##VIDEO ID:XOJENz8y1kg## 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 Workshop of the school board of brow 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 all attendees must occupy a seat with the exception of media once the boardroom has reached the seating capacity attendees will be directed to a designated overflow area upon activation of the fire alarm system please exit from the room in an orderly fashion and continue to exit the building and remain outside until the authority that has jurisdiction has deemed the building safe to return I will now introduce the students of Challenger Elementary School to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag All Rise please for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all please be seated Broward County Public Schools thanks the residents of Broward for supporting the amendment on the office of Inspector General reinforcing our commitment to transparency and accountability this added layer of oversight will help us continue to build trust and integrity in all District Operations as we prepare to begin the Schoolboard Workshop we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all our students as an a-rated School District We Begin the vital task of sustaining this achievement we will continue educating all students to reach their Highest Potential our theme this year is believe and power achieve one Broward today's Workshop will operate in accordance with Schoolboard policy 1020 and the board will review the items as advertised and presented by the superintendent our first item for discussion is the pond oversight committee report fiscal year 24 quarter 4 I now turn it over to staff for a brief presentation thank you Miss hion at this time I'm going to turn the presentation over for the bond oversight committee to Mr Shin thank you and good morning uh uh Madam chair uh Mr superintendent and the board uh the bond oversight committee met on September 13 19th uh to discuss the report uh that's provided I think since then the board has had updates on the smart program and workshops um so I just wanted to present basically what the bond oversight committee motions were uh Mr William Tracy was supposed to be here I think he's on his way um hopefully he'll be here shortly but I can go through what was what's the uh committee motions are um and sort of what we've the action that we've taken on uh as staff uh to respond to those motions uh the committee first motion was to uh recommend the district re-engage uh conversations with Florida Tax watch to continue oversight uh and review of the smart program um we've been in contact with tax watch um and they have told us that they do not have the resources to continue to do the oversight however I reached out to uh our chief auditor uh Mr Dave rhods to sort of confirm that they will uh continue uh and present at each quarterly uh meeting for the bond oversight committee uh to present any recommendations as as it pertains to audits or anything um with oversight uh recommendations the second motion uh the committee recommended that the district revise uh the resolution um to reduce the membership to five members uh that are currently in place staff reviewed this recommendation and we we recommended to reduce it down to seven members um and that's because of where we're at in the program um a couple of the members the Florida bar uh and the other one that deals with special needs would would be more useful when the Scopes are still being in formed of these projects um the Scopes are fully formed uh and and we're continuing with the program uh more than halfway through the construction uh phases of of a lot of these projects um the ones that we kept that are not filled are the minority Builder and the construction anybody with uh construction Contracting experience and for reasons that if we did were able to fill those roles that we felt that it was important to be able to have that available um we we also recommended that the Quorum be reduced to three um we're sort of still looking at this uh so we'll uh we'll we'll disc discuss that um a little bit later uh the next motion is the committee recommends the district develop a policy to address architectural engineering errors and or omissions um as you know we've been looking into our errors and omissions policy and there are some recommendations I know that uh facilities can go into more detail on those um the next motion was the committee recommends that the district revise the current change order policy um and increase the cumulative limit for superintendent approval from 3 to 5% and then there are some recommendations below and I believe that was all the uh committee motions um and I think we had a pretty good meeting with some good recommendations during the meeting uh so I'll sort of you have a copy of the report um and the materials that were presented at the meeting um so I can open it up for board comments thank you very much is there any public comment no public comment thank you um board discussion any of my colleagues oh miss Leonard um I have a few questions but uh my first is to what extent um did staff have discussions with the committee about their motions and staff's differing take on the Motions Mr sh thank you very much um I know that there was uh discussion during the meeting uh about these motions um particularly around the last two um there's been ongoing discussion about errors and omission and uh the the uh the the last motion uh and I've also in addition to that provided them a copy of the recommendation um and discussed it with uh Mr Tracy who who was supposed to be here okay and can can someone provide some of the I don't know like a summary of those conversations because what I I don't want to happen is like we had this discussion at the last school board meeting right like the the committee makes motions staff has a differing opinion um and there was no like back and forth about it and no General like agreement so I'm just curious about how the committee feels about staff's recommendations I I believe that in my conversations that the committee is in support of the the recommendations and believe that we're utilizing their input to provide uh changes to the program okay um and then on motion one uh the staff's recommendation for the office of the chief auditor to provide quarterly updates of audit recommendations um I I guess I'm wondering because there's always a conversation about like the capacity of the chief auditor's office I'm wondering um if that is within the capacity of the office Dr hipper Mr rhs yeah thank you very much for that question um we have uh external resources that are we about to mobilize and those resources would help us to get the audit coverage which would then allow me to be able to give some summarized information to the committee um which would really only take my input with with regard to like let's say there's evening Bond oversight committee meetings I can go there and I can pass on the information and the the specifics of the audit findings um and the audit recommendations that have been made throughout the course of that work okay um I mean I I certainly am not opposed to having the the office of the chief auditor involved in this I do however appreciate the external lens of Florida Tax watch um and and the historical knowledge that they have um so I'm wondering if if we could go into a little bit more detail about why we wouldn't re-engage them yes absolutely um and then Mr Chim you can add I know uh Florida Tax watch I've talked to their leadership um quite often probably in the past 3 or 4 months um they don't have the resources they haven't been receiving the resources that they've received in probably five or six years ago during that time of the program um I've done my due diligence based on some of the um entities they've um received resources from to re try and re-engage them to get resources and uh nobody's willing to Pony up um any resources to support us okay um okay so with that understanding I I I obviously support the the chief auditor um being involved in this um and providing some some updates and reports and oversight um the the change order policy I'm I I support making that change I do however feel like this is a conversation we've had for years and years and years um and we've we've changed the policy in the past and it still hasn't gotten to the the core of the issue um so you know I I think we've all kind of beaten this drum that the change orders are an issue uh the the time to completion is an issue um so I hope that we dig deeper on that um and I know the the superintendent is interested in doing that as well thank you thank you Dr Zeman thanks chair we're um just to provide a little bit more context that um we didn't hear from our speaker this morning there's 359 days left in the smart bom it'll end end of October 2025 is that correct chair Dr hmer that is correct thank you very much and given that it's not surprising that we're losing people's interest in it um I think our responsibility as Mr Leonardi is is inferring is to make sure there's really appropriate oversight to the last 359th day from now um if tax walks doesn't have their available resources do it and the auditor can pick that up that's great but I would want to make sure that what the auditor is doing with external resources is equivalent to what tax watch was doing uh for the balance of time so just as a follow-up item to our chief auditor maybe if you could let us know if the external resources are 100% covering what tax watch was doing I love the idea of hiring external resources to do this because it's a limited time um and as it's expiring it may be difficult to find organizations like taxwatch or any other other good do good government group um to pick pick that up but it's a big deal um uh three grand juries have talked about our oversight on this program and we have to make sure that uh that we continue to do that very very well um in terms of the specific items like Miss Leonardi I support them and I really support quickly coming back to the board um with an item to change the superintendent authorities you know we had the intent of not seeing 10 12 20,000 change orders because an electrical outlet had to be moved 40 ft away or they had to rewire a wall that they didn't know about beforehand and things like that but what we didn't understand is we also had this second limit of 3% and if you had already changed five 6% of a project then every dollar has to come all the way to the board I don't think the community likes that I know that um it takes up time of staff and the and more importantly it slows down progress uh often times they have to wait 30 days to get to the board to get on the agenda then we hear it we vote on it we're like really $122,000 cuz you had to move an outlet like why did we lose 30 days when kids really want their Library so if we can bring one back that um that does that and I'll just remind my colleagues there were three factors there was $250,000 limit 3% which the um Bond oversight committee is recommending moving to five and the superintendent provide us updates when he makes decisions like that that are within the caps and I think that that's a that's a good issue to bring back to the board uh based on the recommendation the only question I have for you Omar though is what's the limiting factor of getting great people to serve on the bo Bond oversight committee I I work with hundreds and hundreds of construction leaders in the community uh they're they're like really vested in Broward County Schools they're not doing it just for the money I mean they're running a company or maybe they used to run a company and they're still living here why can't we get construction people to fill seats on the bar or what let me say it differently what's the limiting factor to getting really really talented people who want to help us in a volunteer capacity to Ser in these seats on the bond oversight committee for the next year Dr heurn Mr chair thank you for the question uh yes I think one of the limiting factors and this is because I've been trying to reach out to a number of people from the minority Builders uh area and when I do contact them uh a lot of the limitations is that they're actually trying to do business with the district and the resolution actually um prohibits you being able to do business while you're sitting on the committee um so that that is a limiting factor as to the participation in those two areas uh is that you know the companies that are interested in in in helping um you know would be people that are doing business with the district chair um the only idea I have for us then is for maybe us to nominate some people uh there's nine of us we all know people that are not trying to do business with prow County Schools but probably live here or near here who care uh about the final 12 months of executing this Bond and I think if the nine of us uh spent a little bit of time we might get some folks to uh raise their hand and do that so just as an idea for you and and our permanent chair to think about um is if we could be tasked back with finding some people I think we could fill up that board I would just much rather have a full board an auditor replacing tax watch and and finish strongly on the smart Bond rather than limp to the Finish Line because we didn't figure out the limiting factors and figure out how to overcome them um and didn't have full resources available to take the place of tax watch um my own opinion is we need to finish strong on the smart Bond and make sure that we show the community that we heard them that we heard the Great injuries and we're going to finish this up with uh uh with with great attention to the details uh for the next 12 months thanks thank you Dr Zan um Dr heurn how would we as board members go about making suggestions to fill those two positions or what's the procedure for that uh Mr sham if you can um Enlighten us on the current process and then how could we change the process to allow board members to appoint um essentially I think that's what you're asking to appoint not not even AO just so I'm clear just um hey here's three people I know that fit the requirements of the job you know I just want them to be in the pool to be considered uh for whomever makes the appointment it's really just to kind of broaden the pool a little bit yes and currently we take recommendations from uh any Source um even a Schoolboard member right that's correct and and we uh asked for a resume to support the qualifications behind the resolution um and then we bring it to the committee and the committee makes the decision you know they vote to uh approve uh membership so that's that's the current process so I think that if the board provided that that feedback uh that certainly would be very welcome thank you thank you so just everyone's clear they could just send you an email with some suggestions and contact information and then you would take it from there that's correct okay great thank you uh Dr h thank you um Madam chair so um I just wanted to um clarify that the recommendation to reduce the five is because of difficulty in filling those other positions Dr heer Mr sh that's correct okay and can you um reiterate your efforts uh that have been in place to fill these positions in the past I've reached out to uh for the minority Builder uh our current uh and past um you know uh Miss miny Mills we we've spoken I've gotten um recommendations and reached out to those recommendations and they've declined to to pursue it based upon what's required as far as not doing business with the district and things like that and then the construction I've also reached out uh to people uh for that and you know basically in that role it would be somebody retired somebody working for another governmental agency and or and I've reached out to other governmental agencies reached out to colleges and things like that so that's really the extent of my effort and and of course during every meeting possible I've asked for input and for anybody to provide suggestions into filling these roles okay so currently with with these five members that are that fill the um current positions that we have what is the Quorum that's required Dr heer Mr sh the Quorum that's acquired is a majority of the members um there is something in the resolution that allows the the uh membership to be altered with less than a uh uh the full amount the full Quorum um I think it's four um to vote in new members okay so do you currently um experience difficulty in meeting Quorum Dr heer Mr chair yes okay um and my last question on this particular recommendation is the two vacant position can you elaborate on what you see as the relevance and benefit of having these two positions contributing to the membership Mr sh uh yes uh because of where we're at in the program is really what we looked at in terms of what would be beneficial to the to going forward and those two are related to the construction phases that we're currently in and would provide very useful input for the the committee if they were filled okay um so Dr heurn I personally would like to see extensive effort in place to fill the two positions without reducing the membership and I like Dr Zeman's suggestion as well where board members can give recommendation um in filling these positions but I certainly would not like to eliminate them I think he wants to speak speak M Mr shim yes just for clarification we are recommending keeping two unfilled positions on the committee and recommending taking away two unfilled positions and the two unfilled positions that that are that are not being recommended uh in the version of the resolution that we're providing is uh because those positions have more to do with the designing and before before the Scopes are fully formed um one of them is a Florida bar position and the other one is one for special special needs which you know we do think that that was an important role but now that the you're in full swing and almost halfway through or more than halfway through the program a lot of that would be a lot less useful information at this point in time in the program okay all right thank you so much I I support the staff recommendation of the seven thank you thank you Mrs Fam thank you um just a a few points of clarification if you wouldn't mind sir um in the past I have had an individual that really wanted to participate in the audit committee not the oversight committee the audit committee but they're um an international auditor and they travel all over the world and they were not permitted to appear by Zoom they had to be there in person um I know if it's if I'm correct that you meet quarter I just want to make sure so the commitment would be to um four times a year um other than that is there anything else because and are they date certains where people that do travel around the world that can make a major contribution and this oversight um can participate so I mean Dr heer clarify Mr shim the committee sets the dates that they will meet um uh once a year uh usually after the the last final meeting they at the next meeting they confirm the dates that they will meet quarterly um throughout the rest of the year so I believe that's definitely accommodative to what your your suggestion thank you so they would get approximately how much notice in advance I mean so they would have you providing the dates for the entire year so that way they could plan their travel accordingly Dr heer Mr sure that's correct all right thank you Mr rhods did you want to add something yeah I I just wanted to mention that um in this item the committee is recommending uh reducing the membership to five members and staff is recommending membership at seven uh individuals and with a quorum of three um the Quorum of three according to the statutes would work for five members but it might need to be increased to four uh for a membership of seven I've brought the statute to the attention of council and I've also discussed it with Mr shim he's already on on working on that and plans to bring that to the next meeting to discuss that okay Miss jacqu Adams can you sure the relevant statute is Florida Statutes 455 uh 207 and that requires um 51% um to meet Quorum for not only the board but also the board committees so so it would whatever the number lands on it would need to be 51% to me quum okay so Mr shim this we're in a workshop so when it comes back to us it would come back meeting State statutes correct okay Mr CH yes okay thank you Mrs fam did you have anything else no thank you thank you I before I go back to round two um I just want to say I'm very very as you know cuz you're smiling already very happy to see motion three because um it's been a concern that I've had it's been a concern tax tax watch has had when you go through the change orders and there are errors or omissions on the drawing side or the beginning part of it and we have to eat the the difference there and it wasn't something we asked for it was just something they didn't do I do believe that we should not be paying all of the the change order for that and I know it it comes out in the wash later so I been through this process but I am very happy to see that motion and I do um look forward to seeing the policy come forward even though we're close to the end of it because there are a lot of in fact in our next meeting coming up it's very clear that it was something that was done in error in the very beginning and we shouldn't be held accountable find finally for someone else's mistake so I'm just want to put my two cents in for that uh Mrs Leonardi I just had a a quick question um I'm wondering to what extent the district has reached out to um like professional groups like the associated general contractors of America um Associated Association of associate builders and contractors Broward Builders Gold Coast Builders Association um to get their input um as people who do business in South Florida Dr heer Mr shim I have reached out in the past uh to to these entities um I think the last time I did it was last year some of the entities not not all of the ones that you mentioned um but I can do it again I mean and I I think I've said this before about you know reaching out to to vendors and businesses that meet maybe don't do business with the school district or who used to and who have left us like I think there needs to be a regular Cadence of meeting with these professional groups the people who were were trying to get to work for us um to get their input about what we could be doing better thank you thank you anybody else Dr Zan I just want to uh be clear chair um what vacancies are there that would get them to seven what are the specific seats that you need Omar and again I'm not I'm not necessarily needing it in today's meeting but if you could send us all a note uh through the chair to just give us any specifics about deadlines qualifications anything we need to know um we can probably at least look in our our networks and kind of come up with some candidates and even if we just come up with one or two each that's a pretty big pool um and we can uh fill that up but I just want to be clear we have two vacant seats to get to Seven is that correct uh uh well uh if you look on page three of the presentation it tells you the two vacancies that we need to fill but you're asking for a little more than just that so Dr heer Mr shim yes I can provide more of the criteria as far as uh you know what's in the resolution um and and more of the process uh in a followup uh so that you have that yeah terrific and I I love Miss Leonard's point about the the groups it it is critical I'm hearing hearing from those groups that our new Chief facilities officer has done a lot of Outreach which is great um and I just want to make sure that um you know that those groups know that we have a chief facilities officer and they can reach her and and and I know she's reaching out to talk to them and it's critical for us we cannot continue to do $30 million government contracts with one bidder which is what we did last year that's not where we want to stay we want to have five or 10 uh organizations bidding for all of our work um so that we get best value and and best for our kids thanks so much om thank you Dr hes thank you madam chair so on revising policy 8,000 um Can staff speak to the committee's recommendation um in terms of the current change order policy and increasing the cumulative limit of the superintendent approval from 3 to 5% can staff expound on how this will be beneficial and um if there are any cons uh to doing so Dr heer yes I'll start in there Mr shim can finish but um simply put it'll reduce the number of low dollar items um for change orders because I had the same question early on I remember the revision of the policy I think last school year and then um you know stepping into the scas like gosh why are these these uh five eight $10,000 items for change orders keep coming to the board and we discovered it's a cumulative um 3% uh of the project and if you have already gone over that you have to keep bringing it no matter if it's $1 um or in some cases we're actually um getting money back it's it's not an expense to the school district you're actually um receiving money back from from uh an actual change order so I'll let Mr shim kind of elaborate a little bit more okay and Dr heurn also if you could speak to any drawbacks in doing so if that exists um no drawbacks um on my end I think uh as Dr Zeman mentioned earlier some of the items are very simple and then it's it's uh holding up um the process for 30 or more days to complete something that's very simple um and when it could be done um with um with speed if I could actually sign off and get the work to start flowing back so things can get done quicker than some of the simple things that we that we bring to the board okay and Mr shim if you could speak to both pros and cons yeah I I mean I think that the uh the change that we did make for the change order policy has been um received well and we it has helped uh with where we're at and I think this recommendation would further that and put us in a you know better position to approve those and exactly what the superintendent said um as far as the drawbacks uh I don't really see anything um as a drawback in this policy thank you I'm done thank you anybody else all right well thank you so much Mr shim for the presentation uh the next item is the school board policy 90 the code of student conduct I will now turn it over to staff for a brief presentation you just give them a minute to switch out yes in addition to what is captured in the agenda Mr Hill will be passing out some uh some supplemental um data that's broken down by school level for survey topics uh that we were able to acquire uh recently U working with our vendor for the survey good morning good morning everyone Simone holl withth Chief academic officer and as Dr hurn mentioned we are going to go over the presentation and some survey results and then open for questions so I'm going to turn it over to Jody Washington Dr Jody Washington our task assigned executive director of student Support Services all right good morning everyone good morning Dr Washington all right um there we go all right so today we are going to talk about the rule governing the use of wireless communication devices in schools which is embedded within policy 90 the code of student conduct um this is just a a reminder of the ru making process as it relates to policy um just a A Brief Review of the timeline that the code of student conduct has um undergone since April in April we brought it to the first Ru making uh Workshop based on feedback from from the discipline committee during that Ru making Workshop the board uh provided guidance to District staff to go back to the community to look at uh strengthening the consequences for specific acts against persons did that during the months of April and May and then during the June rule M rule development Workshop is when the discussion about the wireless communication devices um was a topic of conversation and the board directed staff to make changes to the rule governing the wireless communication devices and then that rule was subsequently adopted in July and then on the October 15th board meeting um the board asked staff to survey the community and bring the item back for discussion in a rule development Workshop so that's what brings us here today um for this rural development Workshop as it relates to the policy this is just um the policy as it currently stands in the code of student conduct again the major revision that was made over the summer and adopted in July was a change to the definition of instructional time for grades 6 through 12 previously instructional time in grades 6 through 12 was timed during class but did not include class change and lunch um now instructional time is defined as time from the time the first Bell of the day to the last bell of the school day it has always been in policy that students can use their cell phone under the direction of a teacher um and that is in alignment with Florida statute as well here is a threeyear data trend for our elementary school students for violations of the cell phone rule um I it is broken down by quarter so the blue is 2023 orange is 2024 and green is 2025 we only analyze this year through the first quarter because we are just in the beginning stages of the second quarter so so you can see um for the elementary level from the last 2 years there has not been a change here is the middle school you can see an uptick in the number of cell phone violations for middle school students in the first quarter and then for high school again an uptick in the number of cell phone violations in the first quarter for this year this is a an outline of the interventions and consequences that have um accompanied those cell phone violations you'll see in the cases where we have violations app parent conference is the most frequently um used intervention also keep in mind that these uh interventions and consequences that are here many times there will be a parent conference and a verbal warning or parent conference and confiscation when it gets to the external suspensions there's there's eight students who have been externally suspended this year for a cell phone violation those are repeated violations repeated Defiance of the policy students do not get suspended from school for merely using their their wireless device it is repeated Defiance of the policy and um directives from school staff um we'll go we'll get to the data in the appendix if you want me to go through that did you want me to discuss the data in the appendix or yes yes um since we just gave it to them my apologies we were able to work with the vendor to get that data and they got it to us late and Miss uh Washington gracefully stayed up all night put it together for us so than yes absolutely since they just received it uh if you can go through it um please and then for the public we will update the item online just to make sure the public can review this so do you want me to there there's data um that's not disaggregated by level in the back of the presentation or do you want me to go through the the word documents that let's see so this is just an outline of the survey engagement um the survey went out to students it was available on their clever dashboard there was also a global announcement that went out to all students in canvas not all students I'm sorry middle school and high school students because the rule did not impact Elementary School students the rule for elementary school has always been instructional time as the beginning of the day to the end of the day so this rule change only impacted our middle and high school students so we only surveyed our middle and high school students you'll see that we had um nearly 28,000 students that responded to the survey about a 26% response rate of the um eligible student population parents we had nearly 40,000 um parents respond about a 20% response rate per the number of students that are registered in Broward schools and then for staff we had just over 6,000 respondents which which was a 23% response rate uh the next question was about the awareness seeking the awareness of each of the different demographics of did you know that this policy had changed and you can see for the most part um people were very aware of the change to policy the next question asked um to what extent they agreed with the policy change restricting the use of wireless devices during class changes um the green are the students the Orange is the staff or the orange is the parents I'm sorry and blue is the staff so you can see where we where we lie there we have some agreement among parents and staff but some strong disagreement for students for class changes and then during lunchtime you can see um even more student disagreement and even um some more parent disagreement restricting students ability to use their Wireless de devices during lunchtime when asked how the cell phone policy affected their students learning experience um the majority of respondents for students and parents said that this CH policy change has had no impact on their student learning experience um see when when asked about the concerns if they had any concerns you can see that the majority overall um had concerns about being able to communicate with family during the school day as well as safety there was also on the parent and staff survey if they selected other there was an opportunity for them to put in um a written response and we did have over 4,000 responses that had some text in other so I used uh Microsoft co-pilot AI to give us the emerging themes that came from that data set and so these five themes that you will see on the next two slides were what was generated through the use of AI um the next question how do you believe the cell phone restriction has impacted your students well well beinging um or as the student their own well-being um and you can see that there's kind of a a mix of responses there between negatively and no impact for our students um and just a little a different perception of Staff how effective do you think the enforcement of the policy has been in your school um and there was a a surprising number of neutral there um people didn't necessarily think it was effective or ineffective and then the satisfaction of the implementation and um not surprisingly based on what we've heard from our students they were very dissatisfied with the implementation of the policy um and then beyond instructional time this question just asked if they felt that Beyond Time in the classroom there should be any additional restrictions and you can see that overwhelmingly our students um don't want any additional restrictions um or they they selected other and in their other responses they they said no additional restrictions um but you can also see there with students overwhelmingly are are asking that we don't restrict during lunchtime based on their survey responses and then again there were two open-ended questions at the end of the survey both of them had um over 2,000 responses so I used AI to um theme those and find the top five emerging themes from the other responses from the parent and staff survey and then the parents and staff using thought exchange um the AI That's embedded within thought exchange will give you both sides as well as some common ground for your consideration so when asked about suggestions for improvement to the policy you can see that the common ground on both sides of it was um everybody's kind of on the same page of making sure that students have emergency access to their phone and then when asking any additional thoughts that weren't maybe captured in another question again the common ground is making sure that students have emergency access and then the data that you received this morning was all of these same survey questions but broken down um parents by level K or I'm sorry Elementary Middle High combination K to8 and combination 6 to 12 same thing for staff and then for the student data since we only surveyed middle and high school students um the middle school was broken disaggregated from the high school so that is the additional documentation that you received this morning and with that I think that's the end okay do we have any public comment no public comment thank you okay board members Mrs Fam thank you um sorry uh if I can I would like um clarification when um an emergency happens uh you're assuming that it's a student waned to call their parent or a parent trying to get a hold of a student what about when we have it in some cases it's schools we've had some riots break out and some other incidents where there's violence or fighting our students permitted to take out their phones and document the policy um the breaking of these policies or the breaking of these laws because some of these acts are criminal and order to preserve that evidence so it's not a he said she said um interrogation um when considering evidence so is that permissible for them to do that Dr heurn so um just want to clarify don't know about riots on campus um physical altercations between students yes we not a new phenomenon um but there's a very thin line between uh students holding up their cell phones and filming um altercations or other negative um incidents on campus versus you know trying to do that in a way where they're genuinely concerned and want to use that for evidence to to give to an administrator administrators do um collect information from kids via verbally written statements or if they have a cell phone video I'm looking at that video and recording that video um but most administrators we don't want students out and about just AO we see that in the real world too right something's happening instead of somebody doing something about it to get help they pull out their cell phones and let it continue to Happ happen um and that's not what we're trying to encourage nor the encouragement of students setting up things for it to be recorded So it's a very thin line absolutely yes our administrators collect information from students verbally written and if they have a cell phone video but we try to a on the side of hey if you see something immediately go let the closest adult know get away from harms way go back to your area your class and not crowding and making the situation worse than it is when it when it was initiated so so to clarify you're saying no that you would not encourage people to absolutely not no thank you Mrs leonardy sorry to that point um to what extent do we rely on surveillance uh footage from our our schools to you know get to the bottom of what happened in a in an altercation oh we depend on it a lot um so often times it's simultaneous one person's getting information from a student the other person is actually looking at surveillance video that pretty much captures everything around campus right um and then help me understand what are the consequences if if a student sees a fight and they film the film The Fight um and then they share that video what are the consequences to that student there there is consequences I um let Miss Washington clarify um based on the student code of conduct but there is consequences for that yeah so it it depends on the outcome of the sharing you know in some cases it may create uh major disruption on campus the next day um in which case they would be disciplined under a major campus disruption it could inight a disturbance in which case they would be disciplined under that so it really depends on what that resultant action is from them sharing um it it could be as simple as an an unruly disruptive behavior that doesn't result in something larger but there are are definitions within the code of conduct that the behavior fits got it and are there any legal consequences like with law enforcement go ahead Miss Washington so I would Dr Washington I apologize she recently got a doctorate um still trying to get used to that part um I would defer to the the law enforcement but again if it if it causes a major campus disruption then law enforce that is reported to law enforcement it's assessor incident um and they can take whatever action they they deem necessary to take in that situation so I think it's contextual depending on what happens as a result of that sharing are there contexts in which uh a student um films a fight um shares that video and there are legal consequences are there situations where that could happen yes okay yes absolutely um and also just to add to some of the other symptoms of situations like that where students are intentionally filming um a fight or physical altercation just the mental health issues that it causes for the student that actually made a mistake got into a physical altercation and a and a student purposely post that to so-called try to bully or intimidate or just put information out on the web that sometimes can never ever disappear um so you have those side effects also okay and to be clear we do have surveillance cameras all over our campuses that capture these incidents yes that's correct got it thank you um I I got your email Dr Hein but I was I'm I was a little bit frustrated about getting these survey results so late can you explain why we got these results so we yes so we were working with a with the vendor um that we used to collect the survey information there were some difficult time in trying to get the data collated and stratified to do all the things that need to be done Miss was Dr Washington was amazing in communicating with them and was able to put together the data in a way that could be um understood and visible to the public today so I I apologize for that um um but some frustration on our end too working working with yeah I appreciate that and I I will just say um you know it's been my experience as a board member for four years that sometimes we get information very late and I I I understand I'm not trying to like cast blame or or scold anyone um and I appreciate how hard you all worked to get this information to us um I would just say like as a systemic issue um getting the information as soon as possible ahead of a board meeting is is helpful um I I will I think I have some more comments uh later on in a second round um I do want to flag that uh we started this Workshop a little bit early and think there may have been people who are who are trying to get here for public comment so I don't that's up to you madam chair but um I just want to apply that thank you thank you yes I'll let all the board members finish and then I'll see who's here for public comments um Dr holess thank you madam chair so um I have a few questions in terms of teacher directed cell phone use for instructional purposes um how well is this being communicated to principal School leadership teachers and so on um as I've heard in the past where um some teachers may be reluctant to even consider use for instructional purposes we have many students for example um who are in study hall and part of their um assignments or research um accessing um is done through the their cell phone but there are many teachers and staff who are reluctant to allow this in order to not get in any kind of uh what they believe to be um violating the policy so how well are we communicating this to principal School leadership and how well are they communicating this to the instructional staff that they can allow students whether in study hall or in regular classes to use the cell phone for instructional purposes if it's a part of their um instruction for the day they have certain games for example educational games that they use the cell phones to to play and so on I just don't want it to be a situation where teachers are limiting the use of technology in the maximizing the learning outcome of students because of fear of violating this policy so um if the superintendent could comment on that and what else can we do to ensure to increase awareness that they can do this Dr heer yes so we've communicated that to school leadership and funnel down to the to the teachers also I know we even developed the flyer to send out that clearly um communicates that to all staff um I I I know we're always going to have some teachers that are airing on the on the side of caution um and have some misunderstanding and I know is is very few versus the majority um and plus we're putting some things in place to alleviate that concerned by ensuring that we can go uh one to one after Mr Davis our CIO has really dove into our inventory and really understand how many laptop computers we have within a district uh so that concern will be alleviated U soon once we start transitioning um to that but I think right now U as far as teachers with that type of specific concern is probably very few versus you know the the many in the beginning of the year because we've been communicating that um to our principles and assistant principles and and so forth uh for some time now okay and and Dr hebburn I've also heard from students as well especially those in study hall where the cell phone use um may be may not be allowed by the study hall instruct um instructional um staff uh but the students found it in the past to be significantly beneficial in in studying in looking up different work words and meanings and whatever else they need to do um as far as uh completing their work during study hall because study hall is a space where they can complete additional assignments they can do additional research they can use it for enrichment purposes and so on and so forth and um my understanding is that the cell phone in study hall in the past um was being used to enhance their learning but there are study hall uh teachers that may prohibit the use um even though the student is intending on using it for instructional enhancement so how do we educate those teachers to really have a degree of latitude so um students can continue to maintain the level of service they need and do can we ascertain that if study hall teachers um are not allowing this or some of them um that all study hall rooms in our ENT ire school district have availability of computers for every single student who needs to utilize that time and that space Dr heer absolutely so I think there's two folds um to the answer um one we'll continue to to communicate um to all to all of our employees uh school-based employees specifically uh the other part is that um we've afforded the autonomy to teachers and I think in that case that teachers exercising that autonomy it in a u not so structured environment in a study hall that teacher may say hey I'm noticing that kids are not actually doing schoolwork they're doing other things so I'm not going to allow cell phone use in in the classroom and we've afforded teachers that autonomy and they have that autonomy based on um current legislation and the second fold is absolutely um Dr fton um um Mr Davis are working together to um assist our schools we'll do that in a very strategic way to start getting devices in all of our students hands so we don't have that problem of if a teacher has 40 kids in study hall and they only have 30 laptops in their CS so we'll start um incrementally chopping away at that at that um at that problem okay so not not meaning to be contradictory but um we could encounter the same issue right if you have 40 kids in a study hall and they all have computers unless you're monitoring each and every one of them they could be doing other things on the computer um um that's not necessarily academic related or we have filters so we have filters got it okay understand so I think um my concern Dr heurn would be and I hope we can move in that direction at the very least to ensure that every study hall in the district has computers for every single kid in that room otherwise the space would not be used efficiently and I don't think it would be to the best interest of students if we don't afford them the technology to do so so I have another question [Music] um I have some concerns about prohibiting the use of the cell phone during lunchtime and I'm looking at the data that we just received as well as the data that we have here and it appears to me that um parents um when you look at the uh data uh for parents broken down by school levels um that parents seem to strongly uh disagree um uh and also disagree there seems to be substantial numbers and percentages here when the question was asked to what extent do you agree with the um policy change restricting uh students use of the device during the school day including during lunch time so this seems to have a different uh response um outcome uh as opposed to restricting it during class time um so uh my concern here is how much are we uh of course the students would want to use it during lunchtime but we also need to consider the input of the parents who were in in the results here are indicating that it's okay with them at least that's how I'm reading it to have students use it during their lunchtime and um I guess my question is um can you um uh speak to any kind of uh research uh that would indicate uh that not allowing students to use cell phone during lunch time time is any more beneficial than allowing them to use it during lunchtime Dr heer y so I can't speak to specific research around lunchtime I could speak to specific research around not uh not allowing students to utilize cell phones during the entire school day uh which is proved to be beneficial for performance mental health um and and other variables I I haven't seen any research that uh talked about a specific time during the school day be it lunch class change um or any any other um time frame within the school day okay so Dr heun would you um would you agree then that our restriction of the use of cell phone during lunchtime um uh assuming there's any benefit is is rather subjective I I'm going to be honest with the board um it's O what November I don't think we've gone through an entire school year um this decision was made early in the summer um and we're going through this now I think at the end of the school year staff can collect all type of data student performance data Coral data to all type of aspects mental health and things like that as we you know we know the seasons of the school year we know what kids engage in we know the negative the positives and all the other good stuff that we can present to the school board at the end of the year to say hey here's the here's the data that we have thus far um these cell phones many of our students have a cell phone since birth all right even when they were toddlers so I at this point in time of the year I don't expect um students to say or parents of high schoolers to say right that uh they don't want their kids to have cell phones I think um at the end of the school year once we've gone through an entire school year once we started embedding some things in culture once we start looking at cor correlative data um associating Trends and things like like that we can better answer that answer that question but at this moment in time we can't answer that question thank you and that's a fair response but I would also say that um in terms of students mental health then based upon the response that we cannot necessarily say restricting use during lunchtime support or not support mental health it could actually have the counter effect where it does not support mental health as well as it could support mental health but we don't have any data that would suggest that and I need one more minute and then I'm done um and also Dr heern I'm sure there are other school districts that have implemented this right so um in those other school districts um do we have any information on whether or not restricting during lunchtime is supportive of a student well-being as opposed to being um counterproductive to that student well-being um because this is a culture of technology that well I'm not going to age myself but that I may not necessarily have been brought up in when I was a child and so how do we ascertain that this actually supports their mental health as opposed to um being destructive to their mental health and not being have not having access at all Dr hler that was a long question Dr holess see if I can remember uh parts of it so the only School District that I know of in the State of Florida that has a uh uh all day schoolwide ban um where students don't have access to their C phones at all right remember we do give access to our access to our students access to the cell phones uh uh by our students by allowing them to put it on airplane mode and they can take it off airplane mode if they need to use it for an emergency or whatnot but um in Orange County which is the only School District I'm familiar with in the State of Florida um that is implemented a full cell phone ban from the moment you get on campus to the moment that you leave they have seen increase in in in performance they have seen um better engagement by students they had a rough road just like us in the beginning because it is embedded in student culture or or children um being used to utilizing their cell phon so they had the same Growing Pains as we're experiencing right now in the first part of the year when they implemented this band last year good and I and I appreciate that but they they they have an all a schoolwide a districtwide implementation of no cell phones all day but there has not been any any in any research done to say well if we include it in lunchtime what is the effect uh on students learning outcome and so on and so forth right no no effect specifically um to lunch lunchtime okay and I just one more thing um chair and then I'm done um okay I'll just uh have a concluding comment I cannot determine whether or not and we don't have the data it's obvious that restricting cell phone during lunchtime is beneficial we have no data to support it I am concerned ER about it because I I don't know if it's actually productive or not productive we are in a in a generation of technology and completely restricting it even their during their lunchtime when they are not in instructional time we have nothing to show that this is actually beneficial or it could also not be beneficial it could go in the opposite direction we just don't know so I'm concerned about that but I'd like to just um if we could just refer to page 15 uh with the data that was shown in the presentation um I just need clarification of this data because I'm looking at the total staff that um is shown here it says 6,137 respondents from the staff but I'm looking at page 15 and unless I'm reading this incorrectly the blue represents staff uh so could someone clarify why the staff numbers for example strongly disagrees 15414 on page 15 Dr heern um Dr Washington sorry I'm pulling it up um but what I will say is those numbers were pulled directly from thought exchange okay um and thought exchange allows parents to complete some questions and not others so you don't have to do all of it there we looked at partially and fully completed responses so that could be um part of it but I'm okay so the the concern though is that we're looking at a staff total respondent of 6,000 137 in the data that's presented on page 15 which is in contradiction to the rest of the data the rest of the data seems reasonable because you can add the numbers up and they're close to 6,000 on page 15 you add the staff numbers up and we're looking at probably 30,000 I will go back to the thought exchange data and and provide an update to that okay so I think I think uh chart 15 is in correct okay uh because it doesn't match the number of respondents for staff and also the cumulative response that we have here I would have loved to see it in percentage form like we did with the data that you presented so what we have here is raw numbers we don't have percentages but my brain works in percentages because I can say Okay 28% agree with this and so on and so forth now I'm led to having to figure it out myself even though I can so I I can get the percentage numbers to you just to back to Dr HB bur's Point um we were having difficulty with the breaking the data apart we used one survey that had a a splicing question in there they had to deter say whether they were a parent or a staff member right and then to to disaggregate the data by each one of those we had to apply filters when the filter was applied it continued to spin and then time out so we had to use other ways to like put the data um compare two questions for example with that one question then I had to go question by question so just putting that quick filter on was um difficult to present it that way but I'll get you the percentages the same way you want it aggregated like what all the parents said right well what's in the presentation seems to be aggregated right and then you have this disaggregated data which shows the percentage the disagre disaggregated data shows the percentage the one in the presentation that's the aggregated data does not show percentages so I think it would have been a lot more easier to look at if we had it in percentage form just like you did in parentheses on the disaggregated data so do you want the aggregated data and percentages is that what you correct okay just like you have done it here and if you could revisit slide 15 and correct the staff numbers thank you thank you Dr Zan thanks uh chair I just going to tell you how excited I am to sit here and talk about filtering data though this is my my sweet spot thank you very much and um just as a point of professional privilege I want to congratulate you on your PhD I did it full-time that's easy uh uh you and and Dr holess and others did it while you're working full-time and not in a you know 40 hour a week job and in a very intense job and uh you deserve tremendous uh accolades for what you've done so Dr Washington welcome to the team thank you uh I agree with my colleagues about the data however um uh and I will point out that we extended the survey and maybe by extending the survey we shorten the amount of time left for analysis and and let's just think about that maybe going forward and um whether or not 5% more data is really worth uh uh coming in late um with some of the critical things and Dr holis and I have the same frustration you know to compare the data we needed the percentages not the whole numbers and um uh don't want to fog the hardworking people that did this but um it's really important for the community to to be able to digest the results of this survey um uh so there you go we talked a lot about this um uh change and we kind of talked about our three strategic goals again which an analyst like me just absolutely loves and we said what would a cell phone Bell tobell ban on use with waivers for any of our 14,000 instructional staff to say yes you can use it for that purpose right now right so we do not have a ban we have a ban that allows every teacher or any other instruction person to give permission to use that phone on a onetoone basis I love that part we also at our superintendent's recommendation said it isn't a band you can't have it you got to go put it in a in a box or in a in a in a little thing on hanging on the back of the Shelf you can keep it with you and in airplane mode and that's kind of a way to make sure that in uh some security situations uh they can reach out but we've talked about this policy in terms of our three strategic goals are we going to going to become even better than an a-rated District are we going to always always always put Safety and Security of our students first and foremost in what we do and how we spend our money and how we set policies and then the third is we have a national crisis in mental health particularly among young women uh and I I will not stop talking about this because the third one over the past 10 years has had you know I like the survey but the survey captures 5% or so of the 800 120,000 people that are directly affected uh and contributing to to Public Schools I even like more the hard data that we have and chair emergency room admissions for teenage girls who hurt themselves that's hard data in the last 10 years it's up 400% so three categories uh academics uh security and mental health I was very fortunate this week to attend uh with Mary ferdig and Aon and a few other people the parent Community involvement task force uh an unbelievable discussion and the discussion centered largely around how is it going to affect academics uh mental health and and security a captain from the plantation police force came and he said uh in very clear terms are many times you do not want to have your cell phone out when it really hits the fan you need to listen listen to the teacher or whoever's the guiding you to do the right thing in many cases the right thing is not to use your phone um and uh as Miss Le already pointed out there are specific instances um where you don't and I will add to her Point by saying you can't get a 100 people in a fight at Fort lale high school without cell phones chair did we have a fight with 100 kids at Fort lale high school last year Dr heer I don't know about that miss m Washington there was not a 100 involved okay well I'm I'm maybe I'm a little bit of hyperbole but it was more than two and and without cell phones sometimes youngsters will choose to do things which is not wise you can't uh get 12 kids beaten up a kid at Cole Springs uh after MSD and you can't get many people I don't know if it was a 100 but that's what the sun senal says uh fighting uh without technology like that and and we have to be careful I also want to point out like something that else that was reminded of by uh by looking at previous School Board records we are suing social media companies Broward County Schools is suing Facebook Instagram Tik Tok and the rest and if you read the suit that we have joined it it is disgusting Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook divides his Revenue sources by Facebook high schools and non-f Facebook high schools and Trail point out to us that we're a nonf Facebook High School CU it's not easy to get uh to Facebook in our schools um but there are workarounds to that and there is certainly after ours but to Mark Zuckerberg's our kids are just a revenue source and that that is the opposite of why we have a school system in brard County we are here to educate our kid educate our kids I I'm going to take a little bit longer Chan I'm sorry but this is this is uh I think worth it and I'll come back in round two with some of my my other points but um um I I learned a lot uh from the parent Community task force I think it was a really uh a wonderful thing to do I encourage us over and over again to engage the community uh as much as possible um the bottom line is that change is not hard as much as people want to say change is hard making that change making that decision that we made in July to go bell-to-bell with a specific policy for cell phone use was not hard implementing that change is hard and we are implementing today we had a two-e waiver period where we did not uh have any punishments for people we've had a maybe slower than some people would like adoption of the enforcement rules um but implementing changes hard and what I hear in the survey is we're not implementing it perfectly and I didn't expect us to implement it perfectly but I don't have the data in Bard county yet to say that change is required what I have is a bunch of very useful data about some staff from parents from students about ways in which we might make it better someday but uh I Believe In following the data I believe this was a wise policy to try for this year I'm dying to see uh the data plan I will Advocate at the end of second round of comments that we have a workshop item at the next Workshop to see the data G collection plan for this policy I want the community to know what data we're going to be gathering and I hope it's things like emergency room visits of teenage girls I hope it's not a survey of students on whether they like this or not I want it to be about student valid concerns about how we can make it better I love that but until we have an intentional data plan that the community and the board can look at and say look we know what we're going to test at the end of the year how is it improving academics how is it improving mental health how is it improving Safety and Security and have we heard from the experts about that I'll save the rest of my comments for later thanks chair thank you anybody online want to go before I get ready for mine in round two okay excuse me I have you on the I haven't gone yet okay we're you're on round two and I'm going to after I go I'm going to let public comments go and then we'll go to round two so that we have all the information um I appreciate the the survey and I just for the public because they can't see the papers that you gave us um the the information was was deaggregated by grade level because um as was brought up in an email sent to us Middle School is affected differently than Elementary and different than high school so I appreciate the information and I hope it's going to be available for the public because we just got it um but I do want the public to know we have it so it was very interesting to see and I'll say it kind of goes in line with what I've seen as I've gone around to schools I didn't agree with the lunch time in the first place I wasn't here when we made the final vote so I I didn't wasn't able to to give my opinion on the lunchtime part of it um but I'm going to do that again today it is not just that students want to have their phones at lunchtime and that parents would like them to have it if you look on the staff as it's agre deaggregated um High School staff also dis agreed with the fact that um the student should have it during or maybe I'm looking at that wrong I was looking at that wrong um about lunchtime so what I've seen when I've gone to to the schools and again it mainly affects high schools it is very difficult for the staff to implement it during lunchtime because if they're work walking around and trying to figure out phones then who's watching all the other parts of what's happening during lunch so I think when the the point today is do we allow them to use it at lunchtime or not I think that's the question staff is asking do we want to revise the policy um and be a little LAX on lunchtime so that when we do round two I'd like to hear everyone's thought on that but I would strongly recommend that we do that I don't believe class change is a good time because they should just be focused on getting on class but it's their lunchtime we would never expect a adults to go all day long without their cell phones we would not be able to function and at lunchtime it gives them the time to contact their parents to say you know we've canceled practice or hey there's you know this or that for um lunchtime I hope that we would continue to offer those exciting activities that wouldn't make them want to stay on their phone the whole Lunch Period um but I've heard from a lot of students and when I ask them if it's being implemented and honestly when I ask the principles they're like we're not even trying to do it at lunch we just don't have the capacity so I don't like to have a policy that's just on paper that we can't do with Fidelity um and we can Pat ourselves on the back and say whatever we want but it's not being implemented at lunchtime in high school with the Fidelity that we would like to see um and you know maybe it's leverage we could use with students we're going to allow you to use it at lunchtime if it's a privilege that you're abusing then we'll go back to you can't have it at lunchtime but I think it's a way to find a balance for students um and for parents because we do live in a different world with technology um is is just the way we communicate with people and I I think it's important that we um take that into consideration and again I don't want a policy that we don't follow I was a teacher in a classroom that's said all the time why do we have this policy no one's doing it um and which is partly why I became a Schoolboard member so don't want us to think that we're doing something that's not really happening in the classroom um and I think we should be honest with ourselves I'm going to stop right now and take public comment and then we'll go back for round two and Mrs fam you're first on round two so um public comment say that again just yeah is that fine can I her okay so the first is Aaron go hello good morning um and thank you for fitting Us in um so thank you so much for holding this Workshop to discuss this important topic um I hope that it has become apparent that this policy does need some adaptations um over the past two months I have had formal informal robust in passing conversations with a lot of different individuals and groups about this topic students and parents have brought up major issues with disparities in implementation significant impacts to student and family communication troubling practices for enforcement and deep and profound concerns that this fan and broward's approach to it are resulting in Antiquated practices and lessons that will leave students wildly unprepared for the world they meet after graduation and again to be abundantly clear I don't think any of us thinks thinks kids should be on their phones during class I don't think we want I think we all could benefit from being on phones less we're really talking about giving kids tools during those times when they need it um I have heard references to similar policies in other districts including Orange um but I just want to really quickly talk about a couple key differences in Broward that are different than orange and a lot of other places that have done these policies first of all we've we've already had it discussed but most instructional materials and assignments for high schools are done online they are digital and in other districts we give every kid a device that goes with them to lunch it goes with them home in Broward that doesn't happen um and I'm so excited to hear that we're chipping away at this I was excited to hear the superintendent say that but until we do that this lunchtime period is student cell phones are their only way they can access those materials at the parent Community involvement task force we had a student report that if they want to study for a quiz they have to print out a PowerPoint of 50 to 60 Pages most kids don't have printers the second piece and I'm going to go quickly here um is we have a giant Choice program kids don't live near where they go to school coordinating those after school things are really important to families and students and kids need to be able to do that in the middle of the day um at that meeting um I Dr Zan I really appreciate the emphasis on student mental health we agree but we cannot conflate social media with access to phones and they're different we cannot ignore students who are using their phones productive productively at lunch or for mental health positive mental health purposes to take a pause we had that reported from multiple students at that meeting um and I it was kind of described a student said at that meeting that um they've use they used to use like the calendaring function like we all do on their phones but now they have to use an ineffective paper planner and their response was well if we have to choose outdated math methods or you know preventing teenage girls from from committing suicide I'll choose the outdated math methods but it's a false dichotomy um we should be doing proactive things for student mental health um and this board has a choice to improve policies that are currently rooted in control and distrust of students and focus on empowering students with agency voice and promoting Innovative education okay thank you very much thank you so much Mrs fer I'm sorry there is no way I can be that articulate so um and I'm sorry for being late and missing your presentation but I did look at it uh last night online and so I want to go back to the motion we passed first I want to thank Dr Zan he came to our uh meeting on Monday night and we had a very Lively conversation it was great we didn't get to most of our agenda but we had a wonderful conversation about this so just a couple things in our motion that I want to take apart there are three really kind of big parts to this one is that we're uh we are asking you in the future to reconsider the process by which you did this okay I guess one one theory is that you do something someone and then you see what their reaction is and then that's your conversation but I think a more meaningful conversation is an upfront conversation and a conversation where you do go out to your community and maybe you avoid some of the pitfalls because you've tal you've had that conversation so that was our first kind of point that we brought to you at your last board meeting um so I'm going through these recommendation to align the definition of instructional time and with the states and we feel like the states is different um I think the real thing and and I walked in uh Miss Hixon when you were saying something about lunch so I think that has become the primary Point here one of our task force members said the other night it's hard to be on your phone too much when you're changing classes because you only have a few minutes but lunch is a whole different thing and um so we're asking that you align with the state's definition and um I I know there's another one here I just want to say that Dr Wilson and her and several members of her Department were at our meeting the other night and because we are talking about app parent University as well as some other initiatives that we're doing and they were able to talk to us about what they're doing with digital citizenship and I have to tell you it was so impressive we were all just amazed at what they're doing that is the track you need to be following you need to be praying preparing our students for the world they're going to live in and teach them to be responsible to use their devices responsibly and what it means when they don't I I know you've had a lot of conversation about that just Banning something doesn't teach them that the other thing and this is a point that Dr Z brought up and I think it's such an important point about mental health mental health cannot be just we can't just leave that to six hours a day we can't just leave it to not using your cell phone for six hours and maybe we'll solve our mental health problems we all know it's way beyond that so the big one big takeaway from both of these things well several one different process two we we are doing a lot as a district for mental health we need to do more and three um I think that we need to really recognize that if we're going to prepare our students for the world that they're going to live in not the world that we live in or that we wish they lived in but the world they're actually going to live in then we need to pursue what Dr Wilson's Department's doing with digital citizenship and make sure that our students are prepared thank you thank you okay any other public speaker okay we'll go back to for round two Mrs famon his oh I'm sorry Landon thank you Mrs fam good morning everybody I'm excited to talk about this and I'm choosing today to not even look at my phone so I H do recognize the benefits uh of it and I'd also like to recognize the intent that I I do recognize that the the intent of this policy was to be beneficial for students um and I think we've seen the benefits in class time um Miss ferdig brought up a a point that I was going to make as some board members say I think she was reading my notes um you know I was reading through the this lawsuit that was shared I think I'm using the right uh language there lawsuit that was shared with us and um I think it's important that we teach students about the negatives that are outlined here right it talks a lot about um the negatives of of engagement on on social media but we don't inform students of those things uh and the alternatives to be able to communicate outside of those platforms so uh it's a great point that she brought up about digital citizenship I also don't want my my comments to come across as oh he's a student of course he's opposed to it oh we surveyed students of course they're opposed to it uh because I believe that is not a fair way of looking at this policy so miss hion joined us at our countywide Student Government association meeting last month uh and we had a brief conversation about this and it highlighted a major a major issue uh that many students are feeling with this policy is that there's a major inequity in how it is being implemented and students have felt in my experience and this goes beyond my school experience this goes beyond the survey and the many school visits that we conduct that it feels like this policy was pushed out without one hearing from the student perspective and two recognizing that impact that phones have positively on the student experience uh so before I get to that I'd like to ask a question to our CIO and I'm sorry to throw you on the spot if that's okay through the superintendent yes Mr Davis so in our district what is the current protections or blocking of social media on District networks Dr heer go ahead Mr Davis okay can you hear me okay good morning everyone so um there there are there are certain social media uh networks that are blocked based on uh based on content um and so I can't get into exact details of some of that because some of it traverses in operational security issues uh but I what I will tell you there are some known um you know social media platforms that are not allow allow and so I hesitate to go a little further there but so thank you for that sure and I think it's an important point to bring up because I have been a student here for what feels like a very long time but I I have never been able to get onto a social media app in school it's impossible on our web on our Wi-Fi yes there's vpns there's way to get around it but a lot of that does not work anymore I I will will give it to the district that I think the district has outsmarted some of our students when it comes to being able to get around those restrictions so I do want to recognize that there is not widespread social media access in school the second point that I I want to bring up and it it talked about giving teachers the autonomy and there has been a major concern in my personal School experience as well as what we've hear heard at other schools is that teachers have been told in some cases that they to not use this at all there should be no technology resources used and I recognize that the communication from the district has been otherwise uh but from what I've heard there has been some site-based decisions that are are to the contrary um so I think it's important that if we do communicate this it's it's very clear that there are specific definitions in the policy that outline uh what for what purposes this can be used and I look forward to the conversation about one: one so talking about lunch and the 1 minute and 22 seconds that I have left is there are many benefits to students to be able to have cell phones at lunchtime uh I also recognize the negative side effects but for many students lunch is a time to disconnect especially at the high school level it is a nonstop day and this has been time that students have found to be able to disconnect from that school experience whether that's listening to music whether that's um doing something on their phone or whether that's studying and we've heard in our speak up speakout sessions that many students especially those who are dual enrolled have seen me many negative side effects to their access to technology um as well as their academic performance because lunchtime used to be that time where students could use those resources to get ahead communicate with their dual enrollment teachers and those schedules um to the point that a student shared at one of our speakup out sessions that they are no longer looking to pursue a dual enrollment opportunity because they're concerned that what they what many students used to be able to have the time to use those resources during lunch are gone now and I will I will finish by saying that I think there is a a balance with this policy I don't think any you know you may ask a student and I'll wrap this up I I think you may ask a student are you opposed to cell phones at school and pretty much everybody is going to say we think we should have our phones but I think if you look and talk to a lot of students they have seen the benefits of this policy in class time I don't really think that there are negatives to this policy in class time uh I think there are a lot of benefits there but I think we need to look at lunchtime and creating essentially a balance during the school day to allow students to have access to technology during lunchtime and I'll leave it at that thank you thank you so we'll start round two and I'll just ask my colleagues again when you finish up your round two comments if you would just indicate whether you would be okay with um changing the lunchtime part or not so we get a consensus for um the workshop today Mrs Fam thank you madam chair um I'd like to say um I'm glad that we're here discussing this thoroughly at this Workshop I'm glad that um the parent advisory committee had a meeting where they had an indep discussion that included parents because I do agree I think this policy was really rushed at us and it wasn't fully developed and we weren't given the opportunity to fully absorb um the consequences so with that being said I agree with um Mrs hixon's statements today I agree with Landon Spielberg's statements today I agree with Mary fteg and the other speaker from the parent advisory committee and think that we really feel that we need to rethink think this and if possible even I I I'd like to know whether or not a hybrid policy was even considered or or tossed out we don't have any data on that it's just you can't use your cell phone period at phone I mean you can't use your cell phone at lunch and I agree that lunch is uh a relaxed time it's a social time and um a distressor time and how it's been interpreted is if you're using the phone um that that's going to harm you mentally when in fact it could be helping a student get ahead because they're studying or they're brainstorming with someone a few tables away um saying hey I I I'm afraid I don't know the answer to this question I'm afraid it might be on the test do you know what's your thoughts that kind of thing so I think we have to look at the negatives and the positives um if there's even a a way to create an area where people that want to use their cell their cell phones in order to um study or or to collaborate with others on school um tests or projects coming up I think that should be allowed and um if you want to limit that time to 5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes set an area aside where certain people sit at these tables that are going to be using their phones you know that but they're limited to 10 minutes during that lunch period then that would be it after 10 minutes they have to go back and sit in the other area or um even a standing area but I I do think there has to be some compr compromises that are made um I can't imagine teachers not being able to use cell phones during their lunch period And I don't think we should set that double standard and I don't think it's a realistic standard because in real life you're not going to have um a superior telling you you can't do this and you have to sit there and watch them why they do it in front of you I mean that's just really hypocritical so um and I think we should think of the the social benefits that students get when they're not using their cell phones but again we need to mesh that with the benefits they get from being able to use their cell phones and it's really a personal choice and it might even be a parental choice we can't always be the parents in the room so um I'd like to see some data on that uh again where if we did some kind of hybrid during the Lunch Period um I'm complete agreement that we don't need cell phone usage in the um during times of instruction unless um that's at the teachers's request um and addition I want to go back to the part that we were talking about filming um incidents that are going on and one of this would have even been when the students um had a disruptive um meeting could say I'm not g to say fighting say meeting about cell phone usage and um I want to say there's not always video cameras around specifically we have a lot lot of incidents that happen in bathrooms we don't have video cameras in bathrooms and um because it's outside the camera area I think it's very very important that things get documented and at this point it seems like everything is being assumed that it's for the negative um with being vain videotaped it's for the purposes for social media or for bullying and that's not true I think we have to weigh this and I'm going to give you two examples that immediately came to my mind um one of the students was being beat up in a bathroom room by several girls and her friend couldn't get involved couldn't get out because they were blocked the doorway was blocked but she had the common sense to videotape and finally when this girl Broke Free that was getting beat up the only way she could get out of that bathroom was to swing and hit these other girls and run and run so therefore her hitting them was a sculp ter she had no choice but to defend to remove herself from an area where she was being harmed so in that case that video was very valuable another case there was a girl that was cons um was alleged that she um impacted with an SIU investigator in the area of this groin there was no cameras on that platform when that happened she was charged criminally she had to fight the criminal charges a video surfaced showing that she never made impact with that man she never touched him he never grw roped his Gro groin area he never put his hands across his his waist went down or anything that video was a sculpter but for that but for that that girl may have had criminal charges for the rest of her life so I say I am definitely in favor of if the motivation is good that there should be some kind of exception and I'm going to just ask um um Jody right now whether or not is there any ception where student is allowed to take videos and they they come forth with them they they show them to their parents and say look what happened and or they bring them forward to to um the administration where they said thank you very much because it's no longer he said she said you're watching in real time what happened Dr heer I'll answer that question um Dr Washington as I said before it's a thin line of course if a student um is In Harm's Way or if a friend is with a student they're In Harm's Way and they're using a cell phone to document something to make sure appropriate consequences or to get the right help absolutely we'll collect that information and do what we need to do to uh address that situation or administer the right consequences but we always a on the side of caution um with that and not saying hey openly hey tick your cell phones if something happens record it because as a pass administrator many of these staff members are pass administrators we would tell you over and over again that there may be a small percentage of of of good good in those in in those events uh but often times folks are just pulling out cell phones to record something to go post it and do something to fairies with it but absolutely if something bad is going on and we have video evidence from a student we utilize that evidence accordingly thank you Dr he and I appreciate that we are going to look at the motivation behind it because it's not the taking of the video it's what they do with it afterwards R really question so um the harm is not in taking it it's what results from that is there any language can you point to um any language where it says that in this policy cuz I'm not aware of that Dr heer I ask um Dr Washington if there's any language in the policy so the language in the policy if you go to slide four that is the language around the wireless communication devices and in bullet number four it does talk about the rule violation occurring however if they use um their video to properly report an incident that um compromises the safety wellbeing of Staff they wouldn't be subjected to additional consequences for inciting a disturbance major disruption on campus things like that so thank you I I'm just glad that you clarified it's okay to take the video it's what you do with it afterwards thank you so I just want to make sure that it's clear that it is a cell phone violation according to the current policy it's a cell phone violation they're not subject to additional disciplinary action if it results in for example there have been incidents where there's video or things posted on social media um and it results in a a lockdown of a campus the next day while an investigation takes place to see you know there's going to there's rumor there's going to be a a large fight uh you know whatever word you want to use to call it and they go on um a secure or a lockdown to investigate The credibility of that um and if that student takes a video of it shares um in that way they won't be subject to a consequence of a major disruption on campus um but if they are filming a fight and they share that fight on social media and it results in another fight or it is used in a bullying investigation they are subject to the the rules that are associated with that um depending on again how it's used but using their phone during school hours for whatever reason under the current rule does violate the cell phone rule thank you for clarifying that then I do think there should be an exception I do and we're not talking about again posting it on social media what we're talking about documenting something that's a policy break a Breaking of a policy can be a teacher or a student and or a crime in effect and using that evidence to either show proof of guilt or innocence so I think there definitely should be exception for that and for that reason I would not be voting for this policy until that change would be documented in there thank you well Mrs fam so the policy already is in place we're just discussing today being able to change it so the question um are you still a yes for changing the policy about using it at lunchtime I would um no no not until not until this was incorporated because I think too many things happen and I think it's horrible that um parents have to defend get an attorney or um someone gets a a charge for a cell phone violation when they're doing it to protect themselves I can't go along with that I won't agree to that thank you chair before you go to the next could could I just uh suggest also that we ask about whether or not uh board members think that bringing the data collection plan to the next Workshop would make sense okay um sure let me add that to the list here data collection okay so Mrs fam are you a yes or a no on um bringing a data collection plan to the next board Workshop no I'm not against that okay so you're a yes Mrs Leonardi thank you um first I wanted to ask you know this lawsuit was shared with us um I don't know that it's been shared with members of the audience um or if it will be shared online but could someone provide some context for for why this lawsuit was shared with us Dr Hepper um go ahead Miss Jo Adams um through the chair um just in case that um the results of the motion to dismiss um had any impact on your comments with regards to cell phone usage okay so I will echo my frustration with getting information the day of um if this you know obviously it pertains to this Workshop uh it's useful information it should be available to the public I'm very frustrated with getting information on the day of as opposed to it being a part of the packet and please excuse me Miss leard I had just received this order from the court and so I I I wanted to provide that to you rather than not provide it to you so I lit just received it minutes before a lot of last minutes stuff happening today I guess um I had the opportunity to speak with student leaders at Fort Lauderdale High School um and and first I want to acknowledge that the public speakers and our student advisers who who shared some really important guidance um I well let me back up I understand the frustration around implementation and the way the board went about collecting community feedback and I think those concerns are valid and I also don't think we should let the perfect get in the way of the good and I think that we are trying to address such a big and wide ranging problem and I think it's something that we have a responsibility to solve and I think in the process of of doing that it's going to be messy and it's not going to be perfect um so you know it pains me to disagree with you know again some people that I I really respect and I think are are the the concerns that have been raised are valid but I'm coming from a place of not of control or or trying to um go back to outdated methods um but really in I'm coming from a place of data and what that D data suggests is best for students um so I'll I'll you know get to the question Miss Hixon um I do support continuing with the lunchtime restriction and there there are a variety of reasons why and then I also want to speak to how we can improve the implementation and improve our community's involvement in how we move forward um so the reason I support continuing with the the Restriction during lunch is that what I heard and again I think maybe some of the issue is that we're talking a lot in anecdotes and not in in data today um we do have some but you know we're all coming to this with different stories of what we've seen at schools um and that is frustrating to me but I I have a solution for that down the line but in my my experience at Fort Lauderdale High School uh the superintendent and I got to visit the students said because they are not allowed to use their cell phones during lunch and during Hall passing they forget about their phones data also suggests that being able to refocus from using your phone takes about 20 minutes so so I think that if we allow the cell phone use during lunch it kind of you know negates the impact of H having the Restriction in the first place um again that's anecdotal so I I I understand again the frustration around the the Restriction I get that um the other piece of this and I think Dr Zan spoke to this you know cell phones are designed to be addictive and we have conversations about you know we me we we want to make sure that students are engaging in in fun activities during lunch and I have some questions about that but when they have something that is designed by lots of very smart people to be addictive when when they have a choice between that and you know engaging in different school activities the odds are against engaging in those activities um so I I would like to see a few things um I support the the data collection plan um as a part of that plan I would like to see input from law enforcement um I would like to see input uh data on academics in fights um I would also like to see teachers and principles at the table to talk about the implementation um because again anecdotal evidence is useful to some extent but it's not complete um and I think that and I've suggested this from the very beginning I would really like us to see to I would really like to see us form some sort of work group with parents with staff with students to guide where we go with this you know Landon suggested about education educating students about the the harms of social media and addiction to our devices I think is very very important Miss G has raised some very serious concerns from parents um for months now and I think that information is use ful um so you know again I I I would like to see us do a work group I support the Restriction during lunch I think it's too early to make um a decision about this school year to go back on on the policy um and into one last piece I would like to know what direction has been given to staff about monitoring cell phone use during lunch because again we're hearing a lot of stories I'm not I'm not hearing you know anything from staff about this um and I would also like to know what initiatives have we engaged in to help with the implementation during lunch and I would also like to know what so Landon mentioned um you know some site-based decisions that are being made to teachers so I would also like to understand that piece because I know that the district has put out information why why are we hearing why are we having different site based decisions why are people making decisions based on policy at different sites when the board and the district have made these decisions so I know that's a lot I just asked um yeah Dr heer do you have any questions for no I'm just writing down all the things uh M Leonard mentioned um we can bring a lot of that stuff back in in in uh followup and then um start crafting some of the other work groups that you discussed um too so we'll be ready for that's the consensus about bringing a forgot Dr Zan um coined the term it was a data plan you said data plan we'll bring that back um at the next Workshop or I'll do you better we'll send that to you before the next Workshop to to the board okay so miss Leonardi are you a yes on the data collection plan Dr holess thank you madam chair so um again my my concern here is um lack of substantive data to suggest that restricting cell phone use during lunchtime um improve students mental well-being or their learning outcome and so on and so forth we do not have that data we do not have that information and so we could ask the question two ways um if we restrict cell phon during lunchtime is it beneficial to students as well as is it not beneficial to students could it actually restrict in it during lunchtime could it actually result in what we're trying to avoid in the first place and so um you know functionality even with children is highly dependent on use of technology to some degree um um we have evolved in a society that is collectively technology dependent and I would assert that 100% restriction of the use of cell phones um could actually be counterproductive to our students um we've heard from parents by the survey that we looked at and from students and and our student adviser Landon here today also um eloquently expressed the the concerns that exist um and I think when we look at the data we have majority of students obviously that believes restriction during lunchtime is counterproductive and we also have over 50% of parents it appears based on the disaggregated data that actually feels the same so if we don't have any sort of research or substantive information to look at to determine that restriction during lunchtime is beneficial why are doing it um and so it is it is concerning and I uh board member hick and I am on the side of um based upon the information that we currently have that we should not restrict it during lunchtime but at the same time I would like for the superintendent to direct his staff to provide additional data points and research um that would support our position today as well if we should decide on not restricting cell phones during lunchtime um it was mentioned here um that um uh uh The District staff may be um taken away from essential work that they have to do in running a cafeteria during lunchtime in fact I remember when I had to do that when I was in the lead program and it is a lot of work to supervise four 500 800 kids in a lunchroom and then at the same time you have this added factor that we don't know if it's beneficial um and I'm also in agreement with um board member Zan's um uh data um you know um suggestion as well the other point that I'd like to make before I end is that it's regarding during students using cell phones um during study hall or um during any other class period where they don't have access to a computer because our goal Dr heurn as you mentioned is to make sure every student has access to a a computer as a board member we may my understanding is that we're not 100% there so if a study hall period does not provide a student a computer to every student EV um then those students should be allowed to use their cell phone for instructional purposes until a computer is provided in addition to that if a classroom is requiring that an assignment be completed on a computer and there's not enough computers in that classroom to where some of those students do not have access or they have to share that sort of interfere with their ability to effectively complete the assignment then there should be some latitude given to those students to use their cell phones for instructional purposes until a computer is provided to every child so if we're not there 100% then we should have some sort of uh latitude given and this awareness is brought to our school um staff that they should be accommodating in this regards rather than be completely restrictive um because they may have their own um you know classroom rules as far as cell phone and trying to abide by the policy so those are my concerns Dr heurn and if if you could um proceed in ensuring that students have full access even if there's not a computer available to technology to get their work done Dr heer yes we'll have the team work on that and continue to provide guidance to teachers so just to remember that this is legislation and teachers have autonomy with that legislation um as they deem fit based on a circumstance in the classroom but we'll Pro continue to provide guidance and also work with schools because now we do have detailed inventory for for um most of our schools now about how many laptops they have on their campus that they may not be aware of so we can make sure they're distributed appropriately right and I just want to read itate really quick and then I'm finished so actually my real major concern because I've heard it multiple times is our study hall students if there's not enough computer in there no study hall teacher or or instructional staff should limit a student from using a cell phone uh to um complete their instructional task given because that's the purpose of the study hall and if we don't have the technology available to give to everyone we cannot have a study hall teacher having a a classroom guideline that no cell phones are allowed if we're not providing access to what they need um because some study halls may have 50 60 students in there and there's only 30 computers so I'm just concerned that a staff have a guideline that they're following class specific and then not have not providing the required tools for the students who are there to to complete their assignment so I believe if there's not enough computers in a study hall class those students without a computer should be afforded the opportunity to use their cell phones to get their work done not it thank you and and I'll go because Dr um Seaman wanteded to go last and I'll ask for again online so I'll just be quick I believe that we should um adjust our policy to allow for students to use it at lunchtime I agree with Mrs fam it's hypocritical for us to allow teacher to use it at lunchtime um security can use it and I know staff is different than students but we're not teaching we're not modeling what we're asking for so I would um I would like to ask us to look at the policy and allow the students to use just at lunch not at class time U Mr Austin do you want to weigh in on oh and I'm a yes for data collection Mr Altin um can you weigh in on use for lunchtime and data collection okay Mr fogan holy yes open it of course wants come back to a board Workshop um didn't want to add really quick I had the opportunity to do walk schools earlier this week and when I got to visit the high school there at John Leonard you're talking about his thousands of kids I had the opportunity to see a lunch time from the lunch break and to see most of the I didn't see a cell phone the entire time and to see how kids were together and kids were in groups socializing talking um it was really refreshing to see and really awesome to see and comparing it to our lunch breaks when now even though we have this P place you see a lot of our kids with their head down by themselves on their cell phones I think it makes a big difference so superintendent I think it would be helpful if you can chime in at least PM be what they were doing there and how that ination happened and also even in the Middle School level I know that they have the lock bags and seeing how the amount of D's and Fs that they had in those schools dropped drastic once they took cell phones away those are things that we should be thinking about and type of data that I would want to see in a future Workshop but of course that's for the next board so Dr heer yes um as I said before um all of these things happen over time it did not happen in three months 6 months um Palm Beach County and their their cell phone rules are a little bit different than ours but you have some schools that have implemented things over time over multiple years and you see it in culture now um as I said before many of our students have had cell phones since birth since they were Toddlers and the expectations that we're going to just have a hard stop um is not reality it takes time and so that's that's that's what you saw at John I Leonard that is the largest High School in Palm Beach in in Palm Beach County and it took a lot of time um for them to get to that point same with some of the middle schools it took a lot of time they established culture they kept repeating it uh um you know implementing it in a way that's that's um um not affecting students negatively and emotionally because we know some of our kids are very emotional attached to their devices and over time you see the fruits of some of that of some of that labor same with Orange County um it literally took them over a year to get where they are with their with their cell phone implementation too so that's that it's a difficult situation for students it's a difficult task for administrators too to continue to chop at that tree um day after day but it takes time to get there thank you Mrs rert I'm here um I am bring to a workshop so here's well here's the two questions um use at lunchtime to adjust the policy to allow cell phone use at lunchtime and data collection to bring back a data collection plan those are the two questions yes Lun and thank you Mr Austin keep trying okay um before I turn it over to Mr Dr Zan for the last one I would just say I would hope that if we bless you we allowed students the opportunity to use their cell phone but provided different things at lunchtime they would make the choice not to use their cell phones as opposed to us guiding it if there are good enough activity listen I mean if there's something that's going on and it's engaging to them they would maybe they use their phone for the as Mrs fam said although I wouldn't want to put that in policy because implementing that would be a nightmare but you know the first couple minutes to to say whatever they needed to say to their parents and then run and go and do the activity that's being provided um I just think I still am we're kind of split here about it so I just think the compromise is necessary all right Dr Zeman thank you very much and um I want to start by saying that I am very open to making this policy better um I'm really concerned though about The credibility of this board the timing of this change suggests around January or February we might change the policy that we just started this year which means we're going to go out to the community that we shook rattled and rolled and said we're going to do something different we're going to put academics mental health Safety and Security our three pillars of our strategic plan we're going to set them aside and we're going to not do an implementation and fix enfor ment and get to the one-on-one laptop policy all part of a a culture change as our superintendent is talking about and we're going to we're going to fail to have any conviction about our own votes on something and we're going to flip-flop on something as dramatic uh as as lunchtime you want some data let me give you some data Miss Leonardi gave you some factual data it takes 20 minutes to get off a cell phone and readjust your focus on something else so do you want to be the teacher after lunch hour and spend 20 minutes trying to get your attention or you want to be the teacher that told me that for the first time in 10 years with 26 students she saw 52 eyeballs during a lecture for the first time in 10 years she saw every student listening to her because there were no cell phones in their pockets or on their desks you want some more data here you go Dr holess ready 25,600 of our parents said that our students learning experiences has either not changed or got better and 5,000 said it got worse so are we going to jump up and down through hoops for 5,000 out of or the 25,000 that said this is either better or cause no harm like we can only have one policy and we got to be careful about uh a vocal minority and I want to bring out some more data you want hard data 2900 of our staff said that they did not want cell phones to be open during lunchtime and 2 said they were open they disagreed with taking it away so 60% of our staff also want it taken away from lunch that's data that's not conjecture we don't know the outcome in Broward County but the timing of A change is really important and The credibility of this board is at stake because we decided to do it another real big Point Broward County I think has choice in where kids go to school is that correct chair Dr heurn yes that's correct terrific Westminster Academy cell phone ban Franklin Academy Bell tobell restriction Pine Crest cell phone ban Renaissance Charter cell phone ban Somerset Academy cell phone ban Avant Guard Academy cell phone ban Coral strings Charter School cell phone ban North Broward prep cell phone ban what do they know that we don't know and are they willing to flip-flop in the middle of a school year and not just Implement and get it better over the course of 10 months but halfway through just trying to get it right to change so dramatically a policy and do it by the way these schools over the last 5 years have all gone toward more restrictive policies they tried it they gathered data and they didn't go backwards uh they went forward so I'm very surprised that we're here I have a middle school daughter at her high school it's 100% enforced excuse me at her Middle School 100% Force you go to lunch there is not a cell phone in the cafeteria which is massive by the way we've learned from the community that this policy is not 100% enforced Dr heurn if you had to choose between 100% enforcement of this so we actually try the policy that this board and this staff has has advocated if you had a choice between 100% enforcement as soon as possible or changing the policy midyear which would you choose Dr he enforcement and what is your plan for enforcement going forward Dr he um it's obvious that every everybody knows the policy now um as we reflect on the data and so we're continuously working towards working with our principles um work with our teachers and other stakeholders in the schools to start really enforcing this but ensuring that we're not punishing kids to the point of being home for a cell phone so we'll get there and Dr heurn what policy do you support about cell phone use and brard County schools for the balance of this year I support um The Stance the board took this summer terrific and just to be clear we have a policy with massive exceptions we have 14,000 employees that can give kids the right to use their cell phone we are complying with state law but state law is a minimum standard it does not tell 67 districts what to do it just says you got to do these things right we have lots of exceptions we give lots of permissions we even have uh airplan plane mode for people to get it at best uh we can change a policy that we haven't fully implemented or we can make sure the implementation including enforcement is done even better we can take the gradual steps this year to try and see uh how well we can do this in terms of implementing and again implementing is hard change is not um and then uh based on next Workshop we can see what the data plan looks like and we can uh learn more about this in Broward County but there is substantial data from the survey from research from Jonathan Height's books from all all kinds of studies that cell phones don't just correlate with mental health problems they cause mental health problems and the addiction that's created not just through social media but through games that these kids play uh is very real and we have to stand uh in alignment with our law suit against these firms saying that what they're doing has caused us harm I went to Dallas last week to the council great City Schools Broward county is the Envy of the other 78 districts I had dozens of school board members and dozens of superintendent say we love what you did about cell phones I can't wait to do it in Dallas in Denver uh I'm sure that he doesn't mind this superintendent carvalo is implementing this exact same policy midyear in LA because of what Brower did here and he's so hopeful about uh the positive benefits that come with that we have choices in Broward schools the the private schools and the charters that I read to you have already gotten a jump on in front of us I don't think Broward County uh given the survey responses and the evidence that we have would suggest such a dramatic and Draconian change is doing something like this mid year again it's in policy so changing policy takes a significant amount of time we're voting today whether we want to bring it back to a workshop I I don't want to confuse the community and think that I would be willing to change this this year I'm not I want to try it for the year superintendent wants to try it for a year I want to be serious about Gathering data though so that when we come back here and discuss this we're not talking about uh you know a study done in Denver we're talking about what was the outcome based data here superintendent I'm very uh uh glad about the movement toward enforcement I'm overwhelmed with the one toone laptop policy uh we found some things as a result of this policy that we need to change right away um and I'm just o overwhelmingly uh impressed with the senior staff and the superintendent's response to these things see a problem fix it so I appreciate that time on this but again I'm happy to change this long term I want to try it this year I want to measure measure measure I want to make sure what we're doing really works and if it helps academics as the students and teachers and staff told us it should or would if it improves mental health in any kind of tangible way and if we improve security by keeping people's Focus we tell kids all the time to see something say something right how much can you see when you're doing this with the QR codes that's how it okay when you had your turn guys come on let's play by the rules uh QR code's a legitimate issue we didn't talk about it I get it but but the bigger issue I really believe is if your head's down you're not going to see something fall out of a kid's backpack you're not going to see somebody acting in a way that's different that should prompt you to say look we got to figure out uh what's going on over there if we believe in see something say something we got to give the kids a chance to see something which is what we did this summer um and I want to stand by that conviction I want to try it all year and then we can come back based on real outcome data and decide are there ways to change this so as Dr he points out we go through this change in a in a with a with a periodicity that makes sense and in this case it's such a big policy I think we have to wait out the year um and see what that data is and make things better thank you very much thank you Landon we'll finish up with you thank you um and and seeing I'd like to first start by saying that uh many other schools in our district that are not Broward County Public Schools have adopted cell phone banss with exceptions of lunch so I just like that to be um put out there uh I appreciate the conversation that we had today um I think it's important we had we talked a lot and I incredibly respect Dr heer's comments and I appreciate them about uh the time it takes to implement a policy like this and I I don't want it to be lost that our staff have done a lot of work um don't even get me started on how amazing Dr Washington is because we'll be here all day but we do have amazing staff that have implemented this policy so I appreciate it but I'd like to say that the comment was made about taking a lot of time to implement this policy and i' just like to say that I don't agree with the fact that as time goes on the policy is just magically going to start working so I think we need to do something and I accept the challenge to work with our countywide student government organization to find initiatives that we can do to re-engage our students because it felt like we gave this policy and we said we're not going to have cell phones and then we only gave that policy and we didn't really do anything to re-engage students Beyond saying you don't have a cell phone anymore so I think there's an additional layer of support that could be done to be able to help our students engage because I think if we provide those opportunities students will take them uh rather than just saying here's a policy change we hope you you know come along with it you know so I I appreciate the conversation and I I look forward to being able to find a a good way to implement this in the future thank you thank you Landon I'll just jump on that and then Dr Hess would like to add a brief part to it and then we're going to take a little break so we can all get ready for lunch um so I've been to a number of schools and always been interested they have a pingpong table at lunch they have um spoken word at lunch they have they so that was the point I was trying to make there are activities now in some of the schools that students engage them where they're not trying to pull out their phone and they can either watch it or they're participating in it so I appreciate you bringing that up and would say to the superintendent you know look at some of those schools and what the principes and staff have already put into they they kind of have a schedule on Mondays they do this on Tuesdays they do that and they give the students kind of the opportunity chess we've talked about Chess right having chests available so that the students could work on it um so I would just head on um add that on to what Landon said Dr holness thank you um Madam chair so um I just like to mention that um the changes to this policy well I'll just ask a question Dr heurn changes made to this policy we as a board can decide that the implementation will be 2025 2026 school year Dr heer Miss Washington the suggestion if they make suggestions now um is that applicable it can it be applicable to 2526 so I'm looking at my my legal counterpart over here that helps me with this code of conduct this pra I think you would have to engage in the rule making process okay okay so um I just also want to mention that excessive use of cellphone and I concur Dr Zeman that there are many studies that suggest that excessive use of cell phones uh can result in several negative impact on students and their learning and their mental health and so on but excessive use of cell phone is different than no use of cell phone and we cannot confuse the two uh no use of cell phone which there are uh not adequate studies available it appears in determining the impact on students well-being and learning outcome with absolutely no use so I am not um against excessive use of cell phones and I don't think anyone here is um the question that is in play is use of cell phones during Lun time um I would also mention that changes to new policies in my opinion will evolve into great policies but if we're reluctant to change policies then we're accepting possibly mediocre policies so there should not be in my opinion reluctance to look at change I think as policies evolve they become better and so that is what we're trying to do um now the data that's presented before us suggests and I would concur again Dr Zan that the staff supports restricting cell phones during um lunch hour however the data that's presented to us today also suggests that majority of parents and students do not support restricting cell phones during lunch hour so I'm looking at what's factually here what's presented to me um and so I did make a comment that we get more data uh more data than what we have done in the our survey because I think substantive data will allow us to make more in better and informed decision so there is no data that suggest restricting cell phones or substantive relevant data that would suggest restricting cell phones during lunch hour is beneficial or not we don't have it um but what I do have is our survey from our parents in this District in Broward County that says that we would prefer that it's not restricted during lunch hour we also have it from the students perspective now I'll just make a concluding comment I am totally in agreement that excessive use of cell phones supported by studies Dr Zan as you mentioned is counterproductive to students well-being but no use of cell phones uh there's no studies that would suggest that that is beneficial and we have data to suggest that parents would prefer their children to have access we've had many uh positive benefits suggested by London and some of the board members to have cell phone use during the lunch hour uh so I just want to clarify the difference because this board member supports not using cell phones accessibly during instructional time and all of that the question in plays should they use it or not during lunch hour and what's the impact of that thank you thank you so um Dr heern the takeaway I think is that everyone agrees that we should have a data collection plan that's shared with us whether it's through a workshop or that you're sending it to us and there are three board members who said yes to changing the policy for lunch and four that said no so you take that um as you wish with two board members not weighing in on that um and that I think concludes this part of the workshop for today so thank you we're going to take a 5 minute recess e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e thank you and welcome back the next item is corrective action policy and procedures I will now turn it over to staff for a brief presentation thank you Miss hon turn it over to Mr ASO and Mr Lozano good afternoon school board members my name is David azero Chief people officer with me is Ernie Lozano he's currently the task assigned chief of Safety and Security as well as the executive director over Professional Standards and Labor Relations so we're going to talk a little bit about corrective actions today talk about policy 4.9 and the procedures that we currently have in place to um work with our employees so as soon as they grab that up there their purpose today is to is to present this information uh to the board to the community to the employees to let them know uh information regarding policy 4.9 and our procedures that are currently in place on 4.9 uh I handed out a copy of it so you all have a copy of 4.9 in front of you it's been placed online as well attached to the agenda item so just without reading through the entire policy just a couple of highlights the policy was last revised in 2018 I believe it's currently in the queue to be revised uh there's been some Department name changes since then as well as titles such as my title uh have been changed so we're looking at revamping that up a little bit so it's a good time to look at it and to get feedback on any revisions that may need to be put in place but 4.9 it's designed to uh change employees job performance conduct and attendance designed to improve those behaviors uh it is also uh the intent of the board that once we're implementing corrective action we're being fair and Equitable to all of our employees while holding them accountable to their job responsibilities uh and it's also worth noting that if there is conflict language within 4.9 and one of our collective bargaining agreements the collective bargaining agreement does prevail that's important to know hasn't come up much since I've been here but it is a possibility so in policy 4.9 a couple of sections that we're going to highlight on page two and three list our categories of offenses and outcomes so category a the first one you can read through those those the outcome would be dismissal category B we're going to spend some more time on today um what this section does is it gives the Professional Standards committee which we'll talk about later this is their their Matrix these are their guidelines that they use when they're going to recommend a uh a penalty for one of the offenses that an employee may may do um the policy is also contained circumstances that this committee considers when they're determining that appropriate penalty within the range so you'll see in the policy the range is pretty if you can see that hopefully you can see it on online as well so policy 4.9 the outcome for an item in section B the first one for instance committing a criminal act related to Performance of duties or continued Fitness for office if it's a felony the range in the policy just says suspension to dismissal but how long is that suspension is what we started looking at so what are we added some suggested outcomes these are not in policy policy these are just suggestions here so for instance for that first one of being a felony it could be a 10-day suspension to dismissal um later on letter D for instance driving Under the Influence within the scope of employment had just suspension to dismissal our suggested outcome could be a 10-day suspension to dismissal and so on the next two pages you'll see there's 18 total offenses in category B that have a broad range of outcomes that we've kind of suggested a little narrow narrower scope and we're curious to hear your feedback on that uh this the suggested outcomes are based on prior cases that we've done in Professional Standards um SIU and employee relations so we've taken all of those consequences all the Prof all the things that that have been given out to employees and kind of helped us to to mold this suggested outcome and that is section I'm sorry page five and six and so we're curious to hear your feedback on that later however um I want to switch over to Mr Lozano he's going to talk about the current makeup of the Professional Standards Department good morning Ernie Lozano executive director Professional Standards Labor Relations Chief Aero I feel like we got warped into I'm going to go back to my teenage years a Schoolhouse Rock video right I'm sure we remember conjunction Junction what's your function um so instead of how a bill becomes a law we're going to look at today how a discipline item ends up on a Schoolboard agenda so I'm excited to take you through the process of how a discipl a recommendation for discipline ends up on the school board agenda so this board did work we restructured last year and we put all investigations into one Department the Professional Standards department so we just wanted to remind the board of that structure of who at the district level particip iates in investigations so under me sits the director of Professional Standards under the director of Professional Standards we have the manager of Professional Standards and the sergeant one of our sergeants Jeff LaVine serves as our Sergeant who handles the investigative side of Investigations and then under both of them we have three HR Specialists and we have six in investigators from Broward school's police so how do we utilize this phenomenal team of individuals on page eight of the PowerPoint you can see the roles the employee plays throughout the process the role the site based administrator plays throughout the process and the role of the Professional Standards team plays throughout the process so slide eight really focuses on when it's a site based action ction and sometimes we think of site based as school-based but remember we do a lot of consequenc of employees in transportation Safety and Security so it's not just school-based um discipline it's it's site based so if you turn to page nine this shows you the flowchart that I'm going to take you through on how a recommendation for discipline ends up on a board agenda so everything starts now through a case intake there's an alleged um allegation of misconduct on an employee every allegation of misconduct now comes to the director of Professional Standards she immediately convenes the team of herself the sergeant and the manager and they begin to work through the process of can this situation be handled by a sight supervisor or is the allegation egregious enough where we need to involve a one of our bar school police investigators so they work through that process if they can't come to consensus they'll bring in Chief azero and myself to assist in that conversation on certain inst instances so if you look at the top of the slide where you see in yellow for the site based action um you can see it starts those are non-criminal um the work is done at the site level you can see throughout that process the every employee does receive due process in that process even when it's a site-based investigation and then after that due process meeting the site based supervisor will make a decision on what to recommend to the school board for discipline at this time we do not bring letters of reprimand to the school board so when we bring discipline to the school board it's a suspension or hire so if the case goes to one of our private inv our private investigators our person our investigators um it starts with we assign it to one of our six detectives they have 84 days by policy to finalize the investigation once that investigation is finalized their report is reviewed by both Sergeant LaVine and director Manzo and they provide edits and recommendations then the report is finalized again it is it is approved by both the director and the sergeant and then after it is approved and finalized there is a PSC meeting this is the meeting where the employee and their union representative if they choose can come and they have 20 minutes to present their case have their opportunity to um have have their considerations heard so who is currently on PSC our our PSC committee currently has three principal supervisors it has our manager of Professional Standards it has the director of risk management it has a director of transportation and it has the director of safety security operations and also um we have a representative of our legal team that also serves in that PSC meeting so after that meeting the PSC team makes a recommendation and then it moves to the post PSC meeting where Chief azero and myself Sergeant LaVine Charlene Manza we review um the recommendation and the documentation provided by the PSC committee and then we sign off on it and then after we sign off on it there is a pre-disciplinary meeting where the employee again has their right to hear the recommended discipline and present any information they would like to provide then after that um pre-disciplinary meeting after that pre-disciplinary meeting the employee is notified of the discipline recommendation within 10 days and then after that process that's when you will see it end up on a board agenda so so I think it's important to understand understand that there is a clear process for how a discipline infraction for an employee ends up on a board agenda it's not an arbitrary arbitrarily made decision by one individual it follows the workflow and processes outlined in the corrective action policy perfect thank you m Lozano on the page right after that you'll see some abbreviations that were used through throughout uh those flowcharts but going to page 11 now on the uh presentation so it's important to reiterate what Mr Lozano said about there there's several layers of due process throughout the corrective action workflow uh once again before something is placed on a board agenda it's gone through several layers of uh compliance due process listening to the employee their representation and putting it all together before it's presented to the board so once an item does come to the board on items H2 and H4 before those items that are that you'll see on there have been completed investigations they've been through due process they've been through compliance issues is that my mic oh no I'm sorry um the employee has received due process throughout the process they have been told of their right to appeal or to grieve what the outcome is after the board action uh and some of these on those items may also have stipulated agreements these are where the employee has accepted the discipline and has Chen not to appeal or not to grieve it so that's what you'll see on H2 and H4 on the C items these are our our certificated employees our our teachers principes uh this is the board is approving to send a discipline item to the Department of administrative hearings or they're voting to approve the final order that comes back from DOA there also may be settlement agreements on those C items that have a financial impact that have gone through that DOA process and then finally um just wanted to talk to you about the the employees right to appeal in policy 4015 which we attached to this item is for nonunion members and then also in the collective bargaining agreements has a grievance procedure throughout each one four steps three steps five steps so the employees are they they know what this process is while they're going through it they have the ability to grieve um or to appeal what the final outcome is what the final board approval is um before the final action is taken so we just wanted to reiterate that all of the items that are presented to the school board follow policy 4.9 they follow our procedures um employees have to Due Process everything should be laid out and be ready to go before we bring it to the board and with that thank you thank you are there any public comments on this item no public comment okay thank you board member discussion Dr holness thank you madam chair so um uh and thank you so much uh Mr Lozano and um Mr azero um I am so happy to see that we are providing some sort of a suggested guideline um so that way we can make sure that when we are given discipline that it is Equitable across the board it's not um subjective in any way we have some sort of a Direction so I am happy to see this and thank you so much for the work that you both put into this so I have a couple of questions um you indicated that um the out the suggestions were based on past incidents uh could you clarify that these are incidents that occur in brow County Schools or is this collectively outside of the school district Dr heer Mr AO y through the chair this from our County Schools okay so I do appreciate that um I would also prefer and love to see um that we um have the suggested outcome based upon uh what we've seen in other large school districts of similar size similar demographics and so on to make sure that we are consistent um with school districts Across the Nation that would mirror Broward County School District so um if you could take a look at that and see if we need to revise some of the suggested outcome um and not just based upon incidents that occur here I think consistency with school districts that are similar would lend itself to probably um um discipline actions that may be um more reflective and Equitable across um as they're doing in other large districts so that's what I would suggest um also on page five I just need to clarify um driving under the influence and there is reprimand to two-day suspension uh as the suggested outcome and then you also have alcohol related offenses reprimand 5day suspension um so when we when you mention driving Under the Influence under the influence of what Dr heer Mr Azel it could be alcohol or any controlled substance okay so that in itself could create some confusion here right because on item e it says alcohol related offenses and then driving Under the Influence if it is alcohol related would that fall under item e or would that fall under item F because it would result in a different degree of punishment correct I would say the the DUI would be for me the alcohol related offense and letter D driving Under the Influence within the scope or work related or happened on on their workclock where the DUI may not be might be on the weekend or things like that so I think that's the difference but that's part of the clarification we need to kind of clean up in in policy 4.9 okay so um driving Under the Influence obviously could include drugs alcohol any anything of that sort so um I would for alcohol related offenses I would think if someone is driving Under the Influence with using alcohol then that should be under item e um especially if it is if it happens um and when you say driving under the influence you mean outside of school property or there I believe that's the intent because letter D says driving DUI within the scope of employment and then letter F is just driving Under the Influence so I think that's that's where they're spelled out differently okay so so letter D would be applicable to anyone who are driving within uh School District boundaries correct while they're while under under while they're working while they're working okay and then F could be they're not working but that could also include driving on school property or in public I'm just trying to get clarification yeah I think the DUI could be off work so if they're arrested for a DUI and then we you know that we have their fingerprint so we get a hit through okay so if someone is off work and they're they're driving under the influence and they're going to an event at a school property but they are an employee and they're off work um I see what you're asking so they're going to a a football game at night so they're not on the clock but they show up and get a DI that's that's if you go back to letter C in 4.9 that's one of those circumstances that that we need to take into consideration so there's a lot there's a list of 20 different considerations that we look at to determine what the penalty will be within that penalty range so again was it you know on school property was it driving there was what was the event I mean there's a lot of information that we have to look at when we determine what the penalty would be okay so I would just suggest that um you know that that is looked into a little bit more to make sure that it is very clear as far as alcohol related offenses and um whether or not it's on school property on school time or off school time and so on and so forth right got it all right that's it thank you Dr Zeman thanks so much chair um I'm curious chair do you know how long on average it takes to do the process that shown on slide nine Dr heer Mr azero thato so again we we are currently collecting that data by policy they have 84 days but I can tell you that's one of our um guard rails is to improve the number of days it takes to complete investigations so we are currently working on ensuring that we are as expedient as we can be in conducting those investigations uh chair I wonder um if the superintendent thinks we ought to look hard at this process map um in terms of does each step uh really represent a value ad um can there be either guidelines for the length of time for each step so people can understand kind of what the expectation is and my my concern is we get these things six to 12 months after the incident that I mean that is my working number I I didn't go back and do the research on that I apologize for not knowing that number but to It's always important to have a nice um reasonable range associated with offenses but it's also true the faster you apply the penalty the more impact that it has and the more clarity it gives to other people oh my word did you hear about the teacher at South Brower that did such and such they got a 10day suspension if it happened last year or nine months ago um I love the due process steps I love giving people a chance to uh share new information and the like but to the extent that a process map can be actually assessed to see if do we really need all of these steps um and is there a way uh to get more I'm sorry chair that was a question and I'm I turned it into an essay I apologize for that but would it would it make sense for the superintendent uh would he consider like looking at this to see if there's a way to um provide either fewer steps or some kind of timestamp on the steps so that we might get these things faster as a board go ahead Mr Lo so we just transitioned you know to having everything in one department and I think one of the biggest posit positives is when you have the director the sergeant and the manager sit together we're putting we're handling a lot of Investigations through the site base process that aren't NE where we don't necessarily need an investigator and that process is completed much more efficient and timely than the process that um when we go through an investigator and it may take six to 12 months no no and again I'm not trying to impose or nor do I think it's even wise to say you know other than the 84 days for the investigation this step has to be 3 days is because there's a lot of variance in these offenses so but I as a board member I always feel better if I can say oh that happened a few months ago not last year um and I also know the faster we get to the eventual Consequence the more impact that consequence has on that person and on everyone else in that class of employees so it it really uh there's some lots of value in going quicker I just wanted to make make that point if I could also ask uh chair on slide five and six we have a through R of all these offenses is this a Broward County school definition of offenses or did this come from someone else Dr heurn Mr that is a great question so on page one it has definitions it talks about different things but you're talking about the specific offenses yes sir Dr Zan um I wasn't here in 2018 when they were putting this policy together um it is some of the items are similar to what I've used in other districts and some are very specific to Broward Ernie may have some more and most of these are statue driven and the languages from statute terrific and I and I uh get that I'm just going to give you a few comments on the the ranges that um are roughly being put in here um first is a question on D driving Under the Influence within the scope of employment so this is someone at work uh charged and and and uh if found guilty will face this outcome range on the right so this is someone driving Under the Influence either a school bus driver uh um somebody taking kids on a field trip and some other vehicle someone forc you know got forced into driving a kid home after school because the bus didn't come and parents don't have a car all these I think are using your car within the scope of employment are you saying that the minimum outcome range for that under the suggested is a 10day suspension that is a suest the the