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 good morning this special school board meeting of the school board of bar County Florida is now called to order please identify the exit doors that are clearly marked for emergency exiting while in the boardroom refrain from obstructing the exit doors once the boardroom has reached its seing capacity attendees will be directed to a designated overflow area in the building upon activation of the fire alarm system please exit from the room in an orderly fashion and continue to exit building remain outside until the authority that has jurisdiction has deemed this building safe to return we ask all attendees to maintain a respectful and professional demeanor during this meeting disruptive behavior including but not limited to yelling interrupting speakers or engaging in personal tax will not be tolerated if you engage in disruptive behavior interfering with the order of the process of the meeting I will issue a verbal warning to seize the disruption immediately and failure to comply with the warning will result in your removal from The Boardroom by law enforcement removal from the meeting by law enforcement will be for the duration of all meetings held on this day our primary focus is to create a safe and productive environment for all participants thank you so much for your cooperation all please rise for the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America I good morning school board members I am Mrs Deo the proud assistant principal here at Plantation Park Elementary and we are here to lead the Pledge of Allegiance this morning for you will you please stand and place your hands over your hearts I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all you're a flag you're a highing [Music] flag em the home of the free and the bra every heart beats true and [Music] all Dr holess would you like to say something amazing job just p your microphone I think good morning everyone thank you so much Plantation good job thank you in order for the meeting to operate with an appropriate professional environment at this time we respectively request that all cell phones and other electronic devices be either turned off or put into the silence mood please step out of the boardroom if you need to answer your cell phone or make a call public comments will be accepted on all agenda items in accordance with policy 1100a any person may present present live comments by attending the meeting at the casy W administrative boardroom located 600 Southeast 3rd Avenue Fort laale Florida members of the public who registered online via the voice of the stakeholder web page or submitted a public comment request card located in the lobby outside the boardroom will be recognized to provide their in-person comments to the board when the respective agenda item is on the floor for consideration all those individuals that have registered will be called by the chair to speak all published written agenda comments related to today's agenda agenda have been shared with all school board members and placed on the district website for public view Anonymous comments or comments that do not pertain to the scheduled agenda will not be accepted therefore each written comment must include the person's name City and zip code as we prepare to begin our special school board meeting we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all of our students aspiring to become an achool District our purpose today and every day is to achieve this goal in achieving this goal we are committed to ensuring everyone counts our culture will be Student Center teacher supported and principal Le the purpose of this meeting is for the school board of bar County Florida to conduct official business of the district and any other items of the board deems necessary today the board is considering the following business one ITB fiscal year 2030 Construction Services minor projects ITB fiscal year 23029 motor coach transportation services ITB 24268 refuse Services number four metal detectors number five debris monitoring services for natural disasters six continuing contract for architectural services seven single service bottled water eight ensuring the district's compliance with funds for public charter schools Dr Lata are there any changes to the agenda yes Dr wanza good morning item eight ensuring the district's compliance with funds for public charter schools is an added item the changes to the agenda proposed by the superintendent are accepted by the chair after being determ that good cause has been established for said changes Madam chair Mr Alon thank you good morning Madam chair uh good morning members of the board um my question is and again I just came in maybe two minutes uh so I'm just getting used to this uh configuration how are we handling public comment for today's uh sessions we will call for public comment and they will go to the microphone to speak got it so going forward would this be the new uh configuration of the boardroom when we have workshops um not necessarily you know today we have our our meeting with our committees and I thought it would be appropriate for us to be in this setting um and then when that part of the meeting is over staff is going to create a a smaller Square so we're a little bit tighter and then we'll have more public comments public more for the public to be able to sit in the back to be present got it so we so after the special meeting we're going to reconfigure the Board Room so there will be attendees that are allowed to observe after the portion of the workshop right so no after when we have our meeting with the Committees after that meeting then we're going to get smaller so we'll have seats for the public to come here to got it okay thank you may I have a motion and a second to close the agenda second moveed by Zan second by Hixon all in favor of closing the agenda let it be known by saying I I I any opposed say no the agenda is now closed as we begin to take public comments for today's special school board meeting the public will have the opportunity to speak up the items I'm reminding the public that speakers advise to refrain from obscene or Vogal conduct slanderous remarks or statements that tend to incite violence or breach of the peace in addition speakers have to demonstrate proper deorum and model the district's eight character traits cooperation responsibility citizenship kindness respect honesty self-control and tolerance speakers are remind to watch the clocks on both sides of the day says yellow light will come on and indicate 15 seconds to remaining use these 15 seconds to wrap up your comments and at 5 seconds after 3 minutes expires the microphone will be set for the next speaker the first item of business on the agenda is item number one a motion to approve the second renewal for the invitation to bid may I have a motion and second on item number one so moved second moved by Zan second by rert it's been moved in second to approve item number one any public comment there's no public comment Madam chair okay thank you board member discussion Mrs tixon thank you um in looking at this item it it's a is a very large number $221 million was the original spend Authority and when I asked um Miss Marte how much we've used in the four years we've only used 19 so I would like to make a motion to reduce the spend authority to 50 million second it's been moved by Hixon second by Leonardi public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion yes Madam chair Mr Alon uh through the superintendent what is the impact by reducing the spend Authority Dr Lata Miss morte you and I have discussed this so please respond [Music] actually if I could Madam chair I think because this is a public forum I think we deserve to hear from staff and so does the public so I think that we should make arrangements for staff to also have the same uh courtesy that we do for any public meeting thank you uh superintendent Lata when this question was raised uh Miss chabowski and I uh collaborated and reviewed so a little bit of context this item was originally approved by the board in 2020 with spend authority of $221 million based on current spending Trends uh Miss chipowski and I agree that the appropriate ask should have been I'm sorry I said thousand I meant million uh 221 million the appropriate number should be uh 50 million uh the impact sir is to reduce the spend Authority uh this the the amount of 221 million was simply spend Authority it was not budget we never had budget for 221 million um and sometimes the two get confused but there's no budget impact to this reduction Madam chair Mr Alon so let me make sure I understand uh in layman's terms for the public when you say that there is no there you're the spend Authority will go down um but there is no budget impact so you're not increasing or uh the cash for the district on hand that's correct okay thank you okay any other board member comment Mrs zon can you repeat your motion yes thank you I'd like to make a motion to reduce the spend Authority on this item to 50 million okay second second any other board member comment all in favor of the motion say I I those opposed say no motion carries unanimously ah motion uh carries as amended the next item of business on the agenda is item number two a motion to approve the additional spending Authority for the invitation to bid may have a motion second on item number two second moved by Zan second by rert public comment no public com chair no public comment Madam chair board debate Mrs Fam thank you madam chair um on the executive summary it says the funds will come from internal funds I'd like specific clarification what internal funds are being assessed Dr L I will have staff come to the microphone M Marte just after this maybe hang out for just a bit until your items are done thank you superintendent the preponderance of those funds come from field trip money that's in internal funds but class money could be used if it's for um senior day there's various accounts but most of it would be field trip accounts and class funds if you wouldn't mind just clarifying for the public when you say field trip funds where does that money come from some of it comes from parents some of it comes from students and some of it comes from District funds and can you just elaborate how much is from the district funds I apologize I don't have that amount it would be very little the majority of it is is money that's collected I don't have the exact figure with me ma'am because this is over a million dollars I'm just trying to assess are are we the district putting in a million are we putting in a half a million what give me an approximation please so through the chair through the superintendent and this is a back of the envelope number because I don't have it but based on the information I do have I'd say it's less than 200,000 that would be in the internal funds accounts okay thank you so much any other board member comments seeing none the question is on the approval of item number two those in favor approving item number two say I I I those opposed say no item number two passes unanimously may have a motion second on item number three move move by Zan second by Hixon uh it's been moved in second to approve item number three any public comment no public comment Madam chair for debate M zon thank you um I I had a question because we spent a m188 371 it but it didn't say how many years that total was from can anyone tell me how many years that was for Dr Lin Miss wi shinsky are you here to address that I can try and I said your last name correctly yes thank you uh Allison wosinski director environmental health and safety um that was for a 4-year term the um the vendor did not want to renew and that's why um we went out to bid is this sorry I had two items last time um yeah so we had to go out to bed for this one so that's over four years okay thank you because this turn so we spent not a little over a million but the request for this item for 36 months is 3 million so I'm wondering why the increase so we're seeing a very large increase U about 74% uh in the uh in the bid amount so we base that on what was provided in the bid document over the three-year term okay thank you and my other question to the superintendent is um obviously this is a lot of money for waste and my question is can we start to implement a program similar to what we have for energy where we encourage departments and schools to reduce their waste consumption in other words less people have to come pick it up and we give we save because we do that with energy if they save energy each year they get a certain percentage of that Energy savings I'd like to look at doing that for waste so that we can encourage them to reduce their waste as well I'll respond um I can't support this enough um I think that's a great idea I also know that yesterday's uh committee chair meetings which was phenomenal by the way 95% of that meeting was just off the charts good with the committee chairs so good that I increased the time from 1 hour to two hour for our next meeting so we can get more conversations one of the the newest committees the green committee has recommended something of the sort they also recommended that we consider uh working with other districts along the state and see if we can get a Statewide contract and do in bulk numbers because uh he was well aware of that we have a massive increase across state for refuge service so um we can look into that significantly but I believe this green committee and and the chair is going to be phenomenal for us simply because they're looking out for our best interest so it was it was a great meeting but that was one of the highlights of the meeting with him talking about it thank you any any other board member comment seeing none all in favor of item number three say I I those opposed say no no no uh I'm sorry I heard Mr fogan holy is there anybody else my mic wasn't on chair it was me okay so one desending vote Mr panoli the next item on the agenda is item number four motion to approve item number four metal detectors don't move moved by rert second by Hixon it's been moved in second to approve item number four public comment no public comment register Madam chair board member comment M fam yes um although I appreciate us moving forward on the metal detectors I wish the board had been more involved I wish that um the chief had brought to us maybe the the top five metal detectors they were considering and um told us the advantages and and disadvantages of each so we could have been part of that decision-making process I feel like the ultimate thing uh is being brought to us where we've had no input whatsoever and I think as a board we are accountable we are responsible so we should have had the opportunity and I would still like that opportunity to look at the other metal detectors so at least we as a board make a decision which one should be in the Forefront not not staff thank you Miss Batista so the issue with metal detectors as with any other um product that the that the district uses is that um there is a process um whether it's an RFP or what not where you know the vendors are applying and the um items are selected in that manner the board um should not be involved in that process and is um ethically um not allowed to be involved in that process um because um there could be a conflict of interest depending on you know ethical issues uh with choosing a vendor over another vendor and and so on so while you are able to have input like let's say at a workshop as far as products are concerned or what things you are looking for um in a particular item or product um overall as far as uh selecting the actual vendor uh that is not something that the board is involved in um just for clarification I'm not looking in selecting the actual vendor I'm looking at selecting the qualities of the product that we're purchasing and those qualities have not been PR to us you're saying that um we have input on on what's available we don't know everything that's available we have not been presented with different options and different features you don't have to blend it um into one person bringing one aspect but as a board we should be familiar with all aspects and current technology that are being offered and provided so that we as a whole can have input and say we like this quality this is more important than this one um I I don't need this one this is a perk that we can do away with but the Board needs to be able to assess what is available out there thank you Dr Lata there will be a workshop on the equipment in approximately two months one or two months it's already been set for it now that we have acquired the bid and we are outside the cone of silence so we will be providing a workshop and the full details of the product it's uh and we'll know a lot more about it then but uh very confident in the product that we have chosen Dr holess thank you madam chair so for this particular item um if the superintendent could elaborate on uh I know that the implementation will begin with um padin two high schools as well as eight additional schools um subsequent to that so um I guess I have two questions how do we deter uh these schools for the sake of the public listening and in addition to that how are we Gathering as we make determination of the schools to which we're going to implement this uh uh the metal detector um how do we involve the public in getting their input within those communities where we'll have the metal detectors Dr lado thank you and those are great questions sir U because we're starting a pilot with two in the summer schools to get our tra uh I'm sorry our staff trained appropriately we've been uh working in a different County to try and figure out their mistakes so we don't make the same mistakes but then we are only adding eight more and if you know we have 30 plus high schools and there's no way we can apply 10 we originally started with um going with just pure data over the last two years for weapons uh that were found and we found that that might um influence some concern about why we're only putting them in certain schools so we've brought it back to Executive C cabinet we've asked the regional superintendants who know their schools better than anyone to uh help with the selection process and as we move forward there will be a uh issuance of how we determined what schools uh size geographic location and we've determined we'll put three in each region and we'll give one to um Dr tumor so he has one school that he'll place them in that he'll recommend and the others will have three and it'll come to final decision but we'll put it through executive cabinet as we've been working through it to make sure that it's databased but it's also uh logically based as well okay so Mr superintendent um I know you mentioned that um initially it was based upon weapons found right um uh looking at the fact that we've looked at other districts um what did they use to determine when they started the process of implementing metal detectors what are the factors that they use to determine which schools to start with and how to progress as they go along so so it was initiated by uh in another other districts by uh one District had four regions and they put one in each region and it was determined by um the regional superintendent as well as the school uh police chief that had input on it and then they've expanded it and they've done two per each each region and they're going to continue that way with uh local decisions based on input from data but more importantly uh input from the regional superintendent as well as as the police chief uh to implement them slowly large school small school Logistics some of this also has to do with Logistics because campuses are different and as we know and we can't disclose too much about that but entry you have to have roughly three points of Entry to check on this and this will all be in the workshop but the three points sometimes schools have four or five points so we have to look at that uh and other times we have uh where two people two entities come through the gate which would only make one point so uh we also have learned through other pieces that we have such uh a large number of security on campuses that we would relatively uh increase our ability to get students through a lot quicker as other districts are utilizing their administrators which really is helpful because then they're we're not exposed in anywhere else in in the campus so to get back to the answer uh we're working through the Regionals we're working through data and in in a mixed method way uh to make sure it's uh looked through with an equity lens but also uh Logistics so we cover all the campus Styles and campus plant Styles because we have several different Footprints so we have practiced in all those as we continue to implement and it is the plan to move forward to have all high schools by the end of next school year implemented okay so my second question was um how do you involve the community in terms of once you've selected the pilot uh testing location is there any intent to involve the community in getting their input in this process and how it impacts their families and so on so we will have that locally with the schools and how to prepare and there will be a lot of literature there'll be a lot of meetings regarding how to prepare your students we found that in looking at other districts the best district U Cadence was one where the parents were aware of what they needed to do as well as the students and what to bring what not to bring um I know that the the biggest piece to this is everyone's going to want them the first year and we just we don't have the ability and it would it would be a failed project to try and roll out that that many I know that uh Mr LaRosa is here uh who has researched a lot of this through other districts and I is there anything you could add to that because I know we will go to the community the schools locally once they're selected on how they're how they're going to roll that out can you give us a quick update on how the other districts have reached out to their parents and their students and their and their school community including staff good morning board um sir yes sorry for the record who are you introduction uh director lorosa uh director of Safety and Security so yes we've reached out to a number of uh school districts really across across the state um and Across the Nation in regards to the the platform we're looking at as far as communication goes to to families and communities I'd say this is it's going to be it should be a multi-tiered approach right so there should be messaging at the district level that we are that this is a new it's a it's a new program for the district as a whole right but they're also needs to be that that lower level school-based uh communication which I think we can assist with and that's what we've seen other districts do as far as you know whether it's Town Hall meetings or or those conversations to um you know to to ensure that families know know what to expect so um we've done a little bit of that already right because we do we do have the the random metal detection program that's been in place since June 22 right so that that does already exist right so families are already aware that that we do this to some limited extent throughout the district on a randomized basis so that's that's we kind of have a head start right which is positive so this is not going to be be a a shock to anyone um the conversation obviously has been having has been going on for a while so um I don't think this is going to be too heavy a lift but absolutely those conversations should happen you know at the community level okay thank you Mr superintendent I just want to make sure that the schools that we're going to implement this that they that Community they're fully aware of the procedural aspect of this so um you know it can be done smoothly thank you thank you sir and I believe Head Start and I know this is going to be helpful is having those two in the summer school where we can train internally our staff as well on how to capture the best method and do things so we're actually getting a head start we're not trying it the first day of school we're actually going to implement it during summer school which will really be helpful and of course that Community that's attending summer school will be aware of it and the parents as well so we'll do that but thank you very much for making sure that we're doing that Dr Zan thank you very much chair um want to make sure that we're level setting this conversation a little bit today 2 20 weapons were found last year that's not acceptable we must do something this is one layer of a Safety and Security System it isn't the answer to everything uh as we've seen with tsa's implementation of metal detecting uh technology often times Generations come by before they get uh really proficient at at catching things uh but there's too many weapons coming into our schools our children don't feel safe our parents don't think that our kids are safe and this is a critical uh step in the right direction uh Madam chair I want to thank the superintendent publicly for answering my six questions I asked a long difficult questions it required a significant amount of research uh they were all uh answered in great detail uh including questions about where these are going to go uh how much staff needs to be trained how much is going to cost both in capital and and uh and staff time uh I went from being a skeptic of this being an effective layer to a major Advocate uh based on those responses and other research I will also uh speak in favor of the school board's involvement in setting requirements uh I appreciate the general council's comment on not being involved in procurement that's a important and a a sage point but this board is set with uh the challenge of setting requirements for things and it would have been interesting to talk about whether we go Within weapon detection system which you're using in Palm Beach very effectively or any of the other Technologies um because we have to represent the needs of our constituents our districts and and the county I have two questions chair where is this money coming from Dr lado Miss Marte thank you Dr Lata so the initial funds the 540,000 were approved by budget amendment at last month's board meeting and that funds was based on efficiencies in utility usage in the current school year the expansion of the program would need to be funded through the dfp which the board would need to approve thank you very much so chair I think that means we're taking this out of the unallocated capital budget is that fair Dr Miss morte that would be the proposal that would be presented to the board at the time of budget adoption yes thank you very much chair and I fully support that whenever uh that happens uh it's a very wise uh use of time last point is really about uh data um I don't think weapon detection systems uh have a clear outcome because sometimes you introduce a weapon detection system and you catch more weapons so we need to be careful about that it's very similar to the immigration debate when we do a really great job at the southern border guess what we catch more immigrants um uh people who are are entering our country uh indirectly um the same is true here and we have to just be careful about it I hope as we go forward and I'd like the board maybe to think about this as an amendment or uh something to this particular motion I think we should get quarterly reports based on how these systems help Safety and Security not whether they catch more weapon systems so um I guess I'll go ahead and and make that motion uh I I believe that this board should get quarterly reports as part of our progress monitoring on how these weapon detection systems are improving Safety and Security in our schools second second move by Zan second by wholeness public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion all in favor u m t sorry okay um I just would like to say thank you for bringing that up actually was what I was going to to say I think it's important that when we're implementing it because our community does want it we've all heard that it's something that the community um overall really wants us to do but I think it's important we collect data and analyze it in an appropriate way to see if it is effective because we don't want to just give the feeling of being safer we want to make sure that we're making our students safer um and I have a well I'll ask another question any other comments on the motion M Fam thank you madam chair I I think you made a very valid point Dr Zeman that um we need to keep data ongoing data and that's really my point where we should have had prior data to coming in here and I just want to say this is probably one of the most critical um decisions we're making when it comes to student safety and I take this very very seriously and um for us to purchase a system without knowing exactly what it can do or what other systems can do I think is like it's putting the um horse before the cart we are buying something blindsided and then putting our faith in other people in order to rely on their opinions and at this point we are the ones in the hot seat we are the ones that are accountable we are the overseers and I just unfortunately I and I do agree with your motion I I support getting information and I do agree that we metal detectors but I I can't um condone a test pilot of something that I haven't seen the car driven I don't know anything about it that you're telling me to go by what the salesman says and I need to do my own investigation and I think the board too should heed this that we are the ones that are in control here and we are accountable if there's one thing that goes wrong with this system we're the ones that bought this system before being briefed two months down the road is too late we should have been briefed before thank you any other comments on the motion all in favor of Dr Zan Madam chair Mr Alon uh thank you not to respond to the great uh addition to uh the item so I know the item speaks to other school districts that currently use um this exact system I think to Borton fam's point maybe Mr superintendent if the team could actually speak to that I know it references the other districts in the item so I think it's important uh maybe just to give Miss van maybe some additional context here right I I don't want to can you see me I can't I can see this well I want you to see this too so go ahead thank you Dr L yes uh first of all yes this is um we're going to implementation doesn't mean it's safer and so I appreciate uh everyone input Dr Zan I do appreciate that and we've had extended conversations and I will have staff expound on some things one of the one of the uh one of the unintended pluses of this in researching it and talking to the personally talking to some of the police Chiefs is that it has reduced the amount of Vapes on campus significantly because it will detect that metal and students do not want to get caught with Vapes so that was not the part of it but they if if you were to talk to other districts they'd say that's one of the b b biggest successes of it because students know that that has metal in it in the Vapes and they're catching that which is really a nice thing to do because that is one that is probably our biggest discipline problem right now but I'll allow um Mr lorosa if you could give us a little more information uh without apparently we don't want to get into certain security details in the public forum because safety is important and some of it is not public knowledge so uh I think you know that that line so appreciate it if you would expound a little bit on some things yes sir yes sir again director L Roa Safety and Security so uh we have done significant uh Research into these various platforms we have tested some as as the board may recall uh another platform that we've had right here in this building was the Evolve system uh which we did evaluate for I think it was close to six months or or longer um you know that's that's kind of the the the more elaborate end of these systems you know ranging all the way down to your traditional metal detection which is which will you know detect your keys and everything else uh we have talked to other districts that use various platforms which range from you know something like we see with the open gate system to the Evolve system all the way to you know there schools in Philadelphia I believe which use a kind of TSA style metal detect with a conveyor belt right to scan to scan bags um you know we've looked at every possible scenario in architecture that we could come across we've conducted visits we've spoken to folks we've tested systems um you know that's that's myself my team Chief Alber um Chief Kowalski we've all looked into this we've done the research uh I think we're all we're all pretty confident and and what we have before you today um and I mean that's that's really the best I could give you at this point I understand that there's there there may be concerns and and you know looking at other options out there but I can assure you that we've we've done the research and um this seems to be our best option for for what we want at this at this time director L Roa would you introduce the gentleman standing to your left that helped you through this yes sir this is this is Chris uselman with the CTI he's a subject matter expert on the on the system would you like to uh to hear from him sir unless we have any technical questions that would he would be able to address um I know this is a widely used system that school districts that we've looked into are Su successfully implementing it and and not only that sir but this is you know if you it's a it's a it's a good system for any any large scale venue these are I believe this was in the presentation these are used at places like like you know Hard Rock stadium and Disney Universal Studios you know many many schools um I I I'm I'm not afraid to Stand Here publicly in front of all of you and and and let you know that this is in my estimation this is the best system for our for our purposes Mrs Fam thank you sir I I just want you to know I I don't have an issue with with you and please speak to the chair through the chair oh I'm I'm sorry through the chair may I comment back sorry um I I don't have an issue with uh your system because I'm not familiar with their system there was never a presentation before today to get us versed in this system so I'm my complaint is about the process and the lack of information that the board has been provided to make this decision as I said this is a very important decision but um I would love to hear and I'm sure other members here would be very interested and in what you could fill us in as what you're providing so we know exactly what you're asking us to purchase thank you thank you so any other comments on Dr Zan's motion seeing none all in favor of Dr Zan's motion say I I those opposed say no Dr Zan's motion passes back to the can I finish my comments chair I just have one one final comment yes uh one of the things that was so uh persuasive by the way was the reaction in Paul Beach County and other places where this has been implemented uh student students felt safer parents felt safer and the operational concerns that you might have with any new system were almost non-existent this got installed people got trained it worked on day one it worked on day 10 it worked on day 407 so it is uh very persuasive that the community felt safer after these systems were installed and that they worked so thank you very much for all those uh uh uh support chair thank you thank you Mrs leonardy um yeah just really quickly um I did want to just highlight an email we got from um one of our students um student advisor uh he said after speaking to many students on this issue it is clear that with proper communication Equitable implementation and proper training metal detectors will be an impactful additional layer of safety um and I just think it's important that we consider the student ADV voice um in this as well thank you thank you you go ahead AA Happ student adviser I just had a quick question regarding the two pilot schools so will they be at full capacity at the time that we're going to be like implementing the um the procedures and also I know like the greatest concern from the bcsc surveys that we conducted was that it was going to interfere with like the schedule of the day so causing delay in like the arrival to classrooms and trans transition periods between classes so that's why I just wanted to know how it's going to be like rolled out Dr lado well thank you for being here and asking those great questions uh the first question is that um we are in a in a place to where it will not disrupt the schedule of the day simply because training is what takes place uh what we found out the district some of the schools did not properly train their students or their parents or their staff appropriately and we found that it delayed school for a week or so and they uh exper Eren schools that were 3,400 3500 2900 so they were very large schools not just schools that are 15600 and so that that was um something we learned quickly that we and it to lead to Dr hess's questions we have to make sure that we are the public is educated as well to make this work correctly it's not so much internally uh as it is is um it's everybody and and your other half of your question was summer schools are never at full capacity well sometimes they are but they wne but it's a great start for us to be able to see it in a small chunk and feel feel out the system as we move as we train all our staff on it and we'll be circulating staffs from all different schools to make sure they're they're well versed in it uh I want to add behind that is uh this is not the end all be all as as Dr Zan referred to uh we don't give guns or knives and weapons out or drugs out at campus that's not what we do on campus they come from outside and this is one layer to protect them from coming outside so we need parents also to be actively involved in knowing what comes to school every day as well with their students so I think I got both of those thank you thank you and thank you Dr Lata for bringing this item forward it's something that I know that I have been trying to get accomplished for the last six years since the tragedy at Marjorie stowman Douglas High School we as a a district we like you said we can't we have to find a way and this is a layer of safety to prevent the weapons from getting into our schools prevent the guns from getting on our campuses so this is a proactive school safety measure yes it's not everything but it is one of the crucial aspects to try to prevent guns from getting onto our campuses so my first question is do we have a policy specific for metal detector I know we have metal detector wanding but do we need to modify that policy or do we need to create a new policy Dr L Dr W do you want to follow up with that please good morning so to thank you madam chair I believe that the the current policy would have to be expand either either expanded to include this new um layer of um safety or a new policy in and of itself would have to be drafted just to address this so we'll work with Chief alberty um and the team to determine what's the best pathway forward perfect so I would just suggest being that we want to roll this out in summer school that we get this process moving as quickly as possible and then my next question is and thank you Dr Lata for bringing up that this does reduce the Vapes from getting into our schools we do have a a vaping EP epidemic in our schools and I know that we had a vaping lawsuit that we were given money and I my question is can some of that money from The Vaping lawsuit be used to purchase additional metal detectors Dr Miss Marte um I believe that is true because it involves uh student safety but um you can confirm that so I I I give me one second to call up what the parameters are uh and I don't have it so the the lawsuit required us to the money was fairly flexible as long as it was used uh to reduce vaping so I think if we had data that proved the pilot program of metal detectors reduced vaping we could make an argument for it so I I I can't give a definitive answer but certainly it would make sense that if we have data that proves it reduces the amount of Vapes coming into schools it may be allowed the um parameters are still being rolled out Miss Miss Batista sent me a very lengthy PowerPoint that I have not finished looking at yet but I I and maybe she knows more than I do miss Batista um thank you madam shair so the parameters of the uh settlement funds are to be used for compensatory restitution or remediation and and I believe the um the remediation part of it would would be uh applicable here okay okay so you know I I hope that Dr L that you bring to the board a variety of solutions you know this possibly being one of them and then you know other ideas to prevent vaping in our schools and then let the board make a dis decision on how to best use that money yes that is a great Avenue for us to explore as we move forward perfect thank you and then lastly I need to make a motion to change the contract period so I move to change the contract period from March 20th 2024 to March 19th 2027 so moved moved by rert second by Hixon or actually I second sorry public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion all in favor say I I those oppos say no one dissenting vote Mrs fam back to the item as a whole any other board member comment seeing none all in favor of the item as amended say I I those opposed say no no one dissenting vote Mrs fam for the record may I have a motion and second on item number five so second moved by Zan second by Hixon public comment no registered comment Madam chair for member comment on number item number five debris monitoring services for natural disasters m f um Madam chair I just have a question um if I could get a point of clarification on the actual agreement whether it's um it says 3 million um through May 2024 and then the U other one says 3 million through um May 20 uh 2025 so I wanted to know if the 3 million so it's 3 million each year and where that money is coming from and my second question is there's a $750,000 p purchase order that has no date or no information on there and I want to know what that $750,000 was for thank you Dr Lata Miss Marte will you address those please yes sir thank you Dr Lata thank you Mrs fam it's the same 300 three 3 million it's not an additional so it's it's rolling forward and I'm not sure I understand your second question ma'am if you could help me thank you Mrs fam for that clarification the 750,000 is the amount already spent and that was spent in previous uh storms Whit O'Brien is part of our layer of um property security when we have a storm they go out with our initial Crews while we're still hopefully home being safe and assess where there's significant damage to our buildings so we can protect the envelope and not have water intrusion so that's money paid out in previous storms Madam chair just a point of clarification I just is that $750,000 in addition to the 3 million okay or is that included part of Dr L Miss Marte can you confirm that is not an additional that is spend against the 3 million it is not in addition to thank you for that clarification any other board member comment on item number five seeing none all in fav favor of item number five say I I those opposed say no item five passes unanimously I have a motion and second on item number six so moved moved by Zan second by roer public comment no public comment M chair board member comment Miss Dr Zan thank you so much chair I just want to uh take a minute uh because we talk here a lot about things that don't go well uh but one of the things that bar county has done very very well in the past and continues to do well is our design and our architecture work uh these firms uh from via design to Tamer peacock song Jose gueras Akai uh are our trusted partners for doing work often times putting aside commercial projects to prioritize ours often times trying to accelerate uh some of their design work to meet with the contractors so that we can get schools media centers fields and and Parks delivered to our students and I just wanted to take a minute and thank them for uh continuing to prioritize barer County Public Schools and I look forward to moving forward on this item any other board member comment yes ma'am yes ma'am um thank you madam chair another point of clarification in the actual executive summmer says the total cumulative cost is 20 million um I would just like to ask one are we paying that as we go along is that a lump sum that we have the finances to put out at this point or has that already been tendered so I just need that clarified where we are with that Dr L Miss Marte the uh so it's not a lum sum it's it's to use your phrase pay as we go so as the services are rendered the The Architects and there's more than one so it's not one person getting all the work um get part of the contract thank you again and um I in the future I wish staff would would um actually elaborate on the the payment schedule if it is a one lump sum because that affects our budget and we're all very very concerned about um budget minimums right now so I appreciate that clarification thank you Dr L we will work to have that installed as there's been many budget questions today as we move forward so we're going to make sure that when we're talking about money we'll try and make it as clear as possible moving forward any other board member comment on it item number six all in favor of item number six say I I those opposed say no item number six passes unanimously may have a motion second on item number seven so moved moved by Zan second by rert public comment no public comment Madam chair board member comment on single service serve bottled water Dr Lata I know this is an item about bottled water but um my familiarity and my history is and this is great because we always need bottled water trust me when power goes down or there's a water band or a Bo boil water alert but it's going to be our efforts to continue to include and thank you Miss Hixon for reminding me of this of bottle Fountain uh Fountain service for Waters in every new school or where we move forward uh it's important that we do that I know this isn't one or the other but as we continue to look at ways so we can be be better we'd like to continue to do that and look in into that and continue to try and keep away from plastic as I know that is your Nemesis Miss Marte did you have something good to add here I I do sir so we have that equipment in every single school this is only um dispersed from the warehouse when there's a boil water order at a school and those that equipment can't be used or we have to for whatever reason evacuate children into a field uh it's hot here so we need to have access to bottled water this is maintained at the warehouse schools don't have bottled water routinely in stock it is only um sent when there are specific conditions the schools all have that equipment because the board I believe it was two board members I'm looking at right now were adamant that that be installed and Mr Dorset and his team did it actually several years ago during Co yeah Mrs Hixon thank you I wasn't going to talk on it because I do know it's fir emergencies only and I appreciate that there are times when we do have to use the bottle of water but I just would like to make a comment that we do have the refillable stations in every school um long time ago we didn't and students had to actually raise money to get that in the school we did that in South Broward but as a district I think it would be really important if we did some PSAs and really encourage students who I will say are probably better than most adults about bringing a container that they can refill instead of just giving backpacks at the beginning of every school year maybe we're starting to give the refillable water containers so that we are encouraging them to make sure they understand but I will tell you most students probably do that already today because they're much more environmentally conscious than us old folks thank you Mr Fen Holly thank you very much chair and um my question is is this I know we're talking about emergency services but in a situation like ation High School um where the water is not drinkable not usable um water bottles were being delivered and being just held in the hallways is this the situation that we're talking about Dr lado that would be considered an emergency situation uh we are required to make sure we have water supply for uh each student and the number of the bottles that comes from the warehouse and and each adult on campus so we have to do the count of that as well but this is the exact reason why and it's kept in the warehouse under good temperature by the way understood and I know that that's been going on for a couple of years now um as well as I know that they have brand new water fountains and refillable stations but yet not being able to be used because the water is in such bad condition so I know that we are looking at it I know we've had a couple of different people looking at it but I I for one would still like to see that fixed as soon as possible thank you thank you Mr fenoli any other board member comment on this item seeing none all in favor of item number seven single ser ve spotted water say I I those opposed say no item seven passes unanimously so at this time we are going to need to recess the meeting Madam chair Mr allson um I know and thank you I didn't know you were going to recess the meeting right before this um but I think a motion uh is in order to recess but I'd like to continue the meeting uh with this uh item that is critically important um as we went through the agenda process I believe early uh we went through the order of the agenda uh and I did not recognize that you were going to recess and I know that does require a motion so my recommendation is that we proceed with this item um it is very important and I'm ready to present the item right now thank you Mr allson and I agree this item your item number eight is extremely important my recommendation and my motion is to recess this meeting we have our quarterly School Board advisory committee discussion they have their time period from 9: to 10:15 and I think it's respectful for for them to give them all their time and then we can take this important item back up at the end of our school board workshop at 2:30 today second been moved by Ala second by Leonardi public comment on the motion so I believe Madam chair the motion is not debatable um but I know that Schoolboard policy typically uh sounds like you are allowing public comment so if you're going to follow all the rules uh then this m this motion is not debatable and I wasn't at the last meeting uh physically so I don't know who our parliamentarian in is if it's still the general counsil if it's the clerk um but I think you should just take the motion uh straight to a vote um but again it's not debatable so there should be no additional comments sure all in favor say I I those opposed say no no no no alustin no for alustin fam motion carries so we're now going to recess the meeting chair just for the record uh School member fogan H holy also voted no oh thank you thank you very much didn't hear meeting is now recessed e e e e e e e e e e here Hi how are you I'm good how are you good morning this work shop of the school board of bar County Florida is now called order please identify the exit doors that are clearly marked for emergency exiting upon activation of the fire alarm system please exit from the room in an orderly fashion continue to exit the building and remain outside until the authority that has jurisdiction has deemed this building safe to return we ask that all attendees to maintain a respectful and professional demeanor during the meeting disruptive behavior including but not limited to yelling interrupting speakers or engaging in personal attacks will not be tolerated if you engage in disruptive behavior interfering with the order of the process of meeting I will ask for a verbal warning and seize the the disruption immediately board member fam will now introduce to school to lead us in the pledge allegiance to the flag Mrs Fam thank you madam chair good morning school board members I am Mrs Deo the here at Plantation Park Elementary and we are here to lead the Pledge of Allegiance this morning for you will you please stand place your hands over your hearts and it's my pleasure to introduce the students of Plantation Park Elementary School to lead us in the pledge allegiance thank you of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all you're AAG you're a highing you're the EM of the I love the home thee and the every heart beats true when and's never or bre all the greatest be for keep your on the thank you so much Mrs fam has requested a momentous silence for 11th grade student from kooper City High School Mrs fam it's with my sincere sadness that I must announce that unfortunately a student was um accidentally killed on a scooter from Cooper City high school and um we would just like to take a a moment of silence um and to honor his memory thank you thank you so much and and um I I this tragic accident I I I hope never happens again thank you Mrs fam as we prepare to begin this School Board Workshop we reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all of our students aspiring to become an a school district a purpose to and every day is to achieve this goal in achieving this goal we are committed to assuring everyone counts our culture will be students Center teacher supported and principal Leed the following topics are scheduled for board discussion at this Workshop quarterly School Board advisory committee discussion redefining BCPS part one budget Workshop number three legislative updates rule development policy review project project and the closed door the first item up is our quarterly School Board advisory committee discussion and uh the purpose for this joint discussion is to conduct a collective conversation as one United assembly my colleagues and I recognize the invaluable services that our volunteers and stakeholders offer to the district and their invaluable recommendations to the school board members on educational matters we expect all participants to contribute to this discussion in a respectful professional demeanor with a primary focus on creating safe and learning environments for the students of Broward County I will now turn it over for discussion to Mr Chuck Harper chair of the district advisory Council to lead us through the presentation Mr Harper thank you um and good morning Chuck Harper uh chair of District advisory and besides me besides me are many of the uh the fellow District chairs um and uh um I realize you know how important this time in this uh opportunity is to us and um our stakeholders and hopefully we can get some good feedback and dialogue back and forth today um as uh many of you uh have probably already seen um we have a a slide presentation that uh um will present uh you know some of the systemic issues that many of our chairs see and it was put together collectively and although I'm not really going to talk about that um at the start because I'll leave that to a lot of our chairs to discuss individual slides um I do want to kind of bring this this one topic up and the board has the chance to be the Envy of every single District in the state and you have the ability right now in the next presentation after us is to reimagine and redefine what Broward count schools is and um it it's amazing it doesn't matter you know when I talk to families you know at Westside Park or you know kids from Washington Park or or even at Mitchell Moore Center in pompo you know they all have one thing in common they want to see more AP classes more Cambridge classes more college classes taught by teachers in the classrooms at their local schools they they want staff fully engaged and and at the elementary schools they want teachers having having kids reading to learn by second grade and I think that's so important that and and I know that it's not lost on anybody but it is so important to the fundamental to have you know kids learning to read because it it crosses every single boundary I mean it helps in math equations it helps and science it helps it helps um so I I guess what I'm kind of trying to say is these families that that I talk to and even even kids they just want the opportunity they want the opportunity to succeed and and I know Broward County can absolutely deliver that and I know by by changing certain things by redefining ways we do business we can we can get there and you know and I think that's the amazing thing because you the board have the ability to make this District an a you guys have the opportunity to to jump out at the Forefront of the state and redefine what getting an education in in Broward county is all about and I will tell you this I've seen Charter Schools I've seen private schools and I know because I've seen especially being being on the uh um the caliber Awards I've seen how amazing our teachers are I see how amazing our assistant principal are our non-instructional and even our principles and we just have to get it out to the world and tell everybody and show everybody how amazing we are because I have no doubt that we can be there and with that I'm going to kind of open this conversation up to my fellow chairs and uh and allow them to introduce themselves and and and talk to to maybe some of the systemic issues but thank you thank you for hosting this we appreciate it Dr n Lynch Walsh I feel like saying here um um Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh I'm the chair of the audit committee and the facilities task force two significant advisories in terms of issues the district is currently facing um I'm not going to speak to any slides uh I'm more at the end when we start talking about recommendations so I'm just going to turn it over to the next person in line although I am joined right here with the vice chair of faciliity task force Miss Kimberly Burke mohorn are you call Ne you guys just want to go around I didn't know if you were calling we being proactive just hi Mary ferdig I'm the chair of parent Community involvement task force and we um are a very energetic group that is just anxious to spread our message of please be involved in our schools with parent and Community involvement improve student achievement and I thank you all for your involvement in our schools and and also thank you for the very excellent appointees that you have sent to our committee they have really made a difference thank you good morning Linda Ferrara chair of Technology advisory committee and quality selection and evaluation committee and also in for South area uh Carmela bores because we have a meeting this morning um with the conflict um we want to welcome everyone we want to say thank you for what EV everything that you've done and we we'd like you to understand we all here are your biggest advocates for public education and you need to keep that in mind good morning everyone uh thank you board members my name is Cynthia Dominique I'm the chair of North Area advisory representing all North Region schools go North Region um and we have an amazing group of parents who are also passionate and believe in um the power of public schools and wants to see our district succeed um and we're just happy for the opportunity to be here to have a conversation with you good morning Carla Figaroa I am the chair of gifted advisory um thank you again for hosting this and allowing us to uh speak and um I'm hoping we have a rich dialogue and that um the intent is not to give um complaints but more um Solutions and you know we're collaborative um like my fellow chair said um we are your biggest advocate so we want to make sure that this is a partnership to move forward and um make the district great so thank you oh sorry um narni Pier Grant chair of diversity um and I want to Echo um my fellow Chair by collaborative that's my favorite word I like to use it a lot um although yesterday I wasn't too collaborative um well I was I was just yeah anyway um getting sidetracked um so I I agree with her that we want to create Solutions not um come here and complain but there are some issues that we want to address um also um as a recommendation I think moving forward for me I I personally appreciate this and I appreciate the chair and the board members hosting us but I do believe that I think the chairs themselves should have their own time where they meet together and exchange information and come to a consensus collectively and then at some point if it's prudent we have a meeting with the board I personally feel like I can reach out to anyone and talk to anyone but just my recommendation maybe even Dr wanza could maybe facilitate a chair discussion um because I believe that you guys have a lot of work to do and I don't want to take up too much time um doing workshops with board with chairs when there is another way to do it although I do think that for some chairs believe that this is um essential and it's important and I don't want to take away from that but for me as a diversity chair um I'm good with going through the chain of command and getting to people when I need to um but I do appreciate this and I thank you so much for it thank you hi I'm Jackie lusin for ES advisory I'm not sure if we're just introducing ourselves or actually laying some issues out there I'm just going to go for it um I really appreciate this um opportunity and the first thing I'll say is that for every issue that we bring forward or every failure we might flag or every um element of continuous Improvement that we feed into there are some awesome things that happen in BCPS we all need to recognize that I think we all do um and we're all here to um make BCPS even better we're not the enemy we are a a critical friend um as the legal system might call it and a critical friend can be constructive but both critical at the same time and I think that's what we are here to do um I think there are a few things I want to mention that were Collective issues and then I'm just going to reel off some es ones I don't want to take too much time but we need to get some issues out there and moving um so the first one is that I think sometimes some of us feel there's not necessarily um a full understanding of what we do we don't just hold one meeting a month and then bring you recommendations from it our work goes way above and beyond that particularly the chairs and sometimes only the chairs um if if you're managing um um a lot of issues and trying to help um stakeholders find their way to help it is an enormous task it's actually a full-time job and some of us already have a full-time job so it is it is day and night and I can tell you I'm at emotional exhaustion Point handling BCPS issues and trying to get BCPS folks to handle BCPS issues so there have been some breakthroughs on that but I think that could be um one area of looking at I'm pleased to hear yesterday that there is actually some customer service training going on that might actually help parents out at schools to actually go in and get um a friendly face and get their uh issues fixed out there I think there are some lingering um um there are some lingering injuries from the de Deb Espinosa incident we never saw and and this is um a pattern that's kind of repeated again for parents you never see accountability so maybe behind the scenes something happened to um fix wrongs and put them right but we don't see it and there needs to be that insight into our accountability system um for parents too that when there is wrongdoing if there's educator misconduct the same as there is with discipline for students we need to know at least that there is a system in place that works for discipline for staff as well even if there are privacy concerns around it or issues around it um please all send your appointees to our meetings um most of of the appointees for ES advisory do come um some don't um um and um that can affect our Quorum again getting Quorum is um hugely difficult partly we're victims of our own success because depending on what speaker you have at a particular meeting you might get a a a a tidal wave of folks coming along for a particular meeting and then they don't come again for a while um we are looking at our policy and bylaws but the solutions we're coming up with we hope that you will be open to um and then I just want to is um mention some oh when we speak at um board meetings I think think um The Proposal that we should also submit a written report is just not going to be workable for me um I already come here and I advocate as strongly as I can and as articulately as I can and as diplomatically as I can on issues for our children and then to have to write it all down for you afterwards I just think maybe if just just listen to us and and we are here to speak with any of you and I do um or have some kind of um communication with you to bring issues backwards and forwards and bring Solutions or raise red flags when they they're needed but um to be made to do homework and write you a written report as well is too much if I come here and Advocate um I hope you're all listening and and we're done um we're good um in terms of issues I'll just reel off a list um we do bring Solutions I've got an ESC advisory meeting tonight compliance is one huge issue for ES it's the biggest issue um which is why the uh what's happening with switching off of or plans to currently switch off um edpl and move to a new system that just isn't ready and isn't capable of handling the uh the same level of head plan is going to land you in even worse compliance issues that impacts our students first and foremost and our staff we just cannot be doing it um uh educator or professional misconduct I've mentioned I spoken to the um uh superintendent about it um and I do feel that there are some breakthroughs in terms of understanding that there needs to be better issues put uh systems put in place um not only to uh for justice to be served but for the public to see that Justice is served we want cameras in classrooms to continue ESC classrooms that's a pilot program that's coming to a close by the state this June we would love for um BCPS to continue allowing parents um in self-enclosed ESC classrooms to request a camera um it's not rolling footage you got don't get to watch your kid at school but it is for the use of if there's ever an incident um you can um asked the school to go back on footage it has been crucial um particularly just in the last couple of months um to exposing uh wrongdoing in a classroom where if that camera hadn't been rolling um uh staff's accounts of what had happened would not have been exposed as um uh untrue um I think responsiveness of Staff we have different I think all of us experienc differing levels of that if there could be one um uh one common St standard that all staff including area superintendant um are made to uh understand that when we are bringing issues to them it's not because we're just tapping our fingers on the desk with nothing better to do we genuinely genuinely need help um and I've in the last week alone had frightful problems getting help uh the results impacted kids heavily one kid who is wrongly suspended at the age of four a child having an Autism um behavior um suspended from a school and um trying for 3 Days to get any help um to get that address while the kid was sitting home and actually sending an email to an area superintendent saying please you have an opportunity to stop this family walking out the door for that to not be one more student that goes on our you know we lost them list we we are trying to help you folks um and we just need that reciprocity um I could go on and on um but um oh and case loads for staff um ese is a full stretch um the changes in the ESC Department lead leadership were great um and they've got their hands full uh but they don't have the resources we don't have the staff there's a recruiting crisis and again it all impacts on kids um and staff and and I can't tell you how many staff I hear from saying this summer is crunch time this is the summer that I'm going to walk and find a different job and we just can't be doing that thank you thank you Mrs LOM so I know um i' I've had conversation with our chief of staff because a lot of times oh sorry I just want to this is kind of a cas SCH you know I just want to speak to the um when committees make motions what I've heard is that you feel that they kind of die and they don't go anywhere so what I've asked the chief of staff is that that they bring all those motions together in an agenda item and then bring it to the board so the board can vote those items up or down so this way I want you to feel that you're being heard and they're just not going on to an Island and nothing happening and but we're actually taking action on them yeah and thank you and I think that's a good point is that motions get then just passed back to staff and staff aren't necessarily empowered to say yes let's start this new initiative or yes let's let's Channel you know 600,000 into solving this issue and um just sending them back to staff then is kind of Dead ending them sometimes so that would be helpful yes thank you perfect my Dr H can or no thank you so much Dr holess um good morning my name is daao um greetings from central region I'm the chair there um I'm echoing a lot of what our chairs have already said and it's just you know it's my first time here so thank you for the opportunity thank you so we gonna do the slides what we doing Dr Lynch Walsh Mike sorry um thank you uh on the Motions I I thought I saw an attachment to today's meeting that had audit committee motions attached at one some of the backup for this item when it should be separated because had I not looked I wouldn't have known um but the yeah the issue has been that staff was inter proceeding and answering and so I appreciate it going to the board because that's who the recommendations are ultimately made to though there may be motions that are directed at staff but I I could have sworn I saw something for today oh in the PowerPoint so okay so Dr lynchell that so you just said motions that are directed as staff so I I yeah don't I think the better idea is if we keep the Motions directed at the the school board school board members to to opine on them because we kind of following the chain of command Dr Zan do you want to weigh in I do I I you know uh I spent six years um on an advisory committee for for Lauderdale and I um uh really really enjoyed the experience it got me excited about running for school board um but I think we confuse things with our language sometimes um a motion inside an advisory committee meeting is a motion for the advisory committee it could be a recommendation to the board but I don't want to confuse Schoolboard motions people who are elected or appointed to sit on this board with our amazing volunteer advisers that have recommendations advice ideas thoughts and and the like um so I just want to make sure our language is crystal clear motion inside an advisory committee meeting is for Action to The Advisory Board committee um a recommendation advice a statement a report all these wonderful things to do I think would be great I love your idea of compiling those things so that the advisers get some feedback on on things going uh in some directions or not but I wouldn't want to call them motions because that's what Schoolboard members do chair okay no dead wrong sorry hold on hold on Dr lunch balls first Mr alustin then and I said I was going to be quiet until 2:30 but I will do it right now so uh I agree with you you should that's right I would have lost a bet right um so I agree with uh Dr Z only well on this point right I'm going to kind of meet you both in the middle because I think what was included in here and I can't remember what slide I've already gone through it um it actually shows each of the advisory committees and it actually States when they are recommendations to the board or if there are recommendations to staff so I think to everyone's point I think we need to be very Crystal CLE if there are actionable items that we the board need to consider or if there are items that go to staff because the way this was written and I've already gone through it and so as everyone else some of this says you are making recommendations to staff it does not say you're making recommendations to the board so if there is a distinction then that needs to we need to figure out what that process is does that make does that make sense because no no no I'm I'm only I'm not saying that's what he said I'm I'm making my own separate point right this outlines the role of each advisory committee and what your roles and responsibilities are and then what our roles and responsibilities are to respond right so where there are board actionable items that should be clear where there are staff actionable items or responses from staff that should be clear that's my only Point Dr Lynch Walsh uh yeah it's it's one or other either when we conduct offici IAL business that means we're passing motions or that isn't what it means but I believe that's what it means according to Sunshine Law uh Robert's Rules of Order because we stand in the shoes of the board so we most of our recommendations are to the board but we have had to pass motions say at facilities task force to make sure that we get information um and sometimes that might rise to the board but I think Mr Alon is making a different point than uh what Dr Zeman was saying and he's saying it should be clear which we agree because there are things that either staff is going to do it or not and it's more to the superintendent but many things especially from audit because audit you know is involving the chief auditor who reports directly to the school board um but motions are not just for the board all the advisories that is what's meant by conducting official business but I I think some of the other chairs here can weigh in on this m veric yeah um so on just a typical course I've sat on on many advisories and I've charot advisory so I think there are a couple different kinds of motions that come forward there's the motion that did come forward and I see in the packet regarding audit regarding we would like to recommend to the board that the audit committee have input into I don't know exact wording but the uh job description for the chief auditor that is a definite recommendation to the board and typically when I'm I'm on a committee the word board is used when you're making a recommendation to the board another type of motion if you were on the parent Community involvement task force might involve an event that we're planning and just getting consensus around that other times we're making we're coming together and saying we need to tell the board how we you know what research our research has shown us about school Improvement plans so definitely in in my experience it's usually differentiated between transmitting a report on the audit committee to the board and asking the chief auditor to send us follow-up items on a spe specific time frame um I think they're both kinds of motions and I think your idea Miss aladu is excellent the ones that can move forward to the board move forward to the board in our in an organized fashion Mrs lasom yeah thank you and this is an important issue to clear up and maybe it explains why sometimes motions don't go anywhere I want to just read from um policy 1.22 which governs ese advisory duties and responsibilities of the ese advisory Council will be advisory in nature none of which conflict with the law policy or administrative guidelines to the superintendent and the Schoolboard of Brower County Public Schools so sometimes that is done by way of motions we Mo we motion that or we recommend that X Y or Z some of it is done with verbal dialogue or or liaison with you folks individually just kind of lobbying on an issue and getting it sort of you know mold its way way through the system others is through direct interaction with the superintendent um with the ESC Department staff there are things that can be kind of fix that don't need a formal motion um you know I bring certainly trending themes and topics and um problems being experienced by parents or out of school out at schools to um ESC uh departmental divisional leadership and they can you know address them themselves um but we are absolutely we're not advisory to ourselves within our um advisory boards we are advisory out outwards to um you folks and the superintendent certainly that's in our policy anyway Dr Zan yeah just to um try and make sure that we're communicating well with each other the idea that an advisory committee makes a motion to make a recommendation to make a report to bring a fact to the board classic role of an Advisory board that is not t tantamount nor feasible for that to become a motion within Broward County school board only Schoolboard members can make motions yes that's our statutory responsibility and I just want to make sure we're very clear about our role and the role of a critical role of our volunteer advisers and so tracking recommendations tracking their motions tracking their reports uh making sure they get data that is critical to doing the functions outlined in our policies are great things uh but but I just want to make sure that we understand that recommendations to the board from advisory committee are recommendations to the board to my knowledge all advisory boards work for the school board nobody's confused they are asked sometimes to bring recommendations to the superintendent where it makes sense to do so and that's great that we've written that into our policies but there Schoolboard advisory things and where they work well they're bringing us great new insights uh whole new sets of eyes and ears when I think of Chuck and kind of the entire District advisory committee structure and how that has fed us critical information and not just about clear backpacks and other specific issues but just um uh agenda items things that were not thinking about yet things that you wouldn't know if you're not listening and not really seeing uh uh the people that that sit there so that's why I'm just trying to make it clear that there's a big distinction between an Advisory Board motion within an Advisory Board and uh a school board motion within a Schoolboard meeting thank you chair and I sure so miss Batista can you speak to that because I'm just trying to get us to a place where the advisory board's recommendations are coming to us in a school board meeting on agenda item so we can either vote it up or down and take some type of action Miss Batista is that possible well it it's it would be possible um I mean I think it has to be done in a in a different form than brought up as a motion um right because it I mean it's not a motion from a board member um so there has to be a method by which the the board is apprised of the Motions that were made um I'm not sure if it's by bringing it you know to uh to the board or or through the chief of staff or you know I think we need to work on the process of how that that would be done um as opposed to just placing the Motions automatically on the agenda because they are really not I mean agenda items and those are um something that only the superintendent has um you know the right to put agenda items on on the agenda except for the portion that the board is allowed to to uh have as well M far um just a point of clarification advisories are also classified as public officials under um State Statute 286 so we have to follow the same rules as a school board members or any governmental official does um it's always been dictated that motions be made for Action to be taken so however you want to interpret it but to miss Al dev's point about putting it on board agenda I think we're just creating another layer of red tape that we're putting on there because you're asking for information six weeks out we've had our meeting here year and now it's not coming out for another two or 3 months down the road so are we creating a barrier that we're not looking for we're looking for some sort of response where action is taken at some point in time whether it's our motion going to you a board member making that motion to go forward that's you know that's another solution that's there but to put it on agenda you you're I think you're adding another layer of red tape that we don't need we already have a number of layers of red tape here where we can't get anything accomplished and to get something accomplished in an expeditious manner is what we have to look for we're looking at the bottom line which is the children no matter what we do so whether it's facilities technology academics we want to respond as soon as possible not down the road Miss Batista wants to clarify something no I just wanted to make sure that I was speaking about motions that relate to the board I'm not speaking about about support when the the the committee needs support or resources from the staff which is something that is provided for by policy like if you need documentation or or whatnot that can be made as a motion during the the committee meeting and goes to staff does not go to the board it doesn't need to go to the board for you to receive that information or whatever it is that you're seeking Mr Harper yeah I I I think we we kind of all on the same page just not getting to the the the the final understanding advisories we have two baskets kind of we have asks for staff and we have asks for the board to to make changes or to you know to look at this or or you know possibly do this differently and and our motions to the board are just that they're asked asks hey we see this we see this happening you have to take you know that uh that problem and say yes it is a problem this is a possible solution or no it's not really a problem we'll deal with it later or we won't deal with it at all at the end of the day it's really the board's decision whether or not to take take action on on what we recommend um and and I think one of the things that has been lost is a lot of times most itions that have been brought up the line seem to die in some staff phras aspect and maybe never are seen by you guys and there was a concern there and that's kind of why we brought that up um but uh I think at a board meeting hearing all our motions that are directed to the board is a great uh great solution and then it's up to you guys whether you think oh this is important enough for the board to to to make action make actionable so that's kind of where we are at least what I see as the district advisory chair Miss Dominique um I'd also like to add that um our policies make it very clear and we when we train our our chairs and our school advisory for chairs we make it clear that the role of the advisories is just that it is advisory in nature right um now we we we go through painstaking means to really do research so that when we bring a recommendation to you all in the form of a motion that we have done research on it we have collected data and it it's it's not it's not just based on emotion or passion but it's based on sound judgment um with that said we we had a superintendent Round Table yesterday and one of the asks that we had was for the creation of some sort of platform that is digital and automated to be able to track these motions because we're not really sure who handles it but often times the Motions like Chuck said they're dying somewhere they're going forward and there is no way to track them and see okay this one has gone to the board or we have we've gotten a response on this one or or this one has been sent back to the advisory or it's been we're waiting for more information um so I think that something like that needs to be created and I think Dr Phillips is up for the challenge um um the other thing that I would also add is um I'm having mom brain right now and I just totally forgot what I was going to say but um you're doing great it'll come back it'll it'll it'll come back to me um oh it was in terms of information the the culture right now and the process right now for our district is Staff gives us no information the same way they give the board members no information and it all has to go through the superintendent so you're going to be seeing more motions that are requests for information because I think that the the perception is that we are working against the district and that is not the case there there is no reason for any of us here to put as much hours and time into advisories as we do and you're missing you know moments of your family's life just for our own gratification it's not it's because we see that there's need and we notice that there are children right who don't have representation and who don't have anyone to speak up for them and I can speak just personally for myself I feel like it's my purpose to stand in the gap for those kids who don't have parents to be able to stand up for them and that is why I'm here and so when we ask for information or data it is not to say gotcha to the Schoolboard or to the district it is to be able to have use some sound data right to be able to make a recommendation so that we're not just saying I would like this to happen but then there's no data to back it up so um we we shouldn't have to but that but that is the process as it is Mr hion thank you and um thank you all so much for the time that you give to the school district to help us to be better and I agree that if you're asking for data that pertains to something that you need within the confines of your advisory that you shouldn't have to be asking for motions but I also want to just bring up because we've gotten some emails lately our staff also works most of them to make the district better and a lot of them feel attacked in the advisories and I think that's where this is coming from so we have to work both ways right we have to make sure that we as a board and as a district are appreciating and valuing the input of of the advisory committee members but also the advisories have to work on not making it an adversary place for our staff because they also give up hours to come to those advisory meetings and it's not fair and advisories need to remember you know they are in a recommendation place like they're bringing recommendations to the board and to to call out say people need to be fired and all of that while they're sitting in the in the meeting makes it very difficult for our staff so we shouldn't be able that that shouldn't be part of I think what's happening and if we could clear all of that up I think that where it looks like its adversary could be changed a lot so as long as we understand we do want recommendations but there's a way that it comes forward and we shouldn't be making our staff feel like they're the enemy either and uh board member Hixon that is a conversation that is ongoing um within advisories you know there there are a lot of us that are new and we couldn't agree with you more and Dr Lynch wal okay so believe it or not this was not the most critical thing when we were all talking um and then there are many systemic issues on the slides um one of the um responses we had to the slides was about the Under reporting of cessor data um and because the the head of the principles picked up the phone because she's not conflict avoidant which has been a systemic issue um we're sort of getting to the bottom of where that's happening because there's a perception that people are Under reporting data but there's also a lack but what it is at the heart of it is a lack of understanding as to how the system works so one of the easy wins from today could be getting to the bottom of the discrepancy between what is reported at the school level and what is required by the state because people are seeing the report at the state level and are aware of things occurring at the school level that they're not seeing there so that's one area um but before we run out of time because it's 9:51 um one of the last slides speaks to uh applying the Koso internal control and Enterprise risk management Frameworks I've been jotting down comments that people are making um you know there's no system of accountability and these are all common themes we organized everyone's Thoughts by common themes throughout the slides like there's one on academic achievement standards of service for all schools um and some issues there as far as how we measure that and uh and hold people accountable there's uh Jackie mentioned ESC compliance compliance is a districtwide issue and the lack thereof motions you just talked about having a method and a process so in my 12 years of experience and based on my background a lot of the issues we see including the one where staff might feel attacked is because the district despite having a strategic planning uh policy that's been in place forever doesn't actually follow that and in not following it it lacks this uh system of internal controls not the least of which speaks to the process for attracting devel veloping and retaining competent individuals the district cannot pretend that it didn't just have a fourth grand jury report that there aren't people that were named in the grand jury report who are still here and so when people come in and they're Enga they're they're seeing that person and wondering why they're still here but beyond that part of of adopting this framework is making sure that the people that are engaging and interacting with advisories are in fact qualified for the jobs they hold because it does them no it's a disservice to both sides to have people trying to defend themselves because they're in over their heads and the advisory members are supposed to pretend that that isn't part of the problem it creates frustration on both sides and similarly if you don't properly staff or provide resources for a department for instance you go you start ramping up for redefining and for the past year we can't get data out of demographics I had to do a public records request I use public records requests more often than um getting through the liaison because even when I ask the liaison I don't get the data that is a huge problem so maybe what should have happened last year is ramping up and looking at the staff and demographics we know there's two people in there we don't know how many more besides two there are but it's hard to to produce data when there's only a couple of people and they're using terms and some other archaic things um so that was a topic uh yesterday but not having this framework of a control environment risk assessment control activities these are all things we talk about at audit information and communication monitoring activities these are basic management functions and part of this was your aloh Chief auditor is supposed to analyze and evaluate the organization's system of internal controls as someone that just went through the almost giving birth to get standard practice bulletins put up on the office of the chief Auditor's website I can tell you he was not doing that since he was here he's been here since 2018 and that was not happening he did not do his primary function and that has created a lot of angst and all of these things on these slides tie back to that there is an an audit Committee Member that has requested an Enterprise risk management audit good news is that ties in Koso has an Enterprise riskmanagement framework so in all the takeaways today in terms of addressing root causes there are a lot of symptoms like today and how we're sitting that's addressing today uh Madam chair you were able to address one of the symptoms because frankly for me it feels like we have Mount Olympus and the great unwashed when you know everybody's sitting up there and this creates a much more even playing field that's a small way to change something that's symptomatic of the culture but until we address the root causes then the culture we we're just constantly fighting a losing battle where we're addressing symptoms and we've never cured the disease so that's what all of these things sort of boil down to and regardless of which slide people speak to I think the standards of service is important you had a CCC settlement in 2000 and uh yesterday Miss Pierre Grant brought up that a policy was sunsetted that pertains directly to the standards of service and the standards ofu student services and the rationale for it being Sunset so there's no cohesion between policy obligations but this all again speaks to your the control environment and part of changing your culture is having a system a process of controls in place so that everyone you attract and retain people that actually match your job descriptions and everybody knows what's expected of them and what the rules are and we don't have that the teacher the the principles are being expected to adhere to the standard and business practice bulletins some of them are so far outdated it's ridiculous and then they get audit exceptions and they're getting audit exceptions because the things are outdated and nobody knows what the rules are that's just another example we could all mention you know each of us could mention dozens of examples that we live with every day that we hear from staff that we hear from other people that you guys experience but which but there is so if there are some additional symptoms that can be addressed today before you know we get to 10:15 but understand that solving the root cause is rooted in in this structure here um sorry thank you thank you and something I do want to just speak to what you said because it uh there's a lot of um big issues with if it is true or it's not true that BCPS is Under reporting cessor data and I'm going to work with the superintendent to have that conversation um because and I don't know if that's if if it is true but we need to obviously fix it or the lack of understanding or communication whether it's happening at the school level or at the state level so that will be a top priority mine as the chair to work with Dr Lata to communicate the cessor data reporting and how that is happening so that's number number one and then number two is what I'm kind of hearing from everybody is this lack of you know flow of communication so you know I I want to understand I'm I'm a visual person so that that flowchart of communication what that looks like so I'll talk with Dr Lata about that because there seems you know and I don't know within different committees is that flow of communication happening differently from one committee to the next but it should be pretty unified so that we're all on the same page and we don't have these um you know we're not getting information because obviously if you're successful we're successful and our students are successful Mrs fdick thank first I just I'm not gonna belabor this other because I think we think we've had a lot of conversation there have been a lot of comments when I think your idea of tracking what's brought to you is a good idea you don't have to put it on agenda or whatever but it is like a black hole sometimes you bring something forward and then a year later they want to make the same we want to bring the same thing forward and a year later the same thing so it would just be would just be better if you tracked it I um I think there's a reason for motions in in advisory boards and that one reason is because we don't always agree on everything and it let you know what we actually have reached consensus on um I am really fortunate that at this point after many years of being a volunteer maybe that's Decades of being a volunteer in this system I'm working on the parent Community involvement task force which has been just a wonderfully uh positive experience we have a one we have had every single one of our um leaz on has just been outstanding and works with us um just wanted to mention this while we're talking in the course of doing our parent universities we work with staff to develop the program and present it and I I just what has been so incredible about this is we see the talent that you have here at roward County Public Schools I want to thank Miss Hixon she was on our Task Force and and continues to work with us but we see that incredible talent you have on the staff and we have to collaborate because we're coming forward with a program that a lot of people are going to see and you know we and we really we so I I I think in a committee and and this is something maybe for another day but I think that your your content your conversations Miss Hixon about the interaction in committees is important because when there's too much dissension at a meeting it makes people uncomfortable to the point they may not want to participate in the future and um and you know we're kind of having this conversation in the city of for Lauderdale right now and so there's a conversation should there be a code of conduct for the public officials of course they want one for the Committees and our thought is shouldn't there just be some guidelines for all of us about how we interact in our meetings and um and maybe that's something that you want to ask your staff about I you know where I fall in this if you're going to ask me to do it then do it yourself make sure that we're all following the same rules that we're all and the and the point of all of this is isn't that what we're asking of our children every single day to follow those same rules in the schools they're in so I um I did want to address that I thank you for coming up with a way of organizing how you're going to uh uh deal with what we've brought before you and um I don't want to take any more time because I've probably already taken too much Cynthia you think Mrs but but oh yeah um so I I just wanted to Echo Mary's point and oops um we actually brought this up I I don't remember what the meeting was um but I know that when you look at some of the cultures not just in advisories but even on schools with the ptas and and how people complain of the clickiness and these things and in policy it's [Music] 5900 I might be misquoting it but the anti-bullying policy requires that all students staff and parents complete the anti-bully training right and that just doesn't happen and so we have some things that are already in policy that are not happening we have a civility policy which I believe that everyone should just follow and if you're doing you know if you're representing Broward schools in any sort of capacity as a volunteer in advisories then you should be required to take um certain training um so that's that's that piece I did want to speak a little bit to um the academic infrastructure right I know there's been a lot of talk in the school board about um increasing academic time increasing that seat time right um because we believe that when our children are in front of qualified Educators you know for longer periods of time they do better but I think one of the things that we really need to focus on is their Fidelity in the instruction that's being provided we can have more hours in our calendar but if children aren't receiving instruction during the time that they are in school it is a it's a mute point right um we have a lot of these uh professional study days you know you guys mentioned the early release days glad those are gone um but then there's also like that last month of school right or other time periods um on schools where children aren't really being educated right and we hear from kids they say I don't even bother going on exam days or I don't bother going you know the last week of school I don't I don't bother going here or there because the teachers tell you don't bother coming we're not teaching because half of the class is out and so I think there needs to be Fidelity in the instruction that's being delivered and make sure that every single day that our schools are open our kids are learning um and with with that it is teacher experience right um I know this information has been asked and I know schools are supposed to provide you know and the information is out there if you go to Florida Sims and F Edge data on the Florida Department of Education website that gives you years of experience for the Educators in every single school and I think that as we move forward as a district we need to make sure that there's parity and the levels of experience and efficacy of our Educators that are in all of our schools so that we're not you know disadvantaging students right um and the out of field waivers are another thing we have a lot of teachers that are working out of field and I believe that information is also supposed to be made available um to parents at every school and I I know some schools do it not all schools are doing it so that is something that I would like to see being discussed um at schools and on their websites and in Sac uh and and saf meetings um the other thing that I wanted to touch on is student health and wellness our job descriptions I believe for our School nurses requires a minimum of two years for nurses but when we're Outsourcing that function to a um a contracted organization are we certain that we're actually meeting that requirement right or is are we are we ensuring that that is a requirement when we have nurses coming in um from the agencies and I know it's hard to find nurses we have a shortage just like with bus drivers but um as a nurse myself to have a brand new nurse in a space where you don't have support is a little bit dangerous right um so I think that that's something that needs to look be looked into and make sure that our agencies are meeting that requirement um the other thing I would say in terms of student health at the beginning of school any student who has numerous medical needs lots of health conditions they're supposed to have a health plan in place an emergency plan in place to identify how we meet the needs of this student and if in case of emergency what we do and we know that that's not always happening um because you have a lot of agency nurses there's not necessarily consistency with the protocols and the processes in in the clinic and and so if we could focus on making sure that that is happening towards the beginning of the school year making sure that those medications are actually on campus and they're not expired so that our children are well taken care of and then in terms of transportation we know we have a shortage of drivers hopefully we can come up with some innovative ways to be able to to meet the needs of transporting students to schools and as we go forward with the discussion later this afternoon looking at possibly um consol validating programs or strategically placing magnet programs in places or in each area so that we're not having to transport students from one end of the district to another and you have kids sitting on the bus for two hours right the uh other issue is field trips um we know that these are opportunities for students to really um have that experiential learning but often times buses are not getting to the schools at the times that they're supposed to be getting to the schools and more often than not and I I would go on a limb to say probably at I can speak for a few schools that I know in North Area 90% of the time those buses are not there on time and students are missing out on field trips that they've paid for and these experiences and I wonder are they are they being reimbursed when they miss those field trips because if your bus is supposed to get you to school at 7:30 cuz the bell rings at 8 and you rely on breakfast right because we know that food insecurity is a is a big issue kids are not getting to school on time you're not getting to school on time you're not getting breakfast maybe you're missing your first few periods you're missing those services that you should be getting speech OT or that your intensive reading or whatever it may be and we wonder why our students are not doing well we really have to address the transportation issue and find innovative solutions to it Miss figura uh thank you just for the sake of time because we have literally five minutes left um I just wanted to make sure that we um have Solutions and kind of have um the recommendations and follow-ups for next meeting um I do like the idea of tracking so perhaps we can bring that as a takeaway to bring back to next uh session I think in June that we meet um that we can have um that in place and um as well as the sessor which you said you will take up to uh uh verify but I just wanted to make sure that we leave here with a takeaway and an actual solution to something that we we can work on versus just continuously talking about concerns which most of you probably already know so Mr F thank you very much Shar and I am going to speak quick also because we have now four minutes so um no first I want to just thank all our volunteers right thank all our advisories um the great job you all do I know it takes a lot of sacrifice time um I for one do watch a lot of your meetings when they are streamed North advisory I do watch you guys do a great job up there um but very informative right I believe that um the way you guys work at and especially me as a board member I for one my appointees are I tell them I Empower them they're my voice right but they're also my input a lot of your meetings right after I might receive a text or a call and sort of say hey this is what we're discussing like this is what we're looking at this is what we're dealing with what are your thoughts um but just to have that discussion and I believe that all of our board members should be on the same page to sort of give more voice Empower our volunteers I wanted to speak on something because I feel like we were talking about it there is a lot of frustration right I think it's a lot of passion um I for one would be frustrated also right as a volunteer I'm giving my time I'm coming out to to do what's best and we have to note that we're all on the same team here we all want to see the best thing for our kids our their futures our staff but it's frustrating when we see change in leadership but the same things continue on I I think I think for me that that that would be the most frustrating thing we're expecting change we talk about change making things better but we're dealing with the same things that have been going on since 2000 name it whatever the case is so I think for me one of the issues I have also we're here discussing it I'm glad that we're on the same table we're on the same level having this discussion no staff here no superintendent here that's frustrating because it's not me that's going to make it better I'm not going to make the the when somebody passes something or sends or asks for information how are we making that better how are we changing that it's going to continue on so now we're just check a box move on and something continues that's frustrating we're on the same team here so I believe if we can make it better if we change the culture it has to change something has to change so from me I challenge the superintendent I challenge staff to try things differently do things differently um you know going to give kudos to the north advisory again I see when when there's more information coming I see staff when they share with that group right it's a presentation like it's open questions it's open dialogue the parents have a question principles are there they have a question they'll throw it out there they explain it it's thorough it's really it's perfect for somebody to watch like that Facebook stream is perfect but for me it's collaborative right it's a it's a team thing we're on the same page but I believe we need to do better at that and I just think that the most frustrating thing is that things don't change they they continue on so again I challenge that um and I I want to thank everybody all the chairs everybody here uh for all that you do it takes a lot of commitment takes a lot of time and and again I ask myself the same question why we do this right and then I look at you all and I say wow why do you guys do this on top of that you know what I mean so I ask the same question so but again I just thank you all for what you do and it's because we do truly care for the future of our kids and in our community so thank you so much Dr holness thank you madam chair this is Miss Le already I'm on the line I just have a moment to speak after when when it's my turn thank you okay Madam chair I'll be very quick so I want to thank everyone uh for coming and all all of the Advisory Board chairs we appreciate you I do hear the concern of the tracking um and I am concerned as a board member as well that um there are and I understand the idea of motions in advisory boards uh motions create uh is pretty much a consensus of the members of The Advisory and those recommendations should come to us I am concerned that some of those recommendations we might be missing um for whatever the reasons are so I do have a suggestion um that uh when a motion is made in any of the advisory and this is a consensus of the group uh that those motions I would love to see uh collectively come to us that may be a workshop uh maybe a workshop every other month or a workshop um every month as an item that we as a board can look at these um uh recommendations through motions uh signifying the consensus of the groups of the members of each Advisory Board and that we can look at those um recommendations in a workshop uh as a compilation and then decide as a board um if we should uh direct the superintendent to take actions on those cuz I I don't want to miss any of those recommendations and I'm sure that the advisory boards discuss a lot of things but when they do have a motion that is reflective of the the consensus uh opinion of the group and I think those should come to us and I would love to see those come to us as a board maybe in a workshop and then together we can discuss if these are relevant for the superintendent to bring forward as a board item Mr Harper land the plane all right and and I can Absol absolutely oh wait hold on I forgot Miss Leonardi thank you um just real quick I also want to thank everyone for coming but also thank you for your oftentimes Decades of service um I certainly know why you do this and it's because you care about our students and you care about um our district so thank you um I agree with a lot of the frustrations that have been shared um a lot these systemic issues that we have um and I think it's incumbent on us as board members to direct the superintendent um to to address a lot of these issues and I I certainly do during uh the regular meetings that I've requested with the superintendent um and I I just appreciate again the the service of our volunteers and your willingness to speak up continuously about these issues um and I just want to uh support or voice my support for um the chair's recommendation with how we deal with emotions um and uh Echo uh Miss Fig's um suggestion around guidelines that govern all of us not just advisory members not just War members but all of us um including employees thank you m Fam thank you madam chair um I I'd like to address the committee members if that's okay with the chair thank you um I appreciate you guys coming here today and it it's got to be um a thankless job at times because you put a lot of time and effort and you feel like the items you present are picked apart or ignored but there is a way to get past that and one of the things that when we submit our request for information we get a response email and in that email there's a a ID number documenting when the request went in that it's been received and then an identification number so we can follow up on that so whatever system gets implemented I would suggest that you also have that so you have your confirmation your date um the other thing I would like to say is I appreciate when you come to speak but some people are better speaker than others some people um are more eloquent or they they speak slower and and some people get nervous and go fast or they're softspoken so what I would recommend if possible is that when you have recommendations or motions that everything is in writing and if even possible if you can get it in beforehand where we can compile them and we have them in front of us where it's each and every committee and we can go through it and checklist or Circle or say nah I'm not interested in this but this one I want to highlight and then that way we have written documentation and there's a record to follow and that can also be placed into the record with our um court reporter so that way it you also have it not only documented that you emailed it but you actually made it as part of the record so that way at least you'll know that we're seeing that information we're receiving that information and then you yourselves can um track who um acts on that information thank you Mr Alon thank you madam chair uh I did want to point out that the time is now 10:19 I know that during the special meeting uh we recessed uh at 9:59 uh to make sure that one item was not heard uh so for the record we're 4 minutes over so I don't know if you uh want to maintain I'm sorry there's one speaker at a time please let's let's be let's be respectful Mr Alon has the floor thank you uh we're four minutes over Madam chair so I don't know if you want to continue this proceeding uh or if youd like to go to the next item are you done speaking it's a question for you madam chair yes we're we're Landing the plane right now Mr Harper you have the final word okay um um in in in the final word I I hear Mr fanar say about change aspect and that's and that's what the board has the ability to do especially with this next presentation is is to make those changes is to is to be that change factor and and I want to want to say one last kind of thing I want to thank you all for having having us here and having the ability for us to to have a conversation because I will tell you I can now go back to those people I mentioned before at Mitchell M Moore Park and and tell them yes you do have a voice and and we hear what you're saying out there and and we're bringing forward it to and and the board is listening to you and they're understanding your issues and it is making a difference so I know it seems like not a lot was was accomplished today but today was the first chapter and and I look forward to to coming here again and talking to you more about bus issues or kosa or ESC issues so thank you very much thank you first of many conversations we're now recess this Workshop 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 welcome back to our school board Workshop the next item is redefining BCPS part one I will now turn it over to staff for the presentation Madam chair Mr auson thank you madam chair if I could to the superintendent have we because I know that today is a different configuration of our meeting room um and I know that many of our guests who have tried to attend many have complained uh do we have enough uh seating on the inside for all of our all of our stakeholders in the community to be here for this very important conversation do we have adequate seating Mr superintendent I I don't know if we have adequate for everybody I know there's a whole room next door that has seating as well uh we do have our fire marshal here somewhere uh there he is uh making sure that we stay in compliance with that but I believe next door we have some seating still available in the pre function room thank you if I could just for the record I think that for this very important conversation uh on redefining schools uh to change the configuration today uh to allow the less or a a smaller number of individuals uh to hear the presentation directly I think it's the wrong step uh by this board uh I'm by the administration so I'll be very clear about that um so I would recommend uh in the future for round two or three that this does not reflect the the conceding uh configuration thank you thank you Dr Lata for the presentation well good morning uh I'm going to uh open this up quickly let staff present and then close it and try and get through to where we have as much opportunity to discuss this so as many have anticipated this day I was tasked to repurpose five schools by June of 2024 and it is my hope that we are able to begin narrowing down the schools we can focus on after today I ask that we allow Miss Saunders to complete the presentation in a timely manner and hold questions to the end so we can spend a large majority of our lot of time on our discussion thank you Miss Saunders good morning I'm Zoe Saunders Chief strategy and Innovation officer uh pleased to be here this morning and thank you for the opportunity uh to provide an update on the redefining our schools process um This truly has been a cross functional effort and uh all handson deck approach um to getting us to this point um I'd first like to thank the numerous departments that have been involved um in getting us to today's presentation I'd like to thank the demographics and enrollment planning team the Strategic initiative management team the Strategic Communications team teaching and learning budget and operations and Facilities I and so many others who have been part of this process I'm joined today by Adrien Parker executive director of the Strategic initiative Management Department thank you for being here before going into the presentation I do want to orient you to the backup documentation uh that you have access to in addition to the presentation uh you will find a 72-page data report highlighting enrollment and demographic information um in this report you will find districtwide enrollment Trends maps that depict enrollment change from 201920 to 2023 24 school year by elementary middle and high school levels you will also find school capacity utilization both in chart form and maps and to provide broader context the team has also prepared maps that depict Statewide enrollment changes for additional context you will find population Trends and projections for schoolage children populations um migration patterns and housing next the report shows important information regarding matriculation patterns uh looking at the number of students who live in the boundary compared to the capacity of the zon School looking also at the stay rate which is the percentage of students assigned to attend that attend their neighb neighborhood school um conversely looking at poll rate which is the percent of students that are attending a school outside of their boundary um looking at of broader Trends you will also see maps that depict the percent of students who are attending another Broward County Public Schools other than their neighborhood School those attending charter schools and attending private schools on those Maps um Additionally you have maps that look at the location of the magnet programs and charter schools throughout the county so this information provides a very helpful context to begin our conversation today and it is important to note that additional data Gathering and Analysis will be required to move forward with planning uh we are in the process of reviewing additional data um that we will discuss further within this presentation um and we'll need to look at metrics related more closely to academics operations transportation and a range of other indicators uh you also have access to letters of support um for the past two months the superintendent has been meeting with various stakeholder groups to explain the rationale for moving forward with this process and to build background knowledge we've also been sharing that we'd like to explore partnering in new and different ways um so these are very exploratory in nature I think a key takeaway is these are opportunities to partner uh with cities and nonprofits and faith-based groups and other organizations to meet people where they are to get the really important input that the district will need to move forward with planning so if we go to the next slide uh to work through our objectives for today we'll start by recapping uh the board directive to the superintendent uh to to repurpose schools we'll go through an explanation of the repurposing options uh we did present these options to the community and we'll begin to uh preview what would be involved um in implementing these we do have today our subject matter experts across the district um to be able to share of the policies and statutes that will govern um many of these repurposing options uh we'll review and discuss the approach uh staff has developed an approach um to meet the the deadlines that the board has directed uh for June we will also summarize the community input um and review how that input can inform the criteria and goals moving forward um and then from there we'll have a broader conversation and the superintendent will be able to make recommendations based on the board input um so as a recap um the uh school board and a special school board meeting in July directed uh the superintendent to develop a plan to repurpose five schools by June uh with building in a transition year for earliest implementation of 25 26 um as we look at we're really looking at this within the context of redefining um Dr lcadas our superintendent has laid out a vision um for redefining the district to transform educational delivery and prepare for the future of Education in our community um this encompasses broader initiatives that include um enhanced academic support and planning customer service initiative um marketing strategies and a number of others and what we'll be focusing on today today is repurposing repurposing is one element of the broader redefining our schools um Vision um these are the um different options that we are looking at as we had shared with the community um as many districts across the country are facing declining enrollment and very similar challenges these are common strategies that have been deployed and we are looking to see their um feasibility and viability for our community so I'll walk through um these options and also share some of the considerations that we may Conta template um as we explore um how these might fit within particular Solutions so as it looks at school choice um this may be one option of creating a full um magnet program um and so the school choice attracts students based on the specific program that's offered at the school as opposed to having a boundary um for that school so considerations with this model may look at replicating those programs that are highly successful already within Broward County Public Schools and may have a weit list and strong appeal we might also look at Transportation cost and being able to deliver these programs in more convenient areas of the County uh to increase access uh secondly we may explore opportunities to change grade level configurations so this might be able to to change those configurations to have uh different grade levels that are um served by each school um we could we do have a variety of different models within our own District Network um this is an opportunity to review those models that have been very successful um and be able both past and present uh to evaluate um if that would be a good consideration moving forward we also have an opportunity to merge our combined schools um so that could look like two under enrolled elementary schools combining that could look like an elementary and middle school combining to create a K8 um and so one of the considerations um in those type of models would be to look at the school that's hosting the site really thinking about that school having the most proximity to the the largest proportion of neighborhood children and also the condition of that facility School boundary changes um would be an option where we would look at creating uh revising attendance zones um and changing adding or removing the neighborhoods that may be assigned to a particular school um so some key considerations as we uh look at those options would be understanding the number of students that live in that boundary um to to make those uh recommendations um repurposing schools um is really an Innovative way um to transform unused or underutilized spaces within our school um this could be looking at repurposing an entire School or part of the school campus and some considerations here might be looking at not just right sizing the district but right sizing a campus there may be the opportunity if a classroom building is um unused to convert that into um another service that could provide um really important um resources to our students during the school day and the community after hours uh as the largest property owner in Broward County there are certainly um opportunities consider leasing or selling properties um and these properties could be converted into affordable housing something that the board has mentioned previously um as we look at these type of options I think it'd be important to ensure we have very clear negotiation principles from a district lens to ensure that we optimize the return on investment of these type of Partnerships for our students that we serve um as we look at the approach for repurposing from from um in in the short term I think it's really um critical that we do pause and think about the guiding principles for this work uh to ensure that we're establishing very clear guard rails to achieve the intended outcome of repurposing um here we have outlined some uh considerations for the board to review but we do expect to have some deeper conversation today with the board uh to crystallize these guiding principles um ensuring they're creating a path forward for us to be very successful um in this in this process um so key guiding principles uh would be ensuring a student centered decision-making approach and putting students first in these decisions um making sure to involve the Community along at every phase of this process um also looking at Equitable resource allocation um that's a lot of what's driving this conversation is making sure that every student um has um access to those resources and we can maximize um the impact of limited funding um and then also thinking about this in consideration of the long-term Vision uh for the district um and ensuring that you know the decisions now are also helping to inform um broader long-term changes of really transforming and and elevating uh the district um and strengthening um our school options this is a multi-year uh timeline and throughout this process we will be mindful of uh policies and statutes that govern this work um from now until June the focus really is on the launch period um so we started this process um of engaging the community last month in February um to identify important considerations of this work um and the goal is uh to really use this input we're receiving from the community um to um finalize our approach and really identify um an equitable process to um prioritize a group of schools um that we will focus on in this work um after June um the school board uh will vote on The Proposal at that point uh District staff will really engage in concertive planning with the communities that are impacted um by um the the the schools that are going to be focused on uh to really look through the different rep purposing options and do uh planning implementation planning uh the idea is that the earliest um changes would come into effect in the 2025 26 school year allowing a full year of planning um and consideration with the community to uh really finalize that design and implementation plan um from there it's very important that we also build in an evaluation framework uh so that we can evaluate the impact um of the changes the repurposing options and that we can capture those really important Lessons Learned as we look to uh transforming our district in in the long term so taking a more narrow Focus from now until June I just wanted to highlight some of the key um opportunities for uh the board uh to support us with Direction setting um as we move through this process and also other opportunities to engage the community um in refining this approach um so as we mentioned uh February was really the the start of launching this process today we're here to really focus in on the process and the criteria um and as the board get builds consensus around those key areas uh we would move forward with um more focused planning on on schools um and communities and do further analysis and come back to the board in the May time frame uh to begin exploring specific um opportunities for repurposing um based on some of the preliminary exploration we done with the community um from there there's a a vote that has been scheduled for June uh where the board will vote on a proposal uh to move forward with planning and and directing staff to engage in activating those processes that will govern uh the variety of repurposing options uh that we may pursue uh so in terms of community input um these are a list of organizations that we have um worked with over the past two months um to gain their input and and I will say what's really encouraging is uh the community Community is very interested in partnering with Broward County Public Schools um to to do things in a a new way that are really going to maximize um our resources and assets we have as a community to support our students um so there's a lot of excitement and energy around that um as we look at the particular input so as you know we did host three Community conversations in the month of February um these provided opportunity for District staff and community members to have a two-way Exchange of ideas they were very productive conversations where we captured some really um important considerations um and were very Illuminating overall um I think there's clear that there's a need to build trust um with the community and that part of that is making sure that we're have a very clear transparent process and uh continue to communicate where we are at every step along the way um so here on the screen what you see are some of the key themes that came out through those community Sation along with themes that emerg through our staff survey um there is a lot of alignment between um the input that we've received um from the community I think one of the central um areas of focus was on Equity um and making sure that um this process um is is is done in a way um that supports all students um particularly comments that came up is making sure we're focusing on um racial equity and rep representation um making sure that um there's not disproportionate impact on um minority communities and low-income students um and also taking into account the history of changes in the district um over the previous years um transportation also come came up um as a big focal point um and really this was in the context around access um and making sure that there's access to the schools and um minimizing time on the on the bus overall I would say um Big points of feedback that we heard is around root cause really understanding the root cause to under enrollment um being an important First Step um before suggesting particular um Solutions moving forward um and also from the staff survey we did hear um a lot around um uh teacher salary um and and retention as well so these uh points of input are very helpful as we think about developing the criteria um and mitigating any negative impacts um through repurposing um I do want to note here that there's a lot of other um data that you have access to if you click those links links you can actually access all of the um input that we've received um both by rank order and also by theme um if you want to take some time to peruse that uh we also asked questions from the community and staff that are really related to what are some of the positive opportunities through this process that I think can be very instructive as the board thinks about the the goals um and the success metrics for repurposing um and as we look at some of those a lot of it is centered as you would expect around the students um and making sure that all of these changes are really um enhancing the quality of Education um for our students um promoting um High Learning outcomes and results and taking into account the needs of special populations so as we move into the criteria and considerations which I think will be the the main focus of our conversation today um you know I think what's clear as we look at this work is it's it's exceedingly complex um and it requires us to review Myriad of data points and fully engage the community to identify repurposing options that are going to benefit um students and and the community um and so given that um I think it's important that uh we identify how we scope this work so that we can do our due diligence of really engaging um school by school Community by Community uh to to do that deeper analysis and review alongside the community uh so to that end uh we'd recommend and a two-part um approach where we can do an initial um uh screening based on the need as it relates to enrollment to refine our focus on a group of schools um that would warrant some additional support um from the district um also what would be important to consider is facility condition I do want to note here and and you can see in the slide that we um have missing data in this area um and this is something that we're being very proactive about addressing um currently we have an RFQ out to do a facility conditions needs assessment um and that is going to provide us really important information for all of our schools um around the the facility condition in the meantime we are looking to deploy internal staff uh to do a review of of a subset of schools to make sure that we're factoring that in um into the decision-making and then from there it's it's really beginning to look much broader at what else what other factors are contributing um to enrollment at that school and what are some of the opportunities to make improvements um we have listed a number of those data points here as part of the exploration um a a key indicator again is is equity and this is something that we are um beginning to develop an an equity index and our working also um in coordination with Children's Services Council to get input on that to um really uh refine um that approach uh we are looking at a number of the data metrics that are in your book related to enrollment around stay rate and so forth and out of boundary um we also want to make sure we're looking at a lot of the academic indicators including certainly uh school break grade and performance but also some of those um indicators in terms of the number of electives that every school has for example then the types of programs that are offered at every school as we know that came up as really important from the community to make sure that students have access to a very well-rounded education at every school um also a site review will be very important as we go into this work and to really look at the specific amend entities and assets that each of our schools has that we can build and further leverage um to make sure we're we're maximizing the educational value of the resources on those campuses um and then before uh opening for discussion just wanted to highlight um some of the potential opportunities um through this work and re U repurposing we have an opportunity to increase instructional support for students uh we have an opportunity to improve the facilities and the learning environment um for those students that that are impacted um we have an opportunity to implement and replicate High performing high yield programs um in other parts of the district uh we have an opportunity to develop new and Innovative program models um that would warrant further uh discussion and investigation and research around where they are viable um and where they would produce the the largest return on investment but there are some areas that we can further explore as we move um as we continue uh to do this work and then there's a a really huge opportunity to leverage Partnerships um as I mentioned earlier um there's a lot of um Community enthusiasm to come alongside the school district um and and many um Partners have expressed just their appreciation for for being invited to this conversation um and and being open to um that we're open to their ideas around how we can partner and create Synergy in a way that really supports our students um and and elevates educational opportunities um I do think it's important also that we look at some of the uh you know some considerations um that we would need to to mitigate around which would be within these changes there is a possibility of losing student enrollment um and and we need to be really thoughtful on our messaging so people are clear on on how these impacts are rolling out uh we also have the potential of of increasing Transportation cost and that's something that we would want to model as we look at a variety of different scenarios um we also look at the future needs for schools and this came up um and Community conversations as well um is making sure that we are looking longterm into where we need to operate um schools and serve students um as we review you know projected uh demographic changes for our community um in some areas where we are looking to explore some new Innovative models we don't have policies that exist um to guide our work in those areas um and so that would be something that we would need to spend time reviewing and researching and thinking intentionally about with the board on how to proceed um with some of those new Innovative models uh to make sure that they do yield um High outcomes for our students um and then this timeline is is very accelerated um and so really thinking about what is the scope of work within an accelerated time frame of now until June of of refining and prioritizing our Focus um and then thinking about a year out of planning um so those are just some general considerations as we move into um to the conversation um and at this point I will turn it over to Dr Lata thank you Mrs Saunders and I cannot say thank you enough for your work your team's work the entire staff because it's encompasses every Department in this entire facility for the last I guess two three months during this and they've been phenomenal um I want to close with this before we we open it up um I want to thank the municipalities I want to thank the Committees especially after yesterday's phenomenal meeting but most importantly I want to thank communities have shared their perspectives their concerns their worries and I believe that it is a massive step to regaining the Trust In BCPS we heard that loud and clear as we now have seen significant data on school Communications meetings Town Hall meetings and Outreach to our municipalities is my recommendation to the board that we create a range of schools today that once we do that my staff will be able to pursue a Direction the various opportunities of repurposing which was found on slide six as our message has been very clear from the start of this undertaking that has been long overdue repurposing includes many Avenues of action described in this presentation it may or may not mean closing but that is certainly an action we must consider as we develop a range of schools to review I'm also recommending we begin to solidify our pathway on selling property which is critical as we experience significant Capital needs that were not met by the smart program within that action I'm also recommending that any savings or profit from Land property sale be specifically allocated to projects that have been incomplete and ignored over the past 10 years especially in our disadvantaged communities that are outstanding I Believe by targeting these potential capital gains to specific projects allows us to continue to restore the trust and faith from our communities that we have heard loud and clear in our community forums so I turn it over for discussion my objective today is to have a specific range of Schools starting with enrollment as the primary criteria to begin the process and then apply the other criteria mentioned in the range of schools we have clearly heard and been supported by many in this endeavor and we have the opportunity to innovatively work with our stakeholders this will allow myself and staff to meet the local communities municipalities specific School communities as well as Legacy members of the communities that will be impacted thank you thank you Dr Lata and there was additional letters of support from Career Source Broward Hispanic heritage Chamber of Commerce Children's Services Council Broward County and the City of pompo Beach and they will be shared with the board and posted online we're now going to go to public comment I have Lewis ner you can [Music] uh good morning my name's uh Lewis ner live at 4755 Northeast 17th Avenue in Oakland Park I've been a member of the city of Oakland Park School Advisory board for 12 plus years I've also been miss Leonard's appointee to the parent and Community involvement task force so I understand all the things that you guys are facing right now as we try to build retain our students in our schools um for over 30 years I've witnessed the decline in the schools and the enrollment that you've you're addressing now uh for the district and this board this is concerning when you know that you're re redefining schools initiative is an effort to responsibly mitigate the impact on school communities while being phisically responsible however for communities the loss of a school can be devastating on many levels this is especially true when the lower enrollment and attendance at those schools is out of their control so um the control is yours as we depend on your decisions and actions to retain our students in their home schools we also depend on information that is accurate and accessible to us so that we can evaluate those decisions and I have to say over the years I've seen a continued Decline and accessible information that's being provided by the by the school district through its website and it's quite concerning uh this is information that should be available to all of us as public stakeholders uh as you start this process it's vital to learn where each Community students attend school school if they are not attending the home school why is that are they concerned about facility conditions Northeast High School rickords um are they concerned about a lack of challenging curriculum these are things that you guys are are looking to address and that's very uh important to hear are they concerned about safety safety is something that I think also needs to be looked at is how that locks out your community because when it takes a half an hour to get into one of your school campuses that actually discourages people from participating in public education um I suggest that the district try to determine Why students aren't attending their home schools and why they attend the schools that they're attending this is um very important before you make a decision to close a school if there's something that can be done to bring that Community students back thank you so much Nick sord thank you very much for letting me speak I am Nick sortal the mayor of Plantation uh happy to address Dr Lata the school board and staff and now that I've been mayor for a year and a half staff is the most important I've learned that there's nothing like staff that does the work and everything so greatly appreciate the time and research uh you all put in um I love the idea that we're having ideas I want to Echo the cities other cities have mentioned a request for a write of first refusal for any properties for sale so Plantation it has that same request um but right now you got a wide open Highway everything's in play and the idea that that you can look at anything at everything I would almost be excited by that because you can do a lot of good you can do a lot of good here um the idea offered up to you all is homes for educators um it is tangible and specific I name a site and I Nam the idea but any place else where we could build housing for educators we're happy to work with you on that um there will be a complete conversation this is just a starting point coming for me uh the plantation way is that every voice will be heard and we're going to weigh everything you weigh everything every possible piece of data and that's how you make your best decision uh this isn't going to work as Nick s's plan it's got to be our plan it's got to be the city of plantation's plan um that said we will face a density challenge with the property I'm talking about um my favorite books for agreements and so in there it says don't make assumptions people he affordable housing what do they do they're thinking big numbers and big density perhaps we come up with a good density number and talk about it so that we all know what we're aiming at um and of course that comes from you all it's this is something for you all to run it's not my money it's not my property it's your money in your property we as a city they're very happy to work with it um just a quick comment on affordable housing we're building new apartments in Plantation the rent is 2500 so if the rent is 2500 time 12 months that's 30,000 a year those of you who have been following affordable housing standards 30,000 a year if it for that to measure out to be 30% of your salary that means you have to be making 100,000 a year so affordable housing that's that's not it that that cost is there and that's real and that's what we're looking at right now um everything we're building you got to make 100K a year to get in there um overall though there is a great need for Teacher housing and it's something you can't just voed on the developer it has to be everybody involved I'm a member of our affordable housing committee and I can tell you that we passed measures to make it easier for developers of affordable housing to get things through and we're in a spirit of cooperation on this this can't be a fight it's got to be everybody together um I appreciate the time and thank you for letting me share Through My Lens how I see this thing going down so thank you very much thank you Sandra Wells thank you Sandra Welch current vice mayor at the City of Coconut Creek and I'm just going to dial it down specifically uh I want to make some comments about Coconut Creek Elementary and uh which is one of our namesake schools and we uh we we're already redefining and repurposing on that campus as we speak one of them begins with at last removing those deploy able three deplorable Portables from our site and the PTA has already got dibs on bringing a food Forest into part of that space plus bonus playground so kudos to them and another one of our namesake schools Coconut Creek High School we have um our Coconut Creek magnet students that are in the Latinos in Action come down to that school and Mentor twice a week and also another uh Atlantic Technical High School students come there and they have what they call the read Squad and they do that once a week so uh much as uh taking place there in the way and then I also understand that uh our principal has asked to host two prek classes which would could equal 120 additional students yay for her and uh those Portables could very likely add uh 90 students to uh to our un under enrollment I'm hoping we also I I understand and I believe that we are one of the largest student enrollment autism population in the area which is also very very important as many of us know and uh last but not least um I I Echo what the mayor of Plantation said we like it that all of our residents are involved in the community conversations and if and when Coconut Creek Elementary is included in one of those to be further redefined or repurposed uh some of our residents have mentioned um having our Bounder students have a choice as to far as middle schools rather than uh going into a neighboring City so just food for thought but have those thoughts in mind when you make your conversations today and uh and thank you thank you Fitzgerald Fitz buo and then on Deck Lisa Maxwell if you can make your way towards the podium thank you I'm back again and I appreciate each and every one of you thank you to my S Nai my school rep board member I always love seeing her hey yeah this is the time again you saw me on Channel 4 I sent you the link this morning each and every one of you I mean business I don't take anything for granted when we in a legislative body such as this I want to keep all my five schools the community want all the five schools I know um my elementary school one of them Oakland par Elementary is on the so-call L and we love Lord States Elementary and no one cannot touch North Andrew Gardens Elementary uh I love all my M Elementary you know how I feel about my Rickers Middle School I'm a basketball dad PTA saag anything else eyes on rep they got me doing everything because my son say he this is his best year in eth grade now he's looking forward to high school and he has to make a tough decision Dr Zan y between Northeast and Fort laale and U we're going to make the right decision he's going to make that decision because he want to expand his academic Horizons so we are in support I'm support of what you're doing now but let's keep it clear let's be very thoughtful because we have families out there we have staff we have teachers see when you cut schools you're going to cut people to as well I know about something like this okay so be mindful of that we need you to come out to Oakland Park so you can hear all the resonance you know I'm a loud mouth I'm going to get the word out because I speak to everybody in Oak Park so I know the temperature of the room but I still want them to hear your voice and hear their questions to you Dr R and uh I'm glad to be here I'll be listening I'll be active listener and I'll be watching and uh I'm in support again what we doing so thank you you du diligence and continue everyone appreciate it thank you Lisa Maxwell good morning mam chair board members Mr superintendent and staff my name is Lisa Maxwell I'm the executive director for the Broward principles and assistance association first of all I want to kudos to the staff I I don't think in my entire history I've seen a more comprehensive uh look at demographics in the way that they have depicted it um it's information that's long been needed and I am thrilled that it's here because making decisions without that kind of detail is near impossible and so I I think that the staff has done an incredible job uh in putting this together in digesting some of the information the trends are really staggering the information is surprising in many cases in in some cases it's been predicted South Florida Regional planning Council I think about 15 years ago predicted that the next phase of growth in Broward County would be occurring between the corridor of power line and 441 and that's the growth area that and that is our opportunity for new homes and and new development um and that's where it's headed so there's there's a lot of really great detail here it also shows us charter school information um which is critical for us to understand where the charter schools are our kids are where they're going where those expansions are occurring it's all very important information the message I want to convey to you today is that on behalf of uh the principles and the assistant principles in the county is that we have a superintendent I think for the first time who really has the stamina and the ability to take on something that I've never seen in my lifetime and and I don't think we will see again uh for decades to be able to make the this kind of a transition as a governmental agency and entity and I can tell you from the principal and the assistant principal standpoint the changes in our schools have been dramatic things that we have asked for for years and even decades are coming at a lightning speed principles are being heard and listened to they are the academic leaders in our schools and so we appreciate you Dr Lata thank you for that thank you for hearing us and we will be part of this transition we will be your best Partners in this along with the cities and and local governments so thank you thank you so much Dr NY linwal Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation homeowner since 1998 to children born and raised in Plantation reassigned to schools in Davy I agree complete and I'm also I've also been on the district's facilities task force since 2011 I agree completely with Mr Naylor's comments from a little bit earlier there used to be a lot more data and there isn't even when you do a public records request as part of the the district's long range facility master plan steering committee and when you've been on and involved for as long as I have there's only one board member who went through the bond process that's currently on this board so only one board member would recognize the same feel to a process with the bond there needed to be a year of analysis before putting it on the ballot that didn't happen we just lost a year because we've been asking for the same data since last May the long range facility master plan steering committee did not meet for six months until recently and yesterday still don't have the data don't know when we're getting the data what's the data we're looking for the data we're looking for would answer Mr Naylor's questions why are kids not in their home schools which is critical because you have a policy that states that it's all about community ities we keep hearing the word Community but what is the word community community are the kids that are zoned for the schools you do have boundaries throughout this District why are the kids not where they're bounded for that can't be answered with any of the data that you are being provided today most of it is current status and not any of the things we asked for according to staff they don't have reassignment data from last year or the year before much less the past nine years that's what they said when pressed I think they might now be looking into it I got transportation for the past three years but I can't open it because it's in PDFs because for some reason when it comes to costs we like to keep sending PDFs instead of Excel spreadsheets so we've now asked for it in Excel enrollment be by municipality for the last 10 years pending uh reassignment for last 10 years pending additional information magnet programs pending that was for enrollment and cost for each program each School past 10 years pending Innovative programs because and we also ask for operating costs by school because you have schools that are you're spending a lot more on taxpayer funds for 30 kids than schools where that are not under enrolled and that also needs to be looked at so the plane is being built as it's being flown and I'm saying this based on experience thank you Cynthia Dominique good morning Cynthia Dominique Margate Florida 33063 chair of North Area advisory um I'd like to Echo the sentiments that uh Dr Walsh stated um to have the data that has been requested um how however as we go forward there's been a lot of talk about numbers numbers numbers numbers and I just want to remind everyone that it's not just numbers we're talking about children we're talking about Sarah John Javon Nicole Muhammad and Lakisha um I also want the district to take into account the past trauma and the broken trust that um many marginalized communities have experienced and we need to honor them by making transparent and concrete decisions that honor the children the communities and their experiences because the district has allowed many of the schools to fall into District repair the Board needs to provide specific and actionable plans on work that will be done to bring the facilities to minimum standards and how the schools that will be absorbing additional students will be supported how we'll increase the number of qualified and effective teachers in those schools and ensuring that they have all of the resources that they need to meet the needs of the students within those schools as we go forward we also need to rightsize the current capacity of our schools to reflect actual usage right we have a lot of buildings and Portables that are being counted toward enrollment numbers and they're not actually being used um and so we have inflated under enrollment numbers we also need to consider the impact of ESC clusters on enrollment because we know that those class sizes are typically smaller and we had a discussion at long range on whether those numbers were actually counted in um the overall enrollment numbers um we also need to cons carefully consider the GE Geographic placement of magnet programs so that schools within the same area you can come up with a radius you know 5 10 miles are not competing against each other right we we can't have two schools that are a mile from apart with the exact same program um and we also need to consider decentralizing some of the programs like the gifted acmy um you know the Nova schools which place an immense strain on Transportation right and especially when you consider Nova schools and the purpose that it was initially intended to serve is it actually serving that purpose and you know you have kids uh going from across this District to this um to this school um and then the other thing I would like to see is for us to work on our marketing efforts because people who live in communities don't know that the school down the street exists and they don't know the type of programming and and resources that are available within those schools um that are available to their children and so they often will choose something else because the charter schools the private schools they do a really great job at marketing um and just whatever you do do it equitably thank you thank you D defu shann and Le hello my name is Shannon L I live in Coral Springs um good morning Madame chair and board members thank you for this opportunity I'm a concerned parent who strongly opposes the potential closure of Coral Springs Middle School I think we understand that change is and has been needed in our school district I believe the school district's main mission is the commitment to educating all students to reach their Highest Potential the option of closing corl Springs Middle School does not support this Mission and I would argue it does the complete opposite my daughter is a sixth grade student of Coral Springs Middle School and my son is a graduate of Coral Springs Middle School the opportunities and programs offered at Coral Springs Middle School are not entirely offered at neighborhood middle schools the robotics program and the gears program to name a few Co Springs Middle School is the only school the only School in the district annually representing the district at robotics tournaments held in Miami day comp County competitions Palm Beach County competitions State competitions and even the world competition in case you weren't aware corl Springs Middle School students have been representing this District right here at the World tournament for several years competing with schools from around the world why would we explore the option to close Coral Springs Middle School instead of finding opportunities to use the school and the programs it offers to recapture lost student population the focus should be on developing programs that are hidden gems in the district and provide students the opportunity to reach their Highest Potential these types of remarkable programs are an attractive way to bring parents and students back to the public school systems from the charter and private schools by offering something that's not available at these facilities highlight the programs and resources available do what's truly best for the students and recapture the Lost student population that has left the public school system in addition to the reduction in opportunities for our students bar County's increasing population is projected to contining rise over the next decades where will these additional students attend school if we close our schools we are forced to choose between losing more students to Charter and private schools are having our schools overpopulated accurate longrange planning must be considered to properly account for these Trends additionally some have suggested the Redevelopment and under enrolled schools as a solution to combat another issue barard county is facing the affordable housing crisis I do believe we need more affordable housing and welcome it in my neighborhood closing our schools for affordable housing should not be an option the affordable housing crisis has to be solved at the state level not locally at the expense of our students social and emotional health has been much needed focus of our students since 2018 discussions regarding the potential closure of their schools create anxious and emotional stressful environment the closing of Coral Springs Middle School jeopardized a sense of belonging and stability throughout the years in the Community I understand that maintaining under schools has a cost but the cost should not come at the expense of our students it serves the cost of housing in brard county has been rising for the last several years increasing the tax revenues that fund our schools the taxpayers have committed to our schools by voting for the smart bonds the commitment should be met with more programs and Facilities not the closure of Coral Springs Middle School I strongly urge you to change The Narrative of Broward County School District by promoting the programs you have thank you for this opportunity desire Grooms Desiree I'll be yielding my time to Mr vente thower okay six minut six minutes for vente thrower Vincente th um PPO Beach um the first thing I want to address is the letter that the chair got from PP no beach all due respect Madam chair but that letter is from our mayor it does not reflect 100% from our commission we as a community would love to have some say so also into what happens to the schools in our community that should be the like the mayor Plantation said we are a community and we want to have some say so in what happens to our schools and our community to the superintendent to the through the chair to the superintendent by the way our one of our commissioners is is in the audience right now commissioner Perkins uh former vice mayor but we care about the repurposing of our schools we had a plan at one point on what schools we wanted to stay open and we want to have that conversation and we want to have a conversation about what what properties go out possibly for a for sale we don't want none of our properties going out for sale the school district needs to keep it need to keep its assets in order to make it valuable of anybody with money money knows that the most valuable thing that we have in this country is land and we figure out how do we maximize that to the chair to the board members because that makes us valuable when people know that we have something that's valuable they want to make an investment and for right now we ain't closing down no schools in our city especially blancha High School you want to see the team come out talk about Blan high school so everybody up here Blan high school well you see this you see this right here on this shirt but I think everybody know so I ain't being funny but we want to be part of this conversation and every city and their communities need to be part of the conversation before this board indulging and talking about what school should stay open or closed and with that I thank you so much thank you Carla figuero is yielding her time to Nicole Morris six minutes for Nicole Morris good morning Nicole moris Coral Springs uh so I've been looking at these Maps this week and I see the the most over enrolled and the most under enrolled and everything in between um but it doesn't really show you why those schools are severely over or under so Coral Springs Middle School um they're at 52% of their capacity but they have 950 students if you look at Saw Grass Springs Middle School which is their neighbor they have a thousand students so they're an average size Middle School they were just built too big when they had a whole bunch of more kids um so one of the uh the the things that we we realized last year was that you have a middle school in Parkland that's at 114% of their capacity and your growth management team when they were making recommendations for resoning it was West Glades that was recommended for the resoning they said for any additional it was uh one of the neighborhoods they were just building they said if you're going to build this then you you don't have the capacity at West Glades to absorb these students they will have to be rezoned to corl Springs Middle School they are severely under enrolled when I asked demographics why that was not a possibility or why they didn't suggest that say that they said that the students the parents would leave the district before they would go to Coral Springs Middle School the Parkland parents will not go to Coral Springs schools and that's not an acceptable excuse for me or for the families of Coral Springs West glazes is at 114% of their permanent capacity they have 19 Portables they're only used in about 10 so so again if you're going to have the conversation about corl Springs Middle School I hope that you look at shifting down to the neighbor right um which I believe should have been done last year so another thing that you won't see is that blanch elely has uh classrooms that are being counted for student spaces that are not classrooms they're weight rooms and their clinics so that should be discussed and and I asked how par how we advisory or parents can look and see and I understand we can't have that information but ask you all to look at it to see how many schools are showing open seats that they're not classrooms right I think it's called a um a room inventory I okay well there you go look I'm all over the place I'm so let me let me go back to my script or I'm going to forget some stuff um okay you wouldn't know that there are schools that are under capacity at 75% that aren't taking reassignments because they don't want students outside of their city and their schools I had a principal last week at Park trails in Parkland tell me we don't take reassignments outside of Parkland I said well you're at 77% of Your Capacity how that's that's against the law and she said our seats are reserved for future Parkland residents Eagle Ridge yeah I'm sorry is it Eagle Ridge now riverglades is also there another school in Parkland is under enrolled 93% they have two under enrolled elementary schools they don't open for Choice do you know how many Coral Springs parents and Coconut Creek parents every year say I wish I could go to Park trails and they don't even allow them to apply and they have parents who come to advisory who are concerned that they're cutting specials next year because they don't have funding and they're going to have to cut staff because they don't have funding because they're so under enrolled and they feel like the red-headed stepchild the most Troublesome part for me is if you look at slid 6768 and 69 you'll see the demographics you'll see the the racial breakdown so our district is 38% black 38% Hispanic and 177% white but at the school that I just mentioned they're 8% black and 56% white the middle school is 5% black and 56% White and the high school is 11% black and 47% white this feels like segregation a form of segregation if you're cherry picking who gets to come to your schools and that's what your number looks like when your neighbors is the complete opposite and then you've just kicked out 7% of your minority students the year before it feels like segregation it feels like we've created a private school section in a public school district one last thing I'm gonna say I can't believe I went through five minutes um one last thing I'm gonna say is that I I came from I lived in Georgia I lived in Texas we didn't have these Choice boundaries this is a terrible idea because if you just go to the school where you where you live you go with your neighbor and you go with your friends you come home you play you go to the school and all the parents help they participate right so what happens with reassignment I'm a reassignment what happens with reassignment is the parents who can drive their kids to a better school they do right and the kids that are left the school goes to shambles cuz the parent par are working they they can't drive their kid and reassignment doesn't do Transportation so all the halves go to the better school and they put their efforts there and then the rest get get what's left thank Youk you narni Pier Grant okay uh I'm going to Echo Miss Dominique and also miss moist um I'm speaking at on behalf of myself as a parent Nar P Grant I live in Parkland Florida um but I also am the diversity chair so what I didn't see in the report was why the underserved schools are underserved why they're considered that or why were they labeled that way or based on Based on data and why are the schools who have inferior facilities are the way that they are and who allowed that to go on for so long that's what I didn't see in the report uh the fact that you have high percentages of white children in schools and we are 38% black in this district is an issue so as you move forward in you're redefining and you're redesigning and you're repur repurposing whatever it is that you guys are deciding to do please make sure you do it in an equitable fashion make sure you do look at race you know people will walk around and say well I don't see race well that's a you should see race I don't see color you should see color our kids are disproportionately separated and they're not these information is not taken to account I made a comment yesterday at a meeting after Dr Lata had a productive meeting with the chairs earlier that day where and I got upset about a word that was used with me and one of the things I said to Miss Saunders I had a conversation with her I said when you're dealing with black people there's a certain way you have to deal with us as well as Hispanics as well as Asians we have cultural differences and that I didn't see that part in the in the in the report there's a way that you deal with us we're not trusting of the government I can say that on with my full chest and when we see based on your data not information we get on our own your data that there's a there's a disproportionate amount of kids in better schools in there shouldn't really be better schools in this District they all should be good people shouldn't have to be reassigning their kids to get better education everything should be Stellar so as you guys move forward I know I'm sounding a little bit like I'm agitated I'm not I just I'm just really passionate about children I you know the conversation needs to be about these kids our job is to make sure we provide them the best education possible as well as nurturing an environment and we can't do that if we're going to be sitting there throwing arbitrary numbers for race gender and whatever have however you guys collect your data just make sure that you when you're doing it you're doing it with Fidelity be transparent that's one of the things I spoke about with Miss Saunders is that you need to be honest tell people what you're going to do even if it's bad news let us know ahead of time so we can get comfortable with the with the with the decision that's going to be made so I I ask that you um that do that and I appreciate you all making this effort to make this redefining conversation something that we all can be part of so thank you thank you commissioner Beverly Perkins good morning everyone good morning hello Tori Nora Debby how you guys doing anyway um I'm happy to be here this morning I had no intentions of speaking but now that I'm here uh to let you know that I do support the uh Pompano schools and we had the opportunity last week on March 13th to have a meeting with all of the uh principles in the area so Dr Fleming um assisted us along with uh Mr Santana with meeting with these principles in the area of pompo to ask these principles what do you need from the community how can we help you uh build your school up and bring those grades up in your school it was a very effective meeting I think the community now in pompo is on board they are aware of what these principles are asking and what they need um I know that you all received a letter from the city of pompo Beach from the mayor uh which I was not aware of I'm not sure if the other Commissioners were aware of that um but I do want to say that we were not aware of the letter that was sent out and I will bring it up at the Tuesday commissioner meeting but I do want you to know that we are stronger now in pompo because of this process and I think it has awakened some of us that were sleep uh with the schools in the area so we the schools that uh met on the 13th was Sanders Park Markham Elementary Charles Drew Crystal Lake pompo Middle and bl Chila High School all those principles were were present at that meeting and it was very effective so I want you all to know that we care about our schools I'm a product of brow schools I attended Sanders Park elementary pompo junior high back then it was called Junior High School and I graduated from pompo Beach Senior High School so I'm here to say that um please do not and consider not closing any schools in the city of Pomo Beach um we're on top of things now the community is on board and ready to help these schools in any kind of way that we can thank you thank you Kimberly mohorn good morning um I I would like to just you know add to the sentiments of the commissioner that we do not want our schools closed I one thing that was not um on this presentation is the fact that the history of what has happened to our schools over the last 20 30 years so when you're thinking about Markham okay cuz I understand it came up in a conversation Markham has been neglected for 30 years and and systematically we understand that this is what happens when you allow buildings and um facilities to be neglected and you continue to work on other things and not give those schools the attention that they need we know three years ago before we came aboard an understanding that blanch elely should not be on this list we know this because if I I know all of you have taken math and 69.7% is 70% but somehow we still landed on this list the one thing that I know and I understand that high schools are not going to be considered right now however blanch elely High School will not be on a list and should not be on this list for under enrollment we just got a Cambridge program many of the high schools have had Cambridge for many years again neglecting 14 years of a tyrant principal neglected of all the things that need to have been done so where does the um issue lie does it a lie to the community or is it inhouse where you will continue to allow things to happen and only when we scream cry call the the um the news that you do something so we're just asking that you really take a look at this and systematically you you really need to do something about it because five schools we know that those fives will be the same five that have been neglected for 30 years thank you thank you Jackie lascom excuse me may if I'm in um if I'm in order I just wanted to say real quick in the Northwest area of pompo beach I have 11 apartment units that are coming up in my district um and that's not counting the the $1.2 billion project that we have on MLK Boulevard which all these projects will bring in more uh young people more students into our community so would you please take that in consideration thank you thank you jaul hi Jackie luskin parent from uh Coral Springs and chair of ESC advisory I wear both hats um uh there were two main um points I wanted to bring I have my time in the in the steering committee so I don't want to just repeat things that we've said over and over in those committees but there were two I wanted to highlight to the board today one is the messaging um there's a lot of emphasis and and rightly and necessarily so on brick and mortar decision making and issues um uh but this is also about PR programmatic issues too and um the tagline redefining schools maybe could better serve um your marketing purposes if you added something like and transforming education because it's not just about the schools people are envisaging physical campuses um but if you're um if you're truly looking at at shaking up education and ensuring that inequities that are um are troubling communities and that are making um school choice a thing and that driving people to their non- neighborhood schools if those are truly going to be addressed if you committed to it and made a lot of noise about it and included that in your um headlining that might help um uh and if you're not you should be um but I'm sure you are I see it's spoken about too but there's a very um there's a lot of different things going on in this process and I'm not sure um if if the um transformative things that you also want to do with education are necessarily coming across um the second thing I just wanted to highlight is um fighting back um by its very nature this process has the look and feel and direction of something kind of unfortunate that you're on the back foot by circumstance that you're losing enrollment that you're you know you're running out of money that you've got schools that are rattling around partially empty um and I think fighting back against um the charter school um movement um might serve you well I've had my children in charter schools um prior to BCPS and there are so many more opportunities in BCPS people talk about the hidden gems in their school there really is a lot to um emphasize so I think changing the tone to less of a kind of oh gosh we've got to do this because we're running out of money and we got campuses half empty and we're losing a bunch of kids starts some fight back too so we talked yesterday in the committee about um marketing programs I came across the um or ran into the principal of one of my kids former schools Ramblewood middle Andrew cook who was uh uh and I'm sure other principles are doing this too but personally taking it on himself to call personally parents of students who he can see have not enrolled in his school but kind of should be to see where they're at why they um why they're going elsewhere if they are and how they can be enticed back exit interviews postcard campaigns um I just think putting some aggression into marketing your schools could serve you well thank you thank you um sorry difficult to read this but numi fie from Fort laurdale oh maryy sorry do you need to borrow my glasses chair no it is not easy to read I apologize we need to teach penmanship what can I say good afternoon Mary fering from Fort Lauderdale oh um hello I've been here before the topic before you is one that has been postponed for too long and yet as you engage in today's conversation I hope you will do it thoughtfully learning from the lessons of yesterday as you plan for the students of tomorrow I'm going to bring up nine points I hope I get time but I I just want to say I um I'm none of this is meant to be off offensive but let me start with the very first point in the past closing and repurposing schools only applied to schools in certain communities and in certain areas of our County um and I'll just start with desegregation the schools that were closed were the traditionally black schools and those children were busted all over this County often taking hours when I first became involved as an advocate in 1987 the school district dollars were being almost totally directed to the west to build new schools the excuse was was uh enrollment and yet the most most over enrolled School in the county at that time was Northside Elementary in Fort Lauderdale where psych Services were being performed in hallways don't number two don't P don't penalize communities where the creation of the where the problem created was created by you for example used to sell the smart Bond you use Stranahan High School Northeast High School and blanch High School to show the need you impacted the enrollment and those schools did nothing to mitigate it and delivered the services too slowly considering the many ways to address under enrollment such as increasing or redirecting um marketing efforts and attracting students back to our schools and maybe spend some dollars on that okay maybe spend some dollars on marketing our schools and showing what fine programs we have recognize that number four that the under enrolls or failing schools of today can become successes of tomorrow I am a proud Fort Lauderdale High graduate I want to tell you they gave us no chance for survival 20 years ago and I want you to look at where we are today and that was a deliberate effort of our community our community um expand schools at models like Gulf Stream Early Learning Center where you're bringing nonprofits into school campuses number six don't look at closing schools as a way to make quick money on excess property uh number seven think about how people sometimes are choosing smaller schools to send their kids to and then think about what that might mean for you number eight boundary changes and I've been going through them since the N early 1990s that's what actually really got me to be really outrageously active are the most divisive events that occur I'm just going to put it overall in our communities and number nine be cognizant of future development Miss Perkins brought that up but I think that's a very there is development happening in areas where it's never happened in Fort Lauderdale I hope you're following that because that's going to have an huge impact there's so much to be considered don't rush to judgment do the job right for our children thank you Danny aqua thank you everyone my name is Danny Aqua I live in Hollywood and I'm speaking today on behalf of teach Florida a nonprofit organization that represents 55 Jewish Day schools across the state it's important for me to represent today the interest of the nearly 50,000 private school students and 10,000 homeschool students that are not in Broward County's district schools but also deserve our consideration it's natural for you to think about District students first the same way our schools admittedly think about our students first but at our core we care about every single child success and so to the extent we can collaborate R we should in New Jersey we have a state funed program that pays more than 100 Public School stem teachers to teach in private schools out to their Public School teaching schedules they earn an average of $177,000 in additional income per year and our private school students have access to talented credential stem teachers the main opportunity I see here for collaboration is facilities most of our schools are full mainly due to incredible migration from New York and California we simply can't find space that doesn't need incredible investment to meet Fire and Building Code and that is zoned for a school it's also incredibly risky for schools to invest money without having that zoning one school last year spent millions of dollars purchasing and renovating space in downtown Hollywood that was ultimately denied a special exception because of traffic concerns that school was two blocks away from an under enrolled District school now imagine if that school could have leased space from the district the district could have earned additional income and we could have been been able educate 250 local students instead of last minute having to find space for them in Jewish Day schools from Miami to Palm Beach several of them ended up homeschooling because these are not FTE that came from the district these are students whose parents need them to receive a strong religious and secular education those students all have family empowerment scholarships also which are no longer vouchers they're education savings accounts that are intentionally designed by the Florida legislature to be made eligible for things like part-time public school or other qualified educ expenses if the private school can't offer an AP Calculus because they don't have enough students there's no reason those students can't use that money in that school they're renting space from to pay the district to take AP Calculus I have a little more time so I want to say one more thing again please consider all children living in the district when making this decision every public school teacher Housing Development I've seen from California to penel County to Miami has been for district Personnel but why you might not know this when vaccines first came out for covid public school teachers were eligible first and received them first we had to advocate for private school teachers to to get access which we eventually did but the question is why why shouldn't every single credentialed Florida teacher that's teaching in a school have access to whatever you decide to do with these properties so thank you so much for your time and have a great day anybody else who would like to speak please state your name and stady for the record good afternoon Rich walker uh mayor Parkland I had it intended to speak um but I just want to applaud uh the school board and Dr Lata on finally taking this step this is something that should have happened many many years ago and we wouldn't be in such a position we are now where we don't have any money schools are so under enrolled or they're so over enrolled um but obviously this is something that needs to be that needs to happen and we certainly appreciate everything you're doing because it's important for the county as a whole for the school system to be as they every school should be a-rated not just Parkland schools every school and that's something we've always strived for as as a mayor now and a commissioner previously our city staff our commission our previous commissions our previous City staffs have been deeply involved with the prow Brower County School boards not just for Parkland schools but for all schools it's important for us that our neighbors are treated EXA exactly the same as we are because we never know where people will go but infighting gets us nowhere because this is something that has to happen but I think Dr Lata said something that's very important as one of the largest land owners in Brower County it's important that you look at that real estate to see what can be leveraged what can be potentially sold so that you can generate the funds that are so desperately needed so that maybe you don't have to close as many schools as you want to do and you can put those resources to some of the schools that desperately need to be fixed whether it's roofs mold painting whatever have you but there is a lot of vacant land there's a lot of land that the school board has that you can use to bolster your resources I think that's something that's incredibly important and with that I think it's important for that that you work with with the cities do not get enticed by trying to be Realtors or developers and manage the land yourself work with the cities find out what Solutions the cities can have to benefit the city as well as the school board because once you sell it you receive that immediate benefit and then the cities can work with whoever it is whether it's developers or even the city wants to buy it to build new parks or or what whatever that may be it's important to just stay focused on the schools stay focused on the students and getting money is one of your most important things it's actually the most important thing because that allows you to provide better education better services for our resident so with that I'm looking forward to hearing your discussion and thank you for everything that you guys do thank you any other public speaker anybody else would like to speak seeing none Mrs Hixon thank you and thank you all for everyone that came to speak it's it's really important that we look at this as a partnership it is definitely something that I've been advocating for I'm glad that we're finally in a place when I first got elected we talked about resizing the district and then and we talked about it and talked about it and talked about it nothing ever happen so I'm glad that we're finally in a place where we can have these tough decisions and discussions to make sure that we are providing what's necessary for all of our students across the district so I'm just going to um give a couple of my thoughts and then the superintendent asked us some questions or things that he wanted us to to weigh in on so I will do that um I when we talk about full Choice it's something that I have talked about with Dr Lata M chowski Miss Marte Dr wanza anyone that listen would listen I really think it would be important for us to try to do a districted charter school I think when you go well I know when you go north of Lake okachobee there's a large number of districted charters schools we would keep some of our students we would keep some of that money and for me what charter schools look like are things that public schools don't provide well um on their own and there are two maybe well two specific ones I was thinking about dual language would be one we have lots of amazing dual language programs but they can't go all the way to K through five in particular schools because they don't have enough resources in a particular school to do that if we put it all in one place we could provide the Dual language from K to 8 possibly or because we want to look at how we matriculate that out and we talked earlier about gifted and gifted is another program where I think if we looked at a districted charter school that did k through eight we have pieces of it but it's not um it's not working really well in the way that it is set up now so that's something I would love to discuss also when we talk about full choice we have two phenomenal montau programs that are have long long lines of weight listed why not look at putting a monu more in the central well there's one but another one in the the central part of the county and even the North Area because the two that we have are in the East Central and the South area and and they're they're awesome programs so I would like to see how we look at that so for me the discussion of repurposing isn't closing schools and I think it's really important that we share that with the the um public I don't want to sell land either I think that there are places where it might make sense but if we have extra land maybe lease it because as we've heard development is growing and in 10 20 years we might need that land and we'll never have the money to be able to buy it back so why not lease those spaces and partner with with other organizations that um that have a need for the land right now but we still own the land and I think that's really important there are places where it might make sense to sell it because we know we won't build a school there later but in places where there it doesn't make sense um I don't think we just sell everything um I really think the idea of K8 is important if we're losing students to Charter Schools let's look at that model most of them are k8s and going back again to why I think it's important to do districted charter schools and they do do them to our North and South you could have uniforms you could require clear backpacks in those District charter schools and you have to make the parents be part of what's happening it's not even an option they have to do it I've gone to visit this different um Charters around the county and gone to different events and it's so wonderful to see an Auditorium packed with parents because they have to also do service hours with their kids um so let's I would like to try to to do one or two see how it works and then expand it if it's something that we feel is working well um boundaries I had this discussion last year not very popular for what I was saying but we do have schools for example Coral Glades they have 800 and something reassignments there's something wrong with the boundary there so I I know it's always a hard discussion to have but I think we really need to look at how our boundaries are I live through two boundary changes as a student I was supposed to go to McNichol and then I had to go to olon and um anyway I know it's a struggle but I think we have to better balance where we're providing um transportation for our students I have said this for a long time wellness centers and I know they're actually discussing one at McNichol if I'm not mistaken through bef where there is extra space and there's a whole Wing that's going to be a Wellness Center that works for our community um as well as our students I think that's really important we have a great program at Seagull um for special needs adults that most people don't realize is there it's a huge need in our community for what happens to our special needs students when they age out of the system as a parent who has a a a young adult that went through that it was it was so difficult and hard to be able to know that I you can't just leave them Home Alone um and they're not ready but seagull has this phenomenal program for students who have aged out that's in one part of the county which I will also say our marketing I said it I asked for it a couple of meetings ago we need a marketing plan we we've heard it in every meeting that we've gone to and half the people that discuss things with us up here we have a great new person in marketing phah Wilson and you know it will lay a lot at her feet but we do I hear TV Comm or radio commercials lately about Dade County and why you should send your kids there um we should be doing that also TV um radio Facebook well I guess no one does that any want Instagram whatever whatever works um also at Seagull also at Charles Drew Family Center I was there yesterday um and a couple other places daycare centers that we can use spaces if there's extra space in a school these are things our community is looking for also was mentioned golf stream right Community hubs where other different nonprofits can come together to provide not only the Head Start program for our students but Esau classes for students GED classes um places where they can get food wash their clothes if they need a laundry um you know washer and dryer um my other idea is and I don't know what this looks like but I'm just going to throw it out there building a sports complex and I know that we're talking about academics but if we had a place that was um state-of-the-art for sports we could host the state events here we didn't have to rent out where for soccer and football they're were paying a lot of money to the um drive pink or it has a new name now but you know where I'm talking about um where we if there's a piece of land that we have not selling it but how do we make it like a sports complex where we can host our showcases for football that we have soccer now that we have a state champion um lacrosse all of those things and possibly graduations of some I know it's outside but anyway you get the idea if we were to build a facility where we didn't have to keep paying other people to do that and start inviting people in and make money I think that um that would be a great idea for some use of land um let me see here I think it's an amazing idea to say and transforming education so I would say that very first thing on our marketing plan is to change redefining and transforming education I think it's really really important I do also think the fish concerns are a huge problem and that we need to clean up what our percentages actually are um and I know that I spoke with Megan and Dr Stewart on how we partner with businesses and communities in true Partnerships where we are bringing them into our schools I said this to someone yesterday we can't be the only ones pouring into our students this is a partnership we need everyone to pour in and every time I have a conversation they say what can we do to help volunteer in your schools go read for them help them do the lunch line be part of the car line what whatever it is that they need I my assistant and I we do that we we put our money where our mouth is and we do it every week at different schools and they look for us there and they appreciate us being there and I think we need to do it within our district our own districted staff but we also need you to commun community in the businesses to partner we have huge businesses right J J um JM there's I'm not going to list them all but anyway there are a lot of financial resources that if we partnered them better they could help out with when we were talking about ptas and not having the funding to have lunches for the staff or parties for the kids or things of that nature if you put a business partnership together in zones you could you could leverage that resource better they want to help they want to be part of of pouring into the schools they just don't know how to do it we have to do a better job of inviting them in and holding their hand sometimes maybe and dragging them in but I think it's incumbent on us to make sure that we're doing that in a more intentional way so to answer some of the other questions um I personally would like to to start because you're asking us where would we start at looking at schools that are below the 60% Mark um not including okay yes so it's 30 of them not including the high schools um and start that conversation why are they below 60% um what can we do to to increase them and I would still say even if we're not looking at high schools in terms of of this particular list looking at them as as one of our um speakers speaker said how do we help them improve their percentage even though they're not on the list we don't ignore them how are we building up those programs that are happening there um and again your question about selling lands I'll say again I think we should be very intentional and I think we should do more of partnering and um leasing than selling that's my input thank thank you Miss tixon Dr Lata can you just help guide the board to what your expectation is to get out of this Workshop today well I I think Miss Hixon let it off and hit a home run I think you described a lot what the people you're hear about how we have to be deliberate and when we talk about a number and I need a range so we can go to it it doesn't mean that we're closing those schools we do have to be very very transparent and say there we may have to close schools we may have too many we we may have too many students but let's exhaust every opportunity and once I can have a window of opportunity of what those what that looks like we'll be ble to go out immediately uh we're expecting it but we can go to those small cities and those communities and pompo and and sit with them and say okay what what how can we make this better how do we get our kids back how do you help partner with us and p3s or or lease options are incredibly important as we're hoping to see a couple come in in the next week or two that would be vital so you stating what you see what you perceive what what you feel but more importantly giving us a range of of schools where we are because I think that that really is my my Walking Papers in the sense of how do I go about moving forward with staff and we're prepared uh with this and if you're looking for those numbers if you don't have them in front of you it's the attachment that talks about enrollment and Page 11 and 12 in the slides on that will give you those numbers directly thank and I want to be clear on what I'm saying I'm not saying close schools that are 60% or under I don't believe that we look at really closing any and if so maybe one or two but to repurpose and redefine what those under 60 look like and have the conversation why are they under 60 how do we fix that is it fixable is the building too old well then if the building's too old and we put these two schools together maybe we just build a brand new building that encompasses this so I want to be really clear I'm not saying close schools under 60% enrolled I that's not what I'm what I'm saying I just want to be really clear I realized I didn't really um clarify that so thank you Dr Zan thank you very much chair just trying to get Dr lata's questions down I think I'll give you answers to the three questions that I heard sir um the school board directed Dr Lata uh to help us repurpose at least five schools with the decision set for June 2024 for an implementation in August of 2025 um this is not an action that the school board inherently wanted to do all by itself it's the result of Decades of demographic shifts in our community people who live here are having fewer children and they're waiting to have them later and later in life and the end result is is that we have a school infrastructure that's built for behavior that doesn't exist anymore that's the underlying drive for what we have to do in my opinion this is the most important decision that we'll make as a board if we're serious about our achievement of strategic goals we have to be serious about the decisions that we make if we want to become an a-rated District we have to buy the assets that let us get to be an a-rated District if we want to fulfill what the chair says at the beginning of every meaning that 100% of our children are proficient in academics we cannot continue on the current path we have to justify every dollar we spend toward educating students our core responsibility the thing only Broward County Public Schools can do for Broward County I think though this is not an obstacle I think it's an opportunity It's a grand opportunity this one decision can help us leverage our fixed resources let's not ever forget that buildings don't educate students Educators do so why are we spending money on facilities when we could take that money and spend it on educating our students I will never run from that principle we must spend our money on our core capability now there's a Broward County way to do this well we need to communicate over and over and over again and the test of communication is when these people tell us they've heard enough we need to be 100% transparent and what that means to the data guy here is the second data are validated the release to the school board the release to the public the release to every employee in brard County all at the same time we need to be compassionate we need to understand our history we need to be empathic listeners I appreciate Danny coming today to talk about some Innovative opportunities we heard a lot of innovative opportunities today we have to run down every one of them because we also have to collaborate it's not just with municipalities although I talk a lot to Municipal leaders I'll never run away from that by the way uh as fellow elected leaders they matter to me and they know more about their cities than we ever will and so I have to lean on them for that uh information to make sure that I fulfill my obligation but in the end we have to be grounded in reality our resource allocation options are very limited we have $5.6 billion a year we run $239 campuses we need about 180 should I say that again yes if you do the math we can educate every in Brower County that will go this year or will ever go in projection of the future with 180 campuses not 239 I love the creative ideas Miss hixon's brought up maybe there are better things to do with these things than just sell lease land borrow uh turn into other things uh I look forward to those things but I'm centered on our core Mission which is to educate students that's why we're here and Facilities do not educate students so I haven't been very opaque if you'd like to know where I land Mr superintendent a lot of these people have talked about a loss and every school closing is a loss and every school closing is a gain I spent 20 years working uh in the Pentagon we did a lot of work with base realignment enclosure and when Rand was done and went and looked at all the bases that we closed and repurposed into other things there was a net gain we built communities we built airports we built affordable housing we built schools we built communities but the net net was that land was better used for social gain than when we had it as a base we got to find that Victory here too we have to find the grand victory that builds a better Broward County Broward County was founded by heroic Pioneers they moved here before there was a here they saw that this area could become something special I think in many ways they'd be amazed at what's been built I want to make sure that they'd be proud of our school system our public school system and sometimes that requires hard decisions through this process we can build trust with our community by following the Broward principles we can align our resources to spend more on teaching and learning and less on facility maintenance that's not our job we only do facility maintenance because we need some facilities to educate our students we're not in the business of facility maintenance for any other purpose so Mr superintendent to answer your questions um there's a couple caveats I have to enter first one where we don't need the land for any projection we should sell it immediately and reroute that Capital to our underresourced schools our historically underresourced schools so I'm agreeing with uh something you and I have talked about many times I think we need to think about communities defining programs for us rather than Educators trying to to to uh Define all the programs I'm sickened by the fact that under enrolled elementary schools do not get music art and PE we should all be sickened by that there's no reason that our children don't get this the the education that they need and we sit around and observe something that's just heroically wrong and now we have a chance to do something about it Mr superintendent I'd add to your list though and I'd say all operating funds that are freed as a result of these changes be put into an account that can only be spent on additional teaching and learning so Capital to historically under resource schools operational efficiencies to additional teaching and Lear learning I have a vision about what Broward County could look like after these decisions are done it's a Broward County with an extra hour of instruction in every elementary school that's left over it has funding for after school academic programs it has funding for Summer School academic programs for every child that gets uh behind on academics and its primary goal is to rebuild the K through3 system so that 100% of our students are proficient by the end of third grade that vision is Possible only with real change by here by by pretty significant changes in resource allocations and in the end closing some schools again a loss in some to some people but the deal with the community is while you may be in a new boundary you may go to a new school the school you go to will be great and your children should be proficient by the end of third grade if they're not proficient by the end of third grade we and their families and the community failed but we built a system that is geared to making sure that everybody's proficient in math and English language arts so to answer your questions Mr superintendent the range that I'd like I need to see data on all 239 schools I don't want to say only schools that are so much and why because I'm an economist and I know that if you push down over here it bubbles up over there and so what we need is data for all of our schools so that as we look at closings repurposing of any kind we can see what the impact is on feeder patterns the impact is on communities and impact is on families I'm in favor of the grand opportunity I want to make sure that I fulfill my commitment to to people that I've talked to in this journey and we spend every dollar on achieving our core Mission the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing and our main thing is educating students lastly I want to build successful education patterns that are competitive against other options so I'm looking to win back students that are no longer with us doing something else why can't they come back to a great program or to a great series of schools that ends with some of our best high schools now while I'd like to see data for high schools I don't see any changes in high schools uh in a facilities manner but I see uh the opportunity really to re build Broward County and fulfill the mission of our Pioneers which is let's make sure that we see what we could be rather than what we are thank you very much chair thank you Miss leonardy thank you um and I want to thank everyone who came out to to speak today but also everyone who participated in our town halls um everyone who's been participating in small group discussions uh you know this District would not exist um without parents and students and volunteers and Community leaders so thank you um I just really briefly want to say that I agree with Mystics and suggestions about how we use our facilities differently and I also agree with looking at schools under 60% enrollment um with the caveat of not necessarily closing but other solutions that I'll get to later in my comments um but I do accept uh the idea that we may have to close some facilities um I also o want to note that we uh I believe that the the school board was sent a letter from the city of Oakland Park as well um that was not included in the the backup um I'll start off I guess with a few questions what kinds of facilities assessments have we done on our physical property as a part of this process I can answer that our last facilities assessment in this District was 2014 as we do what we need to do today or whatever we come up with uh our staff is ready to go out and do an internal needs assessment and facility assessment based on the criteria that we look at today unfortunately uh doing an assessment 10 years later after does have very little value to what we do considering some of the projects and such and I'm sure some of them look just the same way too so um that's we're at a disadvantage and I know that Miss SRE touched on that um and that's just unacceptable to wait that long for a facili assess but we will um deploy our our facilities and everyone to do an immediate facilities uh review internally but we do have a bid out for the long term of that because we can't do all of it internally and we'd rather see a company do it for us okay um that's a lot to digest and I will say that uh anyone who's read the most recent grand jury report would note that the last facilities assessment done in 2014 was extremely flawed um to do another rushed facilities assessment uh would be very inappropriate and I think unacceptable um at least for me as one board member um so that that piece of that part of this picture is very concerning to me that we don't have an accurate and thorough um assessment of our facilities and our physical property um I guess my next question would be about how long would that assessment take um have we do we does staff have any knowledge of other such assessments that have taken place in other districts Dr L well I like the way you framed that because we aren't in the business of assessing facilities professionally we have an talented group of of staff that can tell you that the roof needs replacement we can look up data records and such um I I can't agree with you more the fact that that assessment would be inter Jal and would not be something that we would certify or stamp it would be simply an adhoc group of uh professionals that know the facilities that work in our facilities department but we would really uh rely on an accurate timely uh professional uh assessment that would be stamped and sealed and confirmed that would be unlike the one in 2014 so I don't think I answered your question but I know we do have professionals that can look back and also do a physical review of it but it again it would be internal okay um so again you know I think the the one piece that's come up a lot in this conversation has been about trust right um and again I will go back to us doing our own facilities assessment repeating history um does not help build trust um that is very problematic to me so but I I do want to ask the question again um does staff you know I know we we've alluded to an RFQ that's out there so say we move forward with an outside facilities assessment about how long would that take um and how long is that taken in other districts Dr L I believe Mr chabowski is behind me and has an opportunity to speak into a microphone I believe she has that information yes thank you for your question so we don't believe the information will be ready to be used during this process of redefining the schools as we are planning on repurposing by 2025 August but the actual conditions assessment is supposed to take about a year at least a year okay thank you um something that I've heard about today from from our public speakers is the lack of data right and that's a very very important piece of of data that we do not have when we're trying to make these decisions about repurposing ing or redefining our schools so I I just want everyone to keep that um in the back of their minds and I do I'm not going to speak as eloquently as some of our public speakers but I do want to highlight some of the things that were said today so the piece about Park Trails Elementary um and you know being not at full capacity we have a lot of schools like this that that have seats um but that aren't accepting students for reassignment um we heard from Cynthia Dominique about uh buildings and Portables counting towards seats um that they're not able but those those buildings and Portables are not being occupied by students kind of skewing the data and I've also heard from Mr Naylor about that too um I want to uplift the story from the individual from teach Florida about leasing space and I heard Miss Hixon talk about leasing space as well I have concerns about selling property um once we sold that property we can't get it back we you know we have a limited amount of money I think leasing space is one way um to ensure continuous income into the district um have we collected the data that Mr Naylor was talking about around why and it wasn't just Mr Naylor we heard from multiple public speakers around Why students aren't attending their home schools Miss Saunders I know we we really struggled around that we did get how many students are not attending in their home schools you have the charts and and that's included in the program but where did you end with this because I know it's a typical test to go back and get it when it may not be there thank you for the question um so the information that we've provided is is a starting point um it's so it's showing some interesting trends that we really need to explore further the answer around why uh we don't have that answer um that's what really needs to happen next and those answers need to be um addressed with data and also with conversations with the community um we do have exit survey data that does give us some indication of the reason why um students may be leaving their school to go to another school um but specific data on why a student is attending a school other than their neighborhood school um that data is lacking I think it is very important to collect that information thank you and I I think you know again I would implore us to move forward and try to collect that data as best as possible whether it's you know I think it's a mix of quantitative but also anecdotal um you know information that we can get from the community um because again I think that's a very important factor in making these decisions and I will say another thing or theme I've heard from the community is um transparency and I think that as much as possible you know we heard uh that it's very difficult to get certain pieces of data that historically H we have provided um so I want to know why you know that's no longer accessible on our website um but I would also encourage us to try to create a dashboard of of data and criteria that's easily manipulated by the public to see you know well this school meets these criteria it's uh you know 59% under enrolled those kinds of things so we can all be looking at the same information and we're all very clear on what we're looking at and and the the things that need to be met um I want to highlight Mary ferdi's call and I think Miss Hixon also called for this a call for marketing um I think when we were originally talking about this back in 2021 I had first joined the board um and we were in this crisis of of lost students um and we definitely talked about that and we still haven't seen that marketing plan um I'll just leave that at that and I I do want to also um highlight Jackie Lam's story about principles calling parents you know I've had the opportunity to visit not just District 3 schools but schools in other districts where principles have gone door too they've mailed out postcards we really need to to speak with our school leaders and see and learn best practices that we can replicate throughout this District to bring um students back in um I heard a call for a discussion of the history of closing schools um and what that's done to communities and I think that's a very important piece to share with the board and with the community to look back on when we've done this in the past what were the consequences um and we need to make sure that we're not repeating that history and I'll just end on you know when I joined the board several boards several superintendents and several cabinets go I was told repeatedly that we should not and cannot invest in improving the facilities and programming of our under enrolled schools because they are under enrolled and I think that is incredibly short-sighted many of our under enrolled schools are under enrolled because we have not invested in them and they serve historically marginalized communities and it is going to be vital moving forward that our communities that have been neglected are not suffering the disproportion impact of school closures that instead we stick to our commitment to redefine by looking at a variety of different solutions a lot of which we heard from the public today they are coming to us with Solutions we heard repeatedly today not even just in this Workshop but earlier from our our advisory chairs the desire for more AP classes more dual enrollment classes at our own campuses more Cambridge programming a desire for rigor and we need to be is committed to those issues the the changing of programming as we are about closing campuses so I just want to end on that and I I really think it's important you know the community is coming to us again with Solutions we don't have to reinvent the wheel here thank you thank you Miss Fam thank you madam chair um I have quite a bit to say but um and I I appreciate you all coming I really do your input and what I really admire is that we're getting so many different ideas and Concepts from the board members and also from conern parents and staff and and um City officials and that's where you really grow when you get information from all different angles that's when you put together a beautiful cake so my concept is I think we need to generate excitement to get people to return to the schools and how do we do that first question I think one we need um to create hybrid School situations including technical a lot more Technical and vocational schools and I don't know that the under enrollment should be the strongest factor that we consider because I think if we have technical schools positioned in certain locations I think the enrollment will um soar and will'll have weight list just like we have in other areas so I don't necessarily think that a school should be doomed just because it currently is under enrolled um and the other thing that I would say is with the hybrid schools I'm hearing more of the parents that I know that are pulling their school their students is because they're going to schools that offer Classic Education and some people want to go back to um Classic Education they're not using the apps as much they're going back to straight math um they're not allowing the phones to be used in the schools it's more of going back to what we had because it seemed like we were doing better academically during that period of time now in some instances I don't think we're going to be able to stimulate academics and certain students and it's not it's not a character flaw it's just that everyone has different interests and different talents and and I don't think those students should be penalized or um looked down upon just because they're not academically inclined so I think we need to Target certain areas and we look at certain Pockets where we have students that are more apt to to work with their hands um to work and get a skill set that they can Thrive financially and I have lots of different options um some of these include The Vocational or the technical schools as you call them now um in our Forward Thinking putting in programs like drone programs where people use drones the police use drones fire department use drones ships use drones to go around to look the you know inspect exterior damage the weather everything it's just everywhere and a lot of students are good with their hands and and they're mechanically inclined if we brought a program like that I think what also we should spring um I don't know if people are aware of this um but over at the Panther Sports Complex they have their own school they recruit ice skaters from all over the country and bring them in they go to school half day and then they ice skate the other half day they take showers they give them lunch and breakfast everything so I think we as a community should look to partner with we have U beautiful weather down here where people would gravitate to make these Sports schools something really um Thrive we have soccer is very strong down in Dade in that area we have U football of course and basketball so if we could even partner with some of these other schools and get in and say hey we have students too and look how talented they are and start a program like that where we're partnering with them I think we would get uh a lot of people returning to the schools in addition um I think we would include like sports management because sports are such a big part of our lifestyle down here um within I think 25 approximately 25 miles we have three airports so I think we should FOC uh focus on the demographics of what's already here in the community I know I've spoken with someone specifically they're out of date but they do um jet engine repairs and they would be willing to start a class where they teach students how to repair Jet and these are all high paying jobs with these skills we have um many airports this is their base we have if if um we have students that don't want to go on academically they can become flight attendants by the age of 20 we can start them learning that process getting familiar and get an edge where they're already working at the airport where they'll be at the top of the list to go when they're looking for to retain flight attendance and I think if we utilize what's around us that we'll do much better I've spoken with a gentleman he construction he said they're starting their employees at $50 an hour on bulldozers they can't get enough students to train um there's backos you know with all the roads being built um I have a friend that her son works in an extended crane up in the air more than $100,000 a year to start these are all good skilled jobs underwater welding we have all these cruise ships right here they're also another really great paying jobs and you look not even mentioning like truck driving or or elevator repairs or things of that nature if we want to do that but I'm talking about the ones that really generate excitement um the other thing we have down here is we have South Beach with all the fashion and we really don't play that up and if we could get fashion careers and photography careers going um designing clothes designing um how to put together displays and windows and how to Market things and I think we would really pick up a lot of people that way we have a lot of creativity from our public down here that we could generate interest so um I could go on with more and more ideas but I'm going to leave it at that but what I do want to do I'm sorry what I do want to say is I reviewed the um Grand Jury report as to the mistakes that we've made in the past because I think we should learn from those mistakes and not pretend they don't exist and these are just um four the most important important points that they pointed out is the failure to plan what we're doing here with the schools we have to plan it out has to be well thought out it can't be as as someone said about um putting the plane to flying the plane as we're putting it together we have to have a plan in place and we have to have the right staff in place and that goes into number two failure to lead um failure to plan by failing to put in place staff that has the ability and the desire to adequately inform and guide our project managers our Architects our Engineers our contractors our subcontractors so we need people that are experienced working for the school district that can oversee these other professionals if not then we need to retain outside assistance and that's what it said here it says part of the problem with Broward County school districts is the enormous bureaucracy between industry professionals and the officials on the public side so they actually worked against each other during the um the promise program and the smart program I'm sorry and it really um worked against them and to everyone's detriment so and it said that the board never sought to address these problems and they let them go on and go on and on number third um number three they said failure to inform the district officials took up steps to obstruct the public and the and it say staff took steps to obstruct the public and the board from reing receiving potentially daming damaging information from the smart program projects we have to be absolutely transparent and we can't allow that to go on again because I don't know if that culture still exists I'm hoping it doesn't but if it does we need to shut that down because we will step into the same rabbit hole and then the last thing is to failure to count and that means um although the district school board had enough reliable information to act they didn't so that's holding us our feet to the fire so we have to ask the right questions we have to do the right thing we can't be willly ignorant and um be uh negligent we have to be on top of our game if we're going to expect others to be on top of theirs so I just want to thank you for giving us this opportunity and I'm I'm really hoping that we sore and that um so many things can be beautiful about Broward again and schools that that are closed get built into beautiful new schools that are state-of-the-art and that make you proud and say you know this was worth waiting for thank you Mrs fam can you speak to the question in regards to the number or percentage of schools that you would like to see Dr how look at um again I would say it's not based upon if they're under enrolled because I think there's many factors that can contribute to something being under enrolled and I do think it's a vicious cycle if you're not going to invest how can you blame people for not coming you know if your school's falling apart so um at this point in time um and I would actually say that we need another High School in my district we're overloaded we have more 4,800 at Cypress Bay it's just way too large way too too large so um in the future keep that in mind because because it's become a college campus as opposed to a high school um what I think we could do is consolidate start with the elementary schools and try to stay in our feeder patterns as much as we possibly can and I think the elimination of the schools unfortunately is going to have to be based on the um the condition and how much the cost will be to repair and also I want to factor in the community because certain communities have suffered more than others and they they don't deserve that so in addition to the financial aspect I I think you have to look at the demographics so what that whatever that comes out to be Dr holness thank you sorry thank you madam chair so um I just want to start by saying um the immediate goal it appears um superintendent lcard as we talk about all of this is to get down to approximately five schools so um the question is how do we get there and what I'd like to mention is that as we uh go through the process to get down to the five schools it's very important to me and I'm and I believe to others that these five schools that we're looking at um currently when we get to that point that it's it's reflective of the entire District district and it does not whether intentionally or not seemingly Target communities uh with economic uh challenges or communities based on demographics or race and so on and so forth so I'm hoping when we come down to the five schools that um those five schools um are districtwide and and reflect as such so with that being said I know that when we look at a problem um which the problem that we have are the schools that are under enroll and initially we have a list of uh those that are 70% or below um uh how do we um address this issue how do we come up with a solution and what are the benefits of the solutions that we have and as discussed in the PowerPoint some of the benefits would in uh indicated would be teacher salary enhance ESC Services increase funding and so on and so forth improve facility uh conditions um but what I'd like to um mention based upon the selection criteria uh that we discuss which would include enrollment Equity Community input um stay rate competition and so on that the reason we are here in the first place is because of enrollment so just as the superintendent mentioned enrollment to me is the priority right so we identify these 67 schools it's very difficult to look at 67 schools so to the superintendent's point Point how do we narrow this down and I think that uh looking at enrollment as the first and highest priority that should be the factor used to narrow this down and then we can start to look at once it's narrowed down to a certain number we can look at the other uh selection criteria such as equity and Community input so my suggestion Mr superintendent is that um I consider uh when I look at the schools schools that are 55% or or below to be um uh under enrolled significantly enough to be of concern so when I look at those schools and I have my list here I counted 25 schools that are 55% or below so I would like to consider those schools and once we have this number whatever the board decides then um second in priority to me Dr Lata is looking at these uh reduced uh number of schools whether it's 20 25 30 as Miss X mentioned that the next priority on the list of selection criteria is equity and Community input um is the process Equitable in reducing these 30 or 25 schools down to five um is it is it um reflective districtwide or is the are we considering um ensuring that we're not targeting a specific demographics or race or uh communities with economic challenges and so on so it has to appear to be Equitable when we narrow this down so uh Mr superintendent once we get this down please consider equity and Community input to narrow down from that 30 or 25 down to year five schools now I also want to mention as we do that the a distant second selection criteria would be the other criteria that you mentioned which would be stay rate academic performance and so on those are a distant second to equity and Community input in my opinion now I've heard the talk about closing schools that should be the last resort um I've always heard the term before right sizing now we're saying redefining repurposing I like the term right sizing but we're saying redefining that's okay um but I believe closing should be something that is the last result it should be in no way a priority discussion until we determine if we really have to close any schools after going through the purpose of uh the process of determining uh if we can and how we can repurpose or redefine schools so I prefer not to entertain in any significant way closing schools until we must get there um so with that being said um I just want to say a few more things now as we continue to right size redefine repurpose to become more efficient we must Place equal focus on how we become competitive to not continue to decline so we must focus on uh customer service and Dr lard you and I met regarding customer service I've met with Dr heurn as well um I've heard I forgot which board member mentioned when you walk into a school you have to feel welcome when you walk into any business you go into the lobby you must feel that you are wanted you're welcome um we have to look at programs um in our prior meeting we talk about marketing we have to do a much better job at marketing um and increasing uh learning outcome as well as our ESC service now in my opinion our district is great now you have great athletes right that struggle sometimes but they train Harder They may change coaches they do different things so as we narrow down to make it more efficient we must not be satisfied with new size that we are we must then look at how we can rebound to become much better so I um and you look at uh uh one of the most recent examples that I can think of of a company that started having challenges and it made adjustments and that would be Netflix right Netflix sold at below 200 they made some adjustments in two or three years now they're selling at over $600 per share so we can rebound we can look at what our challenges are as we narrow down to a a a size uh that is um reasonable and effective we can rebound and become a great school district and start to regain enrollment um so we must learn from our mistakes we must use this as an opportunity to Leap Forward um and I uh personally I'm so sorry I personally think that as we get down to uh the number that um we can function efficiently then we need to to have aggressive robust approach uh action plans to increase enrollment moving forward so thank you Mr superintendent yes Dr L Dr holess thank you very very much I know we've met about a bunch of things but uh one of the things that we did not have a data calculation for because it's impossible and I think it falls under your concern about community and we we put a categorization in there of uh Legacy historical perspectives and there's some data in there that shows that history of our schools before um you know with segregation and then integration so I believe that's also what you're thinking about as well we're working on we've been doing some of it already privately in small groups that is a factor that um is one of the most important to us staff was really really adamant that we make sure that uh we factor that in as we move forward because there was been so many neighborhoods and so many schools that have U Been disregarded over the years and I we can't make up for past mist mistakes in one day but we can certainly make sure we don't make the same mistakes absolutely Madam chair I just want to mention that really quick so the superintendent and I spoke about that and there are some schools that have um they may be significantly under enrolled but they have um uh uh emotional um uh sentiment to the community they have a rich history uh that um is important to certain communities and even if they're significantly under enrolled we cannot we cannot close those type of schools so we have to look at how we can repurpose those schools uh to function more efficiently and ensuring that they remain open and that is a very very important part and that's why I mentioned Community input because regardless of enrollment if the community is not with us we cannot move forward in my opinion thank you Dr holess can I just clarify something that you said you want to look at 55% or below the 25 schools but from that are you asking the superintendent to then just pick five schools to do something with no from the 25 uh the initial criteria um would be enrollment and the enrollment would reduce that to 25 schools now from the 25 schools we now need to look at the next selection criteria that are important which is equity and Community input now from looking at those priority uh selection criteria gaining Community input from these 25 uh schools whatever communities they're in and equ Equitable um aspect of making this type of selection how do we then narrow it down to whatever number we're looking for and then a far distant selection criteria would be the rest of the things you mentioned but those two in my opinion our priority because you can't move forward if you don't have Community input you can't move forward if it's not Equitable so sure no I understand that what I'm saying is that originally we asked the superintendent to look at five schools correct now we're opening that conversation up and I'm asking you are you saying still just five schools are you open to more than that I'm open to First narrow to 25 and then from there use the selection criteria of equity and Community input to narrow down to five okay so it is five okay Miss rert thank you back here um I'm going to go I think forward with uh the ideas that I had so one would be um and and Miss Hixon actually U went through a few of these but I'm going to repeat them uh Workforce training for our exceptional students uh 22 and older uh like Alton Road and Duval I'm not sure Mr superintendent if you've had a chance to go up and and see what they're doing in Duval but I've spoken to Dr heern and he was going to be um having a trip up there because uh they're doing some amazing things and I would certainly love to use um our schools for our students um number two early years the B birth to age three for our employees and their children people in families are paying $250 per child per week to stay working for us wow if you have twins and thank you I'm not going to say your name thank you wonderful Elementary School teacher and wonder of our schools in Coconut Creek could have been trade wins maybe and uh you and your twins really brought this to uh to my attention and I I I then turned and shared it with the board and I I was just blown away at that so at the end of this year right now our employeers are weighing if they can afford to stay working in the classroom or at a school or if they need to go home with their children and do that way so we talk about having that and I don't I don't know what the other word was but I'm going to call it stayability you know how are we going to keep our employees and families happy especially our employees at this point because we're losing them so let's let's address that if we have open space um I know and and Miss Hixon mentioned those three schools that we do have that are zero to three um however they have huge waiting lists and our our teachers and our our um our school-based staff cannot do that so I do want to say that I want to thank uh the board for asking for a a survey for our teachers to see it went out this week so I thank the communication department for that but I did get my ear uh a little talked into by some APS and other people that say they would would have liked the opportunity to also do the survey so um I would love that that happened as well these are school-based we don't certainly want to lose our APS and I know you're making a face but it only went out to teachers it did it only went I trust me I know uh only when that only went out to teachers but I would ask that it goes out to um um school-based if we could do that and just so we can see the bigger picture um number three focus on affordable housing for buying a home not just renting this encourages our teachers and our families to stay within we want to keep people and the renting is crazy it it is absolutely crazy out there and even with incentives that usually goes to the owners for that own the rental units let's invest in our employees work with um Habitat for Humanity Urban League many many many other organizations here in Broward County um that I've been uh privy to talk to and have talked to my colleagues as well um they want to help they want to help us help our employees and have them stay with us once again stayability um number four definitely us support District Charters that we sponsor that Miss Hixon brought up um number five and I apologize I didn't have time to text uh somebody on this we have uh in law here somewhere we don't know the number uh uh space program education and I've shared that with the the superintendent I've shared that with uh Dr heer this is money for us this is money programs we're in Florida the space stuff is picking up let's not miss out on that and uh number six every single school should look and feel welcoming from the street through the wonderfully education and happy thriving students and residents here in our County so when you go into the front desk you are greeted warmly I was at um one of Miss Leonardi's schools which used to be my school a couple of boundaries ago Cypress M people were tripping over themselves saying hello and I didn't have a name tag on I I didn't nothing and they were saying the same thing to parents who were right in there and it was I I I literally was tripping over people saying hello and welcome into their school and that's how truly it should be um definitely 100% a kudos to the principal and AP there wonderful job um having lived through um Team grand jury investigations and reports uh I can tell you a failor plan is not good I didn't vote and it's no secret for the bond when we as a a board were talking about it because I asked one question and this one question was extremely important and this one question was this what is the implementation plan the response was we don't have one we're going to focus on getting it past and then we're going to spend some time doing it and that's sometimes doing it or still so taking the time is incredibly important trust me because I my voice vocal courts here would have lived a lot longer than asking all the questions I've asked over the years that went on De years so happy to have a new leadership happy to have the public here to discuss this and have us honestly turn to you and say we're going to work together I love the idea of leasing space programs uh for day schools um also acceleration acmy who go out and find our students who have dropped out and we help them graduate and it's the best part is they get a true diploma they finish their classes and we in a district we get part of that FTE and we do none of that work they teach they find they promote they do and they certainly could use and Lease from us part of those um part of our our areas because that is as Dr Zan like to say uh focusing on helping our students that is definitely helping our students so win-win um employment centers for our students to work for us in apprenticeships very few of our students that come through work for us I am incredibly proud that I'm just going to say your name um so just get over it Marcus Moore I taught him at Piper High School he works in this building proud moment he went through a little couple bumps he got here and he is doing incredibly well we have so many opportunities so many un um unfilled seats we need to employ our students and our families if we can let's grow within we have them we're educating them it's extremely important that we help them when we focus also focus on aptitude and interest in career choice down into the middle schools and the elementary schools share the opportunities with them in their Zone and countywide messaging I love when I go to schools and it should be at every school where you have on the doors of your teachers where their alma mater was what um what section of the Armed Forces did they go through every single opportunity is right there and has and the teacher then has the opportunity to bring that up with the students so they they know because there's nothing worse for me when I'm shaking hands at graduation and I say so what's what's next where do you go from here and one graduation I just completely stopped for a second because I I was befuddled when the the answer came it was I'm going to McDonald's so I said great um I said you're going to work there and go in the management program and he says no just for lunch so I said oh I said I get it I'm hungry too I said but what what about the next next part and then he says haven't thought about it yet and this is someone that walks across our stage I don't never want that to happen again um yeah we need to share that message and no rushing the planning I started off with that I already said Liv through those investigations I have no interest in getting back on the crazy Carousel of Kos again so to answer some of the questions that the superintendent put forth as my colleagues my number would be under 50% it's less numbers it's less groups look at them most important really behind the enrollment but close culture history Legacy Equity Community input and then really really understand by going out in your community to understand their historical experience as part of our community of schools what have they experienced for 10 20 30 40 years I am not stopping um have have we checked out to make sure that those schools um are going to be on track to be successful that that is big in my district and it should be big in everybody's uh list to be able to make better um and especially when you were looking in through the landens have we choked the life out of some schools in our district woefully low or no regular improvements to these schools sitting decades and nothing happening to them really look and understand and validate the community's experience and step by step beside the community right next to us together building a great foundation for trust so we can move forward together and for Coconut Creek who's in the room I'm wearing cute butterfly earrings for you and I have my colors for poo Community I couldn't find the other ones too quickly though um those are my my comments I I would rather we we never get rid of schools because I that's just me and I think it's a uh it's it's the Hub of the entire Community but um I think as as a beginning it would be under 50 for me so thank you just real quick no um I wrote in massive letters I'd get in trouble in U school for going Beyond the Lines haven't implemented plan huge and this is the third time I heard planning cost this District a lot in the past and we have a very tight timeline so I want everyone to consider that as we move through I'm not asking for more time but Jun is what we talked about um that's a number or date that you gave me but I've heard three times already about planning and timeline and it cost the District of putting something together too quickly I think Miss fam said it Miss Leonardi said it and I think now miss rert said it it's something that we want to be cognizant of so thank you thank you very much chair and I'm going to make my comments very quick like everybody has gone over multiple points um so yeah when it comes to the whole situation like what we're looking at here I think I for one have made it very clear and I want to make it clear again um I'm all for the solution I want the solution to get there I don't want to slowly rip a Band-Aid off I want to rip it off off and let's let's move forward let's do what's right if we know the solution if the team sees they know what the solution is I don't want to do this every single year because I believe that we are hurting our community more than helping our community I don't think that we should do this every single year to have a group of people stressing out if their school will close we change we'll move we'll merge what are we doing be very clear let's get to the solution now we're talking about a situation in which fine 60% 55% all we're doing is just making a smaller number of people now that group is stressing out and the other ones are safe right oh we're good that to me that's not the solution that's not the the solve just to make a smaller group now to sort of say okay oh we're still on the list I just cut it right the one that was at 61% got it we're good I don't think that that's the solution so for me it's why are we going to continue to hold people hostage of of being nervous I rather just want to get to the solution get there fast um I'm good with any and all solution whatever we have to do closing yes doesn't need to be the last it if it's first it's first if it's the solution do it closing repurposing merging changing whatever we have to do do it but at the same time I think as a board we've directed to do something I also don't want to give you the steps of do every single step of the way come to us gets to a vote do the research let's do what we have to do know what the solution is this is how we're doing it let's go a lot of people I think expected to see names today right we've had conversations superintendent I appreciate it I think a lot of people expected to see the five the 10 the 20 the 30 whatever we need to do we expected to do that but now when are we expecting to meet about this again superintendent I believe it's May correct so now you got a group of people 60% 55% nervous until May do you do you get what I'm saying like it's not it's not a fun process this is not fun the Facebook groups going crazy the groups the WhatsApp groups everybody stressing out let's get to the solution let's do it we are put here to make decisions and do the right thing to move our district forward if you're telling me there's a solution at hand show me solution let's talk about it let's move forward I love you all but I don't want to hang out here talking about it all the time let's just get to the solution let's do the work so I think we keep doing this we keep dragging it along and I understand that but you don't get rid of the issue by not by keep by prolonging it you don't solve the problem that way so I believe there's a number of people that may be upset that will not like the decision but will respect the decision ision because you know what the solution is and you got there let's do it let's be fair about it right I love my Elite Tigers I love everybody right but we had a number of people that came up here and says hands off my school is that fair hold on can I come here and say wait Collins Elementary just celebrated 65 years by the way hands off my school that is not fair we have to do what's fair we have to to do what's right we have a responsibility to do it so I just want to make sure we get the solution I'm I for one just want to move forward rip the Band-Aid off don't want to be talking about it next year let's move forward and do it and I know that every single solution like I said changing repurposing merging it's all on the table um the one thing I do want to say superintendent I do appreciate it history and Legacy it's a big part of it our communities and like I said when we talk about closing schools and and all these things who's the community that's getting hit it's usually our black and brown communities our historic black middle schools high schools that that's under consideration we're not that's not fair but for me I think it's and i' I've talked to the superintendent about this Zoe I appreciate it repurposing has such a bad history with with it but if we do it right people can understand and get excited about it if you can truly give state-of-the-art programs to to communities that don't have access to them that can get people excited k through eight if we do it the right way and do it well right people can get excited board member fam I appreciate it right so so an example like an IMG Academy right if you're talking about Athletics or figuring that out right to say hey that's exciting thinking outside of the box but again Innovation is not easy and leading is not easy so I appreciate it like I said I want to just have the conversation but just let's let's get this going let's solve the problem I don't want to just create more problems for the next five years I really want to get to the problem the solution right now thank you Prof atin thank you madam chair uh you can smile uh because it is 1:20 so I just want to make sure you want to Contin with your I know well I think I wanted it to be very clear so I just want to make sure we're good TimeWise and that we're still on track for our 2:30 item for our special meeting is it okay for me to proceed all right thank you madam chair um and I appreciate uh we can have that comical from a distance uh Miss rert uh the new and old faces uh unfortunately are probably still on that Carousel or crazy um let me say say that first great job on the presentation and the data so let me start there um I had a opportunity to look at it all from Legoland uh as a few people who I talked to uh heard uh some little ones in the background so thank you for that now that I've said that I too uh was expecting uh this update uh to be a little different Mr superintendent and I think we talked about it I wanted to purposely wait to see uh one what was presented um and then two uh to see kind of what the board how the board would engage um and then how you would what were your your expectations from the board um I was expecting the repurposing God Mr superintendent to be here today I'm repeating the same phrase that I use uh before because this board was very clear um not to do certain things until the repurposing guide showed up today okay um this board was also very clear uh and I think you shared and I think we heard a couple different times that there would be a list board member folen holy right so the list that I know that I asked for and thank you in our separate conversation the list of under enrolled schools which is great um but this isn't the list I think that is the community conversation and dialogue that continues because that is the only quote list that is out there right so I think that is probably part number one that we need to clearly communicate again uh that there is no list because I think there's still no list today which I was expecting to at least get uh some list I think this board having listened to seven people let me make sure I count that right um all support big transformational change and I think that we all I think should be ready to make some tough decisions we all support redefining repurposing whatever you want to call it right whatever the flavor of the day let me give you kind of my Baseline for this one board member and that is support for all facilities and for all of our educational programs or academics as I referred to it as when I was in school that is equal for all of our kids regardless of zip code I want to repeat that all facilities and all educational programs equal for all of our children regardless of zip code so that's East Side West Side North Central North Central you can slice it however you want to slice it okay that is my quote unquote Baseline two of us I think have written extensively about our thoughts on closing or emerging or programs Etc so some of this won't be new uh Mr superintendent I'm sure you're counting because in that seat you're probably always counting um for different reasons and I'm referring to uh three and a half individuals have said not to closing I'm sure you probably May might want to take that off of the list or at least it's probably right on the edge or the ledge um which is unfortunate because this board was very clear um that merging or closing schools is one of several things on the menu and for three and a half board members to already take that off you already see where you're starting from let me ask a survey question because this board loves to survey and I think that board uh told me that before so I would love Mr superintendent to understand how many surveys have we sent out uh to date to our community of 2 million countywide board members is that correct I hear that number a lot all right Mr superintendent um can I ask for you to be more specific to how many surveys oness code to no no referring to this topic we're only we're only talking this topic redefining schools how many surveys how many respondents have we received so I'll start with the community conversations we received responses for around 700 individuals and staff survey specifically I think it's over 2,000 um Adrian Mr Parker is pulling up the exact numbers got it and I'm not and I'm so go ahead no no those um those server questions were really used to facilitate conversation to really engage in dialogue that was how they were crafted got it so the I'm going to round up the 3,000 responses that we've received out of the 2 million uh here in the county um and let me keep going uh my assumption is I think we only asked two questions to those uh individuals who participated in this process were those two questions enough for this process to get feedback Mr superintendent the questions were crafted to get input on the criteria and the goals specifically um the intent is to certainly gather additional Community input um to kind of have a more well-rounded view of what the possibilities and opportunities are so of the 3,000 and I'm rounding up I heard rounding earlier uh respondents that we received in a community of 2 million did any of those 3,000 support closing merging schools and if so what was that number in percentage uh if we have that that'd be great um I do know that it was prevalent some of those topics so M Zanders we can look at the particular percentages um but there were definitely comments that understood that there was need to make these changes um and as followup from that conversation a lot of people were describing exactly what this board is saying that um the new schools would offer more and better options so let me be let me clarify the question again I'm pretty sure the majority of your surveys supported or respondents supported better academic success in all schools I'm sure your survey respondent supported increase programmatic changes to make our children more proficient to get to an a separate from that did any respondents or a majority of the respondent say yes I want to close Collins yes I want to close Walker yes I want to close Markham I mean we can go District by District so did you get that specific response from the majority of the respondents to close schools or merge schools Mrs Anders the questions were crafted to get input on districtwide consideration and goals uh with the understanding that once we would apply that criteria we would have um more specific conversations with the community um to really do more of a root cause analysis and examine what the possibilities could be um to deliver on better outcomes for that community so I think we've asked the wrong question up front Mr superintendent because we haven't asked the community and this board love to survey we haven't surveyed the community to say do you want to close merge schools I'm not talking about programmatic and academics I think what you heard today was probably Universal support for that including on the board the second piece of that regarding school closures is a much more and I heard someone on the board mentioned an emotional term right because of that connection uh of all the schools so here is another observation because I love observations so I don't support using this under enroll list as a baseline let me start there because this list which I've gone through and I appreciate the data Chief uh Zoe um I've gone through all of these different uh exhibits and I'll just only highlight a few of these that are important to me as I look at these 67 schools and thank you for adding the board member district they are heavily Black and Hispanic areas that's observation number one I love observations they are in High charter school populated areas observation number two doesn't take a uh a rocket scientist to verify those comments there are five districts that clearly have a high number of schools out of the 67 that some want to use as a Baseline and I don't district one District Two District three District Five and district 7 I think I know how to read and count very well so I do not support that I want to be very clear uh that this board member does not support this Baseline to use for that what I think is important is how do we look at and I think I heard another board member allude to this or actually stated when I was in the back bless you God bless you we can say that the condition of the school sites right for me that's important how they got there why they still like that right that's a baseline that I like to look at for different reasons do you want to continue to put money in leaky buildings or are we clear with the community that says if you get rid of school X merge School X but in one to X number of years we will guarantee a new state-of-the-art school site building facility with these programs and academic opportunities for children that's the conversation folks are looking for I haven't heard that today so I purposely waited till the end Madam chair and I wasn't going to interject because I'm waiting till 2:30 we know that we have too many schools Mr superintendent okay so I think that we are not being openly honest as a board with the community we have too many schools we are under enrolled those are facts I don't have to answer all your programmatic questions I agree with everything I heard today that's easy Innovation great new stadium that we support I love the idea right I can go on and on and on that's really not why we're here Mr superintendent we're here about a tough decision on is this board CU now as some board members have said they we've talked about it for years well it's back again okay because three and a half board members have already said no so it looks like you're down to I don't even want to call it what it is are we ready and do we have the Bold leadership to close schools merge schools and guarantee whatever communities they are that you will get a brand new school facility with new educational programs in x amount of time that's the full statement and I'm ready to make that statement what I'm not ready to do is use this list that has a high concentration I'm going to follow the rert model I'm going to keep going I'll take one that clearly focuses on certain communities certain populations and this is not equal I think this board loves to use that word or equ or Equitable this isn't Equitable I think I saw a graphical view that every board member district is not included let's talk about observations okay let's talk about it is you that's true I don't call names I don't call names right and you're my friend right but if we're going to be equal Mr superintendent no one has said you know what I'm ready to make a tough decision and we'll take a tough vote regardless of this being a political year we know what it is come on this a political season for folks there are seven single member districts I'd love to be able to say you know what and I don't know what data points you're going to look at because you're the experts I actually should be saying Mr superintendent you've done this you tell me what should be the starting line that's why I haven't told you one yet I know it's not the starting line that's this that's what the other folks up here should have said you're the experts didn't we bring you here to right you said you were going to lead this and do this for us right that's what I suggest you come back and tell us but I don't want to wait till May cuz now we're we're going to have 60 days of the Carousel of crazy that's actually already starting we all got cell phones it's already starting and I know the timeline that you and you've done a great job this is not you this is not you right but to get between now and may you already know what's happening already right now you've tried to insert maybe June maybe we push it back not really sure I knew that was going to happen right I anticipated that type of discussion I hope that that's not where this board is I know we're already three and a halfway away from not closing I can hear but if we're now going to slide the June date back to July August next year get to another cycle Madame Vice chair right where you all won't get to it right when you tried with a couple iterations ago we're ready to do it now let's take the tough votes let's put one in every single member district let's do it that way everybody get some skin in the game because you know what's going to happen we're all smart no one's going to support I'm not I'll pick on board member holdiness because he's directly across from me he's not going to support I don't want to name a school because I'll get in big trouble right School X that's in District Five if it's one of the five on the list if it's only five he's out he's already told you his criteria his next criteria is equity Community conversations we know what that means I won't call a school I think one board member has been clear what she's not supporting and I appreciate that but if she saw one from Coconut Creek I think I know what she's going to do we can do that seven different ways we can slice it seven different ways up here Mr superintendent let's just be let's just be straight with the public right you come back with a recommendation sir because you've heard I don't think you've actually gotten the five people to tell you that there's a baseline at least from my County there is no count and on this I don't think you need the wrong poll today to go by a poll of three or three and a half to go forward that's not what you want between now and may you may need to think what's the right slice what's the right way to make sure this entire board has Buy in what's the right way to make sure this entire Community has Buy in because I haven't heard it today I'll close with this Madam chair this and I appreciate you allowing me to keep it posted Madam chair is my Guiding Light my Guiding Light will remain the academic success of our kids I've been talking about proficiency for years now has it been I guess I can say more than one year that that counts as years since being on the board we have half of our kids still left behind all across the county we have aging facilities in every school board member district everyone we have maintenance issues in every Schoolboard member district everyone we have boundary issues in every school board member district everyone that's what the community wants folks don't want the tough conversations I'm okay to have it I can take the arrows I get him a lot and then folks say wow he didn't say anything wrong he didn't make it up that's my recommendation Mr superintendent I think you need to come back with us before May and I don't like workshops board member fogan oi and Madam Vice chair but we need something in between because now to May doesn't cut it thank thank you thank you so first I'd like to thank Dr Lata for this presentation you know I said that you were the first superintendent to take on this task this has been so many superintendant before you that ignored this and this is why these problems have gotten so bad and and we are at the point that we are so so thank you and thank you to your staff for taking this head on among so many other issues and problems that we have in this District so with that being said you know I think a lot of my colleagues you brought up amazing points and amazing suggestions and I think the one point that I think five board members I think I would be the fifth to bring this up is to speak to the long range facilities master plan so my first question is there a long range facilities master plan steering committee and if there is how is that committee being used Dr Lata Dr wza do you want to expound on that please you are the committee you are the committee Guru I apologize I was taking copious notes unless Miss Saunders would like to take it either one I can start and then obviously um I'll hand it over to Miss Saunders so the um long range facilities planning and I may get the words wrong but that committee was Act actually um created recreated established whatever is the right word um last school year when we were under the leadership of Dr ering C Smiley a committee was established it is approximately 20ish um members we had either somewhere between 1 and three um meetings while she was here and then through the transition we did not have meetings right off and so the um committee did begin and um oh they restart we we started meeting and we've had either two or three meetings and they have been co-led Now by Miss Saunders and miss chubowski you want to take it from there but that is but yes we we do have a committee that is actively meeting it was not meeting for some time before um last school year but yes we do have a committee absolutely so we met in January um kind K regrouped um with that committee um and again um just yesterday um the idea too is to think about um some of these short-term changes in the context of longrange planning um and the conversation has been you know for years there's been a lot of discussion as the board members have mentioned around the need to make these changes um and yet uh we we continue to to prolong that conversation um so what we've been talking with them about is how do we look at this in a way of looking at some short-term changes that can yield really positive outcomes in in the near term while we're also taking into consideration the longer term planning for the district so in terms of practically what are some of the next steps they're providing input um just overall um on this approach um as it relates to redefining um and then uh we are putting out as as you heard the RFQ for the facility conditions needs assessment um when that um once that is going then there is also an RFQ for for a consultant to do the long range plan and and Miss jabowski can um really expound on that um but we wanted to make sure that this committee reconvened to inform some of the conversation regarding some of these short-term changes as we look at repurposing thank you for that and I know that we are we're in a rough spot right now this board is in a rough spot with declining enrollments with our our budget and but for me this would have been my guiding star this would have been my go-to to say yes this makes sense at this school or that school to do this or that and and so we are going into the let's say the the movie without the script that's how I feel I feel a little bit naked and um and that's a problem for me especially when past grandeur reports have stated that this is an issue and that this is a problem so I would suggest that this RQ you know this is with we've um you know trying this should be expedited this has to and I don't know what that time frame looks like but I don't know how we move forward as a board and make these decisions without that being our Guiding Light so you know with getting the RFQ Dr do we have a timeline with how that can move forward and what that looks like yes Mr chowski has the answers to that Deborah chowski um so hopefully but we hope to bring it to the board uh for the May June board meeting with a decision of who is going to be awarded the facilities condition assessment contract and as I mentioned before it could take up a year perhaps a year and a half to have the results yeah so that's so we're looking a year out before we even get that that guiding star for us so I have a have great concern with us moving forward so so let's just put that over there as far as you know I think we have to ask superintendent Lata you know I I don't think the specific number coming forward you know we said five you know but when I think that you're having these conversations with the cities and the cities are excited about this I know when we met with with the mayors that they were super excited about well listen we can do this or we can do this and they want to help create things I don't I'm for possibly closing a school if that comes to us as you know a necessity or as an option but I would need that facilities risk assessment to make that educated data driven decision not just that Lor ala believes that this school should close it shouldn't be a an emotional decision it should be a datadriven decision so so we have a problem we have a problem moving forward but I do think with some of the you know I this isn't like the first conversation the superintendent is having and so I think with his maybe creativity there could be things that we can help add to all of our schools with the conversations he's having with the cities and community members I mean just here up at this day as in this Workshop the school board members came came up with a tremendous amount of robust creative outside the box thinking ideas and I think that's what we need to to make BCPS amazing and more attractive and and more for our students to want to come back to Brower County Public Schools so with that being said Dr Lata do you have um you know based on the robust conversation of the entire board how do you feel we move forward right now I am confident that I got the viewpoints of everyone in a public setting that I have enough criteria to move forward um to be uh wide open but also to be cognizant of some of the factors we talked about we also know that uh and and we also know we have we knew this that we'd have to look at the communities that are being impacted we know one district is not since it's been devolved we also need to look at some of the ways that we've done some other things like our metal detectors and say do we just do one in each district or do we do two in each district or how do we repurpose it if if you look at what's a reality is uh our 79 79% of our district is of black and brown children we know that and we have to make sure that we we address that and we see that and we understand that and that's why that Legacy piece is so huge but I believe I've received enough information from today public and within that we can move forward that we get to I know I got June in five and I certainly was not asking for extra time I just know that we we will plan correctly uh but we will move forward and we will move fast and I certainly have enough and I will share with the board at'll uh as soon as possible when we reconvene quickly maybe even even later today and start uh looking at our items and such I want to make sure that everyone understands I had perceptions and I had ideas prior to this meeting I had them about s months ago but that would have been completely against what we're trying to do and being transparent you know there's a business model um that a gentleman that used to go through and just go into companies and just tear them apart and make the bottom line didn't care about humans didn't care about facilities just just did it um and Al Dunlap you can look him up he's actually did some businesses l i don't believe we are talking about that we're talking about human beings we're talking about students we're talking about communities uh and I I can articulate whatever I want to that I knew about but that would have been very shallow of me and it would have been uh against the transparency that I've been talking from the start we are going to go ahead and put the data up immediately as Dr Zeman has said suggested as we continue we are going to extend our surveys out we do not have enough enough people interested in this it seems like we have the same hundred people that come to our meetings with good intent and and community-minded uh we don't have what we don't have is every Community member until we say what schools we're talking about or potentially talking about and that was the purpose of this meeting we have to be strategic now we can go to these small communities and these and these stud these schools and say what can we do I can go to the municipalities and say all all right now we're ready to go it's time to move we have to make decisions uh so I think if we were to do that prior to this I I think it would have been a flawed system I talked about when I interviewed about a mistake I made eight years ago about this this very same topic and I came in with an idea and didn't talk to it about the public and I got roasted for three hours because I was wrong and I was not going to be wrong again so that's why I needed input I needed more input and guess what we're going to do we're going to narrow this down and we're going to get even more input and we're going to talk about Solutions but those Solutions also include closing schools we do not have the money to continue keeping every school open but as we close them and I open this up with my statement at the end of the presentation we have to make a commitment to the schools that have been neglected the schools that we cause the problems with by boundary changes by like not listening to their facilities not preparing their teachers you will also find that many of the teachers in some of these under enrolled schools are brand new teachers we know that this is not just about enrollment but we have to start somewhere because we're certainly not going to look at a school at 110% the only way we're going to look at that is maybe moving kids from those schools and we know who said it earlier boundary changes are very difficult I've been through about 15 or 20 and even in some of the nicest of schools dividing up the nicest of schools and they're all brand new they still fought we have to be transparent and I did not want to come with Pete lata's decision or executive cabinets decision or any individual's decision we put this data together we all have things in our mind and I believe I have enough information from all of you about extending ourselves we have to be aggressive we have to be smart we have to plan we must plan strategically and that implementation plan has to be included as well but now we start moving to the communities and we move in a rapid fashion to talk about what we can do the county has been on notice I've had some great meetings with some of the major organizations here and they're ready to do this as well but I also told them they have to put some skin in the game we are going to expand our technical acmis we don't have the capital to redesign buildings or build new buildings we need them to come forward because that's their future Workforce so I've asked them it's time they put skin in the game because we are training their children or our children to be their adults and their Workforce so so I'm asking and I've asked in in in multiple large Bard Alliance and those groups it's time and they they're willing they're very willing it's time they put skin in the game and they're willing to do so because they know if we have a trained Workforce that could go to college may go to college that's the child's decision they're going to benefit after that and they're going to capture that we'll be bringing in a couple months that recapturing of students we are going to move that plan and we're going to utilize some of our facilities we are going to talk to some of the other industry or other folks that want to use our property such as uh uh Dr Aqua that was that came here earlier today that's not our customer that's not our competitor that's a group of students that will grow up and and live here and we have space we can lease we do have space we can sell so I will be bringing a lot forward I think I have enough information here um and as I uh close this I am very very very thankful of my team I'm very thankful of of my n Bo because they were very honest and they were direct and that's important because we cannot skirt around this issue it has to get done and as the front page of the paper said about two months ago we have to do something we're not broke but we're out of money and we cannot continue this track so I want to make sure everyone understands that that we will collect this data but now it's time we move forward and we will work through the communities thank you Dr Lata I just have two few more points the long range facilities master plan steering committee do we have set dates for their next upcoming meetings scheduled Dr do you have that or did we did we establish one yesterday as we move forward miss chowski or Miss Saunders will have to no but we will we will establish a regular Cadence of meetings Okay so that's extremely important also if you could just let the board know who the 20 members of this committee is who are those people and and then when those meetings are scheduled my question is the facilities condition risk assessment consultant is that somebody that who we can hire right away or do why do we have to wait to get the um company that that has to go through governmental processes that we have to maintain through our policy and that is out to bid for the consultant for for that person who will do the work we do we have approved the consultant Lisa Martinez who may be here I don't know she may be in the other room she's next door she doesn't do facilities assessment but what she does is do Partnerships and she's been through this process before so she's working on that side of it but as far as this goes it has to be someone we have to hire okay so okay so sorry this is new that I'm learning about this person can you explain that again that we've already hired them they're working for us yes Lisa Martinez uh we approved her contract uh or we didn't approve it was a consultant agreement she has experience in Miami Dade and some other areas around the country where we uh work through Workforce housing or affordable housing as well as merging schools and closing schools her experience is extensive she wanted to work here a couple years ago but was not um it didn't work out shall we say it just didn't work out and I believe she might walking through the door at this time uh does anyone want to hear one minute of who this wonderful person is absolutely Madam chair yeah and as she's walking forward um to the podium uh I will take a 10-second Liberty to also just say and I didn't know this by the way so I learned this going to the restroom which folks in the outside when everyone was on the other side will attest to um so I know uh her work um I know her value um and I know uh based on where we are uh we need major help kind of based on what I anyway all of my questions and where we are um so we've worked together um in a couple different capacities and I can attest to her professionalism uh and her leadership so that's all I'll say thank you and um good afternoon everyone um it is uh a Madam chair Mr superintendent the rest of the board a pleasure to be able to be here I am the CEO of LM genuine Solutions but um I do have a significant amount of um experience with school districts um most recently about six years ago I was the chief strategy officer at Miami day County Public Schools and I do um work on key public private Partnerships linked to education facilities linked to collaborations um of uh with collaborations with nonprofits also looking to um bring forward housing for um educational Workforce so looking forward to the POS posibilities here awesome okay so I just want to understand she works for us now and is working with us through all this she is M she is a consultant that we had hired originally to start working on affordable housing two months ago when I was tasked to start looking at uh affordable housing uh opportunities and including uh the Urban League yeah and and so far what I've done is um worked with um through and with um Zoe very closely regarding the review of policies um um reflecting upon the the types of um work that would need to be able to be done to establish a policies to do the type of work that we're talking about with the facilities and preparing um the um the con the conversations that will be necessary including with the Urban League and Rock Island um properties okay so it sounds like maybe there's an opportunity for her to for you to help us do more in this process Mr Alon and I don't object to that um anyway anyway so I actually want to go backwards to the followup so I know on the timeline let me go back to and you know it better than me um The Next Step was May is that correct so I believe the answer is yes so you don't have to respond I am recommending that at our regular regularly scheduled school board meeting during the superintendent's report that we get an update on kind of where we are I mean that's we already have an established meeting I'm sure we can ask questions I think that's the appropriate place for it thank you perfect everybody agree yes I just want to refresh that when we ran into the Urban League issue of about three or four months ago we immediately I was asked to find out more information and see how we could get this resolved because there were so many questions and I was tasked to figure that out and I B apparently the best in the business and now that Mr Austin has confirmed that uh uh we have someone who has been incredibly valuable in working through and we'll continue to work through this process as we have so many different options okay perfect anybody else have anything else to say yes Miss fam oh thank you um can you just um clarify for us I and and I think I understand we couldn't have a facilities assessment report until we identify the number of schools and the specific schools and if so how long does that usually take to um put something like that together so if we if we stuck with five schools if we end up with 10 schools can you just give us an idea so we can figure a time frame of what we're looking at thank you Dr Lata I I miss chubowski do you want to answer those questions sure thank you for your question Miss fam so there's two different things one is the facilities condition assessment RFQ that's out in the street that we're waiting and it will be used to do a condition assessment of all of our facilities the second part of that is what we were just talking about once we Define a smaller group of sites that will be taken into consideration for the redefining process we will deploy our own personal staff our own po construction and um to go and assess the facilities and provide us a very comprehensive uh site assessment on those specific properties ahead of as we wait for the facilities condition assessment process to begin Madam chair may I may I have a follow-up question yeah in in reading the grand jury report that's exactly where we made our mistakes with the the smart program we used our own in-house people that weren't properly Chained and qualified and that's where the roofing errors all came into play so um and they specifically said that we because we didn't set it up correctly we should have outsourced it to make sure we had the expertise that we needed and that was um our Doom from the beginning but um so can you tell me how are who's how do we know the people are qualified to do an overall assessment on these properties and um where they've been hiding these people but and um the length of time again would it take just ballpark me is are we looking at a year out are we looking at yes less than a year I mean we need to at least get get the community involved in what we're looking at so they're not stressing over this to know if their students are going to graduate next year from the same school they're in now Dr wanza Mr yes so there's different ways to do the assessment the type of assessment that we will be doing is not for developing a scope for construction or anything like that like we did or like it was necessary back then to develop a scope for construction for the um uh smart program right this one would be more we would be looking at how many uh work requests have been submitted for that school what are those type of details that we already have inhouse data driven that can tell us the condition of a school also we can look at the smart program um projects that were implemented already where did those monies go what was the scope we can also which we have the data obviously right we can also then look at um items that we know for sure is an issue let's say uh there's a roof that was not done with the smart program that we still have in the list that we need to do things like that so it's not necessarily A as I mentioned before a facilities condition assessment like you will need to move forward like the one doing with the RFQ okay but it will give us enough information to determine if a school um has a lot of need facility needs Mrs Hixon thank you I'll be brief couple of things I just want to say some of the ideas that um my colleagues threw out I just want you to know we have some of those amazing programs in our district already drone programs are already in a lot of the middle schools um there is Aviation programs there's cosmetology there's a construction Apprentice program so there's lots of things here again goes back to that marketing thing I I think we have a lot of those programs already people don't know about them and we could replicate the good ones I also want to say if I was not clear I'm not adverse to closing schools I just don't think we need to close five so that's really where I stand with that and on that point Dr Lata just because because we've had different things here moving forward what is your understanding of are you just bringing a list of five are you going to expand it to all that you think have to be done what I I'm not really clear as to what the direction is for in your mind moving forward well I certainly would like to be redirected if if I'm wrong but my clear mind at this time is to bring forward minimum five schools that will be impacted through repurposing more if necessary because the final votes on those have to come through un9 but I don't think it would be uh in my best interest or the Public's best interest if we just limit it at five because there could be many more opportunities beyond that and I don't think we are in a position to just cut it off at a number I think we have potential opportunities to make that more and then give you the bigger window of it and let let we as we work through it okay thank you I'd also like to say you know in that idea we aren't just talking about closing we're talking about repurposing so I hope that that list that comes forward would be where would a K8 look like it works where would a district Charter School fit where might we need to close someone where my technical schools go so to Mr fogan holy's point that big comprehensive um plan we may not get to all of those schools in a year but at least we have a plan moving forward of what that looks like that's what I I took away from here not that we're just limiting it to what schools are going to close um there will be two priorities in executive cabinet after academics one will be budget and one will be the discussions of continuing this with the team I trust that team up there uh in getting decisions we have talked about it at length and we have refused to use a name of school but there are incredible amount of uh ideas out there and I believe that uh limiting it to five if you leave it at five that's fine but I believe we have many more opportunities to expand and touch so many different schools in so many different ways we cannot delay it simply because of boundary changes has a cycle so we have to maintain pretty close to that uh because that has to begin in September and August if I'm not mistaken uh but that would include and that would probably be the bulk of the work along with uh capital improvements or changes to U so we can do that part over the year unfortunately uh but boundary changes have to get started right away so that that would that would entail some significant work uh again it it requires preparation and planning but I've been there done that a lot of time so we'll continue to work on that Mr Alon it was actually in line with the vice chair's uh question so Mr superintendent sounds like on at the next regularly scheduled April meeting you're going to have an update on both the academic side of the house or what do we call it transformation transforming education part of the new slogan as well as the other side on merging closing altering repurposing rebound whatever right so you're going to give the full menu update about where we are yes uh I think just we talked so much about the facilities today but some of everyone touched on it but we have so many academic opportunities to to move forward too and become an a we have to take advantage of some of the things we are not taking advantage of and that is part of that entire uh redesigning Broward County Public Schools but this is about repurposing feels weird to have the media up here and us down here by the way but that yes 17th uh my my my thought too is uh I'd like to be able to share that before the meeting well before the meeting as we move through it so we can hammer it out and have time for that but also to be able to go to the public uh I'll be going to the public currently you'll hear some stirrings in the neighborhood but that's just the way we have to go I mean we're going to have to start doing this work right away and talk about what we could do but that's going to be the highlight of of our next uh few meetings budget repurposing in academics Dr Z thanks chair I I want to be clear um about the intersection between uh repurposing and long range facility planning shut the door shut the door please so let me just try chair hypothetical we have three schools in the same general area each one of them 40% full uh there's an opportunity to look at ending with two schools rather than three how would the facility conditions at those three schools affect that decision Dr W I think that's huge because we do have that in two areas in two cases and that would be huge fortunately one would be a lot easier but that's when we have to go to the community and and when you talk about that when you talk about three schools that are under 50 or close there well obviously we're going if we close one or repurpose one you're talking about four or five different boundary changes maybe impacting other schools down the street maybe schools that aren't part of those three so we we're looking at tentacles that go out considerably far but now you that's why that's why five repurposing really really is a a small number it's going to be easily attained in essence uh so it's going to the tentacles are going to go out and we out because when you do that when you close a school you impact and I I'll use my experience you close one school impacted four different other schools for moving those children to those schools now you're already at five schools of changing so um that is huge and when you look at what school you're going to repurpose or maybe uh for example close for a year and put Capital into it so it can get become that tech center or that art school or whatever we we we look at we have a year to do it so we can get it ready and then reopen it maybe as a full Choice school so these are the things that going be coming at you um there going to be a lot of options on the table there going to be a lot of information but uh in your example I see it impacting four or five schools immediately and looking at some of the conditions as what schools do we want to move them to plus feeder patterns beyond that yes and so it's I understand the tentacles I'm just wondering chair if um as we uh are working to narrow down the schools of Interest I wonder if we could do some kind of quick facilities kind of needs assessment around those schools instead of waiting a year and a half to get the pros from Jacobs to come and walk around 239 campuses if we get down to 20 or so is there a chance that we could do a reasonable facility assessment so that we can come up with reasonable estimates of uh of the of the facility conditions to help us make the decision Dr L yeah that that we're going to do that we're not like I said we're not going to stamp and seal it Mr Leonardi made a very good point about um the official piece of that some of them will be impacted on how we look at the facility but in regards to some of the folks that are sitting in the orange shirts up over there that I've come to know very closely in the last 5 six months some of it we cost and why would we punish that and things that should should have been promised and probably return schools and I know Mr Fogle you mentioned a school that I visited the other day it didn't take a genius to figure out what the school needs it needs air conditioning that works in the kitchen it needs a playground or two and it needs those bathrooms that have been sitting for four years while the kids go to the bathroom and a trailer other than that it's a beautiful school that I absolutely fell in love with so did we cause this under enrollment which it's really not that under enrolled we're talking about Collins it's really not that under enrolled but did we cause that and what quick measures can we do to make sure that because I believe those kids in the neighborhoods will walk back to their school CU it's a walking community and shame on us if we don't see that Advantage so it's more than just looking at a number moving across and my wife is calling me um so it is it is uh I think we'll we'll do some of that but we're not going to stamp and sign and approve anything but logically we can look at it wait a second I think that helps the community a little bit in terms of understanding the process going forward because understanding a pretty good estimate of the facility condition is probably going to be sufficient for the decisions we have to make waiting a year and a half for Mr Bowski and the and the pros to stamp and seal things uh so that we can uh do more reasonable estimates I don't think it's necessary but as long as we can get something done while we're looking at it I think then we'll be able to make uh Decisions by June thanks chair thank you we need to wrap this up in three minutes Miss rert just uh back to something that um superintendent LED said that you wanted to kind of hear from the community looking through the uh the list of places that you visited and have we going to visit I think you miss North area and you were going to go to it again or did just go i' been through the North Area probably more than any of the areas okay so one of the areas you missed because I just saw on the list they said it was re rescheduled either way what I was going to say is you have a group of people right there that know better than anything why the families are not going to uh to that school and they can tell you you you know as as parents can or you know they'll definitely be able to tell you is what I was going to say so thank you thank you madam chair so I just want to for the for the record and and so the superintendent is quite clear on my recommendation uh closing schools is not off the table I'm just saying that should be uh a last resort so it is on the table for me um so just wanted to make sure that it is understood thank you thank you for clarifying Mrs Leonardi um and I I guess I need to reiterate uh some of the criteria that I heard from the public that's important to me um not punishing the schools where we created the problems uh an equity piece to it I think you know some for some maybe Equity is not an ideal word but for me it's it's very important and we we need to make sure that we're looking at historical communities um and I I do want to reiterate my con concerns about moving forward without a professionally executed facilities assessment I will not be shamed for not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the 2014 Bond um it is my understanding to end with that moving forward staff will go out into the communities that we all are supposed to serve to see what they need and what they want to see in their their schools in the future is that correct Dr L abs absolutely yes thank you thank you so just so the board can plan we're going to recess for 10 minutes and then at 2:30 we're going to go back to the special school board meeting for item number eight we are now recessed 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 this uh special school board meeting back to order may have a motion and second on item number eight so moved moved by rert second by fam public comment Madame chair we have two registered speakers we have Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh if she's here and we also have Mr David bitman bitman bitan I'm sorry b t an is okay anybody else would like to speak on the item I don't see them here um okay board member comment I have Mr allson do you want to start sure happy to thank you madam chair and you got it we're right on time right at 2:30 thank you madam chair um and I appreciate uh the conversation um and I'll just start by saying well actually we have two individuals joining us at the table do we want to maybe introduce uh who our two guests are around uh the table and then I'll get started Miss Batista um yes thank you madam shair uh we have uh Robbie galbo who I think everybody knows is uh one of the attorneys representing the The District in the litigation with the shter schools and we have uh Mr Allan um uh Mr Jamie uh Cole for um he is also representing the district now related to the doe letters and um administrative procedures great and if I could sorry if I could which letters are you referring to the the letters that we have received from the Department of Education we've received a lot so are you referring to the March March 7 and March 20th okay got it so we're talking about 3 19 and three seven seven okay got it those are the only two I'm aware of okay thank you well again thank you madam chair board members um and I'll just start off the conversation uh you know thank goodness I brought the item um and I did not know that we would be where we are today uh when I was crafting the item uh on Friday a couple days ago um let me also kind of fast forward to when I received in the County Commission we used to call it Madam chair the Monday night memo so it's actually I'm sorry could you just move that I can't I can't see you can I turn it so you can see it no I'm joking no problem I I read your lips too all good um at the County Commission there used to be a Monday night memo so the Monday the night before the meeting if you didn't check the memo you would miss out on the information so I equate this information that we got at 10:00 last night I guess it's a Tuesday night memo um and I'm just so thankful that my little ones were down and I was on my uh devices where I could actually see it so for me let me just start there uh because I was not expecting that um you know that was a shock to me what's also a shock to me is is still to this point at 2:30 or 2:34 um we have not I have not heard where we are on this particular issue which is a big deal so I don't know if the right party and there are three that report to this board if it is the general Council I also recognize that this went to the superintendent because it came came from the superintendent to the board but as I read before I even get to my item right because this totally changed my calculus at 9:59 last night okay I Y hold on okay well we better let's pause let's make sure everybody of the memo was printed it was also emailed to every board member but didn't we print it and get at place a copy at every board member seat that that so right that was last night 320 is today all right does everyone have the memo let's start there all right so we're all we're on equal footing here so when I read the memo and I think I got to the maybe the last paragraph when I fully read it I instantly understood the gravity of this okay and I'm looking at the two direct reports to the board and I assumed that there would have been some communication between then and now unless you were waiting for now which typically probably is not prudent because now we're having a public conversation one about my item but then two this is now weaved a part of the item okay my intent let me speak for me is to make sure that we are 100% compliant and following the law that was my intent on Friday before I got this letter last night at 959 okay I think what this letter and get to it unfortunately May highlight for this board and for the district is there are some tough decisions that we should have made number one there are some tough decisions that we need to make number two and yes before the council tells me I'm not going to talk about anything uh that I'm not supposed to talk about because you gave me a great update from Legoland which was my spur for this item because I was uh shocked that there was no conversation about this for me remote last week and then to learn that there would have been no conversation about I'm not even talking about the 319 memo on where we are um unless I had brought this item so Madam chair thank you for acknowledging the urgency and the emergency and I think the 319 memo clearly outlines it we have an enrollment problem as we just talked about I think in the workshop setting so we're now in a special meeting I got to make put the my my meeting hat back on um we have passed prior budgets as the most current budget cycle that we're in where we increased the number of employees or FTE from the prior year as an example right that's a decision that this corporate body made um as I keep the sign standing Madam chair one of the guiding posts for me separate from the academic conversation we just had but it's also on the operation side and our liabilities continue to grow we know where our reserves are and this now public 37 letter has brought this public to the Forefront this 319 letter adds more urgency for me this one board member which I appreciate and I'm glad that I brought the item so I will be making a series of motions Madam chair and board um but I will respect other board members uh for their input um and their feedback um but I will wait for the appropriate uh time uh and I will uh make a series of motions uh going forward thank you thank you Miss Hixon thank you um through the chair I have a question for Miss Batista since we are in litigation on this particular item can you give us guidance as to what can and cannot be discussed in this setting so that we know what we can discuss moving forward Miss Batista thank you madam chair um absolutely the the we have to be very careful what is discussed here because there are certain parameters that have to be followed I'd like to defer to Mr Galo to respond fully to that question since he's our attorney um representing Us in in those lawsuits uh thank you um litigation strategy what was discussed at the closed door session should not be discussed during this or we could possibly be waving the attorney client privilege in addition to this any work product you've received from attorneys or in including Miss Batista should not be discussed thank you okay thank you um so I'm not sure how we move forward in this discussion um except to just focus on what the letter says so my question to the superintendent through the chair um the letter says that um well I'm trying so before we get well I'm not I'm not sure what I want to say I can say or not but I I think I can part of it so I would just say some of this letter is concerning to me um because we are in litigation for it to be determined whether the things that are stated here are actually um the way the law interprets it so miss Batista can I continue on that thought process or should I not be um Miss Batista thank you madam chair so I I would say um everybody can continue in whatever thought process they're in and um if the chair would um allow Mr Galo to interrupt if there is a if someone goes beyond the parameters and he can U interrupt and just say um this is going beyond the the the attorney client uh privilege okay thank you um so and Andre has something that he's going to pass out to everybody that I just wanted to make a point on and then I'm going to ask a specific question um and it has an amendment on the bottom but I'm going to wait I think to do that because we haven't gotten to the motion yet you make sure you give attorneys copy of that so um part of this when we look at where it says under um section 10 11.71 in the n9th section and mind you I am not a lawyer or a legislator so I'm going to do my best um but when when you look in that section the the N the sentence that says um that it has to be that the referendum should be shared let me go to the statute so hold on a second um so section n it says um that excuse me for the purpose of Distributing taxes collect collected pursuant to this subsection the term School operational purposes should include uh or includes Charter Schools sponsored by the school district um so to to me when we look at this in the and I wasn't here I didn't vote on the I I did vote like as a voter but I was not part of the 2018 I will say it's it seems based on if you'll look at the wording I put Palm Beach's 2018 referendum Dade counties and then Brower counties and we are the only of the Three Counties that did include charter schools it was for SRO it was very specific that it was there and when I spoke with Miss Marte we paid 1.2 million per each of the four years if that's correct so I would say to me looking at this on a broader scale we aren't in the same bucket as Palm Beach in Dade County because there so it can be argued which is what's going through litigation so I don't want to discuss that but I just want to be clear for us and for the public that the that the charter school maybe not to the extent people would have liked it to have been post law once it was made in 2018 but in 2018 before the law even required it in that referendum it did include charter schools to some extent um so I just want to start off with saying that I think it's really important that we we show that we we were including them whether it believe we believe or people believe that it was enough or not is for a different discussion so based on that and I just put gave you that paper and like I said the Amendments for later um so on the letter it says that by April 17th that the State Board of Education is asking us to to give them some kind of plan so I guess my question to through the chair to Dr Lata to maybe the lawyers is are we in a position in our litigation where we can meet that requirement Miss Batista thank you madam chair um I cannot answer that question as to whether we in are in litigation at a point where we could do what is being asked um in the letter um I think the letter and the litigation even though they're very intertwined um are are separate so um I don't know if um either Mr galor or Mr Cole um have a different response but um I think it's really for the um operations of the district to figure out whether or not we are in a place where we're able to um make a a plan or have any type of payment or you know have the funds to make any payments that's um more operations than okay so my question is Mr Galo I I just wanted to say that I agree with Miss Batista wholeheartedly um we Pro we don't want to go down the road of discussing what we can and can't do in the litigation just because of the attorney client privilege however from an operational standpoint I think that's probably for the board to discuss okay thank you so because we have to do something by April 17th and I'm not sure if that is just to go and say here's what we would like to do and we're working it out with the charter schools through litigation because first of all we don't have a true amount and if we decided here today or at some point a payment plan and Charter Schools didn't agree with that I I don't know what that looks like so I'm not sure exactly what is required on April 17th to show that we are in good faith trying to work this process through true that we understand um there is still determination of how much that money might be and I would say needs to be subtracted what we already paid by the way um and you know that we want to to be good partners in this that we want to follow the law that we want to do what's right but we want to do it in a way that doesn't hurt our students academically um in the district but also we want to make sure we're ensuring that right academic things for students across the county regardless of whether they're in public traditional I'll call it traditional public school or charter school so we have a directive here um I'm not sure how we're going to meet it and my second point would be is it does it make sense to discuss the item when there's a directive here and it's counter sort of counteractive to the idea that something had to be done immediately in terms of of I don't know if we just need to reward the motion maybe is what I'm thinking but do we do we need to postone or table this based on this letter or where what what makes the most sense right now because there's a lot of pieces and I'm trying to sort it all out as you can tell Mr Allon would like to that yes so no I don't want to table my item I don't want to postpone my item I think we've already recessed for a couple hours um I'm ready to uh make a decision uh and I have not publicly stated my motion I think what's on the document uh in front of everyone is any and all actions necessary and I purposely did that uh because I wanted to make uh a series of uh recommended actions uh for the board to consider um it I agree Council Council Council uh that yes there Council right there are two different things here right there are there is the separate conversation that we can't talk about and there is this now now for me there was a March 7th letter and then as of 9:59 last night uh that when we received it there is a March 19th letter so I am only responding to the operational uh side of this so I actually I agree with that assessment it's an operations budget Financial conversation um but it intertwines with law so I'm not going to totally take you out of it right um and you're the board attorney right so you have to make sure that we're within bounds so I'm going to go ahead and make a motion Madam chair um I move that we affirm the district's intent to immediately comply with the law and handle up to I'm going to underline up to the full outstanding amount owed no later than December 31st 2024 that's part one part two of the motion that we end we're not that fast I'm I just wrote it I just added a little more to it so okay so I move to airm I don't do the chair model uh printed in advance so I apologize no so I affirm I want to affirm the district's intent to immediately comply with the law and handle up to the full outstanding amount owed no later than December 31st 2020 24 somebody may need to type this out and probably get it ready the second part of the motion it's a four-part motion I want to end all current litigation on this matter which continues to cost taxpayers three authorize The General Counsel to directly resolve this issue including a comprehensive approved payment plan with a so representative representing the public charter schools before April 17th 2024 I'll repeat that authorize the general councel to directly resolve this issue including a comprehensive approved mutually agreed upon payment plan right as the letter says with a sole representative representing the public charter schools before April 17th 2024 the fourth part of the motion and provide an update to the board in advance of the April 17th State Board of Education meeting so we know where we are as a district so I'll repeat the motion in its entirety I move that we affirm the district's intent to immediately comply with the law and handle up to the full outstanding amount olded no later than December 31st 2024 end all current litigation on this matter which continues to cost the district authorize The General Counsel to directly resolve this issue including a comprehensively mutually agreed upon approved payment plan with a sole representative representing the public charter schools before April 17th 2024 and provide an update to the board before the April 17th State Board of Education meeting that's my motion it's been moved by Austin second by fogan Holly public comment on the motion and staff if you can type up the motions and give it to the board goe good afternoon Cynthia Dominique uh Margate Florida um I don't know too much about this but it's a lot of money and I'm just you know and I I see that the financial impact is 90 million to our district and I'm just worried about how we come up with that sum of money by December of 2014 and the you know how it would all how it would continue to strain us um fin given the state that we're in right now um and I'm not sure what the numbers are for our reserves and I'm just wondering where this money would be pulled from um so it would be nice to have more of um Clarity in terms of the financial impact to the district other than just costing us 90 million and perhaps we could look at extending the the deadline um if that would still allow us to be in compliance with um the state laws um I do support being in compliance but I just worry about the impact that it would have on our district thank you any other public speaker Madam chair Mr Al can just make one quick point and I know we typically do not respond to the public but given the gravity and nature of this I just want to make a comment that just so happens to respond so I'm keenly aware along with all other eight individuals around this table what the reserves are I'm keenly aware of decisions that the board has made and still can make so I also share that this is one of several motions that I plan to introduce uh that will hopefully get us there but again this is a corporate board vote and a corporate board decision this is one board memb recommendation to ensure that we comply and that we put something on the table for this District that's my job that I took a oath to do Mrs leonardy um I had a question that I I guess was already asked um but I guess to this motion um are the lawsuits that we are engaged in right now um how does that impact whether or not we are in compliance with the law Miss Batista or how um how do the lawsuits that we are engaged in right now speak to whether or not we are in compliance with the law I I will um allow Mr Cole to um handle that um I well go ahead thank you and nice to see everyone you're in a very interesting situation but you have two very different things going on one is whether or not you're in compliance with the law that is what the two letters talk about whether you're currently in compliance with the law the second question is what you should have to pay for damages if you were not in compliance with the law in the past as to the first question is appears that there's really no dispute that you're in compliance with the law today for this fiscal year 2024 you're in compliance you are sharing the money with the charter schools just as you're supposed to do so the question is what happens with the past compliance now there is a legal question as to whether or not is it is appropriate for the Florida Department of Education to be investigating and and doing certain um actions that they've talked about in the memos is that appropriate to deal with a question not of current compliance with the law but a question of whether or not you should or how much damages you should pay for something that happened in the past that is generally something that's dealt with in the court system and you're dealing with it in the court system you have three lawsuits pending and ultimately in those lawsuits a circuit court judge or multiple Circuit Court judges and then the fourth DCA would decide whether or not you have to pay how much money you have to pay who you have to pay that money to what are the terms under which you have to pay it what are the terms under which that money has to be spent there's lots of issues that would have to be determined by the courts but that is generally a separate issue and if I can just give you an analogy and I I made this up and you know I hope it's appropriate let's just assume that there was a rule that said you cannot have tackle football programs in elementary schools and let's say a child that school did your school district has tackle football programs for elementary schools a child gets injured and the parents are suing you for millions of dollars of Damages and the school State Department of Education comes to you and says you're out of compliance with the law because you're not allowed to have tackle football programs so you stop your tackle football programs you are now in compliance with the law the fact that you're still litigating whether or not or how much money you have to pay in Damages is a totally separate issue that really is not a compliance with law question it's a question of are you liable for damages and you may have various defenses and that's kind of where you are here the Department of Education has you know kind of conflated the issues now one option would be to go to the Department of Education and try to explain that to them and hopefully convince them not to conflate the issues that you are 100% in compliance with the law now and that as to the Future let the courts decide how much money you need to pay because you don't know how that lawsuit is going to handle to go to try to settle a case now when it's just started and under a deadline that your general Council has to settle it within a week I'm not sure how she supposed to do that I mean it's it's very difficult to settle a case in a week I've litigated many cases I'm not litigating this one but it is very difficult when the other side knows that you have to settle within a week you know you don't know how that's going to come out so I think those are different issues so to to answer your question I do think that they are separate and we should treat them separately got it so what I'm hearing is that we are currently in compliance with the law and that there is a legal question of Damages which is a separate issue and that is in the process of being answered in litigation and in the courts and so I guess my question is does do this board supersede the courts Miss Batista so I I um I think I'm I'm going to uh defer to uh Mr Cole as well um I don't know if the the question of supersede is is the right word um you know the the board um obviously is the client in the lawsuit um you are able to make determinations as to you know what um strategies to implement in the case um that is somewhat intertwin as Mr Cole has explained with the response that you would have to provide to the Department of Education um since the Department of Education is asking for something that is really part of what the lawsuit is about um I don't know if you want to explain it Mr Cole and other words no I think that I think I would agree with that and you know you it takes two to settle so the board cannot supersede the courts in that you can't make a decision unless the other side agrees now obviously if all the charter schools agree and the board agrees you can take the court completely out of the process but you're being sued it's not like you can just end the lawsuit tomorrow it's not up to you if you were suing you could dismiss the lawsuit but you're being sued so either that lawsuit is going to be concluded through a being thrown out by the court or being settled or the court making some other resolution so the the board can't override the court because it's really you know the court has that decision now the the further part of that question is can the Department of Education supersede the court and that's an interesting separation of powers constitutional question that you know really comes down to the question of whether or not section um chapter 108 is intended to deal with just compliance with the law or is it also intended to have the Department of Education determine how much money you should pay for past violations or alleged VI ations of Law and that is I will tell you we've been researching and there's no clear case law on this um but it is something that could theoretically be litigated in in the last resort you know hopefully you would be able to find a mutual ground with the Department of Education where they understand you're in compliance with the law and that you're working through the litigation standpoint through the judge to come to a final resolution of the whether or not and how much money should be paid to each of the charter schools for the past thank you um for that detailed response um I will just end on this thought um we are currently engaged in litigation what I've heard from our attorneys I'm not an attorney but what I've heard from our attorneys here is that we are currently in compliance with the law um that there is a legal question of Damages that needs to be addressed in the courts um I do not believe in negoti ating against ourselves um I do not think it is really appropriate to be discussing this in Open Session um we've had several attorney client sessions um and I think that legal strategy should be discussed in legal issues should be discussed in attorney client session thank you thank you Mrs Hixon had something to add from her previous comment yes thank you I wasn't done and then Mr Austin asked questions and somehow I got shuffled around um it's okay so my back to my original question that I was asking is what they're saying is by April 17th we need to send them a document right or our document that we are working towards resolving this issue and if we are in litigation is that going to is that sufficient to show that we are moving towards that is our plan to move towards um resolving this concern so I I just want some feedback on that from the tenor of the letters uh it does not seem like that's what the Department of Education is looking for I I I don't disagree with that but what I'm asking is because it says I recommend that the State Board consider my finding of probable cause and order the district to document compliance with Florida law by submitting proof of full and complete payment to all El eligible charters in the district alternatively the district May document compliance with the school board approved payment plan beginning no later than the commencement of so forth which will result and it says that they they consider by we need to have that by April 24th so is there a way to April 17 yeah yeah I I'm I'm just struggling with all of this um we are in litigation we are in the process of figuring out what that payment plan may or may not look like so I don't know if there's a way to ask for an extension Beyond April 17th since we are in litigation and then we can get back because it seems to me what this is saying is we have to include all district charter schools from Janu July 1st of 201 19 some of them may not even be in compliance so I just also wonder how that fits into our lawsuit because not everyone is suing us right this is asking for something beyond what we're in the middle of so how do we merge that together and and this is a separate issue than compliance with the law because we are in compliance now um with the law and I will argue we were in some degree in compliance with um the way the wording was in the referendum um so I how are we going to what is do you have a plan I guess is what I'm trying to ask for for April 17th uh what would we do before that to make sure that when we present to the state we know that we're on the right track mtia thank you madam chair so the the short answer is I I don't have a plan I like you uh received this letter uh yesterday after hours um that's what I believe the the Department of Education sent the letter was you know after 5:00 um so um I have not had any opportunity to um you know figure out what the plan would be for um trying to document compliance before April 17th um again you know it's seems to um conflict with the fact that we are in the middle of litigation um I mean it does conflict with that obviously because if if there is an uh a plan that is uh put together by that date then it will obviate the need for litigation we would not have any lawsuits or you know so based on that I'm wondering if we could separ out separate these items out there's a lot in one piece and we may agree with some and not the other and it wouldn't give us an opportunity to be clear on what we agree with and what we don't since there's lots of things in there so is it possible to make them four separate motions Mr alus so yes I am 100% okay with separating all of these out um but the reason all of them together make sense is because as one board member just said I'm not here to talk about strategy about something I can't talk about so I'm only responding to the same letter that all of us got late last night from the superintendent right at 959 so for me all four of these make sense because they do exactly what the intent is because prior to actually let's let's say it differently I think you both two have asked really the right questions before March 7th no one knew about what was happening privately right maybe some did the March 7th memo brought light to that what was happening before March 7th is still happening today in the presence of a memo received on March 7th and now March 19th so the two questions from the board which are great questions asking would that suffice to this letter me one board member none lawyer but can read from a Z I think the answer is no me because we were in that position on March 6 that's my perspective but everyone will arrive to their own perspective thank you I appreciate through the chair appreciate that but there's a piece here that says end litigation and we were just it was just explained that we are we are being sued so it's not possible for us to end that litigation because we aren't suing someone else someone doing us so that really is a big concern if you Clump it all together I got it so let me sorry to the chair I'm okay with altering that let me tell you what my intent was if the intent because actually let's let's go back two years we've been talking about talking with charters for a very long time okay so if we had talked to the Charter Community which and I don't know who has done that or not anyway let me not let me not aine on that so let me let me let me let me stay where I was the intent is we are also spending money on one side okay my intent because I have no idea what the dollar amount is that's why I say it up too the reason I put a dollar amount and I have not divulged anything I've learned privately I actually I think I use something north of what our newspaper here in this County included in their publication so I was Purp purp F to do that so I have not suggested and I don't think anyone has what a number is the motion on the floor is up to because the intent is to have someone from this District that will mutually come up with some plan that will get us out of where we are that's my intent but to your point I have no problem separating out that one item um but that's the reason why they were all clumped together because once we if this motion passes if this motion passes then that item that you're referring to hope hopefully on April 16th we're done that's my point Thank you and one just one last point in in the letter I don't remember if it's this letter or the first letter it it indicates we should have known that we were going to have an issue because of Palm Beach in Dade County and I will just point out again based on the wording of the referendum that we had we did include charter schools so I don't know how we were supposed to foresee that we would be clumped into something that we weren't sued for um prior to so it's kind of the tone of the first letter indicated we should have known this was coming and I just would like to say that you know I don't know how we were supposed to know that so thanks thank you Dr holess thank you madam chair so um I just have a few questions that would be um directed toward the the superintendent some of it um so when we look at this March 19th letter uh Dr lard and the request of this letter and what it entails I have a few questions um we have uh part of the letter indicate coming back to us at April 17th and having up to full payment uh to the charter schools by December 31st so Mr superintendent is this uh something that is doable and secondly where will the funds come from thirdly what impact uh will it have on the district and um in addition to that uh if the board does not comply how will how will this impact the district and then I have a couple more questions um including uh is there any in this letter the March 19th that is different from board member alon's motion and is there anything in board member alon's motion that is different in this letter besides the litigation aspect of it Dr L all right can can you break that down the first one was is it doable am I allowed to answer that question it it's an operational standpoint so I would say yes based on the dates mentioning in the March 19th letter yes okay and where will the funds come from they would have to come from ref uh referendum money can I answer that okay and what impact will this have on the district this would have uh impact in discussions with Miss Marte that this would impact our teacher raises for next year because that money is allocated towards or all all bargaining groups yes okay so all bargaining groups will be impacted all employee groups yes employee groups okay okay and my next question is I'm sorry and safety you mention it would impact our referendum allocation got it so is there anything in in the March 19th letter that is different from board member alon's Uh current motion I'm not did you uh adjust the motion did um or it's as is I'm sorry Madam chair is still bundled okay so is there anything in this March 19th letter that is different from the current motion on the floor by board member uh Alon and is there anything in board member alon's motion that is different from the letter M Batista and if so what is it the entire motion uh the entire motion correct yeah okay well I mean part of um Mr alon's motion the first part of the motion implies that um the board is not in compliance um with the law um that is something that um the letter doesn't quite actually say that the letter says there are allegations that the district is out of compliance but the letter actually does not make a finding that the district is out of compliance so um so that would be one major difference um in in my mind looking at it from a risk management uh and a legal perspective um I'm not sure that I would advise my client to uh take a stand stating that they will be in compliance sort of like admitting that they're not in compliance especially when we are in litigation regarding that very issue um so that would be uh one of the differences of course then the second part um that we end litigation we we're not really able to do that on our own um unless we come to some sort of an agreement with the charter schools that have sued at the district at this point um and then the number three and number four uh I think are aligned to what the doe letter is um requesting I don't see any difference in those okay so um Dr Lata if the board does not currently uh comply with the requirements of this letter from doe what are the um potential consequences that the district could face based upon for the public sake based upon the letter the letter outlines some of the options that they feel they could do I don't know the implications of whether that happens or not that is a state board decision that this is a recommendation from the commissioner to the state board I don't know their decision but there are some of the things that are located below there that they they indicated that they feel as though they have the power to do uh but again that's a state board vote and decision so that's I mean I don't know much further into that okay so I guess um as a board member um my uh my concern um which seems to be a um I'm not sure if there's a definitive action um but it it seems to have concerns if we don't comply with this letter then there are potential consequences uh at the same time um I am unclear as to what is the legal path that a board member can take in this regards do we continue litigation and ignore this letter or do we have or or are we um obligated to comply with this letter so there is and I'm going to wait for others to give their input and then I have uh I'd like to come back and speak again but as a board member I am confused as to what is the right course of action that we are moving forward in a manner uh that we are doing things legally without any potential consequences to our actions Miss Batista Mr Co unfortunately there's nothing you can do that is risk-free right now I mean if you one thing you can do is you could disagree with this letter you could go to the Board of Education because as Dr lat said this is a a recommendation from the commissioner the board of education has to make a finding in decisions and that has not been done this has not gone to the board so theoretically you know one option is you could go to the board you could respond to this memorandum saying we disagree with your probable cause finding we do not believe we are out of compliance we believe we are in compliance you can make the case Cas you know you will have a day your quote day in court in front of the Board of Education and you can explain to them why you think you are in compliance and you may or may not be successful you know if you are successful that obviously changes the scenario the the and success could be different things success could just be them giving you more time there's a lot of different things that success could be if you're unsuccessful and they continue forward there are other avenues after that there are pellet rights and just because they make a decision doesn't mean it's final there's other things you can do to challenge that that's one way to go a different way to go is to kind of the way board member olon is is suggesting is kind of agree with them and find a way out find a way uh to resolve your litigation and find a way to pay the money um which is basically waving all your defenses and just going ahead and and doing it so those are kind of your two options even on option two I think it's going to be difficult to meet the timelines in this letter um you know I I know your general council is is very good but settling a case like this in in a couple of weeks is not going to be easy but it's you know certainly a path you could you could go by so those are kind of your two options okay and Madam chair I just want to mention something else so based upon the response that I've heard is that there is no known case that is similar to this and so you have no guide to necessarily go by and that is concerning for me um so I will wait to see what other s have to say um uh but we have I still feel like we don't have a a straight directive um based upon what's given and based on the fact that there are no known cases that is similar to this um that we could um rely on uh puts us in a position where we are left to make a decision which is the course of path based upon those two options that would um be um the best way to go without uh putting us in a position of um in any legal uh violation of some sort Dr ZK thank you I'm really glad uh Miss hion uh provided the language uh again to this referendum um and I think maybe there's a path forward uh based on the letter and the memo that that uh might allow us to open up a good dialogue with the Department of Education and the board but first I think we need to think a little bit about the dates and the time to make sure we all uh understand um what is publicly available information first is this referendum came out started July 1st 2019 funds were paid in uh I guess chair in the midst of this comment I'd like to ask a question did we execute the fund from 2019 to 2023 2023 uh consistent with the stated law at the time Dr L yes we did thank you um and chair if I'm right the lawsuit uh from this group which is grown but this is called this a collective group of uh Charter Schools was filed in 2023 M Batista correct thank you Mr G appreciate that um to make the point clear we executed according to the state law of the time and we spent all the money on the things that we promised the voters that we would spend it on a lawsuit comes in uh there are some rulings on previous uh related but not identical cases that suggest that there's some liability but we don't know how much um we have uh again publicly available information there are differences between what happened at Broward County what happened at pal Beach what happened in Miami dat one of the big differences the lawsuit was filed after the money was spent um but there are other other uh differences and I don't want to go into them because that might infer some of our legal strategy um the bigger issue to me is that I think we could comply with this letter uh excuse me the memo on the 19th by doing exactly what it says which is to go and explain uh that we are in liance with law we are spending the money now and sharing that with Charter Schools as the law uh starting this July with a new referendum requires and we're also following the law because we are uh negotiating and litigating with all lawsuits that are brought against Brier County Schools uh I think it's an interesting question Mr Cole uh about whether an executive branch agency can compel a school district in Florida uh to settle at a certain amount of money I think that would be interesting uh Juris prudence and I would want to bet on our side on that one largely because of the history in this country of separation of powers where an executive branch and the judicial branch never the twain shall meet and this is an active judicial branch proceedings we are being sued we are negotiating we filed motions is that okay to say I'm sorry Mr gabo can I say we yes you can file anything that's publicly filed is just fine I'm I'm I'm just going to ask you everything so I I I really uh want to be careful about this and uh we have met uh and and obviously in those meetings we talked about you know kind of the path forward um I also would suggest though that we think about complying with this letter by explaining uh our interest in moving at best speed to uh continue to file motions to continue to negotiate to continue to l mitigate recognizing that uh us and the plaintiff um need to work through the process uh you know they have a risk profile for getting paid we have a we have a inability to pay a tons of money in in in zero days so uh there may be uh greater uh room in the middle uh to to be found but uh you know to me the fact that we are complying right now state law we are uh negotiating to the best of our ability at best speed this was filed in 2023 so this has not been years it has been a year I think it was filed in March 2023 uh I believe it was later than that okay I would say October yeah the the lawsuits were filed in in October thank you very much so October 2023 we're now in uh March of 2024 right so uh we're not slower than normal in terms of this we're fully engaged uh with this um we have a a ability to pay and a uh probability uh based on our council's advice to us and the board's uh Collective wisdom for what we're willing to pay they have similar councel and and uh ability and terms including how long it's going to take to pay these back uh I just don't feel like um it just doesn't feel right um from a pure American constitutional view I I would liken this to my experience with the Department of Defense you know uh Boeing sues Apple because they can't figure out how to you know pay for a contract they got with the Department of Defense and the Secretary of Defense comes in and says you're going to pay them this much money by Tuesday next week uh an agency involving itself in in a current ongoing lawsuit I I think is a clear uh it's not consistent with the separation of of the executive branch uh and the judicial and the judicial branch is keenly designed in order to resolve these kinds of issues uh they will look at our motions they will compare what we say versus what the previous uh case law says and they will come back and tell us if we go all the way to the end how much we owe and in some sense uh what those terms are um so I would offer uh once we're done with this motion maybe uh a consideration of complying with the letter by talking to the Department of Education explaining that we are compliant with the law explaining that we're actively engaged in litigation um and continue to make uh best best speed on that to the extent that it's possible to move faster that would be great as well um I would uh love to have this behind us I I don't prefer to be uh tiff with the Department of Education in Florida they want our students to succeed just as much as we do um um so that's a path that I'm much more comfortable with than starting out with a motion that says we will comply with the law when in fact I think legally we are compliant with the law and we uh disperse These funds uh according to stated law from 2019 to 2023 and this lawsuit is I'm sorry is it 7 months old October to that's correct March so 7 months old so we're not at a point where we have like uh delayed and not paid uh uh uh things up to this point so appreciate the time chair this ardy oh I'm sorry Miss roer thank you um and thank you to to um my colleague Miss Hixon for for getting the verbiage here um that I remember and I remember the distinct conversations that we had about including um certain charter schools that had a I think it was eight or 900 person enrollment and um and that is what we took out to the public so I guess my confusion here is where does local governmental control and local voters say matter anymore I feel like when we go to the voting box and we vote for something that means something it means something and um I don't understand why it would have to be retroactive when we already had contracts obligations safety salaries already allocated from that referendum from that year when we've been compliant for the next referendum so I agree with my colleagues for saying that yes we need to uh do a do a motion on uh you know what we think going forward would answer that particular questions while not really giving away our hand for our lawsuits that we're still involved with at the current moment so um I have a motion to make or you but everybody else does so I will wait so Mr fogan Holly thank you very much chair and I just had a quick question because I feel we're discussing this and I appreciate the motion board member alad feel like we're discussing this like it's the same exact thing um but one of the things that stick out to me in the letter is the part that it says all eligible Charter Schools all eligible Charter School it was said before but General councel if I'm slipping getting out of it are we currently in litigation is it fair for us to say are we current litigation with all Charter Schools Miss Batista thank you madam chair no we are currently in litigation with approximately I would I want to say 30 that's correct about that number 30 Charters out of the 91 Charters that we have got it so how is this the same thing or same situation that we're looking at when the state has now just asked for all eligible Charter Schools forget what's going on here this this doesn't talk about that so for me I'm I'm confused in how can we see the difference in that regardless of which way litigation goes how does that address all eligible Charter Schools Miss Batista thank you madam chair um I'm going to uh turn to Mr Galo in a second but um normally what would happen in litigation is that even if not all um charter schools are involved in the litigation whatever the findings by the court are as to the group of litigants would apply to all those Charters who as well depending well with with certain differences I mean each we have different contracts with each Charter School some of them we enter into in 2015 some of them in 2016 some of them after the referendum so all of those things would have to be taken into consideration uh during the litigation but uh as a general rule whatever the the answer is from the court related whatever the resolution is from the court as to the the litigant um in the cases that we have now would apply to the the remaining Charter Schools okay and I understand that when it comes to litigation but again going back to the letter I I don't see that there're even paying attention to what's going on here I don't I don't get that from the letter I see this as a district all eligible Charter Schools I can care less who you're talking to so my opinion I don't feel okay comparing the two like it's the same same thing like we're going to go back and saying well we're in litigation with couple that's that's not what I have a problem with I said all eligible Charter Schools if you're not paying your fair share what we think here it is and for me I understand that if we want to play that game me personally as a board member I'm not in the mood to play with the State Board of Education that's just just where I'm at thank you chair thank you Miss leonardy so I just want to reiterate something I just heard um from our legal council that the results of the litigation we are involved in now will have an impact on what we do with the rest of the charter schools in the district is that am I summarizing that correctly and um M baa thank you madam chair and um if Mr Galo can um weigh in on that sure I can weigh in on that um yes uh generally speaking while we can't predict the future it would have an impact on the charter schools that have not filed a lawsuit and their actions going forward because this decision would be binding on them thank you um I had another question is Miami day County Public Schools currently being sued by any Charter Schools uh on similar grounds M Batista I believe there um they there is a lawsuit pending uh against the Miami Day School District on similar grounds yes I can confirm they there are and do we know if they've received a letter from the Department of Education Miss batia I am not aware that they have received a letter from the Department of Education like the one that we have received I I agree I'm not aware of any letter they've received okay thank you um I know that everyone has motions that they want to make um I yeah um I'm not sure uh if a substitute motion is what we're still doing or um so if possible I'd like to make a substitute motion no Madam chair Mr Alon respectfully thank you um and and I'm okay if we just stop debate right because we probably all have a series of motions to make so I would prefer if we go ahead and take this to a vote I know I have another motion I like to make I'm sure other colleagues have those let's just speed through these we know how to read and we know how to uh quickly make decisions so that's where I'm at I'm ready to call the question on this item um and just you know so we can take it to a vote well I would like to hear from our parliamentarian if possible is it still the general counsel or is it the clerk it's still General coun I missed that okay got it thank you um the Motions that that are on the floor right now by Mr Alon um even though they were brought under you know his item there is not the same motion as is in the um in the item in the actual item therefore they would serve as substitute motions I would say your motions now are substitute motions to what you brought in your uh in your um on your item thank you madam chair Mr sorry I just had a chip I respectfully disagree so let me pull the item and I think there was a scrier error on the item which I did not disclose up front but separate from that the second part of the item says take any and all actions necessary to ensure the district's immediate compliance and affirm support for the and it should have anyway I'm let me read what it says for outstanding liability by satisfying up outstanding amount of if you look at the motion that I presented up to should have been in the item um and any and all necessary actions does not constitute a substitute motion it's a main motion that is prevalent on this item I would encourage and I welcome every board member to to make motions um but I don't uh and the chair sounds like she's already ruled I don't believe that we on this on these that we should do substitutes I think the vice chair has asked for uh separating out uh each of these or one of these whatever I'm fine with that um but let's just keep moving because the chair I think has two or three other big items we got to get to and there are other motions that folks want to make including myself so right so if this isn't a your substitute motion then another board member can make a substitute motion first like that we'll vote on first that is true a substitute motion could replace the motion that's on the floor that's true yes Miss leard so I would like to do that uh I move that we direct the superintendent and our legal team to document our compliance with the law with the State Board of Education by April 17th 2024 so second moved by uh Leonardi second by rert public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion Mr allson Sure I'll lead it off and I'll be quick um I appreciate the motion um I am not going to support the motion because it does not do uh all the different elements that the both the memos from the 7th and 19th address to this board I've been in this posture before from a different board um when I served at the higher education level um so I absolutely understand uh and I appreciate the comments around separation of powers um when I was on the family Board of Trustees there is something called The Board of Governors so it's a similar governance structure I think we all know the Department of Education and I think we know our rules uh and we know the laws that govern what we do uh and how school districts uh follow uh under the Florida Department of Education I think we all very familiar with that so uh because the motion on the floor does not do several things number one on page two it explicitly ask for the district made to document compliance with a Schoolboard approved payment plan no later than the commencement of the 2425 school year that will result in full and complete payment and it gives the date that's part number one part number two and I heard our Council and I believe our outside Council which I respectfully disagree with their opinion because the subject from the Florida Department of Education says brow County School District nonone compliance with Florida law so uh I will be voting against the motion because it does not uh do what the board has asked because this board member does not want to be in the position when this goes to the State Board of Education on the 17th let's see I can look at and I don't know these members um but clearly and I understood the clear response from the outside Council um but I can pretty much assume if the commissioner of education is making a recommendation to the board I'm assuming the board is probably going to view that very favorably so this board member does not want to come back on April 17th or the or I'm sorry on April the 18th and that board takes money millions of dollars from this district and this board member will be responsible for it so I want to be very clear about that because that is up to all the types of things that can occur and this board member won't be a part of it any other board member comment thank you I have a question so on the 17th when we have to have things documented some of the concern here is similar to what Mr fogan holy said and I I just want to know how we would get to here on the little number one it says operational charter schools which were an operation in serving students during any of the fiscal years July 1 2019 19 through June 30th 2023 how would our legal councel be able to document um having that like who's going to have that discussion with us if it's all these Charter Schools you're saying it's 91 of them is there one person who who represents them that has this discussion I mean that's kind of the point of litigation there are people in charge of the discussion here it's our who how are we going to to work that out so that we can document that we had a discussion with those with that entity that was kind of my question before I feel like I still just haven't gotten it answered Miss Batista thank you madam Madam shair um that's an excellent question I um I have no um information um regarding how the shorter schools would uh come up with a representative to for all of them to negotiate a certain amount of money I don't I I don't know how they would do that because they are all you know different governing bodies they belong to they're just separate and apart from each other which is what my hu the biggest concern of what this is because there's no number we it is even hard to have a discussion if there is no number so I don't know how to document what a payment is or what the plan is in two weeks basically because we have spring break coming coming up um in a way that makes sense in here I mean I think it makes sense to go on or present in the 17th that we are on a process to doing what you're asking us to do but we need extended time because we don't have a number we can't make a payment plan without a number so I um I think it's maybe a combination of some of these motions so I guess I'll be interested to see what comes forward because I think you know we we want to show again it's really important that we as a board are not saying we don't hear you we don't value what what you're asking for us and we do know that all of our students in the district regardless of where you go to school are important um but I think this letter makes some of that impossible for us even though we want to get to it even if we told her to come up with a p Miss Batista to come up with a payment plan before April 17th I just don't think it's logistically possible so I like the idea of documenting that we're moving towards that place but I just don't think that um that is really enough time I I would wonder if we could reach out to them before the 17th and say in good faith we are trying to do this but here's the date we have set now that we know I don't know if that's a possibility before we vote on any of these motions because the logistics here are just um very difficult Miss lardy yeah um that's why in my motion where I I asked that we document to the state that we are in compliance with the law part of that is that we are currently in litigation figuring a lot of this out Fam thank you madam chair I just have a few questions um and if I through the chair I'd like to ask legal counsel the um the cas is quot quoted in the um March 19th letter quote to the 4th DCA Broward county is part of the 4th DCA can you tell me if Dade County falls under the jurisdiction of the fourth DCA they do not but there's a Third District uh third DCA opinion that is adopted in part um the opinion of the fourth DCA so in the event that this pending case that we have goes before the court for a trial would the trial court be bound by the fourth DCA because they're the Appel Court above them to follow that ruling on certain grounds yes but there's different circumstances at all depends on the circumstances of the so in the event that they follow that ruling wouldn't it be then incumbent upon the school board to not only absorb the cost of the initial litigation trial litigation including your fees and then also an appell court so those costs to go up the food chain to try to fight a ruling that occurred under another case and the precedent that that's set I I don't think you can equate the two cases and say that they're that they're not unique you have to take the facts of each case separately um another question back in November I think it was November 12 the board voted whether or not to pay the charter schools the amounts that were called for under this referendum the vote was five to four and then hold on Miss fam Miss Batista um are you referring to the 2022 um item by Mr tinan there was uh two different votes one was on the 22nd of November and the other one was on the 12th where it was reversed oh okay so I I believe the dates are the November 15th and the 22nd of 2022 um one item uh passed 54 and then uh the the week after it was rescinded those monies did not have anything to do with the referendum funds they were not related to this whatsoever that had to do with the charter schools again yes but it had to do with capital funds um and the millage the 1.5 uh Mills I think U probably Mrs Marte can explain it much better than I can um but yes the answer is it did not have anything to do with referendum funds are we looking at any possible litigation in reference to those referendum funds based on that you mean the capital millage yes uh no okay next question to there's 67 counties in Florida it appears it only Dade County or thatw Broward County and um Palm Beach County did not pay the referendums pursuant to law at least as far as the Court's ruled so far what other counties can you tell me are in litigation other than remaining Dade and Broward County if any uh I'm currently not aware of any I practice in Miami days primarily so and Broward as well um I'm didn't canvas and look for all of the would you be following those rulings if something was was pending if something was pending if something was pending uh in other words if 67 other counties were in the same position where they're being sued by a charter school if I may batia um hello Mrs maam so um there are there are besides Miami Dade Beach and Broward uh there is only one other County in Florida that has an issue related to referendum um also please keep in mind that not every County or not all 67 counties in Florida have gone out for a referendum so that's that's part of the part of the issue right so not everyone is um went out for a referendum in 2018 or before where the law um would apply or you know this issue will come up at all and if I may chair in reference to the one that you're aware of is that similar circumstances where there's a disputed amount where uh the charter schools were not paid the appropriate amount yes it is and what county is that uh that's pelis County and what state status are they in with their litigation they are in the summary judgment stage and they are I believe have reached a um settlement can you elaborate on the settlement I I I can't because I think it's happening as as we speak so I I don't know that they have actually reached uh an actual the actual terms of the settlement but I know they are in discussions is there another ruling over in that county as well any kind of appell so the only one is out the fourth DCA and third the third DCA also has a ruling as you yes there's a there's a it's a shorter third DCA opinion that essentially adopts the reasoning of the fourth DCA so that would be in favor of the school district the one from the third DCA no no it's not not in favor of the school district no okay so both okay all right thank you for clarifying thank you any other board member comment on Mrs Leonard's motion Dr holness I just have a question um with regards to this motion and I and I hear the motion I just want to confirm um to the best of On's explanation does this motion um comply with the intent of the doe letter um on March 19th Miss Batista the motion addresses [Music] um part of what well the motion addresses the doe letter I mean it does address uh part of what the doe letter is requesting yes okay um so in its entirety does it comply with the collective requirement of the doe letter and not necessarily parts of it I mean it it doesn't comply with all of the requests from the March 19th doe letter okay so my second question is if if this motion should pass is it then um is it then okay for board members to continue to make motions to address the concerns either in the doe letter or any further concerns or will this motion um terminate any further discussion on this well that's up to the board um the the motion in itself um if it's um if it passes um uh as I said does not completely address all of the issues in the letter in the March 19th letter um and if there uh there are other motions that the board members wish to make then um you're able to do that okay and I have a few more questions um as long as they don't conflict with this motion you know if it passes okay so with that statement Miss Batista can you reiterate based upon your legal explanation what this motion is saying so I can make sure that subsequent motions are not in conflict with this one and that we're addressing what's in the doe letter so the doe letter um than is um requesting um a payment plan or proof of um some plan of payment by um and that's not part of this motion and I think that's the the only difference between the two okay so the only difference is the payment plan that's in the doe letter but the motion addresses every other part of the doe letter should we agree to it ultimately the letter is asking for the board to provide um a plan by April 17th um and you know the motion addresses providing a plan providing something by April 17th um it's not it's not what the letter is asking for is not what the doe letter is asking for okay because the doe letter also specified a time frame of December 31st this motion does not address that either correct right but the the December 31st is uh up for negotiation with the with the with the charter schools if and to come to an agreement it could be December 31st or it could be a different date if the charter schools agree to it contingent on the agreement of of the Char of schools correct correct so that's not a you know a set term of the of the letter okay so I have within my right and the other board members to make additional motions that would not be simultaneous to this motion um but would be an attempt to um to address the issue at hand under the Parliamentary rules if this motion passes that would bring an end to the the process before you today um whether it addresses or not the entire um the entire letter that is before you okay so I'm a little bit confused because you did mention earlier that a board member could make additional motions that would be relevant to the matter at hand and then I hearing something different I I am just trying to get clarity so I can be informed to to move ahead because how I vote on this depends on what I am here and I can do next or somebody else councel can I Madam chair could I try just a 10c which is why I said no substitute motions if there were only main motions that all board members were able to make we wouldn't be in this place so that answers your question if a substitute motion passes we cannot go back to the main motion to answer your question okay right you would not be able to go back to the main motion if this passes if the if if the um the substitute motion does not pass you would go back to the main motion and then you will be able to make other substitute motions at that time that are different from either one of these two okay you can also amend the motion that is on the floor right now the substitute motion you can move to either um amend by adding to this substitute motion that is being presented by Mrs Leonardi or striking portion and adding other portions you are able to do that as well okay so and I'm so sorry I just I just need to so then if we don't go back to the main motion I mean if the motion passes we're not going back to the main motion will any other board member be able to make another motion of any sort you would not be able to make another motion um but like I said you are able to amend the current motion that is on the floor no I'm clear because before I wasn't so I have a sorry I think I miss okay I have a couple other questions and I'm so sorry cuz this is really important I need to take my time because I need to know what I'm doing so um uh superintendent uh um L do you believe based upon the doe letter uh that the money uh up to the maximum is owed to Charter Schools I understand that there was possibly misunderstanding before but now that we're in this place do you believe believe that that money is owed to chared schools or not hold on I would advise not to answer attorney problem Madam chair I'd like to call the question but he's still speaking I know when I thought I have the floor I am you do okay sorry to interrupt um Dr lcard what is your suggestion as to how we can comply in terms of the deadline and the uh that the doe has here I'm I'm getting a getting a feedback I'm getting a sort of a Wandering no over there and I do not want to violate anything that I got it I understand if there's anything that violate anything I don't want you to answer I just I'm just doing this not not to take time but to be able to understand uh okay so one more question are you confident um do you have any confidence that you can have further communication with the Department of Education that they will um adjust uh compliant requirements that they're asking for in this letter Dr that's really speculative because this letter has been sent to the state board so they would be the ones responsible I don't I don't know um I did have a conversation with the commissioner last week before this letter arrived I just I don't I I don't know no I it'd be purely speculative at this point simply because it's been already forwarded to the state board and I don't know his position or what his his ramifications of his authority is at this point I I don't want to answer that wrong because I don't know okay I'd like for the motion on the floor to be repeated and I'd like to make um a suggestion a friendly Amendment to the motion um but I'd like for it to be repeated we direct the superintendent and legal team to document compliance with law to state board of Education by April 17 2024 okay um I would like to and I'm leaving this up to board member Leonardi it's a it's a friendly amend amend by adding amend by adding is that the term okay that we direct the superintendent to engage in further dialogue with doe with the intent to reach agreed upon terms and return to us with uh such information at the April 17th board meeting is is there a second April whatever the board meeting is for I mean 16th is there a second I'll second it been moved by holess second by Leonardi public comment on the amended Amendment yeah say no public comment for member comment Mr leonardy um again I I guess I have some legal questions around that um I suppose I'd like to know again um with that Amendment uh I want to make sure that we aren't interfering with the litigation that we are engaged in um and I would like to know that uh we wouldn't be negotiating against ourselves with that Amendment Mr Cole Mr Cole well one thing you you can certainly talk about a process I one one of the things that you could include in your response on the 17th is a process by which you're going you're committed to trying to negotiate a resolution um as far as actually negotiating with the um commissioner as to what the resolution of a lawsuit would be would be infringing on a lawsuit so that that would be a little bit you know off but if we're talking about talking to the commissioner about how you're going to come up with a process for example you could in your response you could document compliance currently that you're currently 100% in compliance in addition you can say we're in litigation as to the past to figure out how to deal with it and we are committed to offering the following process to resolve the litigation maybe a a mediation with all the parties to the lawsuit there's three lawsuits so the parties in all the lawsuits in the joint meeting maybe even with representatives from other charter schools that you're committed to meeting with them to try to negotiate a settlement you certainly could do something like that but as far as you know negotiating the terms like how much money and how much money each one is going to get and under what term you couldn't really agree with that with the Department because you still have a lawsuit so unless those Charter Schools agree that are suing you you can't resolve it you know you can't impose it on them but you certainly could enter into some kind of a a dispute resolution process rather than necessarily going through litigation you there's other types of process you could alternatively do that might go quicker and come to a resolution right which is why I kept my original motion vague um because that you know these processes are all a part of that compliance with the law um yeah Mr fogan holy thank you very much chair and I have to ask so in litigation this whole situation we're looking at if the plainst or the people that are suing us or dealing with us um were to throw it out and say you know what forget it what then happens to the letter I think it's a question for the general Council M Batista so that the letter would there would be no um the the doe would not be um usurping the the role of the Judiciary at that point because there would be no lawsuit spending so let me ask this again so if they threw it out and stopped litigation would the letter just go away would the state just okay fine what would happen in that situation no I I what I'm saying is is that the letter we would not be having the the issues that we're having now right to a certain extent because part of the problem is is that the letter is in conflict with the litigation that is currently um pending um so no the letter would not go away correct so I'm saying of course that what we're dealing with now and you're saying we're having a hard time is dealing with what we can say what we can't say walking on eggshells right but what my point is saying is has nothing to do with one of the other it's not the same thing if one went out the window and stopped the letter still stands in this situation so I'm not going to support this motion right because I feel like what we're doing is the Jim Carrey thing you have somebody asking for money and we're going to send a post it saying I owe you we're working on it that's not what it says here it says if the district fails to document compliance by the date set by the state board I recommend the State Board consider this failure at the April 17th 2024 meeting if the district fails to come into compliance by the April 17th meeting I request that the State Board find that the district is unwilling or unable to comply with law or state board rule within the specified time I don't that to me that doesn't read email that doesn't mean a call that is a very clear direction from the state saying pay up and we're going to go back saying wait a second we're working on something over here like we're we're talking understand that weight so again not going to support it because I'm not going to send an IOU to the state I'm be very clear I'm with complying by law if they ask for something I'm wanting to comply straightforward and I think we're not doing that by this motion we're just trying to walk around it we're trying to do what Brower does I'm not doing that so thank you very much chair thank you Mr txon thank you I have a might seem like an odd question but my brain is 1,000 miles a minute so it says that we need to document compliance By An approved payment plan beginning no what and we're in litigation to figure out the amount I think the problem here is we don't know the amount so what why can't we do things in tandem continue ligation to figure out the amount but have our legal work with the charter schools to figure out a payment plan and fill in the numbers once we know where we land with that where we're we're at least showing that we are we are working together and whatever that number comes out to be we want to pay it over two years time or three years time or whatever so that we we're in good faith saying we're going to pay but we're going to finish out our lawsuit to figure out what the actual amount is I think it it would be a better compromise to what's here CU they're asking us for a payment plan but nowhere in here did it because it said alternatively a payment plan it doesn't say you have to give them a dollar amount in this in this document so I I don't I think that might be a compromise uh if I could add something something to this uh there's also I'm not sure who you're negotiating this payment plan with um it's not very clear in the letter um in the law suit we know who we're negotiating with we have the the schools and the attorneys um there's about 60 other charter schools out there um they could be represented by other Council I I I don't know they have they have their own boards they have their own B governing bodies so I would assume they they would have to get approval for any settlement Authority through them um I think this also goes to what Mr Cole said earlier uh that in April 17th deadline is is incredibly unrealistic um I don't even know how these these boards would vote and or discuss or approve any sort of settlement Authority by then or any plan so these are just some administrative things that I just wanted everybody to think about and I would just jump back into that to say you know we have people who are are actually in litigation why can't those entities either talk to Dr lukata or our general counsel to say we would generally agree that we'll take the payment over 3 or four years I think that would resolve the concern here that the state is asking that we're going to be giving the money so if we have a tentative plan where we're going to just fill in the numbers and work out it doesn't say it needs a contract it didn't say it had to be settled 100% what is the plan so why in the spirit of what this is have somebody with the people were already litigating and if that's not good enough for the state on the 17th they can say go back and get more details but at least on the 17th we are in good faith doing what they've asked us to do with the information that we have at the time well I I mean we still don't know a number and I would say at some point there's going to be a number so at least let us think of a plan it doesn't say it can't be altered if there is further discussion but they're asking us to bring us a plan it doesn't say a contract it doesn't say any of that it just as a plan we're making this more difficult I think than it has to be where we can at least go and and say we hear you we're we're doing this in good faith and here's the plan and once we get more details we can come back with the details but I I don't want to just I want to be sure people understand that we we hear this we know that there's going to be something and we're making a plan to resolve it and that I think would make sense they're not asking for all the details they just set a plan so and if it's not good enough we'll we'll we'll add more Dr Zan thanks so much chair um I think it's an interesting idea um to uh uh take up their alternate the district May document compliance with a Schoolboard approved payment plan and I think to miss hixon's point it might we plan on playing this over 3 years uh and if then and that complies with the letter subject to the Charter Schools agreeing to that later we get a number you know through litigation uh the number comes out in addition to that I think Miss Leonard's point on going back to them and saying we are working on this too I mean we are not sitting around you know we're actively engaged with these we're filing motions we're very close to doing Discovery uh we made an offer they made a counter offer we can go through what whatever we want to do in terms of the details that we feel like we can disclose um but it's a way of of uh of laying out a plan I think the intent is to put pressure on us to get this done uh I think we already feel pressure to get it done it'd be nice to know what the number is in the payment plan so we can then you know budget around that um but it's just infeasible to uh come up with the whole number based on Department of Ed saying go pay your bills we don't know what the bill is yet so once we get the bill we want to pay it out over say three years subject to agreement with the charter schools that that decide to sue last point on Charter Schools deciding Sue that's not a Costless Enterprise for a charter school if you own one or two charter schools in brard County it may not be worth the legal funds to go after the the the the amount of money and you may not want to go through Discovery and so uh you know we have to be careful that we are clear with the doe that we're going to pay the people that do uh file and maybe we put out a date there and say if you file by this date we're going to pay you off in 3 years and and here's what our plan is I think that's a way to comply with the letter because they make it clear that we could do that alternatively um but we don't have the number yet because we haven't finished the litigation okay uh Mr Alon um 45 seconds uh so the document does actually tell us who the schools are um and it gives us uh who was in operation Point number one point number two the document does include what the commissioner's recommendation is as I think another board member red and respectfully Point number three this does exactly what I think you just said Madam Vice chair um it does document and it fully addresses uh every aspect of this I think where we got sidetracked and I know there's another motion on the floor which I'm not going to support it because it doesn't do all these elements um if the motion fails what I'd like to do and we're playing with like three or four five words here okay so if everyone has this sheet if we could I mean I know it's gerain to the item that's on the I just want to if you would just follow along I move that we affirm the district's intent to immediately address alleged non-compliance remove the word comply right alleged non-compliance with the law right because I think I heard that statement earlier after where it says 12 3124 before take out that if mutual agreement is reached then that does two different things what the board just said here's the full plan here's how we document we're not saying we as I think one board member says we quote unquote broke the law it says address alleged non-compliance so that's a softer way although it clearly does say it right and to your point I think the vice chair if mutual agreement is reached dot dot dot however through our plan and as we have designated who will lead that effort then mutually both sides would end I mean that's what this says here's the full plan IT addresses every aspect of the letter so that is what I would offer if we vote down the motion that's on the floor because this is the main motion originally we're just playing with words here I mean I think we're spinning our wheels and we need to bring this to a close can you thank you okay so I have um Miss leonardy yeah I would just say um I don't believe that the amendment U made is appropriate um I think that my original motion as it stands um addresses a lot of if not all of the concerns um you know we are currently engaged in a litigation we are currently trying to wrap this up as Dr Zeman alluded to um that is why I will continue to support my main motion I do not think the amendment is appropriate um especially since it touches on um the litigation itself thank you Dr holess I can't hear you I'm good thank you you're good any other board member Mr Texon so I would like to add to the motion right is it a motion or Amendment um can you can you just chair can you repeat what the motion is or Amendment so we have an amendment that was added by Dr holess to direct the superintendent to engage in a dialogue with doe to determine agreed upon terms and report back to the board by April 16th 2024 regular school board meeting what was the original We direct the superintendent legal team to document compliance with law to State Board of Education by April 17 2024 period okay so I would like to I don't know how to do this right I I would like to to change what the amendment to Mrs Leonard's original thing is so I don't know how we do that amend the amendment let's just vote on the amendment right now all in favor of the amendment to direct the superintendent to engage in a dialogue dialogue with due to determine agreed upon terms and report back to the board by 416 2024 regular school board meeting say I I say louder I those in favor say no no roll call those oos you you said in favor let's do a roll call you're going a roll call on the amended language Mrs ala no Mr Austin no Mrs fam no Mr fogan holy no Mrs Hixon no Dr holes yes Mrs Le nardy no Mrs rert no Dr Zan no and the motion fails okay back to Mrs Leonard's motion Mr T wanted to add something to okay you want to okay like to add to Mrs Leonard's motion um to document compliance of law to the state board by April 17th and provide a payment plan agreed upon by the parties is there a second second okay the moved by Hixon second by holness public comment board member com good evening oh good afternoon um Kimberly mohorn margay Florida so I sit here and I listen to um all of the board members respectfully um I think it's it's a little bit about who's bringing the motion because basically what is happening is the same thing same idea once they've come to realize that you have to be in compliance with the state um because the state is the regulatory right so what is the why are we still here A whole hour later for the emotion that the council has said that it covers the entire issue that the state has the motion has so I'm just asking that if we don't do anything else we need to respect each other and understand on respect that we can work together to get things done for br County and that it's not about who we like or who we don't like or or what's I don't I'm not sure what's going on here but just know that the same actions that I see these are the same actions that we see in the schools and and you're so against you know bullying you're so against all of this you know um one group here and one group there but right here what I see it is not conducive to what we need to get done this was very simple very you know upfront what they wanted and it could have been resolved in at least an hour thank you any other comments see none Miss fam yes thank thank you I just want to point out the difference between um Mr Leonard's motion and and Mr alon's and Mr Leonard's it says that uh agreement must be reached and here it um Mr Austin says if mutual agreement is reached so I'm going to vote for the more flexible one because Dr Lata cannot promise an agreement is going to be reached that that's unreasonable to expect that from him thank you okay Dr holess okay so um there is an Amendment on I'm sorry Mrs Hixon sorry based on on a clear picture of something I'm going to withdraw my addition to that Amendment okay and okay so I was going to comment on the amendment is there without objection from the second who's the second from the board from the board seeing no objection we are back to Mrs Leonard's motion to direct the superintendent legal team to document compliance with law the State Board of Education by April 17 2024 roll call roll call on the substitute motion Mr Austin no Mrs fam Mr fogan holy no no hey no okay thank you Mrs Hixon no Dr holess no Mrs leonardy yes Mrs rert yes Dr Zeman yes Mrs alef no okay the motion fails okay we're back to Mr um alon's motion and I'd like to make a amend by adding uh where it says that we authorize The General Counsel and superintendent yes second it's been moved by Ala second by roer public comments board member comments Mrs Hixon thank you for bringing the paper forward because it made more sense after seeing it all in one piece and I think it encompasses everything we said the changes Encompass the first one did not to be fair the second one encompasses what I think you heard us say I appreciate that um and and we I think could move forward with this in a unified manner because it does include what Mrs Leonardi was saying but also some of the other things with the intent that payment plan doesn't mean we have a dollar amount it just means we're going to give an idea so thank you for being more clear on that I appreciate it Madam chair uh Mr charson my another 45 seconds I listen very well Madame Vice chair um second point I will say is um I think this meets the spirit of the letter uh and all of the prongs um and I'm hopeful and look let's be clear you you have to imagine other districts clearly are watching right you have to imagine all of these entities or someone is watching so the notion that you can't find x amount of people you're going to find them okay and I am confident that when this passes that the superintendent and the general counsel will talk to X number of individuals and we can resolve this by our April 16th school board meeting in advance of the April 17th state board meeting thank you thank you I have Mrs Leonardi so um I do want to be clear this is very different um from the motion that I offered um I again want to hear from our legal counsel because again I'm not an attorney and I want to you know follow follow under the guidance of our legal council that's present today um how does this new motion um how does this connect with the litigation that we are in now when it's saying to end the litigation Miss Batista the what I have in front of me says I move that we affirm the district's intent to immediately address the alleged non-compliance with the the law and handle up to the up to the full outstanding amount owed by 12 3124 if the idual agreement is reached then we end all current litigation on this matter that is that continues to cost the district etc etc miss patista Mr go um I if if an agreement's reached it's possible that it could it would end end the litigation um there are different parties like Mr allson said earlier um there are the the parties that are currently in the litigation then there are parties not in the litigation I'm sure you can find who is either representing them or if you know individuals on their board or and can bring up those issues um I I I think one issue just just reading this is the full outstanding amount I think is is still in dispute um so that's a little bit um confusing to me as as an attorney looking at this um but from a litigation perspective The General Counsel and the Mr or U superintendent Lata could uh attempt to negotiate a settlement with with the proper parties and in in tandem with that we can still go forward with the litigation and make sure that we meet all Court deadlines but um there wouldn't be anything necessarily prohibiting um Dr Lata and Miss Batista from attempting to negotiate a settlement okay historically when we've given given legal guidance as a board about how we want to move forward um is that done in open session or in an an attorney client session if we want to direct staff to engage in a settlement agreement Mr batia um through the chair um it would be in a plan session okay um which is why you know I think it's inappropriate for us to be discussing this in Open Session as it is but here we are um I do take issue with the the full outstanding amount piece um and I I just think it's interesting some of my colleagues have alluded to this already um you know are are all of these parties waiting for us to vote on this and they they've already selected a representative who can negotiate on their their behalf I'm just confused about the logistics of that Miss Batista as I mentioned before I I have no um information regarding what the charter schools um are doing um I think is you know even though the motion does talk about to that we would have to negotiate with a sole individual representing the shter school schs um that would really be up to the shorter schools that's not something that the the school board has um any power over uh or ability to dictate how many folks they have or how many people we would be negotiating with to be able to reach an agreement with all of the charter schools I mean the the one last thing I would like to be resolved is the full outstanding amount piece you know I'll leave it there Dr Zan thank you very much um I just would like uh to get a definition chair to the to the to the word handle what does that mean in the third line of this motion Mr Alon makeer of the motion So based on Me based on me reading this document and I don't have a web I don't have a dictionary uh councel um but handle could mean execute right it could mean a couple different types of adjectives um that I would defer to you on but I think the board is been clear on its intent uh to the board I'm not speaking to you Dr Zeman um meaning to address right up to the amount I think the comment we just heard from a colleague is that we are talking about uh strategy openly we're actually not I'm talking about two letters that this board member received on May 7th and May 19th I'm not talking about a dollar amount because no one knows a dollar amount and I'm not talking about what nine of us have talked about privately because we haven't talked about that today so I just want to be very clear there are two different things happening here this motion that's currently on the floor is addressing the two letters that each of us received on the 7th and the 19th from the superintendent that's what this letter is that's what the motion on the floor is addressing the last point I'll make and it is your you have the floor sir I appreciate it you do have the floor I do respect that I just ask one question I want one answer then I like the floor back you will get it back absolutely uh is this about the definition of handle that's all I asked what's the definition to handle I think I got an answer okay okay you're good not a big deal go ahead yeah not a big deal a couple other uh interesting things that we got to be careful about in my mind um when we say a verb like execute or offer or whatever handle means uh up to the full amount um that bothers me if when we say that we continue to cost District that feels gratuitous to me that's uh not necessary here and it really bothers me that we would say a sole individual because it's going to be difficult to get 91 charter schools that were in operation during those four years to be all represented by one individual and I don't think that um really has much operational context If instead we said I move that we affirm the district's intent to immediately address the alleged non-compliance with the law by 12312 if mutual agreement ment is reached before then I mean I don't even understand the whole second thing because we're saying we're trying to get to that so obviously if we get to an agreement the litigation is over so I'm not sure we need the whole second uh sentence we authorize the superintendent and general counsel to directly resolve this issue with a comprehensive mutually agreeable payment plan striking sole individual representing the charter schools before 41724 which will be heroic but you know that's what we're say we're trying and provide an update to the board in advance of the State Board Education meeting if the intent is to launch the superintendent and the g general counsel to try and do what our paid counsel could not do up to this point I understand that uh I think it might be worth a shot of doing that but it bothers me that we say we are going to launch them to go negotiate and in there say up to the full amount um I'm not comfortable saying to the full amount I don't think that the case uh I'm not going to talk anymore about that I'm not comfortable saying to the full amount in public session um I don't think I think obviously if we get an agreement then the litigation ends uh chair am I right if we reach mutual agreement is it your information that litigation would end at that point um speaking wait hold on Mr goggle uh speaking from a litigation perspective we would have to execute a settlement agreement and they would have to agree to dismiss it but typically when when you when you reach these types of agreements yes litigation whatever great and what we're really doing is saying Dr Lata and uh Miss Batista can go and try and solve this in the next two weeks um and and give us an update before that and we're saying we have the intent to immediately address the alleged non-compliance with the law by 1231 2024 but I have a I will not I'll just say it this way I can't support this when it says up to the full outstanding amount because there's a there's an implied uh negotiation boundary there and that boundary is not one I'm comfortable with uh so uh if we want to go through u u an amendment process if the discussion from my colleague suggests that we want go through an amendment I can offer a motion to make the changes that I just uh read out loud okay so if I could just guide us if we can just vote on my amendment to add uh where it says general counsel and then add and superintendent um all in favor say I I I those opposed say no the amendment passes okay back to Mr alon's motion Mrs Hixon thank you I would again ask if we could do these four different Parts because I think we could vote no on pieces of it if we wanted to yes on other pieces and just be very clear that what we're saying is that we authorize The General Counsel and superintendent to to resolve the issue with a comprehensive mutually agreed upon payment plan doesn't say amount doesn't mean that that we're stopping litigation in that third part it's just saying we have to provide a payment plan by the 17th so asking general counsel to to meet with them and say three years is a good time no numbers that I want to be clear that that's what it says that's the intent for the third piece there but I think it will be easier if we break it into one two three and four and vote on them separately because if you try to do it all as one I don't know that we'll get where we need to go Mr Alon thank you um I think it will go where we need to go because I think it does all the elements of the letter that we all just agreed to so I actually agree with uh my colleague uh to my right um who suggested that we um change the word handle but he didn't give me the opportunity to address it um with the word address if that makes sense if that is uh a meable uh to everyone where it does reference uh on line four up from the bottom a sole individual I agree it should be individuals and maybe you put uh pin around s right there's no you know uh you know restriction on the number I I mean I agree with that so those are the two changes that I just heard that make sense change the word handle to address a sole individual should be individuals uh the S anderin so you don't you know uh anyway it could be one or up to whomever um but I am to your point Vice chair for me this meets exactly what we just did for the last I don't know how long we've been here 2 or three hours okay um so I am comfortable with this but if you want to go through and do one by one here is what I fear if this board approves part let's just let's just say number one right we don't approve and mention number two this is all about and I'm not using the word negotiation because that's not the word negotiation is not here right it may be implied Dr Zeman right but I think what we don't want to do is handcuff our two direct appointees to not have up to because the letter that we have includes those words it also does not include a specific number because then that would be talking about strategy and what our intent is no we are authorizing two individuals to go meet with 500 individuals or whatever the number is councel to resolve this issue before the State Board of Education meeting I think it's very clear so respectfully I am comfortable because this satisfies all elements of an item that I brought on an emergency basis and I want to move forward with this full item as is respectfully okay so is there a second to the amendment oh what was the second you amend it you said take off handle put address uh take off Soul put in and write individuals with an S Mr allson correct I assume you said handle and individuals yes sorry take out handle put address take out the word soul and write individuals with an s m Madam chair yes okay hold on it's been um amended by adding that what I just said by Mr Alon second by Mr fogan Holly public comment on the amendment board member comment Dr holess on the amendment yes Madam chair I am in agreement with taking out sole individual representing um representing the charter schools and make that individuals representing Charter um I am not in agreement with with the um changes as far as uh handled to address and the reason being uh subsequent um prior to that rather board member Zan mentioned taking that whole thing out including handle up to the full outstanding amount owed by and I'd like to see that whole line remove and not making adjustments towards in there but remove that entire part and I was hoping Dr Zan would would have made that Amendment but I'll wait and see if he does Mr fogan hly thank you chair I'd like to call a question okay roll call I'm calling the question roll call on calling the question Mrs fam yes Mr fogan hoing yes Mrs Hixon no Dr holess no Mrs leonardy is this calling the question on the amendment just in general General I yes it's just calling the question on the amendment correct okay this is amendment not on the am on the motion on the me I I I need a definitive answer are we voting on the amendment to the language of address and individuals or correct yes yes just on the amendment okay yes yes S Mrs rert yes Dr Zan Mrs ala yes Mr Austin okay motion passed sorry yes okay and we're going to do a roll call all in uh roll call on just the amendment to change handle to address to take out the word soul and write individuals with an S okay roll call roll call Mr fogan halling yes Mrs Hixon yes Dr holes yes Mrs Leonardi yes Mrs rert Dr Zan yes Mrs alev yes Mr Austin yes Mrs fam yes motion passes unanimously okay back to the item as amended miss m hion thank you I I just think again I want to say I would like to see them different because I can I can I think a few of us can agree based on the conversation on a lot of them but a lot of us are hung up on the first one so if we separate them out we we can get some of this done I I think the up to full amount is concerning to a number of us and you don't want to take it out which I understand but if you allow us to vote on them separately we have the ability to still that's why I'm asking so Mr Austin I know this meets the entire intent of the letter so I'm comfortable with it but if board members want to uh take it out uh or I'm sorry to divide the question into four you can divide it into four but I believe all four meet the intent okay Dr Zan thank you I'd like to make a motion to strike on the second line starting with the word and and end at the third line ODed so it would read I move that we affirm the district's intend to immediately address the alleged non-compliance with the law by 12 3124 is there a second second been moved by Zan second by Leonardi public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion Mr allson thank you madam chair uh back to the letter and I'm not an attorney there are four around the table I think I don't know if it's more the letter that we have that we received yesterday says that the board approved plan beginning no later than the commencement of the 2425 school year which will result in full and complete payment dot dot dot the motion that's before us I purposely included up to because if I had not included up to then the board would have said uhoh you are giving away the full amount you can't have it both ways if this board is designating our two direct appointees to not negotiate but to go what's the word we justes address these issues give them the latitude to address these issues period okay board and Mrs rert well we have a motion on the floor um a comment that's a fair question Madam chair I think that's a fair question to me Mr you you are that's that is a great question Bo Rupert can I repeat it cuz I don't know if everyone heard what you said can you actually repeat what you just said I just said one word for mentioned amount so to your point although I included a dollar amount let me repeat that is not based on anything other than what I used as a public source so that's why I did not state a dollar amount but you wouldn't say be I think if I respond yeah yeah I don't know Mrs that's why I didn't put a number when when we go to mediations what we're required to say is the person has full Authority so I don't know if that would work in quotations full Authority okay we have Mr Dr Zan's motion on the floor to cross out where it says and hand uh and address up to the full outstanding amount Ed to delete that that's what we're talking about right now now any other board member comment we're going to vote on it Dr holess yes Madam chair um I support that Amendment because I believe that that part of it um has some concerns and it it's also redundant in my opinion because the first part of the motion says the districts intend to immediately address the alleged non-compliance with the law and whatever that is deemed to be so I I am comfortable that we are addressing the letter and I believe that latter part of it would more would be redundant and it creates questions that we don't need to deal with okay roll call on Dr Zeman's amendment to cross out from and all the way to OD roll call roll call on the amended language Mrs Hixon yes Dr holess yes Mrs leonardy yes Mrs rert yes Dr Zeman yes Mrs ala no Mr Austin no Mrs fam no Mr fogan holing no the motion passes okay and Madam chair yes Mr allson so I'm going to uh take my colleague who asked the same same question before so because now the board's uh uh the board corporate has taken a vote that does not expressly and explicitly give you uh direction to address what the directive from the Department of Education sent to us on the 19th um do you need any additional Clarity from the board because I don't know if you have that explicit Direction now uh and if you have that if this board is giving you that Authority expressly so just a question and I'm only talking about part one of the remaining part of the original big motion because you could infer that it's silent so you can do whatever you want when which is actually counter to what a colleague just said you want it to be very clear right so this board just gave you silent treatment on the most important element of this letter which is funding right correct okay so this board just gave you majority silent treatment on an up to amount that we can speculate on so we the board with our fuer responsibility have now entrusted the two of you with a blank check to move forward or no check or no check I agree I'm I'm I'm just responding to what the board just did so I am not comfortable with that because this board uh I thought we were guess we've been here three I guess we've been here three I don't know how long we've been here what I can't even see around the camera um I am not comfortable because the letter expressly asked for this board and the school district to respond and I'm going to read the words again dot dot dot result in full and complete payment right now we don't even address payment at all so I could infer and I'm not going to let's just yeah you know what I am going to talk numbers if every Charter School says you know what $1 each does that resolve this issue if they say $1 do you do you believe that $1 times each number of charter schools will resolve this issue and you don't it's just a simple yes or no question it's nominal so it's not I'm not discussing strategy it's a nominal question I mean it would if I I want I want to make sure I hear you and everyone hears you sorry I said it would if I had the authority to settle for that amount okay so right now well I don't I don't think this board has given you settlement or negotiation Authority so to the two individuals who the board I'm assuming is about to task you or maybe not because I'm not comfortable um um what is your direction at this point based on the current motion Dr that's up for consideration I will defer to miss Batista first I knew I was goingon to say that we have direction pursuant to this motion if it were to pass um to um resolve the issue with a comprehensive mutually agreed upon payment plan with individuals representing Charter Schools that's that's what we have and then once that happens provide an update um or if it doesn't happen provide an update to to the board in advance of their state board meeting are you implying that alleged non-compliance with the law means full and complete payment or up to to all eligible charter schools to me that's the that is the fundamental question for me if you believe the answer is yes then I'm comfortable if you choose not to respond I'm not comfortable if you choose and say no I'm clearly not comfortable so that's the ultimate question so I would answer it this way um if I thought that the board corporate um believed that that language meant that I'm going to say it this way that we had a blank check that we could go and negotiate any amount whatever it is that would get the deal done um then I would be comfortable but that's not what I'm hearing got it so you don't believe so you you have not heard a blank check quote unquote to go forward to address this part that is very explicit in the letter so what do you have comfort with in the motion that's on the floor to address the financial aspect of this letter without even going into a specific dollar amount what are you comfortable what are you what Authority do you have what what Authority do you have based on this motion pending motion we can make this really easy because you you have you have our two direct appointees that clearly are struggling right now and we can get on to two other items thank you it's just a simple okay we're going to recall the vote we need a second yes she wants to bring back the um previous vote for Dr reconsider you mean the amendment yes right reconsider Dr Zan's Amendment bless your heart we have to comment it's called The Art of Bo comment yeah Dr Zan I think the process is uh that we're going was fine um can you talk a little closer to your mic I can't hear you sorry a lot of gas here today uh we're following the process fine the uh language that uh was proposed uh up to the full amount implies uh something to the two that would go negotiate and so so if this passes um uh I guess chair what I'd be curious about is if they do find a number is that something they bring back to the board for final approval Miss Batista uh the answer would be yes either way I I I mean whether the language is there um and we had a blank check or or no money um if we went out and negotiated something we would come back and would have have to get it approved by the board thank you very much then I uh I think the motion stands as is I look forward to the vote perfect Miss Le nardy so again I want to travel under legal guidance um so I guess I I have a question uh through the chair to Mr Cole um part of the alleged non-compliance is the payment or lack thereof correct Miss Batista yes yes it is okay so would the motion as with all of its amendments um with Dr Zeman's Amendment does this withstand uh your your legal opinion not completely sure how to answer that I I mean it definitely would address the issues now if they have the meeting and they don't come to resolution and you're here on the 16th and we're pretty much in the same spot we are now I'm not sure you've the next day when you go to the board I'm not sure what we tell them I mean we're still in the same place where we are today um so I still think you're going to need you know you could certainly report we tried you know we passed this we tried to do it um but you know as far as satisfying what what their interpretation is in in the letter that they sent um unless you know you've agreed to pay pay the full amount and by the way we don't know what the full amount is so it's kind of hard to even know what we're negotiating now if they're negotiating an amount the payment amount they can agree what the full amount is or what the settlement amount is so it doesn't then that's going to have to come back to the board anyway right so my issue is and in what I've heard from our legal council is the term full outstanding amount is confusing because no 's agreed on the full outstanding amount so if we eliminate that we are still operating under the assumption that there will be some payment agreed upon we are just not saying full outstanding amount because no one knows what the full outstanding amount is correct okay thank you thank you and I just want to reiterate again what my thought process was and really what this says is payment plan doesn't say they're negotiating a number if they do that fine but the letter says we need a payment plan it doesn't have a number so I want to just reiterate on here they could possibly have that in their discussion but all I'm expecting as a board member for them to walk away with is whatever that number comes to through litigation if we need to continue that way here's how we're going to pay it because that's what the state is asking us for so I just want to be clear we're not asking them or telling them that they have to come up with a negotiation number we're telling them they have to come up with a payment plan if negotiation comes in that conversation and they happen to agree to a number and they can bring it to Le you know forward that's great but at the very least you need to walk away with this is how we're going to pay it out once we have the number it seems to be getting lost in there that's really what what my point was Miss pist and and that's the reason why I answered your question the way I did because I'm not hearing that because there hasn't been a vote uh I'm not hearing that there is an amount um in other words I think some of the board members are thinking to come up with a plan is what this means as opposed to an exact amount of money and that's why I answered your questions the way I did related to the first part if I took the first part to mean that alleged non-compliance meant the equivalent to the full amount or whatever that may be Dr olness okay so um Madam chair I'd like for Miss Batista to clarify that if we what is the difference that we're voting on if we remove this line as um motion by Dr Zan and if we keep it in what's the difference between both uh if we remove it are we doing anything differently than if we make it remain M Batista Mr Cole could I just Madam chair I think there's a differ wait hold on let Mr Cole answer given the general council's clarification that whatever is going to happen is coming back to the board anyway you're not really giving authority to your superintendent and your general counsel to make an agreement you're giving them authority to just negotiate so really the only difference deals with negotiation strategy whether or not it helps the school district to have that language in when they're negotiating the amounts or doesn't so it's really a negotiating strategy I don't think it makes any legal difference because everything's going to have to come back to the board anyway okay so based on your response then and my understanding then is that if we remove it we are not um we're not we are still following the requirement of that letter on March 19th whether this is in here or not but it just removes any um any Clarity concerns having it in there well I I think in connection if we if if they negotiate something and it's all worked out on the 16th then it's going to be very easy on the 17th if it doesn't negot if you don't work out anything having L is probably better because we can go to them we say look we passed this we said it would be up to the full amount and they you know we still weren't able to work it out so there could be some benefit if you don't work out an agreement um as far as if you do work out if you are just going to negotiate from negotiating strategy standpoint it it could have the opposite effect so it's kind of a balancing of those two okay but the implication of the letter is that we work out an agreement isn't it well it it says you're going to work on a payment plan in the full outstanding amount in the full amount so this is more consistent as as board member Altin said this is more consistent with that language and like I said if if you work it out it's not going to matter and if you don't work it out we could point to that language and say we tried it it so it could be a little bit beneficial Miss vam thank you madam chair um this is a question for Miss Batista through the chair a tough one I'm sorry a tough question you said a question oh okay is that a tough question um in this settlement or in this proposed motion um Does it include payment in kind or would we need to include that language in other words not just money but if we made payment in kind um another agreement to resolve or partially resolve the um the amount that's claimed owing I'm not sure what payment in kind would mean under these circumstances so I the way I look at it is the answer to the question would be no is they're just talking about monetary damages or you know an amount of money well that's my question if it's not money and we negotiate some other means of settling or providing funds towards that settlement you're saying that's not acceptable under this Authority that we're giving you is I don't see that as being part of um what the Department of Education is directing in this letter or suggesting in this letter um the question is if if the um shorter schools agreed if they if there would be an agreement from the shorter schools as to something other than money then I think that would be acceptable to the Department of Education okay that that's exactly the answer I was looking for only because it says by submitting proof of full and complete payment so it doesn't matter what the payment in is it does not have to necessarily be in money that we can make barter do whatever we want in order to get an agreement because we might not necessarily have that kind of money so but we do have other assets okay great so we're gonna vote on Mr Dr Zan's motion I vote on Dr motion which was to remove the line from to so a vote this is a a motion for reconsideration that didn't the vote we just did that right so this is a a vote for reconsideration of the language of keeping the language or putting the language back in because the the motion passed and so the the language is now um has has been stricken so the motion if you vote Yes on this part of the motion means that the language will be added back on to the main motion which is and address up to the full outstanding amount owed I just want to make sure everybody know by 12 3124 roll call roll call Dr holess no Mrs Leonardi no Mrs rert yes Dr Zan no Mrs alev yes Mr Austin yes Mrs fam yes Mr fogan holyy yes Mrs Hixon no the motion passes 54 I'm sorry yes I have another um Amendment um the line that says um we end all current litigations on this matter um I'd like to amend it to remove the last part of that the latter part of that sentence that starts with that continues to cost the district um because that to me has some sort of well the way I feel um as if uh we're not being quite responsible so I I don't like uh I don't like the what it implies to me so I'd like to amend that part and remove the from that continues to cost the district uh to strike that out um that's the second like to call the question chair time talking more let go I think I think we were done so you mean I need to call the question I think there's no board comments there's no let's go straight to the vote roll call on the amendment Dr holess yes Mrs nardy yes Mrs rer yes Dr Zan Mrs ala no Mr Austin no Mrs fam yes Mr fogan hoing no Mrs Hixon yes okay the motion passes 63 okay so now we're back to to the entire motion as amended um Dr Lata can staff repeat back the entire motion as amended Miss Batista Miss Batista thank you Dr L uh the motion Mr alston's amended motion reads as follows I move move that we affirm the district's intent to immediately address the alleged non-compliance with the law and address up to the full outstanding amount owed by December 31st 2024 if mutual agreement is reached then we end all current litigation on this matter that we authorize the general Council and superintendent to directly resolve the issue with a comprehensive mutually agreed upon payment plan with individuals representing the shorter schools before April 17th 2024 and provide an update to the board in advance of the April 17th 2024 State Board of Education meeting board member comment Miss Cardy just want to have one final comment this money we've heard from the superintendent would come from referendum dollars but no no matter where it comes from it has an extreme impact on our students safety on their academic learning on the services that we can provide for mental health um and a lot of comments have been made today about you know how long we're spending on this item but for me and I I think I'm traditionally pretty brief um it's very important to consider this and the implications in its full extent because it does have a direct impact on our ability to provide services to our students and I just need that to be on the record thank you any other comments Dr Zan y thank you and I want to further Miss Lead AR's point that while I support giving the superintendent General Council a chance to go uh solve this uh I am no way am uh affirming the ability of our state department of Education to be a party to a lawsuit this is a lawsuit between two parties which is the charter schools collectively that have sued us and and uh the school board of Bard County uh I hope and pray that we're successful at uh reaching some kind of conclusion to this and in that sense it may be a good ending if it in fact limits the amount of uh funds we have to pay and stretches it out over a reasonable period of time um but this is really a lawsuit between two parties and to to my knowledge uh we had all the authorities in the world to pursue it independently to do what was right from a fiduciary perspective with brard County Schools um and if in fact uh this negotiation does not uh uh result in some uh uh virtuous agreement that the school board approves uh I hope that we continue to go back to litigation continue to make best pace and work in good faith uh to getting this result thanks chair a thank you madam chair um and I'll just say I think the board today demonstrated that we can have tough courageous conversations on hot topics and this clearly has been a Hot Topic uh that publicly bubbled up just a couple weeks ago um prior board iterations did not close schools prior board iterations did not merge schools okay millage rates as we all set have gone up not me we've increased our employees the number of FTE in our most recent budget they should be going down there's a series of motions that we should make following this because I agree partially with Miss Leonardi there will be some impact guess what that means leadership finally by the board and we can do it let's direct the superintendent to do all these things that we should have been doing anyway let's communicate with our Charter Schools going forward regularly we talk about we're the sixth largest school district 251,000 students do we want to subtract the 51,000 I think I know how many Charter students Public Charter School students there are in the sixth largest District does this board want to subtract 51,000 students then we're no longer the sixth largest Mr superintendent I think I know where we'll be if we're around 200,000 this board represents all public school students this board represents all public charter school students in all of our respective districts countywide let's look at the positive the positive is yes unfortunately we got two letters it's public yes we've sat here for 3 hours going through this process but that's good government and good governance look at the positive Mr superintendent you're going to come back on April 16th on a different topic that we just talked through on the workshop maybe this now gives the courage to this board to do some much Bolder actions Mr superintendent so we can find those costs and savings so we can make the cuts that we know are coming that no one wants to talk about that's what this puts on the Forefront that I have been putting on the Forefront meeting after meeting after meeting so that's the discussion that this board should have let's make sure academic achievement remains our goal star let's put an end to the facilities issues for our public traditional and our public Charters that we can impact thank you madam chair Miss Ley I just had two questions um do we have governing authority over charter schools in our district batia no we do not okay thank you and then um one quick question about the item where it says I know it was amended to say um to add the super or to have the superintendent and our general councel to go and and do all of this does that include the outside Council that our general Council has been working with M Batista well the way I the way I see it is that I that we would have the ability to have whatever resources we need to be able to um achieve this goal okay thank you if I'm wrong let me know Mr thank you I just want to reiterate one more time we are not stopping the litigation that's moving forward what what this motion doesn't change what's already in motion it's just on the side allowing us to meet the goal of what does a payment P plan look like so no dollar amounts to it if something happens that's great but the direction of this motion is not to stop litigation it is to do something in addition to it um so I just want to be clear on that because it seems like it keeps getting mushed up in here thank okay so we're going Dr L I appreciate the board working through this um this is not easy there's a lot there and I appreciate the trust you have in myself and and Miss Batista I do want to respond to Mr alon's statements about we do have to make some tough decisions uh we have been working through that right now currently with our executive cabinet but I also want to remind everyone that when I arrived I was asked to reduce last year's budget that was approved by positions and I I believe it's close to 50 by now this year that we've reduced we will continue to do that as we work through this upcoming budget cycle on positions and things that do not impact children first and then we will go from there hopefully we have a good ending to this story so we are able to really focus in on applying our Monies to the academic piece as well as to the capital piece and become uh the best District in the state as as we all want to be so thank you uh we will have some hard decisions to make coming up okay roll call on the motion I'll repeat the motion um I move that we affirm the districts intend to immediately address the alleged non-compliance with the law and address up to the full outstanding amount owed by 12312 if mutual agreement is reached then we end all current litigation on this matter that we authorize The General Counsel and superintendent to directly resolve the issue with a comprehensive mutually agreed upon payment plan with individuals re representing the charter schools before 41724 and provide an update to the board and advance of the 41724 State Board of Education meeting as amended roll call yes ma'am Mrs Leonardi yes Mrs rert yes Dr Zan Mrs ala yes Mr Austin finally yes Mrs fam Mr fogan holy yes Mrs Hixon yes Dr holess yes motion passes unanimously okay so we are the scheduled order of business for the special school board meeting of the school board of brow County Florida has been completed seeing no obligation I now adjoin the meeting e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e no the public hearing of the school board of BR County Florida for public comment on the science K through2 instructional and digital materials recommend for adoption in 2024 2025 is now called to order please identify the exit doors that are cudly Mark for emergency exing while in the boardroom refrain from obstructing the exing doors once the boardroom has reached the seating capacity attendees will be directed to a designated overflow area in the building upon activation of the fire alarm system please from the room in an orderly fashion and continue to exit building and remain outside until the authority that has jurisdiction has deemed this building safe to return we ask that all attendees to maintain a respectful and professional demeanor during the meeting disruptive behavior including but not limited to yelling interrupting speakers or engaging in personal attacks will not be tolerated our primary focus is to create a safe and productive environment for all participants thank you for your cooperation please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America America iag States stand indivisible andice for in order for the meeting to operate within an appropriate professional environment at this time we respectively request that all cell phones be turned off and put into the silence mode are there any changes to the agenda Dr Lata no the changes to the agenda proposed by the superintendent um there are no changes May the chair have a motion and second to close the agenda second moved by Zan second by rert all in favor of closing the agenda say I I those opposed say no the agenda is now closed May the chair have a motion second to move the items to the floor move by Zan second by rert good evening and welcome to the public hearing of the BR County School District's Public comment on the science K through2 instructional and digital materials recommended for adoption in 20124 2025 as we begin to as we prepare to begin our public hearing we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all of our students aspiring to become an achool District our purpose today and every day is to achieve this goal in achieving this goal we are committed to ensuring everyone counts our culture will be Student Center teacher support and principal Le the purpose of this here ing is to keep the public and the school board fully informed as to whether the district is used sound policies and practices that meet the needs of students and warrant public confidence in the district's operation the law requires that the public be given the opportunity to provide input to the adoption of instructional and digital materials this is the public hearing to hear public comment for the 2024 2025 instructional and digital materials adoption for K through 12 science if there is anyone in the audience who wants to address the item you must register at the back of the room I will call on each of you after the superintendent's presentation each listed speaker will be given 3 minutes to adjust the board this will allow for each person to be heard and for the business before the board to be handled in the most expedient manner we thank you for your support of the Broward County school district and for your attendance at this public hearing Dr lado will now give a brief overview of the instructional and digital materials recommended for adoption in 2024 2025 Dr Lata under the leadership and guidance of Dr Howard heern who is covering for me up at the Harlem children's Zone as we've been accepted as one of the six superintendents um but I could not miss this meeting but we needed to be up there he has his an amazing staff that we be presenting starting with u I'm sorry Simone hollinsworth and she will introduce the team but thank you good evening everyone Simone Hollings Earth Chief academic officer I'd like to introduce Dr Fabian con who's our executive director of academics and Dr Sher wlson who's our director of innovative learning and programs to take it away and give you the presentation for this evening thank you good evening everyone um yes so we're going to go forward with the um hearing for the uh adoption for science K12 again all materials that have been reviewed are in alignment with the uh strategic plan uh embracing early literacy science proficiency of course and colleg career Readiness aligning also with the guardrail of equity we want to make sure that we are uh being very transparent according to State Statute as it relates to our instructional materials process but we will be highlighting some alignment that is uh impacting the process based on New State Statute so the uh next slide dealing with the Florida state statute update as of July 1st 2024 uh 704 does redefine what adequate instructional material are in the state of Florida uh line 73 through 76 uh does uh determine that for us and the uh expanded definition in lines uh 656 through 664 stating that adequate instructional materials means sufficient number of student or site licenses or sets of materials that are available inbound Unbound kit or package form and may consist of hardback softb textbooks Etc and of course the digital option that accompanies all of our vendors selections instruction materials plan continued as a part of having a transparent process we do have a digitized process as it relates to using the tool Ed credible this is a tool that we have been utilizing in the district for the past seven adoptions this has been a um nominal based tool in relationship there's been a no direct fiscal impact to Brower County Public Schools but this is a tool that is used in 56 out of the 67 districts in the State of Florida to make sure that all of the review data is captured and is accessible uh for the individuals that are participating in the process and it also preserves the Integrity of the process moving forward um on January 31st 2019 of course there was an executive order that um basically confirmed that we would be moving from Common Core and moving into the standards that we are currently in right now as it relates to curriculum and instruction and making sure that we are aware of the fact that when we have to get into a situation where we get into Gap year purchases that this does result in an additional expenditure for the district beyond the fiveyear term of contract for each adoption cycle so we just want to make sure that we are doing our due diligence to make sure that we are doing things within the 5year cycle when we don't have any um situations that may come from the state that would um Force us into another situation where we have to extend into Gap purchases next slide slide six um in relationship to the K12 adoption uh the anticipated release of the state adopted list is May 15 uh we are hoping that may come out a bit sooner but there is current legislation that will be coming forward for an earlier uh publishing of the uh State list in the future because it needs to be in alignment with when uh districts are trying to go through this process in an expedient fashion so that we can do reviews and place orders in a timely fashion to ensure that our materials are getting on campuses in in a diligent fashion well before the first day of school when we're getting into slide seven and the slides thereafter you will see the cost of adoption if approved for our top two reviewed uh vendors uh based on our um internal process and external process with our stakeholders uh meaning that we do work with Brower County Public School Educators that go through the review process and in addition to the subject matter experts at the district level and we also make sure that these materials are available throughout uh The District in various areas so that people have the opportunity uh to actually review these materials o in person and uh in a digital uh platform uh what you will see at the end of slide eight uh we have uh made sure that we have been in alignment with uh demographics and enrollment and planning department we've worked in collaboration uh with that department and Deputy Marte um Dr Fabian and I um and other members of leadership uh met with the budget Department to ensure that our cost analysis was based on the 43 uh 43 00 student reduction uh or decline that we are experiencing um at this time so that we are not overinflating our purchase for the science uh adoption to date slide nine uh gives an additional breakdown uh as it relates to our uh advanced placement courses and we want to also reemphasize that instruction materials uh that are uh advanced placement are not included in the total District p uh purchase uh for any adoption that is Al that is a cost that is an impact to the school based on what advanced placement courses they have in their master schedule also in the spirit of knowing that we are in lean times uh the Grants Department worked in collaboration with the academics Department as we do in Brower County as a tradition throughout all district departments to uh obtain a grant funding to help offset some of the costs with the instruction materials process so we do have that funding to the two uh in 2.7 million uh so you can see that slide of course uh we do have the allocation that will be going to Charter Schools off of those dollars but we did obtain additional funds to help support the instructional materials process uh with that said the additional appendices give the course name uh that each course that is offered in uh Broward County public schools in a K12 uh continuum by vendor and each uh corresponding material in uh the uh designated instruction materials title will give a more indepth um insight to what the textbook offers and gives you an overall um breakdown of the actual course but that uh has more in-depth information for you in the appendices and this would conclude uh the public hearing for the instruction materials um well not the hearing but this would conclude my presentation portion of the uh for the the adoption for science gay 12 my apologies got ieed myself there sorry thank you Dr L um Miss Wilson thank you Dr Wilson thank you so much um quick question for the panel just so it's public does the state give us enough money to provide adoption for all our materials uh that would be um no we are always operating in a Delta uh that has been uh the trend for many years uh traditionally we get about uh $21 million roughly 2122 million from the state and off of the top there are about five categoricals that are taken from that and we are left with about 12 to 13 million annually which puts us at a Delta every year for instructional materials and we have discussed just so for the record we have discussed you and I and the group that we are finding ways to do whatever we can to make sure that instructional materials are spent is as um responsible as possible and if there's alternative ways to do this but we do know that many many of our students and families want that hard copy of a book so we will continue to look at every resource to make sure we provide instructional materials but it is a deficit for us so every year we do and much like almost every District in the state so we I appreciate you guys working but we're going to continue to work to see if we can uh not have a Delta any longer thank you Miss Marte do you want to add to that I may sir only because we didn't get to the budget Workshop today that Delta is between 16.3 and 19.4 million and it is on your budget slide 19 that we'll cover at uh at the budget meeting in April okay thank you now it's time for public speakers Ryan Edmonson from Coral Springs Ryme okay any other public speaker you can come to the podium hi Carla Figaroa Coral Springs um I just want to make a quick mention that um I got one email about the science adoption at the beginning of the school year and that's it the email just said you want to volunteer for this let us know but if we would have known there was a at least I as a parent didn't know that there was a review process that could be done digitally I do know of parents that did sign up for it they received the books in their home and some of the books arrived um after the deadline had already passed so they really couldn't review all the books to give appropriate input um so I think it's important that um we actually mentioned this in advisory last year when the social studies adoption came and we communicated what um advisories recommended would be a better way of communicating these to get it out to parents and the community to make sure that um there was a a process in place um so that all parents can view this um I also think that this should probably go through the area advisories to review and um uh looped so that way you could have a better um input from the community thank you speak any other public speaker you can come to the podium I see none board member comment I have Miss rert thank you losing my voice sorry um I have a question about sexual education what's now what's going forward I I look and I see science courses for adoption and I don't really see I see biology chemistry environmental science I see physics um but where where is that included in these books Dr L we're going to give that all right now because uh our sexed Specialists are not here but we're going to go ahead and uh let Miss Hollingsworth handle that good evening again Mo Hollingsworth and correct I'm not the sex head specialist who aren't here um I was a good Vana however um so this is the science curriculum which is the science adoption which has different standards in our sexual education curriculum as we know earlier in the year that was presented to the state as all districts had to do waiting for feedback we've been in touch with um Chancellor Paul Burns in regards to that and we're mapping out uh a backwards time plan because we typically teach that in like the late spring in May so we're working on that we'll be addressing that and communicating that with schools um when we return from spring break so they they're they're separate no I do know that I I just this is this was kind of my Robin bartleman puddle drop you know to be able to get get this question answered because I I get this a lot so when they get back from spring break that's when they're going to get it they're going to get information on how we will be rolling that out the curriculum for next year for no for this year for the spring for after right after spring break so probably starting in May which is typically when they start teaching that okay so then it'll be done in four weeks yes got it'll be done before the end of the year I think that that would answers the big question so thank you thank you Miss rert and I actually uh sent an email to Dr Lata asking him for the same update so I'm sure he'll also send an email to the board Miss fam yes thank you um I see the appendixes here where are these books available for parents to review are they posted online and what would that link be because I'm not seeing it here on the agenda item the through we have um access digitally through the Ed credible tool and we actually have different physical sites uh we went from three sites to six sites and again the digital um app access uh definitely can be improved based on what we have heard from uh the DAC member and we will be uh fortifying that process going into the next year uh but that would be my response what about non-parents how do they get into these sites unless they're signing in with their their children's ID I assume and how to grandparents go in and uh other people um children that live in foster homes and get foster care how how do they get in those individuals that their Guardians as it relates to Dr L Dr Wilson yes as it relates to um any individuals who are not uh with a guardian or or in a facility that would have to be something that we will be building out because those individuals tend to work with the uh staff at various schools and they would get that information um through that portal but because that is a deficit that you are mentioning that is something that we can definitely put into place when we're going into the following adoption because currently uh as it relates to those uh who have uh do that do not have parents but have Guardians and they're in centers that is something that we would have to fill in as a gap and one more last question thank you madam chair and I as a board member how do I sign in since I'm I my child is no longer in the Brower County School System how would I get in there to review items Dr Wilson uh we would have to uh create that pathway uh for any board member that would like to get access to the materials because again uh it is public and if any uh board member wanted to review those materials that are accessible digitally uh that we offer that's that's more than that's an email to me or that's going through the not you wouldn't have to go through the website that's not what I'm trying to say but again we can create a pathway that if board members wanted that information digitally we could provide that in our process which and that is not a problem okay and just one clarification so anybody who's not a parent would have to get clearance or or you would have to provide a pathway for them to get access to it well again um you're mentioning a few items that have not historically been um asked about in the past for the process so now that these that these things have been brought to my attention we can build out a system for those um inconsistencies if we you will because you do have digital access and we can provide digital access that's not a barrier can you just I don't think you answer my question though my question was so anyone who's not a parent has I'm sorry through the chair I'm sorry I I just need a point of clarification because I don't think she answered my question am I okay to proceed okay thank you um so anyone who is not a parent okay that wants access to these public materials because they are um covered on the Sunshine Law where people get to review them um needs to physically contact you and then something through an email and then you would create a pathway is that what you're tell me or there's another alternative way through the Ed credible tool that we my sorry my apologies Dr Wilson yes through the chair we do have a link that uh that St that stakeholders internally and externally can utilize to review those materials yes yes one more question and where is that link be posted where can I find that on the website team they're huddling so when we have excuse me through the chair myam through the chair um when we publicly notice um each of uh the as we publicly notice the instruction materials process the link is provided in that particular notice that we do through the Sun Sentinel and that link Brit provides the access to the materials and we have publicly noticed I have all the affidavit does the new legislation allow us to advertise it in a different way uh yes so we will be monitoring that and more than likely that might be some cost savings across the district yes I'm sorry we we love the Sun Sentinel but I'm sorry correct we'll we'll be reducing our budget a little bit because now the law allows us to advertise in different means yes including these meetings such and the other any other board member comment no thank you very much greatly appreciate thank you for everybody that came to to speak on this item the scheduled order of business for this public hearing of the school board of Brower County Florida has been completed seeing no obligation I now adjourn this meeting e e e e e e e e now we're now back to our workshop and our final final item is rural development policy review project I will now turn it over to staff for a brief presentation well wonderful Miss andreo would you please uh do this as quick as possible with the amazing gentleman sitting next to you thank you thank you Dr Lata as well as Madam chair um for the sake of time if the board would like an introductory on an introduction on each policy we can or we can moves right to our board questions at this time so what will be the will of the board a brief synapsis of each one okay got it so basically um we are bringing for for official rule development today two policies the first is our face Mass policy 2170 currently the policy mandates still mandates our vendors as well as visitors to wear face masks since the the state statute has changed it is now um we cannot do that anymore so now we just basically are asking the board to repeal this policy and we will archive it within um on our district website and then for the second policy I will then turn it over to Mrs andreo which will give a short introduction to the the uh purchasing policy good evening Jennifer Andreu executive director operations uh the policy number is changing as we update our policy so the purchasing policy will be 3,800 and we have better organized this policy to just provide Clarity for All State holders moving forward you will see that um we defined lobbyist lobbying and principles and also in an effort to work more efficiently we have heard the feedback from the board and we're going to recommend doing the renewal of agreements a little bit differently and bringing one item with all of the renewals each month for the board to review and approve and if needed bifurcate the item if there is something that someone has a question on or for some reason would not want to approve again I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have regarding the policy we did already Loop this with the audit committee we want to thank Mr vignola and general counsel for working closely with us and also with the technology advisory committee thank you our Consultants are continuing to work on this particular policy so additional reviews are are are forthcoming and it is our anticipation of bring both policies back for Ru making in May thank you uh public comment Dr Lynch Walsh Cynthia Dominique any other public comment say none board member comment Miss fam yeah um can you explain are the executive summar is going to remain the same for each of the items all going to be U through the chair um bulk together or are they going to be changed in some way Dr l m Miss andreo thank you madam chair the executive summaries will still be separate except when we have those renewals we will still have an executive summary it will list all of the renewals for the month instead of you having an item for each renewal I have followup the chair okay um usually on the executive summary is it has a um category for financial impact so if that's all going to be on one summary is there going to be a spreadsheet or something it sets that all out back to L uh miss andreo or M Mr Hill I'm not sure which one's going to handle that accounting that data piece Yes actually I what I wanted to do was to just transmit every month a memorandum from the superintendent to the board because in essence when these items come the board is already approving it so you usually a standard item might be 3 years and two additional one years and that's being approved with a dollar amount so it's almost like we're approving these items twice but um in an effort to be very transparent and because we heard feedback from the various committees we'll just bring one item it'll still have all of the information pertinent you'll have the dollar amounts the the spending thresholds all of the particulars you would need to to review and then you can approve the item or if there is an issue like I said bifurcate it and move to not approve right thank you any other board member comment no see none at this time thank you oh I'm sorry I thought that was a I didn't know just just a quick comment uh we've had board discussion over the past year about uh the sanctity of civil servants defining contract requirements uh is that something that we would find in the policy is current currently drafted Dr L Miss andreo please if you could elaborate a little more um on what it is you're looking for board memb Zan so the discussion that we've had chair this year is that um when you write down on a piece of paper that I want this that is something that civil servants only are legally allowed to do uh our volunteer advisers are allowed to review they're allowed to give comments but at the end of the day a civil servant has to sign off on it um largely because you need civil servants to do those kinds of things I mean they're defining what the government wants and so in our current policy do we have that definition clear that only civil servants can Define requirements that we're going to solicit against it's through the chair it's not that exact wording to say civil servants but we did very clearly Define and delineate um who would be delegated responsibility and Authority per the superintendent and it's listed there by job title uh that' be wonderful I'll look for further detail thanks any other board member comment seeing none thank you very much appreciate it that was our last item at this time do any of my colleagues have anything to bring to the board or soon esses to share Mrs Leonardi very quickly uh you know we had a long conversation today about facilities assessment um I think also just in the back of our minds we should keep in mind um playgrounds at our schools and doing a comprehensive assessment of the the playgrounds that are available at our schools thank you thank you Miss rert um Yes actually to piggyback uh the play playgrounds was a uh ask for a workshop you know and right now we have some PT and Sack and safs at their school that are trying to uh kind of do their own facility check off to see what kind they have they're taking pictures I mean it's a lot of initiative and um our kids certainly need um a healthy playground so thank you thank you um St uh Dr Lata can staff just the items that we didn't get to today can they just speak to for the public so they know when they're going to come Dr wo you want to lead that off sure uh so the the one item that we did not get to today is uh the B the board budget Workshop number three and the legislative and uh updates so right now we have that scheduled to come to the very next Workshop which is April 20th that it would come to that I'm sorry April 23rd it would come to that work that that is the item that we did not get to today okay thank you and I have some highlights and updates and successes from Coral Springs High School Colt course performing at Carnegie Hall in April the cult course has the highest amount of All State student qualifiers in the entire District the highest number of Ed of past in the Cambridge exams in North Area highest number of past industry certifications in the district esport champions for the District Five first place ERS at BPA State leadership conference colonary program plays fourth in the state at the proar competition new Child Care Program coming soon and a new IMT program coming soon at Coral Springs High School any other board member comments seeing none the scheduled business of the the scheduled order of business for the school board Workshop of the school board of BR County Florida has been completed seeing no obligation I now join the workshop to we I e e e for