[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] oh oh [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] [Music] h [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] a n oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] h [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good afternoon this special school board meeting of the school board of brow County Florida is now called to order please identify the exit doors there cly Mark for emergency exiting while in Auditorium refrain from objecting the exit doors all attendees must occupy a seat with the exception of meeting media once the auditorium has reached a seaing 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 remain outside until the authority that has jurisdiction has deemed this building safe to return we ask all attendees to maintain a respectful and professional demeanor during this meeting disruptive behavior including but not limited to yelling interrupting speakers or engaging in personal attack will not be tolerated if you engage in disrupted Behavior your interfering with the order of the proc of the meeting I will is you a verbal warning to Cease the disruption immediately and failure to comply with the warning will result in your removal from The Boardroom by law enforcement removal from the meeting by law enforcement will be for the duration of all meetings held on this day our primary focus is to create a safe and productive environment for all of our participants thank you for your cooperation all please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all in order for the meeting to operate with an appropriate professional environment at this time we respectively request that all cell phones and other electronic devices be either turned off or put into the silence modood please step outside of the auditorium if you need to answer your cell phone or make a call public comments will be accepted on all agenda items accordance with policy 1100a any person may present live comments by attending the meeting at Plantation High School auditorium members of the public who registered online via the voice of the stakeholder web page or submitted a public comment request card located in the lobby outside of the auditorium will be recognized to provide their in-person comments to the board when the respective agenda items is on the floor for consideration all those individuals that have registered will be called by the chair to speak all published written agenda comments related to today's agenda has been shared with all school board members and placed on our district website for public view Anonymous comments or comments that do not pertain to the scheduled agenda items will not be T accepted therefore each written comment must include the person's name City and zip code as we prepared to begin our special school board meeting we we are reminded that our vision is 100% % proficiency for all of our students entering the new school year as an a related School [Applause] District We Begin the vital task of sustaining this achievement we will continue educating all students to reach their Highest Potential our theme this year is believe Empower achieve one Broward the purpose of today's meeting is for the school board of BR County Florida to conduct official business of the district and any other items to the board deems necessary the superintendent released a revised agenda with certain changes for this meeting and published it on the school district's website on July 29th 2024 the chair finds pursuant to section 120525 Florida Statutes that good cause exists for s for such changes and accepts the revised agenda may I have a motion and second to close the agenda so move second moved by Zan second by Hixon all in favor of closing the agenda let it be known by saying I I I those opposed the agenda is now closed as we begin to take public comments for today's special school board meeting the public will have the opportunity to speak on the items I remind the public that speakers are advised to refrain from obscene or voal conducts slenders marks or statements that tend to incite violence or breach the piece in addition speakers are the moderate proper to quum and model the district's a character traits cooperation responsibility citizenship kindness respect honesty self-control and tolerance speakers are reminded to watch the clocks on both sides of the day say yellow light will come on to indicate 15 seconds remaining use these 15 seconds to wrap up your comments at 5 seconds after 3 minutes expired the microphone will be reset for the next speaker okay so before we begin I just like to confirm with my colleagues which items that they would like to speak to Madam chair M rert excuse me Madam chair Miss Pam yes I had an announcement to make oh I'm sorry sorry Miss Pam thank you so much Madam chair um I am so happy to say that I'd like to make an announcement and thank Dr um Dr heurn and principal araho and members of the Broward County School Board um I'm saying this to congratulate you and your students on their outstanding achievements on the 2024 incate summer debate Institute hosted by new College of Florida James Savin from Western High School debate where R Russia's invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked in the final round placing six he was judged by Dr Bruce Abramson ex executive director of new students and graduate admissions new College of Florida and Bill frza Secretary of MIT free speech and Alliance James was honored and recognized for his big win via social media and perhaps um will be recognized by this board congratulations again as Broward County continues in the spirit of academic excellence and all my best to Joshua Hopson and the debate team thank you okay thank you Miss rert I mean sorry Miss fam sorry sorry okay so now we're going to go to um have items that were already already pulled by board members uh but if there's additional items please let me know so I'll just start with Miss fam can you just tell me your items that you want pulled yes thank you item one item 12 item 16 17 18 19 23 wait hold on 16 17 18 yes 19 yes 23 27 and 32 Dr Zan thank you chair can I pull 318 21 and 27 and 35 3 18 21 27 35 thank you Dr holness items 2 17 18 19 two two sorry say it's slower 17 18 and 19 wait you had 17 right yes 17 18 19 okay M seon thank you um three 22 23 and 28 Mr allson yes thank you madam chair question if there are no items that are pulled are they going to is there a consent agenda today like they're just going and just pass them as one big thing okay um you already have two pool correct you have three pools and you have 35 pull correct correct do you have any PS no Miss leonardy okay okay so I move to pass 678 9 10 11 13 14 15 33 and 34 so move second moved by Zan second by Hixon public comment chair just a point of order did you want to ask the public if they have any issues that they wanted to pull sure Dr Zan does the public have any items they would like pull microphone so I signed up to speak and I had to handw write each of these let's see two I think you guys pulled yep pulled pull um eight and 14 are interesting but we'll see because one's a piggyback and one is a direct neg you want them pulled I'm going to run out even if I just breathe a word 10 pulled please um 18 I'm not I think somebody pulled that uh 20 2 I think that was pulled I don't know if the audit plan 25 was pulled uh 31 and of course 35 but I think that was pulled so I think of the list 31 and 10 nobody pulled okay so public comment on anyone on 67 89 11 13 14 15 33 and or 34 any public comment seeing none no register comments Madame chair Miss rert yes um I guess I was missed over can you please pull item 29 and 30 please you would like to speak to them got it yep we yes ma'am member comment Miss fam please yeah change item one to item to substitute those out thank you okay any other board member comment on item 6 7 8 9 11 13 14 15 33 or 34 seeing none all in favor say I I I those oppos say no items pass unanimously may have a motion and second on item number one so moved second I didn't call it moved by Zing second by Hixon public comment board m board member comment all in favor of item number one say I I I those opposed say no item one passes unanimously may I have a motion second on item number two to move second move by Zan second by Hixon public comment Madam chair we have more than uh 10 registered did you want to adjust the three minutes two minutes first speaker is uh Chris Nelson next is going to be vente thrower hello Chris Nelson For Lauderdale good morning and uh congratulations on becoming an a school good job everybody let's keep this momentum going um so I'm concerned about Mrs Norton um for one uh specific reason we've all seen the plethora of media coverage this has gotten a lot of media coverage but um did she falsify a record I mean to to change um her child's gender and is she going to do this again if we put her back in in a position where she has access to records because that's what she does she has access to records and I'm concerned that um she was quoted before she um went to work at Monarch as she was hired uh at the high school she will eventually attend and be working with the teachers and staff to bring awareness to the school about transgender students and their rights this also talked about that her biological um male um student was was changing in the girls locker room so this is happening this is something that was told it wasn't happening but it is happening um I'd like to know who hired her I'd like to know which board members um told her she was going to be a trans transgender Advocate especially since um you signed a um a proclamation saying that you were opposed to the fairness and women's sports act which could have been seen by Mrs Norton as a signal that you would have her back um if anything like this happened uh in her defense so um I don't think this is somebody we should bring back I mean you guys fired um Mr Alvarez because he wouldn't wear a mask I mean some of these uh things that uh in this report of people um accused of child abuse or given a 5-day suspension like I think you need to look at this process don't make this political and um I want to know if she's got a Netflix deal or some kind of uh TV deal or book deal as well thanks I'm going to call up a couple more before you get started Mr thrower uh Dr Nyla Lynch Walsh if you can make your way up to the closest Podium Windsor Fergenson and Kimberly Mor horn um good good afternoon board members hello good afternoon board members and to the superintendent I'm here um appealing to you all again on behalf of Miss sha once again my my speech has not changed this is somebody that deserves the same Grace and lency that you all show to other people and this is this is her career and I want to say this once again and put it out that how do you think this would be fair after the previous superintendent prior to superintendent what you want to say how you want to say that part demoted her and put her and took her out as an area director what will you all be saying to the people that are striving to be leaders of the future the superintendent brought his organization TR up to all of you all you all approved a whole bunch of positions now here we are with a black female in front of you all and let me say this by I don't make this political like my friend just said but I'm going to make this political you all our Democratic majority board and yet you all say you believe in Redemption and Grace when it comes to politics but then you you demonize the Republicans and say that we don't believe in that stuff but then now here you are are in the decision-making seat to show some Grace and to look at somebody and give them an opportunity but do you all do that but yet you can pign and tell us that you believe in this you tell us that you believe in showing Grace and people deserve Second Chances how much of that will you all do to this sister because that's what I'm going to be judging car on after the day that's what I'm going to be telling everybody today how do we judge our performance if you all won't show that to her and want to whisper to the superintendent first of all why did this have to even come to you all like this after the last board meeting I would have thought that the superintendent Paul would have withdrawn it and said let me look into this a little further and see how we can settle this this ain't throwing sh at him but at next speaker oh your day coming yes Madam chair I want to yield my time to Dr sharro to who I'm sorry can you Dr shro four minutes all right hold restart the clock please good afternoon board um I just want to follow up for my conversation on last week and talk about for me this is about process and how I believe that the process into this entire investigation was done poorly and my rights as a School Board of Brad County employee were violated I have for you in your file on your um page 14 and 15 from the bullying policy which states at the very bottom I have it highlighted that employees that are not in a bargaining unit which would be me as a former principal that I could appeal and that that is based on Schoolboard policy 405 and so I should have had the opport to appeal but I was never given it now I also want to share with you on the second page of this document where it talks about confidentiality I shared with you last week that every person that brought allegations against me were held confidential I didn't know who these people were and some of them were as far back as 15 years I was not given the details or around their allegations and therefore I couldn't even respond properly it says here that limited disclosure may be necessary to complete a thorough inv tigation but no disclosure was given to me so that I could determine who these people were I wanted to also share with you in in a former board meeting in July 19th of 2022 this board or the former board members who were at the seat in the seat at this time said that a 15-day recommended suspension of a bus driver could be appealed through policy 4015 yet I asked for an appeal and I never got one I've also included um policy 405 in your documents and specifically at um letter A it talks about the misinterpretation or misapplications of statutes policies rules and administrative directives and I believe that when I was not given an appeal after my attorney and I asked for it several times that it was a misrep putation and misapplication of policy in the district I have submitted several other documents just showing you through emails where I did ask for an appeal several times I asked for that appeal first through Su Susan Cooper's office because at that time she worked for employee relations and that was the process I also copied Ted tumer on that um email because he was my boss I continued after I didn't hear from her I contacted Leo Nesmith who was my boss at the time and I copied many people at the district office trying to get an appeal the next document that you see here is the P there were two cases running simultaneously a bullying case and an SIU case when I finally got the documents after I they had found cause I was you could have picked me up off the floor when I saw the people who did the complaints if you look at this document you'll see the first one is someone from my former School 15 years ago someone I non uh recommended for non-renewal the second and the third person the third person was investigated by SIU for some of the same things that she did at my school um other people another person who uh uh 10 days before she filed the case against me forged a payroll document none of these things were able to be brought forward during the investigation and during my hearings because I didn't even know who these people were so I'm not going to take up a whole lot of more time I just asked that you consider the fact that a 5day suspension would impact me to the tune of about $2,000 to $2500 um the position that I was placed in will takes me my pay down about 20 to $22,000 and I even had an adjunct position at FAU with someone at the district called them and told them that I was up for suspension and they exended my contract so if you add all that together I probably will be out of $30,000 before this is all over thank you microphone Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida uh first of all you guys all turned over your cell phones and they're on airplane you took off your smart watches cuz you wanted experience if it's good enough for the kids and we all agree it's a distraction it'll speak to on warning come on okay I'm against both of these State Statute requires the school board to require that all laws and rules of the State Board of Education or of the district school board are properly enforced you're also supposed to make sure that your superintendent has rules in place and this is about without process you cannot get the public to trust you and employee morale up if every times somebody has a vendetta you fall out of favor somebody wants to retaliate they bastardize the system it has to be consistent for everybody if the PSC recommends a 10day suspension you do not trust an SIU investigation that has more holes than switch cheese as your only basis for termination that is insane irresponsible and Reckless and unless each of you are 100% certain that all of your rules were followed when it comes to Dr sha R you may want to impress upon your superintendent to stop this process and and take it off because I have no doubt that process was not followed consistently and we could probably come up with a list of people who have done all kinds of things I can think of an attorney that had a DUI nothing happened to him we could come up we could spend all afternoon the longer you're on the school board the longer the list would be there has to be Integrity in processes you don't have that right now so much as we wait for Miss uh Kim morh Horn to come up we also have Max fenning and Steve Roosa good afternoon St um board members um again congratulations on your a um I I want I'm standing here for Dr Shaw R um it is very important that we follow the process and make sure that everything was done correctly for her I have known Dr Ro shro for 20 plus years I have worked for her I know that if you do what you're supposed to do as a educator under her you will not have any issues but if you don't do right by our children then you have issues because she wants what's best for our children always that's the type of leadership you want but when you have people who have vendettas and they want to come after people because they stand up you got to put an end to this type of culture in this school board thank you Mr Austin for looking at me I appreciate it um it is very important and you hear it time and time again about this culture we have an issue here that anyone who doesn't let goes with with the flow gets promoted and the person that stands up for what's right they are punished where is Shelley Maloney has does anybody know where she is also because she stood up for us she's no longer here and we're getting tired of this do not allow this to happen take this off of the agenda rectify and and and and put her back in her place where she deserves with the money that she deserves thank you so much uh before next speaker call up the next two uh V Vel Verde and Sandra sherrey good afternoon my name is Max fenning and I'm the founder and executive director of prism a youth L LGBT nonprofit here in South Florida I think it's important for us to recognize the impact that our staff and faculty have on students given that that is the key population that our schools are meant to be serving and through this I've had the privilege of learning the impact that Mrs Norton has had on students at Monarch High School and so I wanted to share some comments from one of those students my name is aen Lee I graduated from Monarch High in the top 1% of my class with a 5.29 GPA and as a student body president I was an active member of the class office and student council organizing dozens of events where I headed ideation and execution these accomplishments landed me at Georgetown University I'm not writing this letter to boast about my accomplishments I'm writing to express my gratitude towards Mrs Jessica Norton Who provided me with constant encouragement and support without which none of my achievements would have been possible I met Mrs Norton as a freshman when my brother introduced me to her I quickly learned that she was a crowd favorite in the school I trusted adult who would let you cry on her shoulder anyone with an issue would go to Mrs Norton for guidance it did not matter where you were from what program you were in or what click you had she was always there to help but just because she was a crowd favorite does not mean she gave out handouts Mrs Norton help everyone accountable she ensured that you were going in the right direction if you weren't she wasn't scared to show you she'd tell you the hard stuff you did not want to hear which no one else in the school would say to you she cared for students and it showed in her sincerity I remember my senior year when my school transitioned many leadership positions in addition to new administrators we also transitioned student council advisers student council was in charge of much of the programming at Monarch pep R dances homecoming games and more I was the upcoming president that year and felt the weight on my shoulders it was a lot of responsib IL for a 17-year-old I remember going to her office on the verge of tears written with anxiety when I found out not only did Mrs Norton comfort me at that moment but she also actively engaged the SGA the next year to support me I was it was a senior year to remember I cried while I thank Miss snorton on my graduation speech in front of hundreds she is the most genuine and influential person in my life thank you um my colleagues so we have a Time certain at 2:30 so we have Mr folen holy on the line so I'm going to move to table item number two to after the time certain of number 25 is there a second moved by alev second by Zan all in favor say I I those opposed say no item is tabled may have a motion second on item number 25 so move moved by Zan second by Hixon public comment 25 seeing none board member comment Mr fenoli is Mr fogan holy on the line yes yes Che can you hear me yes now we can thank you no no I just wanted to um actually make a motion on this okay I know with us looking at to end the smart Bond Pro uh program seeing the end um just wanted to make a motion um on this so I move to include subc consultant the following the amounts build by each subc consultant the performed by the BCPS department or a staff member reports to how costs are being allocated and a performance audit of the subc consultant uh to help identify which functions B value okay Mr F I'm going to repeat your motion I move to specifically include a sub consultant audit that includes the following one the amounts build by each sub consultant under Acom two the functions performed by each subc consultant by staff member three the BCPS department and manager or aom staff member each subc consultant reports to four how costs are being allocated a performance audit of the sub Consultants this helps identify which functions are adding value is there a second move by fogan holy second by fam public comment on the motion good afternoon Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida um I couldn't hear most of it so I'm trying to read real quick to get caught up but it sounds a lot like um something that RSM should be doing that the facilities task force advocated for uh in the past because in the past RSM has audited but only audited one firm or we only look got the invoices for one firm so this would do each if this would do each subc consultant this would help again rebuild public trust because you would be making sure sure that the monies being expended for subc Consultants are adding value to the educational facilities so I would be in support of this motion thank you hello Chris Nelson Fort Lauderdale I'd like to speak in support of this motion we need to know if there are any conflicts of interest with consultants and board members um or anybody we need to know if there's any kind of conflicts of interest so the public can have trust in this board especially going into when we're going to be repurposing schools and uh and doing things like that we need to know if there's any kind of financial incentive and I'm not pointing any fingers this should be for everything we're in the sunshine in the State of Florida right this is not accusatory this is just we need to know um to keep our politicians is honest that's uh what I like to think that uh that I do when I get up every day thanks any other speaker board member comment on the motion Miss fam um thank you madam chair and uh thank you Mr Fen Hy for bringing this I think this is not only a wonderful motion but it's necessary we need to have our checks and balances in place we've seen in the past even in the most recent past how items and Records can get changed and go unnoticed because we don't have a checks and balance system that's effectively monitoring what's happening so I am um you have my full support I want to know if there's um certain people that appear to get their um passes when it comes to the construction or if there's um money flowing in certain directions that seems um the ordinary so I think this is a great way to detect um any kind of incident that might be suspect that we should look into now as opposed to later so thank you again any other board member dras Madam chair I'd like for our chief um auditor to speak to this motion uh to get his take on whether or not we're actually doing this or this is something that um he recommends or are we actually doing this already Mr RADS thank you madam chair Dave rhod's task assigned Chief auditor um to look into the amounts build by each of the subc Consultants um under AECOM that is something that is generally a part of the scope of RSM but we are coming up on a new um audit plan where things I'm going to right now have to stop and say there's only so much that I can say about this because it's currently under a cone of silence I hope everyone can respect that but I will say that um in the normal course of business these would be the very types of things that we would want to look at in the program and to make sure uh as Miss fam said that the money is flowing in the right direction equitably Fair and transparently so in as a general comment to this motion I would say I believe that these are things that the office of the chief auditor can look into add to the audit plan um it sounds like it's clearly an overwhelming um will of the board for that to be done uh and as the contract that we have with our Kadri is approved we can begin to put together how we would do that inside as well as outside okay so under the current audit plan we are not doing any of this sir yes it's it's being done every year um because there is a separate contract um funding source I guess I should say that keeps the aeom and the Atkins contracts being looked at by one of our outside audit firm of the audit plan okay so the the current proposal um this is what we've been doing and in the current audit plan um is that similar to the Past plan where we're continuing to um proceed with looking at the subc Consultants um in the current plan that's being proposed anything that is Bond relate Bond project related is continuously being looked at through the course of the past several years and will continue until the bond program is over Okay so this motion appears to be redundant in my opinion thank you uh it it may appear appear to be redundant but the idea of it is is that there were some more specific areas to be looked at rather than just the fact that these things are being looked at quarterly there is the ability to take and talk with the external uh firms that we work with and develop Scopes that are specific to uh areas that the board would like looked at and these look like they're pretty specific and I would say that that conversation would be in line when the time is correct thank you thank you so my question is is is there any add additional cost to add this to the current audit plan my my initial thought on it is going to be yes but I could not give you any kind of a calculation on that until I take a look and see how much this will impact what the currently proposed audit plan would be impacted and how much more work and resources it would require to do these things my next question I know you can't answer that question but is it in your budget to have uh to be able to add this um I would put it more this way it is currently in our budget for us to craft audit scopes for the quarterly audits that are being done by whichever firm it is that ends up doing this work and to capture it that way so in that respect I would say that at least half of what is on here has the ability to be covered by what we have in our current budget okay Mrs is ardy um so I think I need some clarification because I I heard kind of two separate responses to some questions that Dr holess asked so I I at first heard that we are doing these things currently and that we will be doing them moving forward but then I heard that there are some specific things that are outlined in this motion that we are not currently doing and that we will not be doing moving forward is is that a yeah and if I could explain what a little bit more what I mean about that is that each year um there are quarterly reports that take a look at the overall um oversight of the bond program the Scopes of those audits historically have not been um established by me and whoever would look at those but I do know going forward having that ability to do that some of the things that are in here that are already covered on the first P or the first portion of our audit plan that shows ongoing audits that includes the oversight of the bond program and so these things give some ideas of what the will of the board would be to develop Scopes that would help to capture some of these so that's why I say the overall work of auditing the bond oversight is always ongoing the Scopes of each of the audits that are done quarterly could be um tailored to some of these ideas that's why I say it could be included in it okay of one of I don't know do you have this piece of paper in front of you with the okay so of one through five what are we currently doing um we are doing things that are sufficiently similar to one um we are doing we have done things that are sufficiently similar to two um three uh is a little less uh familiar for me and I believe that it's because that hasn't been uh looked at um sufficiently in the past um how costs are allocated those things are looked at um I would call it for lack of a better term peac meal in these different audits that are produced because they're not always looking at the same part of the process they're not looking at the same focus of projects um a performance audit of subc Consultants uh I I would say right now that I've not seen that done yet I would think that that's one of the ones that would definitely uh need to be fashioned into an Autos scope okay um of three and five is there a reason why we have not historically done those could you repeat the last part so is there a reason why we have historically not done three and five I couldn't answer that question because that work was being um developed and the Scopes being developed before I came back here a year ago almost to the day okay is there a reason that three and five are not included in the audit plan moving forward right now they they did not rise to the level of um a risk that we saw at the time we were putting this together nor a a risk that was identified by our outside consultant that did our risk assessment seeing these here now and hearing um the comments that are being made by them um I think they deserve a second look I think they deserve a prioritization uh review and identify where they could fit into the audit plan okay um I'm not sure what comments you're referring to but um okay all right those are my questions for now Dr Zan thank you so much chair um uh chair uh one thing I just want to kind of clean up a little bit of language maybe here I'm curious if the author of this motion is referring to subcontractors instead of subc Consultants that's a term uh where a firm is working for another firm where Ecom in this case is the prime and all the firms that are working for Ecom would be the subcontractor Mr ranoli Miss Batista uh the term that is used for companies that or vendors that are working for aom is subc Consultants terrific thank you very much um on number three and five I have some questions um if I could chair with number five um Audits and Auditors have uh tremendous skill sets they help us tremendously in a variety of things often in the accounting Finance uh uh business World a performance audit um by our government Auditors or by hired Auditors uh begs the question um who is qualified to do a performance audit of the subc Consultants on this team roads um a performance audit it can be done either by an internal or an external auditor What It ultimately is is looking at um contracts it's it's most usually uh used for contracts and it looks at are the efficiencies the effectiveness the controls within the contract in place and they would uh they would there would be comments there would be findings that would be to that effect uh if they weren't and obviously as any audit recommendations to how to bring those back into line teric it's all it the word performance definitely identifies that is about the performance of a specific vendor uh under a contract and that would be something that again could be done in-house or outside based on the available resources and I appreciate that chair um the audit's very likely to work on things then like controls and compliance uh meeting timelines and the like I would just temper the enthusiasm of this board to think that our Auditors are going to do a performance audit uh in the sense of how good or what quality of work is being contributed and that's what's kind of insinuated here in the parenthetical that says which functions are adding value um I'm just a little bit confused about that um but anxious to learn more maybe on number three um uh I'm curious uh chair how would an auditor contribute to creating an org chart Mr wordss that's a management function I I do not think that that would be something that an auditor would contribute to period terrific uh the background on this I think is important to think a little bit about we have a prime that to my knowledge General councel has 15% of this work assigned to them and 85% to subc Consultants M Batista are you asking about the aom a come is the the program manager uh owners rep the prime uh for the pmore contract has 85% of the work farmed out to subc consultants and there's some uh limits on uh local firms which I think is 30% and I think 49% is for women-owned minority firms and small firms uh uh as well and if I'm correct that leaves 8 15% uh for aom proper to be using aeom staff to fulfill the pmor function that's uh approximately correct yes right and uh you know I'm I'm struggling a little bit kind of with going beyond what we've already done and I'm I'm struggling with um an assumption that the will of the board has been expressed yet we usually Express that at the end with a vote not with comments that we make along the way and so we'll see what the will of the board is but three in particular a review of an orc chart I'm not exactly sure uh um how there'd be value in putting that together a performance audit is um important to understand exactly what Auditors can do related to Performance again a focus on meeting timelines controls compliance Financial doesn't really tell you whether a firm that's a subc consultant in fact is doing their their stated uh stated purpose and aom's job is to find 85% of the work from these other firms that's written into their contract um and that's uh clearly a constraint uh uh for them and a serious management issue for aom as the pmore to figure out um I'll reserve some time for later thanks chair Mrs Fam thank you um first of all in reviewing the item the word or chart isn't referenced or mentioned in item three I think um that's a mistaken interpretation what they're looking at is who from County Public Schools department and managers are being reported to who aaom is reporting to so they're looking for connections that might be suspicious or any type of Acts or any type of relationship as far as um if there is a conflict of interest but it doesn't say anything about um commenting or participating in org charts at all secondly um what I'd like to know too is your opinion um facilities chief whether this would be to add these items would be beneficial or detrimental and then I have one other question another follow-up and um if you would be willing to um support this well going back to what I said before some of these items are already a part of the purview of the audits that have been done historically on this um this company that provides oversight of the bond program so some of it could be uh maybe duplicative I don't know that I would say redundant because there are always uh various areas that could look be looked at that didn't get looked at thoroughly at the time a prior audit was done so I don't see any of it being detrimental but I do see some of it would be more beneficial than others and I would use that uh information as I was looking at it comparing it to the audit plan to try to bring forward what I think would be the best uh where this the best way to uh approach these questions for these additional looks one thing I want to say in particular is that um Dr Zeman I'm not sure what you're looking at but I don't uh I don't see org chart on the document that I'm looking at are you talking about the way that they're number three is identifying department managers or aom staff uh members and each consultant reports to who they report to I'm I'm not sure I'm looking at the same thing you're looking your permission chair thank you uh item three um would traditionally be answered by an orc chart uh you could do it in a table you can do it in a spreadsheet you can do it a million ways but a typical audit would if you're asked uh to show um to whom each subc consultant reports to you would draw it up in an or chart which is uh was my uh conclusion of that the the reason I keep highlighting that is that AECOM is the reporting senior to everybody that works for AE comp and so to ask uh how a subc consultant reports to a BCPS department or manager is uh uh kind of by basses the legal requirement for subc Consultants to work for the prime and so I think that part is um would be the nul set I don't think there's a subc consultant who works for a BCPS department or manager they all work legally for aeom as the prime contractor um but a normal way to report uh to whom do people report would be an orc chart and so that's why uh I keep referring to you know the answer to number three is being an orc chart and again I I'm just I'm trying to understand why an orc chart would help identify uh something of interest when the orc chart is defined legally by subc Consultants or subcontractors legally the right term uh reporting directly to a prime contractor so I I just I'm I'm I'm struggling to understand why we would do three and five knowing that if that goes beyond what's already in the plan that would push something else off the plan or we'd have to go find more money for our audit plan so that's just my my uh my my comment on this motion which I'm seeing for the first time today Dr olness thank you madam chair so from the comments that I've heard and and from listening to the chief auditor it appears that one two and four on this motion would be um well it was referred to by Mr rhs as duplicity uh for me seems redundant um item three on this is in question and item five which is a performance audit I guess the question that I have uh if this is not passed does this preclude the chief auditor from doing any sort of performance audit m r um listening to the rest of this conversation will help me to be able to answer that question because um if there's information that comes out of this discussion that leads me to believe that there is a higher level risk here than something else that's already on the audit plan I would definitely uh look at doing something with that um a performance audit there are a lot of different firms that are involved with this whether it's the the prime or their subc Consultants whether this was even intended to mean contractors and their subcontractors I I I was waiting for uh Mr fogan holy to respond and I think we either lost him or we lost his signal but I wanted to get a better understanding of what he meant by subc consultant that would help make a better uh understanding of what this performance audit would be what it would be looking at um that information would have to be known before I could actually give a an answer to that question okay so based on your resp response then at the at the very least um most of these items are D duplicates or redundant and number five uh you don't have a defini definitive answer on it and you can't answer the question on number five as to whether or not if this motion is not passed if that would preclude you from doing a performance audit because you need added information um so um at the very least this motion seems to lack the information you need to provide to us to make a decision and the majority of this motion seems to be redundant um so as a result I think that uh I will I can't see how I can support it thank you m rhs um in response to that because of this the part that the point that we're at in the development and and passing or not passing this uh proposed audit plan um we are now at a point where uh any changes that would be made in this thing would be made as a result of the board making those those uh request motions and and ultimately passing that so this would not have anything to do with whether or not I would be uh inclined or not inclined to perform a performance audit it would be whether or not it's the will of the board that this be moved into the audit plan and then an audit scope developed that would actually make sense with what it is that Mr fogan H's proposal is here today okay so Madam chair I just need Clarity so are you able to perform a performance audit if you see that as necessary if that becomes a concern without a motion to do so to include this in the audit plan Mr according to policy 1700 I would have to go through a process that would be bringing it to the chair bringing it to the attention of all the remaining board members and having that uh request approved during the course of the year after this process is done if it didn't get taken care of today okay so you mentioned before that uh these concerns did not did not rise to the level uh of which you think it was a problem so if in the event in the future uh it should rise to that level you can bring it back to us and we can approve that is that correct absolutely okay Mr Austin thank you madam chair uh I guess I'm wondering I guess we're debating sounds like we're debating adding something else to the audit plan or not right is that kind of what this is the motion there was a request by a board member to add these things and now we're having that discussion got it so having come from a neighboring School District um I think the only one on the day uh I'm used to Chief Auditors kind of also having something called other or if they're like board member requests I don't know what the prior board I think I recall because I've been here two years now um when there were board member requests how do you handle those because that's essentially what this is and I know that you've talked to each of us individually um and I think that was the basis of kind of how you crafted this so just talk to me about in when you pass an audit plan in August if you subsequently find something or a board member subsequently uh seeks kind of back to the question or the board seeks to you know focus on some area how do you do that so it can happen if I can add one one more let me do a third part sure typically in your audit plan similar to Legal counsil there's always the area for other right you don't know what's going to happen the 10% of requests that will come up during the year so I know I'm jumping around because we're on one motion but it kind of all ties to this there should be an area where there is 10% this is me talking out loud of unknown right because something will come up in the year that you can just plug in so there would not be a cost to doing whatever those requests could be a and utilizing your current resources inhouse or your contracted folks whoever you know I know you said there's a cone so I I think we're debating like three things at once what what really could and should happen if there is a piece on here that says other or unknown right for the period of the next year then we should be able to put something there where there is no cost to the board because there're going to be issues that come up you know for the next 365 days right um in the 20 years that I've been in this business whether it be audit or with the inspector General's office um we have not left a percentage of our plan open as a contingency um the office of the Inspector General is a little bit different animal because their work is largely done based on complaints and allegations that happen routinely so they can't at the beginning of the year put together a plan that shows what percentage of their investigations or audits are going to be based on this this and this it's usually what comes through the door where we are here at the school district we have the ability to put together a risk assessment because this is more audit instead of Investigation related and so to to go back to your point I I think it would leave um a lot of room to have 10 or 15% of the audit plan just left open for other but based on the way that policy 1700 reads if I was going to add something it would have to come through the board so that I would have the board's approval overall to be able to add that in because that's simply the way 1700 reads it keeps a check and balance in place between my work and the the board's overall approval and will right now I get that so because it connects to this is there a way so you're saying there is no mechanism to change your proposed audit plan to have let's just call it board member requests or unknown uh like 5 10% of the overall plan not that I'm aware of and historically I've never done it but I would be um I'd be more than happy to consider it I mean I I like the idea of having some flexibility like that because I know things do pop up right and when things pop up in the course of the year what ends up happening is that items 1 through 18 of our current audit plan something would be moved to make room for that item that came in that created a higher priority during the course of the year that would be both financially and resources to do the work all right so Mr fogan I know that you're across town I believe at the MSD commission I apologize I need to make a substitute motion sir um and the substitute motion hopefully he's I don't know his time do we know his time Madam chair no no um The Substitute motion I'd like to put on the floor um is to amend the current audit plan that's before the board board uh to add a designation uh that is 10% for unknown and or board member requests is there second second second mov by Allon second by Hixon public comment on the motion uh Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida I support having a 10 % contingency because there are things that come up subsequent to and this would be an example of that because uh no none of this is redundant and from a cost perspective even on top of the 10% there is nothing stopping changing the focus of the scope and I predate aeom on the audit committee so for years you have your former Chief auditor would have the Auditors looking at things and not looking at these and understand you spend millions of dollars on subc Consultants doing things like marketing and EDC where you could conceivably be spending more to fix the problem than if you just given the sub cont the the subcontractors in this case the money directly so this is not redundant and if this would get us to this motion that would be great thanks any other comments sorry yes Chris Nelson and I have a citizen's concern I'd like to know how a consulting firm owned by the brother of a school board member was able to land a massive contract with Nelson with the school board no that's your warning and thank you any other comment Miss Fam thank you I I said that I had an additional comment to me um first of all if something Rises to the level of becoming a problem I think this will give you the tools to audit and investigate those areas um I'm going to put my trust in you as a professional and being um an auditor and also from um the Attorney General's office that you will remove any redundancies and you won't just repeat them out of um just happen stance that if you see something's already being done you'll Target and go in a different area when you're looking through this um in add in addition I think if you're not predictable you have this 10% that therefore you can go after higher risk areas and you won't have the predictability of always doing the same audits over and over break the pattern you can go and find to see if there's other areas that need to be looked into you cannot be predictable and lastly I like adding the word to the motion other I think that's really important because it gives us flexibility it gives the auditor flexibility and let him drive the bus let him trust his Instinct and lead us where he thinks the direction we need to go I I give you I have my complete confidence in you Mr rhods thank you thank you Mr Dam uh so I have a couple questions in regards to this motion so how if the board approves this motion the next steps would be you would come back to the chair with some thoughts and ideas and then it would go back to the board for approval in terms of finalizing what is going to be listed in the audit plan yes but I if it's okay I would like a a point of clarification myself so if we were to add a 10% contingency to the pi of our 100% of annual audit work um I enforce policy I would want to enforce my own policy first and foremost so I want to make sure that it's clear here that while we're asking for this contingency that the contingency would allow for an audit that might pop up throughout the course of the year but would still follow the same process to get it approved by the full board yes okay and then my uh comment in regards to the original motion I just want to make sure that we're in our legal right to even just ask for those audits because we contract directly with Acom aom's contracted with these subc Consultants so legally Miss Batista are we able to audit their subc Consultants there is a clause in the PM agreement that allows for uh an audit to be done of the subc Consultants um they're acting as subc consultants but the pmor calls them subcontractors just for clar clarity sake um the so so they would have so the audit Department would have access to anything that is a public record pursuant to that pmor agreement as far as having access to interviews of the con the subc Consultants then that would be a different story that would have to be allowed by the subc Consultants that would have to agreed to be interviewed there's they don't you know our audit Department doesn't have subpoena power or anything like that okay so I mean I right now the motion on the floor I I agree with and anything um in the future Mr rhs would bring back to the board to to vote on Madam chair charson sorry just to that point because well forget my intent um as opposed to making it a substitute motion uh because I know that would replace the original motion that's on the floor which which was kind of not my intent I was trying to go directly to the one issue I heard which was to address this let me pull that motion back or I like to make it a it'll be a a separate main an additional main motion for the uh body to consider not a substitute because I don't want to pull off uh the item that another board member wanted the board to decide but I wanted to address the audit plan because I do believe there should be an area for board member and or unforeseen areas if that makes sense so I know it's two different things don't want to my is number six to Mr F's motion no no no so I I think I and the clerk will will tell me I think I made a substitute motion which would replace yeah fenoli's motion I my intent is not to replace his motion okay I will introduce a separate main motion which does what I think I heard from the auditor so that's that's my intent not to replace uh his going to do that now so go ahead no the the proper process will be to um with without objection from the rest of the board to just um withdraw the motion and then then Mr Alon will make a separate motion when we have voted on this motion that objection anybody object see no Mr Austin agreed but the motion on the table is still Mr okay so we're back to Mr Fen Ho's motion Dr Sean yeah last comment chair and I'm glad I got to hear uh people people think through this I'm glad General Council reminded us of the relationships that we have we have a relationship um through the superintendent through the chief facilities officer who is the the senior government official to oversee the program management owners rep contract that's held as a prime contractor by Ecom when the government has problems with any work from a eom or any of the subcontractors or subc Consultants on that the only official route let me make this a question chair what route would the government take in order to bring issues about performance of aeom or a subcontractor who would they talk to Miss Batista could you repeat the question please if uh if the government uh say Miss Paul had an issue with a uh construction pmore responsibility within that body of the 100 or so people that work for the pmore how would the government bring that issue to whom would they bring that issue so there is a Prov in the pmor um regarding quarterly evaluations and that would most likely be the way that it is done terrific but I think that the question would go to the prime contractor not to the subc consultant or the subcontractor correct that's what I was looking for thank you uh very much the reason I bring this up is I don't I haven't heard any compelling reason to do this additional work uh this is built in um I don't understand exactly whether or not the subcontractors would even be willing to participate in a performance audit uh they are required to participate in audits because there's audits that go on for financial reasons compliant reasons and others and they might be asked to provide data on that but to provide uh information related to their performance I'm not sure that that we want to go there our role as a Schoolboard of barard County would be through a staff member of the superintendent to talk to aom about either aom or any one of the 85% of the effort that's provided by a subcontractor they a Ecom is responsible to the government for the performance of that whole team that's what a prime contractor does and so to dive into the performance of their subcontractors when they're the ones that are held accountable I just am not sure I mean maybe that's why it wasn't built into the audit plan to begin with um but I just I'm not I haven't heard any compelling reasons why we want to add this to the uh to the audit plan for this year thanks chair thanks any other board members ready to vote on Mr fog motion roll call roll call vote school board members AA yes Alon yes fam yes fogan holy fog Hixon no honas no linardy no rer no Zan no four five fails motion fails Mr Alon thank you madam chair I'd like to move that we amend the audit plan the proposed audit plan to add a 10% contingency unknown board member requests category uh for this audit plan for 2425 is there a second second move by Aon second by fam public comment on the motion microphone hello Chris Nelson please vote for this motion we should not have Schoolboard members using their position up here to make themselves rich and that's what this is about please vote for this motion Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida yes I support this motion and no the significance of all the comments and who voted how was not lost on me thank you Vincente Thor is this Saturday Night Live because I'm just confused did you all not see that you all are Live on YouTube and the votes you all are taking and and to the sherff forgive me un under you all are you all planning on asking the taxpayers again to go out for another Rond do you all think about what you're voting on and how you vote and whether or not we going to vote Yes for it or no against it what you do and say here is being recorded on YouTube and ask yourself do you think the governor is watching you all this is your warning please speak to the motion I'm speaking to the motion do you all pay attention that your Li okay Saturday night Miss leonardy um just for some clarification on how this piece would work uh if would would those items in the the contingency come to the board for a vote is that Mr rhs can you clarify yeah that was the point I was making earlier is that I was looking for clarification to determine if this 10% piece of the audit plan Pi would require full compliance with policy 1700 as the board sees it because as I see it it absolutely should and I would say that this should be no different than any other audit that's being added to the audit plan it would have to go through the board for full board approval um not I mean full board uh vote um and and ultimately be approved that way because otherwise I I don't want the responsibility of having the freedom to go out and start doing Secret work I don't want to have the situation where anybody's going to accuse me of doing Secret work if this board wants some additional work done for something that's not stamped into the audit plan I would be more than happy to add this 10% in and when one came up it would go through the board the same way any other one would on policy 1700 okay so that that um that's a good that's good to hear cu I would not want to see when I hear board member request um is you know I as one board member and angry at a vendor or a staff member and I want their department or that vendor investigated um and that unilaterally happens so I'm glad that there is um checks and balances yeah that that it would come to the board thank you Dr holess thank you madam chair so um through the superintendent um for Mr roads I I believe he mentioned that this has not been done before where we had a contingency in the audit plan is that correct not during the time that I've been here okay are you aware of any audit plan within any school district where there's a contingency allocation for unknowns I'm not aware okay so in the event that um if something comes up and we don't have this 10% contingency or whatever the percentage uh proposed and it needs to be audited you can always bring anything that's not within the plan back to us for approval is that correct yes it is okay so um in your best judgment would not having this 10% prevent you from bringing items back to us that you feel is necessary to audit that you did not realize before I can't see a reason that it would prevent that I do know that there may be some shuffling of audits in the audit plan or a request for additional funds okay so based on your response the necessity of adding this 10% contingency which has never been done before based on your knowledge here and you have no knowledge of any school district that has done this and you also mentioned that if there is something that emerged that needs to be audited you can always bring it to us then I don't see the necessity of having this 10% thank you Dr Zan just chair one question please um this 10% would lead to a growth in the audit budget by 10% or would this be asking the chief auditor to come back to the board with a plan where he took 10% out of the current audit plan and replaced it with a 10% contingency is this the first case where it's 10% more money or is this the case where he's going to have to lighten up the audit plan and then fill it in with blank spaces until the board votes to fill in other things good question Mr RH how do you perceive it I I can do it either way whichever way the board wants my initial my initial thought would be to uh find the least amount of risk in the existing audit plan that represents approximately 10% of the audit resources and funding remove that and bring it back as an empty uh slice of that pie Mr Allon the maker of the motion thank you I was waiting since everyone knows my intent um but yes Madam chair uh the intent and why I made the motion um was because I am fam with other school districts I believe you will when you do the research uh cuz I know you and your team are aware of it uh Chief um other districts uh do have an allocation for contingency or un known or board member requests because what you didn't say is when the board approves this audit plan today and something comes up 3 months from now that the board wants to audit guess what the board has approved an audit plan with no room for maneuvering so the intent of is not to increase the budget actually I think I've been the only board member just talked about reducing the budget by $100 million Madam chair and I welcome uh four other colleagues to join me on that so we can give employees their raises the intent of the motion Chief is to do what other districts have done successfully because I've actually been a part of them and that is to have an allocation for when there are subsequent requests when a board approves an audit plan it still goes through the normal board process a it still follows board policy B but what it does is after the board has approved the initial audit plan for the year something always comes up so as a matter of not being reactive or some may call it being reactive you already have an allocation of Staff time or man hours or work hours or women hours as depending where you are that's already all at so whenever that comes up throughout the entire fiscal year that time is already allocated so no the intent Madam chair is to utilize existing resources existing budget and have a fully transparent conversation with the community when there items that come up with that the board wants to look into further the board can do that that's why you proactively put that a part of your audit plan which many districts do currently today thank you may I continue CH thank you go ahead Dr very much uh a legal question chair um would it be within Florida statutes for an individual Schoolboard member to to uh direct funds to be appropriated Miss Batista the answer to that is no terrific and so uh it would not be legal for any individual Schoolboard member to direct anything above and beyond the budget that we pass every year that is correct corporate yeah and I I uh I think that there's room for contingencies I think there's room uh I think it'll be interesting though should this pass to see the 10% of the Audits and the risk that goes into that um and we may look at that so um I guess I'm curious then about kind of the next steps if uh our chief auditor comes back and shows us these four audits which is equivalent to 10% of the budget are the ones that I wouldn't do or here's eight of them that I would do at 50% uh implying that there'd be some additional risk um are would we then say yes or no to that audit plan uh or are or by this motion are we saying bring us a plan that is 90% of your current expenditures um and we will vote to approve that or make amendments or changes to it and then that leaves 10% over because under one scenario um there would be an auditor coming to us and saying here are some things that we have planned to audit where we implicitly thought there was a risk that warranted auditing and now we're going to pull that off the plan so that we can create a a space for uh this board to ask for more and to Mr hess's Point Dr hess's Point we've handled those in the past by just saying hey there's a new audit we need uh how would you do this chief aitor chief aitor comes back says yes I would do it it's going to cost $650,000 and now we have a price t tag for kind of buying down the risks of the things as opposed to having a a hole to fill up uh throughout the year so there's really just two different ways to do this I'm not I think there's pros and cons of both ways uh I just think I'm curious uh do you expect the auditor to come back to this board identifying 10% of the current audit plan and saying where I used to see risk I don't think there's as much risk anymore and we can live with that risk for this 10% so that we can create a vacuum that can be filled up over the next 12 months is that how you see this playing out I let the maker of the motion respond Mr Alon thank you madam chair uh so the intent is and board members because all of you I think have looked at the audit plan hopefully um so if you look at 594 to page 57 I'm sorry that's actually a different number 564 to page 5 71 hopefully the intent Mr auditor um if we could itemize the number of proposed audit hours because I've seen that as well uh so you could do that for each of these that you proposed for the board to include in the audit plan and then to get to that 10% allocate the 10% so whatever the audit or subsequent review that may come for full board's you know consideration and Direction back to you you already have that number number of audit hours that's available to utilize for those particular projects does that make sense yes right CU that that and and and you're familiar with that standard as well indeed okay thank you may I respond to that I Mr rhs um and in addition to that the idea here would be um it wouldn't be that something that is of a significant risk would just simply be moved out of the way so this could be moved in it be items that represent those resource hours that level of effort to get that work done would have to be offset by items that were in the lowest risk category of what we currently have in our plan um to do this with what I'll call a cost neutral uh approach to it um and I don't see a problem with that because that can be done without leaving the district vulnerable based on what's currently in the audit plan I'd like to call the question second moved by Al second by Seaman all in favor of calling the question say I I I I those opposed say no no no okay passes roll call on the motion Mr allson can you repeat it oh my goodness where's the clerk where is the clerk here the amend the current audit plan have a 10% Cony someone say I added a word you know how this goes um yes I think you got it Madam chair sounds like it for the board to have audit work in the annual audit plans something like roll call school board members Austin yes highly in favor of bam yes I've seen the grand Joy report and I want to have clean hands I don't want coming back here yes or no please Bogen holy yes b h yes Hixon yes hus no leonardy yes rer yes Zan yes ala yes 81 passes thank you so all in favor of what are we on someone help me out 25 as amended say I I there's say no I was there no no Dr holess is a no item passes with one no Dr holess okay I move may have motion and second to bring back number two move second move by Zan second by Hixon we still have public comment we had two if you were lined up before if you can please line up again hello okay hello um I was asked to read a letter from a student regarding regarding Miss Norton so to who may concern I strongly believe that I would not be where I am today without Jessica Norton she was single-handedly the best staff at Monarch High School and is one of the most supportive facility members to all of the students to work in education at all you really have to love the kids and she does she would frequently let me cry on her shoulder and give me advice through all your four years of high school whenever I needed it when I say that I wouldn't be where I am without her one of the meanings of that is being in college when college applications came around during my senior year uh it felt like everyone knew what they were doing and were thinking about it their entire lives while I wasn't I felt lost and Norton showed helped by showing me so many scholarships that I could apply for marketing myself to schools and also writing me a letter of recommendation she helped me so much that I am now in college and I owe so much of My Success to her I remember when I didn't get accepted into one of my top choices I was beyond devastated and Norton let me cry and complain to her all day and even gave me ice because my face was so swollen from crying without Norton working as hard as she did during my senior year which was 2022 to 2023 specifically Monarch would not have had would not have had an elaborate a promise we did and all the senior events that went on were improved by 10 times because she would let us make it our own but also guide us we had a new SGA adviser so most of the planning and events were tackled by her even though events like these weren't in her job description she was more than willing to pick up tasks that other faculty members frequently didn't want to to do and did so much work outside of her job description I am confident that all of her colleagues and every student and Monarch would consider her one of the kindest people in the world and she would get so much work done while assisting the students I currently attend Florida Gulf Coast University and was in a public speaking class for one of my semesters I never told neron as I never came up but I did a speech on her the assignment was to form the class about anything or anyone that they wouldn't know most people did family members or some of their close friends but I did Jessica Norton Norton has single-handedly had the most influence uh on me as any of the teachers staff through all my years of schooling and I grew up going to Broward schools in conclusion Norton's impact on my life and lives of all students uh who attended Mar during the time there cannot be measured thank you Cameron sargis class of 2023 graduate you may begin oh good afternoon everybody board good afternoon everybody board superintendent my name is Sandra schaer and I'm from the great city of myar perception is reality and please check your implicit bias at the door is is this about preference process proced procedure or policy the lines are always blurred when policy is not followed I'm here to speak on behalf of Dr ktha shro this item should be taken off the agenda I do not work for the school school board so I know um Dr Shaw for her impact in the community coupled with the work that she's done in the district she's well respected in the community Dr Shaw gave me tips on how to help my daughter who is an who's an ESC student on the autism spectrum she also helped me with my son who is a student athlete in tza charter school I can tell she cares about children in schools and the profession of Education she also cares very deeply about her community she always brag about being from the 33311 zip code and um she's from the parkm community um I'm an honorary member of Parkway but don't tell the people in West Park that within a year of knowing Dr Shaw I traveled with her to the Bahamas with a group of folks to um do a a back to school book back Drive um she gave um school supplies and backpack to all the school AG children she um fundraises and forges Partnerships with organizations like Scholastic to get huge donations for the schools I host a podcast called race and the races and some of you all might know that and people in the community reach out to me about Schoolboard and public school issues I'm also an attorney but I practice immigration law however people still reach out to me about issues that they're having in the public schools um so I have to tell them that that's outside of my wheelhouse however I'm an advocate I understand education I also understand policy from what I know and understand about the investigation that took place it did not follow your own process unfortunately I'm not surprised because I'm on the ESC advisory appointed by one of the board members here we have speakers who come and discuss violation of process procedure and policy thank you so much all right thank you very much we got one more register speaker V hello members of the school board my name is VI a i us pronouns and I'm a sexual health educator that's been been teaching in both Broward and Miami Dade County Schools um public schools for the last 6 years and I'll be reading two letters in regards to agenda item two but before I do I'd like to remind everyone that the medical system exists within a binary and as an interex person that has a female designation on their birth certificate I stand with you Mrs Norton and on behalf of the lgbtqia A+ students who are experiencing being dead named misgendered harassed killed like next Benedict for just being who they are we stand in solidarity with you Mrs Norton because we take care of us now I'll be reading uh Lincoln Lee's letter as a proud graduate of Monarch High School in 2020 I feel comp compared to share the profound impact Miss Norton has had on the academic and personal journey and the journey of many of my peers it's not uncommon for me to say that I would not have made it through without the guidance mentorship Candor and wit of Mrs Norton her unwavering support and dedication to her students went far beyond the confines of her office fostering an environment where we felt valued challenged empowered to reach our fullest potential Mrs Norton's guidance extended well beyond academic matters she took the time to listen to our concerns offer invaluable advice and provide a safe space for us to navigate the challenges of high school life her genuine care for our well-being her ability to relate to us on a personal level made her a trusted Confidant for many of us during those formative years furthermore Mrs Norton's mentorship played a pivotal role in shaping my aspirations and goals for the future her encouragement and belief in my abilities instilled within me the confidence to pursue my dreams and overcome obstacles along the way I'm graduating from Georgetown University in a few short weeks and every day I think about the Gratitude I hold for my mentors like Mrs Norton I wholeheartedly believe that Mrs Norton is an indispensable asset to the Monarch High School Community her passion for Education coupled with her innate ability to connect with the students makes her invaluable thank you thank you Dr holess thank you so much Madam chair this is on item two correct um give me one second all right so item two um number five which is the Jessica Norton um so like I mentioned before I believe the district dropped the ball on this I believe that it's unfair to hold this parent alone accountable uh the state has already consequenc the district the school specifically they were fined $16,500 the child was removed from the team Our obligation as a district is to collect data accurately I understand that the parents have a moral obligation to provide accurate information as well both the parents and the district in my opinion have an obligation not just the parent there should be some consequence but not termination as I had said before and as I had said before the child has suffered enough and so has this family I think we need to move forward we need to move Beyond this and Madame chair um I had made a motion before and I believe the subsequent motion was to table this so I would like to bring my motion back and the motion is that we give a 5 day suspension instead of termination for this uh parent Jor is there a second second move by wholeness second by Zan public comment on the motion you can come to the microphone and please state your name for the record all right Chris Nelson Fort Lauderdale and um it just seems five days when you've fired a teacher because he wouldn't wear a mask during during uh covid um I mean it just it doesn't seem like I don't think she's going to be H I think she's going to do a Victory lap for that and I want to know I'm not I want to know is she going to be doing this again because this was deceitful I mean she did so she got a position in order to do something that she knew was was was wrong and then she filed a lawsuit against the district um and and and she and people say that that a board member outed her about this no she outed herself in the Miami Herald in in um January of 2025 J Jan or December 2023 when she spoke about being a a transgender Advocate I just don't think putting her back in charge of Records when she doesn't seem sorry at all for what she did is what we need to be doing come on guys next speaker hi thank you hi my name is Kristen FR I'm a parent of a child at high school um I don't believe any suspension is warranted I mean if you look at the list of who you've suspended and what they've done doesn't compel uh she has what she is accused of doing doesn't pale so I believe that she needs to go back to Monarch tomorrow and get ready for the school year because her seniors and her students need her and the fact that you all keep saying that she did something wrong with changing records that did not happen she did not change any records thank you next speaker I I wholeheartedly support the comments of the the member who uh proferred proferred this motion um this family has experienced enough uh they have been through enough and we need to be able to move past this we need to be able to support a staff member who has as we've already stated um helped so many students at Monarch High School has given a a home and a safe space to so many young people at that school um and and so I I am support and in support of at least a motion that uh is short of termination um if not uh no no suspension whatsoever ingred Ford bro County resident we have to teach our children and the children that there consequences to our action violating a state law is no uh small thing and there needs to be consequences for that because that's what we're teaching children if they steal they are punished if they lie they're punished so why should a teacher who knows better uh and know the state law um who violate the law not to face the consequences 5 days is ridiculous and I'm counting on the superintendent and the school board members to take disciplinary action and terminate uh this uh person because we cannot afford this happening in our school system again thank you if we'd like to talk about consequences our lgbtqi students in this state for being themselves are being harassed and killed trans students are dying this is your warning please speak to the motion of the 5ay suspension so what we do now will set a president for the national stage so I hope I can count on you to make the right decision and not suspend Mrs Norton because she didn't do anything wrong next speaker oh good after evening good after ha good evening good afternoon Ford um I my name is Roseanne schil and I am here to ask that you not suspend Jessica Norton I've heard several lies told about her she's not a teacher she's an Information Specialist I'm a teacher um and her daughter and the lady earlier who spoke her daughter they welcomed my shy daughter who's still shy she's just a year younger we work together on the PTA and both of them helped shape my daughter who's a beautiful 15-year-old at Monarch and she I uh supported her decision to walk out in Her First Amendment right to protest and um and the punishment that the family that the school that our community in Coconut Creek has gone undergone has already been enough please do not suspend her she's already been punished thank you for member comment on the motion Miss fam Mrs hion thank you um I I also don't think that five days is enough I don't think termination is required here either it's her first offense um but the the punishment and the consequence isn't about the daughter being or the daughter being transgender or what happened Miss Norton was a coach she knew what the law was and she made a decision not to follow the law and that needs to have a consequence to it in the report as I read it before she also indicated that she would do it again so as I mentioned before along with I think 15 days which was the original um thing that came from the committee if if I'm not mistaken the recommendation oh 10 so 10 days from the committee which meets and looks at all of the pieces and it's a committee of of a lot of different people I would say that we should continue to to go with the recommendation of the committee but also as I will mention again I don't think that she should remain in a position where she can have access to those records and know the information because she's already indicated that she believes it would be a furpa law to share that information with someone and we'll be right back in the same place having to pay fines and looking at other things because someone didn't follow the law maybe whether they knew it or didn't know it so I would I don't agree that 5 days is is enough any other board member comments on the motion I have a comment oh no no go ahead I'm for you uh Dr heurn the information management specialist position on page two of the job description the second to last bullet point what does it say thank you chair it says follow federal and state laws as well as Schoolboard policies thank you Miss Batista was there a state law that was not followed yes there was a state law that was not followed by by the school no specifically to Jessica norin uh yes that is correct okay and what state law was not followed it was the uh the family um fairness in women's family fairness uh in women's act yes okay thank you so first of all uh Miss noran is is not she she is a parent but in this case she is an employee of the school district and so we have some of our my colleagues that are saying that that are not referencing it in that light but as a school board we are voting on employees we don't vote on what you know as a parent in that capacity so as an employee and according to the job description they are to follow federal and state laws and Schoolboard policies so I think it is extremely important that we as a school board when an employee breaks the law that that there's consequences to those actions and our superintendent brought forward to us is termination as that as that consequence and if we do not terminate then others would then be led to believe that that they can too break the law and I have a problem with that Mr Alon thank you madam chair uh I guess I will go in order of the names listed on page 18 so the first name is Miss sh R and my first question to staff is did staff meet with Miss R well Mr rson we have a motion on the floor uh to give uh Miss Norton a 5-day suspension made by m Dr holess okay well then I'll make a substitute motion because I don't I don't want to start there so my substitute motion is for us to uh split first uh the decisions on Miss Chara R and then uh Miss Norton is there a second second moved by Austin second by fam public comment on the motion of splitting the two names board member comment on the motion all in favor of just splitting the two names say I I those say no motion carries Mr Alon okay now that I still have the floor yes all right so I'd like to so I can start now with Miss shro okay so Madam chair Miss superintendent uh did staff meet with Miss shro uh no you're saying no Miss Batista so the substitute motion was to separate the names um that doesn't go to the um uh to the essence of the motion that was on the floor before um which was on a on a different employe you all right so let's let's let's deal with the prior motion okay thank you let's call I'm good you have comments on the prior motion I have a lot of comments but I don't think anywhere Dr Zan thanks chair uh it is uh an important responsibility we have as a board uh to make decisions like this but to make them in uh a silo in the absence of other information would not be a fair way to uh adjudicate this issue and so I'm going to take a couple minutes to read the charges of people who have gotten uh suspensions in the past and I want us as a board to make sure that when we're done voting that we've been consistent in this case uh as we have with others we had a guidance counselor uh accused of fraud logged incorrect information into student record system suspended 3 days we had a teacher accused of child abuse that was suspended for 10 days we had a safety specialist indecent conduct with staff suspended 10 days a teacher child abuse 10 days another teacher inappropriate behavior with a student 3 days a teacher inappropriate behavior with a student 3 days teacher assistant child abuse 10 days teacher assistant child abuse suspended for one day teacher child abuse altercation with a student suspended 5 days I believe that uh this case is uh unique in its own rights I think people uh can um correctly surmise that there have been problems with the way that we dealt with it they can also surmise that there have been rules and laws that have been broken but I think it's important for us to come up with a a solution to this that is consistent with the others and when people who are accused or found guilty of indecent conduct with minors get letters of recommend letters of reprimand uh we have to be very very careful about where we're going now you could work think about this two ways maybe all these things that I read were wrong maybe we didn't punish people enough in the past for what they've done and something like more than 5 days would be just but I think 5 days is more than just when I look at this case it's not just uh violation of rules and laws and with all due respect Mr superintendent there's a lot of things that we did on our side that I wish we had done differently um and so uh I think that this motion uh is is more than enough punishment uh for what's happened here uh I'd be in favor of something even less but um i' prefer to uh to make sure that we give closure uh to this employee and closure to this case but do it in a way that's consistent with the uh way that we have meet it punishments in the past uh 5 days in in just reading these would suggest that it's actually uh more than we've done in the past um but it's something that I can live with uh largely because I'd like to get closure um and I'd like to move on and uh give this family uh that uh at a minimum thank you very much Miss Fam thank you thank you madam chair this is a piece of paper warning parents that giving the wrong address of residence you can be arrested for saying that you live in a different District than where you actually live you can go to jail now what happened here is an analogy to that I think what happened is criminal in my opinion and I'm going to go through chronologically what happened here we have the commissioner Manny Diaz found probable cause there was a separate investigation by the Department of Education in Tallahassee to sanction Norton's education certificate which covers the area of athletic coaching so yes she does have a teaching certificate because that's what she did when she was coaching Norton FR completed required forms for enrollment through 2021 to 2022 through 2022 through 2023 repetitively repetitively the and participation in school ports in the respondent claimed on the forums that her child's gender as identified at Birth was female which we all know that was not a true statement the fairness in the women's sports act prohibits biological males participation on an athletic team or Sports designed for females I don't know if anyone has looked that up the reason for that is because women were discriminated and continue to be discriminated this protects their rights so they still get scholarship so they're not beaten out by straight or or regular males or or transgender males it applies to everyone it's not discriminatory because it applies to everyone Norton's effort to change your child's gender have stemmed back to the second grade as highlighted in the complaint the document said while her son was in second grade so we're talking now elementary middle and high school and it's funny keep laughing this is really funny $16,500 fine did you pay for it okay the document said while her son was in second grade at Winston Park Elementary School Norton inappropriately requested and pressured a staff member to change the child's gender in the school database from male to female and I saw also in the report bullied so we have the teacher or an educator if you want to call it that's bullying others the statute okay this is a violation of the statute of the principles of professional conduct for the education profession there's two other counts that they found probable cause in which she's being sanctioned and that's intentionally distorting or misrepresenting facts this wasn't an accident she knew what she was doing in fact if you look through the records she said that the person that changed the record for her son her son's sex from male to female shouldn't have taken her word for it and asked for documentation so there's no accountability here she just shifts the blame to someone else in addition Norton failed to maintain honesty in her professional dealings okay this is not a question about her son or her family this isn't an issue about what she did as an employee and how she harmed others one of the things in the Miami Herald newspaper Mrs Norton held herself out as being hired as an lgbqt advocate i' just like during my presentation i' just like to um ask either the direct a question to the superintendent or to the um general counsel is there any such position as an lgbtq habitant in Broward County Schools Dr No Miss F so this would be a lie in addition Miss Norton contended that her child had not been in restrooms or locker rooms yet in the Miami Herald again she boasts about her transgender child being in both again she lied and if she didn't lie then she should be so the Miami Herald but I didn't see any lawsuits I looked for that Miss fam you have one minute to finish your comments there's $16,500 in cost because of this there's a liability that this school district fa for injuries to females there's also the fact that students were displaced from being on the team because she took their position in addition the volleyball team had to get disqualified in certain games because they had an illegal ad uh advantage over the other teams she broke the rules she's lost our trusts she knew that she was violating them and she knowingly purposely and deceptively continued and then she turned around and filed a lawsuit to make sure that her child stayed in the female sports now if she wasn't doing something she didn't think she had the legal right to do then why file a lawsuit why would you do that and for her to say ousted or someone outed my daughter when this policy of brow County School Board is see something say something we don't treat our people like that we want them to come forward we don't accuse you miss spam any other board member comment on the motion all in favor of calling the question say I I I those opposed say no no that was a yes one no hold on I'm you guys I ran away did we just take the vote no calling the question Mr rubert okay fine yes Mr fogan were you a no I said yes yes no yes to call the question okay okay call the question passes okay we're now to the motion um Dr holl's motion for a 5 days suspension and instead of a termination for Jessica Norton roll call school board members fam no Bogen holy no Hixon no hes yes lardy yes rert yes Zeman yes alef no Alon no four five fails Madam chair Mr Alon thank you madam chair uh let me see if I can lower the temperature I'm going to actually shift to the first person on the sheet uh since I have the floor and then I'll come back to the second cuz I don't think there's an order right um so I'm going to actually go to miss sha R um um and my question to staff was did we meet with Miss Ro mrito afternoon through the chair at what point Mr aluson I'm sorry during the investigation there was there were meetings with Dr charr Madam chair yes so if I recall at the last meeting there was a motion made to I thought connect between staff and the individual that's on this sheet did that not happen between the last board meeting today I I don't believe that happened between the last meeting okay do I recall that being a part of the direction or at least takeaway so we could have some additional conversation that was the motion that was on the floor that pass Dr heer I don't recall uh the that part of the motion the the part of the motion that I recall is that to provide the board with the additional data to help make an an informed decision no so Mr superintendent I thought and I think I made that motion too I think the motion on data was connected to the second individual that I'll talk about next um related to some of the information that was provided um I don't recall there being any additional data that was requested on individual number one so am I wrong about the motion that passed 90 Mr Sullivan is checking right now I'm having staff look up the Motions from last meeting but I don't I don't recall there being that motion the motion was to provide extra information that Mr azero provided to the board on Thursday but we're looking up at the motion I'm sorry Chief come back you said that you recall what information regarded to individual number one or individual number two there was a there was a motion to provide information on both individuals that the board received on Thursday okay that's the motion we were tracking okay I don't I don't remember but we're looking up just in case I'm mistaken that there was ever a motion to meet with the individual employees well that was a part of the motion so if we can pull the video it's very clear cuz I made it just need a couple minutes to do that so I guess I now have to go to number two which I'm I'll do that uh while we wait because uh I thought we would go in order of what's before us but I think we jumped ahead um so it's interesting that the board is having this dialogue um and it's interesting that a few of my colleagues believe that because a prior board got it wrong that this current board should also get it wrong um what's also interesting to me is nine of us actually took an oath hopefully we understood every part of that oath I believe in data which is why I ask for some of the information that staff Prov provided thank you Mr Aero I also believe in following the law which I was also very crystal clear about and I appreciate the questions from the chair um and the and general counsel clearly answering the question in the affirmative that I believe yes Miss Norton did break Schoolboard policy a and Miss Norton did break state law B altering information without permission or authorization as a school district employee Mr superintendent I I actually support your recommendation on this one um and let me ask a question do you believe that Miss Norton's actions brought any negative consequences or negative Goodwill to the district just in these past several months Dr urn um negative Goodwill what I can say um is that it has has had an impact on the school and opportunities for other students thank you sir is she the first person recommended for termination under the fairness in women's sports act Madame counsel Miss patista um through the Shar yes so I know that one of my colleagues proceeded to read some of the uh past discipline administered by brow County Public Schools I actually believe that most of those disciplines that were read are atrocious let's put us in the shoes of being a parent if your child was abused and the discipline was 1 day suspension 5day suspension 10day suspension or or a letter of reprimand an altercation with the student 5 day suspension sexual misconduct letter of reprimand inappropriate behavior with a student 3-day suspension fraud I think as one board member pointed out 3day suspension this board member actually has a zero tolerance for hurting or touching our children period I also have a zero tolerance for breaking the law as we talk about attracting parents and families back to the district and as the MSD commission which is interesting they're actually discussing school safety today and tomorrow right here in brow County with that as the backdrop what message would we send to parents looking to bring their kids back to Broward County public schools that we go soft on safety what message would we send today this board that we would go soft on an employee who intentionally according to the report and was very clear about what additional acts could be subsequent acts I mean that is clear intention or intent to me so Madam chair what I like to do is go ahead and not filibuster not take all the time needed but to put the motion back on the floor as a superintendent recommended for this one because it's actually been a [Music] whirlwind unfortunately it's been very tough for many of us I could have made the motion last week I did not because I wanted to actually see the data and the data unfortunately I have a different view of of my colleague is actually troubling whatever board allowed those things to happen to those children our employees is shameful because if it was my son daughter niece nephew cousins that are in our school system right now put yourself in those shoes board members and members of the public that are watching I'm sure that you would do what is right for the children so with that I move the superintendent's recommendation on we're already there okay thank you Mrs Hixon thank you um I'd like to offer a substitute motion and just before I say that would say I agree with Mr Austin and part of it looking at the the consequences for things that happened to students was appalling um and but this isn't that so I want to be clear you know this is not that that somebody abused or or or did something specifically to students and we've heard over and over um that Miss has been a mentor and stuff to students this is really about not following the law it isn't about anything else than that it isn't even about her changing records it is about knowing that there was a transgender student playing female sports while you were coaching an employee in the school that's what this is for me um so I would like to make a motion to to suspend Mrs Norton for 10 days and again to be sure that it's a lateral move but that she does not stay in the IMT position is there a second second second moved by Hixon second by Leonardi public comment on motion Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida I support the motion I think it offers the best compromise when you consider that the district's hands are also never clean in these things and at the last meeting the superintendent said he relied on the SIU investigation in recommending termination and re and relying on an SIU investigation should never be the only thing that dictates a course of action thank you Nelson Fort Lauderdale that's it's still not enough and uh as you know the community is watching on this one and I'm glad that it finally has been brought up as I've brought it up every time I've seen teachers that have hurt students or inappropriately touched students and I've seen the teachers union boss which a lot some of you answer to your warning speak to the motion come and defend these people all right how many time what what's the voting record on those those people that were uh that did those things that were suspended for only a couple days I'm glad we're having this conversation because it's it's ridiculous but two wrongs don't make a right just because those things happen happen does not mean we take somebody who has been willfully deceptive and and you saw her storm out she's with her her media Entourage she's not one bit repentant I would say um excuse me I would say um give her a second chance but she does not seem like she's repentant about it at all and that she would do the same thing over again thank you hello Christian paret uh speaking again about this motion I don't think she should be suspended at all I think she should remain in her position she did not change her daughter's records she did not she did not the state issued a birth certificate with a female designation the State of Florida did that and she's a girl it is her she is her daughter misgendering her is the exact reason why these issues need to be eliminated from the school we don't need people misgendering these children because they are in danger when people like you speak about this is your you need to speak to the motion the motion is bull and needs to be voted that she is not suspended there's no reason for her to be suspended she did not break the law she's did not play sports she's not transgender she didn't do anything as a district employee to change records period okay hello my name is Steven roacha I'm the policy director for prison Florida um I just wanted to speak in support of the motion to suspend uh for 10 days um I don't believe that it's a moral question I think it really is just a a legal question with um fortunately there there are consequences to to um changing things in in a capacity as a school administrator um however uh you know I don't think that termination is the appropriate punishment I think it goes too far um and additionally um do not misgender trans students it's unacceptable thank you okay there um so if it means not getting terminated I'll support that suspension motion um I am highly offended as a human being that a beautiful young woman is being misgendered by a school board that is point of clarification I was reading newspaper article so I don't want to be accused of anything I was reading from quotes order thank you I just want to make that clarification this is fail thank you and I would like to stare like this isn't a conversation hold on please give her 10 more seconds back this is a huge learning opportunity for all of us you've made a mistake the board made mistakes and instead of making an example out of Miss Norton let's learn from this let's grow from it so that we don't do it again because I was there celebrating her trans daughter in the school board when she was in elementary school we celebrated her transhood her trans I her transgender her girl like it was a cele you to speak to the motion this your warning this okay so 10day suspension if it means not getting terminated yes otherwise um I shouldn't be terminated at all okay thank you so I don't support the 10day suspension but I think it's the best we're going to get now that we're here and I want to mention that Governor Ron de santz signed the fairness and women's sports act in 2021 so bringing up what Mrs Norton did anytime before that is not really relevant and I want before you interrupt I want to create the space for our in sex students please speak to the motion this is your warning right 10day suspension I don't believe in a 10day suspension but I will take it because it's better than a termination because for those of us that have been designated on our birth certificate something other than what our actual biological sex is we don't have space to exist so Mrs Norton shouldn't be punished for actually advocating for their daughter thank you thank you next speaker um I also wholeheartedly agree that I I feel that 10 days is is a bit excessive uh you know we can talk about you know maybe not not enough not long enough suspension for other employees but uh you know sexual misconduct with a with a student is very different from uh from the the what we're talking about right now with with Miss Norton um it is surely better than termination termination is uh just massively disproportionate in my opinion um also just to reiterate it is her daughter and it is Unbecoming of a Schoolboard member to disrespect uh a student in uh BCPS like that um and I would anticipate and expect more deorum from this board thank you okay board member comment Dr holes thank you madam chair motion um okay I'm sorry regarding the motion um so I I understand the motion I want to make sure um through the superintendent that lateral means not only lateral in terms of pay but lateral means lateral in terms of the level of the position in other words an individual is not not move from one position to a much lower position but receiving the same pay lateral means that the position is equal in terms of the uh professionalism of the position um as well as the pay so can the superintendent speak to that um I'll have the maker of the motion Mrs Hixon um as I mentioned last time I I expect it to be lateral means lateral right it means same pce same level um but I I do believe I had a discussion with with the superintendent and it's a clerk position so it would remain a clerical position wherever that falls okay and my last comment is that as we consider this motion um and it's it's just a a cautionary comment that in the future um uh whatever we vote on today uh in the future any any sort of nonrenewal is not on the basis of this situation [Music] Dr heurn thank you chair yes I can confirm that I can confirm that um any non renewals in the future for this employee or any employees not contingent on past um issues similar to this um and then we'll Mr Aero and I will confer just to make sure um if this motion passes that um we'll Implement a lateral move um to accommodate the employee you miss Mrs leonardy um first I think it's important to note that we are supposed to be about parental rights and we are in a situation where a parent made a series of decisions that she felt were in the best interest of her daughter and now those decisions are being litigated on the internet in these public meeting in the newspapers and that is horrific and at the same time we have a school we have employees students who were all impacted by those decisions and at the same time we have a law that we have to follow in spite of how harmful it can be to some of our most vulnerable students and all of that is heartbreaking to speak to the discipline piece and thank you Dr Zeman for reading those out some of us on this board for years have asked for us to move to a zero tolerance policy related to harming our students for years unfortunately it seems that uh you know a constant revolving door of leadership has made that difficult to carry out for our district but I still advocate for a zero tolerance tolerance policy when it relates to harming our students so I will ask the superintendent um do you have any or is are there any plans to change to fix the way we do discipline because I am in in complete agreement that if you are ACC that you are found guilty of abusing a child sexual misconduct with a child touching a child in any kind of inappropriate way speaking to a child in any kind of sexual manner um that that should be result in termination so are we in the process of changing the way we do discipline and fixing it Dr urn yes so we've created a separate office for Professional Standards so we can be more objective and take um discipline out of the hands of folks that should be running schools and doing other things um so they're so they're in intentions are clouded uh so we can be more objective make sure we we're addressing the needs of our employees timely um and I agree with you miss Leonard and I think many of the members of the board I I have zero tolerance for anybody that would harm our students especially child abuse or sexual abuse so I hope our employees are listening or in public are listening I have no tolerance for and they will be recommended for termination thank you I have a separate question about how sometimes this discipline is is um executed so have there been situations in which the school board recommends termination for something and then the it goes to court and we actually have to rehire an employee um based on a Court ruling so I I haven't dealt with that since I've been here in Brower County so I'll defer that to miss Batista if she's dealt with any past cases Miss Batista so the answer is yes um we have here also the attorneys for the superintendent who can speak as to um the DOA hearings and despite the fact that the board May um assign a certain discipline to an act that then when it goes to the division of administrative hearings that could be either proven or not uh before the judge and then it comes back to the district to reinstate the person okay thank you I and I understand that but I think it's important for my colleagues to hear that as well um and I I have a question about the list that was provided to us so where it says the outcome actually no I'm I'm actually I'm fine with that one okay [Music] um I'm going to ask this question again I asked it last meeting but I think I I would really like to hear the answer again if you fill out a form incorrectly in your role Ro as a parent and it enables your child to play sports when ineligible does that normally subject you to discipline as an employee if you are an employee and parent correct yes you're falsifying records um and also would had have an impact on that school sport team potentially having to wave all the all the games that they participated in thank you is there any evidence to suggest suest that Miss Norton used her access to Student Records as an employee to falsify Student Records um yes as I recall in the report yes can you point me to the page in the report or can someone point me to the page in the report where she used her access to Student Records as an employee I don't have it up I'm pulling up if I can get um Mr azero and Mr alberty if you guys can pull it up also do you have another question [Music] um Madam chair point of clarification I have it in my records where was from the state of Florida M to save time need to be called on you weren't called on you need to wait it's offering to help you do not have the floor I had I had an additional comment that I wanted to make um but I was okay do your additional comment and and then my staff's looking up the answer so I I do well okay I will support the 10-day suspension not because I don't think it is Extreme um I think to if we're looking at I think we we are being forced to compare this situation with other situ and that is it's comparing apples to oranges right Miss Norton did not abuse a child she did not harm a child she is doing what she she did what she thought was best in the best interest of her daughter and there are larger conversations that we can have about um you know who who was in the right um so I will support a 10-day suspension I you know there is clearly a history we didn't even go through the list of people who who violated State Statute who um were not terminated I don't think anyone who was terminated violated State Statute um I think it it's a it's a very simple line to draw for me and I I do not think she should be terminated um I do think a 10day suspension is harsh but I will support it thank you Mrs zon thank you I just wanted to point out a couple of things so again I want to remind everyone the discipline here is not for changing records it is for being a coach and not following the law when you signed a paper that said you would follow the law the law said a transgender student could not participate in female sports and knowing that was a law our employee made a choice not to follow it that's what I'm basing this on and it was the first offense so we don't we would not terminate someone on their first offense so so that's why I don't believe in the termination we have Progressive discipline this would be the beginning if it was to continue then you would have hopefully that wouldn't happen um continue my concern isn't that she's going to change records asking for her not to be in IMT it is that she can see in those records if they have been changed and it puts her in a place to again know that someone was transgender not share that information because she has indicated she feels it's a furpa law and that puts us as a school district in a bad place so I'm the the reason I made the motion that I made was clearly based on the fact that as an employee because I believe as a mom she did what she thought was right and I'm not judging her on that I this has nothing to do with with that piece of it it is only as an employee and I don't want to put us in a situation or even her in a situation where she would have to make that choice um to not share the information again so I just want to give a clarification on why um this was the motion I made so thank you Miss Leonard do you need the answer to your question to vote or any other school board member I mean I I don't need it to vote but I would like to have the answer Dr heurn and it's concerning to me that we no one can give me the answer right now Madam chair point of clarification I offer to you may speak oh thank you yeah it's in the um report from Manny Diaz and if I handed that actually out to you so you have a copy of it at your desk over there you can look right there at the quotes from Mr Diaz's office he sets out three different violations which page are you speaking to miss fam I wasn't expecting this um on mine is printed as page one it sets out and I'm quoting the document said while her son was in second grade at so this was a a transcript from the Department of Education the document said while her son was in second grade at Winston Park Elementary School Norton inappropriately requested and pressured a staff member to change the child's gender in the school database from male to female unquote was she a parent or an employe at that time as Batista my understanding is that she was a parent and she was not employed uh in the district at the time um the the issue with um for the recommendation before the board today is that in the job description for information management specialty list the position goal states that it says ensure that accurate student data is available for state and management reports by gathering and inputting student information course information schedules and other Vital Information into the District student database system and so the um the allegation um that is before you is related to um the employee not being able to fulfill that uh that part and other sections of her job description by allowing something that was um that she knew was incorrect to move forward in violation of the statute Dr he uh Miss leard can you clarify your question for one more time while I'm I'm looking so my question was is there any evidence in the documentation provided to us that Miss Norton used her act access to Student Records as an employee to falsify Student Records so Consulting with Chief alberty as far as going into our system and changing things there is no specific hard evidence the hard evidence that we do have is that she submitted incor incorrect paperwork um listing the student as female and admitt um and admitted to submitting incorrect documents okay so what is concerning to me is that like we we finally I feel like got a definitive explanation from Miss Batista right now about why there's why there is being dis why discipline is being recommended that has not been the case for months now um I feel like we've gotten different explanations for in in different we've pointed to different actions about why she's being disciplined and that is what is concerning to me is that this should have been a very clearcut situation from the beginning and it I've got I personally have gotten different explanations Miss Batista um on page 336 um the employee submitted a report to the Florida High School Association and listed the um the child as female and signed it August of 2021 right so I again I understand that piece and I appreciate you being very clear-cut now but that has not been the case for the last and I'm not saying that specifically you have not been clear-cut I'm just saying in general as a district we have not been clear about what this is about truly okay ready to vote so you're voting on The Substitute motion to suspend Miss sorton for 10 days as a lateral move and that she would not be in an IT position roll call school board members fogan holy no Hixon yes Honus yes linardy yes rer yes zman yes ahef no Austin no fam no 54 the motion passes okay going to uh sha R hion thank you um I have a couple of questions for the superintendent so the the consequences or the punishment I don't know what how you want to call it for Dr Shaw Ro um based on the report that we received there were a lot of different pieces in here and honestly I didn't see anything about bullying we heard a lot about bullying but in this information that we got one of it one part of it was where she had said to someone hold on I have to go back my computer went poo um she said to a sto to a student um there was an issue Dr scha requested a student security specialist come into her office as they were arguing she stated when Mr Jenkins entered the room the student was cursing and Dr Shaw R stood up started to come around her desk and said boy I will beat your ass I'm from Parkway you don't know me and then there's another part where um she said something similar to another student so all of those pieces are part of this discipline is that correct correct okay thank you so um I think it's important for us to understand these are all public um documents that were out there's a number of issues in here so one was that in particular there's also a piece where someone suggests that she points her fingers as if it's a gun and says that she would blow someone's brains out these are all concerning um statements that were made that are in the statement that we have that's public record there's some other things that are in here that um also were concerning so I I don't think that five days of a suspension based on what is in the report that we received is um excessive in this particular instance and again I I don't know what the we do Progressive discipline there are things that that were collab collaborated some that were but not 100% I mean I read through the whole thing I understand that um you know i' I've been to to the to the school and I you know I've seen Dr sha roll do a great job with the students but it seems there are pieces in here where maybe she loses her cool occasionally and we just said we're not going to tolerate when someone does something that affects students so to not do anything in this instance I don't think based on what we just said um would be consistent with what we believe um when it involves students so I just wanted to point that out because we've heard a lot of stuff about just bullying which I didn't even see in this report as as the things that were happening here so could you clarify for us what the punishment that is before us and is addressing is it addressing bullying instances or just the instances that were specific to the report that we received and Mr Aero if you can help me out with this but the uh the punishments are addressing the totality of that report yes sir so through the through the chair there were two separate inves vations going on one by SIU and one by employee Labor Relations so it was the total of incidents that were brought to both sides that were investigated where the recommendation from SIU and from and not from SIU I'm sorry from PSC the Professional Standards committee that recommendation came back with a 10day where the employee labor relation corrective active corrective Action Report came back with three days so it was a 13-day in total two separate investigations okay thank you but the consequence or the recommendation to us is 5 days is that correct correct and um Miss Batista you can dwell on the negotiation between her representation and um Miss Ro so so the negotiation was not through my office um it was through the human relations uh Department uh but the item that is before the board is a um is a an agreement between uh the the employee and the school board for a lesser uh process of or lesser discipline of 5 days in total um and it was signed uh by the employee and that's why there is a difference between what was initially given to the employee and what is before you today thank you for the clarification Miss fam yes um in reference to Dr Shaw um she brought part some paperwork that showed that some of the allegations U that were made they weren't identified who was making them um she also showed us some allegations that were more than 10 years uh plus old she said that she um made a request numerous times were an appeal which went unanswered so therefore I would like to make a motion um where appears her due process rights have been violated to table this item until she has the opportunity to get her appeal heard so that would be my motion is there a second I'll second U and I'll have some additional comments move by fam second by Alon public comment on the motion Madam chair can you repeat the motion Miss fam my motion is to table this item an abundance of caution to make certain that Dr Scholl's due process rights have not been violated and to allow for her to appeal her ruling public comment probably about to reach my limit Chris Nelson uh but uh hopefully you will all vote in favor of this motion um and uh I'm wondering where the teachers union is defending her because we've seen where teachers uh like Joseph Carter when they've fallen out of favor with the teachers union boss they don't get the same defense that uh that other teachers do so uh uh and then I the motion Mr Nelson hopefully that you'll hopefully you'll Vote for This motion thank you thank you Mr Nelson Sandra Sandra Sherer from the city of myar um I do also agree that you should um table this item the policy wasn't followed in this particular case therefore the the findings can't be trusted um with the consequences of the of such great loss to Dr sha Ro and the stud as in b County Public School this decision um for the 5 days should be vacated and she should be given an opportunity to have due process rights and have an appeal heard on this matter good afternoon board um this is Dr Char Ro there is so much that's being said here today that is not correct and my mom always would say to us you don't look an adult in the face and call them a liar and this is very hard for me to do but there was no negotiation of 13 days to 5 days the the findings came back from SIU Professional Standards I believe I got a letter that said they were 10 and then that they were reduced somehow to two I don't know how that happened but I was thankful for it and then I was someone met with me uh Dr neith and another person and they gave me a letter Dr NES Smith and Dr heram wasn't even involved in the investigation neither one was my boss but they gave me a three-day which was 3 days and two days there was never a negotiation of 13 to 5 days with me and I I just think that there's just so much that's going on where people are not being truthful um I I don't agree with um it going back to um litigation or negotiation unless you also deal with the issue of the demotion there was a demotion in there also so that part of it you you you haven't talked about that you talked about what what she said or what they thought she said or whatever but you don't you didn't talk about the fact that she was demoted um the five day and plus the 5 day suspension so um I think you guys need to um talk about everything before you send it anywhere else thank you Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida um I support the motion I think there's a lot that you don't have including comments from the last meeting which I can't find online um and the demotion there's been a lot of movement of this of this employee in the past couple of years including a demotion and this seems to be the season where people are put under duress and told you either sign this or we're going to non-renew or we're going to do this or that and I don't know if it comes from Palm Beach or orange but you guys need to take it back to where it came from because that's not going to fly here so yes I support the motion and not just flinging it back through the same process but make sure that all your rules are being followed with Fidelity and integrity thank you board member comment on the motion Miss seon thank you Dr heurn can you tell us um if due process was followed in this and um what what's the process for for the appeal Mr Aero thank you through the chair yes due process was followed in both SIU case and the employee labor relation team process uh for the stipulation that was signed by the employe that was sent to the board members um number five on that stipulation says it may not be amended changed or modified in any way except in writing executed by the employee and the school board so I'm not the council I'm not sure how we can move forward once the employee signed that what the options are about an appeal answering her appeal question Miss Batista um Council for the uh superintendent is here and he can address uh those issues Mr Fabian ree microphone microphone microphone microphone Beacon if we can get the mics up here please for the public speaker good afternoon Fabian Ruiz with the law firm of gray Robinson so I'm not super familiar with the facts of of what occurred I know typically speaking when you have a stipulation when you have a settlement agreement that means that the individual has reached a point especially when the individual is represented by Council the individual has reached a point where they're comfortable with what they're signing so in this case my understanding is and I'm not sure if it was a 13-day or something else but there was some sort of discipline that would have been issued would have been would have come before the board there was a stipulation between the employee and um you know the the the bo the the district itself so management and the employee and that would essentially it's it's not a waiver but it is saying I'm comfortable with what's taking place to date and moving forward what I'm accepting is in this case a 5-day suspension does that answer the question six uh yes thank you thank you any other board members Mr Al yes and I actually am familiar with the that uh statement um is the settlement agreement final or is it final when the board takes Action Council Miss Batista so the agreement normally any agreement would be final when after the board approves approves it as well got it so the agreement is still pending and I recall the motion that I made that staff is still trying to pull the video from uh was very clear to have a conversation between both sides the district and the other party which was the motion I made seven days ago so that's why I second the motion Miss fam because what I asked for uh in a 90 vote was not followed um in a public meeting you have something to add Chief we're still reviewing the tape but I believe you're correct in the sense that your motion was uh making sure all Schoolboard policies were followed all due process and to work through the employees representative if needed that sounds about right but it was just both sides get together and talk yes I I recall the motion so that's why I second the motion Miss fam uh because clearly a lot was we've spent what one hour on employee number one is that did I get that right no I'm sorry we spent an hour on employee number two but we're going to spend two minutes on employee number one so it's just very clear that the same level of due diligence uh has not been administered today so I am uh going to support the motion uh for that reason uh and because clearly the board took action last week that was not followed M fam I'd like to amend my motion just to include and the demotion at the end of it okay repeat your motion then please a motion oh I'm sorry um what was my motion a motion to table this item until um in an abundance of caution to make certain that due process was followed and can you read it back to you can you read it back to me the original motion I made yeah give her I would just leave it at that Miss fam Mr allson no no I can talk openly I would leave the motion at that I mean I think clearly let's see what happens with the motion um and and I I'll withdraw the amendment and I think the end of the motion was on and provide time to appeal roll call on the motion Hixon yes Honus yes linardy yes roer yes Zan no ala no Austin yes fam yes fogan holy yes motion carries 72 okay all in favor of item number two as amended say I I I those opposed say no item two passes as amended may have a motion second on 20 and 26 so move second mooved by Zan second by Hixon public comment board member comment no comments from board members all in favor of 20 and 26 say I I I I those opposed say no 20 and 26 pass unanimously I have a an announcement the workshop scheduled for 3:30 today uh will will not be happening that Workshop was on soon performance and focus update and it will be rescheduled to August 13th we have a motion second on item number 16 to move move by Zan second by Hixon public comment no public comment Miss fam yes microphone proposed revised job description for safety specialist to position um yeah this is a um a motion to well it's actually agenda item to approve the proposed revised job description and no I disagree because this is for a safety specialist and um they say a safety degree is optional I think safety is our number one priority I don't want it optional I think it should be mandatory and a different it says um a safety specialist should be required to have a safety degree so that means they don't have to they can have a degree in anything and I don't think that cuts the guard so I'm I'm not in favor of passing this as is I want someone that has qualifications and someone that can step up and protect their children thank you Dr heurn can you speak to the qualifications for this position Chief alberty yes good afternoon Chief alberty Safety and Security chief officer the reason for the change is where we're trying to do it separate the the job description was changed last time in 2006 so we're trying to separate fire chief official safety inspector uh specialist from a traditional environmental health and safety uh specialist job any other board member comment seeing none all in favor of item 16 say I I those opposed say no no item 16 passes with one descending vote Mrs fam may I have a motion second on item number three so moveed move by Zan second by hickon public comment we have two registered speakers Lisa Maxwell and Dr uh Mark Kaplan good evening board members my name is Lisa Maxwell I'm the executive director for the Broward principles and assistance association I want to thank the board uh for this recognition the importance and value of principles and assistant principles by uh acknowledging 5.5% of referendum dollars I would ask the board to consider today making it for the full three years as the other Union groups also have uh that would send a strong signal that uh you appreciate the work that's gone into having us B Anda uh all of the studies and information that comes from educational groups talks about the importance of the link between student achievement and Leadership of the school and that's a very powerful link so we appreciate your consideration of that and thank you for today thank you going to say good afternoon but it's good evening board Dr heer uh as Miss Maxwell said on behalf of all principles and assistant principles we do appreciate the cons ation of the 52% referendum for this school year however um we would like to be on an equal playing field with other groups that have received the three-year commitment and so we're asking for that uh today if possible uh in addition you know in my 20 years being a principal I think that we have come here twice to talk about salary once this well this is the third time last year to talk about referendum and then not until oh 15 years ago we talked about F being furloughed so you don't see principles or assistant principles come here very often so what we what we're asking for is to consider the trend of treating different employee groups differently than others and can we please get principles back on track with uh not being at meetings to discuss salary so that we can continue to do the job that we've been doing here in Brower County for a very long time thank you any other public speakers see none Dr Zan thank so much chair I had a question for the board um uh chair about uh this provision uh of doing this for one year only could you tell me um uh whether or not the referendum dollars have been committed for three years for all other employee groups Dr heern Mr AO thank you through the chair uh Dr Zan they have been approved for the three years at the same amounts for our labor union groups for our meet and confer the board approved extending the referendum for three years but this item is just dealing with this one year and the five and a half% let me ask the question a different way then chair uh for our meet and confer groups have they secured a three-year commitment for the 5.5% of salary from the referendum dollars Dr Mr Ao no they have not thank you very much chair Mrs zon thank you um first I'd like to say thank you to the principls and assistant principles for helping us to get to the a um and for what you do every day it's very very important so thank you um Dr heurn what what would be is it POS I'm pretty sure I know the intent of the board is to try to keep everyone at 5.5% at least um for the whole time of the referendum so what would be what's holding us back from making that commitment to every group as we did for the ones that we negotiate with Mr AO I'd say part of the discussion we've had around where some of the referendum dollars may be going um it allow not committing to the five and a half would give us some flexibility in future years if if a change had to be made that's not the only but can you speak speak speak um to the difference in being able to do that with um other Union groups versus our Meek and confer is was the con cont the labor the labor groups have assigned four-year mou that we will give them the same referendum for the the duration of this referendum 22 through 26 the meet and confers are not labor unions so they're not bound by a contract thank you so um Miss mon or through the superintendent to um miss our our Chief Financial Officer each year do we see that the referendum produces more than what was expected based on property taxes Miss montoo I'm trying to give you some time through the chair yes that's correct thank you um so I superintendent I don't know if it would be appropriate if we were to make we couldn't make it an agreement on paper a verbal agreement to say that we the intent of the board is to definitely keep everyone at least at that 5.5% if not higher based on what what the roll out is or you know what would it look like I guess I'd like to hear what my board members have to say if we should since we don't do a a negotiation inou and all of that with the meet and confers I don't know where it would fall in other than us just saying verbally that we're committing to doing that as we move forward so um can you kind of address that yes as the superintendent I I will work at the bef of the board if the board corporate makes a commitment um over 3 years for 55% um increase u based on referendum we will follow through on that okay so based on that I'd like to make a motion um I'd like to move that we direct the superintendent to make sure that all employee groups have at least the 5.5% through the referendum um as he brings forward budget each year second move by hickon second by Le nardy public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion Mr allson yes I thought I I thought I knew where the vice chair was going but I'm actually going to do something a little different because the direction is actually not uh we didn't provide direction to another group which we just clearly heard um we actually took a vote a binding vote that's the direction that a board takes so the direction that we should take if we are serious about 5.5% is to approve this over a threeyear period and then we do the same for all the other subsequent groups and then when we get to the budget then we figure out how we want to deal with it so my substitute motion is to approve number three before us over a three-year period starting with 2425 at the 5.5% rate that's my motion second move by Alon second by Ala public comment board member comment Miss hion can we make that motion for three four and five all I want to do it one I got you I want I want to do one at a time that's that's the way I prefer to deal with it yeah they're all different board member comment now well anyway I'll be quiet nope I'm done no board member comment all in favor of approving number three over a three year period of time say I I those opposed say no motion passes unanimously all right good have a motion second on item number four so move second moved by Zan second by Hixon public comment yes we have one register speaker Pete tingum oh he left he was here board member comment Mr allson oh okay I'll do it again I I'll move the same uh for esab so uh well no the item on the floor is as is for 2425 correct so because this is also Chief please correct me this is also considered meet and confer correct someone say correct it's only for one year so because it's meet and confer uh similar to what we just did for the bpaa I'd like to move this covering also a 3-year period uh for the same as opposed to just the one year is recommended second move by Allon second by Ala public comment board comment all in favor of the motion say I I those who say no motion carries may have a motion second on item number five moved moved by Zan second by Hixon public comment one register speaker Lorissa Crawford good evening um I am Lisa Crawford I'm a confidential office manager at Plantation Park Elementary School and I'm the proud president of the confidential office Personnel Association which is also known as Copa Copa petitions on behalf of its 196 members as well as the 158 additional confidential members um that represented in your District or in our district District in today's society with Rising costs you are showing that you agree that every cents count it is important for these your y loyal employees to have comparable comparable salaries quality benefits as well as being remembered and included in supplemental pay increases I stand before you today to thank you on behalf of Copa executive board the executive director and all of your 354 confidential employees for the 5.5% referendum supplement in your consideration of the three years thank you thank you Mr Alon yes thank you madam chair uh I'd like to also move the same uh actually let me let me confirm Chief is this a meet and confer group that has not received what other groups have received yes sir this as I tried to do months ago I like to move this item uh to cover three years not just a 24 25 year second move by Allon second by Alf public comment board member comment all in favor of the motion say I I I those say no motion carries unanimously can I ask one question Madam chair Mr Alon so now that we've approved numbers three four and five and this is maybe a question Mr superintendent maybe more for the chief wasn't the intent of the referendum to do exactly what we just did Dr Mr AO to the chair I to provide salary assistance to our employees all of our employee groups yes thank you sir may have a motion second item number 10 so moved move by Zan second by hickon public comment one register speaker Dr Dr n Lynch Walsh I think we've move to evening um good evening Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh um on this item because it speaks to Head Start and VPK which is important first steps as far as getting kids reading on grade level uh this is about management software but you also and it speaks it mentions in the executive summary the number of kids impacted and the number of bit classrooms in schools across the district and it's also important to make sure that you have long-term planning for the classrooms a lot of which are currently in modular and as I mentioned before at Markham they will stay in modulars for as long as you guys violate the CCC Thank You by board comment all in favor item number 10 say I I those oppos say no item passes unly may have a motion second I item number 12 to move move by Zan second by Hixon public comment no public comment thank you madam chair um I'm looking at this if you look at the contract amount that was taken out in October 2023 and then uh 24 it comes out to approximately um for those 22 months a little over 100,000 and now we're paying for um there go double 108 it's close enough for me I'll take it withdraw M any other comments seeing none all in favor of item number 12 say I I I I those opposed say no 12 passes unanimously may have a motion second on item number 35 so move I'd like to move my item Madam chair oh sorry yeah go ahead move by Altin second by Zan public comment board member comment uh there's a one register speaker for item number 35 Dr natal LW ah yes you Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation Florida um so a few days ago Scott Travis reported that the district had no plan for a public awareness campaign so you can imagine how happy I was that Mr Allon brought this item forward because um I was getting a little worried which is why you saw so many emails from me when we were going to get it on the ballot it was like pulling teeth to get an update so it didn't surprised me at all to hear that there was no plan to create public awareness because it seems like I don't know if people changed their minds but the voters have to vote for this and they won't know that it's there if it isn't promoted and advertised as far as being a thing on the ballot it started to feel like you were no longer in favor of it but I agree with the rationale I I thought the executive summary was a little odd in that if you vote no then the superintendent will not create a public awareness campaign I'm shocked that a board member needed to bring this in the first place because there was no shortage of public awareness campaigns in 2014 for the bond you wouldn't believe the lengths they went to for that one certainly no shortage of public awareness for the referendum so my expectation for a district that has had four grand jury reports and public trust literally in the toilet on any given day is that you would be promoting this as the best first step in regaining public trust so I fully support this motion but I'm shocked that a board member had to bring it and it wouldn't have been staff with a plan but I can't say I'm surprised because it's been something nobody's talking about at all and Trust trust me you want to at least have your message out there cuz I offered if you weren't going to do one that you don't necessarily want me making everybody aware um because then I put my own spin on it I'm still going to do that but at least now you have something to counter it so thank you I hope you guys vote unanimously that would be my expectation Mr Aon thank you madam chair um and yes I was uh absolutely thrilled to bring this item not because I need it in thought that Clarity was needed um because I don't think the superintendent needed that direction um I think he's heard uh the will of the board and has seen uh the direction of the last several years which this has been uh kind of going through the process um I rememb board members uh I'm sorry madam chair board member fogan I think with the initial conversation before all the way to the subsequent steps with Council over to the County Commission so I think this is the right thing to do um and many know that there are strong benefits of having an inspector General uh and I think to many of the comments that we've heard you know just over time uh this will be this is one of the things that will begin to bring back uh heightened uh the the public trust which is uh critically important uh as we are now in a school district uh we want to make sure that we remain in a district and remove anything that hinders us uh from maintain that a district status so happy to bring the item uh and I'm ready for a vote dress thank you madam chair so um uh Dr heurn uh based on this item do you have any information on the budget for this item and if you don't um what what time period would you need to provide us with a budget for this item Dr Mr s sure thank you for the question question um so St statue is pretty specific in its restrictions of our uh use of any public funds for any kind of uh Communications to the electors on a ballot question we are allowed to educate not advocate so we can utilize our uh free our free channels I like as I like to call them so we can have a website we can do social media posts as long as we're not expending any funds in those regards and as long as we're not telling people how to vote we are are allowed to tell them what their vote would mean and educate them and this is a far more complicated Communications plan than the referendum the referendum is pretty simple you vote Yes No and there's funds I think a lot of people probably aren't even aware we have an inspector General in the county in terms of the folks who who vote so you almost have to educate them on what An Inspector General is and what the ballot measure would be to include us in their jurisdiction but State Statute is pretty restrictive on how you can use funds so um for the referendum for example we really didn't have a budget uh we just utilized our our our free resources um and the channels I um described before so so in summary John it it will not cost um because we're utilizing free mediums to do correct we would not have we would not expend any public funds on on the the ballot measure to to let folks know what what's happening and I know Miss Batista knows the statue too so so if I'm uh going off course I'm sure she will jump in but yes State Statute does not allow us to have a uh any public expenditures as it relates to a ballot measure okay and Miss Batista is that information accurate from your legal perspective yes um through the share it is correct thank you Miss leonardy yeah um and I appreciate uh that this is going to be on the ballot I uh am I allowed to say that I support the the board item I voted for the board item I supported that for for years um so I'm excited about this uh I just want to be very clear make sure that we will be following the law um so we won't be can you just reiterate uh or can staff please reiterate what it is we're allowed to do and if we're allowed to spend money um I just want to be very clear about not violating the law so again we can we can inform the public we cannot persuade the public so we can provide factual information of what the measure would do or not do if it passes but beyond that we can't for example send uh everyone's familiar with mailers we can't we couldn't send mailers we couldn't uh do commercials or advertisements or any kind of targeted um social media campaigns because that would involve uh a financial impact to the district so we're allowed to educate as long as that education doesn't cost us funds okay so in the case of like newspaper advertisements as long as those newspaper advertisements are free we could do something so we what we have done historically is done op EDS uh which is a free uh free source uh Resource as long as it's there's no guarantee they'll publish it but historically speaking uh the local papers have published our op EDS as it relates to ballot measures and again in those op-eds we'll tell them what what their vote means means and perhaps why we uh need it but we're educating and not advocating and the item mentions radio advertisements as long as those are free radio advertisement that that's okay yes as long as it's free so the superintendent uh in the course of uh his normal day-to-day operations does go on radio that we don't that doesn't cost us anything so in in that Avenue he could definitely mention that there is a ballot question coming up and what that would mean for us as long as he's not telling people or board members or staff aren't saying specifically vote Yes or No it works both ways okay and just to to put it in layman's terms if the ballot initiative passes there will be more oversight over the school district and if it does not pass there will not be additional oversight is that correct so the reason for the ballot measure is the Inspector General was formed by the County's uh Charter we were not included in that so that's why it's going out to the voters if it were to pass then we would be subject to the uh Inspector General we would be under their umbrella which I believe is there is a cost to the district and we would have to enter into an agreement once it passes but it would have to pass before we are able to have those discussions right but so like for example with the referendum I went out to Civic associations and and clubs and things like that and talked about whether like what would happen if the referendum passed what happened if it didn't pass so if I'm going to go out to the community and talk to voters I can educate I can't Advocate and tell them how to vote but I'm if I want to if you know educate them I can say is it factual information for me to say that if this passes uh there will be more oversight and if it does not pass there will not be more oversight I don't want to complicate the question but if your uh staff or representing the school district in their official capacity you're not allowed to Advocate okay um so I I hope that we you know my colleagues will join me in going out to the community to speak and educate uh as we did for the referendum as well um I invite all of my colleagues to participate in that thank you any other board member Dr Zan just a quick one uh chair um we spent a lot of time talking about this over the past year and a half we did a lot of work uh with the County Commission to move this forward we have good estimates of how much it's going to cost uh what's not always clear is kind of what impact this will have uh on our County and and on Brower County Schools but having an independent uh group Like An Inspector General who can look at anything uh that is reported to them uh and report back to the appropriate authorities uh as just a tremendous measure of Safety and Security from us doing our jobs well in particular using $6 billion employing over 30,000 people being largest landowner in prow County uh the impact of this should it pass is going to be substantial and uh I look forward to participating in the education campaign thanks chair thank you not a doctor yet may I Madam chair yes um and I know there was a recent report in the Sun Sentinel so let me just uh clarify or make it very um very factual so while it is the Count's U measure that they had the authority to approve or not approve it and they championed that that was on the behest of the school board so we do thank him for placing this ballot uh question to the voters thank you madam chair thank you so thank you Mr for bringing this forward I was going to bring this up to the school board today to speak to it and I agree with you uh as far as um promoting this uh the the Broward County Inspector General uh this was a recommendation of a past grand jury report and I definitely think that it is important to um make sure this happens and the one thing I would ask is that uh Dr he that you provide a like a talking point sheet for the board this way we we stay in in the the boundaries rules rules and then also my question is in the our budget uh is there allocation and a line item for the cost that this is going to cost us again so we're not I'm superintendent Mr suan again we're now allowed to expend uh public resources dollars on it so it would no no not on this item I mean specifically for the Broward County Inspector General trying to think forward if it does pass 1.2 million no I'm saying did do we have it already allocated in the budget that's what I'm asking no not yet Madam chair okay so when do we well should we yes absolutely being trying to forward think and maybe this is a better discussion for the 530 okay fine any other questions all in favor of item number 35 say I I those opposed say no I item 35 passes unanimously we have a motion second on item number 17 the move move by Zan second by Hixon public comment no register public comment board member comment Dr holness thank you madam chair let me just go ahead and get to that item give me just one second we're on 17 correct correct okay so um I just have a a comment on this um I have uh heard of situation where and and I I've spoken to Chief alberty but I want to have this on record of situation where um we have uh a disconnect um with the security uh manager and and the principal and I know that we're seeking here for the security uh specialist to report to the air security manager so I just want to caution and I have this conversation before that the principal is not um out of the loop and that the principal is equally respected uh and there's collaboration with the AA security manager and the school principls because I've heard of situation where the it's being said that the um this is not the principal's uh responsibility and so um I'm just concern about how this impacts safety if we are completely removing the principle um so I I just like Chief alberty to comment on that because um I've heard multiple times where um the principal is not um engaged in a collaborative manner uh as far as Security on school campuses because they're increasingly being removed from from that responsibility Chief alberty good afternoon Jamie alberty Chief Safety and Security Officer Dr holness thank you for that and as after speaking of you last week I spoke with the director of Safety and Security and he assured me that staff should never say um some of the things that you uh repeated to me as far as how they report to who they report to we need to know directly if anything happens to that effect because our whole purpose and goal is to support our principles and support our schools the alignment uh who they report for to issues so that we can keep Safety and Security under Safety and Security um but the support needs to exist um there to provide our principles and Avenue to have that collaboration with our Safety and Security folks um in the field the job description is changing so we can actually give an opportunity for other applicants to apply that are beyond the eight years that is the whole purpose why this with this uh job description is being presented today but we hear you loud and clear sir and it's duly noted and we got training coming up next week which will be one point that will add into our training B okay so um I would I would strongly encourage um Mr Alber that not only do we have um isolated trainings but I'm sure you probably do but that we have ongoing training where the air security manager understands the importance of significant collaboration with the principal and not to be dismissive of the principal and if the principal has suggestions that could improv Security on the campus that those suggestions are taken seriously because I've heard multiple times where there is disconnect and the air security manager and the security specialist is working in isolation and not regarding the input of the principal absolutely we we'll take that into consideration and we'll definitely U Circle back to the director of Safety and Security to make sure that that happens thank you Miss fam yes thank you um and going through this I noted that um for this security specialist position the only thing you have to have is an associate degree you don't even have to have it in security so I'm sorry but I will not vote for something in which we um don't have a stronger person in there to um defend our children okay any other comments all in favor of item number 17 say I I say no no item passes with one dissenting vote Mrs fam uh now going to recess the meeting till after our budget meeting all right five minutes w [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] I [Music] sign [Music] are weing [Music] here I've moved on to the [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm sorry [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] Broward County Public Schools your partner in education choose the best choose [Music] BCPS Broward County Public Schools the best teachers the best schools from prek through high school and Beyond choose the best choose [Music] BCPS Broward County Public Schools the best programs from academics to trades athletic to stem choose the best choose [Music] BCPS Broward County Public Schools the best schools and programs for families choose the best choose BCPS [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] h [Music] no good evening the first public hearing of the school board of Baro County Florida for the 2024 2025 Mill and budget is now called to order please identify the exit doors that are cudly Mark for emergency exiting we ask that all attendees please maintain a respectful and professional demeanor during this meeting our primary focus is to create a safe and productive environment for all of our participants thank you so much all please rise for the pledge allegiance of the flag of the United States of America I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all As We Begin this public hearing we reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all of our students entering the new school year as an a-rated School District We Begin the vital task to sustain this achievement we will continue educating all students to reach their Highest Potential the evening this evening the board is considering the following business one adopt resolution number 2503 approving the tenative millage rates for fiscal year 2024 2025 two adopt resolution number 2504 approving this tenant budget for fiscal year 2024 20 25 Dr he are there any changes to the agenda no ma'am the proposed changes to the agenda by the superintendent or accepted by the chair after being determined that good cause has been established for said changes may I have a motion and second to close the agenda I move second move by Zan second by Fen holy all in favor of closing the agenda let it be known by saying I I those opposed say no the agenda is now closed I will now entertain a motion to move item number one and item number two together for public input and board discussion at the conclusion of this discussion the items will need to be separated before voting I don't like that all right I'm going to move item number one to the floor second move by Zan second by Hixon public comment on item number one board member comment on item number one have a Mr Austin all right let me put my baked potato to the side so we are not doing a presentation is that correct we're just jumping straight to questions yes just want to make sure that's okay I can do that that is chair are we going to do the presentation so the public can see what we're presenting to them yeah I'm sorry this scripts a little we will do a presentation on item number one I'll wait thank you Dr harer thank you madam chair I'm pleased to submit the 2425 tenative millage and tenative budget for the school board's consideration and adoption I want to to start off by thanking the board for their input to staff at all the workshops this year when the district's budget was discussed the budget workshops were held on the following dates January 30th February 27th April 23rd May 29th and recently on June 25th the district's administrative and school leadership teams remain committed to providing our students with a world-class education and a safe and secure learning environment we are incredibly proud to have earned an a grade from the state a goal we have been working hard to achieve this accomplishment highlights the outstanding progress we have made and assures parents that we are providing a high quality education for their children I commend our teachers administrators and staff for their commitment to students learning our students and families for their drive and determination to succeed and our school board for its continued support and guidance my objectives are clear maintaining BCPS as an a school district 100% proficiency for all students Financial stability for our district and ensure Equity so every student benefits from high quality instruction and exceptional educational experiences during the upcoming school year we will leverage our resources and opportunities to build capacity for our principles and teachers upgrade our facilities so we can bring them up to par and have conducive learning environments and improve the fund balance to Target 5% of net operating revenues as well as increase employee compensation by enhancing efficiencies in our processes boosting cost Effectiveness and eliminating redundancies I've challenged my leadership team to take a deep dive in their respective budgets and find Opportunities to improve cost efficiencies to realiz a $100 million in savings this budget includes1 19.6 million for the recurring teacher salary increase that was approved from the non recurring American Rescue plan funding last year the budget also includes an additional $12.8 million from the teacher salary increase allocation an equivalent of about 1.4% teacher salary increases I'm pleased to announce that our employees will continue to receive the referendum supplements same as last year we will also maintain the same referendum funding as last year for safety and ESS cenal programs like mental health tonight I'm asking the board to approve the tenative millage rates and a tenative budget now the Chief Financial Officer and the budget team will make a brief presentation and staff will be available to answer any questions after the presentation good evening Madam chair board members and superintendent this is the first of the two public hearings to discuss the 20242 District budget the two items on the agenda for approval today are the tenative millage levies and the tentative District budget for fiscal year 20242 the second public hearing to adopt the district's 2024-25 budget will be on September 10th the next slide provides an overview of today's agenda on today's agenda item number two resolution adopting tentative budget the six document labeled 20242 tenative District budget and District summary budget provides an extensive detail and insight into the District budget so I urge everyone to look at that slide four shows the proposed millage rates for this year is 64655 as compared to last year's millage of 6.61 56 there's an overall decrease in total millage of 01501 that is 2.3% lower than the previous year this is driven by a reduction in the required local effort and the millage Levy for the voted Debt Service for the general obligation bonds the required local effort millage is the rate that school districts must Levy to participate in the Florida education Finance program also referred to as the ffp slide five shows the revenue generated for the district from the local millage levies including nearly 1.2 billion for District's operations 471 million for construction and capital Improvement projects 314 million for the referendum to recruit and retain high quality teachers and eligible staff by increasing compensation supplements maintain and enhance school resource officers and school safety staff maintain and enhance essential program such as mental health services the voted Deb millage Levy will generate 48.5 million to cover the related debt payment for the general obligation bonds the total millage levies will generate about 2 billion in total revenue for Broward County Public Schools slides 6 through 9 provide a recap of the information discussed at previous workshops and were included in the budget Workshop number six presentation on June 25th so I will go to slide 10 the pie chart on slide 10 represents the total 3.1 billion Appropriations for general fund by category for the 2024-25 budget slide 21 in the appendix provides additional information for the categories presented on the slide two key takeaways from this chart are that the total compensation including salaries benefits taxes and other compensation accounts for 61% of the general fund budget charter schools and FES funding comprise of 24% of the budget which leaves 15% for utilities and other operational costs slide 11 represents the total $3.1 billion appropriation for general fund by function slide 22 in the appendix provides additional information for the categories presented on the slide as Illustrated on this pie chart 92% of the district's operating budget is allocated to School operations the remaining 8% is designated for transportation maintenance Central Services General Administration curriculum development and property and general liability insurance slide 12 to highlight the most significant accomplishment Broward County public schools and a-rated school district invest 92% of his operating budget on school operations and the other 8% and to provide additional support to schools just to recap the budget includes the recurring teacher salary increase of 19.6 million that was funded one time last year by ARP funding that is an equivalent of a 2.26% increase an increase of 12.8 million in the teacher salary increase allocation which is net of charter schools and FES that is an equivalent of 1.4% attributed to an increase in the state funding the capital plan includes funds allocated to high priority needs and safety Athletics it and facility projects to address the most critical needs the district has identified Capital funding to begin reimagining schools and projects recommended at the completion of the facilities condition assessment another great accomplishment is the that the district continues to be recognized for financial Excellence as awarded by the Association of school business officials also known as asbo for excellence in financial reporting the district also received the distinguished budget presentation award and the certificate of excellence in financial reporting from the government Finance Officers Association also known as gfoa slide 13 Recaps that the fiscal year 2024-25 referendum funding accomplishes the following continued compensation supplements for teachers and other staff at the same rate as fiscal year 23 24 maintain the same level of funding for safety programs as last year continued funding for essential programs including mental health at the same level as the previous year and distribute the charter school share of referendum based on its proportional share of FTE which stands for full-time equivalent slide 14 shows a budget adoption timeline we have also provided additional information in the appendix for reference we deeply value the board and our community's time and feedback as we diligently continue to leverage our resources and opportunities to improve the district's financial position as our budget is a living and breathing document I would also like to take a quick moment to recognize my entire Finance team for their hard work and dedication and for putting countless hours in preparing the budget and financial documents for the district and with that we conclude our presentation thank you board member comment we have a we have a speaker Chris Nelson no not here Dr hus thank you um Madam chair so um regarding the the budget I'd just like to mention a concern that was brought to my attention by commissioner Melissa D of the city of L Hill as well as commissioner Pam Beasley Pitman from the city of Fort Lauderdale uh commissioner Dunn mentioned met with me actually to express her significant concern about the accessibility of menstrual hygiene products for students and advocate for funding to support these products uh commissioner pan Beasley Pitman from the city of Fort Lauderdale wrote a letter to my office requesting that the school board of BR County include menstrual products as a specific line item in its budget um House Bill 389 uh actually um authorize school districts to make menstrual hygiene products available at no charge in schools within the district and at a certain at certain locations within each school I'd like to thank Beauty initiatives in corporation and women impact in neighborhood for donating menstrual hygiene products for our students at ra County Schools however the concern that has been brought to my attention is that students are missing classes and school due to a lack of access to menstrual hygiene products and if Partners disc continue their donations to the district and donated products become unavailable for schools how will schools proceed with ordering necessary items who will be responsible for covering the cost of these products so I'd like to make a motion to add a line item of $100 to the budget of each brow County Public School for the purchase of menstrual hygiene products for the 2425 school year with the option to review and adjust this amount based on the needs of each school this is based upon on the concerns brought forth by the leaders of different cities regarding this uh issue is there a second second move by wholeness second by Leonardi public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion I have a question charson so item number one is on millit rates correct on it what item are we on Dr going to deal with them separate two together no we're doing item number one oh this is would be applicable to item number two I thought we were doing it together no we're doing item number one so I'm going to hold the same motion but it will be applicable to number two when we get there okay comments on item number one the adopt the resolution 2503 approving the tenative millage rates for fiscal year 2425 District white Mr charson yes uh and this is on the millage rates correct Y which will tie back to the budget um and even I think once we add or subtract from the budget it's going to impact this number um so let me just ask maybe big picture question similar to what I asked I think the superintendent previously um does this budget increase taxes on families Dr M mono yes overall I'm sorry yes it do yes it does increase taxes so this is a tax increase correct yes okay um so does this budget contain all the tools and resour resources needed to maintain an a district rating yes okay does it also contain the tools and resources needed to focus on the learning gains needed as well yes that's correct and this is specifically I'm assuming around math language arts uh science all the all the critical testing areas correct yes okay do we know the cost of a 2% raise for all employees for all employees it would be roughly 30 million 30 million so 1% would be 15.4 15 million cuz I think I remember that uh the last two budget Cycles got it okay um so before I get to the budget how would we guarantee a 2% raise for all employees how could we do that Dr heer Miss Bala So currently the teacher salary increase allocation or increase for this year accounts for about 1.4% increase in the teacher salary um so that's already uh baked into the budget right but and if you want to increase it even further for teachers and also 2% for all employees that means we need to have budget reductions got it but so using the words of many who come to the microphone the 1.4% are those State dollars that we like to refer to yes got it so the 1.4% that's baked in has come from the state of Florida for Broward County Public Schools is that correct correct got it so let's focus on the discretionary Mills which is where I have focused the last several years what is the discretionary uh number that the board has uh discretion over uh amending only the discretionary millage which um the way the item stands right now is 748 got it so the 7480 if we were to to adjust that number so we could uh give every employee a base 2% raise in the budget how could we do that 748 is the maximum that's allowed yes understood but if we were to make a reduction or do something else how could we guarantee a 2% base raise for all employees how could that means that we would have to reduce the budget somewhere okay what's that number again um for what for the 2% oh it's about 30 million for all employees and if we were to make a reduction of 05 Mills that's about 15 million is that right 15.7 million 15.7 so if we were to do that times two that is what number 31 all right so let me start with the lower number uh Madam chair I'd like to amend the discretionary millage that we reduce it by 05 Ms to help Broward families and homeowners in this upcoming budget there second second move by all second by fam public comment on the motion board member comment Miss hixen thank you um Dr heurn can you tell us how much that would reduce the money to Broward County Public Schools and what that actually would translate for homeowners Dr harer Miss matala so if you reduce the discretionary millage rate by 05 the impact to the school district would be a reduction in revenue of 15.7 million and that means the savings for homeowners which would be $18 and savings for condo owner will be $10 per is that per year per month per year annually annually okay thank you any other comments Dr aan thank you so much chair I appreciate that um I'll tell you uh about what I've heard over the past week uh from our representatives in Tallahassee um about uh turning down impact fees from developers but the message was pretty clear don't come begging for money in Tallahassee if you don't collect all the money you're allowed to collect locally and uh this is a similar idea uh that $15.7 million is critical Broward County's approximate uh operating uh budget per year is $9,000 the national average is 13,000 we do great education in Broward County uh on the cheat and reducing uh $18 for homeowner or $10 for a condo owner uh might um sound good as a bumper sticker uh but it's not a good investment in the future of Broward County we need to continue to move from an A District to 100% proficiency uh there is not $57 million that I can see in this budget that would uh come out without directly impacting our ability to perform our core Mission and in fact we're looking very hard at $100 million of administrative overhead facilities uh closing schools and the like so that we can move money to pay Educators better not reduce the overall Revenue to Broward County Schools so uh I can't think of a motion that's been made in the last two years here that I would be more opposed to than this one uh but most importantly I don't want to lose Faith with people in Tallahassee when we go and talk to them about raising uh the amount of money that is paid for public education in Florida we continue in Broward County to do great on a shoestring budget but Broward County and the State of Florida dramatically underfund public education compared to all other states in the United States and hopefully that will change over time thank you chair Dr holus thank you madam chair so um just to reiterate and I'm sure we all understand but for the public as well um if we this motion that's on the floor which is reduced by 05 that would be for homeowners a savings of $150 per month and for for condos 83 cents a month that would result in 15.7 million doll uh being removed from the budget what I can say is that all of our residents are very happy with the results that we're getting in bar County Schools being an a district uh a lot of this is attributed to the kind of resources that we put in our schools uh to the efforts of our staff and so it is a Paramount that we all join in the efforts to ensure that our schools continue to succeed I think the district asking for 83 cents a month or $150 uh for homeowners I think is a reasonable ask and I don't I think the residents are also collectively would be on board to continue to support our schools that we can continue to be an a district and we can continue to have adequate funding to be able to do that so um I uh cannot support this motion I don't think um it would be beneficial to the district considering the minimal ask the minimal increase that we're looking at each month Miss fam yeah just to compare apples to apples um what are we asking for an increase for referendums and in the impact fees are we going to be asking our voters our taxpayers to contribute 2024 25 Dr I'm sorry m f can you repeat the question just for clarification okay right now we're we're talking about taxes okay my question is are we also going to be asking for money in a referendum in the future and also are we didn't we just already vote on impact fees to increase them so I just want to know what we're looking at for the whole picture what the voter people can expect I don't think we um passed that the impact fees um item last week um but as far as the future with a referendum once we complete the the task of this previous ref referendum and build back uh public trust as we move forward yes we'll be going back to the voters what year are you looking at um what's that 26 28 28 I think thank you any other comments on this motion before we vote Mr Charon can you repeat the motion sure uh I believe the motion was to reduce the discretionary Mills by 05 to help all of our browart families homeowners uh Etc okay roll call Hixon no Honis no l no rert no Zan nope a yes Austin highly in favor of bam no boogen holy yes 35 the motion uh fails okay back to the main motion item number one I'm sorry 36 six to three 36 and yeah motion fails any other motions comments all right seeing none all in favor of adopting excuse me I have to oh go ahead I'm sorry I have to read it into the record first and we can vote right Jeff Whitney the budget director the school board of barer County Florida resolution 2503 resolution by the school board of Brower County Florida adopting 10 millage rates whereas the school board of bar County Florida did pursuant to Chapters 200 and 101 Florida Statutes approved the tenative millage rates for the fiscal year July 1 2024 to June 30 2025 and whereas the public hearing and in full compliance with chapter 200 Florida Statutes the school board of bar County Florida adopted the tenative millage rate for the fiscal year 20242 in the amounts of required local effort 3630 raising 962 m121 334 basic discretionary 0.748 raising $234,950 4,867 Capital Improvement 1.5 0000 Ms raising 471 mil1 166,000 $177 voted referendum 1.000000 raising $314 m1107 185 voted debt 01545 raising $48,530 11177 for a total millage Levy of6 64655 raising 2 billion 30 million $83,200 the total millage rate to be levied exceeds the rolled back rate by 5.87% now therefore be it resolved that the school board of Brier County Florida adopted each tenative millage rate for the fiscal year July 1 2024 to June 30 2025 by separate vote prior to adopting the tenative budget all those in favor of item number one say i i i those opposed say no no ala Fen holy Austin descending fam descending so item passes uh 5 54 may have a motion second item number two so move Mr F I wasn't sure if rer came through right in here rer were you a yes I was a yes thank you thank you [Music] H4 it it was fam Alida Austin and Fen holy descenting 54 we have a motion second item number two moved moved by Fen holy second by Seaman public comment board comment Mr Alon yes thank you madam chair um so I know that last budget cycle I asked a question around FTE so as I go to page 6- 17 all the way to 6-24 um this graphic or this uh this had a I'm under the financial tab sorry um general fund School Appropriations so last year this had a tab for FTE by department and by division this year I see that we chose not to do that um where are the FTE by area because what I do see is the reduction in one of the categories uh that you do highlight for special Revenue you do highlight the FTE there do we highlight the number of FTE that's in this overall budget compared to last year Dr M matala so um I can explain that that's a good question well first of all I would like for everyone to refer to s-32 which shows the 2024-25 general fund detailed Personnel resource allocation so we have it summarize on that page but as for the detail uh by division um the reason why we didn't include it because due to the realignment staff is working with HR to realign positions so we did not have an accurate number for 20242 5 so we did not want to show something that was inaccurate but we will include it for the adopted budget right but you a you acknowledge that what we saw last year is a little different than the the depiction this year correct yes got it but so the increase so so now let me ask a different question now that we've we've set that as the Baseline uh so is there an increase in positions in this budget overall no so there is a there is a there is no increase in position positions in this budget correct overall there's a decrease in um District positions both schools and divisions okay and in the other category as well correct um special Revenue yes because uh primarily due to the ARP funding so the positions that were coded to ARP last year are now either eliminated or shifted to general fund but this does not mean that we're not hiring this just means that there will be no new positions I just want understand it's just a realignment uh funding source for the positions so it the reduction in special Revenue primarily our funding the grand funding is because our funding will no longer exist so those positions have been realigned to other funding sources and primarily general fund all right so let me ask a different question the 5 99.5 or the 51 15.7 what do those numbers represent so is primarily due to the AR funding so it's not an overall increase in positions it's the funding of those positions so the position that were coded to ARP MH were moved to general fund and um that's primarily the reason why you see an increase there so got it so but are we freezing the current number of FTE compared to last year to this year is that yes or is that no I know we're planing accounting here I just want to understand I'm not clear what you mean by freezing so how many FTE did we have in the current budget year that we're in so whatever that number is which I believe actually I pull my laptop um that number that we the current year that we're sitting in is that number the same for 2425 regardless of the reallocation of FTS no there was an overall reduction so in divisions overall it's like 85 position position um reduction and in schools it's over 300 because of declining in enrollment okay so in the 24 in this budget that we're approving there is a decrease in positions compared to last year correct yes correct okay the only reason you see is an increase on that page page 732 is because the realignment of funding sources not necessarily because total positions went up right because that is only for general fund you see how this is challenging for me correct and that's why we didn't want to make it more confusing by putting numbers on the other page because they're not finalized so all right so the the recommended budget has a decrease an FTE count compared to the current budget that we're sitting in here's why I'm asking the same statement I made a year ago if our intent is because now we're having a budget conversation to do more for employees if that's the intent we're freezing I'm assuming the current number of FTE the FTE count yes correct so as superintendent had mentioned before that his directive to staff is to only fill critical positions at this time and to freeze um any additions okay so now since we're talking budget how do we get to increasing base salary for employees at this point because the budget is already balance any increase or any Financial impact would have to be offset by a reduction okay um and do we need to do that today or when we come back for the final it would have to be today so we can um bring back for the adopted budget we can bring bring a revised budget got it so I know there're going to be different motions so we can add to the budget right but yes but we have to take from other places we have to take from other places to balance it correct okay or can we direct here is what our intent is and when you bring back the final right can that direction be for superintendent for you to balance and figure it out yes through the superintendent yes so yes yes okay all right so I'm going to take a stab at making a motion here actually let me ask let me ask a question so just to understand if we wanted to do a base 1% base raise for all employees separate from the 1.4% state allocation what does that cost for 1% for all employees 15.4 million 15.4 2% would be 30.8 yes so the 100 million that is being planned to be cut over time I'm assuming that is fully within this coming budget year correct that is the superintendent in intend okay that's separate from so here's my question cuz it's I'm asking now it's accounting sorry whether it's 15.4 or 30.8 if the intent is to cut 100 million we can get to that number if the motion if I make a affirmative motion that passes correct yes or is there an intent to use those reductions for something else well if the board's intent is to get the district to 5% part of that 100 million reduction would be to rebuild fund balance to get us to 5% and any additional monies could be used for other initiatives or employee compensation or whatever the board may direct the superintendent to do okay so the $ 100 million reduction because I think we've already started 24 million of that is that right yes so now we're down to 76 yeah so the $776 Million number has no bearing on what we're approving today I just want to make sure I'm clear on that is that correct because we're not approving a budget that has $76 million of reductions in front of us no okay so the subsequent reductions how does that work Mr superintendent CFO help me understand that um so my current um um ask of the of the cabinet is to go through their budget so we can realize $100 million worth of savings by the end of this semester so that would um help us with the upcoming budget cycle this one that we're about to approve right correct is that correct Miss Bala that it would help us with this so current budget budget if we're able to have reduction the realize Savings in the current year that would help the current year and increase fund balance which was the board's intent but we may not be able to accomplish all the reductions if it impact schools because schools have already received their budgets and are planning on using it so it may so whatever decisions are made if it is for the next fiscal year then we would see it in the next year so it depends on what the reductions end up being so it could be part this year part next year um but that's what I guess the super directive is to go through budgets to see where the savings can be realized so it sounds like that won't be for the 2425 budget year that's going to now not the full 100 million because some of the reduction like we brought for the budget Workshop number six affected schools directly and that we cannot change unless we tell schools to cut services or you know reduce positions but since they've already um started the fiscal year and already have positions in place and people in positions that would be very difficult to accomplish in the current year but schools are not the only place for reductions right School sites or departments because we already went through um the reappointment cycle for fiscal year 2425 but if we also made oh sorry no I was going to add to miss Mata statement but we're looking across the board it's not just realized um from schools what across the board departments divisions what we're purchasing uh reviewing Personnel needs all of that so and that's actually my next point so just around contracts when do we how do we make when do we make those decisions to no longer or stop doing certain contracts so thank you that was what I was going to add to it that's some of the contracts we have to look at the end date so we may not realize all the Savings in the current year if let's say the contract expires 6:30 right June 30th we may not be able to just end the contract mid year so we may not realize Savings in the current year but but it could be a decision if once all the Chiefs go through their budgets and if a determination is made that a specific contract does not have to continue we could realize savings for next year but not necessarily this year okay so if I make a motion to set aside at least 1% base for every employee for the 252 2425 year which is 15.4 million if that motion passes between now and the next the final budget hearing you will have to Now find 15.4 million of the 100 now is that correct that is correct correct okay is that feasible is that reasonable is that doable I know it's tough great question it's tough um I shouldn't have said that yeah I know it's tough U what what I can say what I'm committed to by the and this is what I told the is by the end of the first semester so we're looking at those things now so we can aggressively look to see what type of savings that we can realize before the next budget hearing in September um like Miss matala said if we have people in the seats it may not be a realization till the end of the school year for the upcoming budget but if we have um contracts that uh are are sunsetting between now in September or now in October possibly um those are things that we can um look at if we have certain positions that are out there that are not needed and not critical um those and they're and they're vacant those are some um areas we can um realize so it's tough um but we can take a look we could take a very firm look to to see if we can realize 15 million because if we do nothing only the 1.4% from the state is recurring correct correct and the 5.5% plus or minus is not recurring right for from referendum yes yep not recurring all right so I'm going to take a stab at it so I move that we uh allocate and look for 15.4 million of savings to set aside an additional 1% base salary increase for every school district employee for the 25 for the 2425 budget year there second second moved by Allon second by fogan holy public comment board member comment Hixon thank you um I appreciate that but I I'm a little frustrated because this will be the fourth year that I've have asked when we do a budget that we do it around giving at least a 4% increase and I feel like we everyone nods their head and says yes but nothing changes and then everyone and I I actually made this point later which is the only reason that you see the the money that comes from the state and the budget because that has been left blank all in the past years but it's just frustrating to me because now we're going to be told well we have contracts and you know we have all these things but my ask before we started this months and months ago was build a budget around at least 4% for our employees and that did not happen so I appreciate what you're saying but I and what happens to my voice it's just frustrating I know we get a a bucket that's pretty definitive right we we don't get extra money we can't make some miracle happen and money comes down to us but to keep saying we're going to do it and oh well next year oh well next year I'm four years in and the same thing keeps happening so I appreciate the 1% but I want to know why we're not seeing what we asked for which was a bucket in here that had some general idea of money maybe not specific that we could know that we added money into our budget to make sure all our employees were going to get an increase and and the discussion has been around my discussion has been around 4% since I got elected so I'm to the superintendent and and I know everyone does a lot of work in here but my ask this year was start from scratch we did not start from scratch because it's the same items it's the same money over and over and I know we pay a lot for our employees so don't get me wrong there but we also pay a million dollars for for this subscription $500,000 for that one and I'll I'll again say I was at bayw elementary and they don't use that me much technology and they're the number one one of the number one elementaries in the state so I'm frustrated here because I want to say yes to the 1% but I actually want to say it should be 4% um and but we can also but I I don't want to tie our hands I guess I just want to share the fact that that the expectation isn't met here and it hasn't been met last year it wasn't met the year before and people say you you we're not pushing back enough that's what I hear I'm not strong enough I'm not making Mak enough changes because I don't demand things but I don't want to put us in a position where we're asking you to do something that's impossible but we asked for you to come back with a budget this year that allowed us to do it not half this year half that year 2% is it's not even close to to the increase in what we see in people what people have to pay so I don't I don't know the right answer I just wanted to express my frustration here I don't want to make a for 4% because I know it puts us in a bad place um and I do appreciate the motion to to force the 1% but I thought we made that motion to force the 100,000 for this budget and um it's not here so I would hope that when the budget comes to us in September it's what we asked for not not well part now part later and it it shouldn't touch the schools in terms of what they need for operation but maybe we just have a lot more software that's not necessary um along with other things but so I'm not sure I'm just very conflicted at the moment and frustrated so thank you okay and Dr holus yes Madam chair I'd like to speak on on that uh um motion motion so um I would like the Dr heurn to respond to the prior concern by board member Hixon as I have similar concerns that um you know we thought we were going to prioritize um teachers and staff and then work around that but um based on my understanding what's before us is a 1.4% and board member Alon proposed an additional 1% so if you could comment on the concerns of board member Hixon cuz I share similar concerns and then I'd like to keep the floor for a couple more comments yep um thank you for the question absolutely um first um just want to acknowledge the team the uh Finance team doing a good job we we're meeting uh frequently to go over this information and also the academic team operation team as they're going through their budgets and trying to realize some savings um over the spring we you know some things have uh new obligations have have uh um approached that we have to take take care of that's uh you know obliged us to set aside you know 10 10 to 20 plus million dollar um to address some District obligations that we were hopeful that we could possibly use for some of the initiatives that Miss um Hixon talk is talking about um also reviewing many of the contracts they are three-year contracts and they don't Sunset some sunset at the middle of the Year some sun sunset two years from now so those are some real uh realized cuts for some high priced items um that we may not need in the future um also there's people sitting in the seats um that um we just can't abruptly just uh uh removed in we did some calculations with some of our school levels and we ended up having to provide additional money back to them after after we realized some savings just to make sure we can make it work in our schools just to make sure the classroom ratios were appropriate um and principles could build a master schedule around um providing the best learning opportunities to our students so um a lot of different things happen in a short amount of time at the in in the spring um that kind of created some obstacles they're they're not barriers but they're definitely obstacles which we're trying to work through during this first semester hence why I've tasked my team to really go through everything with a fine tooth comb to see if we can identify $100 million in savings um we know a lot of our budget is dedicated to schools so it it's although uh we can say it's going to we can reduced reduced in central office and Regional Offices but schools are going to feel a little bit of that of that pain too because a large uh Lion Share of our budget is dedicated um to schools and a small share is actually dedicated to central office and and and regional office so we're going through with a fine to com to make sure we can maintain the standards of services we're providing um to our students uh our schools and and our community so I'm hopeful um sometime uh during this uh first semester I can come to you with the detailed um um overview of how we're realizing $100 million in Saving okay so I have a followup question um you know I believe we've spoken before about 4% tell us the challenges that you would experience should the board um look at 4% well I think right now um the challeng is of 4% right now um without giving us opportunity to go through it in detail over time um would impact our schools definitely um like I said we we have a lot of contracts that are not sunsetting soon um the our budget is tied up in people and we have to really have conversations with our school leaders really seeing how we're leveraging people in our schools leveraging people in central office and leveraging people in our Regional Offices for for the ultimate impact of uh uh on our students so once we have a clear understanding of what we can pull back um then we can start having those tough conversations with with those people that we may have to um start um you know so board member Alon mentioned 1% what would an additional uh 6% how would that impact what you need to do what kind of challenges would that create if this is a 3% instead of 1.4 so I I would say this um we will we can try hard to come back with as many um uh as much savings as possible that's what we're going through right now to really understand the impact um as we review every Department um including academics and and how it impacts our school but I know right now if we say hey three three 4% 5% and we have to come back with that in September we may M we may we may make some decisions abruptly that will definitely have an impact on our schools that we can't pull back from okay so 3% versus 2.4 would would create in your opinion additional um extreme challenges in order to meet that additional corre so for instance um we had a savings of about $10 million um by a slight increase in class size just for high schools they couldn't make their Master schedules work appropriately to provide the same level of service that they provided in previous years also with my demands as a superintendent of increasing acceleration opportunities in high schools too um as a result we had to give them back some money to make that work so we don't decline our level of service to our students and also supporting our initiatives around providing more accelerated coursework which is for high school students more college level on work with AAP and expanding those opportunities so those are the things we have to look at and dive into is how it's going to impact the schools how it's going to impact the students um so I would say just give the team an opportunity to dive into it um I know uh we can make a motion of uh of something 1% 2% whatever the case may be but I would say uh for us uh let the staff look at what the possibilities are and we can bring back um something specific we can talk about what what are the impacts if we do do something abruptly uh during the during the month of September we can talk about some long-term or or what I would say or shortterm because I'm looking at um savings by the end of this semester am I able to speak on my second Point go ahead okay oh we we're actually voting on this motion first correct on the motion comments on the [Music] motion Dr Zan thank you um like my colleague my other countywide colleague um I would say that I'm frustrated but I'm way past that um and I uh really want to share my comments with my colleagues because um the staff brings us ideas and we say no they bring us ways to do things differently and sometimes uh we see more risks than rewards uh in those things and we direct the budget process it's ours we own it the Florida statute says these nine people approved the budget so sometimes you point at other people and three fingers point back at you and this is one of those cases we have to have the courage uh to make real change I will not stop until there's a 4% raise and $60 million and here's why to Mr alon's Point what is $60 million divided by $6 billion that's $6,000 million and we need to find 60 right is nothing it's a tiny piece of things but we have to start thinking about doing things differently we have a huge backlog of money that we've appropriated but never got spent why don't we look at that we have ways of doing things differently so even though most of our money goes out for people what people do every day in their job can be changed and we can negotiate that and interestingly the people that need to say yes to that are the same people that want the 4% so that's a perfect kind of conversation to have uh as we go forward but it is maddening uh to come here every year at the beginning uh and have talk about $100 million have talk about redefining schools uh but you know the idea that we spend a lot of money on people doesn't mean we can't find $6 million out of a $6 billion budget uh we just have to figure out how to find that 1% and we need to do it every year businesses constantly uh challenge themselves to reduce costs by 8 and 10% per year we can do 1% and if we did 1% we're on Perpetual cycle of paying people better they get to keep up with inflation they feel respected and cared for we get all the attendant benefits that come with paying people an appropriate amount uh I'm tickled that two years ago we found a 14% raise largely because of the referendum last year we found a total raise of 9% from a variety of things including additional benefits to health care and and retirement uh we cannot go below the 4% plus 1.4 for teachers and we can't go below the 4% uh for all Educators that work in Broward County what does that mean that means when the votes come here we have to say yes to reduction sometimes we have to help the staff think about things we have to use the council in great City Schools you know there's 12,800 school districts in the United States we don't hear enough about what other people have done to save money we just keep looking at our own belly button and that's gets kind of old and so I am not afraid of finding $60 million I will not stop until we have that and and this board has voted uh to to implement $60 million because to me uh everyone keeps talking about an a-rated District uh um but the foundation of an a-rated district is the people and we're not going to keep the people if we go out with a 1.4% raise for teachers and some bonus for all other Educators so uh I share frustrations with this but I also will take responsibility for it but this year we're going to find $60 million so that we can U at least vote on that I hope uh I hope we continue to vote until we find that money so we can pay people well U and then I hope that we fix the budget process because it is dynamic it would be interesting today to just say let's set aside $60 million but there's no uh interesting vote to take on that cuz no one knows where the savings is going to come but we could say we're going to find the $60 million and we're going to make sure that we pay people uh what it'll take to retain them and to keep them inspired in doing this critical work to me that's the work that's left over uh about the a-rated district it's not just the 34,000 people or 32,000 people that work here that made in a district it's the 750,000 people in Broward County that did homework with kids and got them dressed and made sure that they participated in academics before they did Sports and when you add all that up that's a lot of people uh working on a noble thing but we're going to lose our key resource uh if we can't continue to find 4% per year um and because this is dynamic we'll find it it's only 1% if we can't reduce our cost by 1% a year uh we should probably pack it in and let somebody else run this place thank you any other board member comments Mr Al repeat the Fam thank you madam chair I think that each of the board members should um come back with an idea of where we can save costs um independently work which we usually do yeah I support that but anyway um because I think if we work as a team I think we all think differently and we'll have ideas outside of the box there won't really be a lot of duplication and at least that's a starting point I I hear Miss Hixon saying each year she asks and nothing happen well apparently we've got to take some action here so it's going to be upon us to to set the stage and say and come back and say this is what I found and this is what I found and and we just keep building upon that if we want to get anywhere we have to act as a team and work as a team thank you Mr allson can you repeat the motion um I think the motion was to where's the number find 15.4 million in savings or cost avoidances so we could get to a 1% base salary increase for all employees and just to confirm that is madam CFO that 15.4 that is for all employees correct just want to make Miss matala is the 1% 15.4 yes employ all employes all employees roll call yes school board members Honus oh okay Hess Hess yes yes lardy yes rert yes Zan no ala yes Alon highly in favor of famam yes Bogen holy yes Hixon yes motion passes 81 okay rson do you have anything else no I think holdes had the floor oh I'm sorry thank you madam chair this is revisiting my motion from before and um just to quickly um provide a a review of what I have asked without going through all of it uh House Bill 389 um requires school districts to make menstrual hygiene products available at no charge in schools within the district um we have a couple of uh sources donating these products to Bro County schools which Beauty initiatives in corporation and women impacting neighborhood um I did receive a couple of concerns from commissioner Melissa Dunn from the city of lud Hill and commissioner Pam Beasley Pitman from the city of Fort Lauderdale regarding concerns about uh these products being available it has come to my attention that students are missing classes and schools due to lack of access to menstrual hygiene products and if these partners that we have uh should discontinue their donation to The District and donated products become unavailable for schools and this will be concerning in having these items uh um uh ready for our students so my motion is to add a line item and I'm adjusting this to add a line item of $500 to the budget of each bro County Public School for the purchase of menstrual hygiene products for the 2024 school year with the option to review and adjust this amount based on the needs of each School sir a second CH yes and moved by uh holess second by Leonardi public comment board member comment just a question Json so if this passes Mr superintendent you're also looking for savings to get this number as well correct okay any other comment oh I have a question based on the law so perfect Chief so I do recall um the law that passed it does not require a dollar amount for district correct I don't believe it it it specifically it just says that we shall provide the resources in schools right whether it's through what's existing now through free resources Etc this is just putting a dollar amount on it which is opposite of the other item that you couldn't put a dollar amount on correct I believe if I recall the legislation allows us to do it you you you're confident yes this allows us to allocate dollars for it yes yes okay but it does not provide okay a dollar amount thank you I have a a question Dr to Dr heurn is there data that shows that we don't have enough of these products in the schools for what is necessary I I have to provide a followup I'm not aware of any specific data but I'm pretty sure student services may have something that may be able to assist us so I can provide in a followup okay cuz that would be important to know if cuz $500 per School times 200 and something schools is going to be a large chunk of money if it's necessary that's different but if there's not a need at the moment to do that and I would also ask Mr Sullivan if maybe we could put a request on our legislative asks that the the state help fund this um since it's it's a law and it's important um but is there any way we could get that answer before we're voting on this just a general Madam chair um this is relevant to board member hixon's concern okay so um please bear in mind and also to board member Alon the motion also indicated uh to review and adjust the amount based on the needs of each School uh so it's not set at necessarily 500 the amount can be adjusted based on the needs of the school higher yep higher yes okay uh Mr Hixon well did yeah I think Dr wza wanted to go ahead Dr wanza but uh I know Miss uh hollandsworth is checking where her good W so I first want to go back and I'm looking at Miss Leonardi she never looked at me because she did a lot of work on this so I'll if I I can pause and let Miss Leonardi speak first and then I can come back no I had a question okay because she in previous years um she did a lot of work on this so the first thing I'll say is uh in the warehouse the the warehouse keeps a stock of sanitary or and I I hope I don't offend anyone but of menstrual products let me say that we have um implemented over the years procedures where schools actually do the order they send it to the warehouse and if they have a budgetary concern they are to work with their now region office so that it so that these supplies are made available for students at no cost during the school day I will say that we um have had many organizations that have partnered with schools not only to you know provide them at no cost during the school day because the the concern was really around students knowing where they were and their access to them without charge and that they had to be in a place that was easily accessible to students many organizations partnered so that students would have supplies to take home with them outside of the school day on weekends so there is a process there is a procedure um and schools can order the supplies that they would need through the warehouse Miss Paul can speak you know any more if there's anything she would like to add and I certainly would defer to miss Leonardi because she championed this for about two or three years M frog Holly no chair I think uh thank you very much I think I was going to repeat what Dr wanza said um because I remember having this conversation like board member Leonard had brought this up multiple times um for the last couple years so I just want to get that data that Miss Hixon requested thank you Miss Fam thank you madam chair um if I could just have clarification are you talking about um menstral products for when um students are at school or throughout the week 10 days whatever you want to say and if if we are talking about throughout the week um to take products home is there any way we can have the city or uh the county also help pitch in and I don't know if they've been approached at this point but I think that might be the consideration thank you thank you Miss fam I think um Dr wano was talking specific to the supplies in our warehouse availability during the school day and then our partners who partner with us of providing um those supplies for at home for at home use and are we paying for those supplies or is that something we can approach the county or the city about to chip in not the ones is coming up over the years the partners who have been very generous um in their donations they were donations at no cost to the district thank you so much for the clarification Dr holness Madam chair was also stated in in the concern that it has been acknowledged that these are donations uh from a couple of uh companies um so that has been acknowledged in the rational for this item where if Partners the concern is if Partners discontinue their donation to The District um and it becomes unavailable for schools and this has been shared with me as well by different um Community leaders including uh commissioner be the Pitman of Fort lale commissioner Melissa dun of lill so what we're actually doing is looking to approve an item to have that in the budget so that it is readily accessible and um if it's needed uh then students have access to that um as well as the amount can be adjusted based upon the need of each school um now I did hear some board members uh one board member concern about the the the amount um I I think um you know I can uh if we need to adjust the amount that's fine to provide um less challenge to the superintendent to allocate those funds so uh I am willing to adjust it if that will move this item forward um uh but I think it's important that we have something in the budget in the event that uh any of the partners should discontinue their donation so I would just uh agree that we can should lower it um maybe $250 per School sounds like we're already getting donations I would also ask the superintendent that we would reach out to maxipad and tampon companies to give donations directly to Broward County Public Schools and so I accept the amended 250 Madame chair any other comments all in favor of the motion 250 say I I those oppos say no motion carries unanimously next I'll go oh he all right one other question my big question we already addressed why do we not see teacher salary or staff salary increases in the budget so we're going to address that but I have a question um on page 10 which Al rolls over to page 21 that you pouned um um pointed out so charter schools and FES so on page 21 it says that 240 M360 $199 goes towards FES so can you explain to um to us how you came up with that number how many students like have we verified that there's a certain number of students who have actually left Bri County Public Schools to go and take this um scholarship or is it students who were already in um sorry I meant a private school in a private school and are just utilizing These funds can you just break down that number for us miss matalo so that is um the information that we received from the state so that's what we're using for the budget purposes yeah cuz we're mainly a pass through um correct miss m yes is there any way to because that's I mean it's a huge number right $240 million but it would be important for us if we don't do this if there's a way to collect this data to find out how many of them left Broward County Public Schools and we lost that money or how many of them were already in private schools and it's just because it's passing through us like cuz that number is a big number but I don't know that it gives people the right data that's needed to understand how much it really is affecting we'll um collect as much data as we can I know we have uh enrollment numbers from LA from 2223 school year to 2324 school year um can't remember the exact um reflection of our decline but that'll give you an idea of how many students did not return to us um from the 2223 school year to 2324 but we'll um see what type of information we can collect because I know um a lot of the family empowerment scholarships are used by private school parents that have been in private school their whole entire um life so kind of my point okay thank you okay Mr yeah okay thanks I got a lot here um all right so first um on page 21 of the packet this packet the Appropriations by category I think there's a lot of opportunities that we can save here uh so I'm going to start with electricity I know I brought this up in 2018 uh with as far as opportunities to have um solar panels and you know I I mentioned putting them on roofs and I was shot down but I think you know we live in Florida there's so much sun and opportunities for solar panels so you know maybe I don't know what company we use with our electricity Dr heer but maybe you know there is that solar opportunity whether we put it in our walkways that's what I was told we can put in our walkways um and we can save money back to the district so that's one two telephone I was I was laughing when I saw that because I know we're all using cell phones but then I realized you know in the offices are actually using that the phone and and so um but that is a lot of money that we are spending on the telephone but I don't know what company we're using but maybe there is an opportunity to to go out and use a different company that could save us money I don't know if we have explored that I haven't heard about that in in years so that's another opportunity other expensive category um and then I'm looking at it I the travel I know I asked the question my colleague saw we're we're spending 2.2 million in state travel and 1 million out of state travel so I definitely think that we have opportunity to cut that travel and then uh my favorite the printing uh so I'm not sure exactly what that number looks like but we should be going more green I'll continue to say that and do things less less paper driven so the other expense category um I would I would love to to see that cut drastically um much well I don't want I would love I would love for Dr he to come back to the board with some ideas you know I don't know exactly you know because there's things like software licenses equipment rentals I don't know what that looks like I don't know exactly what that is but I gave some examples where things can be cut like personal services what is what does that mean um and then other expenses what it exact you know what is in that category so I I challenge you Dr heurn to cut 50 million from there challenge accept it all right so on page of the big book of for the public hearing 2-3 under Safety and Security updates so I learned today at the MSD commission meeting that the district threat management coordinator position that the district can apply for State funding to fund that entire position so that's a cost savings there um I can't really see on the or chart where that position is it doesn't look like we've renamed the position Dr he have we done that well I'm trying to get to the page here what 2-3 under safety Chief alberty if you can answer that question very small two D3 good afternoon Madam chair or good evening yes we have applied for that uh Grant I believe that memo was already going towards the budget office um because we are taking advantage of that I think it's 104,000 right and then have we changed it on the or chart the name of the position have we updated the name no that name of the position is just the behavioral threat assessment director that's what that is district threat management coordinator yeah that's who that is that's just a designate uh designator uh name and title that we get from the state but that's is that on the or chart that title is not on the or chart what's on the or chart is the director that is the title it's like for me I I'm the school safety specialist for the state that's not on the old chart but that is part of my title as a design for the state okay it would make sense for me to make the change so it correlates exactly what the title is of the state with the title in our or chart and then my last um comment is so we talked about the office of inspector General's office and Miss Batista is it $800,000 a year that we need to budget for that um I would like Miss morala to weigh in on that it's approximately a million I don't know yes it was approximately a million because we compared it to Miami dat public schools and if the structure is going to be similar to that that's what it costs Miami dat Public Schools okay so I make a moot uh motion to include $1 million in the budget to ensure that we have the funds to implement the measure if it passes for the office of Inspector General second move by alaf second by Fen holy public comment board member comment Miss hion just a quick question so if it passes on the ballot how quickly would we be able to go you know that where would we need to encumber that money because if it doesn't fall in this year it would make more sense to wait to add it into the previous year so how long after if it passes would it actually go into effect so one of the things that we did uh when we were preparing for the possibility of this um uh passing um is that the county the oig's office and my office we work together for about eight months to put together the Ila the interlocal agreement which shared with the board at a workshop and you uh reviewed it my whole purpose for doing that was so that we would be basically ready to start if it does pass um I would bring it to you know the the board meeting the next board meeting uh the only the only blank if you recall that was um left in that Ila was for the money uh because we weren't sure exactly you know how much money it would be and I remember at the time I think uh Dr Zan calculated that it would be approximately a million and that was confirmed by Mrs Marte so um all that to say that we are ready to go basically immediately upon the measure passing okay so it would pass in November right so we'd be ready some so I would bring it you know either at the November meeting or December I'm just wondering if it makes sense to do half of it because it would only be half of year for this budget and then the subsequent budgets we would just so that we're not taking you know we're trying to find money so I don't want to put more money in a place where we know we're not going to use it all because we're only going to need it for a half a year for this budget cycle so all I can share with you is that the um oig you know is going to have a lot of startup costs um with this process they're going to hire um new positions so as to what exactly the amount of money would be for you know the rest of the year I I couldn't give you that figure um but I I would rather ear on the side of caution Mr fogan halling thank you very much chair and I'm GNA ride your wave here on page 21 I had a question about uh trash collection oh wait but can you just speak to thetion the never mind I'll hold it I'll hold it Dr Zan yeah thanks sir chair you know um I'm just trying to think about how to proceed today uh because budgets are Dynamic things and a million dollars out of six billion isn't a lot of money in the end there's going to be uh gas price increases electricity cost is be cheaper there's all kinds of things that go as we've seen uh every year um this particular item is is important and we've committed ourselves to do that but um as the general Council pointed out they're going have to hire people that actually takes time um and so it's really unclear whether it's 600,000 or 300,000 they're going to need for for the 24 25 year uh but it would be uh something that would be easy to do once we find out if it passes um and then from a budget process perspective uh finding that kind of money is pretty straightforward particularly when we've committed to it uh so we would uh be able to find that uh throughout the year this this is a very large budget and when you start to get under a million or a million it's just uh something that kind of comes out as you're working through the budget all year long okay ready to vote Mr just had a simple question um and I'm going for memory the documents even what we shared with the county so I was going to ask this sorry I'm on the microphone now uh wasn't the what was the approximate cost was it 1.2 yes you remember the number yes so I just want to make sure whatever number that's in that document or that whatever we project rejected that should be whatever is in your motion I don't remember but it sounds like just whatever that number is that it matches that's all Miss Batista can you speak to it staff told me 1 million I I believe it was I I don't remember the exact amount I I know that it was being computed from the FTE that were in the Ila Dr her staff we I don't have the exact number any way we can pull up this this um previous item it was an email it's going to be less than that anyway so if it's 1.2 I think if you put one in you know set aside for the for the time being uh not all that money is going to be spent in the 2425 school year mhm then you'd know for the next budget over next year okay so the motion is um I move to include $1 million in the budget to ensure that we have the funds to implement the office of Inspector General's office if the measure passes roll call microphone and Madam shair if I may suggest that um just a designation that the funds be placed in the um the budget for the board office since that you know whatever invoices uh may be received from the oig will be signed by you okay the budget the money will be placed in the board member board's budget Board office budget broll call Miss uh Leonardi yes Miss rert I had a question go ahead Mr are we pass what you say go ahead M rert oh okay um what was the the um change the amount for professional development were we just staying in state and not going out of state uh we're not we're voting on putting a million dollar in the budget for the office of Inspector General okay got it is that a yes Mr Rupert it would be a yes Zan yep ah oh I'm sorry my vote is no I apologize I thought you were calling my name John so I'm here I vote no we don't we don't need to do this all right no vote for Zan aha yes Alon Alli in favor of we need an IG fam yes boogen holy yes Hixon yes holes no motion carries 72 did you ask there okay Miss rer do you have have a comment I think he started with her are we back to the uh the budget for the board people we're back to the main item number two okay great I I just had a question were we keeping instate and and getting rid of atate Dr No miss rert this is Dr heurn the ask was uh for us to review um that Lon item along with other items within the budget for potential um savings okay cuz I thought uh Miss alef had mentioned something about reduction in that uh which I know we've looked at before and have uh you know curtailed the out ofate traveling at times so okay I got it thank you no problem any other board member comments spok only thank you very much chair and um yeah again I wanted to go to page 21 um question about trash collection if we're still working with multiple companies um to collect our trash and all our different schools feel like I know the answer because I've seen 100 different logos at different schools so are we still doing that Dr um Miss Paul yes we are awesome thank you very much Dr Paul so just quick question would we benefit or possibly save money by or how does that work right why why do we work with multiple companies instead of one working to all our schools to collect our trash um and is there possible savings if we were to go to one company to do that districtwide so I think we'll tag team this one miss uh Mr Dorset if you can come forward and then miss uh Andre dreo if you have something going to add to it good afternoon Mark Dorset executive director um based on the geographic location you have multiple um companies that manage Waste Management so you may have all pro you may have waste management you may have a different company so it depends on where the municipality is the company that would serve that municipality is the only one you can go to uh for for or trash collection or some or the likes of that and whatever that charges are for that particular uh entity that's that's what it would be so it would be different uh uh countywide so for example Coral Springs uses Waste Pro all our Coral Springs schools use was pro at every single school is that correct yes if if was Pro runs the corl Springs area that's absolutely correct okay and then there's no way around that what says that that has to be the the case no they the uh as far as I understand it they they there's GE geographical situations that only allow Waste Pro to manage trash in that particular area if they're assigned to that area so you couldn't use another company in that area understand is that city is that our policy what what says that that's that's my question Mr Andre you can you maybe add to that please I think it's County and City good evening Jennifer Andreu executive director operations the municipality so we would have to negotiate contracts with every single municipality throughout the county and they would have to change their current contracts that they're in some are very longterm and then we would have to try to negotiate and do something districtwide as a school district it'd be a very heavy lift got it I'm just trying to understand of how like our jurisdiction our property like I just so if we have to negotiate with them what if we decided to go with one vendor throughout the whole District we would have to go to every single City and negotiate that correct because currently the city has the contract that includes the schools within their municipalities so they're picking up trash at our schools through the city's contract correct so we're not are we paying pay for that yes Mr Dorset I believe we do reimburse we do we we we do pay for that we uh through our utilities budget so we because we see it here right 20.5 yes um so my question I know it may be a heavy lift to have conversations or to talk about contracts but is there possible savings if we did do that and go throughout one contract for Broward County Schools to pick up trash at every single school if that is the will of the board we can definitely look into that and and and research to see how uh how effective that would be and see if that's something that we can do or not got it so chair so I'd like to make a motion that we look into that and see if it's a possibility to have a contract or if it would be worth it to have a contract countywide to service all of our schools um for trash pickup is there a second second moved by fogan holy second by Allon public comment board member comment just oh Charon just more for discussion cuz I do understand and I think uh executive director Andrea was correct so I know it is the municipalities um and even separate from the county unincorporated areas what I don't know is school sites I know fall under the school district Madam C um but I don't know if we do we have that jurisdiction and latitude where we could uh make that decision just for schools I don't know the answer to that I don't know if that's legal or I mean think that's something we would have to research and look into um so I don't know Miss Andre you but is it almost like a piggyback contract with the the cities or is it something separate from that no okay so we would absolutely have to do some resch on that look at it that's your item right and chair I don't even think it's a necessary to have a motion right I think that's a followup just to to request have to see that right because if it's worth it if we're spending that much money and we're just saying okay that's just the way it is but researching it if you came back and said hey Mr fog we're saving $5 million we're starting somewhere right it's a possibility that we could save $3 million $2 million whatever the case is but everything should be looked at like this we're talking about making Cuts let's not talk about cutting and firing people are cutting departments let's look at every single contract we have and where we can save it where we can cut it and start putting it and allocating it towards raises for our staff and doing it the right way I just feel like we are a lot of things we look at it's been the same way for the number of years and we are the sixth largest school district and I think a lot of people would bid a contract like that would be very appealing for a number of companies okay we're able to do that so for me I I'll just say it's followup I I withdraw my motion because it's not necessary thank you chair motion withdrawn thank you any other comments I was just going to comment on that um my experience has been that there are very few companies that could handle one company that could handle a district this size and so I've had that experience experience in several other districts uh so you know I think that needs to be also part of the analysis as we answer your question thank you thank you Dr Zan I know that uh um we have things we want to get done tonight but uh we we don't actually turn our budget in uh even the first draft of the state till August and final till September we still have two months to offer ideas to get uh estimates uh about all of these things uh and I thought that tonight was really supposed to be about you know getting the big numbers right um I feel out of sorts because the Public's not here we didn't notice anybody about these ideas we don't have the right numbers uh to be making decisions and and I think that we're not uh we don't have all that stuff because this meeting wasn't supposed to be about um you know making final things this was supposed to be about the big numbers and then we um you know fine-tune the budget over the next 60 days so um I'm just suggesting that we move uh Beyond this whenever we can so that we can get to the final items and come back once the staff has had time to look hard at these things and help us make the best possible budget we can turn in early September Dr he was this meeting noticed yes okay thank you and listen I I understand but I think that it's also it's our opportunity this the only opportunity we have to talk to each other about this and to if we have ideas to present them and discuss them Mr allson okay thank you uh mine is an easy one um I know last year we had a conversation on Boys and Girls Club YMCA now what budget cycle the new fiscal year begins July 1 or October one I forget School District this school year is it July one July 1 okay so last year have we already handled the Boys and Girls Club in YMCA allocation we are in the process it's turned out to be a little bit more complicated and complex between two nonprofit organ organizations um so but it's in process the team has been working hard to to um address that so I'm confident probably hopefully by the end of this month um not the end of this month because the end of this month's tomorrow hopefully by the end of August um we'll be able to be invoiced for services and pay them accordingly it's a small dollar small doll and it just turned into something that was okay very complicated I can give you details I know yeah yeah it just popped up so now that cuz I thought from the motion last year that also was baked into I know we don't see every line I get that I'm just reconfirming is that allocation still baked into the current tenative budget that we are looking at can you confirm that for me Miss Monto can you confirm that please yes it is okay got it all right thank you any other board member comments seeing none Mr Whitney please read the resolution for item number two to the record Jeff Whitney budget director School Board of BR County Florida resolution 2504 resolution by the school board of Broward County Florida adopting the tenative budget for fiscal year 2024 2025 whereas the school board of Brower County Florida did pursuant to Chapters 200 and 101 Florida Statutes approv tenative millage rates and tened budget for the fiscal year July 1 2024 to June 30 2025 and whereas the school board of BR County Florida set forth the Appropriations and revenue estimates for the budget for fiscal year 2024 2025 whereas at the public hearing and in full compliance with chapter 200 Florida Statutes the school board of bar County Florida adopted the tenative millage rates and the tenative budget in the amount of 5,148 million $67,200 2025 all those in favor of item number two as amended say I i i i those opposed say no no item number two passes with two descenting votes fogan holy and Altin the scheduled order of business for this public hearing of the school board of bar County Florida has been completed seeing no objection I now join the meeting okay we say one [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] [Music] Broward County Public Schools your partner in education choose the best choose [Music] BCPS Broward County Public Schools the best teachers the best schools from prek through high school and Beyond choose the best choose [Music] BCPS Broward County Public Schools the best programs from academics to trades Athletics to step choose the best choose [Music] BCPS Broward County Public Schools the best schools and programs for families choose the best choose BCPS [Music] thing welcome back may I have a motion second on item number 18 move second move by Zan second by fogan holy public comment uh yes Dr n Walsh I don't believe here Mrs fam what item are we on number 18 proposed revised job description for the chief auditor position um yeah thank you madam chair um the chief auditor receives over um more than $3 billion and I think at minimum he should have accounting degree and also accreditation um and degree in finance or a in but not just a general bachelor's degree I think this is far too much money and too big of a risk so I think we need to raise the bar and um really make sure that we're handling things um professionally and in the right way thank you Dr Zan so much chair um we're just a very very large organization uh what I'd like to know uh chair if we do uh shift back so that the um instead of it being a preferred to have a bachelor's degree in accounting or business uh but that put that back in under the minimum qualifications would we still have a reasonably large pool of applicants for this job Dr Mr Aero to the chair yes we will um just a real point of clarification though the current job description only says bachelor's degree we didn't move that out it it currently says earn bachelor's degree from a credit institution doesn't say anything about the bachelor right now I added the stuff at the bottom for preferred I just want to move through this I want to make a motion that we shift uh first bullet under preferred and earned bachelor's degree in accounting or business administration from an accredited institution from preferred to minimum qualifications in this job description second move by Zan second by wholeness public comment board member comment Mr allson yes question Mr Alon mine is just question uh so our chief auditor um would he meet this minimum and preferred qualifications as presented or I guess with the new change CU I don't know that Dr Mr Aero do we know that currently I do not believe he would oh okay if if he would not meet it if it goes from preferred to minimum correct you you're speaking to the moot on the floor or what's before us which one the motion right the if if the motion passed he would not qualif he would not meet it got it why would he not meet it I have do do we know sorry I know it's talking over here why would he not meet the B degree in business or uh accounting he doesn't possess what I hate to sorry it doesn't feel good I need you to help me here the current chief auditor does not have a degree in business or accounting as the motion is stated accounting business oh I understand okay got it it's in something else okay correct okay you're good okay Mr zon thank you I'm I know we went over this be before it's come to us now and you know there was a reason that it didn't have specific degree in that but it does say you know that you have to have 10 years in those fields and that you have to be certified in one of these other things so although it may not be a degree in accounting or any of those other things they do have to have certification in 10 years of progressive experience in things that are related to all of that so I don't know that it's really necessary to change it back we had this discussion the last time we we talked about this before we were in the situation we're in so I don't think we're changing it to fit a particular person it was based on just overall as um the audit being the chief auditor looking at um you know what would give us a bigger pool of applicants so I don't think it's necessary to switch that again Dr holess okay thank you madam CH so um regarding having an ear an earned bachelor's degree in accounting or business um um Can staff speak to the relevance of this um in accomplishing the job of the chief auditor um and then I have a couple other questions Mr AO can you repeat the question sure understand having an earned bachelor's degree based on motion on the floor as the minimum requirement in accounting or business administration um how will this be beneficial uh to the job um duties of a chief auditor and secondly can you reiterate that if this is included as the minimum requirement um how this would impact the pool of applicants would we still expect a large pool of applicants and I just want to caution the the minimum job discri ition is based on the position not a person so we are looking at what is relevant to us as a district not only now but in the future so can you respond to those two questions to the chair yes the second question first is is a little bit easier so the first time we posted this back in um I believe February the catch was that Florida certificate in public accounting having that certificate from Florida as a CPA that's what kept a lot of people out um it wasn't necessarily the bachelor's degree so there were people with Accounting in business and without that would have qualified if they had a Florida CPA um but to answer the question about how would it impact a person's ability to do the job I'm not sure how that would affect either way okay so not being I'm sorry not being an accountant okay so to to be clear then if we include this minimum requirement um for the sake of the public will this have any impact your best opinion on the pool of the pool of applicants as far as volume not a significant impact no okay are you aware of the requirements of any other District regarding the minimum requirement for a chief auditor and would this be um would you say based upon your knowledge that this um requirement of a bachelor's degree in accounting or business um is also similar as a minimum requirement in other districts yes it is our neighbor to the South is pretty much just ask for the bachelor's degree in accounting as well as the Florida or I'm sorry as well as the regular CPA okay so um Miami dat County or do you have any knowledge of Palm Beach County as well do they require well there I'm sorry to interrupt there's is different because they have Inspector General they don't really have a chief aut but Dade County require a bachelor's in accounting or business administration is that correct yes and and just to reiterate this will not in your opinion impact the pool the volume of the pool of applicants that we will receive if this minimum requirement is is put in place that's correct okay thank you okay so um without this motion without this change in the current motion does our chief auditor meet the minimum qualifications and experiences as this is written just the degree part well everything the whole job description so as amended on here right now he would qualify okay and our current chief auditor has the certified Inspector General certification he has one or more of those following okay great not positive which one I don't have his resume with me so for me I think our current chief auditor is doing an excellent job and I would you know as we progress in this process I would like to see him apply to for this position and um if we if we change it then he wouldn't he wouldn't qualify that's correct yep anyone else um I have a question Miss rert so instead of applying could we as uh board members actually direct appoint him yes okay just an idea thank you any other question questions okay um Dr Zeman's motion to change the first bullet point to the minimum qualifications and experience roll call school board members rer yes Zan yep ahv no alustin no famam no fogan holy no Hixon no holess yes motion fails 35 I'm sorry I I didn't call Miss leonardy Mr leonardy yes D you John motion fails 4 five okay back to the item any other comments no all in favor of 18 say I I those oppos say no no no I I passes with two dissenting votes Zan and wholeness we have a motion second on item 19 so move move by Zan second by Hixon public comment board comment fam okay again I had I take issue with the requirements uh the only requirement is a high school diploma and it does not require any kind of teaching experience or educational background I think that we should have um some kind of equivalent or some other items because I don't think that's enough just having a high school diploma any other comments Miss seon thank you just I did ask about this job and it is um it's rolling in teacher assistant and teacher Aid for ese to make it um the job easier to fill so this is it it wasn't clear in in the job description but this is a Teach an assistant like the the pair of professionals that are in the ESC classroom so I just wanted to conf let everybody know um Dr Hess thank you madam chair I did sign up to speak for this on this item so um my concern with this item is um basically um sort of looking at uh teacher assistant as well as classroom assistant um under uh similar condition because we're merging the two under this job description so for this salary information where it says the initial salary placement will be the starting salary on the classroom assistant salary schedule however if the incumbent meets any of the preferred qualification the incumbent will be entitled to the higher starting salary on the teacher assistant salary schedule so um I would prefer that that language is clear because if a person is a teacher assistant it means they have fulfilled further requirements to be categorized as such and if they're functioning in that capacity then it needs to be clear that they they will be paid more so I'd like to make a motion to revise the language um that would then say uh if the incumbent meets any of the preferred qualification and and functioning as a teacher assistant so that would be the added language the incumbent will be entitled an additional wording and guaranteed the higher starting salary on the teacher assistant salary schedule is there a second second move by wholeness second by Leonardi public comment board comment on the motion okay roll call on the motion school board members Zan NOP Al no Austin no famam no fogan holy no Hixon hones yes lardi yes rert yes motion fails 4 five okay any other comments on 19 all in favor of 19 say I i i i those opposed Say No No 19 passes with wholeness descending we have a motion second on 21 so moved mov by Zan second by Hixon public comment board comment Zan thank you so much chair uh this is a item that is going to uh um be more complicated maybe than it starts out to look uh we have um um announced program on repurposing and eventually closing some schools working uh to improve programs and and do a lot of other things but at the end of the day we still have more facilities than we have students and inevitably we have to close some schools uh the mayor uh in this area has been very public about her interest in uh using this if it's chosen by Broward County Schools to do other things this is a center that does remarkable things it's uh it's a tremendous place and so I've been struggling with uh do we give them a three-year lease knowing that it has an option to get out within 30 days or do we say um give them a shorter term lease um uh acknowledging that they are going to be uh a school a campus of great interest as we go through the repurposing my own kind of belief in this is I don't want to mislead people into thinking that they are going to be around for 3 years when there's some chance uh that they're going to be around for one year so instead of kind of leaning on the Clause that allows us to get out with 30 days notice uh my own preference would be to do a one-year lease instead of a three-year lease um and then see how it turns out if in fact turns out not to be one of the schools we can extend the lease um but I just hate to be deceptive to people and let make them think that they're going to be around and not make the Investments to be mobile if they have to be are you making a motion I was going to wait for discussion first and then uh any discussion Dr Zan I'd like to move that we do the lease for one year instead of three there a second I'll second that mve by Zan second by fam public comment board comment on the motion Mr Allison yes I have a question so will the board now be in the posture that for the 70 plus schools that are on the list that we've seen months ago that we are going to now publicly because it's our first time publicly doing this pause resources contract right begin doing that as a board is that what we're going to do is that what this begins to do Mr superintendent Dr um I I don't want to speculate but uh any public discussion people are are listening right so this will be the first action the board will take just to be clear uh that will that we have identified schools that have clearly been on some list or list in the past that the board will begin to now begin singling them out with certain certain actions is that is that what this motion would do um I'm I'm not sure if that I I let me rephrase this I know the board has a concern about each board member has a concern about us um expending U funds or doing work in certain schools um based on the possibility of consolidation right you you I thought yep and I have not released the list made a decision we have not made a decision I have not uh brought forth any list to the board which that will be later in August got it okay so if you haven't made a decision on any schools but the board is now clearly going to start targeting what we believe are schools on a list or not we're sending some type of message and signal and we're going to start with district one that's the way this looks is that correct with this [Music] motion possibly possibly not I know I know the public is listening to our public is listening and that's why you know when PE you know when well the motion on the floor I think is uh not a very smart motion um because I don't think this board should be picking and choosing uh schools that are on some list that does not exist this board member has not supported any schools um on some list this board member has not publicly talked about closing certain schools um and I don't want to start with district one or any District because the superintendent has not given us a list so our I urge my colleagues to vote it down thank you any other comment on the motion roll call on the motion school board members ahef no Altin highly against you said against corre no just highly against just making sure bam no hogen holy no Hixon no Honus yes l no rert no no following Zan yes motion fails 27 okay back to 21 any other comments all in favor of 21 say I I I those opposed say no item passes unanimously may have a motion second on 22 so moved move by Zan second by Hixon public comment Hixon thank you um so this really goes back to some recommendations that were last month um and I'd like Dr heurn to just kind of fill us in um there was a suggestion by the ESC advisory to continue the use of CLA of cameras in the classrooms even though the law has sunsetted and we've been working hard on this so I would like for Dr heurn to kind of give an update and let families know um what the process will be in the upcoming School Year yes so we've been um talking to our Union president and she's amable to um keeping the cameras in in the in the classroom uh what we plan on doing is bringing forth a policy just to ensure that we can Implement these the cameras with the right procedures in place um that will kind of replicate the legislation um the next steps is providing opportunities for parents to go ahead and make those requests but we won't be able to implement until that policy um is in place thank you so just to be clear family parents families can request the camera on the first day of school they'll just not be able to get one in the classroom till we pass a policy correct thank you go ahead Miss H hollor good evening Simone hollingworth like Dr hepor mentioned because the legislation sunsetted on June 30th 20 24 that would not be able to be they can't Implement them so we have to go through the policy go through looping obviously as Dr he mentioned we have been in conversation with Miss Fusco in regards to Union negotiations because it is a uh work in uh contract employment pce so we need to bring that in that'll have to all be looped in and then Loop through our typical advisory process to bring that through and then moving forward then they'll be able to go back through with the documents and all the procedures that were implemented with that pilot legislation that is already in place so that then they can request that and go through putting them on but they can still request on day one the camera they just need to know they can't get it in the classroom until we go through that process right that's I guess my only concern with that is requesting it without having policy and all those other pieces that that might be a little premature than waiting for all the policy and everything to be developed and then you would then put out the um correspondence and communication about requesting it and then turning it on I think there could be some miscommunication and misunderstanding about me asking and we know how lengthy that process can be obviously we're Expediting that we're already working with official Schoolboard records in regards to Bringing forth all the documents with that but I would hate to give the Comm uh you know the community false hope that it's going to happen September 1st even though school starts August 12th I think as long as we're very clear that there's a process and we don't have a date but they want to know on the first day of school that they can request it that's what I'm asking well guess this conversation I think we we can take that back I guess our conversation was about communication to the community about what would be coming and that once that was done then the uh request would be in place Mrs Fam thank you madam chair um I get asked frequently about all the cameras that are boxed up in the schools can you tell me what the plan is to do with them are we going to sell them are we going to put them to use what what where are we going with this I I'll need clarification about we'll have to follow up if you can we could talk offline if you can let me know what school and what box we can check the boxes and find out what cameras we're the cameras from Co they got millions of dollars in cameras from I think she's talking about okay well and they're not even open these boxes so get a follow up yeah we can follow up Miss Miss fam I'll get some more information can sell them there I just gave you a million dollars eBay any other comments all in favor of 22 say I I those opposed say no 22 passes unanimously may I have a motion second on 23 move second moved by Zan second by Fen holy public comment Hixon 23 okay so 23 is the motion about requiring schools that have turfs to share their oh I'm sorry this is Mrs fam's item can we allow her to speak first yes that's fine I was wondering why I was first Fam thank you madam chair um if you recall um just a few weeks ago we voted on turfs in three different high schools um for the football field it came to approximately $9 million a little bit over that uh in researching well actually during that day I actually asked um one of the staff members on that spoke publicly uh what about money that they get from renting out are leasing out the property for the turf fields and the stadium and I was told that um that money comes back they they get that money and it comes back well in researching it more I found out it doesn't come back to us it doesn't come back to the school district it goes to the school so what I'd like to do is I think two things one is there's another Mo um agenda item coming up where they need additional $3,600,000 for Turf so we're talking more than $12 million here two things one is we have seven schools seven high schools that do not have football fields now not all of them can accommodate football fields but some of them can so either I would like that money to come back to the school district and be set aside to be used either to accumulate so we can get a football field keep saving that money up from the three different schools so we can afford that um I'd like to ask staff how much it costs for a football field the stadium I have no idea but I think that it's unfair it's unequitable to allow these schools that are getting Turf a luxury item to then also get a windfall from renting out that luxury item that only they get the benefit of so I think we need to I want to do a motion where it comes back and it's set into account for these other seven schools one that can be used for transportation of football players since they don't have a football field at their school to help for that and the second alternative is to accumulate so we can eventually afford and chip in to buy the to to um get a football field at their school so would you like me to make the motion now or would you like to talk about it the board have a motion made a motion in your item so you have the motion there okay but um up for discussion the other thing is based on the fact that it is coming into so much money now that we have the other $3 million maybe we should go back and U revote on that I was Voting in fact I will bring it back because I voted yes I tried to get this H immediately there after the meeting and then it got rolled and then rolled again but U not through anything I was very diligent in getting this back but um I want to consider if we really want to get this for these three schools in light of we're trying to come up with this other money this might be a perfect opportunity to um get that money and and and start building our um our chest um I'd like to make a motion for this to be um revoted on to be brought back and roted on and I think because I supported the motion initially I think I have that right am I correct batia can you weigh in on this uh the only time that the vote comes to play is when it's within the same board meeting so not the following I thought it could be brought back at the next board meeting and that's what I tried to do I had it on the agenda both times and it wasn't heard so it was set to be heard but it was not heard so what happens under those circumstances when you get it on the agenda item but through no fault of mine it's not heard well I'm not sure which item that is um as we sit here today what do you mean by it was not heard I mean was it voted on by the board well I tried to make a motion on this several times in fact when I was very sick here just last week this was scheduled to go and it got rolled over to today and I stayed there 12 hours I went there an hour early just to make sure it got heard and everything and then it got rolled over so that's a prime example and then the example before that I asked to make a motion I think I was denied we can go back and get the record so you're talking about item 23 which is the one yeah I'm but it didn't have that number 23 right but but it's the turf it was the turf item that was passed before this is this is a motion the item I'm talking about is actually bringing back the vote where we voted for the turf because in light of seeing now there's another $3 million ask we're over $12 million so these high schools three select high schools are getting $4 million each it doesn't seem Equitable to me Dr I do want to add in u in the dfp um there's additional schools getting filled So the plan is eventually for every High School um to be able to get a turfield cuz the cost the the cost um versus turfield versus Grassfield I think we went over that a couple of meetings ago just to to go over the specific cost annual cost it for for maintenance purposes and was significantly cheaper for the for the turfield can you clarify two things one is how much does it cost to put in a football field in a stadium at one of these other high schools that have none and then um the second one is go what is it going to be the annual cost to maintain the turf field compared to what it is to maintain the grass field annually so the cost for to build a football stadium um almost $9 million um and I know we provided a followup to the board about the second item you asked about and um if we find that we can forward that forward that uh follow up back to the entire board just to give you the exact um amount for maintenance for tur regular turf grass versus the artificial turf I think what they're getting is the artificial turf yes yes and the maintenance cost was lower over time and you say that we got a a response back from staff on that I'm going to look for yes we we actually sent that to the board um as a followup um had to be over a month ago we can we can find it and resend it i' I'd like to see that because I just hate for us to be spending money that much money where only three schools benefit I think we can do better I really do M FR and I'm a football fan and I think Mr Dorset wanted to add some information hold on Miss Hixon you're next sorry thank you um I I just want to point out no no school is going to get a windfall of money renting out their turf fields um there there will be some money but there's wear and tear there's staff that has to come these schools brunt the the the usage of when someone's using it just like auditoriums and if we're going to do that for people who have turfs then we have to go and look at auditoriums people who rent the auditoriums people that rent classrooms people that rent um the cafeteria areas so you can't make a policy on just one particular thing and not look at everything that we rent across the district there's no there's they're not going to be unfairly getting money here um there that money goes towards the wear and tear of the fields that they have to bear the brunt of the cost when that happens so I I I do not agree with this motion thank you Mr fr thank you very much chair and I wanted to help help superintendent out of a little bit because we were talking about tur fields and then football stadiums right so the difference you're talking about tll Hollywood Hills don't have lights like they don't have a stadium itself that they can play night games at um so of course that's a different cost right Monarch High School they don't have lights have beautiful field beautiful facility um but they don't have that so first question I have because I wanted to ask while we have this item up um how many of the schools we may not have it might need a followup how many of them have started raising money um to get those F to get the stadium set up because I know that's how we work with them start getting how many of them have started raising money uh we'll have to provide that in a followup just to find out from each School each school without a stadium got it okay and then um I know Mr Dorset was here one of the questions was maintenance difference between grass turf fields um can you speak to that Mike please hello yes uh Mark dors said executive Direct iror yeah uh to Dr heer's point we did provide that at the last board meeting when the three schools came up the three schools for for for for the new stadium came up so all of that data was in the the board item the response how much it cost to maintain uh Turf versus uh our artificial field but I want to make a clarification this board item is not an additional $3.6 million this is just adding another vendor for us to use in the event we wanted to add another vendor to the pool of vendors that we using now so it's the same $3.6 million from the original I don't think you're on the right item this is to direct the superintendent of schools to initiate Ru making for school board policy 8020 no I thought okay sorry I thought this was see it the I think that's 32 that you're speaking about we're not quite there at it was 23 but I understand what Mr Dorset was saying was speaking to it on the vote of the Sur fields that was already voted on what he was talking about that vote that was brought up was to add a vendor so it wasn't on the item itself um so yes Mr D said that's what you were talking to so I understand but for me also superintendent I have a question because I know we have a new Department we're talking about Partnerships right um so is that something that we can start having a conversation for for these seven schools because I do believe it's important right my sister went to terella Hollywood Hills so much history in these schools but they don't have stadiums for so long um so to have a conversation may you know maybe Mr Chism start reaching out to to dealerships whatever we have to do to sort of say hey where can we you know get flexibility with that instead of picking up a $9 million tab see somebody can meet us halfway naming rights whatever the the case is but I do believe that there's a lot of people that would be willing to do that um let's start with the alumni you know a lot of people that have graduated uh terella Dan Morgan great linebacker see if he'd like to help just throw it out there but I think we we need to get creative right Fort laer has a lot of alumni so see where we can get help and then also our cities talk about coral Glades I keep bringing up that Stadium I think it's one of the nicest facilities in Broward to to go to a football game because everybody's involved brand new Fields beautiful um but all our kids deserve that so I think partnership is important um for us to start having this conversation and see where we can go with that thank you any other comments Miss Hixon thank you actually to piggy back off of what Mr Fen holy said I thought we as a board had give given direction or I don't know if we need a motion or what we need to do to look at doing those things like someone buying the naming rights for the baseball field or the football field but we had a discussion about that where does that stand do we have to as a board vote on something for that or is that something the partnership Department can can do go ahead Mr s u there there doesn't need to be any uh vote on that so we'll make sure that this is on one of the items that Mr Chisum is focusing on so right now his uh primary focus is to focus how the cities can help us especially as it relates to playgrounds at the superintendent meeting with City uh Mayors and managers but we can definitely add this also to see how we can work with non Municipal Partners especially as it relates to Stadium all right any other comments roll call School Board member [Music] awesome fam yes Bogen hly yes Hixon no Honus no lardi no rert no Zan no aha no motion fails item fails uh 36 okay I have motion second on items 29 and 30 together so moved second move by Zan second by Hixon public comment board member comment Miss rert thank you madam chair um as for item 29 the way I read it was that there's an addition 148 days with the final acceptance plus 83 days so I need clarification if the extension is for 231 days Dr he miss Paul board member um Rupert this project is to this is a close out of this project that started back in August of 22 uh August 4th 22 and so yes there are additional days that are built in 148 days that were added to this project to make a total number of days days from August 22 or 2022 to March uh the actual final completion date March 19 2024 this whole project took 480 days to complete okay so the extension currently from this point onward is only 231 of that 400 so the the project the this item is to close out the project so those days are already built in so there are no additional days on this project other than the total number of days of 480 days well that's good thank you I appreciate it and Hallelujah already um my question on 30 is that this is the final acceptance and is there a time extension of 655 days and if yes is that from now so um once again um the notice to proceed which means it gives the order for the contractor to start the project was November 19th 2020 this project took a total of 894 days uh this is a close out also uh to end this project that again the total time from uh November of 2020 to May of 2023 was a 894 days so there is no additional time on this project okay I think that needs to be clear but um my my more important question is this owner delays Consultants omissions did we go to the consultants and ask for money from them because they they had their missions to recover any money so again part of the process and I think uh I'll uh go over this at our uh Workshop is this project started in 2020 so there are a combination of things there's consultant omission and then the bigger part is the unforeseen things and so those things also extended the project longer than it should have been and and part of that whole process is how you assess the project and obviously with the consultant era and maybe not so obviously but with the consultant era and uh or omission and then the 99.54% of unforeseen items uh that caused this project to to go Way Beyond any kind of uh normaly so this is the the the closing out of the project the retainage is about six or 6,141 that we owe the contractor what I will do is go back to uh aom we don't have a representative to here uh today to speak specifically on how uh the contractor on this one was paid throughout that whole time but um yeah this is to end it and and quite frankly to stop the pain on it uh it's $61,000 that we're paying them to go away the project will be closed out uh if the board so wills it and uh that is part of what we're trying to do is get these projects off the books close them out and finish the bond program I'm not sure if I answer answered your question Miss rert kind of and I appreciate it and I can't wait to actually meet you in person when I'm uh actually back in Broward but I guess I'll go to the superintendent for this question well m m go ahead I'm sorry we' yeah okay um we've talked about this before as a board that if there are consultant omissions that we will go back and try to reach out for them for that process to recover that money I'm not asking that we have our contractors paying for us for for what you know we actually oversaw or un seen circumstances but the ones that are clearly omissions from the Consultants that falls on their head we were trying with AECOM to recover that money has there been a conversation at this point to do that Mr superintendent for this um how's it going Miss ruper for this specific project has to follow up um see where we are with the team if they've had any discussions about recouping in any um any loss okay cuz you know any little bit helps Y and and I I appreciate that and while I have you here uh on the line with me um I'll just ask you to check in on Markham to make sure that opening school is going to be right and ready for when the kids start absolutely it's been top priority for us matter of fact we had um our cabinet meeting there a few weeks ago and the whole entire cabinet walked Markham to see the state of it just to make sure we're addressing all of those needs before to start of the school year go thank you so much I won't pull any more time because I know the board members are anxious to leave but thank you thank you so much I appreciate iten thank you mine was on 28 kind of along those lines I always give a wait where where it on 29 and 30 I thought we were on 28 and 29 29 2 okay all in favor of 2930 say I I those say no I am 2930 unanimously may have a motion second on 24 move second mooved by Zeman second by Hixon public comment board member comment all in favor of 24 say I I those opposed say no item 24 passes unanimously may have a motion second on 27 so move move by Zan second by hickon public comment board comment Mr uh Dr Zan thanks so much chair uh I'll try and come up with some reasonably intelligent comments this uh project is a fascinating uh example of us losing track of what matters which is our students and our education and our schools uh this is a project that in many regards could have continued uh with some reasonable risk mitigations but instead uh either the contractor worked at risk or there were uh dramatic delays due to doing a Time impact analysis when it was very clear that the original assumptions about the the roof were just not true um I have talked about this I'm going to borrow Miss hixon's point I'm probably not maddened yet I'm so frustrated miss hien that we continue to avoid coming up with a reasonable policy about time impact analysis and we're still uh scaring away uh vendors from doing work with us uh by causing these uh amazing delays this project um was delayed by one excuse me took 1,64 days um it didn't need to take that long uh and because of that we had leaky roofs in our classrooms in this school uh and it has a significant impact on our kids ability to learn so I hope that we can take a lesson from this uh chair and think hard about uh our business processes related to getting stuff done in the district and we continue to create delays of our own doing which are very very expensive to pay Engineers to spend time building time impact analysis when you can open up a roof and say this is different than what we thought uh we were going to find the original inspection was just wrong um come to the board figure out how much it's going to cost to do a change over and move on uh I just um am very very frustrated that we haven't figured out how to uh manage a constru ction program uh or to treat uh the vendor community that we have here with the kinds of of processes would allow them to keep coming back thank you chair M fam this fam 27 yeah middle middle school I oh thank you cor Springs High School sorry about that and um and looking at it too I had serious concerns because it's only 50% complete and we've already spent $15 million so this is going to come in at more than 30 million for this project and I just think as well we need to monitor situations or have some better oversight we can't let this happen this will sink us so if anyone has um some suggestions of what we can do to make sure this situation doesn't happen again um I I'm open to it thank you all in favor of 27 say I I I those opposed say no 27 passes I was a yes 27 passes unanimously we may a motion and second on 28 so moved second moved by Zan second by Hixon public comment Hixon thank you just real quick to the um consultant omissions and consultant errors so there were four in the whole package that came to us last week and com consultant omissions was 140,141 and consultant errors was 11,000 for a total of 15236 which is better but that's only for four schools so again we um at the end of the day we need to make sure we're we're recouping whatever we can from these errors and omissions that are not based on something we did thank you any other comments all in favor of 28 say I I those say no item passes unanimously may have a motion second on 31 second move by Zan second by Hixon public comment any board member comments see none all in favor of 31 say I I those opposing no 31 passes unanimously you may have a motion second on 32 move by Zan second by Hixon public comment fam we already discussed this a little bit earlier thank you any other comments seeing none all in favor of 32 say I I I I those opposed say no Dr he have we exhausted all the items yes okay do any of my colleagues have any student successes or something to bring forward to the board for discussion we're in a y uh script scri anybody anybody commission um I'm proud to say that a lot of the things that we win over um we're leading the way here in Broward County which I love I love to feel that way sitting there as a board member so a lot of things a lot of the school districts are adjusting um getting to but we do a great job here in Brower County I just want to recognize that um but tomorrow is going to be our day Dr heurn is going to be there Sheriff Tony so get an opportunity to show off a little bit superintendent but thank you Sher thank you anyone else seeing none the scheduled order of business for this school board meeting of the school board of bar County Florida has been completed seeing no obligation I now join the meeting [Music] [Music] [Music]