or whatever and caused them to be in naked pictures or or videos or things of that nature through the use of AI so it it's an actual ter term called Deep fake so I would like us to add that into our discipline Matrix because it is something Falls to me under the cyber bullying or maybe even physical acts of sexual nature that's on this chart already so would like if if it was possible to add a fourth bullet under here and include the Deep fake and and have some consequences as to what that is um wherever it seems appropriate and I'd also like to speak to some of the public speakers because it's something that we've said there are some acts against persons that one consequence I get but the second and the third and where we're putting people back into the same situation where something happened it seems to me we are allowing everyone else in the classroom to not get their education because we're wanting to make sure this one person has all of their rights which I don't disagree with their rights but I don't know the consequence is part of our Matrix is that us is it is it governed by law why is it that there's so many chances on certain thing I get it for some of the smaller things but acts against people I I find a huge concern with how many chances there are here and that they're not cumulative if there are other things so if someone could maybe address those consequences are they imposed by Broward County Public Schools are they mandated by state law we could address their concerns that they brought up Dr Miss Washington good afternoon good afternoon Jody Washington director Equity diversity and school climate to answer your question some of the consequences are governed by State Statute specifically the zero tolerance statute the others um stat stat does require Progressive discipline which means each time something occurs the consequences become more severe uh some of those things are within our control other things the zero tolerance pretty much says what needs to be expellable okay so if it's possible in the places where we're making those decisions and again not for everything on the Matrix but those very severe especially acts against persons that you're putting someone right back in the same situation of where it happened and often times the perpet I'll call them the perpetrator I don't know if that's the right terminology but it's my world I guess um they they go back in the the same classroom and then the the victim has to go to another classroom or another school and there are huge concerns with that across the board so if there are places where we can condense how many times or you know I understand um discipline having to be the word left me Progressive thank you um I understand that but there are there are huge concerns we've heard it from everywhere but they articulated themselves very well today so if there's a place where we can look at this and make those consequences more severe so that people realize that it's not okay to do those things I think it would be important for me as a board member for us to do that so um thank you and definitely include where we can consequences for deep fake and let the students know we know what that is and that there will be severe consequences for that because that does cause a lot of students to even want to commit suicide because they're in a situation where they didn't make it and they can't get out of it so thank you for that uh my last one is is the big one so I don't know if we're just jumping into that or not but the policy um 810 and and thank you thank you to Jill and Joe for the long conversation yesterday so if there there are a couple of things that have come out even in public speaking today so if we could address that directly and one of the things we've heard over and over is about the interlocal agreement so if staff could address how the changes in um this policy affect the interlocal agreement and how it affects the um level of service but even before that so I'm I'm glad to see coward and coward here thank you so much and please can you remind us that part of your part of Consulting is that you look at State statutes to make sure that whatever policy changes we're making are in line with State Statute am I correct on that yes um can you hear me yes so yes we do look at the we look at this first we go to the statute um just make sure go start from the beginning so we get these policies with Suggestions by staff already red line that staff has worked upon we look at those the suggestions by staff and we just look at it to see if it's consistent with our what we think is proper legally with by review of State statutes and review of other policies throughout not just the state but throughout this entire country we review We compare at least three other districts that review those policies sometimes we agree with staff recommendations and we just you know if we don't see anything that's contrary to the law we'll defer to their expert on that subject however if it's something we have concerns that we address those concerns with them and suggest that they change accordingly the only thing I would add is that some of the stuff we don't see like this community input you heard from today our version was prep prepared and provided prior to us getting that input so we did not at least in that particular policy consider the staff input put in our draft because we didn't have it at the time the community input I apologize okay so the the draft that we see before us though you looked at and you feel that the changes make sense well that's a stretch of a word but it's consistent with the law so we didn't find anything that was inconsistent so we we may not personally agree to some things but if the staff recommends it and we don't see anything that's contradicts it in the law then we accept it and leave in there but doesn't mean that we personally or professionally necessarily agree with it thank you I appreciate that input okay so staff could address the interlocal agreement please Dr heern Mr Mr pakowski Miss Young thank you um Joseph be demographer statistician actually has the law in his book ready to repeat so uh good afternoon Joe backck demographer demographics and enrollment planning so the the section of Statute I'm going to read to you uh uh refers to public school concurrency of which the interlocal agreement is the supporting document in Brower County between the school board uh 27 municipalities in the county itself since 2014 Public School concurrency has been optional from 2008 to 2014 it was required uh is now optional so the interlocal agreement which is part of that is something that the school board at its future decision or convenience could opt out of if they wanted to so the the section of Statute I'm I'm going to read from is from uh section I'm sorry um 163318 uh section 6A local governments that apply concurrency to public education facilities shall include principles uh guidelines strategies and so on so what it's speaking to is that the the concept of concurrency is optional our neighboring districts Broward um Palm Beach and Miami Dade have have treated it as such also so we are still fully in concurrency but that is that is not a requirement in the law can you maybe explain what concurrency is for the public um so that they understand what no we're not the that are confused well can Dr heern yes um Mr B or Mr asuk good afternoon board members Chris akabu director faip line real estate department um one of the Departments oversees uh growth management and we actually um managed it's called the triler third amended and reinstated into a local agreement because it's been amended three times concurrency the word concurrency it's um as a general definition concurrency means the impact when the impact of a development is going to happen the public facilities to serve that development has to be available concurrently with the impact right so for example a developer is going to impact water sewer school facilities by the time to get the certificate of occupancy we should have determined that we have classroom space to accommodate that student you know from the development so that's Loosely what concurrency mean meaning concurrent happenings to make sure there's capacity when the development is going to take place thank you so does concurrency have anything to do with boundaries so both are two different intents right so the the the statue says for any school district that's going to import concurrency again Mr Beck was correct concurrency is as the state law is optional but we have that an oversight committee which Mr 6on you sit on brow County theide committee and the signator signatories to that agreement have determined that concurrency is going to be mandatory um so um for concurrency the state said if you adopt a level of service that level of service has to be achieved and maintained within a role in 5year period right so to determine whether we have capacity for development the school board has adapted this current level of service which is the higher of 110% permanent capacity or 100% grow I use Hab Dale as an example Hab Dale doesn't have footprint for Portugal right because your level of service has to be uniformly applied throughout the county so harale doesn't have food for Portables so there are permanent Capac for me to determine for a developer not to deny that development is that they have 10% within the physical structure right pretend the media room so that's 10% but then if you have Portables then your level of service is gross because it's permanent and then um the Portables so that's why you said a high off and again to enable uniform level of service so the purpose for concurrency is to determine do we have space for development to move forward or not if it's affecting the school in terms of policy 810 I guess the purpose is to determine is a school overcrowded for a student to be enrolled or something like that so it's two different purposes but it's underlying kind of almost underlying but again I just want to be be clear Public School concurrency for the fact of is to enable that you can indefinitely deline development so you have to I mean adopt a level of service that you can achieve within a 5year period okay thank you very much um so maybe our um demographics staff then could speak to that so the I the concern as we've heard from many people is if we change the percent um of the gross if we change the per if we increase the percentages what's going to happen here is schools that are already over enrolled are going to just be able to get B bger and schools that are under enrolled aren't going to have they're we're not going to make students go there because we're allowing the bigger schools to get bigger so we're not helping the schools that are under enrolled so could you just in in simple terms cuz we use a lot of big words around here could you explain is that what the change is is doing here is that can you have a discussion like we had yesterday uh yes ma'am through the through the chair uh uh Miss Hixon thank you for that very good question so the intent is not to a overcrowd schools it's just to because this is just a definition it's not a trigger for the school board to consider a boundary action it's just a a benchmark at which a school may become considered overcrowded where we have below 70% is considered I'm not overcrowded we're saying over enrolled I have to stop myself because we've changed the terms there overcrowding is something that happens because of over enrollment so uh the intent is not to increase the enrollment in these schools Beyond a reasonable amount or a safe amount it's just to to reflect in the definition that the school is not would not be considered overcrowded and that's always been the case we've never considered schools that were you know below a certain threshold 110% of gross may be a standard that's too high for the board and the and staff is obviously comfortable with reducing that but the intent is not to overcrowd schools a and the second piece of that is that um and you spoke you said it very well a o certain schools to enroll more students doesn't take Stu uh students away from schools that they're already choosing not to go to unfortunately so we're a full Choice State and a full Choice District if we have room in our schools to allow students to choose to go to one of our schools uh then they'll do it if there isn't room then typically they'll find an option in one of our our our arms of competition either Charter Schools or private schools so it it's not to over enroll our schools it's just to acknowledge that they're not running at an overcrowded or over enrolled State just because they've had a certain threshold and that's obviously something we can we were flexible on in the board this is just a a proposal well and I would just reflect some of the things that we've heard we we did make a boundary change because there was a school that was 114% capacity and there were safety concerns and the students were nervous about changing classes and stuff so I don't see where it makes sense for us to go even higher than that if we specifically made a boundary change because we felt some of us felt that it was unsafe so I I I hear what you're saying but I don't I feel like these are two different things right the concurrency is is about charging developers but this policy is dealing with boundary changes so is it a way where the the reason you're changing it for con concern con concurrency issues happens in one place and then we have a different way of looking at it for this policy because it's two as Mr akabo said it's two different things already but I I feel like combining it caused a lot of huge concerns which are valid because we've already said 114 is extremely too high and we took students out of that school so it doesn't make sense to me why would we be looking at increasing it well so May respond Madam chair so 110% of gross is less than 114 and we wouldn't be increasing it above that I know that's not what you're saying but just for clarity we're not proposing to go higher than the level that stowman Douglas was in the year of the boundary change that was 114% of gross because they don't have any relocates on their campus we would say that 4% below that they would have been an overcrowded or over enrolled School the second piece though I think you hit on something really um important that I wanted to respond to is the reason that these two policies don't overlap and the reason that boundaries uh are not dictated by concurrency or level service is that we we don't do boundary changes for concurrency we have a 5-year plan that has to to be met in the dfp the losos plan uh and we have to show for schools that are expected or anticipated not to meet the level of service how they will how they will do it but it doesn't it's not achieved through boundary changes we we don't do that we did one losos boundary change the year that concurrency went into effect in 2008 I know Mrs rert can probably still remember the wounds from that that's the only one we've ever ever done and that was you know in 8 it was a long time ago and it was a very I don't think it was a it was a good choice thank you I think Miss Young I have something additional to add after we met with the community we've met with the three area advisories the district area advisory the EC committee and we're also scheduled to meet with the diversity committee uh we would have met with the diversity committee already but we just got the policy back from our uh policy vendor after spring break so we're now been in communic with the community um however after hearing that input we agree we should um go back to something more manageable when it comes to defining an over enrolled schools and let me read that that revision to you because it's in line with school concurrency so we have one set so I'm going to read you an over enrolled School shall be deemed over enrolled when enrollment is greater than 110% of permanent capacity Plus modular and relocatable and are projected to have an enrollment greater than 110% of permanent capacity Plus modulars and relocates for the following school year schools with enrollments less than 110% permanent capacity Plus modulars and relocates may be deemed overcrowded based upon criteria of class size reduction special programs or special circumstances okay and the idea if we had an overcrowded School in terms terms of of school choice and not necessarily boundaries but we wouldn't open reassignment seats to them right correct because that I mean that's the whole point here is the idea of if you're not considered over enrolled then you still have seats for people students to come into so that's true um I'm sure my colleagues have more questions I just have one more and I'll turn it over to everyone else um in a variety of places we have crossed out where it talks about diversity on page 126 um specifically page uh page 13 of 16 and page 14 of 16 there's big chunks that that take away and delete where it speaks to diversity can you explain to us why that was a suggestion Miss yes um after having the the um policy review vendor review the policy um it was noted that Equity is actually mer mentioned seven times in the policy and that those specific areas where you just mentioned on those pages was considered redundant okay can the um vendor is is it okay to ask the vendor if they agree with that statement Point as a point of clarification the removal of diversity in as many instances um was not a move a suggestion by coward and coward in fact we included a couple more times we did point out that the we we we believed that the um intent was clear and that we could still accomplish that without the repetition but we put it back in there in some instances to make sure there was no confusion that the the commitment was still the same so the original deleted virgins was not our suggestion but we were okay with the fact it was in there less often as as long as we made it clear that we weren't lowering the standard or eliminating the standard as long as the standard was real pre still prevalent and we believe that after adding it back in there in a couple instances it was it was prevalent still okay um so it seems like there's maybe some uh disagreement there and and I would say I think it's important also somewhere for us to Define what diverse means because what diverse means means to me may not be what it means to other people and we have to remember we have a very diverse district and in some schools I we have a very high number of blacks and Hispanics but if you go to certain areas of the county you don't see that diversity in the school so you know I think the point of a lot of this was that you wanted to continue diversity in all places of the school and if you take that out of the policy when you're looking at boundary changes what I think is diverse may not be what someone else thinks is diverse um so I think it would be important for us to also agree with a general idea of what diversity means so those are my comments thank you so much thank you and I'm just going to jump in quickly because I have to leave to do Passover seder um I agree with Mr alsa's suggestion to move the fund balance to 5% and looking forward to hearing his ideas on how to budget that to get there and then on page four um safer watch it's it's one word you have it as two words in two places and then on page 14 they're they're talking about handheld metal detectors and specially trained animals we're going to need to put a space in there I believe to to put our policy our new policy with our weapons detection so those are my comments thank you thank you so much and I also have a Seder tonight so I'll be uh leaving in a little bit chair uh hope you have a wonderful one at your house as well happy Passover um I'm going to suggest um to our acting chair maybe to the superintendent to reconsider coward and coward's contribution these um policies across the board um could use uh an editor who's thinking about the public reading them you know one of the the the the things that happen in any organization is you fall in love with your own terms your own Expressions the depth of which you explain something and my neighbor picks this up and says hey what does your diversity committee do and it's like oh here you know here's our policy and they go hey thanks a lot that was funny like what do they really do you know what is their objective how often do they meet what are the agendas look like um you know what kind of reports do you want from them what's in those reports you know those kinds of things uh could help us a lot and it may be uh beneficial for coward and coward to think a little bit about their perspective as non-s Schoolboard employees but as advisers and help us uh write uh better so we can communicate with our public broad point though about advisory committees volunteer advisory committees um I believe we got a lot lot of work to do um if what we want to do is optimize their contribution to Broward County Schools uh we need to think about some hard questions um how do we recruit First Rate talent to our advisory boards how do we be clear about duties and responsibilities how do we standardize advisory boards most organizations have an Advisory Board policy and then there's specific advisory boards uh by topic uh I think that might be uh interesting in that standard policy we could talk about term limits uh there's a lot of organizations particularly municipalities that allow you to serve for four or five or six years and then take a break why would we do that well because we want fresh talent coming in to always bring us uh new and different things when we see 30 members on an Advisory Board how are we supposed to recruit people when they're one of 30 that's a lot and it's even hard to manage a group of 30 people uh to get them uh to to move forward in the same Direction so in my mind I think advisory committees are essential for good government organizations uh but we have to think a little bit about um our policies uh across the board related to size to term limits to bylaws to uh frequency of meeting to their interactions with staff and in particular that comes out when we look at one of these in detail and we look at the verbs that are included in this policy we ask advisory committees to ensure outcomes how exactly is an advisory committee empowered to ensure an outcome there are a recommended group of advisers who volunteer to do great things for us to give us extra perspectives to show us things we don't know um and to pass along decisions that they've made to us for further considerations and so I just feel like uh we have to think very very hard uh about these things about the size about the scope of things we ask them to do if we're going to ask them like a diversity committee to um work very hard on the CCC agreement maybe we should tell them what kind of things that we'd like to hear back from them or what kind of data would make sense that we could give them to think about and give us ideas about what's good enough and what's not good enough uh maybe they can represent the public back to us in ways uh that we hadn't thought about so I think there's some work to do and chief staff I'll just share my uh line in line out comments just so that you can see them uh on that uh but I think uh a committee of 30 is too many I think if we give them specific tasks they're going to be more enabled to do the things that we want them to do uh and I value value very much uh our volunteer advisers and I want to make sure we have clear expectations and responsibilities with all of our advisory groups on fund balance uh we have to um also I think uh think a little bit about it I want to make sure uh superintendent that we have a single definition of what a fund balance is if we're going to have more than one fund balance uh it gets confusing and so if we're going to have one that's 4% one that's 3% and we're going to have one for Capital account uh we might want to think about different names I personally do not think 5% is the right number I'm much more comfortable with 4% uh giving up $21 million of spending uh in order to meet uh some external review uh of of what is appropriate I also like the codification of things that we've tried that worked pretty well I loved the pay for rule that we started this year if School member Zeman wants to buy something he's got to pay for it he's got to go find something in the budget to take out in order to propose something to put in uh I would recommend that since that works so well this year um we codify that in our policy I also think that we need to have a policy around fund balance that's consistent with the annual flow of the development of the budget and so at the beginning of the year we might set a 4% Target and say but if you want to spend any more you got to find something to take out and then what happens when revenues are higher than you expected or costs are lower it automatically increases fund balance and so uh to me there's a way of doing this fund balance issue that's a little bit more elegant um and allows us to get where we really want to go which is solvency we want people to look at us and say that is a solvent group I trust them they're creditworthy uh and they know what we're doing I'm very very proud of far County school board and the work and the staff that they have on budget there's a lot of attention here on budget um and what we do with our budget is is uh is is noteworthy we get feedback from the Florida School Board Association and Council of uh great City Schools about the conversations we have here about the debates that we have about the amazing staff that we have to put things together even with 40 vacancies by the way in our finance department uh they continue to do great work but I just want to make sure that we think hard about our policies and once we've locked something in on fund balance or the process for getting there uh that we're willing to uh do the things that'll really get us to our eventual goal which is credit worthiness and solvency uh so that we can make sure that we can always borrow money to meet our c cash flow needs and that the public trusts that we're going to use taxpayer monies in a way that's consistent with taxpayer needs thank you very much chair Dr holness thank you madam chair so um I have some Actually I don't even know where to start because I do have some major concern with the revision uh to know what's policy 810 um I went to the central area advisory meeting that they had um about a week ago and this was presented to the community um I can tell you that [Music] um what I've heard from the community they're not happy with these revisions at all so I sent out a series of questions um for followup and I believe all of the board members should have a copy of that and um the concern that I have is um not just the changes but the process and how the community was involved so what I've heard is that um there are concerns uh with removing uh committee stakeholders with removing diversity with separating boundary policy from the interlocal agreement issues with looping uh as far as community stakeholders and advisories and uh the time frame to which the community stakeholders had to review these type of changes and and it goes on and on so I have an issue with not only the changes but I have a major issue with the process and I just have this feeling that the community not only were they not given the appropriate time frame in which to review these types of changes but I'm not sure if their input was taken into consideration and if their input was actually um valued so when I went to the central area uh advisory they had a motion to actually reject all of the changes to to to what's been made here um and uh because of that um I had a series of questions that I asked right um I did note specifically that at that meeting the there was a question about um engaging the diversity committee as the other advisory committees were engaged and the response that I heard uh was uh somewhat and I and I'll paraphrase that um there was attempt made and and diversity uh didn't oblige so I contacted diversity to see if that's accurate and diversity said that's not accurate so um I am concerned because the process has to be Equitable Community stakeholders have to be involved in these processes and the community has to feel that their input is valued I don't get that from this not the meeting that I went to and not the meetings that I've heard also so then I asked a question there were a series of questions I I asked um basically um please provide details on the sources used to gather Community input and that was provided here and then could you clarify whether staff agreed with the changes based upon the version of uh Community input considered and it it it says that staff agreed with some changes but did not agree with others well what what I see here is two pages of of community input that staff disagreed with I haven't seen anything here that staff agreed with from the community so um it seems unidirectional right um and so uh I would like to see that this basically is brought back to us uh with proper looping of Stak holders um reflecting that they're given adequate time to review as well as to understand the changes now if we're going to continue with these I'd like to talk about some of the some of the changes that I'm concerned about so I'll I'll go to page of the policy itself on page four of 16 um where it talks about 100% uh being the new number for over enrolled I disagree with that and so so does the community and I believe board member hickon mentioned that as well and if we go over to on multiple Pages it's just lined out as far as uh uh embracing diversity input and Community input and so on um I've seen that here on page eight the Community School boundary process seeks to solicit uh ideas for boundary uh change proposals from community members and or groups most directly impacted that's crossed out and that happens throughout the whole document um it's too many to mention and on page 10 um it says available capacity at under enrolled schools may be considered when economically feasible as an option to relieve overcrowding schools during the boundary process um and let me just see what else I have um and um on page 14 uh um which says designated staff quite a few things were crossed out um and I personally do not agree with that for K1 um so the the real concern with this whole with this whole policy and it's just so many is that the community is not happy with it the community gave their input I went to the to the meeting they totally disagree with this and not just that particular um stakeholder but multiple others and if you speak with all of them they do not agree with these changes and they're concerned that diversity has been pretty much removed in multiple parts of it that it is separating the boundary policy from the Ila it is increasing overcrowding to be more than 100% when we had this issue at MSD and we talk about overcrowding that uh um and now we're saying let's move that up to 110% so I am very concerned with the policy I'd like to see that it comes back with proper looping from Community stakeholders and that it is further discuss because I don't agree with majority of these changes thank you Mr fogan holy thank you very much Vice chair and um so I want to talk about Dr hess's concerns and we're hearing it over and over again but can we clarify the process of what this goes through right cuz we're talking about looping we're talking about everybody doing this this is Rule development that we're talking about today we're not rule making right so we're not taking this final vote this is for us to have discussion as a board and I may be mistaken Andre you can correct me you want to get on there but we're having discussion we want to see adjustments then the next step is for this to go back out and start the looping process correct to go to the diversity committee to go to different committees Community what is the next step Andre please if you can help with that do the through the chair go ahead Andre Thank you Mr superintendent do H bur uh you are correct um Mr Fen holy The Next Step would then be to to receive additional stakeholder feedback um based on the uh board's guidance as well as um to either come back for another rule development or to move right to rule making which is where the final um policy will be then be be presented to the board for final adoption okay so I for one as a board member I feel like this is where we're at is I would like it to come back to the board after doing that whole process for us to discuss and continue to get more directions and then go to Ru making right I feel like we're skipping the step of having Community input having input from our advisory committees and then we're it's just causing confusion here so both um I think was that also your request Dr holess was to not bring it back for rule making but to do right rule um development devel rule development so in other words have another Workshop where they've given input we give feedback and then it comes back to us one more time for the final vote is that what you're both asking for and can I go ahead okay and because and the reason for this um my feeling as a board member unfortunately I was at that meeting and from other stakeholders I don't believe that we um we engage the community uh in a timely manner secondly uh um I don't I'm not sure how much the community input was taken into consideration and thirdly I have issues with for example separating the policy from Ila with the 110% overcrowding and with um uh not having not having um uh the community feeling that they're involved in the process I think they feel it's unidirectional so I think as we go through the process we need to ensure that that everyone feels that they are a part of this and they're not simply just going there for because it stated that this is the process but they feel they're contributing to the process contributing to the process um and that their input is valued so I don't get that so I'd like for it to Loop and come back to us um not for a final but for a discussion okay thank you I didn't mean to interrupt you Mr problem for Dr Hess that the long answer for yes okay here I just wanted to clarify for staff what the what the ask was no I appreciate it and um and I want to be clear here so when we talk about it and the thing is of course again public trust everybody's trust levels are low it's Broward County Schools this is where it's been um until we start gaining that trust back from our community right um it was said and this is why it's clear we get direction from staff coward and coward goes in there starts looking at State Statute make sure everything's within the line wording is correct everything's within the line so for me I for one look at this and say okay we're looking at redefining schools you're having this conversation now you're talking about boundary policy that you're trying to change right before then this seems like you're setting up for that process if that is the case the communication needs to be much better from staff to us as a board and also Community people need to understand that and I feel like we're just skipping steps here on multiple facets here and we're it causes concern causes worry and then also just confusion so that's a big part of it if that's the plan like I said and then it goes back to redefining again what is the plan the clear plan to say if we have to change policy beforehand if we start having these conversations we need to know what the picture is but if we don't we get peace meal you're GNA cause confusion so for me that that's what what gets me on there um I'm not going to take too much time we've had this conversation I believe it does need to take that process and come back to this board um but I will talk about the fund Balance Board member Allon I don't like that idea I love it so yes from me chair thank you thank you Dr heer yes um give U Dr wano an opportunity to add some additional information about process thank you Dr so just very quickly um as the board provides direction to the superintendent and ultimately to staff when we um are when the superintendent is provided with direction to bring policies back for another session of rule um development ple could you please tell us is it all of these is it one so that so that that helps in the process that's that that's the first thing the second thing is is when they come back for another um development session with the board it may be in the month of May or it may be in the month of June depending on what the workshops look like number one and number two remember we do have to advertise I believe it's a minimum of 14 days for a workshop and then we have to advertise 28 days for it to come back for actual rule making if policies are tied to the redefining of schools process the policies have to go through the full Ru making process in order for us to implement them in redesigning so I just want to make that very clear um and I that's a good point thank you I think so far the only the only policy that has any controversy to it is the 810 so I think the other ones whatever we're talking about could go right to rule making if I mean I as we go around I can ask my colleagues that but I think the only one that's in um concern is the 810 any other board members have questions U Miss Rupert oh okay Mrs fam sorry thank you assistant chair um I have some comments to make um in reference to the policy and that uh 90 code of student conduct um there's some several things I I have severe concern with I get phone calls a lot from parents in reference to incidents that happened at school with bullying or um fighting and what they tell me is that when these incidents happen their child and other children are taken down by the principal and other Administration and they are told that they must delete the videos that they've made and then they'll threaten them that there'll be consequences if they don't delete it and they actually take their phones get the code and they delete it and then delete it from their their mailbox and I've spoken to this about with um general counsel and from a legal standpoint this is evidence and what is called in um legal terms is destruction of evidence or spoilation of evidence and in my opinion this is not an educational record this is documentation of a crime and how it actually occurred so I'm going to ask legal counsel General Council if she would write to the attorney general for an opinion whether we can legally take someone's phone away from them and say you cannot surrender this to the the victim's parents or to the aggressor parents in my opinion a policy should be made that if the school takes these videos when they get a copy them they should provide them to both the aggressors parents and also the victims because they have a right to see it they shouldn't have to fight for it they shouldn't have to get a subpoena they shouldn't have to get an attorney involved they should be entitled to look at what happened and I think it'll um expedite the process I think things will get resolved much sooner because there's no question about what was said and what's done and I can give you several examples of where U video One a video was destroyed and then it surfaced after the criminal charges and the at the video absolutely showed that this girl did not do what they claimed she did after her father had spent $10,000 in Criminal Court it's not funny it's not funny this girl was pulled out of school she was sent to the same um diverse um uh alternative school as the persons that that were involved in the fight they bullied her at the school and then they put her on the same school bus and they beat her up on the school bus and the bus driver had to pull over pull them off so the father had had enough anyway he came to me he talked to me we got that resolved and got that girl out of that situation and but for that video that one loan video that girl would have never had to go to Criminal Court CU she did not do the allegation that she was accused of so thank God she's back in a regular school because she was innocent and videos can show guilt or innocence that's why they shouldn't be destroyed I have another student I'm going to tell you consequences don't always follow um the right course and this is a 10-year-old boy who was accused of and I'm gonna read it right here misuse of tech you know what 10 years old he was competing with someone to see if he could find the password to a computer okay this little boy Not only was he suspended he got threatened by the police in full uniform that he had committed a crime and he could be arrested he lost all privileges to field trips 10 years old he's just trying to play on the computer to find a password which we all know he probably wouldn't find anyway he was suspended for 5 days he wasn't allowed to use his laptop for 30 days and the only reason he got the privilege back to the laptop is because the mother went into school and said what is going on he can't do his work um you have to let him have his laptop he wasn't allowed to play basketball with the other kids he was told that he played too rough he wasn't allowed to participate in recess for a week had to just sit outside he was put in a room isolated and the other students were unable to talk to him him and he wasn't able to talk to them um these are examples and he wasn't able to do his schoolwork because he was sitting in another room these are examples of that shouldn't be occurring and if someone had taken a videotape of any of these things I wish it had gotten out because this is how the truth comes out no more brushing things under the carpet No More doesn't matter there's no privacy right when you're committing a crime or when you're abusing a child and I I think that is abusing a child I just want to go um another girl attacked in the bathroom her mother had gone in that week to the school said she was going to be beat up she went in that very morning and said this girl is going to beat up my daughter well she did beat her up in the bathrooms luckily they got a copy of the video even though it was deleted it had already been air dropped so they had a copy of the video she's fighting with this girl fighting for her life being banged against the floor with her head and she got suspended for N9 days do you know why because she got up off that floor and fought back with a girl trying to get to the door to get out of the bathroom that's not self-defense that's called self-preservation no one no one has the right to tell you that you don't have the right to survive and you just have to take it over and over again that was the only exit she could get out of that bathroom so I'm just saying brow County School District I think you're looking at two lawsuits because I I am not discouraging these parents because what's happened to their children is not right and had the school seen that video which they haven't but the attorneys has if they had seen that video they would have known what happened but instead they chose to take it not comment on it and just secret it so we have to stop this secretive culture okay going through and I'm going to go through some other things that that rubb me the wrong way Page 65 um and this is K through two class okay cutting classes is the same violation as a dress code violation okay K through five I mean does a Cas do they know what cutting classes are do they get lost in the hallways so and in addition the second level of violation for dress code violation is losing extrac curriculum activities for up to five days first of all you're lucky if a k through two can dress themselves this goes down to the parent and you're going to take this away from the child if anything you should have the parent have to keep an extra set of clothes at the school if that's going on and then call her back to change them if you need to but but to take the curriculum activities away from a 5-year-old no this isn't right um another thing page 89 you have stated promis is a mandatory program we don't have the promise program anymore unless the booklet that my assistant brought down is an old one but we don't have that so that needs to be removed and any reference to it um I know many of the circumstances here lead up to when someone commits even an assault on a school victim I think it should be a whole different standard a whole different ball game when there's a victim involved I've seen milkshakes thrown on Persons more than one time where it's caught on video and then the schools say we don't know about this what are you talking about it's right here anyway um I think that when you have a a a drug violation and they start a k through going all the way up to 12 if you have a drug violation that you should immediately be put on a random testing at the school I don't know how frequently would you would have that but they need to know that you're not going to let them bring drugs into school and persuade the other children or the other teens that this is okay so I'm also a lot of people don't know this I'm also a part-time flight attendant I get random it's easy you go in the bathroom you know and and I don't know when it's going to happen sometimes they'll take the whole crew we all have to go it's not a punishment it's a privilege of working just like a privilege of of going to school can I stop you for just a second Miss Batista can you please speak to whether that's something we can legally do or not oh we are able to drug test employees we are not uh we do not drug test children because they have a right to an education we cannot prevent them from I mean there's no there would not be a a um a result or a uh or a consequence what about hom school what about virtual school there is there is alternatives to still getting an education and I think that's something that maybe a legislator should bring up because is it fair to we're we're always looking at the the person that's involved the person that commits the conduct we're not looking at the victims I wouldn't want any one of your children's getting exposed to other kids K through 12 doing drugs especially that young kindergarten they don't know they're going to take a gummy they're not going to know what's inside of it so I would never want to have any one of you have to race to the hospital and hope to God that you got there before your child passed it's just not fair to you and it's not fair to the parents we have to hold people accountable that's what we're missing so another thing what I thought too is um is when we were young and and I'm old school and I I'll be the first one to admit it if we did something wrong we had to write a hundred times you know I'm sorry that I did this or or I had to write an essay why I was wrong something like that what happened to that did I hate it of course I did but it made me not want to ever do it again cuz my hand be tired so why don't we instead of just saying suspension which is obviously not working obviously years ago teachers used to reinforce the discipline of the family family would reinforce the discipline of the teachers of the schools something's gotten lost in the translation here maybe it's just because the relationship is deteriorated but we we need to get back to being a team it seems like we're not a team anymore it really does it just seems like everyone's pick sides so I I want everyone to prick their brains and if you come up with ideas of just um not corporal punishment I'm not talking about getting out the belt or anything like that but but ways of disciplining or discouraging um students from from repeating the same performance and cutting down on all these chances we can't allow it you don't learn how many times do you put your finger on a burner when it's hot you learn the first time so give some thought to that and accountable that's all we want is the kids accountable and our kids all our kids safe but the ones that can't promise to keep their hands off of others or they can't um stop bullying or harassing then they need to be removed and that's that's another thing I would bring up to the legislature is right now under the hope schol scholarship the victim has to leave I think it should be the the aggressor the aggressor and good luck they can find another place to take them if not virtual homeschool you've lost the privilege to be in public school you still get your education though you haven't lost that privilege thank you thank you Mr Altin oh I'm sorry I forgot Miss rert was next can ition something Dr heer I just want to um staff just to make sure we send the up the updated copy to miss fam um with the red line because she referred I think you have an older copy and I just want to make sure you have an accurate copy because actually I do but my assistant brought this one down you men some things that are not in existence anymore thank you I do have it Mrs roer sorry you write your comments down after somebody does some talking with your research and then all of a sudden you look back and you're like what the heck and I'm going to read it anyway so this is my comment wow advisory committees are the lifeblood of this organization I am vehemently against silencing our advis committee's true public voice is needed even more now than before when I was a mom parent volunteer in my community schools parental Community Voices mattered you didn't need a resume a business experience you didn't need to have uh somebody who you knew you had the most important resume a heart for this district and our children going back to DAC I was a part of that these are Warrior moms and dads they will fight for their Community just like I did and every one of us I hope continues to do so because we're going to lose hope if we do not keep fighting for our kids and um I look forward to the diversity committee update I know this is probably better said then but after hearing a lot of stuff I felt like I had to say something and as to um m Mr Alon I was going to say trying to be an olive branch 4.5 but uh you know me but uh I'd love to hear your ideas there so um that is all yeah so I'm say bye thank you and before I get to Mr Austin oh Dr holess we need you to weigh in on the percentage for fund balance and Mrs Fam I'm going to ask you next so think about that okay thank you thank you so much um Madame chair um okay so for the fund balance um I do understand um you know our it would be nice to to be able to achieve the 5% I am concerned about it though and I I believe it's it's in great spirit and I I would love to see that eventually but I'm concerned uh immediately as to um moving forward in that direction um having to then find I believe $21 million right so um I would prefer to stay at four for now um but certainly I think 5% should be our goal uh in the future perfect thank you Mrs fam U four or 5% um quick and easy I really like toria's idea okay thank you Mr Austin thank you Vice chair um um let me just say that when people show you um who they are believe them I strongly believe that and let me just actually is it raining um fly over okay um so let me actually go to one point in my paper that I wasn't going to go first um and that is on coward and coward thank you for your work um improving diverse businesses is not talking down to diverse businesses it's not talking down to a contractor because I know the business climate in Broward schools and in brow County and unfortunately that was not demonstrated today to you so I apologize on behalf of the board um based on those comments that were made to your firm it was absolutely inappropriate giving a business a chance is what we as a board talk about all the time we claim as I think another speaker said at different points and parts of the Year depending what month it is and depending how late it gets in the year um that we support all businesses and that we support small businesses and that we support all these other types of businesses we didn't demonstrate that today and that's unfortunate don't put me in that category this board has already had a public conversation because I recall vividly when your contract came up I recall the conversation I recall the vote count and I recall who stood where then and now period credit worthy Madame Vice chair is 5% and that's to all members of the board chaos and incompetence is actually when you just don't read because we can make Swift decisions when we want to but fit was very clear to us Mr superintendent don't put me in the category when fit comes back Madame Deputy superintendent and Madam CFO because it won't be a 30-day or 60-day or 90-day period that they get back to you you know that and you should feel free to push back on your board but I'm going to push back on them because you probably can't in your respective places you know it should be 5% they've told us you ready for the next rating agency to also say the same thing because guess what they watch your meetings board members they watch every meeting and they were very clear about the fiscal policy and direction of this board and this District so when they come back and by the way I think I counted I think we're at five but if the board were not to do that let me just speak let me just speak to that point because everyone seems to not understand the urgency and the importance of that you want them to come back and downgrade the district we talk about Capital how much time did we spend on Capital a long time earlier you want to talk about what happens when they downgrade the credit rating Mr superintendent of the district what happens then what happens to our bonds our ratings the costs right that we now will increase to this District by not going to 5% quickly will it hurt yes getting to 5% Mr superintendent will hurt but let me let me read what I wrote here redefining schools I thought you told us that redefining schools is going to yield all this money Millions upon Millions upon millions of dollars so $21 million shouldn't be that difficult if we're going to sell land lease land merge some schools right businesses coming on site a b CDE e FG I think we already at 21 we might be at 42 million there's your 2% we must get serious about the fiscal condition because it's not just about the money and I know folks want to talk about chaos chaos has actually been going on for 20 years and two of us up here didn't cause it Mr fenoli I don't think you were here for a couple grand jury reports sir you weren't here for a couple arrests sir along with so many other things that occurred in between board member fol andoli so I'm hopeful Madame Vice chair Mr superintendent that the board is solid on the 5% if you need my help sir I will take a day away from my day job to come sit with you but you don't need that because you have a solid team that I know can find $42 million I just raised the ante even more redefining schools will yield funds if this board does it the right way because that's what we've been talking about the right way is important and I'm hopeful that the superintendent will update the board and the public on some more public conversations that will be coming countywide the reason why I refer and I'm get off and I'm done Madam Vice chair after this I'm going to repeat the same thing I tried to do earlier the chair actually pulled all of the salary and non-salary percentages and dollars by division it was a similar exercise I did almost a year ago when I voted against the budget noticing that there were hundreds sorry north of 300 positions that were in the budget that I thought was 300 too many but look at where we are today we just had to go backwards Madam Deputy superintendent and pull from that same 300 a year ago is that chaos or is that Forward Thinking the chair found and I know that she stepped away every division Mr superintendent and I can give you an observation and I wanton and I highlighted on the line yes thank you madam chair sorry that's that's your role um but there was one Division and I will just not name the one that if anyone looked at this document you may Wonder any neutral Observer Mr superintendent why is that division have more dollars than teaching and learning when I look at the number of positions in just one division why is it equal to another division but teaching and learning should be our North Star so I would encourage you Mr superintendent if you want to get to 20 million sir and I know you can get there I can help you based on what you've already shared with the board last thing Madame Vice chair Dr holdes I think it was your recommendation I'm hoping we can bring this in for a landing since the diversity committee I know wants to present if we can make a decision if we're going to go forward on everything or minus one or minus two so we can go ahead and get to the next item thanks everyone thank you um I I think the consensus was 5% for the fund balance so that change should be made um the polic there were some suggestions on The Matrix for discipline but no one really asked for that to come back so I think the only one that we need to come back for another rule development is is 810 Mr fogan hoing yes CH I would um ask for discipline and also 810 as well yeah discipline as well for me I just made a note to make an appointment to meet with them okay um so two policies to come back the discipline um I don't think it was called discipline I forgot what it was called student conduct student code of conduct which includes the dis District Behavior Matrix in it and then A10 um and then the change to the fund policy right that right so just those two need to come back for Rural Development okay thank you thank you so much staff and coward and coward for coming today and helping to present to us we appreciate appreciate your time and your expertise and um we're going to move on to our final item which is the annual diversity committee report to the school board I will now turn it over to staff for the presentation staff and community members staff and um I want to say Miss Pier Grant um while while she's coming coming up I want to uh real quick comment uh so my sincere apologies to our volunteers our guests our visitors today there was a change in configuration in the pre function room and also out front um I definitely own um the lack of communication to make sure everybody was up to speed and and understand some of those changes um that caused some confusion for some of our folks earlier this morning uh when we started the meeting so we'll ensure if we have any uh additional changes to the inside or outside of the boardroom that we'll make sure those are effectively communicated to all stakeholders especially for our volunteers that um are participating in our meetings on a on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and it would be great when all of you get situated in the seat if you would just introduce yourselves to us so we know um who you are and what role you play so that we can uh make sure that we acknowledge who you are and thank you properly for your time do we need more seats we need one more chair it looks like no two more two more chairs okay thank you thank you can you give me like two minutes I'm waiting for our guest Mr Sparks to come back you found him do you mind if maybe while we're waiting you start introducing everybody great thank you um so I was supposed to be introduced by the department of diversity School climate you you you want go Miss Miss Washington thank you you have such a big personality I'll do it then you can have a girl I got a I got a girl I got it I got it all right so I am your well let me introduce my committee Members First so to my right and those of you or who are to my to this side it's to your left to your right but you figured out um Teresa Williams who is um and this is Mr Sparks I'll introduce you in a minute Teresa Teresa Williams who is appointed by chair alef and then we have uh Erica hansinger Who was appointed by Dr Zeman then we have Miss Carolyn Hardy who's appointed by Mr Altin uh we have Tom Vasquez Who was appointed by uh Miss fam and then to my left is Rasheed gray Who was appointed by Debbie Hixon and Mr Corey Shear Who was appointed by Dr hones [Music] um and then um and I am your chair of diversity and I was appointed by Dr Honus but I would remissed if I didn't mention that my initial appointment was Dr Osgood followed by do the doctor he be mad if I say that but Mr member fogan holy um and our guest speaker today is Mr Sparks who is the one of The Originators of the CCC settlement and so we will start with him and then we will work our way through our report uh giving him about 5 10 minutes to just give a background historical context for the CCC settlement good afternoon good afternoon my name is James Sparks I'm I'm a member of the I used to say this every time I got up in uh ball parks used to get upset I'm a member of the black community of West Park and I say that because when you look at me what else am I I live in a black community I have a black wife and I have black kids so I'm a member of the black community and since race and diversity is such a big thing in BR County and forgive me Mr superintendent congratulations please forgive me thank you sir all right and you know it's bad that you you really have to just push race I came from a town in Georgia that was real racist but we didn't talk about it very much we had a few problems but people were people and they respected everybody but now I look at how things are in the different schools and how things are in bra County we had to sue to get uh let's say proper proper representation for our kids in school and I look at it I was just looking at report a minute ago I heard a report where one school had 72 workers and out of the 72 they had six done in over a year I looked at a report the other day and there was a school had maybe 12 and they got 10 of them already done and guess what schools they are none of them were the black schools see these are the things that's what I get real upset when board members and I'm kind of diersing a little bit because citizen concerned about our children was concerned about the children children of brow County that's every kid we didn't diverse we set up diversity committee we set it up because we wanted every Community to be represented we didn't try to exclude Weston at the time uh Dr Petrelli was the superintendent and M again Weston and terraa and those schools out there anything they needed they got and that was a fight I'm not talking about as uh as they say I'm not talking about something that I can't prove that's in history you just go back you go back and look schools in the black community used to be purposely not done I was looking at pictures and I got them right here now you go look at a school in a black community if the roof was leaking the whole roof didn't fell in you go to look at a school in the white Community if they get a leak and they got to put a trash can down that's a bad thing and they going to get it fixed and Mr superintendent to you your staff have helped in a lot of areas but we got a lot of things we need to do in our schools in the community and it's from the top you're the top to staff we need you to get on board we need you to come see some of these things when these commit when these diversities go to the schools we're not going out there just to you know see what it is and compare we're going out to see what problems are you know uh you really got to make sure that we are equal and fair City when I heard uho board member talking about how the community felt left out I mentioned a while back we didn't you didn't didn't come in the South and talk about the south schools you know you just went out west went in the middle and went up North but listen now you don't really care about closing the schools in the black community because guess what the property owners want the schools out west and they want the property out there you understand we know what's going on but guess what we don't want our schools closed anyway so that's a good thing we want you guys to begin to come back to our community listen to your committee who and I kept hearing I heard somebody to say maybe we need to get rid of some of these committees what do you mean get rid of a committee we we we agreed upon some things here it's in the CCC settlement you know what I mean Miss Miss I keep uh referring back to we had some strong arguments in that thing you know and I didn't agree but as a matter of fact when we did the settlement I got up in the school board meeting if you go look at the day we settled I said I don't like it I don't don't agree with it and I shouldn't sign I said but for the best of the community we had books in uh 200 and we had Globes and encyclopedias was 1989 in some of our high schools and we got proof of that we had schools that didn't have no computers when we went to court and we told the judge that he said oh that couldn't be in bra County School Board got up and said right Miss Batista we got we got computers in there 10 minutes later somebody said sent us pictures they got computer boxes sitting in the school tell me they got computers that's just how they did our black community but thank God we had a judge that after we got on him and straightened him out well we didn't straighten him out but I think the 11 judicial did they went back cuz he threw our thing out he told us we didn't have a right to stand for our kids and fight and that's on record I've never heard him tell any other parents that but that's on record the black community didn't have the right to fight for their kids that don't make sense if I don't fight for my kids who is if I don't fight for your kids you might not have time to so what we need to do is we need to really settle down if anybody haven't seen the settlement I would love to make sure you call and we have U our attorney's wife here she's got she'll get us copies I brought some people from the community brother uh Darren Woods brother uh um Robert Florence they're they're here they support we had a bunch of people coming this morning but guess what you threw us till 9:00 then you said lateer on in the afternoon then we had you know we're working people you know we have other little schedules we're not like everybody else you know and I understand everybody have a conflict but diversity is important I think I think diversity should be the top of the list for the school board of brow County because we're a diverse Community we have a lot of things things going on in Bravo County that's nowhere else and Madam chair if you need me to I'll stop and I'm not exactly on script but listen you was off strip a little bit but you but you're good you're good sir you're good I am hurt to my heart to see us as people say you're concerned about our kids but you know good and well that all our kids are not being served now that hurts I mean I just I can't see that I'm like this I I had my brother fighting a kid one day and he went to beating the kid so badad that I jumped up and helped the other kid to get my brother off I don't like to see you do people who are doing wrong I don't like that so I would love for you guys to really really consider we need money in the black in the black schools I and I pick on Collins because that's a community school Collins have been without bathrooms for 10 years you done move money around you done did this you done did that you gave a school in Cooper City $18 million at the budget and it was brand spanking new gave Collins $250 $250 million that don't make sense 250,000 250,000 yes sir I apologize forgive me no sir no sir but uh that doesn't make sense you know like I said when we get pictures and look at a roof roof falling in when it fall in that means it's been two three a average roof and brow County school should last what 20 years if it's falling in that means 20 years late that don't make sense so I think I hope she's good or they are good but uh okay please consider uh please consider diversity committee is a very important committee we set it up purposely for the community we want the community to get their input through the diversity it's very important listen if you can't go and you know what I and another thing is we have staff that comes on diversity they are parents too you know that's one of the reason I never ran for office cuz I don't want nobody to be able to tell me I can't say what I want to say and right I know BR county has rules and I know you have to be under Authority you know what I'm saying but listen if you're a parent and it's something wrong then you need to address it and get it right don't hide it and oh you don't say that you work for the school district I remember there was a young lady Gwen Clark Reed she was a state representative and she worked for the system and under Frank Petrelli she got up one day and she came in she had a big issue and she was going to really fight it he told her straight up you work for the district and you work for me I don't care if you're a representative I don't care who you are but you don't say nothing she resigned that day I respect that lady to the day if something's wrong I don't care who you work for I don't care who you are you can't cover wrong you got to speak up you got to do something I just don't see it any other way thank you so much appreciate you all right so I was told that I have like a clicker um but I feel like the board members are made the um time to look through the presentation as well as our report so I don't want to kind of bore you with that we're just going to go into um some of our findings and what we want you all to really consider so um I would be remissed if I didn't start by saying um thank you to member Austin for pointing out um how you talk to uh diverse uh vendor and how you make sure you talk to people in the community or advisories and what their importance are thank you so much Miss rert for making that comment because a lot of us feel um uh dismissed right um and um when you have a board member who it feels like an outright attack on advisories because they're either um feeling some type of way because of the you the the the point I want to make is I want all board members to know don't look at the messenger look at the message sometimes um some of us um more than others a little bit more assertive and I I own my assertiveness I can be very assertive at times but my heart is in the right place so charge it to my mind not my heart um because my passion has always been kids so I appreciate members who um highlight that and um point out even though you have your colleague you'll still be able to um let your colleagues know that hey that wasn't po so I appreciate that um I appreciate all the um board members who emailed me back when I was begging and pleading for the time frame uh member fogan holy leonardy uh Mr Austin Miss Hixon y'all just was like y'all made me feel important no I'm serious like when people get emails back from the board members they make them feel like they're being heard and I appreciate that I think you guys don't get enough credit for it but when you do email back it makes me feel like I've been heard and that you're listening and we really are Partners so I wanted to say that um so if you had an opportunity to look through the narrative um as well as the report um we we did it a little bit different this year because we wanted to try to match mirror the superintendent's report versus our report and kind of give you an idea of what we felt um didn't kind of mesh with well so um one of the things that pointed out to us today well to to me was I was here this morning about the budget when you guys were talking about the budget I'm a little bit concerned about um reduction of custodial staff because the schools and their conditions are not um up to par everywhere um there are some schools that are a little bit in better condition than others but those are the schools that have two and three uh custodians who are there to be be able to pick up the slack and then you have some schools that just has one custodian um so I um I know you guys already passed it but I hope that you can reconsider um that part of it so I'm going to go ahead and allow um Miss hansinger to talk about um you want to do what were you supposed to be doing um ADV technology what were you doing technology placement technology and um Athletics and extracurricular you got sis hello my name is Erica hansinger I am um faculty at Western High School um it's a pleasure to be here with you congratulations Dr hurn I uh look forward to working with you in the future um board thank you for having us and um let's get it started okay so I'm doing the advanced placement honors courses um data um the 2023 24 annual report provided data that appear to demonstrate all indicators have been met however on departmental presentations and site visits revisits the diversity committee submits the indicators 4.3 4.4 and 4.5 are questionable and requires further data to Support Compliance during the October 2023 meeting we had with Mr baroa director from the Department of secondary learning to discuss Advanced academics Mr baroa provided the same information that was used for this annual report we have recommendations for the districts for the district based on the questionable findings and two the dist the Department's presentation and the reports data provide provided analysis of academic performance and postgraduate outcomes among different racial and ethnic groups in Brower County schools for the 2022 23 school year reveals significant disparities particularly affecting black students the demographics are 5 57% white students and County Schools 40% black students and 37% Hispanic students overall 13, 927 students completed 24,8 163 AP exams with an average of 1.8 exams per student white students outperform Hispanic and black students with a passing rate of 59.7% highlighting a 21.1% gap between white and black students can you pause right there miss hinker so I just want to point out that number these students are supposedly supposed to be all in the same school this is the same district and there needs to be further um might there might be data out there that can show us why there is a difference in terms of how the white students outperform students of color um and so that's a real concern uh when we're talking about academics um one of of the good things that I've in the process of meeting with uh Dr heurn uh was he was implementing new things into the system uh after your I think it was February 14th presentation so I'm hopeful that we can get more information as to why this looks like that but also um to improve those numbers Advanced international certificate of Education otherwise known as Ace 13,0 59 students completed 27,000 894 Ace exams with an average of 2.1 exams per student white students demonstrated higher passing rates 76.8% compared to Hispanic 7 76.5% and black 59.9% students indicating a 16.9 dis disparity between white and black students International B at IB Program 20 251 students completed 911 IB exams with an average of 3.6 exams per student black students exhibited the highest number of passed IB exams but with a passing rate of 36.2% significantly lower than white students which was 64.7% the Gap in passing rates between white and black students was notably large at 28.5% postgraduate outcomes black students face challenges in Access in accessing and completing postsecondary education leading to lower rates of enrollment and completion compared to White and Hispanic students these disparities in postgraduate outcomes suggest potential long-term implications for career and Prospects in economic stability among black students in conclusion persistent disparities in academic achievement and post-grad outcomes among racial and ethnic groups in the brow County School District underscore the need for targeted interventions and support systems addressing these disparities ities require a comprehensive approach including culturally responsive teaching practices Equitable resource allocation and Community Partnership aimed at ensuring Equitable opportunities for all students regardless of race or ethnicity by prioritizing equity and inclusivity the district can work towards closing the achievement gaps and fostering a more Equitable educational landscape for all students our recommendations are as follows create a strategic plan to aggressively inform students and parents on Advan and on Advanced academics as a whole create a toolbox for each school to use to engage discussion on Advanced academics the tools for qualifying students for for advanced academics need to be reviewed and revised and last measuring students interest in advanced academics need to be reviews reviewed and revised all right so I'm I'm looking at your technology part so I'm just going to paraphrase a little bit so we can get through um all that so um you guys got the report one of the things that was spoke uh that was talked about this morning during your budget is that the refresh for um laptops was going to be Ned so we have an issue with that only because your L noals unless something has changed or out of warranty um and you know currently the refresh what the refresh is where we at where while we're now um 2 to one where we were one: one last last year um schools like William Dandy are still waiting on repairs on um on their laptops to be removed so to they they take them but they don't give them back they don't give them something to hold on to until they get them back so they have nothing so now that you have two students or three students using one laptop um we also noticed that policy 5306 has no provision for taking home um this was stated in the report from the superintendent but there is nothing cuz I read all almost what 30 40 pages of it and I couldn't find it anywhere unless I missed it um there was also a question about $37 million in technology and I had provided a um document that's attached so um there's some monies from the technology that was removed to provide for Teacher what do I have um 19.6 Mill from AR ARP for technology I had sent an email to staff asking um what line item was this money removed in order to in essence what what happened what part of Technology will be losing when that money is removed um I got a email saying something to the effect of this is the monies we use but there there was no specifity as to where that money came from um so I didn't get response on that um our concern is as a committee is we're removing funds to put somewhere else when we already have issues with the technology piece we have now um another question is are you guys planning on buying new laptops are we stuck with the ones that we have how old are the laptops from the ones that you're doing are we doing oneto one um uh Ono one replacement um C are so there's a lot going on with with it with that and we're a little bit concerned that money money's for technology is being removed to do something else so that was our thing um athletic extracurricular activity I know that this is uh Erica's baby so I just wanted to just say one thing before she starts um we've looked at all the Athletics well not all but the the schools that we visit visited the playgrounds the athletic fields trash I I I you know you want kids to be excited about sports some schools have good-looking athletic um Fields while other schools are just like dilapidated and um it's unfortunate but um to Mr Sparks uh this was back in 2000 and we still have the same issue that should be very concerning for everybody um today you guys were talking about budget about Turf and all that other stuff like um and that's great um but I I feel like we got to go back to basics and fix the small stuff first and then work our way up um so that's my thing but go ahead I know you had some um key points to talk about with Athletics thank you so this is my wheelhouse um 2023 24 annual States two counts of three indicators have been have been met last year's report is identical in nature which demonstrates a level of consistency that is unacceptable to the committee and should be equally unacceptable to the district the committee accepts the district Asser assertion and agrees with the findings during the visit revisits the committee observed that the athletic facilities at all K through 12 do not meet District standards as well as State Standards the report states that a District staff performs an annual site visit this this site visit performed by District staff was not included in the annual part report as a backup document the committee wants to know how this annual visit is conducted its procedures and processes as well as follow-ups would you like to add anything um no I think that was part of our recommendations okay growing up in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania I learned the value of hard work determination and transformative power of sports as a three Sports scholar athlete throughout High School I honed my skills on the basketball court and the track field earning not one but two scholarships to Geneva College becoming the first college graduate in my family but in midst the world run of Athletics there was always tennis quietly beckoning like an old friend while my passion for tennis began as a hobby it soon became a quarterstone of my life I vividly remember hitting the side of the American Legion wall in moments of frustration or disappointment on the basketball court tennis became My Sanctuary a place of soless and joy coming from a a family of abot tennis Abid tennis players weekends were spent traversing Pittsburgh's diverse courts from clay to Grass to Pavement tennis wasn't just a sport it was a family tradition and a bond that connected Generations in high school what started as a casual purs Pursuit blossom into profound appreciation for opportunities tenants presented today at 73 my mother and I still share the court passing on our love for the game to my children who despite their pen for their pensent for ten outfits in Tik Tok have embraced the sport wholeheartedly however as I visited schools in prow County I was dismayed to find neglected dilapitated tennis courts symbols of untapped potential and missed opportunities many courts were in dire need of resurfacing new Nets and proper fencing to ensure safe access for students partic particularly during physical educ education classes the disparity in tennis courts conditions was Stark especially in a state blessed with abundant Sun Sunshine neglected courts are not only not only detract from a school's curb appeal but also perpetuate false stereotypes about the quality of Education provided yet amidst the Decay I see an opportunity for transformation a chance to empower our community Through tennis by re re by revitalizing these courts and forging partnership Partnerships with local governments we can create safe accessible spaces for our students to learn and grow investing in tennis isn't just about fixing concrete and Nets it's about investing in our future tennis has the provential potential to generate Revenue attract stakeholders and secure sponsorships that benefit not only our schools but also our entire Community Stellar communities are eager to support initiatives that promote education equity and Community Development by highlighting the importance of sports particularly those with historical disparities like tennis we can drive positive change and ensure every child has the opportunity to succeed in brow let's come together to serve Aces Empower our students and build a brighter future for all also um a special acknowledgement to Patty Brown whose outstanding leadership has garnered ad admiration from all quarters in just the past month I've encountered three individuals who sing her Praises Patty your dedication and passion are truly inspiring next on to playgrounds Brower County Schools urgently require updated playgrounds to meet the holistic needs of students these playgrounds AR aren't just recreational spaces they are crucial resources for fostering physical health mental well-being and age appropriate development with modern safe and age appropriate playgrounds we can ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive consider the profound impact of play on a child's physical health updated playgrounds provide opportunities for exercise helping to combat health issues one older and promote promotee overall Fitness by encouraging active play we can instill healthy habits that last a lifetime but the benefits of updated playgrounds extend far beyond physical health they also play a vital role in supporting mental well-being playgrounds offer spaces for imaginative play social social interaction and emotional expression they provide outlets for stress relief and creativity contributing to the positive mental health outcomes for our students furthermore age appropriate playgrounds are essential for for promoting development at at each stage of childhood by providing equipment tailored to the needs of different age groups we can ensure that children are challenged and engaged in ways that promote growth and learning safety is our paramont in our commitment to providing updated playgrounds by imple implementing proper safe safety measures including soft surfacing sturdy equipment and regular inspections we can create environments where children can play freely without fear or injury investing an updated playground is not just an option it's a necessity our students deserve access to Quality outdoor spaces that support their overwhel well-being overall well-being by prioritizing resources for updated playgrounds we demonstrate our commitment to the health and development of every child in Brower County let's come together to advocate for updated playgrounds of Brower County prior tying this critical need we can create environments where our students can Thrive physically mentally and emotionally thank you so um um from my understanding the playground inspection assessment people is one person I I I I I uh she was at our joint um Workshop meeting uh she says she's only one person she's the only one that's um going out there doing assessments maybe I'm wrong but if she is that's an issue um uh and I hope that you guys will consider uh figuring out what that how that's going to work in that department um standard of service is a big thing for me I in the report I had put some links in for the board members to look at there is a um policy that was sunsetted by the uh former superintendent uh Dr cartright um where it was standard of student services within that policy if you read the top part it was in conjunction with two other policies um that I can't find um and we as it stands do not have a standard of service um so for all intense purposes we we're trying to figure out how we measure that uh so if uh the superintendent could look into that for us and we can figure out how we can navigate around the standard of service condition um that will greatly um help us um as far as the Five-Year Plan uh the only thing we believe that was um was met was the uh the portion of it being I guess posted but the other parts we were very concerned um and we're also concerned about the ADA compliance it would appear that ADA compliance only comes into effect when someone makes a request whether it be a teacher student and or staff um we would like to see the ADA compliance Department do a yearly or by-ear checkup on all schools to make sure that they are ADA Compliant without waiting for a requests um reassignments and assignments uh we've just been uh we were through different committees we've been learning that that hasn't been done with Fidelity but we are happy to see that um there are some changes being made to um accommodate those inconsistencies um and the last part I'd like to point out well not but not the last part I'm going to let uh Teresa Williams talks about security and then I'll we will round up with discipline or round out with discipline good afternoon everyone um Dr heurn congratulations board members well for those that don't know me security is I'm I'm a security specialist I am a survivor of MSD so when we go on these sites visits and I go and I see um for instance um students not displaying their IDs um I question when we go back and we talk with the administration cuz to me that's a simple fix I think at the beginning of the school year I know some people you know some they're waiting on pictures or whatever I get it but we're in April and we I still go and I still see they take them out at lunchtime they get a replacement at lunchtime but they're not wearing them um I'm luckily I'm at a school that they they display them 99% of the time we have 1% that you got to keep reminding them I make songs I Dance whatever to keep them to have the ID present and visible they come and ask me why right and I tell them you know if something happens to you medically your parents you know we want to notify them them immediately to get you out okay and then they do it now I never have a problem again so um I know you know some schools are saying that there's not I know security is trying to reinforce it but there's no discipline repercussion repercussions or no for them not an you know it's a ID I get it but you know I know that it you know people want to blame well security is not saying anything or security no they saying it um but I'm going to move on to also other things that I find that yes cameras fall under security but we don't maintain them I mean like I can do a work order or somebody security Personnel can do a work order but when you get someone that emails you back and says well hey this camera is fine but that's 10 days later after I submitted the request and you still didn't ask me what was wrong with it so we went to some schools and they had an issue I gave them Administration the contact who they needed to talk to ASAP um but that's that's under it um right and some schools they IT personnel they didn't have one for a year and a half right so there's no really no excuse but to say that we all we all work for security and it's always security over inconvenience and I can't stress enough too that I'm happy to see the HV policy 1473 because we went on site visits and we had doors propped open and they were like well you know the kids you know does the door not open by itself like is it why do we have a cone here propping the door open well it's easier access for the kids to get back and forth but the door can open the door can close the door is not locked when they're transitioning from one area of the hallway to another so why are we still doing this throughout the district is everybody's responsibility for security is just not the security department and like I said again it's security over inconvenience um I also suggest that we look at the systems that's are in place in the beginning of the school year and again in January because if nobody's saying anything you know we go to these schools and not every school we go to we select the schools at the beginning and then we go so you know when I go they be like oh Miss Williams about to pop a casket you know with her head because I'm just like how long has this been like this and why you guys haven't said anything and and it's a collectible uh everybody just need to get together and get on the same page I don't know why we're not doing it six years later I don't get it no consistency no none so it doesn't matter if it's East West West had an issue again prop door open I I and it's a portable so you have all this land everything out there and we're doing it because we can't come to the door to you know it is it's um concerning very much concerning um also on you want me to talk about no you're good because they have they got the report so um I'm just going to round out with um discipline so um the last thing that I want to point out um obviously we didn't go into everything because I believe that the board members are astute enough to go through the pro uh the report and then um can have their comments but the last thing I want to point out is that um I unfortunately think that this District um and what the committee has seen we don't see evidence of equity when it comes down to discipline um using the data provided over 14 years so the first uh report last year I went back in and looked at all the um supporting documents so this goes back all the way to 2004 um in terms of uh discipline right and it's been very consistent because I went and looked at each and everyone since 2004 so um for 14 years the district has not been able to ensure fairness and Equity of disciplined actions um I as chair am afraid to look back further than 2008 to be quite honest with you even with the so-called mechanism as the discipline Matrix that was instituted back in 2004 2005 um to to combat the excessive punitive actions against black children bias and discretion continues to overshadow compliance um I've had conversations with now superintendent uh Dr heurn about the biases um and um discretion because discretion I feel is rooted in bias right CU if you how I feel with something um maybe Miss Hixon won't feel that way uh just like how she mentioned earlier what she thinks diversity could be would be would be different for someone else so um the numbers have stayed consistent that um black and brown children are disciplined way more than their white counterparts um and the data is there that's I didn't make up the data that's the data you guys provided and that's the data I used um so I hope that um this board hears our um suggestions recommendations um and know that we're here just to uh be uh an extra arm for the board to uh make this District the excellent District I know it can be um it's uh disheartening again I I got to keep going back to that because we work hard to provide information but also be here to help um and when we are talked about in a disparaging way um some of us get discouraged and that and then some of us um we use that as fuel um to keep doing what we're doing so um know that this is collaborative know that this is not um this district is crap like well trash like I say it all the time um but it is something that to keep um blaring to you that we have these issues don't forget about them and we need to work together to get them together so that will conclude our presentation oh Miss Hardy would you like to say [Music] something with all that has been said I would like to stress to the board and congratulations Dr helburn and to all of the attendees here that it is important that you remember to be responsive to parents because without the parents you don't have the children and no children no students so we all must come together let's stop saying that we don't want to hear from advisory boards we're not here to tell you what to do we're here to help you to understand what's important to do and all of our goals should be centered on educating our children thank you and as a last remark uh Miss Evelyn Brown I don't know if any of youve been long enough to remember her she was one of our founding CCC members she passed last year so I just like you know at sometime maybe at a meeting we can just say thank you to her for helping us s the CCC Group and Cher If I could just say one thing um and and I'm glad I thought through this because I started to cry when I was thinking through this some of this has been traumatic looking at some of these schools and we're so appreciative of you superintendent uh Dr heurn U just so appreciative that you are able to stand in uh and and be there and I we know how much that you value kids um both in the schools as well as just in our communities so we're thankful for you um I got to tell you that being on this committee um it's just been a blessing dealing with um Miss Lor Miss Williams your staff um different committees our chair the amount of time our assistant chair our co-chair our vice chair excuse me Mr Gray and some of the other members who are just really about our kids and about education like I'm like wow you know and and they've helped me to learn uh but we've experienced a lot of ship I like to say almost with another word but sh sh p and that stands for smells holes incomplete and paint and so I'm just going to talk about how it's traumatized to smell some of these schools and to be in an auditorium for what seemed like an eternity but probably it's like 10 minutes and smell some of the smells of these schools this is impossible this cannot continue I spent 10 minutes and it was like 10 days I can't imagine these kids in these schools when I talk about holes I'm talking about walking in and looking and saying what is that there's a jack there blocking because there's a hole that goes up through the roof and somebody put something to block it there so nothing falls through the roof onto a kid like really you know it didn't even comprehend you know we all had to share pictures like what are you talking about and incomplete we're talking about work orders that just go unanswered undel uh you know not taken care of uh the situation not handled to the point that after a whole period of time they say hey just do another one right and let's just do another one so the the urban legend so if youall want to know how people are talking about us out there and I appreciate y'all and we appreciate yall but we have to say this there are times that there's serious concerns and people think that these incomplete work orders at some of these schools that are predominantly in with our children of color that those incomplete work orders because you already know those schools are the ones that are going to be closed right middle schools and then that's going to lead to high schools I'm just telling you that's just the word out there okay we don't want to you know continue that sense right and the sense of anxiety and concern around that and then the last thing is pain I saw huge sheets of paint falling off in schools that just haven't been painted in Forever at some point they're painted in some cycle but then just forget about it I'm talking about they were so big that if they fell off they're going to hurt somebody that we cannot allow that to continue we've got to go through these work orders we got to go through these principles assistant principles and even by the way the most of the custodial you know staff maintenance staff they know about these things I think you all need to query them and get some of the these things dealt with there's no reason why we should see this ship I'd say thank you so much but I'm I'm thankful to to my team I'm thankful to the committee and I've learned a lot uh this year I'm thankful Dr holess for appointing me and uh had a granddaughter this year would have loved to spend more time with her but uh she'll understand what I tell her about these stories and all this ship definitely for my granddaughter that I've seen all right but thank you thank you so much to the committee to all of you you you are volunteers giving of your time and I'll say it again happy volun unteer recognition week that is um we're celebrating that this week so thank you so very much for your time for being the eyes and ears in places where we can't go all of the time and to help us um to figure out how we how we resolve some of these issues um at this time we're going to take public comment Dr wanza Madame Vice chair we have Miss Mary ferte is she still here okay I just signed up because I saw James's name and I said should I sign up so I did but I'm glad I did because as I sat in here I listened to your conversation about the diversity committee so I want you to know that um we filed our first lawsuit probably in 1991 is maybe and um and it was the most Inc and then the District of course had to prove we were wrong so they created this wonderful group called the superintendent desegregation task force and this was I mean really just like an incredible group of people and uh we came up with all these recommendations James was on it Ernestine Evelyn I was on it we just had an incredible group of people and one of our recommendations that you would think would be the easiest to do of course they couldn't do most of them but one of our recommendations was to form a committee like ourselves that would be ongoing to monitor the things that the diversity committee does so of course they didn't do that and we had to just keep complaining and complaining and coming to meetings and finally they gave in and they created a poli and they brought that policy forward and so when we the members of the group who had made the recommendation saw the policy were like yeah no this is not what we intended so Ally Waldman berson Janice Boro and I sat down and we wrote Our Own policy and every single member of our desegregation task force and we had judges and we had the head of the NAACP and we had city managers we had James and myself we had a lot of people on there that we thought were incredible and we marched into this boardroom and we said this is the policy you need now that policy might have undergone some changes over the years but the core beliefs are there and I would tell you I hope you don't think about dismantling that in any way because I sense from this group I'm hearing from that they'll be coming in this room and we'll be here with them so I wanted to say that and I look at this wonderfully articulate group of volunteers who are are they they've just done such incredible research they've produced a fine report I think I hope you take to heart what they said and you may be looking at me and Dr heurn I realize you're probably the age from what I read in the paper of my oldest daughter who um was maybe in middle school when I started this and um and you say how do you keep going on I keep going on because I see people like these wonderful volunteers that you have here today come forward I see Tori's back Tori was a kid when he was here is it okay to say that and and I I just see the commitment to public education that is ongoing and I hope you take every word of their report to heart and more um I James mentioned our friend Evelyn Evelyn Brown rode a scooter she loaded this she didn't have a car she rode a bus she loaded that scooter on every bus on buses so she could visit every single high school in this County and the middle schools to make a list of what the courses were offered and she would be so proud of your report on the academics today and um she she was passionate she was a Central Area advisory member I'm going to just say one more thing because I would just love to see someday as James said we'd love to see you all do something to honor what she did for this district and I just say one last thing we spoke to Evelyn last night I mean Evelyn Ernestine last night and her thoughts are with you we thank you so much for what you've done today thank you so much do we have any other public speakers no I don't see um Dr Lynch washes left Mr spart spoke already and there's one other person Corey sheer oh you spoke right okay so that's it thank you before we go to the board members Dr um Dr heurn did you want staff to address anything in particular before we start asking um no what I would like to say um thank you for the hard work that you guys do every day uh it's much appreciated um this is very timely for me because um I've already kind of directed my staff in compiling all of these recommendations um as we start planning out for the rest of the spring and over the summer to really start building a plan of how we address all of these issues how do we progress monitor the work that needs to be done a little bit more efficiently and how do we make sure we're transparent in that whole entire process I know we can't address all of that at one time in a short amount of time but we're definitely going to put together a plan to figure out how we do this over time and make sure it's communicated well make sure it's transparent so we have a clear understanding of what we're doing and how we're collaborating together to to identify things throughout the course of time so we can address them in a timely manner so just want thank you Mr Austin thank you thank you thank you Madame Vice chair and first again thank you all for what you do um and to miss fdick you are 120% correct uh and I appreciate you recognizing all the Trailblazers um Mr Sparks uh Miss price so many others and I won't go down the list um uh who really have blazed a trail um that continues uh based on the burning light um and comments that I heard from everyone sitting uh here uh this evening um for me it is uh unfortunate that many of these observations um are still prevalent in 2024 so as I think about the safety and Welfare of all of our kids I'll kind of go there first I mean I can hit every bucket um when I see the environmental issues the roofing issues um ADA compliance I was trying to look at our Deputy superintendent because I thought I recall two years ago plus or minus we included something in the budget uh for additional ADA compliance uh that I think I profer but I'll come back to that because I want to make sure that that is uh you know addressed in what I thought I heard um but Mr superintendent and you don't have to respond I know you're talking go ahead but some of these comments and I won't go through all of them but Lauderdale Lakes termite issue um roof leaks in the gym for MSD roof leaks in different uh places I'm only just going to highlight the safety things because for me safety the welfare of our kidss are critical and at any point where a public official becomes aware of safety issues we must act on it so Blan Le uh hazardous roof leak I'm just going to point out just a few I'm not going to hit them all and you all have done your work thank you um William Dandy perimeter fencing issues uh fire alarm replacement issues so all of these are things that over time uh have been talked about in different documents I think we all know the types of documents so my first question is um how often often uh do staff conduct their own random assessments of school sites right so clearly I know there there are School site staff who do so I know there are district component uh staff or central office staff um who may be called out to school sites but how do we ensure that we don't have any safety and Welfare issues really just across all of our schools that's kind of part one the second part is clearly all of these have been identified and there have been different dates so I think one was November October different dates that have gone out uh from committee members so now let's fast forward we are now what is today's date April 23rd so as of April 23rd uh have we done any inspections have we verified what uh the committee and others have given us uh do we have a plan in place to address only these safety issues I'm gonna get to the other buckets but that's really kind of my first set of questions where's the facil here oh sorry I didn't even see Miss Batista was blocking me I couldn't even see you back there okay um go ahead Miss um chipowski Deborah chowski Chief facilities officer um so yes we work with the diversity uh committee they give us their report and po also has Personnel that do the walkthroughs with them so immediately they know what's what's going to be on the list right we have a couple of people actually that do the walkthroughs and PO is aware and they manage the process of rectifying the issues so let me ask a different question if I could Madam Vice chair so if the diversity committee had not submitted this report do we do our own random uh assessments of school sites that's kind of the first part and then the second part to your question I'm aware of staff accompanying uh the committee but now that staff accompanied the committee months ago can we say today uh April 23rd did I get that right um that we have rectified all issues we have a plan for all issues there is a fiscal assessment that we've done for all these issues there clearly is some operational impact right um are you prepared to share that with the board because that's going to get to the next part of uh there's a series of recommendations and I think I addressed this earlier in the workshop Vice chair around staff Mr superintendent making sure that they can give us some recommendation um Andor some fiscal impact so we can actually make decisions as a board so I'm kind of going there so if that makes sense yeah so to answer your second question first um not prepared to answer exactly the status of of the items on the list but we could definitely provide that to you as a followup however I do know that people po as well as our construction Department often walk the schools I don't know if it's in a set schedule per se but they do work walk the schools especially po who has uh Personnel at the schools at almost daily got it so I want to drill on the safety issues so I just gave you my own random sample um of my own notes that we all have that the committee did great work on so can we say today that all of these schools that have been identified separate from many more that I know sounds like you do your own self we do our own self assessment as a district that the that these safety issues no longer exist is that a fair assessment I know I want her to tell I know yeah I cannot answer that at this time I would have to check with uh our staff got it and I'm not doing gotcha right I think as a public official I have been given a public document that says that there are safety issues in schools and is it fair to say that we have verify that these are issues in our schools yes yes yes yes all right so Mr superintendent now that we know that we have known safety issues as reported by the diversity committee uh and accompanied by your staff um I would ask and I know there's a series of recommendations literally short to immediately but clearly defer to you on timing I just want to make sure that these safety and Welfare issues are not lingering because these are reported um months ago and we're now months past when uh these initial walkthroughs and assessments occurred so that's kind of the first part on safety because there should not be lingering safety issues on any of our school sites that we know about and for schools that were not assessed a part of the walkthroughs we should be doing our own random samples and ual inspections uh of all of our facilities so if if we're not doing it we probably need to do it starting yesterday so that's kind of the first part discipline data Madam chair I think you hit on this and you are 100% correct uh we did a virtual town hall and I think you'll remember we talked a little bit about disciplined data because it is unfortunately been a known data point that African-American male and Hispanic males have disproportionately hired discipline uh data uh in this school district um so that is a fact and I appreciate uh you kind of going there let me just jump to the last part because I can go through all of these but I want I'm going to allow other Bo board members to jump in bu superintendent there's a series of recommendations uh I'm hopeful that maybe as a takeaway because I really we're not a meeting for me to make a motion I would love for us you to make some assessment of these recommendations clearly there are some fiscal impact um there are some things that probably could be done shortterm medium-term right longer term if you could maybe give us what that recommendation is Andor plan um because some of these are for me a little bit more immediate um some clearly may take some time but I think we need to be as a district ensuring that we have a proper plan in place to show that this is a priority because if we don't act upon what we now know on nine of us then shame on us and I don't think that that's what any of us up here um are saying so thank thank you all again uh I appreciate the work uh that you do have done will continue to do um your work is important uh you are valued you do matter um and I know that all of us appreciate uh your diverse perspectives that you bring uh to the committee uh Mama Hardy thank you for being a friend colleague Mentor Mom all the above and I won't go and say anymore um you're not just my appointee and you know that um so anyway thank you all for what you do thank you thank you Mrs Leonardi yeah first I want to thank everyone on the diversity committee but as as well as everyone who uh was involved with the CCC um and your dedication to our district and our students for decades um so thank you for that um I have have a lot of the similar comments or concerns um as my colleague Mr Austin um and I guess to get to his most recent immediate point it feels like we you know we got our report last year and it doesn't feel like anything any action was taken um and so I'm wondering now what are the next steps for these recommendations what is our action plan um I I mean I support uh what was just suggested but I'm I'm wondering like what was the plan after today like we're we're sitting here listening to this report what was the plan for afterwards like are we just all moving on and you know what I mean so I just I I would really like to know what that plan is or was Dr heurn yes um I know that some of the items um have been addressed probably a few of them but uh like I said earlier we're as a team going to take all this information and we're going to actually create a plan that's going to be transparent working collaborative um with the diversity Community just to make sure there's a system of accountability Partnerships between us so they can hold us accountable to make sure we have a good Cadence of addressing a lot of these issues that are mentioned in this report okay thank you and then when will the board be provided like an update on on those things because I don't want it to be like another year and we've been sitting be another year um give us a give us a couple of weeks um to to build this out and the framework for and then we can provide on going updates and working collaboratively with with um this committee I appreciate that thank you um and then I just have like some specific comments or questions about different aspects of the report um one of my questions because this has come up multiple times today is playgrounds will and we've we've spoken about this a couple weeks ago um about how we're going to be doing A needs assessment of our facilities will that needs assessment be evaluating playgrounds we're if it's not included it's definitely going to be included I've had some conversations with Miss rert um over the past few weeks too about Playgrounds and that's been a a theme today from uh multiple groups so that's definitely going to be something that's included to make sure we're evaluating those playgrounds and getting some information to take NE next steps got it and I see Miss chipowski saying that it's going to be included so um that's good to hear um I guess in the same vein as facilities that's like a whole Beast that we need to address um and I I can just speak to like personal experience in the classroom but but also just like a systemic issue so when I was teaching there were termites in my portable I didn't even know who to go report that to and I was afraid to talk to my administrator because I didn't want to be the person like causing trouble right so what is can can someone speak to the process of like if you're a student and you see something wrong with a facility or you're an employee and you see something wrong with your classroom what are the steps that you can take to get those issues addressed Miss CH chipowski if you can provide some info and sure so they can report it to the school and they submit a work order right but who so who would who would you even report who would a teacher even report that to at the school would it be their [Music] AP um and I can as a past principal um usually the teacher would provide that information to their assistant principal whoever their supervising um person is and then that goes up the the the ladder usually a school may have a a clerical assistant or some or somebody to input that um work order but for what I'm hearing from the group is just the follow through of the work orders are our largest concern so we'll dive into that to see what the issues are um I know I've had some conversation with some folks in the room to provide some assistance to help us figure out how we're uh managing our work order system so we're going to dive into that to see what our gaps are so we can address that accordingly right and I mean if I'm also if I'm a teacher I I submit that to my assistant principal how do I know that that's been submitted as a work order you know so I mean I think [Music] one one recommendation I might have and again I'm not a facilities expert so you can take it or leave it but having some sort of like you if you see something say something online form um that people can submit you know and and that's just another added layer of accountability um to to to address some of these facilities concerns um to to just pick out like Mr Allon did um some concerning things that I I see in the report boy locker room atba has exposed electrical outlets boys locker room uh Locker home building too right so those kinds of things like who and and to another point that was being made before there should really be like a regular Cadence because it shouldn't just be up to uh employees or students to report things our po should have a regular Cadence of inspecting properties um so that's and I will just say schools and their facility create a self-fulfilling prophecy for our students right if a child goes to a school or or a teacher goes to a classroom and there's you know some like we said earlier someone said earlier putting we're putting a bucket out because the roof is leaking um that that tells students and it tells our employees how much we value them and it is at certain schools and it is not at certain schools um and I mean it's it's been like that for obviously a very very long time and I I really appreciate you Mr superintendent um committing to coming back to us with an action plan um I had one last question because again this it seemed like there were different um standards at different schools that I worked at in terms of consequences for not wearing an ID since this was brought up so what can someone speak to in our policy and in the code of conduct what the consequences are for students not displaying their IDs m Washington can you elaborate if we have a policy around student IDs yes currently in our policy it's part of dress code the student ID is part of dress code so it would follow the consequences for dress code so I I I mean I think what we've heard today in my experience in the past is that the consequences for that are not consistent um and we've heard consistency brought up multiple times during the presentation today um so I would leave that up to the the superintendent to to address yes and um honestly I want to take a different angle um first before exercising discipline and that's informing students and parents and being uh uh very overt about the reason why students need to wear IDs uh I guarantee if I walk around a campus and ask a kid who doesn't have an ID they probably don't understand the reason why they need to wear an ID so really educating our parents really educa our students on to for the reason why they should have an ID and how it makes it easy for all the other components we're trying to do with leveraging technology for checking in school and utilizing in cafeteria etc etc so um take that angle first and then we can start talking about consequences it really appreciate you saying that because it's also what we heard from the committee right um so I appreciate you you know taking that feedback and being proactive thank you Dr Hess I'm sorry what happened oh I can go ahead okay thank you so much so um thank you madam chair and um uh Dr heurn there are um many of the concerns I've heard today um seems to um be based upon uh disparity right right and so we need to ensure that there is equity in all aspects of our school system right so um and I I certainly concur with board member Alon safety is priority so we need to look at those issues right but there were concerns about technology and um whereby some schools were allowing students to take home uh laptop computers and others were not um that is directly tied to learning outcome right because if you have uh students with um economic hardship and so on without access to um computers to be able to do their work and and so on and so forth it impacts their learning outcome not just in classwork in summative assessment formative assessment all of these things get impacted so I would like for that to be a priority um as well that we look at um the schools that are not allowing students to take the computer's home and that we sort of look deeply into that to ensure that there's equity in that um process also um there was a mention here that school there are some schools without a certified media specialist um Dr heurn are you is that a a is that a practice or is that something that uh as a district we can look into to to resolve that because um I wasn't aware of that can you can you certified what specialist certified media specialist okay yes so um that is something I've been inquiring about um our uh methodology around uh what we expect in the media center and um the shift um from medeor Specialists and the autonomy that schools have had in the past about how they utilize that position if they cash it in and purchase something else and hire a media clerk so that's something that we're diving into the uh uh to figure out if monetarily uh if we can require um that all schools H have a media specialist versus a media Clerk or whoever else they have an a media center so that's something that we're actually diving into right now okay and also there was some concern in terms of standard of service um the uh diversity committee made mention here that in order to assess Equity um that they're seeking uh I guess greater access to student achievement data retention and graduation rate and so on broken down by demographics for the schools that they're visiting so um I don't know if uh prior to visiting a school if that information could be provided um or is it being provided because the concern is mentioned here so if you could speak to that so I don't know if if it if that request has been provided but we certainly have the data um as we saw in in the presentation I think February 14th around um or or or the 12th um for the academic Workshop which we displayed all type of data including that data specifically so we can certainly get that per school and have that ready because that's the data we review that's the data I want to see when when I walk before I walk schools before we actually see what we ex uh inspect what we expect in the school to make sure it's coming to fruition okay so um could our diversity chair prior to visiting these schools provide the district with a list of the schools they intend to visit and then have this data provided to them is that what you're looking for okay you can't provide it okay so you want the information after so let's let's do this you and I work together figure out what type of data you need okay um we have a great research in a an assessment team that creates dashboards so it'll be easy to um use a drop- down menu choose a school and figure out what time information you need yep okay great so the other concern I have is um in equity in terms of discipline and board member Alon spoke on it as well uh in terms of the disparity in how certain kids are discipline referrals and so on given I'd like for us to look deeper into that and to ensure that that process is Equitable that we're looking at each school and looking at the data to see the discipline data and see if there's disparity and if there is um that we seek to have action plans in terms of Staff Development sensitivity training and whatever is necessary um so that doesn't continue to occur um noted and I can comment to say we're actually diving into that work right now um to the point where we have specific heat maps that we're makes it uh easier for schools to interpret where they are versus all the other schools to actually identify any discrepancies and how they're actually administer in discipline in their school so that's something that's on on the on the top of my list um to address um also I want to comment about the onetoone devices um I met with Dr Phillips um um upon my start the school year to review if we're oneto one and how schools are utilizing the technology or if they're sending it home because that's what I'm used to um as a parent uh uh oneto one so um uh as a result of that many schools weren't sending those devices home we're actually in the middle of a of a initiative uh that we started mid mid spring to have our dnf schools and some of our priority schools send devices home with students to extend those learning opportunities in the home um and the reason for that is to proof the concept for the rest of the principles so as we come into this upcoming school year working with it to make sure that we are truly one to one we can replace lost and broken um devices so we can start pushing an initiative to make sure more of our students can take these devices home and extend those learning opportunities being being beyond our school walls okay I appreciate that Dr hebr because it it sounds like in fact I remember when when we had this report last year a lot of these concerns are very similar and I I'm just hoping that um this doesn't continue to seem to fall on deaf ears and that we take action so as you create your action plan um to address these nine conditions under the CCC settlement agreement um you know I hope within your action plan you can uh uh expedite the process and come back to us to tell us what's doable what's not and why not and give us a time frame to get the doables done in in order of priority such as safety as mentioned before and so on and um that you I am hoping well uh that you'll be able to uh to because I meet with you every month that you'll be able to include this in our meeting to and with the other board members to give an update as to the action plan and Hope hopefully bring this back in some sort of a summative report to inform the public on actions that will be taken to remedy some of these issues and to comply with these recommendations from the diversity committee so um thank you so much and thank you all for coming I appreciate you I know that it's hard work and uh thank you for your service thank you Mr Fen holy thank you very much Madam chair um and I want to say thank you to you all thank you for being here thank you for what you do all your time um you know I think the fight for equity in our districts are are tough right I for one when we see our school names and I want you all to know this as board members when we see our school names and they're listed and we see these issues to me it's embarrassing right that's like the biggest feeling and I the same way our community feels somewhat Left Behind as board members we always fight like feel the same way um because we see the auditoriums we see the football fields we see the hallways we smell see the paint right we see those complaints and I've always said this before it shouldn't take a board member to come to a meeting and yell and keep asking for it for things to be done and feel like you're waiting in line so I understand the issues and I feel like when it comes to District 5 right Parkway preaching those things right you come in and sort of trying to explain and we're all one Broward County um but it becomes difficult at times for us to EXP explain what we're going through in our specific districts and people from across town may not understand that all right our countywide board members understand um but for me to try to explain what's going on in Collins Miss Hixon you can show the shirt today you still there it is you know what I mean proud but let's go but it's it's that's right 65th anniversary that's right um uh but we we we fight for that and try to explain that right and try to to get that I for once still believe that we should get on a bus publicly noticed it and go do school visits together just like they are because can you imagine you guys doing your work and not seeing the school and somebody explain it to you no trust me it smell bad okay TR until you experience that and see what our kids have to go through right see what they're doing on a daily basis our teacher sitting in a classroom all day with termites like that's that's unacceptable so you know appreciate all you do and we were talking about this I want to ask this real quick for the committee because we talk about staff and I know we talked about change orders different things like that do you guys have any recommendations or ideas of how you would want to see us address that as a diversity committee there you go he's been waiting for his turn to speak okay thank you board member fol and holy my name is Tom Vasquez and I would like to address that question and and and and maybe uh Dov tail off of Mrs Leonardi's um comments on facilities and and the issues we're experiencing before I get into that just want to um just so you know where I'm coming from I do have uh an extensive background in business business practices and upon which one of those pillars has to do with Logistics so as your diversity committee and and if you haven't spent time throughout my career a lot of boards I've sat on that side of of the room as well the team you have here Caliber Caliber spend some time with them because you know what happens often when you're on that side uh it's just the nature of the B of the business you kind of lose a little perspective sometime the critique will be you you you kind of lost your way people like these keep you grounded they that kind of like boots on the ground uh version of what's going on so so so I would recommend from a professional standpoint a little bit of experience spend some time spend some time with them that being said what I would like to do and this is targeted mostly for you Dr he and the board members just to raise your awareness to some conversations that have happened with the diversity committee and key staff here your staff and your team which is caliber as well uh P you know and and various leaders there we had some sidebar conversations that I think uh will offer some hope to some of this the the challenges were happen I think based on the conversation we have I think uh uh they're going they they're going to be setting off in the right direction so what was some of those conversations well and again before I dive into some of the details if you're looking especially as a board member if you know the importance of facilities on education this is going to matter if you're looking for Budget savings what what the diversity committee is about to offer you is going to matter and of course if you want to build trust again what the diversity committee is going to say to you here is going to matter here's what you have in place right now obviously we know that the flows of work orders are such that it's we'll call it inefficient all right uh we could explain to you why and that's because there's a breakdown in language systems language the proper term is called taxonomy certain systems speak a certain way and it's not intuitive to the person who would the teacher talking to whoever is designated at the school to speak the right language to kick the system in the right direction to do X so there's a lot of time and inefficiency St that that happens there but it creates a bottleneck furthermore because the systems that you have in place aren't what I would call an or in the business world we call streamlined where they actually interact I'm speaking specifically how you put your work orders in to all the way out the door through the process to actually an RFP they're not really aligned so that would require and consequently the funding streams so when I hear safety that's probably a different bucket than just paint okay this is why taxonomy reviews are very important so we can align the right funding streams with the funding streams you're also going to get aligned authorities now what we shared with with with your team is that the problems we're experiencing here at Broward are not uncommon I've seen this personally and professionally we we large organizations get into these issues every now and again so the hope is that it can be fixed how do you fix these type of things well there's basically three principles decentralized decision- making okay you have to empower the those at the lowest Echelon like the like the diversity committee keeps bringing up the ones on the ground Empower them to act right now they don't they don't have what was brought up over here in the technical terms and and your staff is well aware of this it's called total assd visibility uh they don't have it so they wouldn't know where their work order is those type of things um aligning the systems and language like we talked about good taxonomy review is the second principle and lastly updating just B basic bring bringing the district up to just basic business what's going on in contemporary business standards stuff like basic training a lot of the techs don't have the basic training that they should they they need um you have no lean Six Sigma type of training and personnel which for this size organization I would say is uh uh we we want want to look at that so those are those type of things that happen but that being said I'm just sharing that because those conversations happen with the staff and hopefully that that that answers your question that's where the bottleneck is occurring why it's occurring and I know that they're on a good path now it'll be good to see what the plan's going to be here in the future understood thank you very much and I appreciate the answer thought he was going to say Get it answered as soon as possible but that that do that does also good um now I do have a question and I think it go for Mr Bradford back there um because I know we were talking about maybe creating a portal having a way that we can have work orders people can enter it in different problems we do work with Maximo um wouldn't that allow for that to be done like don't we have that available in that program program somehow Dr heurn Mr Bradford thank you superintendent can you hear me yeah thank you through the chair thank you Dr he uh we are working now when it comes to Maximo to reimplement the tool we have the tool in our environment now but we see that we can take advantage of some Properties or functions that we haven't taken advantage of in the past so we're in the process of implementing it now and we'll be able to take advantage of it moving forward so it'll be beneficial to schools as well as us on the administrative side of the house as well so we're in process of that reimplementation as we speak understood thank you and I um you know I understand the chain of command right but I I do believe if staff member or someone is doing that to place a work order to say there's an issue to have somewhere to go and and report that issue um yes we have and then also I know we were talking about the ID badges right something we we deal with I was on a school visit recently all the kids were holding them um it was Miss Teresa correct Miss Wood yes so Miss Williams was talking about she knew a song do you want to share that with us or you you don't okay so so maybe you could teach that and and send the notes to everyone but no thank you so much for what you guys do thank you all for being here thank you very much CH thank you Mrs rert thank you and I've got to say for as long as I've been here I've never seen a a more comprehensive look and um kudos to every single one of you and every everybody that came before still coming and those to come tomorrow the fight is not going in a way and neither are these people and hopefully we're not either so um I I appreciate that a few things I wanted to touch on if you don't name it measure it you're going to forget it and I'm just going to say two words Evergreen report we had that thing locked we removed moving along 110 I may be off by one or two recommendations for our ESC population we were ticking and Ticking and ticket and Ticking and then everybody felt not me that it didn't need to be a you know a monthly or bimonthly or quarterly and it just went away and I can tell you if we CU I think I don't want him to speak but I think we're in the process of having another Evergreen report no we should be cuz it's time so just just saying I I think if we look at it again but when we stopped naming it measuring it and making time for discussion it went away and it you don't want that secondly ADA compliance um that shouldn't be something that you have to fight so hard for I think one of the saddest things I've ever had to Wi witness was I had a student at um one of my high schools who was in a wheelchair and the elevators elev was constantly out so to his detriment and humiliation he had to be picked up to go up the stairs right he spoke at his school he spoke in the community contacted Ellen and and me Ellen's my assistant and I went out and made time and and Stat with him it shouldn't have taken a board member to have to go out there to do that and even with me pushing and my colleagues pushing as well it still took the better part of the year and do you know what the saddest statement was from that young man he said I know it's probably not going to get done before I graduate but I'm doing it for those who come after me and I think that is such a powerful statement and I just get even now I still get chills from that that's wrong on so many levels but I got to tell you very proud um it shouldn't be that hard and thank goodness for people who don't give up and continue to reach out to their teachers their community members their pastors their Schoolboard member grab me wherever I am you do I'm a public come on over you know that's kind of what you need to be um and speaking of grabbing people where they're at PTA moms um several of my PTA moms in district 7 rightly so very upset about Playgrounds rightly so and uh looking as to when there's going to be a needs assessment I've been asking as well as my colleagues when we're going to have that workshop and Dr he's going to let us know that and um but these moms said you know what we're going to we're going to work together and we can't do an entire District of schools but we can do the elementary schools in district 7 so they did their mom Network you know what one's a speech language pathologist so when she went to school X she took pictures wrote it up I mean it's not a perfect assessment but I can tell you who's got sand whose playgrounds are Co are are corded off with looks like crime tape that you can't use those are happening and these moms are just amazing to do that but I'm very happy to hear that facilities will be including that because once again if you don't name it not going to get done um what's the other part there's many recommendations in here heartbreaking observations that I wish I could say have not been around but they've been around and it's our job to make sure that they do not stay around and whatever we have to do and I know I always um hear from my Elder Community I'm one of them now um in in my in my area and they say we're tired but we're never giving up you know so if anybody can hear that please know they're not giving up and we're not giving up you know because we still put our kids first and let's put our kids first and the facility it's not it's it's shameful and it stops and I have immense immense respect for everyone in this room thank you for all that you do thank you thank you Mrs Fam thank you thank you so much I know it's getting late and everybody wants to leave but I just want to say a few words um thank you for putting together that's the best report I've seen it's really very very thorough and very impressive it shows your passion thank you for what you're doing thank you for even just coming here I mean it's so great to see your um um commitment your confidence and coming here and saying we count we we want to make a difference listen to us we're here see us so and and you're doing all the right things one of the things um oh by the way I did want to show you that I made all kinds of notes of follow-ups um the packet that you gave me um what I did want to say is it seems to me that sometimes you encounter difficulties in getting documents or things you need what about um in the future where wherever you encounter that problem wherever school that is put a bullet list together and then send an email to whoever's District that in and also copy um Dr Zan and Miss Hixon on that the that large ones and we can hopefully help you with that so you're not just running around frustrated so and and that's what we're supposed to do we're supposed to be helping especially when you encounter difficulty so I'm glad you came and um I look forward to to helping thank you thank you Mrs alh are you on the line yeah thank you for the robust presentation I want to speak to the Maximo comment I am extremely frustrated with the lack of implementation of Maximo um it's every I just feel like there's excuses of why it's not being implemented with fidelity and Dr he I just hope that you take control of this and see where the breakdowns are and why we are not fully implementing Maximo thank you thank you and I'll be brief um I I Echo your concerns Mrs alad on Maximo we had a each board member actually was given a presentation about a year and a half ago or so on Maximo and how would be implemented and I just don't think that we've gotten all the way to the point because there should be a way where u a principal or someone at the school can look in Maximo and see where the work order is it you know when they can expect someone to come out and I know there's a bottleneck as you mentioned of work orders um but we have paid a lot of money to to try to use technology to mainstream that um so I I Echo that um just a couple of things I think we also put in our dfp about Playgrounds so if um through doc Dr heurn if you could have staff speak to what what it is in the dfp that we have for playgrounds Mr Bowski speak or Miss Marte who's ever the most appropriate okay all right if we can provide a followup on on that item okay cuz I know that we did address playgrounds um and there's a a plan on when we were going to upgrade playgrounds through the defp so we've heard a lot about Playgrounds and I I agree with you I've been to a lot of places so um we need to maybe Circle back and see what it is that we've already put into place we talked about assessing playgrounds but there was also something specific like in the next five years how we would go in and and do something go have a little help and I apologize I just don't remember that right now Mrs hion I know uh replacement of playgrounds is scheduled in the defp in in addition to significant resources for repairs but also the board at last week's board meeting approved funding and uh two two items one for repairs and one for replacement with significant dollars attached to them so I'll get you a followup ma'am okay thank you I I just knew that it we've heard it heard and over we've seen it so I know that we addressed it um just want to speak really quickly to the IDS because I agree with you it's a simple enough thing to do and if um people don't like when you say it but I say to them you know how do we identify kids if there's an issue and people had to wait hours to know if something happened to their student because they didn't have IDs so um it's very important but you know I've gone to every school in the district um and I appreciate your visits because I don't do the same exact thing but I go and it really is about the administration and there are places where you go and the principal sees someone walk by and she's like where's your ID so I think it's a lot about training the administration and making them understand why it's so important and not just because of what I said but also easily to identify that you're supposed to be here or you know if you're not supposed to be here and and to have those conversations so along with the other items that you've had I think really just circling back with administrators and reminding them that um you know people say well it's so silly to make them have a big consequence for an ID and we'll get back into the disparity of why people get and then they charge them an extra $5 because that was happening a lot at the school and then they racked up a an obligation for hundreds of dollars because they just couldn't seem to keep the ID but um they don't lose their cell phone so if they they can keep it around their neck um you know we just have to find ways to be more positive about it and the last thing I'd like to ask since we've all said this is Dr heurn when when when can we expect to see the plan as a response to the recommendations that are on the um the report today um give give me a couple of weeks okay so I guess that's my point do you want to bring it back at a school board meeting as an item do you want to bring it back I can bring it back as a superintendent report okay so June by the latest June the latest okay perfect thank you so much thank you again everybody for coming um today we appreciate your time and with that I think we have gone over all the items do any of my colleagues have anything that they want to share Dr Hess I just want to say hi to Piper High School we're in Piper and also my mug here is uh Discovery Elementary so well represented District 5 thank you and I'll just say congratulations to both the South area um Mr fogan hly and I were there last Monday and then yesterday Dr holess and I were there for the scholar athletes in the North Area they received a lot of um scholarships and things of that nature and I'm going to give a special shout out to to my Gabby Gabby Carl she's the first female wrestling champ state champion in the State of Florida and just as a little side note she's never met Chris but for whatever reason she really was drawn to him and she won her first state championship as 125 pound wrestler and that's what Chris wrestled his entire wrestling career but she holds up a little Chris Hixon sign at every award ceremony that she ever goes to and she was a co- um recipient of female of the year and Dillard had the other female um athlete of the year and she was undefeated in her cross country right it was cross country um and she held the um the record at her school so congratulations to everyone but girl power so thank you so much for coming and have a great oh I'm sorry Mrs rert sorry you you all pick it up that's okay I never really do this but since it was you know I think it would make us feel really happy to hear it um Kendall Stevenson from Lions Creek Middle is being recognized for her acts of compassion and kindness towards another student who needed extra help due to a physical challenge Matthew Diaz from Coconut Creek Elementary School is being recognized for being brave by standing up to two students who were demeaning another student Alicia Zan forland and Bianca Pier trade ons Elementary they took a new student who didn't speak English under their wings to provide support as time went on they realized the student had limited clothing and Essentials so they gathered the needed items and gifted them to her new friend and lastly but not least Mila and I'm sorry if I don't say your name correctly last name Char Gala from Winston Park Elementary School she raised 21% of the school's American Heart Association kids heart challenge fund Riser go by encouraging her family to participate we've got great kids doing great things in our district so um shout out to them great way to end the meeting thank you so very much everybody have a great night e e I e