##VIDEO ID:wvC-p1FcRwg## did are we going to have call saying she's online C you that was a joke did you all think serious I said where ceran coconut today was joking now I know were joking what's up SE 1 AD committee so the chair basically wants instead ofbody not was that you no that was EX e sh e e e e e e e e e [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Applause] for [Music] [Music] e good morning this Workshop of the school board of brow County FL is now called to order please identify the exit doors that are clearly Mark for emergency exiting while on the board frame obstructing the exit doors all attendees must occupy a seat with the exception of media once the boardroom has reached a seaing capacity attendees will be directed to a designated overflow area upon the activation a fire alarm system please exit from the room in an orderly fashion and continue to exit the building and remain outside until the authority has deemed this safe to return we ask that all attendees to maintain a respectful and professional demeanor board member Leonardi will now introduce her school to lead us in the pledge of allees of the flag Mrs Leonardi it is my pleasure to introduce the students of North Andrews Gardens Elementary School to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag All Rise please I pledge of alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you board member holess has requested a moment of silence for a staff member from Horizon Elementary Mrs Hixon thank you I would like to request a moment of silence in honor of Betty Bastian a cherished staff member at Horizon Elementary School Miss Bastian was known for her outgoing nature love for exploring and Adventures and her ability to bring smiles to everyone she met she was deeply involved in her community and will be dearly missed by The Horizon Elementary Community please join me in a moment of silence thank you as we prepared to begin the school board Workshop we are 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 of sustaining this achievement we will continue to educating all students to reach their Highest Potential our theme this year is believe Empower achieve one Broward the following topics are scheduled for board discussion at this Workshop student performance spring 2024 Focus School software School Board policy review project rule development safety music art Athletics Renovations and Technology spot survey and redefining our school's update our first item up of for discussion is school performance spring 2024 I will now turn over to staff for the presentation Madam chair Mr thank you uh if we could before we jump to the presentation uh could I make a comment then maybe ask a question uh first I'd like to say uh three words uh wow wow wow to you board member fogi congratulations uh on your appointment I was not here uh physically last week uh so want to commend you uh of course uh the governor I think made a great uh decision in appointing you to the Board of Education um and I know that you will continue to do some great work both for the county and for the State uh I'd also like to follow up I know that I sent uh I think an email and I've seen some back and forth over the last day or two could ask a question to the superintendent and really more to the chief uh people officer just come right here good morning Chief good morning uh easy question are you aware and I know that we've had some back and forth um on the btu certification uh process there's been a lot of kind of U things going around over the last day or two is it true that the btu fell below the 60% required uh threshold for automatic recertification yes it did when did the district know that and was the district did the district notify the board uh I guess at any point when that occurred in April of 201 24 was a recertification so we knew a week or two after they sent their information to the state um at I have addressed the board and given updates it wasn't only BTU fopi as well so none of our six labor unions reached the 60% threshold got it but there was no formal notification to the board is that fair that is not fair I I have spoken to the board about this whether was at a closed door I brought it up at one point I can dig through all my emails I'm reading the same things on Facebook that you are okay uh so regarding that process what are the next steps since they did not uh receive the formal 60% threshold so during if they don't reach the 60 the part of 447 statute is that they can appeal it and to appeal they have to have 30% of the membership fill out interest cards all six of our labor unions that that have to go through that process reach to 30% so now what perk does as they reach out and we on our side and on the labor side working together to make sure the list of positions is correct so the the teacher EP is easy BTU because it's just pretty much a handful of positions so they're working together to make sure that all the positions are correct on both sides that gets sent back to along with addresses of those members and once that's completed perk will then mail out a ballot the ballot simply says I want BTU or fobi to represent me yes or no um they mail those back to perk perk counts it if 50% plus one of those that reply so for instance if 10 people send ballots back and that's it six say yes they are recertified for another year um and then there'll be an invoice that the unions and the district will split got it and what's the timeline on that right now the perk is doing 67 school districts and every other public Union throughout the state so perk is behind D County Teachers unit for instance I think was November of last year that and they I don't think they've had their vote yet so it's going to be by the time we vote we'll have to return right back around and do it again next April were there any other school districts because I have no view Statewide and I think you may uh coming forward here um are there any other school districts that actually met the threshold automatic recertification I'm not positive so you're not sure I'm not sure no okay um and does that impact any of our members of the Union because many have actually sent a lot of questions around over the last day or two does this impact them in terms of their status no cuz there I mean they're still while they go through the appeal they're still a certified Union while they go through the appeal U my guess is they will be recertified so really nothing's changing for our for the employees of the district that are part of unions so just kind of final question so it is real that the btu all units were not automatically recertified correct so that is a true statement that is a true statement I can send the docs got it thank you sir thanks thank you Dr heern first item student performance spring 2024 thank you chair I'll um give the floor to Dr fton Miss hollinsworth and Dr con and um Richie bom thank you good morning good morning I'm Angela Fulton Deputy superintendent of teaching and learning and I'm proud to introduce members of my team who will be providing additional Insight on today's presentation we have Simone Hollingsworth who is our chief academic officer Dr Fabian con executive director of academics and Richie bomb who's director of educational assessment analysis and research so it gives us great pleasure today to provide a comprehensive overview of our 2024 student performance outcomes we are thrilled to announce that our district has officially earned an a rating this achievement reflects our Collective hard work our dedication and our commitment to academic excellence we have many accomplishments to share today and we're eager to share these successes with you so here is a road map of our presentation we will provide an overview of our 2324 student performance outcomes through the following lens how does Broward compare to the five large school districts and how does broward's performance compare to the state in addition to sharing this data which is from last year cohort of students I think the most important takeaway today is the powerful practices through our reflection that we've learned that have moved the work and student achievement in our district and how have we leveraged these practices to ensure all students reach high levels of proficiency thus moving us to 100% proficiency for all of our students in our district so we've heard you every time the vision from the board is very clear to become a a-rated School District we've achieved that and the second vision of the district is 100% of our students reaching proficiency which is the work that we proud to do each and every day important to note as well too is that since 2011 Broward has earned its a a-rated district rating however we are committed to ensure we maintain this status for many many more years to come when we received our grades last school year 98% of our schools either maintained their school grade either maintain it or increase which shows you the breakdown of where we are with 82 of our schools becoming a A- rated schools 62% of our schools being B and 69 being C the most notable thing from that is for the first time since school grades were doled out in 1999 Broward County does not have any schools that are rated either D or F and as we compare to the five large school districts you can see where brow it falls in terms of this distribution of school grades among Hillsboro Miami dat orange and also Palm Beach Schools we would like to take a moment to highlight some of our schools who did some extraordinary work last year that improved their school grades by by at minimum two jumps of improvement so these are our seven schools that were rated in 2023 as cated schools through effective leadership outstanding work from our teachers and our students and our communities these seven schools were able to improve their school grades from a c to an A and I would like to take a moment to acknowledge those schools crossant Park Elementary NOP go right ahead margarate Margate Elementary Nova Middle School Palm View Elementary Peter's Elementary Sandra Park Elementary and Steven Foster Elementary School so congratulations to those schools that were able to move their school grades from a c to an a what's very notable as well too is last year we did have 12 schools that were rated D or an F all 12 schools also made notable achievements that we' like to speak of today the only f-rated school that we had last year was Walker Elementary School and we're proud to say Walker through the hard work of our students and community and Leadership Walker is now a c-rated school and moving to higher Heights two years ago we also had an f-rated school which was Endeavor Primary Learning Center while it's not on here it's important to note that endeavor in two years first year moved from an F to a b and now they're one of our a-rated schools in our district [Applause] and now we have the former principal of endeavor who is now the new principal at Walker Elementary School and we're looking forward to seeing amazing things happen to Walker in the subsequent years to come and so now our other DF schools that made major improvements we'll start with our schools that went from a d-rated school to also a b that would be blanch ILY High School Deer Park Elementary Oakridge Elementary and Robert C Markham major improvement from a d to a b and then our other d-rated schools who went from a d to a c and who are continually climbing that would be brow Estates Castle Hill cobbert Dillard MC nickel Parkridge and Village Elementary School as you can see while we are a rated School District we continue to thrive to ensure all of our students are achieving 100% proficiency which our goal is not only to be an a-rated School District but to be an a-rated district for all of the students we serve across brow County good morning the next several slides highlight the large five districts and the state comparison for ELA math algebra geometry science and social studies the boxes at the bottom will of each page will highlight and illustrate the accomplishments of Broward County for the 2324 school year as you can see on your slide and on the deck um the ELA comparison and that they equaled or outperformed the state and other large districts in almost every category and here we are for ELA it's not moving math the algebra accomplishments in comparison geometry and Science and our social studies comparisons so when it comes to grade band performances our students start an elementary school taking the fast assessment as early as third grade through fifth grade the subjects that they have to perform proficiency on are Ela mathematics and science we took the opportunity to do a layout of how we perform over the past six years but Mo noting that 2020 there were no State assessments giving across the state as you can see with fast assessment and our students performed extremely well as compared to their performance the previous school year in 2023 they did so in both in in ela mathematics and also in science for our elementary grade band additionally for our Middle School grade band they did the same in terms of our students in 6th 7th and eth they also have Ela mathematics science in the addition of social studies our cohort of students from 2024 outperform the cohort of students from 202 23 showing major improvements in all Ela mathematics science and also social studies for our high school grade band the same performance as well too our cohort of students did extremely well from 2023 making improvements as well now shifting away from grade bands and looking at how our students perform by grade level across the the board for ELA our Stu Ela our students take the assessment starting as early again as third grade all the way through 10th grade so we broke down their performance for all great levels and as you can also see our cohort of students from 2024 performed very well and made increases from 2023 notable achievements where our students increased by five or more percentile points were shown in grades 5 7 9 and also 10 and as we move on to mathematics our students starting again as early as third grade through 8th grade and then after that we have the the algebra one in Geometry EOC with the exception of grade eight where the performance remained the same there were increases from 2024 over 2023 but notable increases in grades 3 5 6 7 and also our algebra e students and also geometry with science and social studies the same theme as you seen as well our cohort of students from 2024 outperformed the cohort of students from 2023 showing increases major increases were shown in grade five biology and also US History good morning the next set of slides uh talks about the subgroup performance um for our for our district um and how we compare with the other districts and the state um so there'll be a set of slides that go through each of the subjects Ela math science and social studies um comparing subgroup performance um then there'll be another set of slides that compares Brower to Prior year so we could look at our Gap and then there's another set of slides that just look at the Gap Gap um and how we compare with the other large five districts so I'll just go through this pretty quickly um there's a a box at the bottom that really highlights where we stand out amongst the other districts but I think the main point here is that we're on par um and in and in some areas outperforming the other districts in the state as as far as subgroup performance we can see for math um our Hispanic subgroup um outperformed the the other districts and the state and we can see the same in science and in social studies ourl um subgroup this shows our absolute performance for those um for those subgroups the next set of slides shows how we performed and then also calls out the gap between the subgroup and the students that are not in that subgroup so elll compared to nonell students um uh swd or students with disabilities compared to non um and then black white and Hispanic students here you can see the gaps called out for each year and in some cases we we so we want to see the Gap decreasing we want we want that Gap to to shrink um and in some cases it does and in some cases it doesn't but um uh in addition to wanting to see that Gap decrease we also want to see the absolute performance increase and in all cases the performance from the prior year increases and so here is that same set of data for mathematics and science and here uh in science we can see that Gap decreasing and social studies and this last set of subgroup data just shows the Gap so uh so we showed you the the the performance um the performance compared to Prior year and now here we're just showing that Gap um between the two the two groups um that that were comparing elll and nonell so English language Learners and non-english language Learners and we do this by sub by subject and also showing um the the uh large five districts and the state and here we also want to see that number um decrease from year to year and uh for the black white Gap in ela we see that we decrease the Gap by a point and then for mathematics we see that we made um we made improvements for the S swd subgroup um the black white and hispanic white subgroup and then for science we see the elll nonell and hispanic white subgroups We performed um the the best amongst the um the the large five and the state and then for social studies we could see the performance there and the call outs so often times we don't normally have the opportunity to celebrate our schools for their tremendous success that they've accomplished so back in June at leadership week we did and we took care of the opportunity to do so so with all of our principles across the district and all of our assistant principles we were able to highlight tremendous gains that most of our Stu most of our schools performed in the 20204 assessment so in the area of ela as we you can note there in in the categories of Elementary Middle High and our combination schools we carved out our schools that that had large growth in performances and I'll just share just a small few Plantation Elementary had 17 percentile points of of improvement and also Lakeside Elementary with 16 percentile improvement from 23 to 24 we also had the opportunity to highlight the principles and the APS in front of their peers as they shared in the excitement of how their students perform on the assessment moving over to mathematics more increases as you can see and areas of elementary middle school high school and combination of notable uh increases in growth came from blany high school Northeast High School Steven Foster Elementary and also Walker Elementary showing the growth from 23 to 24 in the area of mathematics in terms of achievement science as well too and and these were large increases that we've seen and we'll start with the elementary schools larkdale elementary 43 percentile points in achievement River Riverland 34 percentile achievement Palm View 34 percentile achievement Westwood Heights 33% and West Hollywood 31% our students especially in the elementary school made notable gains in the area of Science and also in the area of social studies accomplishments which is secondary schools this is middle and high schools again I'll highlight blanch Illy high school with 39% increase in achievement and that is something to celebrate when it's okay West Pine 26% and also we have Annabelle C Perry which is our K to8 combination school with 31% uh percentile gains same thing you'll see in the social studies once again I'll say at blanch ILY high school with 43% Boyd Anderson falling behind with 33% major gains that were shown across with our elementary middle high and also our combination schools while we celebrate accomplishments in academic proficiency I think it's also important to note that we're being Equitable across the board for all of our students especially noting that they are given opportunity to be able to be enrolled and take rigorous courses when they get at the secondary level that would be uh enrolling in a Cambridge a class an IB class being able to have a dual enrollment course or also a industry certification course and these are our schools that really are doing a great job and who are being models for making this happen for example L Hill 612 100% of their students have access to rigorous courses also um when we move from our traditional to Fort ludero High School 93% Boyd Anderson 87% and we have the expectation where those will be much higher this year because students are afforded and must have the opportunity to be enrolled in rigorous courses to be able to compete with their peers when they leave our K to2 education system so I really like this slide uh not not just because we created it but um but it but really shows the hard work of our students in our schools and where they started with the students who need to meet graduation requirements um and most of it it most of that um most of what holds students back from graduating are the Assessments in ela and in math um and it shows it shows where where they start and where we end up and each of the testing opportunities that students take throughout the year in in order to try to meet graduation requirements and many of those testing opportunities are available because of the board um and because of the agreements that that are signed with um act and sat um and you can see the largest uh drops in in uh the number of students needing to meet the ELA requirement the math requirement happened right as we administer the ACT non-oled reportable um and also the the fast Ela uh and that we do that in the fall and in the spring um so this just really highlights um the tremendous work that happens uh with our students in our schools and trying to to meet the graduation requirements good morning and just as it takes a village to raise a child it takes a learning Village to improve all overall our overall school grade one of the many goals into today's presentation is to not only celebrate our successes but to also show the interconnected nature of these support areas and their Collective impact on enhancing the educational experiences for all of our stakeholders within the central office while also allowing all stakeholders the opportunity to better understand the roles of the various departments within the central office which includes the region office the academic department and how they play on improving the student outcomes teacher leaders student leaders principal leaders uh in the Gambit in February uh the superintendent then the deputy superintendent presented to the board the 2425 academic plan around the four pillars uh we wanted to bring that back and connect that work to what we've been focusing on all of last year and this year uh and so if you recall those four pillows surrounded personalized and standard space instruction acceleration intervention and enrichment as well as family and Community engagement and so our leader initiatives as you could see here are Spotlight the work that we've been doing around committing and nurturing School leaders uh in the pipeline program our central office focuses on early literacy this is our strategic goal number one on improving early literacy as you could see here uh we really built a strong Foundation over the past year and a half around the science of reading uh we saw some really impactful data around teachers who've gone through the Continuum of the science reading and improvement in our Ela scores our math uh piece here around algebra proficiency we provided a series of math critical workshops uh math fluency for a K through five our continuing building that background knowledge for those students who are building solid academic background so that when they get into those rigorous courses they are able to really achieve and then our science practices we saw extraordinary gains in our science scores uh through the work that we've been doing around helping teachers really uh focus on those standards with Fidelity but implementing some of our quality highlevel programs as well as teaching Fidel to Fidelity and this slide really talks about the voices in the field and what we've heard from teachers um we always want to know how we're doing and so we've collected feedback along the way in terms of teachers who've either gone through professional learning who've been supported at the district level or been supported at the school level and so these are just some testimonials in terms of the from the principal the instructional coaches and just teachers really talking about the support that they received over the past couple of years uh some additional science testimonials uh at the secondary level and then our our College and Career Readiness which is really a critical piece to really focusing on career and college readiness involving tracking High School dual enrollment courses providing multiple Pathways for academic and Industry certification and increasing family engagement and offering some experiential learning opportunities and then our student support services are provide a crucial support framework including Wellness walks and uh support services and data walks that Target its assistance and then our ESC powerful practices focus on providing effective tier one instruction using those evidence-based curricul and supplementary resources as you can see and then our English language Learners uh have implemented high yield instructional strategies across all of the content areas uh which have allowed us to teer support for our Esau instructional facilitators to ensure that uh one we're in compliance but we're also teaching the curriculum and then again some additional voices uh in the field as you could see um in addition to that we've also made some family and home connections uh providing some family Community Access and resources uh the past year so that parents understand the curriculum uh they know exactly how to support their students and uh when assessments come out we provided some additional resources for them to understand what those assessments mean and how they can help and this year we were uh fortunate to have some funding uh in our critical schools where we implemented high does tutoring uh with varc tutor so we have about 20s something schools who are leveraging that resources within the classroom model where it's a double dose and so you'll see within those classrooms the teacher teaching at a station and at another Station high dosage tutoring actually uh doing the teacher so they uh what's interesting about them and Powerful is that they connect with the pacing guide the IFC so they're teaching the same scope and sequence as the teacher is so it's truly two teachers teaching within the classroom and so that really is a powerful practice that we're we've leveraged that for this year for the full commitment of that year here we wanted to provide uh the data behind the Strategic plan and we wanted to provide two scenarios of how to calculate the Strategic plan data so the first slide shows oh sorry thank you can you um just wrap up your comments I'll wrap up real quick first slide just shows all students tested um as how we traditionally calculate and the next slide shows only the students that the state uses for school grade calculations and how the performance looks if you just looked at the school grade calculation thank you thank you that concludes our presentation public comment no register public comment Mrs Hixon thank you um and thank you for the presentation it was very comprehensive and you very excited that we're an a district so thank you for all that you've doing I have just two questions um one we are doing you all are doing amazing things with the schools but one of the concerns that I heard even the prior year was schools that had a lot of support and they were able to increase their Proficiency in their grade level the next year all that support was pulled so what are we doing what are you doing to continue that support so that they don't feel like they had the rug pulled out from under them those schools that went from a d to a b or you know any of those so it's it's great that they're season Abes but but they they still need that support so what are we going to be doing to continue that can I start with the answer then yall can follow up just so I I do want to um point out to the board that we uh actually created that office of um the stto office having a brain fart of school transformation School transformation office we created the school transformation office to um cluster schools within that office that have had that yo-yo effect over the years um performance goes up then it goes down but it's it it you know usually hovers in that DEC range so we want we wanted to make sure that they had strategic support um and strategic resources from every office in our district from central office from regional office and everybody working together to make sure they are prioritizing that support Operational Support be a transportation um our chief people officer just to make sure we don't decline in the level of support cuz uh we we understand that that yoyo effect every year is sometimes because of the district removing support like you just mentioned so I'll let let um Dr con and the team in addition I would say because of the school transformation we we're able to leverage additional support for those schools and um I'll give you an example Endeavor which is currently an a-rated school they're a part of that Network because we don't want any regression to happen so they're continuing to get the support so that they can maintain the status of where they are okay great because that was a huge concern before and I'm glad to know that because it's important that they continue to be supported my second question we I know all of this was about what we're tested on but I I learned yesterday when I was visiting Broward virtual school that there are a whole lot of Algebra 2 students who failed Algebra 2 that are now taking it online and actually they don't have enough staff to cover that so Algebra 1 is what's tested and has the EOC but what are we doing for Algebra 2 where it seems like there's a huge number of students that are not passing it while they take it the first time so I'll also let uh gabra mooha direct of of secondary learning come up it is part of our strategic plan so one of the things that we're doing is not only supporting those students who are going into algebra we also have to look at the Continuum the K through 5 students that come in need some of those additional uh mathematical background experiences so our strategic plan is really to build it from the base and start so that we don't have this um this challenge of students going into very rigorous courses so this past summer with some of the money that we did have we did an algebra Bridge Project which allowed students to really build some of those mathematical foundational skills so that when they do get into those cours works that we're able to do that we're also looking at uh in some elective courses or during the planning sessions to be able to have teachers pull some of those students out to double dose them so that they get those remediation and intervention skills necessary to be fluent in math so those are some things that we're working on to ensure that students who have the opportunity are ready to receive that opportunity thank you good morning Garra moha director secondary learning so on top of what Dr con said and this six and you're very stute at this so I'm glad you've picked up on this cuz I did also and I just hired a new instructional specialist and her position is really a math position but I charge her with focusing on Algebra 2 and bringing more workshops and more support to Algebra 2 teachers because I've noticed throughout the years and not just algebra 2 and thinking about science think about the chemistry course after biology as well that's not tested what are we doing for those students how are we making sure they're getting a full course to really get them prepared for a four-year college so we're really focusing in secondary learning not just on the tested areas but we're going Beyond those to look at the algebra 2 courses the chemistry courses to make sure our kids are successful Beyond just those tested courses so not just you noticing it I've noticed it as well I've I've hired for it and I'll also talk to Mr Maguire to see where those kids are coming from if there's any schools that need more support in one area or another okay but thank you for bringing us to to our attention thank you yeah because if we want them to take those higher levels preal Cal all of that trigonometry it Algebra 2 is fundamental to that totally agree we're on the same page thank you yep um and just lastly give a shout out to to boydd Anderson at their graduation The principal asked everyone who had taken an acceleration course to stand up and every single one of those graduating students stood up so that was amazing to see um at Boy Anderson so I hope we are able to see that at all the high schools um across the county so thank you so much Landon may I go on the list Madam chair yes thank you madam chair and good morning uh very excited to be here this morning talking about students and talking about student performance um I'm going to begin by saying that if you see me around the boardroom or uh the excuse me excuse me taking uh different photos today I'm missing a camera angles project in my Ace media studies class today so I'm uh taking that assignment on the Road and documenting my day in the boardroom so if you take see me taking a picture make sure to smile I'll try not to catch anyone off guard uh but that mention of an ace class really leads me into what I want to talk about today which is Ace uh we see on slide 39 talking about the acceleration accomplishments and I want to focus on the Cambridge uh diploma and Mr bomb gave me some great data um about this that was really helpful so I'm I'm grateful for that um kind of a general overview when it comes to the case uh Cambridge diploma students have to pass courses in different categories um so there's different there's four different subgroups um that or three groups with an optional group four uh that students are required to take a class um in each in order to get a uh their Ace diploma but something that I've noticed and I know happens at many schools is there are some schools where they'll have four classes in one category but one class in another category so for example you in my experience if I had failed Ace English language I would not have gotten my diploma because that was the only class that I was able to take in that category um and this is something that we're really now taking students away from the opportunity to get an ace diploma which is truly a transformational thing because you get a full bright future scholarship um and that is a that's something that can truly change someone's life so when we talk about planning and and Master scheduling and Dr heurn uh we had a great conversation this morning about this but publicly just want to say that I think this is something that's really important because you know this is we can really change a student's life uh by being able to offer not just one class in the group so kind of a a challenge to to hopefully be able to improve that um and quickly just want to talk about the as we were speaking about earlier those non-tested subjects um in my experience I felt um you know and this is something that I believe is not just shared by me is something that you know you have a lot of focus on those tested areas and then you get to Algebra 2 you get to chemistry and you're like whoa where're you know I'm not I'm not feeling as strong and especially in Algebra 2 um so I'm grateful to hear that we're focusing on that because Algebra 2 is such a foundational class um so you know just a thank you in that area that's all I have thank you Mrs leardi thank you um and thank you for this presentation and and all of this data I think it's really important and I I just have to shout out um some of my schools in District 3 so again croon Park Elementary and Steven Foster Elementary went from a c to an a um I want to highlight Oakland Park Elementary and Westwood Heights Elementary for their accomplishments in English language arts Bennett and math performance Riverland and Rickards in their science performance and Northeast High School for their US history and the the reason I mention all of that is because I think it's very important at least for me when I'm having conversations with people who are looking to send their kids into Brower County Public Schools you know there's this question you know what's a a good school um I I've heard that's not a good school and now we have data to demonstrate that I always knew that these schools were amazing schools right um but now we have hard data to to provide people with and so my question is and this is I I suppose going into into a different Workshop but how are we leveraging this information to Market this amazing work that's going on in our schools Dr heurn great question so the communications team has put together a really good plan on how they're going to Market schools we've increased their budget tremendously this year so they actually have the resources to do so leveraging all type of media Outlets from um TV radio online um newspaper um even old school stuff such just having a booth that a local Festival um so people can have uh face Toof face inperson conversations to ask questions about schools um and then seeing my face more often too so like I've been telling many of the groups I've been meeting with you're going to get tired of seeing my face and talking about the great things that we're doing in in Brer County public school so I'll be recording more videos um I've already talked to multiple um uh Community groups um even uh the our faith-based leaders our city leaders our city managers let them know that we want to utilize them as a conduit to get our information out to more stakeholders so they can learn more about the great things that we're doing so we're we're leveraging every and any opportunity that we can to get the word out thank you and just to to emphasize the point um when we're having conversations with people or when we're we're trying to reach out to people about specific schools this is something that we can say you know Rickards demonstrated an an excellent performance in science um Northeast High school had amazing gains in US history um so I you know it's an amazing thing that we are in a school district and I think that's very important that you know all the work we're doing around emphasizing that as a whole but also reaching people where they are um and talking about the schools that they are zoned for and and the work that's going on at those schools and I just have to say um I'm just so grateful for our Educators people in our schools the people who get our kids to our schools the people who feed our students um they all own this accomplishment and I'm just so so grateful to them um I have one small concern that I want to raise um I am hearing this year from a lot of teachers who are very concerned about the amount of testing that is now happening in our schools especially in high school English language arts um that it is now like the majority of of their academic calendar now um so I I just have to flag that um I experienced that when I was in the classroom um During certain years and so I just want to make sure that we are also allowing for time for learning in in a holistic and authentic way and not over testing our kids thank you thank you Dr Zeman chair thanks so much uh it's great to uh hear this brief uh great to be part of a winning team again um and the community has heard it loud and clear I asked our uh expert demographers to think a little bit about how many people contributed to making s& District um and without including some faculty members at public charter schools they got to 82,000 people and just as a group I just want us to think a little bit about that because there's just nine of us there's 239 campuses 206 principles uh couple hundred, students 250,000 if you count public charter students but when you add the parents and the tutors and the substitutes and the volunteers and the coaches and the summer school people and the part- timr and the rest uh 40% of BR County uh chair helped us as a county create excellence in education and that's really a little bit intimidating to me to think about 40% of the whole County two million people bigger than 13 states uh participated last year in supporting students in some way to do it and I want to highlight the 202,000 students you know I don't get to sit and take the high school albate test anymore Richie uh but there were a lot of kids that did and there were a lot of kids that spent their Summers and their nights uh studying and doing more uh to get us to where we are and to the extent that we are student Centric here I think the more likely we are to make the right decisions budget-wise policy wise uh in otherwise but 202,000 students uh are a big part of that 800 ,000 and 82,000 uh group that put us together I do want though uh to a couple of my board members uh comments want to make it clear about communicating uh with Broward County because the communication has been awesome around the a level School District I think if there's 2 million people here 1.99 of them know we're an a-rated district and that is terrific it's just great to have great news but then to spread that great news is remarkable but Dr heer our our goal has shifted a little bit right we worked hard we not not me personally but we the 82,000 people worked hard uh to get to an a level uh tremendous that it that we could do it um and now our goal and our attention as Dr Fon pointed out is really to get every student to grade level proficiency the community that wants to know uh chair and maybe the superintendent can help us here is that really possible can we get to 100% grade level proficiency as a public school district Dr he absolutely if we continue our trajectory we continue the hard work we we live live out the new theme which we've created this year which is believe Empower and Achieve um as one Broward and you just Amplified the the hundreds of thousands of people that contributed to this accomplishment if we get more people to contribute to this accomplishment and I'm glad I'm that's a great question and if the public is is is hearing this right now we've met with many stakeholders and my my ask of many of those stakeholders holders is to utilize us as a resource uh be it utilizing our expertise when it comes to personnel and also some of the resources that we can leverage to support them in extending the learning opportunity beyond our classrooms and those are those are the components that will help us get to 100% proficiency I'm a firm believer that we can if I did not I would not be sitting in this seat that's terrific uh uh the community would I think at least in terms of uh of talking to them myself would view that as an exceptional accomplishment uh no other District's ever done that uh it is very likely to be the right goal another way uh to ask the question though might be what would exceptional growth look like year-over-year what what would be the kind of academic progress that if we got it every year uh you would consider uh to be exceptional Pro exceptional progress toward 100% of our students being at grade level Dr H yes so you usually most school districts including ourselves we look at statistical significance when it comes to growth usually uh 3 to 5% Point increase every year um I think a goal is really to double that if you double the statistical significance that you're shooting for you can get to 100% of of students quicker than um you know in a in a longer time that it would take yeah terrific and U I love our discussion so far about communicating marketing uh and the like I love having individual facts about schools there there are exceptional attributes of every school in our system many of our schools have multiple exceptional aspects one of the things that I think is true chair is that every one of our traditional high schools now offers a Cambridge program were you aware of that I was not aware you and the community were not aware but if in fact that's true and I I'm almost certain it is uh it's another thing that we can talk to our community about if you go to high school to a public Traditional High School in brard County and in Landon I think it's nine courses that you have to take to complete the Cambridge it's seven seven yep I took nine so you know we'll see if you can C catch up Lon but seven uh classes over four years you end up with a full scholarship to college right over three years pardon me yeah uh my facts are a little bit off but my point is that that's a huge deal about our system like being an a district is is remarkable that's getting a lot of attention but every one of our Traditional High Schools offers you multiple paths to college scholarships uh one of them is Bright Futures which is available around the state but in Broward if you go to a traditional public high school and I think MSD was the last one to to join Cambridge uh you can by taking seven classes get a full scholarship to college and that to me uh is a remarkable thing the only uh point that will always matter to me a lot um and Doc Mr bomb brought this up with his Gap slides is white students gain on Fast scores exceeded uh Black and Hispanic gains is that correct Dr urn that's correct and it's the only way you can get the Gap to grow and so uh we can't leave any subgroups behind we can't leave uh female students behind we can't leave male students behind we can't leave elll uh s swd uh in particular racial groups uh there is no evidence in any academic research that uh academic achievement or academic propos uh performance or potential is related to race or ethnicity and we have to be the model of that we can't be just happy about an a district when the gaps are growing we have to be an a district where the gaps every year are getting smaller and smaller and I know that as a district we're working very hard on that but it is it is one of the things uh that we need to continue to work on as we work toward grade proficiency thank you chair Miss rert hi can you guys hear me now we can yes yes C can you hear me yes okay I can't really hear you guys but I'm going to go ahead um okay so a I I'm extremely thrilled that we have no D or F schools um I I was uh surprised to look at some of the five districts or so alongside us that had so many of them and um where we've come from so I I know that in the beginning of the the conversation staff called out several of our schools that uh truly hit it out of the park um I would like to just give a teeny shout out to Margate Elementary Palm View Elementary Sanders Park Elementary from going from a c to an A and if you have not seen Margate Elementary School's video that celebrates the students and staff and Community um in a very lovely way of a video of welcoming and this is what Margate Elementary is um honestly I would use that for every Elementary in this District so um kudos to them kudos to Thomas Schroeder who's amazing um but if you haven't seen that check with um Mr Sullivan I'm sure he can get it for you um I also would love to uh shout out to blanch high school went from adid to a b Deerfield Park Elementary D to a b Markham Elementary D to a b and park rdge from a d to a c so we are doing some amazing amazing work um I'm not going to go through all the levels because I'm sure everybody on our team has already done that um but I do want to say um hold on sorry one sec okay looking through our successes and if you're studying our Ela Gap um we still have some work to do and and for me I always go to the subgroup so I'm really so happy that the information is that actually there and we're discussing it um because pretty much every um superintendent review that I've ever done I've always included how are we doing for our atrisk students because becoming an a district is rediculously amazing however and I believe um Dr Zeman just covered this to say that there are some subgroups that are being right now still left behind and um they're gaps are are quite um quite alarming so what I want to say is increasing the elll and non um elll students the Gap went up by 3% some from 38 to 41 and students with disabilities um 25 to 29 so the Gap stayed the same in this particular group because both groups increased by the same amount so I don't really want to call attention to all the the minute uh situations that are here but I did go through every every page and I saw the the Improvement I I saw the culmination of the communities and the families and our and our staff and our teachers and our students everybody rowing in the same boat to the SU place to land so I I do want to just you know call out that and some of these amazing principles and staff and teachers that really kicked it out of the whole stadium let's have a workshop where little bits as a board member and as a teacher I would love to hear from some of our teachers and some of our staff principles Etc are um are our staff that is uh does push-ins what what we would need is to say hey this is what we did and that's how everybody in our school went up every subgroup went up and this is why we're in a we're not in a because we're just pushing the BNA to go back to what my colleagues have said it's because every student is our Focus so I would love that for a future Workshop that we actually you know get a little update doesn't even have to be the Principal and the teachers just a little update that says you know what you're right Mr schroer is amazing he did this with his team um let's look at that video and see how welcoming that was because for me I wanted to be an elementary school again not teaching but attending because he makes you want to be there and they make you want to be there and that's exactly onto the customer service aspect I know we're working on um quickly here sorry I know I'm going to be running here um okay so sometimes focusing on uh parts of the areas and the and the subgroups that were successful um is great but we need to automatically look at it and I will once again say our students with disabilities I am looking forward to a an intense focus on that area as well as our Ells um our other subgroups I know we've done it I know there's been Improvement but I'm looking for them to make up because just adding four percentage points or five it is good if you're only five or 10 points behind the other uh other groups but that's not the case because we are we're teaching all kids to suc succeed so what's happening is they will go the the school will be a seven or eight or N9 or 10 uh point percentage increase and then when you look at our s swds it'll be a 4% so that that shouldn't be that way so I I think we need to absolutely reverse this trend we has to we have to hasten remediation explore real world success opportunities from our for our Ells as well as our our high schools middle schools College and Career Readiness there must be a tangible Focus from kindergarten all the way up because if we excite them we can move all ships that are in the water um we as Educators must pivot now and change and make sure that our students experience a challenging engaging rigorous yes rigorous curriculum that inspires study and work experience in all Fields um we need to get it done now then we're planning just set the fire of learning for every child and uh let's pull up our sleeves board members and we need to be ready as well um I thank you for your time and so happy um that we've been able to discuss this because just the a is wonderful but going into this amount of detail is is phenomenal and I know I'm a geek that way sometimes but that's cool um so thank you so much I look forward to discussing other parts of the uh she can hear you other parts of the thing I actually I had some more but I think it's on acceleration High School on page 39 is that this topic or the next one Dr Hess I mean um drer I'm Sorry Miss um Rupert acceleration High School can you repeat the the question yeah I'm sorry cuz I've got earphones in you guys are on the computer so there's a slight little blip um slide page 39 okay and it talked about the acceleration High School accomplishments so uh and it has numbers and it has our various schools 10090 80 and it's listed I had never really heard acceleration High School accomplishments before but I wanted to call out how amazing that is um and to say that districts around the state are focusing on that and um I I could get this in a followup but do you understand what I'm asking in what page it is yes um we can provided in the followup it's uh pretty much the acceleration percentage uh points that those schools gained um for students who are in accelerated coursework and um completed the test um with Proficiency in passing perfect and and I look forward to the future conversation about bringing back our students who have dropped out of school so they can get their diploma um thank you so much and I look forward to listening to my colleagues and the and the public thanks Dr Hess thank you madam chair so um I am also equally um excited about the results that we're seeing and I want to express uh gratitude to our um School leadership staff or District staff our teachers uh our wonderful parents who work hard to make sure our students are successful to our students and everyone that's involved this is a diligent concerted effort in in achieving this level of success um I can tell you that last night I visited the city of lill and I will continue to do so with the other cities in my district to provide uh highlights of the city of lud Hill schools I will do so also for City of Sunrise and all other cities within my district and what I can tell you is the feedback especially from the um residents um is that they are very happy with the results we're seeing and um many of them indicated that um they would uh consider bringing their kids back to uh traditional Public Schools so I think that's a that's a positive I think that um as we continue on this path of success it will lead to Greater enrollment um now the city of lud Hill uh uh commission also um we had the the principles rather for the schools in lill they were there with me last night and we were able to provide some of the wonderful feedback for L Hill schools um for example Endeavor uh everyone uh should be aware uh few years ago was an F School Endeavor moved to a b and now Endeavor is an a school Walker went from F to C School North Fork F to a b school and so on and as you can see my my executive secretary Janice C and I we are we in ba Janice and Bor Anderson High School became a B for the first time in its history for Bo Anderson that's right and and so we are we are in that Spirit um and I would also mention that um District 5 uh a couple years ago had um 5DS and two F schools I expressed my concern about that to LC at the time expressed my concern about that to Dr heurn we I was meeting with Dr heurn way before he became Su uh superintendent when he was with teaching and learning expressing my concerns about the D's and F schools in District 5 and uh I am very pleased to know that not only we not have these and F schools across the district but District 5 no longer has that over them having so many dnf schools and um Dr Fon I see you looking as well I met with you all the time we thank you so much for the efforts so I just want to um say we're moving in the right direction but to the superintendent I appreciate that we are an a district as far as academics but I've always said to you as well that we must uh be an a district in customer service we spoke about that several times we must be an aid District in aesthetic appeal we must be an aid District in how we market and as board member Leonardi mentioned how are we going to leverage this success to make sure that we are actually um uh having uh even uh greater uh uh success at our schools in terms of enrollment and so on and so forth so I am hoping Dr heurn that we will proceed in really uh focusing on those areas I personally believe that we do need to improve in our customer service and we've had several discussion on that and I hope that those areas can be um major Focus as we move forward in addition to our academics so thank you very much Miss Fam thank you madam chair um I would like to keep it short and sweet but I would like to give kudos to Nova Middle School who went from a c school to um to an a grade and I'm so super proud of you principal G you had a lot to do with this as well as all the teachers at the school and the staff and a specific shout out to um m poov a math teacher there that is so patient and so great with taking students that don't like math and getting them to fall in love with it so thank you again team keep up the great work and enjoy your a rating thank you Miss fam okay so um thank you to my colleagues I think you all said it really well um one thing that stuck out to me is the high does tutoring that staff spoke about and Dr H I was just wondering are all schools giving getting access to this high dose tutoring Dr come so all students have access to high does tutoring um so part of the um RFP uh that we sent out we have over 20s something high does Tutoring company so schools have choices they could either bring on high do tutoring as part of the ELO camps or they can hire their own teachers to do that for the most part the majority of the schools chose to hire their own teachers hence um they have more local control to do that uh we started a pilot where we brought in a high do tutoring for the simple purpose to show that sometimes teachers do have burnout they have fatigue and so we wanted to show them that within the school day where there's opportunities where you can't get those students after hours because of buses and and so forth that high dosage tutoring is an option so they do have they have the option to select them if they choose to okay wonderful because I think that is huge in in creating gains for our students um so another thing is so one part of going to school in and making sure that all the needs of our students are met Brower County Public Schools were offering free breakfast free lunch and then also we're offering snack time in our elementary schools and it's it's really important part for our students to grow succeed and accelerate in their academics that they they have this snack time and I hope that our our Charter Schools also reflect on this that the value that it brings to our students for them to succeed thank you Mrs hion thank you I'll be real quick um kind of to piggyback off of what Landon said about having access to those um accelerated courses just want to U give a little advertisement for Broward virtual school because that was kind of a conversation we had yesterday because there are places where it's not available because they don't have the staff um but Brower virtual does offer that and all students in the district can take Broward virtual schools so I just wanted to remind people that that would be a possibility if necessary andon finish it up just quickly yep just quickly to miss hien's point when we're talking about scheduling at schools I think it'd be a great opportunity to offer uh you know currently if you're a dual enrollment student you can have an off campus you know study hall time that you work on that class maybe looking into opportunities to be able to have an off-campus time for students that they would be working on their BR virtual school class similar to um the dual enrollment awesome so thank you thank you to our schools let's continue and continue to thrive and stay in a school district the next item up is focus School software we'll give two minutes for staff to turn over and then Dr heurn you can have staff present nice job e e e e next item up is focus Dr heern Mr Bradford and team you may proceed good morning board and superintendent heurn I am Matthew Bradford task assigned Chief Information officer and with me today is Miss Emily Copa task assign director of data intelligence as well as Dr Daryl Diamond director of our PTAC Department today we're honored to present update on our Focus student information system implementation in May of 2022 the school board approved the focus software as our new student information system for brow County Schools making the beginning of an eventful without without question an eventful 2-year Journey this implementation beheaded by a dedicated data intelligence team has involved countless hours of collaboration among District departments schools and stakeholders in addition our PTAC team work closely with the vendor and various District teams to develop a comprehensive communication and training plan to meet the needs of all users across the district and community we're also grateful for the support and collaboration of our academics Division and all School leaders as well who have contributed in our project success while we're while we're proud of our success and our progress we recognize that our work is not done it's Ono to say the least and we look forward to continued positive collaboration as we move forward I will now yield to miss Copa to present our Focus update this is good morning and thank you all for uh allowing us to present today as Mr Bradford said this has been a a very long time coming and so we were very excited coming into this school year while nervous and anxious certainly um we are very happy to report that things you know while nothing is perfect have gone very well and have exceeded our expectations so today I really just wanted to focus on a couple of key areas uh for you all which really pertains to our train training and support plans for both our internal and external users I and we had provided a a different slide so we're going to kind of skip through some of these I think this was the original and we had to postpone but just so for this uh overview so everyone knows these are some of the uh uh different systems that we are used to so when you you hear things like Ed plan and Pinnacle and virtual counselor those that have been in the for a very long time uh know these uh terms and know these systems and we have been able to take all of the functionality there and incorporate that inside of focus so that we have this One-Stop shop for our users so this is just another high level overview of those specific uh applications when it comes to applications like PCG uh which was Ed plan and P those were vendor supported apps however um we also had things like terms and basis and those were in-house applications that were built over years of dedication from our uh internal teams however what we we have found is over time the ability to continue to support those applications became a struggle and so being able to bring all this into a centralized vendor supported app will help us as a district focus on really supporting the end users and not having to constantly configure and build so looking at our um training plan this has been something that was a collaboration amongst many departments including our Pac Department nit headed by um Dr darl Diamond here as well as every Department across the district really had a hand and how training would look for their specific users so our our initial training launch was back in no November of 2023 that was our first kickoff to this because that was when we really opened the doors for our first round when it came to enrollment for this year so that's how early we start doing things in the system and then as we progressed we went through our scheduling um for both secondary then Elementary as well as our teacher processes and ese our goal with this training plan really was to provide just in time training so our hope had been to really hit the users when they were completing the steps inside of the system so what we'll see is as we go on our training plan is not finished because we still have firsts to be completed in the system we still have to report grades and do all of those things and as we have that our um users will get trained on those steps so it it felt a little uh scary at times for our users but it was very intentional to give them the information at the right time so that they could complete those steps as they were getting trained in learning uh and this is just another look at the various training opportunities that we provided one of our goals really was to make sure that we were uh getting with our users in all of the capacities that worked for them so we provided again just in time training but we also did so in synchronous and asynchronous opportunities structured agendas versus open um kind of question and answer setups as well as virtual and iners our hope had been to provide every opportunity for our end users to be able to um get the information in a way that made sense for them that they could digest so we had in-person structured trainings we had onsite what we called hot Labs which the hot Labs were areas where an IMT could come and sit and we had a dedicated support person whether it be from Pac it uh data intelligence or even our vendor helping them walk through building their schedule getting students enrolled so we tried to give all of the opportunities available um so that people felt supported and got got the information they needed when they needed it okay we'll pause just for a second recess for three minutes also um when we restart can you um define the acronym for the public p yes okay welcome back you may continue thank you we've been told to uh let the public know what the acronym Pac stands for it's planning implementation transition adoption and continuous Improvement and the PCH department has been an excellent support for us close the microphone sorry the PAC department has been an excellent uh area of support for not only our data intelligence internal departments here but everybody across the district so just to kind of catch back up again and this is an overview of the different training opportunities so you'll see we have things like our face Toof face which were typical structured in-person trainings our hot Labs or Hands-On training Labs were those inperson but kind of unstructured open to basically address needs that you have uh we also offer virtual uh options weekly we do a top topics uh meeting which allows us to answer questions and address the topic of the week uh including um office hours and then virtual refreshing refresher sessions that will continue as we move forward this this first year of goli additionally we recognized we had two very large uh critical groups that we needed to have a very dedicated plan for one of those is our teachers uh that is an incredibly high volume of individuals but also the most critical here in our in our district when it comes to supporting those students so we created a train the trainer model for the uh teacher processes this allows for two things one for us to address the high volume of teachers but also make sure that teachers were having the the ability to have on-site support at any time so schools sent uh a thre Man team to our on-site trainings back in the spring they they went through the training themselves they learned the processes and how this would look and then they were given a a canvas this shell like a course in a box that they could take back to their campus and then deliver to their staff and then they could serve as those experts on site and be that first line of defense for the teachers because we know when they need that help they need it then their planning periods are short everything goes fast and so having that on-site support was was critical for them additionally we know that our ESC staff and that includes our ESC teachers our practitioners our administrators they have um unique needs and definitely needed some very specialized training so we worked collaboratively with our ESC Department to ensure we had very dedicated training opportunities for our ESC practitioners they were uh broken out into the user type so that we could focus the training on the individual roles that the practitioners served for the students and then the ESC team continued and and utilized their own form of a hot lab specific to ESC uh users and ESC needs and then as we have moved forward we're continuing um training into our support opportunities this is a a tiered system but it really is much more of an interconnected web uh we are all working together so we have a Frontline support desk that is answering phone calls and taking um emails all of the time but they are on site with our vendor who has been at uh the tssc building every day ensuring that they can have quite questions answered as quickly as possible our Pac is is uh team is on site as well not only supporting the tier one desk But continuing to do those open hot labs and then our data intelligence team as well as the vendor are working with our district departments to address any issues that come in through them and then do any kind of what you would consider break fix issues or uh quick configuration as far as some of our public facing resour ources uh well first thing that we have also established that is for all BCPS staff is a focus resource Hub this is a canvas uh page that has a robust amount of how-to guides focused on pretty much any or um all items that would be completed in the system so this uh resource Hub is updated regularly new resources are added old resources are updated as things change and this is open and accessible all of our staff we do have an informational page that is browardschools.com Focus this gives this has videos more howto guides and a frequently asked questions area that our community members can access at any time to get more information additionally um one of the mo uh kind of mots of this project has been adopt and adapt and we have been using that to to work with our end users at how we move forward but with it is not lost on our team that we need to also engage and invest in that motto as well so we are still learning as we go through this process and listening to the the end users and adopting and making changes to our processes so we have added a dedicated Parent Portal support page this is actually just live yesterday so um from the main that Broward schools.com Focus there's now need help click here button um and parents can click when they get to that page they are going to see just very easy to digest uh onepage how-to guides for accessing and navigation we also now have a dedicated parent support email box that is being manned by members of our PTAC team who are specifically trained in some of the issues that are affecting our parents so when parents email their issues to that uh uh email address they're going to get uh dedicated responses whether it be emails or calls back to help walk them through the issues that they are experiencing and and fix those for them so that email address is focus Communications at browardschools.com and that's Communications with an S uh and again they we have a very dedicated and trained specialized team that can work with our parents to make sure those that are still experiencing um technical issues or difficulties that they can um identify what those are are and and help solve them for them um just a couple Notes too about our parent portal uh we do know that it is not lost on us that there are parents that are going to experience some issues some of this is from a myriad of reasons and we will continue to work but we we have had success with our parent portal so as of this morning we have had over 83,000 parents successfully create a parent portal account and link to their students so we have a total of 83,000 25 Parent Portal accounts created um we have offered our back to school forms through those accounts and as of this morning we are just shy of 60,000 completed so that's 59866 completed with another 6,924 in progress last year um for just kind of reference last year we had about 38,000 so we are almost doubling what we were able to complete last year and we they're still there and still moving and we're seeing um new ones completed every day so a couple more things that we've also been doing to just support our families is our parent universities we've had two so far those have been very successful the um we are taking the aim of of that just in time process so the parent University's topics are going to be based on items that are kind of coming up so our next one here in October is really going to be centered around Gradebook test scores and our report cards and that is the end of the presentation so we'll open it up thank you so much Mrs Hixon thank you um and thank you for for the presentation and I appreciate all the the time and energy that has gone into training everyone but I would have liked to have also seen on the the presentation what's still not working because there seems to be a lot of things still not working and um you know I want to be transparent with the the public so we know that we have to tweak some things and in some instances do something completely different so I just want to point out a couple of things that I've heard in the last couple of days um and you know a lot of people are are glad about Focus but very frustrated with how difficult it has been and the transition is not as smooth as we would hoped it would have been um so one of them is what I heard yesterday is the threat assessments the behavior threat assessments there are pieces of that that are not working so can you address if that's true because if they're not working how does an administrator complete a threat assessment and then if they don't complete them they are then punished or have consequences for not completing them at a certain time but if there are pieces that aren't working how do how do they do that so can you first answer us whether the threat ass the threat assessment ments are working or not and if they're not what we are doing to to fix that like asaper Mr Lozano team good hi Kim pzi olivary um director of threat assessment so I have been working with Emily and her team to work through the functionality of focus um we are identifying um concerns with the system and trying to work around to ensure that we're in compliance with State rule with the system that we are using currently for the next year so part of that is we're following up with the principles where Ed plan had the system hashed out and it was a smooth transition from tile to tile in Focus we have to go through different tabs in the system depending on the level of concern um and my team has done face-to-face trainings we continue we we actually have a hot lab going on right now we continue to reach out to schools to correct um and identify issues with the system and then follow up with Emily and her team on Friday we have completed 145 thread Assessments in focus to date um and we have been in compliance with those threat assessments only because my team is strong and we have been following up with schools reaching out making phone calls having team meetings to ensure that the documents themselves are signed off by the principal and the Cent space as opposed to the acknowledgement form that is developed for the alerts component only so there are two spaces in a threat assessment that need to be signed off um so for me I'm ensuring that we are in compliance with State as opposed to the acknowledgement tab at the bottom that is actually built for an alert system some does that um so but you didn't address the what I was told is that there are parts of the threat assessment that are not functional is that correct no that is not correct okay and they also mentioned you have to go out of focus into something else and then back into focus and there's a lot of moving pieces to that that is correct is that going to be corrected because this is one person on each campus does threat assessment ments and that's the administrator assistant principal usually correct and they have probably a hundred other jobs so why is this making it harder for them to do that so the BTA assessment itself is one item and then if they if the student needs a support plan in ssmp they do have to exit the BTA open up a new tab for the ssnp and then go back in to the B ta to can fin to finish the process okay cuz this is supposed to be a One-Stop shop thing and and clearly it's not so that there's a lot of concern it's in one area it is in one area it's in under the students record under the tab for threat assessment but the actual documents are two separate events so they do have to come out of the BTA if they're creating an ssnp open the ssnp for the preliminary um level of concern concern and the support for the student while the process is going on and then go back into the BTA module to uh or tab to complete the BTA itself and then finalize the ssnp which is a separate event there are two separate events and I appreciate the fact that your team is working hard to make sure they're in compliance but I've heard a number of concerns about that so we there has to be a better way to streamline that and some way um the second concern that um again I was at Broward virtual yesterday is there a way that we can make Broward virtual a the secondary school for each student because what the problem is is they have one IMT and when some they have over 9,000 students in over 20,000 grades that IMT has to contact every individual school for each individual student ask them for access to be able to enter that and their backlog now and being able to get those students enrolled in classes because they have to do that for every student so the suggestion was could they become a secondary school for every student so they would already have that access and it would she was able to do hundreds in an hour before Focus now she can do 33 in an hour and they have 9,000 students so that's a huge concern also um the next one is the heart transfer or heart in general apparently heart isn't being able to be registered through focus it causes a huge problem with transportation and our heart students are probably our most fragile in terms of emotional and and resources available and If a parent already on their last thread and we can't get the students Transportation because we can't register them because of focus um it's causing undue necessary stress on our our homeless population who's trying to get their students here to school School I've had four instances already and Jody Washington has been great about them but as I said to Dr heer what about the hundreds we don't know about that just say just not going to worry about it then and the kids don't get here so what are we doing to solve that problem and then I'm I I know we are still having some concerns with ese because we got a bunch of emails yesterday um so I appreciate the the presentation about the training because that was important but we also have to acknowledge the pieces that still aren't working and how we are going to get them working um as soon as possible thank you public comment mag Mrs lcom I'll put you on list Miss rert can you put me on the list thank you good morning Jackie Lam parent from Coral Springs and chair of ESC advisory um I'd like to commend everybody who's worked incredibly hard um to make this migration um I want to Echo the things that um Mrs Hixon touched on uh and multiply them it's not just some issues in ese it is a colossal amount of issues that are not just teething issues they're not just bumps in the road and I feel almost nervous being up here talking about it because I feel Under Pressure to stop talking about it and I can't because I don't feel the issues are being well understood there's a whole lot to commend that was in the presentation here and I'm grateful for what's been done but to gloss over the enormity and the scale and the nature of the problems that are now being encountered isn't being truthful with our stakeholders um at ESC advisory last week we uh put together aemotion and I will file it into the record as we have to but I just want to bring your attention to it today because it makes uh an attempt at a constructive effort to try to guide you to do what should have been done before which was to analyze analyze the difference between what you were leaving behind and the and the system that you were going to identify those gaps have a plan for how you going to bridge those gaps not just call them bumps in the road and and hey tell us what you're seeing and we'll give us your name and number and we'll get back to you these are wholesale problems and some of them are impacting students heavily they you can train as much as you like uh and I love that that staff are getting support where uh where they are getting support but functionalities and processes that just are not there no matter how much you train a member of Staff um you can't kind of train a functionality into existance in some cases workarounds are being told to staff to do they're not Solutions they're Cobble people are spending hours I'm hearing of an ese specialist that got up at 4:00 a.m. a few days ago to prepare for one IEP meeting of others spending six hours doing copy and pasting on on things that just should only have taken 30 minutes previously it's not because they have not embraced the learning curve it's because the systems and functionalities they need aren't there for parents now we're being denied idea rights under federal law we can no longer get uh if I was to request now um an an interim IEP review to add an accommodation to my child's uh IEP I cannot have that no matter how many word salads you put around it we are not allowed to have those now because the system says no the system does not recognize that our children's IEPs are anything but archived documents and to effectively kind of wake them up and and bring them into the system as live documents um you now have to give every uh every student an annual IEP meeting whether or not it was due so those that were brought forward to the end of last year now folks have got to have them again if they then want to have an interim review um I I can't stress enough how grateful we are for the great things that we get but we've got to be able to articulate and we've got to start getting answers and not just be told be patient the law is not going to be patient with brow schools thank you thank you Dr Zan chair thanks so much um m microphone thank you I I want to uh focus a little bit on the decision we made over a year ago to buy Focus um that's when the change really was initiated and I want to talk just a little bit about kind of what focus is um in some sense it's a experiment for us to move into the modern it8 um focus is used by amongst the top 10 size school districts in the country it's used in five of the 10 it's used in three4 of the districts in Florida this is a system that other districts have learned how to use um and I know that we're trying our best uh to get to use it but it really is an experiment in modernizing our it systems merging five system single sign in for a lot of functions and it's Enterprise integrated software so if you want to compare attendance to fast scores if you want to do any kind of good analysis on uh what we're doing and we put a lot of pressure on the system this board puts a lot as does the community puts a lot of pressure on our system to perform and this system will allow us to monitor performance uh over the long term better than we ever could before uh the downside of this and somebody talked about adopt and adapt it's great I appreciate that um I think that's more than a word salad I think that's how inter rise software is introduced to a new system is that you introduce it uh you don't need massive customization and tailoring this is used by hundreds and hundreds of school districts three million students are tracked uh through Focus right now the issues that I have as a board member though um is that we continue to track inputs and me and my community only care about out outcomes what I want to know is how many APS can do a BTA Miss Hixon through Focus successfully we have 206 schools that have to do btas at some point how many of them today can use Focus to file the documents they need I want sampling of parents and sampling of teachers and I want to know what percentage of our teachers and our parents are able to use Focus for basic functionality I I get frustrated about things like Broward virtual like these are predictable problems and 9,000 students you know trying to get grades jammed into a system should have been a problem that we identified early and and and worked on so uh chair are are there any outcome based metrics in this presentation today Dr hurn staff no not Mike can can you hear me yeah no thank you I appreciate that Mr Bradford and again this is the right decision moving to focus moving to an integrated Enterprise level uh student information system will allow us to be a better school district over time uh you know to win over the public to win over our faculty to win over administrators and parents and students uh in the end um I'd recommend that we start thinking a little bit about some of those they take extra time and effort into the superintendent that that usually means a little bit more staff or staff attention uh to pull those things together but if we're tracking what parents experience user experience is with this system the teachers user experience uh ESC parents experience ESC specialist experience uh then we have the ammunition to come back and say hey we're at 82% this week next week we come back we're at 86% we're at 90% but if we just say we've conducted 42,000 classes on Focus the community says great but that's a class that's an event that isn't really knowing whether the system is supporting us in a way that's useful so um if we could think a little bit about that uh I think it would allow us to communicate better and it would allow us to focus our energies and efforts because there's a lot more than the PAC working on reducing this this is teachers taking the time to learn I had a parent take me aside uh this week um and what we found is that Focus actually is better better than terms uh in terms the registering parent had lots of admin rights so if you wanted to change who could pick up your kid you had to go to the registering parent maybe not the second parent and then uh Focus we're allowed to have multiple parents that have had been rights there's a whole bunch of advantages to focus and we haven't marketed it very well um maybe we haven't implemented all those advantages as well um but we need to think I think a little bit more about the customer and their user experience uh as we communicate this so that we can focus the teacher the parent the student the PTEC uh everybody else's energy to make this as accelerated as possible uh so that we get to those advantages Focus was the right decision it is the right decision it's an excellent system uh and we have to kind of work through these problems in the best way possible um so that we can continue to R remind people why that was a good decision and why this system over the long term is really going to create a better barer County Public Schools thanks so much Dr holess thank you madam chair so um it's important that we understand there are two parts to focus right we have student information system which is heavily being discussed as far as um that will cover grades attendance enrollment and so on and then we have Focus SSS that is the ESC case management module of focus um we have approximately 40,000 ESC children in brow County Schools my high school son is one of those and and which is about 16% of the student population and I heard um miss lusam mention there are concerns with functionality and processes that may not be efficient or not there and so that is very concerning to me as well and so I have several questions um uh and these are questions as it pertains to our ESC population which I am heavily interested in I have spent a lot of time uh in terms of my concern with ESC implementation in the schools uh so when we look at Focus I have some questions pertaining to the ESC aspect of this and so um I would say uh is Broward County Public School currently fully in compliance with state and federal law as it pertains to our ESC population and our support to ESC students with regards to the uh Focus SSS management system Dr heern staff yes okay so the answer is yes to that okay um okay so how is brow County Public Schools monitoring legal compliance in the new system to ensure that students are provided with the services and support as required by law Mr CA Mr aosta Castro just to be correct no problem Stephanie aosta Castro director of supportting compliance for exceptional student education so it is a multifaceted Document Services so first I want to talk about an IEP team meeting is held an IEP team meeting determines Services accommodations related Services supplementary AIDS and services it is then the responsibility of the provider identified on that IEP team to track and monitor how that student is doing in response to those areas typically under um PCG Ed plan at the beginning of each school year schools would go in and pull what is called an advanced report for things such as accommodations and service lines because we knew that we were not going to have access to that um at the beginning of this fall we pulled those reports out of PCG and or Ed plan prior to the shutdown we then had someone in assessment and research align the student to their current enrollment for the 20425 academic school year it did take about a week into the school year because we wanted to make sure that students that had a school choice or were accepted into a magnet program were actually being enrolled into that school by the parent those reports were then provided out one of three ways first there was a testing accommodation report that research and assessment provided to testing coordinators the second layer was um it was able to load the individual service lines onto the student file so if I go into the student file and I'm a teacher of record and or the Lea ESC specialist for that school I can pull up an individual student and under their demographics ESC tab I can see the individual service lines and I can see the individual accommodations in addition we uploaded a report report that contains the same information for that entire school so ANC specialist can go in and pull that report for their whole school because we knew the rollover was going to cause some questions we're trying to provide this information through multiple avenues for our related service providers so that's our slps our OTS our pts and our ESC counselors they log in a specific system and that is the system that we use whenever we have to respond to a state complaint or respond to a parent that is inquiring as to if Services have been provided thus far so that system has historically been held outside of PCG plan and continues to be held outside of PCG plan okay so Madame chair um I want to follow up on some of those comments um Miss luscom had mentioned that in order for a parent to have an interim uh review of their ESC child that they now have to request to have another annual uh um uh review is that correct I'm can they can they request an interim currently uh if they have already had an annual review so again it's a multifaceted question and I'm going to have to rely a little bit on my it friends for terminology but typically speaking when we've had an established system in place we the system uses what's called dependency data to say this is what was active on the annual plan and now we're opening only an interim event so the system knows this is what was discussed at the annual meeting and now we're only going to look at certain areas of the IEP because this is the first year of this platform and again I don't want to misspeak so Emily please correct me dependency data is not yet available in the focus platform the initial event that's held in Focus do does need to have all the narrative and data information loaded now there is a way to go in and change the end date of that document so I'm going to say theoretically speaking I had an IEP on April 15th and I want to have a meeting I want to transfer all that data over and I still want that IEP to end on April 15th it is possible but because an event has not yet been held in the drop- down menu for events you cannot select and interim and or Amendment we have had some confusion with that with our schools it is a training piece we've had 146 individual um members of schools reach out to us for direct support since August 12th when we opened our ond demand sessions which are available Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 3: p.m. on teams they don't need to leave their school they log in and we have staff available to assist them we've been working through these individual cases with them it is an area that we do to provide more training on and more assistance in okay so and I I want this to be clear because there are ESC parents listening um I am one of those parents um now if my child had an annual review do I need to now be proactive in getting an interim done or are we do we have processes in place where a parent does not have to request another annual review and I hear what you're saying but for Simplicity and for those parents who are listening they want a yes or no answer uh if do I have to request as an ESC parent another annual review to get an interim from my child or is this something that we are automatically doing to ensure that every ESC parent has an interim update on their ESC child so I just want to kind of step back for a second under idea the IEP team is required to meet at minimum annually some students have an annual and there is no reason for that team to reconvene until next year's annual due dat however the decision for a team to have an interim can be at the request of the parent and or the request of the school so a school may say you know we're noticing that Stephanie is not performing well or these accommodations are not sufficient the school would like to call an interim understand but it's not required understand what traditionally has been done before Focus SSS came in did did parents request an interim or was this an automatic process no a parent and or the school system would have to request a conven so if a parent request an interim can they have it without having another annual review they can but we do have to transfer all the data into the new system okay I have a few more questions thank you so much you're welcome um how many how many emails have staff submitted requesting help regarding ESC staff regarding the the SSS module and and have these been resolved so with that one Mike Emily oh is it on okay um so that one is again a little bit hard to quantify and we will have to get kind of collaborate and get those numbers because we have opened up so many chat channels of support So within our support desk we don't have them um filtered out specifically by ESC Andor SSS and then in addition there are emails going to miss Casta Castro's team so I will have to get back with you after we kind of collaborate and can try to pull those numbers together okay and I just have two more quick questions which part is doing the work to build up Focus SSS which is the ESC portion is it Focus or is it broad County Public Schools it a complete collaboration okay and which party is bearing the cost of Staff training and so on is it focused or is it broad County public schools for the training of Staff yes that would be while it was written in there is some layer of training provided by the vendor ultimately we you know that would be on us okay so uh Dr heurn I just like to just have a final comment um I think it's important that as we move forward especially with the ESC component of this um which I am highly highly uh concerned about and have great interest in is that we are being compliant that we are being efficient and that we are enabling our parents if they do seek an interim report that they can have one interim interim review of their ESC child and that we have significant staff training taking place especially when it comes to our 40,000 ESC students noted thank you Miss rert rert okay can you guys hear me yes okay I can't really hear you so I'm going to talk like I like you all said yes then you'll have to stop me if you can't um thank you so much was it was great to get the information from staff to see some of the um kind of the workarounds that we've been uh working on here to be able to um keep the focus on where it needs to be which is our children and each person's individual growth especially in their IEPs and Bible Force um so far what we were warned about has now seemed to be coming to reality there was a reason why I didn't vote for Focus was because there was so much blowback from our parents and they are our end users when it comes to this for the ESC module um I think quite honestly we need to take an approach which is perfectly Dr hebburn which is this this is something that we were I you know this is me saying you this is something that we worked on and I understand that you parents are experiencing so and such our team is on it this is what's happening so we need to make make sure and I believe Dr holess and I believe Dr Zan had covered this for is it working or not um we need a proper plan comprising a proper evaluation of what ESC case management capabilities that we currently have now compared to last year and a place and a timeline for fixing them the ability to go from tab to tab as a parent I can tell you would be crazy as a teacher it would be crazy especially if you have to uh you know Tab out of BTA for ssmp um we need it to be seamless I know we can do it we have a topnotch IT team but we need to have a seamless transition here and focus is causing distress and uh for many various reasons um Miss Hixon covered a few of them on uh transportation for our homeless or students ese Etc um and then Dr Zeman was right on the money asking about um does does what does Focus do and what do they not do um and from what I'm understanding from parents complaints we're really talking about the ESC module so the problem is with that hold on I'm sorry um I have my notes I'm sorry give me a sec Okay Go Okay the the incredible numbers that Dr Zan had had just read so um succinctly and uh very accurate or how many s have focus and does that actually apply to just the ESC module so I think we as board members parents teachers staff superintendents um need to understand that focus in and of itself being um bought and utilized by other school districts unless you're saying that that includes the ESC module then we're not actually comparing apples to or to Apples we're doing apples to oranges all I care about is that our students information is staying with them so the teacher and the family and the student can actually have something that they don't have to worry about because I tell you every year I worried about my kids IEPs and 504s you know were they being um utilized were they were the accommodations being utilized oops does this mean that my my kid now has to ask um sat if it's appropriate for them to have their um IEP accommodations for it so there's a lot more we could we we need to be doing a better job than this and um going back to the training the contract training said all and all means all training cost to be borne by Focus so I hope and hope a lot that the training that we've done so far and the training moving into the future will be uh the cost will be borne by Focus and not brow County Schools so that is a a Dr Hein right now I won't be able to hear you but I want to have the your answer on the record um so as as of now have we been paid um for our trainings by Focus team or are we still out there doing it ourselves and um yeah so if you could answer that Dr I'd be very appreciative yes um thank you m rer hopefully you can hear me as uh Miss Copa mentioned in the purchase of focus there is some training embedded in that purchase um and also we supplement um with our staff to provide additional training for our unique needs okay so is um Miss Batista there yes yes okay um Miss Batista in that contract just like Dr heurn had just said it says um that some trading etc etc so for me I I believed that the content for the training part was for all training that if we wanted more training Focus needed to give us more training uh not that I I want to stop uh supporting our our um our teachers they're going to be doing something extra whatever um but uh the money itself shouldn't be coming from Broward County Schools uh coffers for what we need so much more for our students it should be coming from the um the ESC contract so can you clarify that please miss Batista Miss Batista yes good morning um um so we can work with staff to figure out what has been the training that has been provided um thus far and compare that to the language in the contract because at this point um as I sit here today I'm not sure how much training has been provided by Focus versus how much training is being provided by our internal staff okay um and and thank you so much um and Dr heurn I'm trying to help I'm trying to help you and you're trying to help everybody so I don't want to come off as a Kagen um or cranky it's I want the very best for our district so I would appreciate this information made available um really it should be a short amount of time I I'll say a week um so we if it's if it is all training and we have been supplementing then there's a further conversation with my colleagues that needs to happen um so you know at this point I would highly suggest that the board ask for more information I know it's a board um request because I'm asking for it but I'm also asking for um consensus with with my colleagu so we get the actual answer Madam chair Dr urn y um thank you Mr rert so I definitely want to give the opportunity to the IT team to kind of um provide some more additional information about training because for a large enterprise software we do depend on the vendor for some aspect of training to get the programs and the implementation off the ground but the IT team is built for a specific purpose to continue that training to meet the unique needs of our district um this this is uh very similar to my experience in implementing focus in Orange County Public Schools you know a long time ago and also in Palm Beach County Schools about 70 7 to eight years ago where your it team um pretty much picks up the Baton and continues that effort to make sure we're addressing our specific needs as a district but go ahead Miss COA yes and and I want to I want to clarify to when when I say that we bore the cost it is through the original contract that that was was done the vendor has been excellent at being available in creating the instructional materials uh that we use in our training Pres ing the trainings they have been on site um every day at tssc doing support even that's you know kind of even a little Beyond training and they are continuing to do so yes our staff our Pac uh Department here in it as well as the various departments have done supplemental trainings primarily to make sure that we are addressing uh Broward processes so it gets sometimes when we are doing a lot of these technical trainings you you do interweave the technical uh with process related items and we want to make sure that we have representation from Broward identifying what is is process related when we are going through this uh but the vendor has been um extremely involved with every training leading those trainings um adding more trainings for us uh so I I want to make sure I'm clarifying that uh thank you I I appreciate that but um I look forward to getting the details from U Miss Batista's team and to uh discuss that further I don't want to take up any more time because we have a lot more topics to talk about and I certainly look forward to hearing my colleagues take on everything and um hearing what's new Dr heurn so um with that I will give you back uh your your Podium and I'll be listening so thank you thank you so much Landon thank you madam chair um and thank you for the presentation and for all the work that you and your teams have put into this much needed migration um and it will be beneficial to our students in the long run so once again thank you for all that you've done uh also thankful to Dr wanza and Mr Brad for their for their support and troubleshooting issues that I have brought up that as students have reached out so appreciate that um my concerns lie in the area of communication to students regarding this platform to date there has been no communic ation to students that I have seen heard of or received and I could be proven wrong uh regarding this migration task 527 of the contract talks about student and guardian support plan uh which I have have not seen from a student perspective of student support there's been an abundance of Comm communication to parents which is necessary and appreciated but the lack of communication to students led to much confusion including a roll out that didn't include essential information information like GPA class rank or simple graduation requirements that left students and especially our seniors very concerned uh in the first almost two weeks of school without that information uh as I'm a person who always likes to find a solution I ask that in the future before a widescale roll out of any large program whether it's technology or not technology that students are communicated with Dr Zeman talked about sampling parents and administrators I think it'd be powerful to sample our students even having a few students look through the system before the roll out on their end would have quickly identified uh many of the issues that were brought up and would have prevented many issues um so I just ask that in the future that we ensure that we talk with students because it really would have prevented a lot of the issues uh from a school-based perspective and I know we're short on time so I'm going to quickly go through this uh many employees both coaches and advisers as well as speaking to Administration um have brought out a concern and I I've shared this with Mr Bradford about uh Focus schedule and student information access um historically and Pinnacle and and and basis uh coaches or really any employee on on a school based location would be able to see students that were not enrolled in their classes so for example if I'm a coach and I teach us history and I don't have a student in US history I can't now in Focus I cannot see any of their information I can't look look up their schedule I can't look up their grades and this has caused a lot of issues as many uh of our coaches like to be able to make sure that students are staying on top of their academics but also simple tasks where coaches aren't even able to find where their students are uh or where their players are um so this is something that is really important um and has been able to be done in Pinnacle and basis uh even administrators or even teachers using um Pinnacle still to be able to try and and and find that information uh so just ask that that information is is found um and used because that's really important for our staff so hope that that issue can be resolved uh one other issue on the student side um and looking at the system if you if students go under the the tier one strategies uh part students are actually able to edit Behavior data um and add intervention or remove interventions uh which is a really big issues uh which includes discipline data um so I could go in and add you know an intervention that I am not receiving but I have edit access to that so um something for for us to definitely look at but again thank you for all the work that's been done and look forward to uh continuous Improvement on this thank you Landon and Dr heurn I would uh say that we need to make sure what Landon just said is uh figure it out today stat and make sure that doesn't occur and then can staff speak to what Landon spoke about about the student roll out of focus staff so first I completely understand and and apologies that the students felt that they were not Incorporated in in this communication plan I think sometimes it gets easy for us to incorporate students is our families and we tend to think that that becomes an all-encompassing communication plan so we will definitely look to make sure that we improve that as we go forward additionally um yes I I do know there were some concerns for our students right at the beginning when it came to having some of the data available in the system this is primarily due to um summer butting up to the next school year us wanting to really validate and vet all last minute data that rolled over before releasing it it's kind of an All or Nothing release and so that was part of the the reasoning for that but we are are certainly apologetic for the fact that that put some some stress on our kids that were trying to get into colleges so that is not something that as we move forward um as we go past an implementation year would be anything that would be the case because at that point data is rolling from the system and it's all going to be in vetted and tested and I would like to say uh Landon that I would love to work with you to develop something that we could bring out to the students so thank you for that thank you Mrs Leonardi thank you um since Landon raised this um you know he mentioned that there was a piece in the contract that required um you know a student communication and roll out so what are the repercussions of not of that part of the contract not being fulfilled is Batista microphone yeah so the qu Landon um just mentioned that there's a piece of of the contract that required a roll out for students and a communication plan for students so what is the consequence of that part of the contract not being fulfilled well it depends it depends the reason why it wasn't fulfilled if it was a I say um you know if it was something that the um the folks from Focus uh prevent it from happening or or something that wasn't done because of the vendor then we may have some issues some potential legal issues with that if it was as a result of some other you know we haven't we haven't um developed that process yet or whatever something that is more internal then uh there wouldn't be any consequences from a contractual standpoint okay so I guess I would like to request a followup to inquire as to why I think it was section 527 Landon you said Tas T 527 why that was not fulfilled um was that something on our end was that on the vendor's end um and then what consequences we can pursue as a result of that um and to Landon's point I think this is an overarching theme for Broward schools is we really need to as we roll things out but as we also continue initiatives that we've already started I think you know as a teacher I was required to put an essential question on the on the board uh every day and I think our essential question needs to be who are the stakeholders who is going to be impacted and how have we involved them in that process um because you know we I've heard from pretty much every stakeholder who's impacted by Focus um that there are some issues and concerns and that they were not consulted beforehand and I know that we can't obviously talk to 200,000 students and 15,000 employees um before we roll something out but you know parents come to us with Solutions employees come to us with Solutions you know if you just put me on a committee and we could have like played around it with it for a little while um we would have identified some of these issues um so to Landon's Point students students families employees I really hope that moving forward we are involving all of them in these rollouts um yesterday I was at a school and they mentioned um having an issue with getting parents registered and they talked about um looking at it through an equity lens like how can we involve families who may not have access to this kind of Technology um how can we reach out to them and get them registered um on the portal and so one assistant principal Mr White brought up had you know utilizing the title one bus and you know bringing the bus to communities and doing you know rollouts with families that way um he talked about the school hosting dinners over uh the summer to get parents registered um that's something that they were willing to to look at to take on themselves but I think since this is a district initiative we as a district really need to do the heavy lifting on that and and look to how we can get you know dinners and things like that funded for our parents so that they can have Equitable access to technology um I appreciate that we have a hotline because I did hear from schools that there was a lot of stress on clerical um in in the opening weeks of school which is already a very stressful time for our schools um some schools are not aware of this hotline so if you know we could communicate that out more um and in more authentic ways that would be helpful have we done a gap analysis over you know what we what we are doing with Focus what focus is what Focus offers versus what we got from Ed plan and our other um tools Dr heer St at this point I am not aware of a specific analysis that was done this could have been something done prior to to me kind of coming on board with this but I will certainly do what I can to look into kind of background and historical conversations um to see where we are with them so I'm going to say no you know yeah um so I think moving forward that is something that would be helpful to look at like what we were previously offering and what Focus offers and try to fill in those gaps um and again I just have to emphasize like every ESC employee I encounter is having major issues um so with focus and if if it's just one person you know it's that's one story but every single person I talk to is having major issues with access um so that needs to be resolved as soon as possible thank you Mrs fam sorry I cut thank you madam chair um based on the feedback we're receiving from staff and what we've uh received today from Miss LOM it seems that there's difficulties in both areas and needs to be addressed it's my understanding that there's been some layoffs of the tutors during this period in the most recent past so I'm wondering if we can find out one um are the teachers needs being met as far as um learning how to transition over to the focus program and are they learning how to do it efficiently they're being taught that so I want to know about Improvement how we can improve if we can have um live person training online training if we can have webinars available Tut tutorials set up where parents and and staff can access them and what we can do to improve what's been happening because the transition is 50% on the success of the program if you have people that have a bad experience in transitioning they're not going to want to accept the app and welcome it and they will be resistant throughout so um let's try to nip this in the bud and step up our game and I would defer my question to Dr heurn Dr heurn if you could speak to her points please can you clarify the question about tutors I heard about tutors we have a lot of complaints and it's about the transition process the learning curve essentially and my suggestion is how as we of the board and how is focus the employees of focus going to work with Brower County School District to up our game so the teachers as well as the students who have not even been included in this up to this point and the parents have greater access to knowledge in order to ease the transition so it's not as difficult gotcha um I think uh Miss Copa just detailed and also um Miss di just detailed their their willingness to work with Landon just to make sure we have a right plan to um engage our students with this process moving forward also the staff has received thousands of hours of training and they'll continue to receive thousands of hours of training um plus the the many other strategies they talked about such as realtime hot Labs that are available virtually so so staff members don't have to leave their schools um to get training so they can get it real time to address any issues um the brand new um for our parents and other constituents out there with kids in our schools the brand new link on the website so they can get support and help um which wasn't their previously I think uh Miss Copa said that has gone live as of yesterday so we'll make sure and push that out um through our comment team today um and we'll continue to engage parents um and uh like Miss Leonardo just just mentioned the group that we're always concerned about are our parents in our Title One schools those who are working hard 24/7 that may not be available um you know during the during the work day um to caller school and things like that just to make sure we have different type of strategies to assist them and registering and um their students on on that app um so they can utilize it just like everybody else um if I may continue thank you madam chair um webinars can we put up videos webinars for training to make it easy access for the parents can I'm talking about really increasing what we're offering right now because we're at a level of frustration we're not going um from zero we're going from already at 50 so we need to shut it down um webinars also possibly some in training in the the schools itself where the parents come in as a group but we have to get on their feet yep um so we already have some some webinars some videos already so we can push those out um and certainly we can work with schools to create a different type of environment where parents can come in in the evening time possibly to get some assistance or even doing the school day thank you thank you and then just to add to that you know I think that it's a great opportunity whether it's our football games have a little table uh for parents to register to get on Focus or back back to school night or parent teacher conferences you know the first thing should be are you registered with Focus so some of my questions is uh first is I went to on my app to get on to focus and and I have a lot of apps so I went to search Focus uh but that didn't come up it was BCPS connect and so um Dr he if you can just explain why it's BCPS connect and not the word Focus yes so early on when they um actually created the app um we have another school district in the country that uses the same acronym as us and that is bar uh Baltimore County public schools which I met that superintendent about two months ago and I told her you have to stop using BCPS I really did tell her that um but we've we've encountered this before some of our hashtags that we use # BCPS proud or hashtag BCPS whatever um the fol in Baltimore County Schools will uh utilize the same hashtags or some of the same acronyms and our Brower County folks are using some of the same and the information is getting convoluted between the two school districts when they're engaging on social media or engaging with the app so when I actually went to go download the app myself I made a mistake and I downloaded the Baltimore County Schools app um so I talked to the IT team is like hey we need to find something different um because there's some confusion and I experienced it myself so that's the reason for the BCPS um connect so it may change in the future to a better name but that's the solution right now um so we're not hopping on to Baltimore County Public Schools okay so maybe in our talking points we could add in BCPS connect uh because I was looking for Focus because it's been grained in my head Focus uh so BCPS connect though is is the name of the app but possibly I was thinking in the the logo maybe can we add in the um magnifying glass the word Focus because that's our our logo so that's my suggestion [Music] um and then my question is I know we were talking about IEPs and 504 plans and maybe I missed this but will parents be able to from the app be able to access their child's IEP or 504 plan go ahead Miss Copa yes not 504 plans are not completed inside of focus so those are still utilizing a cifi 504 basic information is is migrated over into Focus but the plans themselves are not done inside of focus as far as the IEPs yes okay and will we'll be able in the future be able to access the 504 plan as of now I don't that's not on the current road map but it's not that but it couldn't be that's just an entire different it's currently we continue to use that vendor that was one of the the con continued kind of separate vendors that was utilized it's not that it couldn't go that route if that's the the direction that we're given MH I mean I think it's important if your child has a 504 plan and you're going to your BCPS connect focus app and should be able to access their information there um next question is the behavioral threat management uh software you know the state from my understanding is going to be moving to the behavioral threat management software and that's going to be different from the current behavioral threat assessment software that we're using is uh our staff aware of that and and how are we going to Pivot to the state software for BTM behavioral threat management go ahead so um presently we are working with the state I'm on the work group to um transition to the Florida model portal in August or July or August of the upcoming year um I have identified um members of my staff to assist so right now we're just in the planning phases of it the state has um identified a vendor and has gone to contract so um from what I understand or what I've been told is that vendor will train will take on 100% of the training all of the districts in Florida will be using that one vendor um we have not discuss how the data will migrate from Focus to this new vendor as of yet but we H in in order to be in compliance with State rule 68- 1.19 we must use their database right and so I bring this up because I think it's really important for the board to be aware of this and also our our principles and our schools because I I'm sure it's extremely frustrating for them to just keep switching programs learning new programs and then switching again uh but this is required by the state law for us to switch to their behavioral threat management software and can you just confirm again when that that switch is going to take place and do we actually know it is scheduled for July or August of 2025 okay and I just want to reiterate that focus is the platform where we document um schools are immediately addressing all threats and concerning behaviors to campuses and my team is pulling reports every day in the BTA threat management department and monitoring the timelines and our school-based threat management teams led by the chairs are ensuring we are in compliance with the timelines and providing all interventions that students need to keep our schools safe thank you and then um Dr her if the board's okay with this I would just ask for you to add in your weekly update as far as like focus and IEPs uh just to get continue that update the board noted will do any other questions Mr allson thank you madam chair I'll end on a positive note great presentation great team Miss Copa did I get that right you did you are a phenomenal presenter oh thank you uh the person who taught me the quadratic formula one year ago at Parkway Middle School is a phenomenal director of PTEC Mr Bradford clearly I know you as well so I just want to end on a positive note clearly we heard a lot of um opportunities um and I know the board took the right decision because it's a full it transformation hopefully that folks will understand yes there are some hiccups and I'm hopeful the superintendent and team has heard that so I want to commend staff for weathering the storm but also commend you um because I think we glossed over a few areas and I think I heard I sat patiently quiet um the entire time to listen um but I know that you've heard the Kinks and I know that you're going to work on it and kudos to all of you thank you thank you and ending with Mrs hion thank you just um two quick questions one um social workers also seem to have been kind of left out of the loop I think they're getting training shortly but that also tied in with the heart problem the heart program issues because the social workers are connected to that and just um through Dr heurn how are we are we using our esol department to make sure our esol Learners are having access to all of the training and the updates on Focus Dr for parents yes yes we we we use the Esau Department probably a little bit too much uh for a lot of our uh uh Communications with our parents yes and go ahead make one one note on that it was interesting I'm uh was out yesterday and and happened to run into a parent whose native language is is not English and she happened to note that uh this was the first year that her communication is coming through to her phone now in her native language um we were able to utilize the kind of advancements of the system to be able to put that preferred language into the system connect with our Parent Connect app and then get that out to them in the languages that that they speak at home so that they can get what they need to be able to support their their students all right thank you very much next up on the agenda is School Board policy review project rule development Madam chair I had a followup with you real quick yes Miss rert I don't know if you said yes I'm gonna pretend you did because I can't hear but I want to make sure that the superintendent um was going to follow up on my my question as well it's difficulty hearing you guys can you clarify your question Miss rert um basically was to have uh uh uh the attorneys go through the contract to see what's our requirement for training and what is their requirement and if uh we can pull some of our people back if in if in case that it um it actually is covered by the contract itself so I I just want to see it in writing to make sure our our stance is as solid as it needs to be yes Miss Batista will do that and she will follow up with the board thank you perfect thank you madam chair okay up next the school board policy review project rule development Dr harer Dro hey Mr suvan you just cut me a line uh yes thank you uh good morning uh for the public John Sullivan Chief communication legislative affairs officer um I'll be uh today joining us in this discussion it's our partner in this work uh Kimberly and Alfreda uh coward um also want to thank Mr Hill who really uh has been running this work so today we are recommending four policies for Rural de development uh one for repeal One new policy for adoption and two for revision for the first policy ceremonies at school board sponsor uh functions this policy was revised two years ago so it is pretty current the two major revisions is to align with State Statute and specifically it removes the terms ethnicity and gender and replaces them with color and sex and also re fortifies uh the requirement of uh BCPS employees to notify the speakers of the policy requirements uh prior to their participation so now I will turn it over to my colleagues for a two-minute remarks introducing their policiy starting with uh visiting teachers then nil and closing out with student progression or if you want to go first with NRL Dr wza absolutely good morning I'm not sure who's here for visiting teachers I know that's up for repeal but um good morning Valerie wanza Chief strategy and Innovation officer I'll start by saying that um the proposed policy card and coward because this was not even you know on the books at the time when the contract with card and coward was um approved by the board however as exciting as this is it is very scary because at the July 24th State Board of Education uh meeting the State Board ratified the amendments to rule nine of the Florida High School athletic associations bylaws which deals with amateurism and high school sports which now mean similar to um but somewhat different Collegiate athletes high school athletes can now um uh profit from the use of their name image and likeness so we thought that it was necessary for the board to adopt a policy that is predicated strictly on F FHSAA bylaws Florida High School Athletic Association in fact the executive director was here last week meeting with the superintendent the athletic staff as well as um our colleagues in BR Education Foundation we did have the opportunity to meet with the district advisory council's policy Review Committee uh we did that earlier this month and they actually um was thankful that we were so Swift in moving this route and their recommendation really and truly is that we do something that is very expansive so that we educate our parents and students around what this is and what it is not so depending on the action that the board takes today and also um hopefully September 10th we are prepared to have um a parent University if you will and multiple ones to really have conversations with our parents because the most noted thing with this rule is the district cannot participate in the nil process for families that is we are separate and apart and we want to make sure that we provide our parents and our student athletes with as much education as possible and then it is up to them to make decisions for their families can you just explain the acronym oh I'm sorry name image and likeness n l name image and likeness so students can profit from the use of their name their image or their likeness I know there'll probably be more questions but okay is that your presentation that's pretty much it cuz it is um the the policy is specifically the language um that was ratified by the State Board of Education chair we do have two more um policies or three I should say uh Mr Rob moal do you want to give a quick recap of yours sure gabra moha director secondary learning the policy is student progression policy policy 4000 there are two changes to the policy this year the one change is uh it's our next step in in aligning our policy to State stat statute so we're removing the one test requirement for the reading requirement for graduation promotion criteria but we're including holistically what a student looks like for Mastery of standards in math English language arts social studies and science so instead of it just being down to one day and one test that promote students we're Ling holistically at the whole portfolio of students at the whole year long work and looking at all of the all of the work that student does including their tests their classwork fast sco scor on pm1 pm2 and pm3 uh any other scores that we have for student portfolio classwork and any other assignments and test that teachers have on hand so it doesn't just boow down to one day of a student's life that promotes them or retains them or not the next change from policy 4,000 is we're aligning our core GPA to the state's University Systems core GPA board members May realize that we actually have three gpas in this District an unweighted GPA a weighted GPA and then a core GPA that core GPA student State University Systems use that they pull out all the elective classes they only count the core classes and they give honors courses a half a point and they give AP courses and college courses one full point we've currently our system right now gives all courses half a point even college courses for our core GPA so all we're doing is aligning our core GPA with the State University's core GPA so actually will boost our our students Cor GPA and when now when they look at that third GPA they don't have to ask themselves what is this GPA it aligns to the state's GPA that most State University Systems are going to use for entrance into into their into their system so those are two major changes for policy 4000 and Madam chair closing us out with visiting teachers is our uh director uh cello did I say right hopefully Sello was close sella thank you good morning Marissa Cella director of student services uh the visiting teacher policy is something that came about um but I think has been in existence way before I even be got into the district um it speaks to procedures for doing home visits by visiting teachers and it also alludes to the job description and duties of the school social worker so we are requesting that the policy be repealed um as it no longer applies to our current practices and um the job description of the social workers uh speaks to the details in the policy and visiting teachers in the past I think also Incorporated other teachers not just School social workers that were doing home visits and it looks to be that there was some kind of a process for uh submitting those referrals okay thank you B questions I'm sorry madam chair uh Miss coward did you have anything to add to the we can car thank you good Mr Alon yes thank you madam chair um question on uh 4,000 student progression is your microphone on yes 4000 th000 student progression my question was just on the uh the test the test removal piece where where do where would that align with other districts on that decision alone great question Mr Alon it Alliance the the the district North of us and the district south of us they don't have that one test requirement either they look holistically at students at portfolio of work throughout the whole year so we've aligned ourselves not just to the state statute but also to the districts around us as well great and I'm assuming bbor Duval Leon orange are similar I haven't done an extensive look at their student progression policy so I couldn't I couldn't attest to that right now but I can and come and do a followup the bo follow I'm thank you Other Board member Dr holess thank you madam chair so um regarding policy 4,000 and adding these additional factors in determining uh progression um how do you maintain objectiv in the decision making now that we're adding several other determinants um and also you mentioned uh using different factors including the pm1 2 and three data uh the second question I have is the pm1 data uh is um sort of a uh a baseline data um so are you looking at progression uh to pm2 pm3 or are you looking at these three different data sets separately and independently so if you could explain that um I you yeah thank you for the question the only test that we'll look at separately would be pm3 right because that shows a whole years's worth of progression and years worth of learning so we can look at that one separately but if we look at pm1 pm2 and pm3 if we if we if we do end up using pm1 and pn2 as determining factors it would be because students outperformed everyone else and showed that they were above or at grade level in pm1 and pm2 if we use those as a progression to pm3 but it would mainly be the pm3 test that we would looking at Mr holess Dr holess for that progression and that promotion so you mentioned if you use the pm1 because my understanding is pm1 is really just a baseline data um that does not necessarily indicate um how a student has advanced um so when you say if is that are you using that in in terms of uh uh possibility of or is that definitive I'm kind of lacking understanding as to how the pm1 data relates to um promoting a student as it's a baseline data So currently what we what we looped was only looking at pm3 data so I may have misspoken saying pm1 and pm2 but I do know that we can look at the progression from pm1 to pm2 to pm3 to see students growth towards Mastery and math in ela but the but the looping process we use just said we look at fast pm3 for ELA and fast pm3 for math okay so the emphasis is progression over correct okay and regarding the first question as far as how do we maintain uh objectivity in in terms of the various factors that we'll be using can you comment on that yeah I'm going to defer to Melissa Holtz director of Elementary learning only because she had she had plenty of discussions with the elementary principles about this as well I believe okay good morning I believe it still is Melissa Holtz director of Elementary learning I did have a lot of conversation with the elementary executive board and the elementary principles in past practice we did set expectations and and criteria for what is below grade level on grade level and above grade level so that is something that we will do again this year so if a teacher asks well to take away subjective objective what makes a student on grade level in the various assessments the various um core content assessments that we've provided within each of the criteria we will set what that criteria is for below grade level and Ong grade level so we're not just saying you may use report cards we're saying you may use report cards but the student has to show that they mastered standards on those report cards so we'll we'll help guide the requirements for each of the um options that we've put into promotion criteria okay great thank you you're welcome Dr Zan thanks chair um I'm also going to talk about uh policy 4,000 um and talk about a change we made last year that I think I I'd like to propose so we go back and think about again and that is uh uh the net result of accepting the state standards for fourth and fifth grade progression which exclude math um in my view uh this was a mistake last year uh I would much rather have a system in place that accepts the worldwide standard that math is just as important as literacy uh English is the only language in the world in which you can say I don't do math and be sensible if you tried to say that in Chinese or Korean or Japanese or virtually any other language uh on this planet uh that would be a language that just a sentence that does not make sense moreover our kindergarteners this year are going to enter the labor force in 2042 and in 2042 if you don't think people are going to have to understand data and analytics and probability and statistics and geometry and calculus in order to survive in the workplace and to make great decisions outside the workplace as well um I think you're ignoring most of the evidence if not if not all of it and so I'm curious about uh the evidence that we have that excluding math is in fact good for our community and good for our students for fourth and fifth grade uh promotion I'm very interested in in coming up with solutions that allow us to actually learn math rather than to punish families and PG and students by not allowing them to progress I think we could use Summers far more effectively I think math is one of those things that is not Progressive like English is you can learn individual topics one at a time without having learned any other topics um and I would love to find a better solution than excluding math as a criteria for promotion to fourth grade and promotion to fifth grade uh and Beyond so uh this is in our current policy so chair let me just start with a few questions right now in Broward County Schools if you fail the math test if you fall below grade level in math test in third grade uh does that affect your promotion to fourth grade Dr H Mr Bor MOA yeah uh I would like to say first we did not remove math of promotion criteria but I'm going to defer to Melissa Hol director of Elementary learning to answer your question and former principal of the great Wilton maners Elementary School we just got to get the titles right thank you um wellis Al director Elementary learning so the answer is that state statute only requires mandatory retention in the third grade state statute only requires that a third grader pass the fast um in the third grade for ELA not for math however State Statute also States and this is in our new progression policy that in order for a student to be promoted they must show Mastery of standards in ela math science and social studies so we have Rewritten the policy to make sure that we include that it is Math Science Social Studies and Ela in our criteria in our broken down criteria IIA we do give examples of math science social studies and Ela that must be shown grade level standards for in order for a child to be promoted besides just in third grade but in kindergarten through fifth grade so we have included criteria Ela Math Science Social Studies kindergarten through fifth grade so we have gone um within the requirement of State Statute but we have brought it from K to 5 and added math into third grade as well and I appreciate the Mastery uh in all four of those uh topics and that being a criteria for our students I do not accept state standards though as anything other than minimal standards and I think this is Broward County this is not just the State of Florida and we're allowed if I'm correct chair to exceed State Standards is that true yes so uh I would like us to think hard about this um I think we're sending a signal to our students and we're doing a disservice to the community and to their families by making Ela fast test the only standard for promotion to fourth and fifth grade I think that passing the math fast test should be a criteria as well and we ought to start that as soon as practical if it's too late this year to adopt that uh then maybe we should spend some time this year creating a better math education system for the whole County and for all of our students and I think this is a big differentiator for our community if we want to attract people back to brard County Schools we can't continue to lower expectations and lower standards just because the state allows us to do that and so I think in Broward County uh we do want to set a standard uh and part of setting that standard is to include fast promotion excuse me uh passing grade level fast test in third fourth and fifth grade for uh promotion um I just want to tee that up for discussion with my colleagues and uh figure out how we want to move forward do we want to accept state standards um and just use the Mastery at every level or do we want to say that math is just as important as literacy um and get rid of this ridiculous English language sentence that I don't do math or I can't do math as being an acceptable every student in the United States can do math when they fail math it's because our system failed them not because they don't have the cognitive ability to do math we say that all the time about reading it's also true about math and the need for math later on for personal decisions for uh work you know kinds of things is very very clear and it's only going to get more pronounced over time and I don't want to accept the state standards uh for promotion may I add something that you'll like Dr Zeman and that is that the state agrees with you that math is equally important and for the first year um in State Statute it does say that any student who has a math deficiency in addition to an Ela deficiency must by State Statute be provided an intervention um in their area of deficiency so that is any student who scores in kindergarten through second grade below the 10th percentile on pm1 and any third grader and above who scores below the 20th percentile in pm1 must by State Statute be given a math intervention in addition to an Ela Intervention which is what we used to focus on so I think the state is in agreeance with you that we need to be paying attention to math just as much as Ela and we will be doing that in Brower County and and I appreciate that M but but the community sees promotion standards yes where Ela can keep you from going to fourth grade and not being grade proficient on the fast test in third grade you can still go to fourth grade and the communication that goes out to the community and maybe even broader is that Ela is more important than math because it's a standard for promotion and I think both of them should be I just believe that uh that's really going to differentiate us and it's going to do the best thing for our kids uh now uh and in the future Mr char yes thank you madam chair um I recall a time or at least a thinking when there were some uh at District school districts uh who thought that state standards were too tough uh so I'm actually happy to have this conversation uh so it's interesting to hear one of my colleagues uh believe the state standards are too low um but I think I heard something different from you Madame director so would you repeat um maybe kind of two things one what is required in statute a and then B I think you also uh mentioned a very clear line uh that referred to the proficiency level uh that's considered for math so would you just maybe repeat that because I think I heard something totally different from my colleague absolutely so State Statute states that each District Schoolboard shall establish a comprehensive plan for student progression which must provide for a student's progression from one grade to another based on the students's Mastery of the standards in English language arts math science and social studies so that is what our plan has standards expectations of Mastery in those four content areas the state specifically calls out their own third grade promotion criteria which includes scoring a level two or above in ela so they call out Ela in third grade and only in third grade but they also mention that for students to progress from one grade to another they must Master Ela math science and social studies so the state does not say you must have a level two on the math fast nor do we but we do say You must have mastered standards in math So to that point let me make sure I understand so if we brow County Public Schools should have mastered something in the math area yes is that different than the state no the the state specifically says that you must Master standards in Math Science Social Studies and Ela the state does not tell you how you prove that Mastery it just says You must Master the state shows you how you must prove that Mastery in third grade ELA so we have said how you must prove that Mastery in math as well but we've given more than just the state assessment we've said report cards curriculum that we take um teacher observation we've added in addition to the fast because the state statute also says one test cannot be the sole determining Factor if a student is promoted or not so we've aligned oursel with multiple ways to show that if a student is promoted even in third grade you don't have to pass the fast with a two to be promoted in ela if you don't you can take the I ready diagnostic you can go through portfolio you have other good cause option opportunities so what I think so that would the answer to that so is math from the BCS perspective versus the state perspective do we have a broader view to make a determination on math proficiency so the state doesn't give any view on math proficiency us BCPS um I'm only and I'm only referring to so let me go backwards for the first question okay the first question was you reading what's clear in statute yes and remember the the discussion point is around how we consider math at all yes right and I think you gave an answer on how we consider math so that's really what I'm honing in on so back to using that first question as a starting Place how do we consider math a we and is that okay go ahead we consider math to be equally as important as Ela and we have criteria within the new if it is approved uh policy that delineates what that math promotion criteria is in K through five the the state does not give criteria for promotion the state says the school board must determine criteria for promotion in K through 12 with the exception of third grade they said it so have we gone A step above the state in that regard I don't think so I think that we've done what the state has asked us to do which is set promotion criteria in K through 12 that is aligned to the state statute which says Ela math science and social studies so I don't it's almost as if statute says two different things you need to have grade level expectations for promotion in ela math science and social studies which we've done and then they delineate what third grade promotion should be so we're trying to balance that the state statute says students must meet grade level standards in all four but in this one subject in this one grade level we're going to tell you what that is and I'll end with some more positive comments thank you to the team uh for your feedback thank you to is it outside counsel make make sure I get that right outside contracted Council uh for your continued guidance on all of our policies um and thank you uh for the back and forth on the questions and looking forward to our September uh meeting where we have I guess a final decision point Thank you thank you and I'll weigh in on Dr Zeman's point I think for me for in order for me to agree I would have to have some data to back up like you know this last past school year if we went along with Dr Zeman's suggestion how many students would be retained in and what grade level all right can you sorry so I sent a text to Richie and I asked him if he could get me the historical information on students who were retained in Prior years and versus last year so I'm he's working on getting us those num perfect I have a question or comment on page 10 of 136 of the appendix I just want to point out uh on number five physical education number two the r and participating is capitalized so we just need to lowercase that and then on the health education page 11 number six um I just want to um ask when the school board will be approving the materials and resources for the K through2 health educ health curriculum this year Dr heern superintendent yes Miss hansworth I forgot she's I think your question was specifically to our sex at kir correct uh so we've received verbal feedback from the state we have until October 6 to uh make uh some adjustments based on our conversations to ensure that we're aligned to stay standard so that's got to happen before we uh come back to the board okay so when do you foresee us it then coming back to the board in November it all depends on when we hear back from when once we make the provisions and submit it to the state uh how that looks like uh so we know this is the last quarter of the school year typically that this instruction is given so we will expedite it as soon as as soon as possible because I just don't want to end up kind of where we've been in the past few years and it's been an issue and a problem and I really think it's uh really important this year that once we get this back that the board really looks at it to make sure this is is what we want to be taught in our schools I do have a question sorry just going back regarding the new policy um Dr wanza spoke about uh is that only pertain to football teams football players oh no ma'am that's high school all high school athletes every sport okay then why in the rationale it it's it says it's being reviewed with all high school head football coaches on July 24th no I said we did review it with them because that was the first opportunity we had with any coaches and then we' met with all High School athletic directors the high school principls is tomorrow and then um as I said as soon as the board takes action then we're going to meet we're going to offer virtual sessions with all athletes High School their parents to um have some education sessions okay and so miss Batista so this was ratified by the State Board of Education is does this mean that it's a law that we are requ ire to um have in our schools yes yes okay my other question it says that there's a copy of the document that's included with the attachments for the recommended policy adoption where was that I didn't see that so there it was um bylaw number nine for the um Florida High School Athletic Association um don't know why it wasn't attached but I'll make sure the board gets it right away I'll just go make copies but it it it is the actual bylaw um um the recommendations that the State Board ratified on July 24th okay perfect and then also can we just include it in the deck so the publicans see that absolutely and I'm just trying to comprehend can you just walk me through if um I am a soccer player now explain like as as people are going to say you know um lorri Alf we will pay you $100,000 to use your need and and wear this Adidas shirtt or you know something like that so this is akin to a student having a part-time job at Publix they are being paid for a service for the use of their name their image or their likeness most of it will happen around social media posts um advertisement if you will they a student cannot benefit just from having their name on a roster they must actually um utilize their name their image or their likeness so the first thing that we going to educate parents on is this is not a district sponsored um type of activity that the parents absolutely need to seek some type of legal and financial guidance we've already um Dr hurn and I had conversations with Municipal leaders faith-based to help us get you know to educate our parents but essentially um and I'm going to use you miss Al so Lori alep is a soccer player and um Smoothie King wants to pay Lori alhade to hold up something and say I'm Lori aldea I play soccer I'm amazing and I drink I I drink this and that smoothie three times a week and the fact that I'm posting that on my social media page and it's getting you know all types of visibility and my contract may say if I get x amount of likes this is how much I get paid or if I make this many posts in a week this is how how much I'm going to get paid it is truly a contract that the students and their families enter into with some entity thank you for that explanation but however now you said this is like a job outside of Brer County Public Schools but how does that correlate I guess it correlates in with as far as grades with students being they have to maintain that grade point average because they're going to be kicked off the soccer team or football team if they don't correct so this has nothing to do with eligibility as far as this has everything to that's why I said it's scary because it has everything to do with them benefiting monetarily for the use of their name image and likeness they they cannot say I am Lori alev the star goalie at margerie stowman Douglas High School they in fact in order for a student athlete to even use anything that Associates with the district they have to get prior consent and writing from the superintendent or the senior leader in charge of Athletics which right now it happens to be me and all of that is spelled out in this policy so for in order for that person to say Marjorie stowman Douglas High School you're saying they have to get consent from staff or the superintendent from the superintendent first or and at this point me and they and it has to be in writing that we allow them to use say say they want to um wear their Jersey they they can't even wear their school jerseys the helmets any of that this is separate and apart from um if they are doing like a school fundraiser that's different because it's a team fundraiser where the team is fundraising but where an individual athlete is um profiting him or herself off of their individual name image or likeness okay I'm just trying to process it all and you know I think that there is going to be more to it uh because what if you know now I don't get played I'm on the bench and I have you know $100,000 or half a million dollars contract writing on me being the the star you know Center halfback so the contract is for your name image and likeness it is not for your participation in the high school um Athletic program mhm okay lot to think about I know it is Landon quickly I have a question uh I would like to put on the record that I will be seeking nil for my performance as student adviser I think that should be added to the uh to the guidelines just saying that you could buy a cup of coffee uh but I have a question on a new policy 1910 the ceremonies at Schoolboard sponsored functions um it may be in legal e but I didn't see it do the rules apply to if a student holds up a sign or a flag or we have we've had this issue at graduations before if you know they have a one pager or something you know like does this policy apply to that because it says comments speeches invocations and similar Expressions so does similar Expressions I think we maybe need to explicitly say that this includes the demonstration of something sta I I think he's correct that we probably need to um revise it to include that thank you public comment artha Wimberly good morning artha Wimberly um from a community U perspective regarding the definition of discrimination in 1910 um would the board consider adding socioeconomic status in that definition to not be discriminated against often times we do see that our young people who are um in certain socioeconomic environments they do not receive the same opportunities to participate in some of these ceremonies um with regards to the N um nil policy um is it possible to make sure that that language is as plain as possible for our community members especially those who are from different ethnic backgrounds um cultures um for them to clearly understand what that encompasses for the student and um what um also I'm not quite clear on if it's any way possible to have a little Clarity on what happens when the district benefits financially from using a child's name image or likeness because um if they were to receive a sponsorship or a grant or some other um benefit from saying this kid attends our school he's Olympian you know this that um how does that impact the students ability to um receive any kind of gratuities or from that um benefit that the district receives so make sure that's all spelled out clear um for all the students and the parents to understand in policy 4000 um I'm curious about the character education as well as environmental stewardship are there any kind of matrices in place to see how effective we are in those areas at the different schools because we do continue to see things with um kids social status their social skills their interpersonal skills um are lacking um in the first week of school we had reports of multiple students still being violently attacked mainly because of social um conflicts so I would love to see how we're actually measuring success in character education and environmental stewardship the thing is in your policy there is a I believe a makeup of two days for um kids to submit their makeup work with grand United Community PTA we presented a program or a pilot program called learning intentions and tutoring where we were hoping to be able to give the children an opportunity to sit with tutors and do makeup work reflective of their deficiencies on an interim report if they received an interim report and the teacher um said specific speically the areas that they need to improved and they did not submit work related to that we wanted to hopefully create a program with the district where the children could come in and their parents sit with tutors actually complete those assignments and get a partial grade so um I would just like to know if there's any consideration for that thank you so much Mrs Fam thank you thank you so much I I just have a few brief comments um one of if we can revisit 5800 and my question would be directed to general counsel because we're now allowing students to use their name image and likeness would you suggest that we put in our policy um something to the effect about a kugan account and if you're not familiar with a uh Jackie C uh Jackie cuden account that was a star that was in California who uh worked as a child star for a long period of time and when he went to colle his earnings when he returned 21 there was none there was no money put away so the state of California requires that a minimum of 15% be put into that account until that student would be 21 years old and then he could access that so I just think as a protection um it would be very wise of the board to suggest that a certain amount be put away into a a blockable trust account where it can't be removed so that student has that income anyone be subject to being taken advantage of like it was in this story Miss Batista thank you madam shair um so we can't really legislate over parents and how they manage the funds of the children's likeness and image um especially because the policy only really applies to the it separates what the child can do with the the school board's image or logo for example so this is only as to what the children or the students can do uh with their image and their likeness is not for us to manage their you know the funding that they receive or just as a response um our daughter um was required to set up a cougan count and we live in Florida because she's dealing with when you're dealing with outside vendors from different states so I just don't want to slip into that and it would be in the best interest of the student that we do try to protect him in case his parents aren't aware as well Dr yeah um so in layman's terms the school districts can't can't have anything to do um with the nil um which I would call deals or agreements that are made um with student athletes um from various businesses and I know uh Mr Sullivan and um um Dr ones will probably elaborate um even more hence the need for the policy so everybody have a clear understanding that school districts are the only thing that we can do is educate parents and students just to make sure they're seeking legal counsel they're seeking financial advisor so they can make those type of decisions that you're talking about on their own so that their students uh can be set up for some better opportunities in the future if they if they are garnering the the the type of income um that they can actually defer for later well well thank you I think that would be the the best interest if we even just reference getting a cougan account um also I have a few other items okay one is on page 134 and this is in reference to attendance so uh on specifically what we've done here we've set out that a student can get full credit for their work even from an unexcused absence in two days or suspensions but in the alternative we had that same thing it's 2 days for excused absences I think there should be a separation from someone that's suspended or unexcused as opposed to someone that has um specifically received permission or they're in a hospital or we have a doctor's note that they were unable and not set the same deadlines and that includes all makeup work and quizzes so I would thr that back to you superintendent do you think there should be a distinction between the two Dr I'm trying to refer to the page um can you specify what page 134 bottom quarter it's uh nine I'm sorry 10 a and 10 B very bottom of the page um I can't find a page but I'll I'll comment um do you want to bring it over no I'm I'm good I but I'll comment on uh student absences versus students that are suspended um and my um not even an opinion just my firm belief that a student needs to have the opportunity to make up their work um their kids some of our kids make mistakes that wind up in discipline that would require them to be out of our school buildings for sometimes but that should not be a penalty an additional penalty to um affect their academic prowess or or or OPP opportunities that they would have later um because they have the opportunity to make up that work so I don't think you know we should penalize students academically or academic opportunities for making up work just because they were suspended out of out of school um to the contrary I'm trying to reward the students that had excused absences not penalize anyone right now it's the same standard I'm saying someone that has been excused maybe they should be given five days you know to get their work in four days but I just disagree that they should be the same as someone that's got a suspension and that also just you know took off and didn't go to school in a few days would you agree on that that we could extend the amount of time for the excused appid I'll let the I'll let the board the rest of the colleagues weigh in on that one but just from my experience um some students make mistakes that require a suspension um some students are legitim legitimately out for specific medical concerns but I'm looking at the aspect of academic opportunities and I don't want to limit um academic opportunities for whatever differences of the reason that the kid was out um eventually we will have if we have a different um policy or practice for students out for various reasons we're we're we're going to deal with it on the back end we're going to have to deal with that kid who didn't have the same amount of time to make up work as a kid who was out sick on the back end trying to help them catch up and providing additional interventions and um and staff have to do something different to make sure they can catch up um later on in their in their educational career so that's why I I firmly believe they need to have the same amount of time to if that's an extension of saying both five days but I think whatever the decision is it needs to be the same for both for for both instances okay thank you is anybody on the board agree with Miss fam that would like to discuss it further any other board member want to make a comment on this item okay Mr then um well I'm going to just make sure we have uh consensus on some of the changes so while I read mine I'll have my colleagues prepare any changes that you've heard if you can repeat them just so we ensure that we have consensus excuse me I wasn't finished though oh sorry okay and on page 146 there's two items that were omitted um constitutional week was omitted that we're adding uh we have up for a vote and also uh Freedom week under Florida statute 1000 3421 and they're both in September Florida statute 13421 I I don't believe that's part of this um item on what page are you referring to I'm right here on page 146 and it says required instruction 136 no mine is 46 I'm having page 146 I'm going to the policy policy title book I no another book I had the numbers were different okay I can bring over my my page to you the hill is coming over to check it out so we can all get on the same page oh no pun intend oh okay there's a small 51 in the corner I was looking at the right hand side page just page 51 and it says required instruction item number three what is your comment to add Freedom week and constitutional week we can Dr happen can you speak to all those required instruction Mr boha yeah thank you K Baha director secondary learning we can definitely add those to I think it just inadvertently not added to this you see Constitution days on there and I think our new resolution this year to had as Constitution weak so that was an over oversight on our part we can definitely add that Miss and freedom weake you saw Freedom week as well as long as it's part of the reard instruction will add it under here I just want to make sure it's part of the required instruction from the state because I want I only want to put in the policy what's really required for progression if it's just optional I don't want to add it here if that makes sense I would ask then that um you look at Florida statute one definitely will 421 thank you so if I can add the the Celebrate Freedom week is on there it is item number seven under required instruction a and then seven is Celebrate Freedom week sorry it says celebrate in front of it okay thank you thank you Dr thank you Miss svin uh as it relates to the ceremonies um the student advisor recommended that we ensure we're included more language so we're going to add on hold on I'm going back back to that page sorry page I believe it's on page two of the appendix uh under rules number one where it says similar Expressions we're going to add such as signs or Flags unless uh there's objection to that to not allow correct well as long as they have to be nonsecular nomination non-discrimination and historically accurate and free from uh hate speech M zon so how does that impact student who wears their country flag while they come up to get their diploma that trer Mr Salan I think that would that would still be allowable if it's a country flag right because that would comport to the rest of the of this of the rule if you look at uh number two I'm sorry number one discat right so we might just put some language in there to to let them know that that wouldn't be a violation of the policy because it would bring up a question I would think um so you can say you know what's not allow example of what's allowable and what's not maybe well from my experience from this past um graduation I I think um some of the countries I it's more about how they use the flag it's not for some of the flags that are non uh Den n inational non-discriminatory but some of the kids just used the flag in a way to demonstrate um during the ceremony so I think that's the part where we have that I've observed some concerns from graduation so it's not per se the flag I may have a Jamaican flag but if I'm using it in a way that's offensive on purpose during that ceremony that's where and I don't know if that's a policy issue or if that's a more of a procedural um thing when it comes to during uh for graduations and ceremonies like that we can do that and procedure in terms of how they're using it but the it's specifically to include it here so we ensure that it comports to the rest of this uh the rule anything else any yes um was board member fam still speaking or or she no okay so I just wanted to um clarify because I know there was a discussion on makeup days and I just want to make sure understand it clearly it says there'll be U on page 39 I think board member fam was speaking on that regards so if a student is absent and if the superintendent could clarify this for me if a student is absent uh say on a Monday they miss five seven classes whatever it may be um they have two days to make up all of those classes Mr ban yeah thank you Dr Hess the way the policy is written right now they have two days for every day absent so if they're absent for two days on the day they return they get four days to make up the work that they miss okay so if if they're absent for one day and it's a Monday they have six classes they have two days to make up when they if they're absent for Monday and they get back on Tuesday right they have two days to make up that work so it's for all of the classes for all the classes correct Okay so I I would suggest a longer period of time because um I know from having a middle school child that um sometimes especially in in a advanced uh program and otherwise that the work can be quite extensive because they're expected to continue to do the homework that's been assigned in addition to doing all of this makeup I think two days having six classes having all those teachers given homework uh to make up all of those classes and instill keep up with everything else that's happening it it's it's too minimal so I would like to see that double I think that based on my experience as a parent and from what I have observed I I think that a greater amount of time is needed when we're expecting that child to still continue to keep up with everything else that's going on uh from the day the child returns so I don't know if the board could weigh on that but I can speak from a parent perspective that that is problematic and it puts a lot of pressure on the child and then you have teachers starting to give these kids zeros and failing them because of trying to stay on top of things when they get back and then having two days to make up everything that they miss so I think it's really um not reasonable for the child and that we should extend the time period so we don't create unnecessary burden for that child so that would be my suggestion on that section is there a recommendation it's a recommendation no do you have a recommendation uh four days um double the amount of time okay Mrs hexen thank you so I would say that makes sense if they have six or seven classes but in high school and some Middle Schools they're on block so if they're missing a day they're only missing three or four classes depending on if they have a study hall or whatever so maybe it's it delineates schools that are not on block and schools that are block cuz 4 days is excessive for when you're missing a day of school and high school and just think about how far they're going to be behind sometimes that homework's needed to be able to move forward and if you're giving them almost a week to make it up you know just from a teacher standpoint that makes it very difficult so I would say that if they're on block that makes sense because there's there could be a lot of classes but also keep in mind class CL may be PE it may be um band you know they're going to have core class three or four core classes but if you're on a block schedule you're probably only missing you're going to have homework from two maybe three classes as opposed to to six and four days is going to be much more difficult for um for the student to be able to catch up and just to also speak to the excus versus unexcused excused often times at the end of the semester all of a sudden things get excused so if you're not being fair and you know Equitable in terms of making up the the work at that time um it kind of as Dr heurn said it balls up at the end and it causes an issue and most teachers will work with students if there's extenda circumstances and allow them to make it up because no one is in the business of failing students so okay so um Madame chair can I okay so I would probably and I understand board member hixon's comment so this is are we able to put in policy um distinguishing between block and non-block schedule as far as makeup time or um otherwise I would I still believe uh 2 days is is just um too short of a time so I would probably if we can't distinguish between block and non-block in the policy then I would recommend 3 days I just think from my experience and from what I've heard from many parents uh even um when I was a teacher as well uh at the middle school level that um it puts undue pressure on the kid having to keep up with the work and then have this additional work to keep up with and also pressure on the parents um so I just think the two days is very limited so are we able to do um a separate um in terms of Block versus non-block in the policy and if not can we I would recommend three three days Dr yes um testing okay I'm up um go ahead Mr Mohan then I'll follow up with you because I have some I want to make sure first first I'm speak about policy okay no but first I just want to make sure the the board and the public is aware so for every currently for the recommended policy for every one day there's two if I miss two days I get four correct if I get if I miss three I get six if it changes to let's say three or four days let's go with four if I miss one I get four if I get Miss two I get eight if I miss three I get 12 and now we're at interim time or and and the report card time correct um I'll let you talk about policy and then I'll come back because I want to talk about this concern from a student standpoint and I want to hear from Landon and atana also um to help us out so I just wanted I know the board was wasn't around when this policy was recommended and got approved there was a lot of discussion around the the excuse versus unexcused absences so miss fan I want to recognize your comment as well and and what Miss Hixon said is sometimes kids don't have power over their absence is being excused or not it's if their parent calling them in being excused or not so sometimes it's not just a kid's fault that they're unexcused right so that's one reason why the policy states for excused and unexcused Aban is it's the same makeup policy right uh so that's just to answer your question as well on the two days it was since I can be member in this District this is my 30th year in the district it's always been a 2day grace period for kids coming in absent and for Block schools it is difficult to to determine when those two days are but it's still two days we can definitely make a distinction in policy however this being such a big change I wouldn't feel comfortable making the change at this table without looping the whole change over again to our advisories and especially our BTU and our teacher groups to make sure they have a say so so if it's a change that the board wants this policy will not come back until my suggestion would be to Rel Loop this change with all the advisories and the teacher groups and then bring the policy back for for an additional Workshop but Dr he Flor is your so I have an additional concern um and maybe there's some compromise here because I understand it's Dr holess Dr holess is concern if a kid misses one day they need more than two and also miss Wimberly kind of alluded to the same to the same um concern too when she spoke earlier um the the concern with adding additional days um and a student misses four days that's where the issue um comes when it could be potentially 12 to 16 days how many per one day um I think it turns into a situation where some students and I was just talking to the chair and I say for me as a kid I was a very smart kid I figured out how I can get around the system and get what I need to get done with with the least amount of effort possible um when it wasn't interesting or engaging so I would purposely miss two days of school because I know I'm going to have eight days to make up that work and get the credit for it um so we need to be careful with with that so maybe for the a day or two we have some type of formula but if a kid misses four or five days is maybe the number of days you were out plus one um to make up to work um which gives them some time knowing hey I've been out for 5 days cuz I was sick whatever case may be I know I'm going to have six days to make up the work versus 5 Time 4 or five time 2 or five times um three so I I I want to hear um Mr spelberg and Mrs uh barrero um if they want to uh weigh in on that conversation thank you through the chair and I'll I'll hop it over to Lana Mrs barrero sorry in a in a minute um I would I would recommend a a a cap because you know like you're saying it can get higher I will also offer the perspective of um you know this I I want to make it very clear I'm not talking about every student because there are absolutely cases where work cannot be done but in many cases now I could go on to Canvas and do the work while I'm sitting at home not saying every student's going to going to do that or or it has the ability to do that um but there is that opportunity so I think if we do a cap if it's after 4 days or even if it's after you know you miss a week I'm not good at math like Dr Ms that I'm not supposed to say but if that's 5 days that's that's whatever I can't do the math in my head right now but it maybe a cap of after a week or after a certain number of days you just something to add Miss barrero yeah so I do agree I think that at times like even right now we're missing classes as we speak so the numbers do add up sometimes we do miss quite a bit of work um but I did like the recommendation of the uh the three days instead of doing the four or adding um like Lon said that entire week um because at at times let's say if students are chosen for things like rally to tally or these really big projects that we have to miss school for but they're beneficial towards our education we should have time to you know make up these things I mean Ace and AP classes don't stop for us so we got to make sure that we're um on top of our stuff but that's up to yeah and Dr hibr I just want to say uh I'm just I'm primarily concerned as our student advisor mentioned that first day or two especially the first day and a kid coming in from being significantly ill or whatever it may be and they have two days six classes and they have a pile of work I got to get this together within two days so subsequent days I can understand I don't want this thing to build up where so there could be a cap and this could be relevant just for the first day or two that they get at least three days during their first day of absence and then subsequent days they get their two days you know however it may be and then there's a cap but it's that first day that I realize is very strenous on children and very burdensome and it's and it's also costly to their grade because some teachers are very structured and strict and their grades get slammed pretty hard uh coming back out of a significant illness or whatever it may be um so I I don't want to have a consequence to our kids learning outcome because of that first day of getting back I think two days to make up a lot of work is significant so we could have a cap and we could have the first day being three or even three days or four days and then subsequent days could revert back to its normal process Miss fam yeah um pursuant to the rule the first day isn't included so it amounts to really three days if you're not counting the first days already thank you I'm sorry so miss fam is correct like if you're out Monday when you come back Tuesday that doesn't count as your day of work your your work's not due till Thursday so your two days a Wednesday Thursday you get your work on Tuesday so then your two days start and so the work's not due till Thursday so it's Wednesday Thursday you have essentially it almost is 3 days you come back the day you're you're present and you have two more days to do the work and I do want to just make sure that I know we're keeping students in mind but I want to keep teachers in mind as well because as a classroom teacher I can have you know Dr heer absent for two days Miss Hixon absent for three days and Miss alev absent for one day so now I have to it's the more complicated you make the rule the more I'm going to have to be as a teacher to say okay Dr he's work is due on Thursday but M hixon's work is due on on Tuesday afternoon and miss alf's work is Du on Wednesday it's just it becomes a lot of keeping track for teachers so the more complicated you make it the hardest going to be for them as well I just want everyone to keep that in mind as we think about the policy changes understand so my simple recommendation is the first day of absent 3 days all subsequent revert back to the two days with with some some kind of a cap I'm okay with the current policy I think it's important that we don't water down our standards and and need to keep things consistent Miss ton I I agree because it is essentially 3 days already but I do like the idea of putting a cap on it which it doesn't have at the moment especially because of intrs and report cards and and all of that so I don't know what the cap might be but um I think that that maybe trying to Loop it through get some kind of feedback from students and from teachers on what would be cap but I I do think that a cap is a good idea Dr Stephen did you I was just agreeing with the chair I like the current policy and I don't want to change our standards even though the key to all of this though is at the end of the day the teacher and the student have to work this out and the teacher right now can say look this the the standard is two days but I know you're going through a lot of stuff at home if you need more time let me know and and and they work that out all the time I just not all the time but but I would rather have that be the policy it's two so we have something to start with and then just allow the teachers do what uh most teachers do which is to work through a good good solution okay Dr heurn do you have anything else Direction need anything no nothing that we have um Madam chair we've the the document the um FSH the rule n is being uploaded okay perfect all right so we're going to move on uh we're going to have 5 minutes recess and our next item is our smart if the board wants to grab their lunch 5 minutes recess e e people my e e e e all e e e e welcome back we will now go to item number four safety music art Athletics Renovations and Technology Dr heurn Miss Paul good afternoon uh board uh member and chair alad uh Dr hipper superintendent of schools and uh board members I'm excited to provide you with this uh presentation on the smart update uh the goal of today's presentation is to provide the board an update of the current status and forecast of capital Improvement projects both smart and dfp the board requested an update on the status of the uh projects and I'm here to deliver table of contents today we will be talking about the smart program uh today uh smart by the Numbers uh Renovations update Financial update second big category is the program forecast uh project status proje remaining projects post program planning and then the path forward uh how do we move forward opportunities uh that we can capture strengthening our business Partnerships proactive and thorough planning as well as management of remaining projects a smart program today the smart program uh is composed of a $1.65 billion dollar that's been invested across all aspects of the smart program including safety music art Athletics Renovations and Technology as you can see these are some examples uh safety uh included uh single point of entries uh the safety upgrades that we're talking about are fire alarm fire sprinkler and additional signage and and those type items we have completed the music and art portion of it 6,76 instruments 40 theater program upgrades on the athletic side 15 track upgrades 30 weight room upgrades Renovations that we still have in Pro in process uh 176 Pro projects in construction 147 projects uh in construction closeout technology uh 83,000 362 devices 13,662 the smart program has 176 schools in active construction a total of 68 media centers that have been completed to date there are three projects that are in design phase uh the designs for all three projects are 95% complete and the projects are being prepared for bid pictures on the slide are from recent uh events commemorating the completion of their smart Renovations at schools across the district uh school choice enhancement programs uh is complete uh 200 130 schools each received $100,000 in funding as committed all have completed their school choice enhancement upgrades some examples are Media Center enhancements front office technology Furniture equipment and playgrounds here's uh uh depiction of the smart budget update uh it provides a budget summary as of June 30th uh in 2024 for the 331 smart projects so far about a 1.19 billion has been spent which is 77% of the current budget of the approximately 100 million of unencumbered funds 56 million is pending Construction contract Awards and 43 is in contingency uh within the projects within the project budgets and so this is a cap Capital uh projects budget update uh this slide provides a budget summary as of June 30th 2020 four of the capital projects that are not part of the smart program some of these projects are managed by our program uh manager owner representative and some are managed by District staff of the approximately 131 million of unencumbered funds 117 million is pending Construction contract Awards and 14 million is in contingencies inside the project budgets so here's the breakdown of our spin this slide demonstrates how smart program dollars have been spent so far for the 331 smart projects and the percentages that each category represents and I uh am remiss in not introducing uh Mike McIntyre from aom and Ashley Carpenter from Atkins uh that have uh been my partners in in putting this uh presentation together uh along with G and my staff so I thank y'all for that uh the program management figure includes the program managers cost program controls and building department Consultants since the Inception of the program design represents our Architects engineers and any other Consultants like geotechnical testing construction includes the primary contractor as well as other hard costs like furniture and it purchase orders this slide represents uh a cumulative of a of 5405 million in spend and committed funds that have been awarded to 77 District certified small businesses in the Tri County Community this represents 29.3 5% of the total program spend and commitment uh it's our emerging small veteran minority women business enterprises this slide again represents Prime and emerging small veteran minority women business enterprises payments today 91 million represents the actual spend of the smart program to date as reported in b2g BT b2g now is a self-reporting system for monitoring data it was implemented while the smart program was already underway and may be missing some historical completed POS uh for example from the previous uh program management owner Representatives 394 million is the total amount spent with the certified firms as reported in BT 2G now uh through June 30th 2024 this data is inclusive of all activities in the smart program program management design and construction so here's a further breakdown of the status of uh Renovations in the smart program for in Project planning uh zero in design uh hiring a designer three in Project design one in hiring a contractor uh you can see the 176 active construction projects and you can see 147 close out uh these numbers again are a snapshot of the status of smart projects as of June 30th 2024 this slide represents uh the status of Renovations these are these numbers are snapshot of the status of other currently active capital projects that are not part of The SMN smart program while they are not included in the board resolution regarding the completion of the smart program uh on October 31st 2025 we wanted you to have a full picture of the capital projects underway today this is a a slide depicting a three uh big three update as I understand these are the schools that were the focal point for voters when the general obligation Bond was initiated in 2014 Northeast High School uh many of you attended the ribbon cutting of the new building in January January of this year the contractor is making progress with removing some of the older buildings on the campus and finishing the remaining renovations to complete the smart scope of work at this campus blanch elely High School renov at blanch elely are complete for the primary scope of work renovations to the Bus Loop project were added to the project in June of 2022 at the request of the community uh the design was started in November 2022 and the construction is projected to be completed ahead of schedule and should be complete uh April 2025 stran High School interior Renovations are complete throughout much of the campus the completion of the new cafeteria building is scheduled for this quarter with occupancy slated for September of this year we will work with the school to organize a ribbon cutting once the project is completed summary construction highlights uh during the summer break contractors were able to have access to the campuses which provide provided the an opportunity to complete some critical infrastructure and renovation work without disruption to Student Learning 118 of the 170 schools in active construction received much needed critical upgrades that were completed in time for schools to reopen August 12th 2024 occupancy certificates a significant number of projects 118 required OCC occupancy certificates to ensure schools could open on time all constructure related to occupancy certificates were finished on schedule and met the building code uh building department standards on time opening uh thanks to the successful construction efforts all schools opened on time for the new Academic Year and I want to thank my team uh which includes our uh project or program management firm and Atkins and uh for helping us make that happen a focus was on critical electrical and HVAC related improvements such as 44 air handler units and duct work replaced and six chillers 14 switch gears that are vital to long-term infrastructure um overall this highlights the efficient management of Sumer construction projects ensuring minimal disruption to the school start of the school year and so I want to show you this really really cool video uh and let's see [Music] he [Applause] [Music] [Music] nice job thank you for the few claps there that's [Applause] awesome so next I want to go over the change order slide uh change order summary so I number I know a number of board members um uh over my time here had a lot of questions about um what a change order is and why do we have so many and so forth so I wanted just to go over a few things with you uh this slide demonstrates the five change order categories and how much we have spent cumulative cumulatively over the life uh of the program so tax savings is what we get back from the general contractors through the district or direct owner purchase program uh because we don't have to pay taxes on materials when we contract with the supplier directly for purchases over $20,000 so those are savings that we realize uh immediately and that's the green bar uh owner requests are currently a net credit because they have been a uh quite a few cases of work being removed from the project because it's no longer required uh and and some of this deals with maybe po already replaced something or maybe the item in question is still in good shape and does not require replacement so that's uh depicted on the green slide consultant error and consultant Mission uh these are mistakes that the AE made on the plans and uh which is very common uh it is near impossible to get a perfect set of plans to First go around this work is required to turn over a completed project and should have been included in the original bid so uh th this captures work that should have been in the project but for whatever reason didn't get there but we still need it to complete the project the added cost is theint premium of these change orders because the items are not in the plans that the GC on bid day uh had so this you know the change order could occur one or two years later and as I said before uh these are things that we needed perhaps to complete the project but when you bid a project then you wait one or two years to change something in it of course we're going to pay a premium on that uh we will be bringing uh a a new policy for the board to review regarding erors and Emissions so our neighboring districts have policies that we should do also uh uh incorporate this would establish a thres threshold by which when exceed it the district would pursue recovery of those premium costs and so this gives us another tool in our toolkit uh to kind of or to help us recoup some of the money unforeseen conditions are change orders due to unforeseen additional scope of work that are hidden and could not be accounted for in the design uh for example when we remove tile uh and we find that the under deck has been rotted out and needs to be replaced we have to take care of that uh we're not going to put tiwel on a rotten uh roof so these are things that we couldn't see or didn't see uh as a result of of the FCA facility condition assessment but in order to uh complete the project and do it the right way we have to go back and uh add additional scope even with all of this adding up to $16.5 million uh which we all can you know I wish I had $16.5 million it's a lot of money um it still represents a small percentage of the Construction contract value uh so keeping in mind that per the Florida office of Inspector General the industry standard rate is 8 and 14% but you know Common Sense tells us that we need to uh save as much money as we can that allows us to do other projects so um we you know have to aggressively manage um the the starting part point is the FCA of course and we have to make sure we get that right and then along the course we have to make sure that we have eyes on our schools and we understand what the work and the scope of work that's needed program forecast so we're looking ahead um what happens after October 31st 2025 so this represents uh the projected to have 2 s projects that are active uh 300 will be substantially complete four schools that will be rolled into the long-term plan uh compl complete means that the spaces can be used by the school while Final close out and warranted activities are conducted so when you have uh occupancy or substantial completion on a project we still have a year uh to close out the project so when we say it could substantially complete that means that we can go in we can have kids in the building and so forth but we still have to close it out financially and so I wanted to make sure that we understood you know what the difference was on that and these are the projects and I know it's kind of small on the um screen but these are the projects the 27 projects that we're currently projected uh to roll into uh the de efp and this uh shows two uh separate pages is this forecast is uh subject to change um again we can encounter unforeseen issues uh but one of the things that I I uh think is really necessary as we go um through this uh program is that we report and communicate to the board on a quarterly basis uh my intent is to run us like racehorses until October 31st I want to take full advantage of having aom on staff I already have Mike over here sweating on it uh because that's what's needed because I don't want to roll projects into the dfp that we don't have to and so we have looked at ways and continue to look at ways to accelerate our schedule uh and so we have on the next slide projects pending for the discussion uh and so several years ago uh some of these uh uh projects were put on hold uh and mainly it was because the buildings were really needed to be demolished or replaced um they needed more than just a new roof or a new HVAC system I I think the saying is you know putting lipstick on a pig still makes it a pig and so at some point they you know a decision was made to place these on hold uh Glades uh Middle School was a little different um they had a minimal scope project and so po had been doing work on on on on The Glades Middle School and so we felt well previous uh uh folks felt like uh we could do it inhouse and didn't have to um use um use smart to do it so I wanted to go over the capital uh hold on there we go uh Capital project status uh as I said previously um on October 31st 2025 we are projecting to still have eight active of the 127 currently active DF projects dfp projects uh these projects are being currently managed by Acom uh and they are listed on this next page of note are the replacement of building one at Rickards Middle School the coral Glade School auditorium and the new addition at Parkway Middle School uh which was approved uh on August 20th the total projected balance of remaining or or remaining balance to complete these dfp projects after October 20 uh 25 is $94 million the path forward is the next slide so opportunities um enhancing relationships with the business community and proactive and thorough planning uh the path forward for us is strengthening our business Partnerships we need to acknowledge challenges uh to include clud uh complex processes permitting standards delayed timelines uh communication gaps lack of awareness these have been the pain points that kind of have overshadowed the uh uh good work on the smart program uh one of the things that we've learned from this is that we need to have regular forms of open dialogue and feedback uh enhanced channels for issue re resolution in other words we just can't let stuff sit uh we need to deal with it and make decisions um surveys to ensure continuous Improvement we need to recognize also that um there's been a lot of great work done uh you can see it when you go out in the schools uh under smart workshops on procurement and compliance we need to break the code and continue to break the code on how to do business with the district and then capacity building programs one of the things that uh is so critical is that we build capacity among our small uh businesses and our women-owned businesses our veterans and so forth uh that is critical to to our success and then uh sorry um and then strengthening our business Partnerships with t targeted Outreach engagement and Communications um and then coaching and development purposeful targeted business and Community engagement is critical we have videos uh bids 101 that talks about uh how to do business with the district uh meet the prime lunch and learn events uh workshops how to do business with Broward schools monthly brunch and learn Outreach event series examples we had one August 22nd essential Financial Insights uh September 19th we had uh uh have business branding marketing and social media no November the 13th uh veterans uh business initiative we have starting in October SE uh October 17 uh six-part business Excellence program uh to prepare small businesses uh to engage in excess nearly two billion in upcoming opportunities across the tri count market and then one thing that is really important I think is uh voluntary Mentor Protegé programs uh where you have uh the smaller companies partnering with the larger companies so that they learn how to compete uh and then also we have to be very aggressive with our oneone um appointments with and and providing assistance and and small businesses understanding how to certify with the district uh proactive and thorough planning so part of that planning process is uh a facilities condition assessment it's a comprehensive identification of our facility needs across the district uh we're we're leveraging that data to make informed decisions long range strategic planning uh building upon successful elements of the smart program to enhance future efforts uh strengthening forecasting and timelines and cost early collaboration additional Avenues to gain consensus continued trans transparency and uh decision making and all of this falls under the umbrella of redefining and you'll have a a presentation U uh by Dr wanser uh in a in a little bit that talks about the redefining effort but I would uh tell tell you that if we start the program out right whether you know the next Bond program or whatever major Capital program uh all of that stuff you saw in terms of unforeseen conditions and uh consultant era that that will be diminished it won't be eliminated but it will be diminished and that's the goal and and I also wanted to provide you kind of a um an idea of how um we manage projects going forward um in the district and so as you saw on the previous slides we have a lot of capital projects that will continue to be ongoing uh we're large siiz District so uh that is a continuous thing so I wanted to talk about the different uh options uh we have as a district to manage these projects one is internal and so I did a SWAT analysis to kind of give you an understanding of The Good The Bad opportunities threats of of the different approaches internal is basically we hire staff and we do all of the projects in uh ourselves um within the district uh sometimes you know uh depending on the volume you know it it's good for command control uh of the project uh the other method is when you have a hybrid approach where you have internal folks but you you hire people to kind of help you with those things that you don't have the internal ref uh internal resources to do um the last approach is where we are now where we have U uh program manager owner representative PM consultant that handles um uh most of our projects our big projects uh I I.E the smart program uh and some big capital projects um one of the things that we leverage with them is their expertise um they have the ability to staff up and reduce staff based on the volume of projects we have they have special uh uh live skills um and um you know cost efficiency uh one of the things that one of the weaknesses on the slide is less control higher cost and Integra integration challenges um one of the things that um I want to stress here is regardless of whether we have internal hybrid or external external rather it's all about accountability and holding people accountable so you know I've done a hybrid approach uh and I've done an external approach uh but it's all of this is about accountability holding people accountable for their particular areas um we pay a premium if we do external because we're paying for um uh subject matter experts um that have worked in the field and have worked across the country um but regardless of the approach again I want to stress it's all about accountability holding people accountable all up and down the the the uh hierarchy um and so if we want the desired outcomes you know um we have to make decisions we can't allow projects to sit for four and five years um we have to have the people the right people in the seat to make sure that we're successful uh I I do want want to thank the the people that we have in our district that have uh worked on the smart program um that have always put kids first um uh a lot of them are sitting behind me one even came back out of retirement um because you know I I see the light I I hope you do also that we'll finish the smart program um and we'll set ourselves up for the future we'll set Broward up the new Broward uh to move forward um for the next Bond or major initiative that occurs here so again I thank you for taking the time uh to listen to the presentation it won't be the only time that we talk about um the smart program but I assure you October 31st uh uh 2025 uh we will finish with that aspect of it and we'll move forward towards the future thank you m zon thank you and thank you for the presentation I've been asking for it for over a year so very glad that we um finally have it I think it was really important for us to be able to be transparent with the public on what projects will be finished under the smart and what won't so that they understand what it looks like moving forward um and thank you for a very comprehensive presentation I I have a couple of questions on that and then a couple other questions so when you look on page 19 where it says completed projects are defined as projects where the building has obtained occupancy is being utilized for its intended use I just have a little concern about that because let's say for example was a media center and the media center is in building one and students can use the other part of the building but the media center is not done do we consider that complete because students are in the building occupying it and the building is being used for things but the project that was within the building is not complete so I just I don't know that the definition captures everything so I mean if the media center is still under construction then no they would not be allowed to go in the media center but and normally when we have that kind of construction you know we have restrictions so you can't go in that area am I correct Mike that would be correct substantial completion in in our projects particularly renovation or additions um we lose occupancy for specific spaces and at substantial completion we regain occupancy for that space so your example of an active school where a media center is closed we have occupancy at the school but we do not have occupancy at the media center until we have achieved substantial completion at that point it's substantial completion is declared in in the district achieves what's called beneficial use of that space you can now utilize the space for its intended purpose so now you have used that substantial completion final completion the district actually has two separate final completions there's final completion Construction which is the the contractor has completed all of their contractual obligations they've submitted they submitted all their close out documents training manuals warranties change orders have been negotiated and finalized um release of leans from the subcontractors have been submitted and accepted now the construction project the construction itself is final then there's a project final which here is called Financial close out Financial that extends for one year one year from substantial completion that's the warranty period so the project stays alive for that one year at the end of that one year the warranty period is over we make final payments to the architect and the project is closed so that's the process well I appreciate that Ian I I was aware of that but so maybe where it says completed projects are defined as projects where instead of it saying the building it says the space because the building there were people who reached out because it's a bit ambiguous and you could say something's done even though the building can be occupied by people but maybe the piece the space that you were fixing wasn't so just as a reference for I don't want to spend a lot of time on it but moving forward um so the next question I have is on the budget so I think and this is probably going to have to be a followup but I think it's really important for the public and I'll go to the page here for us to understand because we hear a lot of times that um we they want to know where the money right 800 million came from taxpayer all of it comes from taxpayers let's be honest right but specifically from the smart Bond 800 million came but we are at 1.55 which actually somewhere else I read was 1.7 something so it's increased I think it would be important to not just say yes our budget was bigger for example I want to build a house I tell you that I have a budget of a million dollars to build a house and when we get to the end you said well it took me 1.2 million to build it I don't just say okay I say well what was that 0.25 million for so I I think it's important for us to have true transparency is where we're talking about the budg how much was spent not just in the big categories you gave us but what was Furniture cuz you mentioned some of that money for construction was furniture how much of it went into each of those individual projects and it may already be on the smart um website but if if it's not we need to be very transparent because a lot of people don't understand they think we squandered the $800 million can't tell you how many times we hear that as a board and when we say no there was more money put into it they still feel like they were um they were finagled somehow on this so I think the more information we give knowledge is power right and we when we close this out need to be able to say we spent this Dollar on this and this Dollar on that because at the end of the day it was taxpayers money that that did that so I know we can't have that discussion now but I'd like if you could please a followup on that every project and and along with that um the scope so we had a discussion not too long ago where someone decided to to dimin or to reduce the scope of something but that really was supposed to be on the board not on somebody else or to increase the scope so if you could along with budget what was promised to the taxpayers and what was actually delivered and in some instances it may be that it was more than was promised but in some instances I think we didn't get everything we were supposed to and that's what I would really like to have seen on this presentation as well so if you could do a followup with both of those things that would be very helpful and you know change orders are my specialty so I I have a bit of a concern on the change orders only because what's being given to us on page 17 if I'm not mistaken is what's already been approved correct so I think there's a whole bubble of things that are piling up and when we get to next October it's going to burst and we're going to find that there's a whole lot more money and change orders that we didn't take into account so so if I may on that y um we're still in the process of the the smart program so we will continue to have change orders up to October 31st uh and then after October 31st more than likely we'll have change orders it just won't be called smart uh it's it change orders are a part of doing construction but what I alluded to earlier is how we control the number uh going forward my concern isn't so much what's coming up it's what's still in a holding pattern because they haven't been we we have found that change orders come to us a year later so there are some change orders I'm going to imagine sitting in a bucket somewhere waiting for somebody to approve that we need to know what that number is because come October 2025 they're going to be part of what was in the works beforehand I I think I understand kind of like a mortgage that you get a balloon payment right that's what I feel like is looming over us I I think one one of the things that I will commit to doing as I said before is bring information to the board on a courtly basis and so by doing that we will have the opportunity to vet any of that out um I can't you know I don't have a um uh a crystal ball and can predict but what I would say is that by um meeting with Acom and Atkins weekly um going through every single project we will do do our best to vet any kind of surprises out because I do not like surprises uh especially uh uh with everything that's at at stake you know our our commitment is to deliver the best uh project facility to our kids right well and I I appreciate that and I'm going to say a couple of things and not to to be negative to anyone but we've heard it before a change order maybe doesn't get approved we know that contract and that's why I kind of asked I really am disappointed there's not a contra contractor sitting here to to talk with us as well because they give change orders they do the work with the idea that they're going to get paid for the change order it doesn't get approved and then they're told to sue us so that they can get paid so I want to know how many is sitting in that bucket what what change orders came forward that didn't get approved that somehow we're still going to have to pay for because the contractors paid that money already and those are kind of the thing I think I just think it's important to be honest so that's what and I agree with you but just because a contractor com uh submits a change order doesn't automatically mean it gets approved uh we have the responsibility uh to to vet those um as a school district uh and work with the contractor to come to some meeting of the minds okay so I understand what you're saying but um I think as we go forward uh and I've I've been on a job what three months uh we'll work with our contractors to make sure that they're treated fairly it can't just be one-sided no and I I don't disagree with that but I have heard for since I've been here four years that there there are a lot of things that they do because they get where it's not an approved change order but a paper I forget what it's called now it starts with a d where it's says go ahead and do the work and then when they're submitting the change order to get paid there's something that wasn't right and it doesn't get approved and then they're told well you'll have to sue us to get paid well I don't agree with that quite honestly so I think we're on the same okay perfect um so if you could give us also in a followup what you know now okay what change orders are looming in that idea of a balloon payment so that we know in October these are what we've approved but what's coming down the line that's in a bucket that maybe hasn't gotten to approval yet if you don't mind I can have Ashley Carper from Atkins uh speak to that okay hi Ashley Carpenter with Atkins um so I can't speak to every part of your question um but what I can speak to right now is that um as you mentioned with slide 18 um this is only for change orders that have been approved um that's just over a th000 change order items program wide um with what's pending right now in the system that's been inputed by a contractor because obviously if they haven't put it into our system yet then I I don't know about it but if they've inputed it into our system then there's another 380 items that are currently um open and they represent about $7.5 million so another almost 50% on this now I'm not saying every single one of those is going to get approved and that goes to the other part of your question um which we can provide in a followup because that's again a balloon payment right they we're going to have to and and sorry I also did just really quickly want to mention um we said it earlier on a slide but that we do have about $43 million in contingencies in the smart program budgets currently so the majority of those change orders should they be valid and and approvable um and brought to the board for approval we have the budget to pay for those within our project budgets great okay thank you um and do the projects that we um that you have in there does that I know we carved out a lot of roofing will that be will those roof carve outs be done by October of 2025 do you want me to take that okay sorry thank you so the 331 projects includes all the carve outs that have been created to date so when aeom started there were about 236 projects I think and now we're at 331 so that's those roof carve outs or any other scope that might have been carved out like fire sprinkler we have some of them um those are all included in those numbers so if there is a carve out that is not anticipated to be completed by October 31st 2025 it's on the list of 27 in the in the presentation and one of the things that I did as uh ask uh uh Miss Co Coy and uh Miss Carpenter to do is to identify everything that's been either carved out or desod to make sure that we have visibility of it and to be able to make sure that we deliver on what was promised in the smart program so that would be great to have in that followup where you're going to tell us what was promised and what was delivered okay so two more questions on page 24 um the number that's there is that the right page number um oh no not page 24 I'm sorry page 21 where it says current budget for the um what will end up rolling into dfp and projected balance so do we add those two numbers together to to get to what the total is and have we already encumbered that money since it's so so Ashley is really excited to to speak to this go excited I'm super excited not really excited but um yeah so you definitely don't add those two together um the 30 million is a subset of the 2117 um the 217 represents the project budget as a whole so um if the project has already been awarded for construction then yes we've encumbered the vast majority of that project budget um but some of these projects that are going to rolled into the dfp they haven't gone to construction yet they haven't been awarded so in those projects there would be less money that's encumbered um the the second column with the costs we just wanted to kind of try to give a projection to show that um you know what we anticipate still being um remaining to be spent on those projects on October 31st 20125 so if a project on this list is saying it's going to be completed you know at the end of 2025 then I I'm projecting that the vast majority of dollars are going to be spent by that time but if it's going to be completed later in in 2026 then you know we're going to have more available dollars that haven't been spent yet okay so the total that would roll over to the dfp cost wise is 30,8 uh three 30118 um roughly that's your projection the the yeah for remaining to be spent but when we spoke to Omar about this um you know Omar shim we we confirmed that the whole project is going to the dfp so if it's $30 million project it's still a $30 million project whatever is remaining to be spent whatever is encumbered it's all the same we're it's just not smart anymore right and that was my part of the question so is that money let's just pick one Atlantic West Elementary School is that all that money already encumber for that school all that money is currently budgeted for that school it's earmarked it can't be spent on anything else without the board's approval it just roll into capital okay correct one last question um so and I could be wrong on this so if I'm wrong tell me um but I I've had a conversation with someone that said in the contract that we have with aeom it says that they will pay a certain amount of money for extended time to projects is is that correct I haven't been able to find the original Pro the original not that's something we can check but I'm not familiar with that phrase my my question then is we've changed the schedule a number of times so if that's the case where do we determine where they've gone where time has been excessive and that they'll owe us money back if we never stuck to the original schedule that's something we would have to look at because I'm not familiar with that terminology in in the contract I've had a couple of people mention it and last thing did Atkin Ashley did Atkins do their own generation of of these numbers did they come independently or did they come directly from aeom uh the budget numbers are um numbers that I track um that my team tracks independently of aom well I mean it's it's not really independent it's one system so we all use it but it gets reconciled with sap so it's they're accurate budget numbers and the change order data I pull but um not the scheduled data so the scheduled data is through aom's master schedule um that they produce monthly okay all right thank you you can tell I've been waiting anxiously for this item so thank you very much thanks chair uh may I go on the list please yes ber thank you you know in a in a perfect world chair we would have uh our attorney uh we would have uh teaching and learning you know everybody touches this program I just want to say that upfront because we all run to miss Paul and say what's going on what's going on what's going on but at the end of the day there's a lot of people involved on this um I want to start with a big question up part though um in 2014 we promised the voters of brard County a list of things this long that would be paid for uh through the smart program what percentage of that original scope will be completed by October 2025 Dr heer staff I think that would have to be a follow-up question or so who are you pointing at Omar Omar I'm sorry can you repeat the question what percentage of the the we uh in 2014 published a list of projects as total scope of the smart Bond um and uh um uh what percentage of that scope will be completed by October 2025 I I think uh we did a followup and I think you're talking about the additional uh uh things we added to the smart program um and if I recall about 16 % more uh of the total smart program we added additional scope right um so that's and to mix hixon's Point earlier about you know how do we summarize the smart Bond uh we got $ 800 million additional dollars paid for over a 30-year note that the public approved that was added with $800 billion roughly of of our own defp money and that uh 1.6 billion produced 16% more than what we committed to to the voters in 2014 we're going to end it chair in 2025 uh which is 11 years not 7 years that we promised the public so four years of additional time uh it cost more but we did more too and that's really important uh uh to make sure we get done up front uh chair on slide 264 it says there'll be 300 projects completed by October 25 is that the right plain English sentence that by 2025 will'll have completed 300 projects in the smart program St substantially complete so 300 substantially completed projects by that time terrific and just again to be plain English with the public projects not completed as part of the smart Bond are going to slide to becoming capital projects uh uh later yes sir thank you very much are we doing any work um systemically uh chair to improve our financial uh payment system are are we aware of any uh dedicated effort to um create a better relationship with the vendors that do work for us in this uh program so that we can meet the state standards of paying them within 20 days uh of submitting a valid invoice sta we are uh speaking to our contractors I've spoken to uh u a few of them already um one of the things that we hope to gain from these experiences is a way to improve that process uh payment process um no company should go out of business because they're doing business with us and so we have a lot of work I'm going to just be clear we have a lot of work on that one of the most important things is that that that the uh contractors submit their invoices right so once we have them then that puts the the the burden on us to make sure we pay in a timely manner and so there are some instances where you know they they had they submitted them late and they want immediate payment so we need to work that work through that with our uh contractors and that's part of education and partnering with them uh to make sure that there are no hidden hurdles for them to get paid terrific and chair just I want to note the the difference between substantial completion and final completion is also finan is often Financial close out and if we're not working on the promp pay system if we're not kind of thinking hard about that process in my own view I don't think we should plan for 12 months just to pay people after they've done the work uh I think on our side uh yes they should submit invoices they should be clear they should be clean they should be tied directly to cleanse and all that wonderful stuff but if they do a valid invoice uh I hope we can find a way to do better than 12 months in terms of getting through uh Financial closeout and acceptance of the project um on Staffing because you you you hint at this issue but I think that this is still the biggest issue uh for Broward County Schools right now the biggest risk that I see is that we continue to spend five or6 hundred million a year in additional Capital Revenue that comes in on projects so Revenue in and revenue out pretty pretty even over time and we do it with a very very slim staff on the government side and the hybrid model that you point out is a proven model that takes advantage of the amazing talent you have to left and right but also grows an internal talent that can be around for a long time with the same dedicated people working uh on construction management on program management on planning uh and the like and I hope that um at some point with the superintendent's help or otherwise we can see what a what a hybrid plan looks like so that you can get the government staff that you need to drisk this program because right now for us to get an answer to government questions we do not turn to government personnel there is insufficient government people working on this program uh and so we are 100% reliable on the aom team and Atkins and others to get these answers um and to me that level of risk is is too much uh for a school system of our size next question the pmor contract because I did look this one up Miss Hixon uh says that AECOM will provide high quality customer service chair do you have any evidence that aom is providing high quality customer service Dr staff I'm happy to just take that as a follow on but uh it's important it's in the contract uh and again if we're going to capture good outcome based metrics we got to kind of find out if in fact the principles and other customers of aom in fact are getting high quality customer servic we're good we're good thank you ma'am we can provide a follow yeah and uh I think we've got this already as a followup but the carve out list would be fascinating to see um I'm also and if we've talked about this several times uh I'd be curious chair who approves the decision to conduct a Time impact analysis today on August 27th 2024 Dr aburn you want to go through go ahead go ahead M Tia is submitted by a contractor um it it's not requested so a contractor will request a TIA review it's a fairly substantial submission um it's multiple schedule submissions that show pre- delay post delay impact um and and they give us the storyline and then independent parties um within the structure the pmo structure do the reviews ask the questions and then submit a report um that that's the process so the Tia actually comes out of the contractor terrific um we have seen evidence of tias Mr McIntyre taking over 12 months and sometimes on relatively insignificant amount of scope change or financial change and I hope that we can figure out a way to do them faster uh and and again I'm not uh pointing fingers at any one member of this complicated team but uh the team's got to figure this out and the reason I'm so passionate about that and you're going to keep hearing about it is that's what impacts students directly when we say change order time impact analysis and it takes 12 months or combined 18 months to get them done those kids are not getting the media center they're not getting the new building they're not getting the work done unless a contractor decides to work at risk and those kinds of delays uh are aggravating because it's not a unforeseen condition you know you open up a wall and all of a sudden you find fuses from 1920 and all of a sudden you got to you know do major kind of electrical work or you design I'm almost done chair I know that you want me to be finished already but almost done uh but those kinds of things those kind of Staff delays uh I think are areas in which we can actually get this money spent faster for what the county wants it spend on which is uh for the students lastly and and this is also I think important um lots of other districts put out dashboards about major construction projects they have data available for people uh principles learn to to rely on it because if they want to know what's going on with their project or a related project uh they can see it but the public loves to see it as well and they start to track a project that might be in their neighborhood or their District or where their children or grandchildren go to school uh we have not developed that yet and I know that people are working on it but boy is the community going to bre breath the sigh of relief when we can get from the smart to the capital program and on an ongoing basis we can update the public on how things are going and they will they will understand delays they will understand pre-existing conditions they'll even understand errors and Emissions Miss Hixon but what they won't understand is not being told what's going on and uh I hope that we can find a nice uh um dashboard system to keep them informed as we move along and make progress thank you all for what you're doing before you close your comments um Dr Zan um give the floor to May W Paul so she can talk about the dashboards that we have created and um plan on publishing those on the website for the public for for greater transparency I was just hurrying to meet my deadline uh St your staff can talk as long as you want I had a deadline I'll try not to uh extend this any longer than necessary but we are currently working on dashboards one of the things that I think and I agree with you is really important is transparency and so I measure how difficult it is to navigate a website based on the number of clicks I have to do and so currently I think I'm up to four clicks to get to our website and so uh one of the things that we are going to do uh going forward and have kind of we've already started is to put this information out so that if a Community member wants to know something they don't have to do a public records request or that's just wasting staff time uh so uh and their time so we want to make sure that uh going forward we we have a forward um facing website where they can look up their particular school and not information from 2014 but information about this is where we are completion status of the project and this is what we did on the project um and maybe even a little button for comments you know uh because in in most cases you know the community uh in pretty much all cases there are are eyes and ears and on the ground uh when problems persist so or happen so I think that's really important and we need to be driven by metrics too and data um and not necessarily by things that make us feel good and so uh we're heading towards that we're not there yet but working with the team we will be there CH just so I'm familiar with what we're trying to do today are we going to weigh in it on any of these uh projects on page 267 did we want to talk about those separately those four projects uh that are teed up for us or is this just for information only no you can weigh in I'll I'll be prep later then okay thank you m Leonardi may I go on the list please you're on the list Miss rert thank you can't hear you very much I'm sorry okay um I'll just get right into it I have a lot of questions when so on page 22 um Miss Paul mentioned that there was a decision to put these schools on hold I'm wondering when that decision was made who made those decisions I I think that's going to have to be a followup um to go and and and determine how it was made because I think this was made over time I don't think it was one distinct moment that it was made um but and you know part of the redefining effort Also may impact some of these schools so I will go back and try to find um the historical record on on why these schools were placed on hold okay because I can just say as one board member it is extremely frustrating that this becomes a pattern in Brower County Public Schools um things are scopes are reduced or Pro entire projects are put on hold without any approval or notification to the board board um and it is frustrating as a board member you can only imagine how upsetting it is as a taxpayer and Community member and a child going to that school that is waiting for improvements to happen um we only just had started having a very serious conversation about redefining schools in the last year I would say um so you know again I'm wondering what happened in the 3 years prior to that in the 7 years prior to that it is extremely frustrating and people are not being held accountable um so I just I put that responsibility of taking care of that on on our superintendent I know he will um on page 26 you know it says about re enhancing our relationship with the business community and I've been recommending for several months that the superintendent or Miss Paul set up quarterly meetings with um our bus business is doing work on the smart bond has that been implemented Dr hero M Paul I have met with at least one I did not commit to quarterly meetings uh first of all I had to Baseline the program and so uh that's that's kind of where we are now uh not only with um uh my team but also with uh the boards so I just want the board so I want to tell you this is where we are right now um in terms of meeting with contractors I have no problem meeting with them and I have I think I have another meeting scheduled this week uh with one of them uh but the biggest the biggest uh thing that I want to identify uh is working with uh Miss miny Mills uh to be as robust as we can in bringing our contractors in and meeting with them and giving them the skills set to do business with us it should not be this hard to do business with us and it should not be this difficult for contractors to get paid so we have barriers to Our Success uh that I'm working with my staff and of course the contractors as well as the community at large uh are important factors in in remedy this and one of the things that I want to continue to say is that we have to treat them fairly because next time we have a bond here in Brower County we want the best contractors and the best subs and the best Architects and Engineers to want to work for us and the only way you establish that is by being transparent and honest about the about how you uh do the work and so that is our biggest lift coming out of this program and going into whatever the future holds got it thank you and I think that again I will say quarterly meetings with the contractors with either the superintendent or Miss Paul I think will be very helpful in understanding some of the issues that have Arisen when it comes to enhancing our our relationship with the business community so if I have to bring an item I'll bring an item but I think it it's something that needs to happen um do we stand have we been able to scrutinize um and stand by the accuracy of the data that's been presented in in this presentation by AECOM Dr eern Miss Paul so the data is we have the uh Miss Atkins or the Atkins team here to look at the financial uh portion of it that is their main responsibility uh and So based on Miss Carpenter's statement previously you know they do it independently so you know this is what we know about the program uh to date based on the information that we got from Atkins of the change orders identified on page 17 what percentage are owner driven Dr St give me just a moment to find that slide no uh owner request is 1.24 million it's on slide 18 okay n that's a net savings actually what is the current approval time for change orders um sorry I just looked up the stats for um from our recent report it's um if the change order doesn't if the change order doesn't have time then it's 185 days to approval and if it does have time it's 238 okay um I have the same concerns that Miss Hixon raised about uh change ORD is not reflected in these numbers um you know things that are in dispute uh this is something that we hear over and over and over again um so I I Echo those concerns and I mean you know I've spoken with many industry experts who you know do business with us they have the same concerns so this is not an isolated issue and I hope that that we are being taken seriously when we're we're raising those those worries um has our definition of completion changed I I know Miss Hixon brought this up but I I really need to drill home this point my go ahead not in my experience in terms of working in other uh programs so this is the definition that I know but I'm not sure what was given to you you know two years ago or three years ago but this is in accordance with my experience the the definitions are actually actually contractual definitions so substantial completion is a contractual definition uh the district as I said earlier does have two final completions steps one is the construction final completion which is let's say the more complicated one again that is by contract so the the items or the elements that a contractor must complete to achieve final final completion are identified within the contract and then the final let's call it project final completion which is when the warranty period has expired that's when the engineer or the architect is released from the project final payment is made for them so each of those elements of completion whether substantial or final are contractual in nature so there is no change in the definition uh the contract wouldn't allow a change in that definition um both both sides of the table whether it's contractor architect or the owner lives by the definitions within the contract if I may I I can attest to how information was presented to you um in the past but going forward you know for us this is the Baseline um the definition should not change and will not change okay um and then I want to get back to miss hixon's original question and the example that she gave because I I would like just a very straight answer so in the example that she gave um you know if if a space is in the build is in a building and that space is currently under renovation but people are still able to use that building would would that be considered to be complete or is that not considered complete so the the library example if there's still construction going on in the library say and the rest of the building uh is available for use the library is not complete you know so I I don't know how else to there are there are different scenarios if if the only element of the project is the the media center meaning that is in the box that is the project then that project meaning the media center stands alone for substantial completion and final completion the remainder of the building did not lose occupancy so it's just still it's still an occupied open space the media center will not be complete final complete until that work is done 100% so for instance if you're doing a addition let me just try this example if you're doing an addition of a building and part of that addition uh you may have uh the classrooms complete but you need occupancy for for the whole building they're not going to release just those classrooms they're going to release the whole building because the project was the whole building with the media center in it if that helps okay has there been scope reduction there has been some Des scoping uh of of projects uh fire alarm and fire systems are example of that and I think Mike can probably speak to that also there cases of Des scoping where elements of the original scope were found not to be necessary so that would be a a true descope there were elements where the descope actually was a carveout where where a single scope of work was removed and set aside as a standalone project um most common here are roof work um and fire alarm um so we've got both we've got a descope where work is removed because it wasn't required and we've got a descope where it was carved out and is that information being presented in this slide deck not in this slide deck but it will be presented in subsequent meetings or quarterly meetings with the board okay and so an example of that is uh if we're putting a new roof on and we also need to put uh a a a HVAC system on there and so we don't want to do the roof before we do the HVAC it's a order of events and and sometimes when they have the the when they scope a project they don't put it in the right sequence so I don't want to put a hbac unit on top of a roof um of a new roof I want to put it on first and then re-roof the whole thing so it's a sequence of events but I I think I understand understand your concern um when we say carve out it doesn't mean that the work is not going to be done it's a question more of a question of the the sequence of how we do the work okay my I guess my concern is at the end of this will there be a situation in which at X school we originally said that we were going to be doing one two three things and now we are only doing one thing no I'm I'm trying to think how to how to answer that um I would say that is not the expected outcome uh we have a promise that we made to the public to do everything that we said we were going to do and if we're not going to do it then we have to have a good reason as to not do it um you know but that is not to me a a successful program when you have instances of we didn't fulfill our promise thank you um what are the main challenges that may prevent us from completing the remaining smart projects by October 2025 so as we said previously I'm sorry superintendent oh goe okay as we said previously we're going to have some programs that or some projects that will roll over into the dfp and and and part of that is just uh the time that has um elapsed on a by then a 11-year Bond program um that there's no expectation that we're going to uh finish everything uh reasonable expectation by October 2025 um we've lost so much time but one of the commitments that uh we make to the board and to the public is that we're going to accelerate projects where we can uh without giving up quality of the projects and quality of the work uh so that is a reason why I think it's important to continue to come to the board uh every quarter and give you an update of where we stand so some of these projects we're going to make up some time I I'm very confident about that but I can't say that that's going to be the case on every project and we have removed some barriers already uh uh with the building department and the uh fire um uh inspector working together uh we have weekly meetings uh with the team and at that meeting at the weekly meetings we make decisions on how to move forward uh and remove the obstacles so uh I am very confident that we will make up time on a lot of these projects okay so let me rephrase the question so of the projects that are meaning that we are not projecting to go into the defp what are the main challenges in completing those projects not the ones that are that are projected to go into the dfp I got you um I would say unforeseen conditions and we've seen some of that already and that shouldn't be a buzzword for uh we're just adding time to add time unforeseen conditions is when we go in for one uh from one scope and then we find all these other things that uh we have to do um and so those are the things that I will continue to bring to the board right so that you can see um you know it would be remiss of us not to correct those issues for the sake of saying we completed a project um that's not what this program should be about uh and will be about going forward but um I can't predict the future I wish I would and could uh because we'd be finished like today uh but that's not our reality uh I think the biggest part is just to continue to communicate uh with the board with the school principls uh who have been very uh gracious and uh uh in working with our team uh and and give them the truth um you know and this you know I I I uh call this meeting and this presentation to you the truth telling meeting because you know there's no reason to hide there's no reason to be dishonest about this uh it is you know this is where we find ourselves and we need to just continue to move the program forward and so some of the obstacles of course is not you know we got to pay our contractors on time we got to figure that part out uh we got to uh help them be successful I asked my team what are we doing to help them be successful uh we can't just say this is this is on you and wipe our hands of it because we have to to finish this program together in lock step and so those are some of the challenges that we have we have the challenge of the past uh very difficult to rebuild trust once you feel like the trust has been violated and that's where we have to actually do the work to to win back the trust of our contractors of our community uh parents students uh that's where the real work is building a building is not that complicated I I appreciate that you acknowledge all that I think think um it's very refreshing to hear um so on in the same vein you know I'm hearing that the main challenges unforeseen conditions so what is the plan to uh be proactive about that and address that um and what will be the consequence if the the projects that we are projecting to be complete by October 2025 are not complete so in terms of um addressing the unforeseen conditions you know when I look back and you know I've read a lot about the program and looked at a lot of documents uh uh the risk is not making decisions and I see where we've wasted a lot of well I don't want to judge people of the past that's not that's not fair to them but what I would say is that we don't have the ability to just sit on on projects and and not move them forward so that that's number one that sense of urgency um not only by my staff and Acom and um uh our partners but our contractors too uh we all have to move uh with a sense of urgency and trying to get these projects uh completed um and the second part I'm sorry what will be the consequence if we you know the the projects that are projected to be complete by October 2025 are not in fact complete so I'm not going to use the dfp as a scapegoat you know uh I Get No Satisfaction en rolling additional projects in the dfp our goal is to finish and to try to acceler you know and put pressure on ourselves to try to accelerate some of these projects right I don't you know October 31st 2025 I'm quite sure other projects are going to come up on the capital side of the house house uh that's just that just happens when you have a agent infrastructure and a bond program that takes 11 years uh so um the consequences are that we are not giving the kids what they need in their facility and to me that is a is a significant consequence especially because of the length of this program uh the reality is that we're going to move at a a a different pace um and my expectation is that our staff will keep up and aom will keep up and Atkins will keep up uh and typically what happens um I don't mean to be rude by this but they self- select they don't want to work this hard we're going to work hard we're going to we're going to get as many projects over the Finish Line uh Acom they're professional they understand the work my team they're professionals they understand the work uh and so we need to block and tackle um uh to to to move these projects forward I'm a Dallas Cowboy fan so you know um back in the 90s we did a lot of that so okay no comments anyway so you know you know Dr heurn and and and and Dr Lata they brought me here with for a reason uh uh and that's to move the project forward I take that very seriously we have too much at stake thank you um I guess I'm wondering or what I want to put out there is you know there needs to be consequences for us um you know I understand that the the natural repercussion of of these projects not being complete is that children don't get to go into schools that are you know dignified places to learn um that is an enormous problem but then what happens to us as a result there needs to be a system of accountability for the people who did not make this happen well again you know um the three months that I've been here I've looked at the the gaps in time um uh we will not have that moving forward um I've looked at you know some of the indecision which is as bad as making the wrong decision uh because that cost us time um you know and I have no problem firing myself um I've said that many you know for for several years you know if we're not getting it done then you know um but I I that is not on my radar because we're going to get it done I mean we don't have a choice and then one more question in that vein what would be the consequences for the PM Dr a Miss Paul I can answer that question too well I think you're doing Nic here here's the thing uh we are are are uh hitched together until October 31st 2025 um their reputation um as a firm uh in this business uh I'm sure it's very very precious to them uh I I I don't think that that would be a desired outcome for them um but in the event um that we decide to break up before 2025 I have no problem doing that uh I think that we we have the legs under the program right now and we're going to start running and we have we we have been running but you're you're going to see uh uh a marked improvement so accountability you know I said is really important throughout this whole program and I've said it many times and I don't mean to be redundant but that's holding everybody accountable for their portion of the work um we don't have um uh the staff obviously Dr Zeman uh mentioned it but we have to do smart hires it's not about volume it's about quality and so as we move forward board we're going to um continue to to hire um uh amazing people um to help us because after Acom leaves in October 2025 then the dfp and all those projects Falls to internal staff uh for the most part and so um you know they Broward has to be a place that people want to come to work and do business with us and so by completing these projects and moving these projects forward uh and obviously that big old glaring red a that we got uh makes us that that uh preferred School District to work for and um I I hope I answered your question you did thank you um what H how confident are you in the cost projections and do we have any plans for a scenario in which the projections or the costs exceed the projections like they have for like the last 10 years I can talk to you offline about the last 10 years I don't want to bring go go back 10 years but what's really important is right now um uh we have sufficient we have contingency in in place as Ashley uh Carpenter said um I believe in speed to Market so the the quicker we move these projects along along uh the better value we get um I think that um I'm not going to come to you and ask you for more money if that's what you're asking um uh you've done that and you've paid it to the distri or paid uh or put money back into the program several times so it's our responsibility to manage the cost and manage these projects collectively thank you and to that point how are we managing the threat of cost overruns or delays for the remaining 229 million in dfp projects so the best thing that we can do um uh for this um next uh up until October 31st is complete projects and close them out uh that is the best thing we can do um again having everyone at the table uh as we make decisions as I make decisions has been very helpful um and we will continue to do that but in questioning you know um in challenging um the cost with you know uh of of certain things uh we don't have an open checkbook um so working with Ashley and her team and um Acom uh just having visibility of of what we're doing in the work um another part too is to make sure that we get what we paid for if it's not up to Quality then you know they have to do it again and so we've had a couple of instances where we've made them go back and redo to you know these buildings have to live for you know 30 40 and 50 years and so um you know that I think that's just um um some of the things uh basic things that we have to do I look at it as if you were getting Renovations in your house you want it done right um and you don't want to pay extra for getting it right so um just those things I think will continue to add value to uh the work so um I'm a very you know just a very um uh basic and simple person about this work um so I will push my staff I will push myself I'll push my team to make sure that we deliver thank you I just have three more questions what are we doing to provide Equitable access to smwbe for the remaining projects and the future projects well I have uh Miss miny Mills here uh and she can speak to that if she choose but um and I've I've met with her and uh Miss Andreu about that the Outreach part is priceless um we have to work with our vendors to make sure and I understand what you're saying about the quarterly uh thing but you know quarterly may not be it it may be more frequently you know based on you know kind of what what is developing uh with uh our contractors I you know I've learned a lot in a very short time in having those conversations with them uh but I don't know if you want to elaborate some of the Outreach that you're doing I kind of alluded to it before in the um in the presentation but U I didn't have Miss mcy Mills flare so I think she'll probably do a better job of it good afternoon Denise Missy Mills director of Economic Development and diversity compliance so we are extremely excited about our Outreach and we've been very successful uh we just recently had an event last Thursday uh where we had our brunch and learn we had over 90 people that showed up for that um we have our seven part business Excellence program that begins mid October as of today we have 250 people signed up for that which is amazing to me I'm getting a little concerned um you might remember in may we put out our small business directory uh where we have over 12200 small businesses that we're in contact with so we are working diligently we meet quarterly with our Consultants subc Consultants but as Miss Paul said we can do that more frequently we are in the trenches uh the community is responding uh surprisingly they have not had the opportunity for this type of Outreach uh I think it's uh amazing that we're getting a response and I'm very uh proud of the 44% participation that we've been able to um expand in our small business Community uh as it relates to our smart Bond projects um and I think Miss Paul hit the nail on the head we just need to do a better job making sure they get paid so that they want to continue to work for us uh I get a lot of meetings I have meetings pretty much daily as it relates to payments so I think if we can work that out the community is being very responsive uh to Broward and to I'll say the new Broward I have 10 months here now uh and I'm still excited I'm still passionate um and I'm looking forward to our business Excellence program uh with over 250 people in August and it doesn't start to October and a real special thank you to the district uh and Miss uh Wilson Farah Wilson for assisting and helping us push out this information so we're in the community uh and we're definitely working with our business partners to ensure that this program uh is Equitable and that our local and small businesses well they are participating that they continue to have an opportunity to participate thank you very much thank you for sharing that and I've heard wonderful things about the work you're doing so I'm glad that that you got to speak to that um what is our plan for Staffing when the pmor contract expires and have we looked at the advantages of hybrid or external Staffing options so uh I wanted to just give you those options and it's on the slide so you can kind of read the the the SWAT analysis on it um right now we we have vacancies that uh are existing that we're advertising and trying to fill um post October 31st um of next year uh you know we will have to make a decision one of the things and one of the challenges and you know um is that to get these type professionals to work for us we have to pay them and and our our our pay point is not what they're getting working for uh these program management firms and so I think we have to look at you know the do an analysis of you know kind of where we sit compared to other districts um uh to be quite honest you know we have people working in aom that are um very um good they're not you know the the number one and two people but they're they're very good they're in our purchasing department or we had one in our purchasing department and so forth uh and um if if they choose to apply for a vacancy uh that we have post aom it wouldn't be a bad thing uh they understand the business they understand the work um so basically I have no problem poaching people uh whether it's Acom or any of the other firms but I know that one of the barriers to getting those high functioning folks uh is is pay on the same token we have some really dedicated people within our organization um that uh you know we we are going to help build uh the pro or the the program going forward and so we got to uh hire hard hire well uh so we can get about 30 or 40 years out of them um similar to um the gentleman sitting over there uh so that that is a real concern uh if we're unable to get the people we need then that's where you go to a program management firm and you look at a hybrid approach or a totally external approach uh to that um my my preference I'm I'm you know if if you uh my preference is the hybrid approach uh I I I like having more control um but we have control either the way through through the uh external or hybrid but you know I just like to build uh capacity and desity within our own organization that's just a preference of mine thank you um and I I thank you all for answering my questions um I think sometimes it's hard to be you know holding the ball when there's been you know so many people before you um so I you know my frustration is not directed at any of you individually um it you know it's at the idea that we're in this place and I'm I'm glad to hear that there is a commitment and a vision to improving things um and getting this work done um but you know people want to see that that happens and if there's anything I I want to emphasize it is the need for accountability um and I and I just want to than you know the questions that I asked today and a lot of the feedback that I'm providing is from people in the community um that I continue to hear from and and people in the industry who you know know this work um so yeah those are my comments thank you thank you Mrs rert Mrs rert great are you here can you hear me yes okay um thank you and thanks thank my colleagues and staff that have gone before me I um I found it riveting and very um enlightening to see with a new person coming in um you know what what does their eyes see and how do they think that we're going to be able to move forward so um it's a it's a different perspective and I have a different pers perspective than than my colleagues because I was here in 2014 2018 2022 and each time we got uh our feet kind of stuck on the ice it it we just kept losing any um ground that we were trying to make so knowing that um one of the very first things that uh that that doctor um Zan did was basically push us on coming to a conclusion and I 100% appreciate that and we needed that um but I'm disappointed in finding when you look at the information before us um there's I know that the ones that are not going to be done by October 2025 are going to be moved forward um but according to page 21 um it looks like there's like seven of 12 projects and seven are from district 7 so um I was not really happy about that but I'm going to look at the it with the rosy color glasses on meaning I'm going to think of it as an opportunity not something to be alarmed about and that opportunity is to see program programmatically um look through the educ ational aspect of the school is it meeting uh safety are the facilities up to date so I think it gives us an eye to to kind of look and see what you know what are we budgeted for um is this exactly what the community needs because obviously this is been sitting for a very long time and my schools have been waiting and my communities have been waiting a very very long time um so much so that people who voted for the bond a lot of their kids have already gone through the public school system and have moved on and that is the reality but I am confident that with Dr hper Paul that we can actually make a difference and uh we'll be able to move it along uh cohesively and uh hopefully we will be able to also uh make up time as those opportunities come before us um my colleagues did a terrific job of asking questions that were on my list but there was one I wanted to ask um and and the the question is to um no I'm I'm sorry it's Miss Paul right yes ma'am I can't hear yes ma'am okay thank you I I'll be speaking through the superintendent I meant to but I wanted to say that um I haven't seen lately Ivon G and she's a terrific um PR Communications person and we have the the wonderful Broward school.com SL smart and you can go on there and see um basically I went on as I was waiting here to see if uh if today's presentation was loaded up on it so um that's a good place uh it's a good place to look it's a good place to to do and I look forward to having your um conversation with with Miss G if you haven't already um and the superintendent and my colleagues guidance to see what do we need to to bump up our information and our communication to our public but not just the public and our taxpayers and our families but as future business people to work with us and for us because we have unfortunately over the years got a bad name of not paying things on time and and that just you know has to absolutely stop because I would certainly not want to work for any company that didn't pay me in a a good amount of time I do know that Dr Lata and uh Dr heurn have jumped on that so I'm looking forward to a an update to really see um if there's more of a cohesive agreement with um our our companies and our vendors to say hey this is the situation that we are in now we know it's been x amount of time we're going to bring you up to date whatever that conversation may be that the board should have a party to I believe um so I look forward to that and on they looking up sorry it's so hard I got to tell you with with between the uh internet going out working on one phone and and trying to follow you guys along at the same time is uh is a lot um I just want to make sure that everything uh okay we talked about that the next part is uh transforming our schools we haven't gotten that yet oh I think wait okay um my last comment is we we truly have to find a way to really bring our our um Community together and and we've done a a good job as board members I know all my board members go to their municipalities we are partners with our municipalities and our business is located within our Loca location um our district location but we need to have that in a a a big ribbon so I know that Dr he has been to the league of cities um I would I would ask if it's not on his calendar um and and your preference it if you wanted Miss Paul for this but we have it coming up in I believe in September is a is a meeting with the brow League of cities so it might be a really good opportunity to get to some of those municipalities um and you know granted I'm out of the loop so you all may have already talked about this and everybody signed up to go but I thought that would be a nice place because um as as I think of my colleagues I know that they're doing their best to be out there in the community to answer the questions and also to bring that information from the public back to us and and I wholeheartedly uh appreciate that and that is truly the gift of having districts and also the gift of having at large because you can get a larger picture so um I I look forward to hearing a little bit more about this but um my question first one is here is um when are we doing another Bond oversight um Workshop or or meeting Dr fton and remember I might not be able to hear you go ahead thank you Miss rubert Miss Paul I would have to look at the schedule but uh I can provide that information she'll have to give back to you Mrs trer I'm sorry I get like an echo but it sounded like um someone was going to look at their schedule that's great um but I'm sure that Mr Sullivan probably knows when the next one is because this would be uh he works I know so so closely with g Dr um so that would be through the superintendent F can miss rert this is Miss Dr fton our next one we do them quarterly so we the bond oversight meetings are done quarterly I think when when is the next one I was asking Omar Mr shim yes the next Bond oversight committee uh is September 19th and it's going to be at Nova I think she's asking when will they come report to us here you know how they come and do a a presentation that's what she's asking well well toall thank you mistakes and twofolds when when are when is the bond oversight committee meeting but also when is it coming to the board so if you're doing it the meeting in September I'm probably thinking it's going to be November it's usually a little lag time yes typically it's the end of October uh when we bring it back the the board meeting in October or the I I would suggest that all the amazing questions opportunities conversations that my colleagues have have given thoughts to today and you know answer those those very direct questions that um you know that be part of the oversight committee when I'm assuming the superintendent and the facilities um um director Chief go there um as well as the the meeting for us because those are we're it we're coming to this now this is like we can't miss another beat we cannot sorry that's my dog she always wants to be heard um it's hard to um be able to try to set yourself up for Success if you're not really moving forward um in a timely manner and people people have to understand that that there's certain governmental processes that we are we are kind of locked into being that you have to have the bond oversight committee meeting and then um it the report will go out and then staff responds and then it comes to our meeting Etc so um those those are great times I think uh definitely we should be building our our name as uh you know great place to work you know we're at a district when it comes to our students in curriculum and academics but you know what we're going to be an A+ district for business and this is how we're going to do it um so I would suggest same meeting in September it um not just the bond oversight committee but also that League of cities one if that's around the same time then um I I would suggest those are two opportunities to meet um a lot of different people and to and to get that hey we're this is our new plan and I hate saying new plan but I would emphasize the amazing work in a very short amount of time that has occurred and including curriculum and that leadership obviously we've gone through a couple changes but guess what we're in a district so what Dr Lata what Dr heurn put in place working with the board is working and our employees who are still with us got love you thank you because things were will be changing and we are 100% supporting you um I know that I am I know my colleagues are it's it's a good time to be part of Broward County schools and I I look forward to checking all those um uh projects off the list as well as going through a little bit more ribbon cutting in district 7 and um I look forward to um you know really getting getting back next week and um you know digging really in and and seeing how can we help um and and get out into the community to get everybody pulling in the same direction that we are so um thank you so much for your time and I appreciate it thank you for asking questions and I won't take up any more time like an hour or anything but uh thanks so much bye Miss rert um I haven't answered to your question and just so you know Miss G is in the room and helped find the answer to your your question so that will come to us on November 6th the workshop uh well thank you thank you thank you Miss Hixon and uh Miss gar you know I always love you thank you thank you so much Dr holness thank you um board member Hixon so um um through the uh Acting Superintendent I will um Miss Paul I will spare you uh the pain of having to reiterate a lot of this I did have two pag of questions that the board members did a great job because those questions are very similar to the questions I have but I do have some additional concerns um for capital projects program forecast I I have to uh commend you as well in in um including Parkway uh uh and attempting to meet the deadline of 2027 I know initially we had a deadline of 2029 and we have uh a projected deadline of 2027 so I appreciate that I I did fight to have that timeline moved up two years to make sure Parkway is completed uh within that period of time uh I do also concur with board member Leonardi um in terms of the quarterly meetings with uh contractors and with all the board members in terms of timely payment I believe that has always been a concern uh especially uh for our local and mwbe firms so um I hope that we can get better with the timely payment of our our local and mwbe firms but I do have some questions on the list of um schools that are considered for further discussion I did notice that two of my schools are on there which is North Fork and brow Estates and you did mention that um these are on hold for further discussion and part of the reason you mention initially was as a consideration was the age of the buildings and then subsequently you mentioned that the redefining process may play a role in in those being under further discussion so if you could comment on uh what are the factors that play a role with these two particular schools being under further discussion and how significant is the redefining process in putting these on hold so just based on um the history uh you know I don't know exactly when they were placed on hold but it's a question of uh uh replacing the schools because spending money on deferred maintenance because of the um assessment of the schools condition um at some point a decision was made that it makes it it's not really um uh beneficial to continue to put money into the schools and that it's a choice of whether a choice of replacing the schools and I don't know at what point uh in the smart program this discussion came uh to fruition so I don't know if it was a a decision of uh trying to get money to replace them or or what and that's part of the research that I think I need to do and my get with my team that's been here a minute a while to U assess that okay so can it be some sort of a followup as to the reason abely because there are four schools here and two of the four is in District 5 so I just want to get a better understanding it as to what factors play a role in these two schools being considered for further discussion uh is it the emerging uh issue of redefining schools or has this been does this predate that in terms of the age of the buildings or what exactly are the factors that put these schools on this list my understanding is is it's the condition of the building but as I said said uh previously that I need to go back and look at when the decision was made uh and I think the other question was uh who may have made that decision okay uh I'm not as sure if it was a response to a workshop board me I I really don't know so I think I need to do further investigation awesome so I look forward to the follow up on that and also um I just want to ensure that based upon what I've heard from board member hixon's um response as well as board member Leonardo in terms of um what's considered substantial completion as defined in the contract between aom and PR schools that uh that definition is uh similar to the definition that we have here and I know that um it was mentioned that you have substantial completion and then final completion and in final project completion so all of these uh terms for completion uh will um adhere to the contractual requirement that's within between Acom and Broad County Schools the the various levels of completion are within the construction contracts um and there are requirements that all parties must meet to achieve okay those those levels so we operate with those definitions the contractors do the Architects do and the district does as owner Okay so we will meet the contractual requirement for completion between aom and the district that's the goal correct okay thank you okay and my other concern I believe it was Miss Carpenter from Atkins had mentioned a $7 million um in terms of uh unresolved or not accepted change orders is did I get that correct um partially yes so the $7.5 million that I mentioned is for change orders that are currently in the system system that are open correct so if um the architect or the pm has um previously rejected a change order that's not included because that would be closed um because it will have been denied um so that's just for open change orders that are making their way through the process right now okay so there could potentially be a maximum of 7.5 potentially I'm not saying it is of $7.5 million in unresolve not accepted change orders that could impact the numbers we see here on page 17 is that correct that's correct that today we know of 7 and5 million that could potentially impact the program that would would be paid for through contingencies however tomorrow a contractor could submit a change order that isn't included in that that's for something that hasn't come up yet um some of these projects are very early on in construction there will still be some unforeseen conditions that happen on projects that are you know in construction a few projects haven't even gone to construction yet so there will be change orders that we don't know about yet understand so this number could be higher or less basically okay um also um in terms of the work scope um that was cut out um I believe it was board member Hixon that mentioned regarding a report on that will um so we will have a report as a board on whatever um work scope was uh cut out um that will be presented to us or sent to us in some form of a document yes sir okay and we'll ALS can we also I'm not sure if we did ask but can we have uh uh these particular change orders that was mentioned by Miss Carpenter uh are we able to have information on that as well that are unresolved yes we can get that information okay and um regarding mwbe firms are there any procedures or policies currently in place for mwbe firms um uh in to review evaluate and act on complaints um from both local and mwbe firms regarding Supply Supply diversity um compliance is there any process in place that you know there can be uh or um you know complaints being received received uh from the mwbe firms or local firms regarding Acom um yes Dr holness we definitely have a process in place that um is being implemented weekly um and that process is once we receive a complaint we invite them to the office we invite the uh aeom project manager to the office and we work it out at the table we work it out and we've been very successful doing that and coming up with um resolutions that are amable to each party so I have a lot of meetings like that and we've been pretty successful okay so in conclusion I'd just like to mention that at the at the March 12th board meeting I had proposed an item that asked the superintendent at the time to build capacity in two ways for program controls we should be able to fully plan and administer internally as well as for capital projects we should be able to oversee the work being done uh on our behalf uh this Still Remains my strong conviction and recommendation for the smart way to finish of the hold overs U from the smart program so I I hope that's still um being considered thank you that's it thank you Dr holess Mrs Fam thank you Vice chair um I have just um quick question I think two one is um on page 257 of the smart program today it says status of Renovations and the category I'm looking at specifically is um hire contractor and this specific one the one contractor was hired and it indicates it was at 20, 370,000 if I'm reading that correct um the next page 258 has 10 contractors hired and they're at 27 uh 27,7 15,000 I'm wondering what exactly is costing that much to hire a contractor what does hiring a contractor consist of and why did this one why did he come in so much higher for her come in so much higher than the the other contracts contractors on the following page Dr Folton thank you staff um I can speak to this one um so the two different pages that you're looking at are two separate subsections of of projects sub subsets of projects so the first page is the Smart projects um we have this as slide 12 um that number one represents one project it is a large project as you mentioned $20 million approximately is the project budget that's um Margate Middle um smart program rennovations so the reason that that's showing under hire contractor is because that's the phase that the project is in right now we don't have a contractor for it yet um once that project has a contractor um it will come to the board for Award of that contract and then it will move into the active construction phase so it's not $20 million um you know to do any particular task it's $20 million as the budget for the entire project from inception to you know to the end um and then on the second page the number 10 in the higher contractor box is related to capital projects not part of the smart program totally different um most of them would be quite small um capital projects and those 10 the project budgets add up to $27 million it's very confusing because on the the top of that page it says smart program today so Co correct but yeah so it's two separate the smart projects and then the dfp projects okay and they both represent the status as of June 30th 2024 which is kind of today for the purposes of this presentation but um yeah two separate subsets of projects thank you and I just have one other thing um to adjust to the vice chair um we have coming up we're late the um 1:00 to 2 o'clock section which is spot survey um and includes big at land at Southwest Ranches I noticed the mayor is here from Southwest Ranches I'm wondering if he would like to if the um chair would consider putting him to speak before the actual slideshow so he doesn't have to stay long longer than what he has already stayed the chair is back but we have to finish this particular item first so we're almost done he thank you okay any other questions yep I have a question so in regards to the contractors being paid and being paid in a timely manner have we you know I'm sure everyone's different but have we kind of done a timeline to see what what is the what are the obstacles um so um I'm glad you asked the question I just have been dying to speak about this um the the conception that the contractors are not being paid in a timely manner I feel is a little bit um maybe misconstrued and the reason is um that the data we have on construction invoices coming in and when they are ready to be paid they get paid in a very timely manner um Capital runs reports on this they have their aging reports we have reports out of e-builder um as I believe um one of the board members mentioned about the prompt payment act and needing to pay them within 20 days if the invoice has been revised so it's actually 30 days but if the invoice has been revised then on the second go around you have 20 days all that to say are there instances where the contractors are being paid later than you know we would want yes but I think they're more individual instances the averages over program are um being paid in a timely manner now I think a a lot of what may come to board members is also subcontractors complaining about not receiving timely payments um I've been working with um the assistant general counsel and a particular subcontractor and looking at um over over a hundred projects that they are involved with one subcontractor and what's happening with their payments that they are supposed to be receiving from the gc's and it it is widely varying in terms of certain gc's pay right away other gc's maybe they have a problem and they haven't paid or they get behind in payments I don't know all the details behind that it's very hard to dig into the details to really understand all of that because we don't have contracts with those subcontractors the GC does and they are responsible to pay them um so there's a lot going on behind this but we have a lot of data and um and we've improved the processes greatly to where the individuals there are a lot of people that have to sign off on a construction invoice before it gets to Capital but these individuals are taking timely action and we're following up with people all the time to make sure that it's moving through the process quickly but I think there's a lot of you know noise as well that might be coming from subcontractors who rightfully so haven't been paid in a timely manner okay so the subcontractors so then I turn my question to Acom right um the subcontractors aren't necessar not the subcontractors that work for aom but the sub the subs that work for the general contractors out on the sites so okay but then we're responsible for the general contractors right so what I'm trying to get to is that at the end of the day it doesn't matter it still makes Brower County Public Schools look bad so how do we fix that so I think before Mark or Mike wants to he wants to jump on this question I think it's really important to understand what the system is and how we pay and from those different layers of who's responsible from what aom to the general contractor the general contractor to subc consultant and the subc consultant can have another subc consultant so there are different layers but at the end of the day you are correct uh Miss Al that we have to uh because our name is on the bottom line we have to figure this out um and it's it's very complicated you know um but it shouldn't be and so one of the things that I I want to advocate for and work with um Atkins and aaom on is how can we simplify the system um and how can we have visibility over whether a contractor or sub or whoever was paid so for me you know I think we need to be uh uh graded on that and it needs to be a metric and it needs to be transparent and visible uh and so uh that is something that I I I challenge uh all of us on my team to do because I don't like the the the the responses that uh well if they don't get it in on time then you know we you all of that doesn't really matter because at the end of the day we're going to be the ones stuck out and not having good contractors stay in business to do business with us so I'll work with uh ashle and and and Mike uh McIntyre to see how we can simplify the system to see how we can get visibility over whether our subs are paid correctly even though we're not directly responsible for paying them uh we just can't continue I think in the current state and so that is kind of you know on paper it looks good but at the perception becomes the truth and so that's what we need to really focus on and so we'll work together um and and bring some of the uh contractors in to talk to us about it I've talked to a few already and just listening to them explain it is just you know kind of frustrating on one end and then I I feel their frustration on their end um so an example would be if we have a notice to proceed on a project but nothing moves for 4 years I've seen examples of that over the course of this program and so a sub or a GC they staff up they have these people on hold you know and you know they're waiting for us the district to make a decision on something and we're taking three and four years to do it those are real examples and so I think that as we go forward we're going to look at our policies and try to see how uh we can make them more user friendly uh for our contractors and for us to understand because that's really where it goes to some of our policy and I've worked with Mr uh uh uh Cooney on this uh some of our our policies are just really difficult you know and with his background uh in construction and so forth I think we can probably solve some of these issues going forward but we meet also we L um to talk about some of these challenges and specifically some of these issues um that um you know kind of predated me uh and so that's our that's our charge that's how we get better thank you Miss Paul and I I appreciate that I think it's extremely important that we peel back the the onion and and really get to the Crux of the issue you know the board is is coming to you Dr heern with this problem and and I know your team is going to be able to fix it if it's policy driven then we you need to bring back the policies Mr Cooney back to the board to to fix the policy but we can't continue the pace that we're continuing on because it's just calling causing delays it's causing people to get upset and it's causing millions of dollars to taxpayers and it's unacceptable so I I appreciate the um wanting and desire to fix this problem I do have a couple more questions one is for the defp projects with the $229 million remaining to spend how are we managing the risk of cost overruns or delays in these projects so I think uh what's most important is to um understand the scope of the project understand you know going forward how to um how to make decisions in a timely manner because the I can't emphasize enough the delay in making decisions on these projects cost us money you know um and then also reporting to the board providing you information of where we stand in the projects right the market is the market right but I continue to emphasize speed to market the longer we hold on the project and it's been evidence in in in this program the longer we hold on to a project and don't move it forth the more it cost us uh so um those are some of the things that I think are really important um and you know making sure that you know I I go back to that we fulfill the commitment that we promised the community uh when when when the community voted on the project in 2014 so visibility over what's happening with the project you know and managing those incremental things you know if you looked at a project um uh chart and all those hundreds of things that you have to do in a project you have to manage each one individually uh and making sure that our project managers are on the ground um with eyes on the project and making and holding the uh contractors accountable for the work thank you last question how will the district address potential capacity constraints within the facilities Department as we move towards completing the smart program and transitioning to new projects um again I I I mentioned that previously how we need to hire U uh uh really really uh continue to hire competent people that are able to do the work um and offer a competitive wage and I know that especially in my division we have those same requirements for literally every position we have but we have millions and millions of dollars at stake and uh we can't continue to um not have the the right people in the seat um and and competent people in the seat and so um and we have to be attractive to for people to want to work for us you know and uh we start by treating our our contractors fairly or you know our subs fairly uh to build that culture really it is about culture um and uh that requires work and so we we are committed to doing that we have several positions that have been vacant for a long time uh um and it's key that we fill those so I'll be working with u Mr uh azero um to screen and try to get really you know qualified candidates for that perfect thank you public comment artha Wimberly good afternoon um more than people getting upset or frustrated about the delay it is the reality that some of the most vulnerable students in populations living in some of the most historically disadvantaged and marginalized neighborhoods want attend a public school in brow County with the in pristine conditions with the value added values promised through smart program from the age of 3 to 14 or 15 years old when they enter high school as you think about them matriculating through schools like North Fork and brow state and possibly going on to Parkway that initially had a completion project um timeline of 2019 and now 2017 those children will never go to school on a campus with that added value they will never attend a school with f facilities fully functional and equal and Equitable to other schools across the county from the outside looking in there are systematic discriminatory practices and disparities impacting District 5 East Side students and it's disheartening to say the least when you consider the fact that these schools were um slated for these improvements over 10 years ago and now they're being told that they may not get the improvements because the structures are not sound or no longer worth the investment so that means that the Investments made today in these other schools they have a lifespan Beyond 10 years because you're saying that these schools are no longer eligible or no longer good candidates for those improvements that they were promised over a decade ago and now they're being slated in and to be put in the in the back the presentation pointed out that whereas there is expertise the delivery to students is negatively impacted because of significant challenges with dependency and integration that does not be appear to be a demand for urgency to deliver in a way that BR County public school graduates community members who had the best academic Journeys possible and are equipped to move upward in higher education or career or entrepreneurship development on Pathways that are equal and Equitable throughout the county is Project prioritization correlated with schools that have significant learning gaps are they bumped up the list to get those projects completed because the kids needed more are there any indic ations or indicators related to tital one schools how are they being treated in their comp completion of those construction projects those schools needed more they've been waiting longer the students have been negatively impacted longer but there's no talk about escalating or elevating the priorization of these students Jour academic Journeys here in brow County thank you thank you any other board member comments on this item item seeing none thank you so much for the update our next item is spot survey and we're going to go straight to public comment public comment board members it's great to be here thank you for the opportunity to say a few words on this project uh this is the 30.1 acre project that could you just say your name for the record please sorry Steve R Cruz mayor of Southwest Ranches thank you great to be here um we're we're in the ranches we are super excited about this project this is a a piece of property that uh we had Visions for long ago partnering with uh the school board for a a educational facility there for our students in the ranches and um you know through a wide variety of reasons that has never come about and um so where we are today is really very excited about a partnership with the south Florida Wildlife Center with Broward County um with the school board of of brow County so um this is going to be the the the you know the main point I want to make here is that this is a true educational partnership in so many ways um the south Florida Wildlife Center as the material shows and you I'm sure you'll read through this has already partnered with the the the schools of Broward County in so many ways and and really what's listed here are are the interactions of of students that come to their facilities there's a whole another mirror of that going the other directions of their staff going out to the schools and uh and so that that is a partnership that that is exceptional today they are being forced out of their current location due to expansion of the airport and things that are going on there they're looking for a new home we're excited that the ranches could potentially be that home with this particular piece of property I think it can work out exceptional for all the parties involved in that it will it will allow the school board to get their funding back and much more for what they originally put in here at a time when that will be I'm sure used in an exceptional way it allows for the ranches to uh be able to have this facility within our town boundaries and and the and the facility itself and and the programs that go on there are such an incredible match to what the ranches is all about our animals and um the protection of our environment which our residents are very keen on so we're we're super excited about that the last point I wanted to make to you is this this property is 30.1 acres and the thought is to split it uh potentially half and half but that can be adjusted however however it needs to be done they need a minimum minimum of 5 Acres um hopefully more than that but and then that other acreage can go and it will be rezoned by the town we will have that educational piece taken off and um and it will be I think an exceptional value to the school board but what what I want you to look at is this that if you were if the school board were to put an educational facility on that piece of property think about the the infrastructure and the the time it would take if I can just take another 30 seconds I'd appreciate that um think about the you know the that well we've just been talking about the smart program and all that all that money that would have to go in to build that facility all the money that would have to go in to staff that facility on an ongoing basis all the all the information that it would take all the all the uh funding that it would take to run the programs that they have there and you're getting all of that you're getting the facilities you're getting the programs you're getting the staff at no cost to you and the reason why I bring that up is I want you to take that into consideration when you look at potentially leasing this to that facility you're already getting Great Value I would hope that you would consider not having a lease or a very minimal lease there because they they they work off a donation uh facility you know funding model and um I think that's key to this partnership really working out so we're we're I just want you to know from the ranches we're super excited about it and uh looking forward to hearing how this progresses thank you for the time thank you so much next speaker hello how are you thank you so much for giving me this uh time my name is Alexandra medri I'm the executive director with the south Florida Wildlife Center and I want to thank the mayor the sou the town of Southwest Ranches and the whole town for welcoming us as potentially relocating in the Southwest Ranches as you I have seen like you know we are not only a wildlife center but also an educational facility we rescue release rehabilitate wildlife in the entire State of Florida we are the largest facility in the entire State of Florida that it does more animals than anyone but we are also a teaching hospital for future Veterinary students we have a third or fourth year best students that they come from all over the world but also we educate kids in the community as the mayor mentioned we have a program so that actually the kids come to us but also we go to the bra County Schools we we are fully mobile we bring our ambassador animals we we have uh activities we have educational programming that are fully integrated with some of the schools um you know here in brow County and we our goal basically is to spread you know appreciation and you know making sure that all the kids have access to the knowledge how wildli is important the daily life so I hope that you will consider supporting us we're not asking for anything from from the school board but just your support I think you will see uh if you would like you know I can come another time and do a presentation to show you all the wonderful educational programs that we have so um you know and I'm here to answer any questions that you might have and we hope that you're going to see this partnership as an asset not only to the Southwest Ranches but for the entire Brower County for all the children um you will be surprised you know we have been to we have educated over 10,000 children elementary school children and middle school children last year which is really exciting we have been everywhere we had like uh brought our ambassador animals which are adorable if you get the chance to see our website um and you have to see the kids how they light up when they get the the chance to touch these animals to learn about them so I hope you will support us and please you know don't hesitate to reach out if you would like to have more information thank you thank thank you so much board member comment M seon thank you I have um a question but to to speak to that I think it's a would be a great partnership you know we have a preet program at West brow at high school and that would tie right in with that I know that at South Plantation they're looking at trying to revamp the um animal they I think they had a husbandry program there um but through the repurposing process that we're going through I think that partnership would be a wonderful partnership so I wouldn't be opposed to not charging a huge amount of rent um I know non profits are difficult I I run one myself so whatever we can do to make that partnership work I think um I would be in support of so thank you for coming out to share that with us and the other question just quick question I have for tedar elementary um when you read it in the background on page three it says the building replacement study was prepared by George tis architect and received by the Office of Education facilities on February 8 2024 and O EF concurs with the recommendation that replacing Building 19 is more economical than rehabilitating it um just being a tedar a number of times the I I agree the building should be demolished but do we really need to put another building there I don't think that it I don't think they have the student capacity that requires another building so this just says the end goal is to be able to demolish the building and I just want to make sure that's what we're looking at and not looking at trying to build another one because it's conflicting with the background she knows the question okay staff you're correct we're is it's no intent to put a it's no intent to put a replacement build in here but this is the process that we have to follow Perfect all right thank you Miss Fam thank you so much and and thank you for the um presentation and talking to us about the Wilderness um preserve that you have I think it would also be a wonderful idea because at South Plantation which is one of my schools um we got um a sizable donation or a donor that is rebuilding the cages over there so they can get back to um having animals again what they had in larger capacity than what they are now so students over there are getting um back into servicing animals and um wanting to have a future with animals which could very well lead to being a veterinarian so between the location which is Central in between Western not Western I'm sorry West Broward and South Plantation um the students should have access to that so I hope you um give this great thought and on top of that um there's not a better place where it's already Everglades and we already have Wetlands out there so that would be a consideration if um we wanted to sell that property that would prohibit I think a a lot of the value because it would be protected Wetlands so I think this is a wonderful offer thank you thank you any of my other colleagues Dr Zan thanks much chair thanks chair um as we move this forward I just want to make sure that our staff is prepared to share with us the options that we have uh for the south Florida Wildlife uh option and for the city of Southwest Ranches I think it's be important to understand the details of those options uh and make sure that we move forward in the best way for brow County thanks chair thank you I have a question um to staff are you aware uh of a 205 single family home being built in Parkland along lah hacki called Parkland Royale Dr ha Mr Mr aabus M good afternoon board members Chris arabus director facil real estate I'll have to double check on that as you know we are part of the development review process for br County so if that project has been submitted we will have reviewed it but I'll double check and circle back to you okay I bring it up because I I probably I thought you might not know about it so I just want you to be aware of it but as far as today's item um in regards to the vacant uh land at Trail's End thank you thank you so much for creating this putting the process in place the steps on page nine and 10 this is what I was looking for and and now I think everyone has a clear guideline of what the steps are to sell this land on Trails End um one thing I do have a question in regards so I'm okay with this and this is what I was looking for I was looking to make sure that we followed the process and my question is in regards to and I brought this up previously speaking to whoever ends up purchasing that Land If there could be some type of space for eagle's Haven for free for them to have in there does that need to be any type of stipulation within this process as we move forward uh Eagles Haven is the resiliency Center that was built after the tragedy at margerie stowman Douglas High School and they offer our students amazing services and not just to our students but to our community and so um I think it would be amazing if that we could offer them some type of space within within this area so how would that work Dr heer Mr druso true through through the chair and then through the superintendent what's going to happen is if that's the desire of the board whatever agreement we have with a buyer then those conditions will be stipulated as part of the agreement thank you so to my colleagues I I would appreciate if you could weigh in if that's something that uh you you would want would get behind Dr Zan uh could you give us a little bit more um history since uh the last 6 years of this being established where they are now are they allowed to stay there or they looking for a bigger different place what's if you could just give us a little more context sure they're they're in Coral Springs uh next to pasqual's in the new crunch in that shopping center and and from my understanding they they pay rent to to be there and so um I I felt that what an amazing opportunity and maybe they're going to come back and say nope this isn't going to work for us us but at least that they would have that potential option to to have this space uh free uh being that they directly help our our students so Dr Zeman how do you feel about that um I'd like that a lot I think um you know uh I'd like to learn more about their current you know lease and things like that and their needs for expansion you know but their what they do every day is absolutely amazing and it's more than students it's the entire community and so to the extent that we can uh make that a condition of the sale of the property so that whoever I imagine this land is going to eventually become a commercial something uh don't know what it what it is but um I've seen sales before that stipulate that I this much square footage is reserved for you know an organization that we care deeply about thank you Mrs Hixon thank you um thank you for bringing that up it was something I I brought up originally um when we were having a discussion with Broward Health or about having Broward Health by the land which could still happen because they are a health facility it made sense for them to be able to put in the mental health piece because there would be less of a stigma of people showing up to a health facility to receive mental health they wouldn't feel like people were looking at them you know sometimes now Eagles Haven's in a shopping center so when you go there people know you're going specifically for there um just to kind of answer some of your questions they're funded by the state right now and if State funding were to fall to the Wayside as you know other projects do then they would be in a in a great um concern on how they would be able to stay in the facility they're in so I know they're very interested in being able to have a space where they feel good and they seem to be okay with that space cuz I had asked them about it when it came up in discussion with Broward Health originally in the conversation so I obviously would be in support of it um I do hope that we're able to do some kind of negotiations with Broward Health on this piece of land because they already own the other piece of it it makes sense and I would like that to be a bigger um Health space where it it makes sense to put Eagles hav in there but that's my own input thank you Dr hus thank you madam chair so I am supportive of it I would however like to learn more about um their uh if they would consider this to be a great option for them I'm not sure we have enough information in that regards but I am supportive of the idea um but I certainly would like to get more information uh based upon uh you know their take on this and also um since it's a potential sale whether or not this will having this additional requirement would would impact in any form or way um the sale of the property and so on and so forth so uh I think it's on both sides um you know I think more information would be relevant but I am definitely supportive thank you Miss lardy yes thank you Miss Fam thank you madam chair um I like the idea of looking outside of the box and I think that's what this is doing um with the Broward Health however I think we should explore all our options before we decide on one option and some of the things I would just throw out there for example I don't know if we have a fire preparation school close up that way up North I generally they've been down here out west where if the firefighters were interested in setting up a training up there again education um I know we have our schools now are expanding with pre-law classes I would love to see a mood court room built where they can actually practice in a courtroom environment and setting right now when they when they go to practice they're in an auditorium but to actually have the jury box and and um to have the judge sitting up there it's a completely different atmosphere that they should go accustomed to so they're not nervous when they go out on their own so I would um investigate all our options before we decide on on one option so I need more information including more information about Broward Health so it's not out of the question but I think we could really run with this and make this a really great project for the district thank you Dr Zan thanks again chair and the only comment that I had coming into today is I love this slides N9 and 10 it's so nice to see you know you ask a question how do we sell something and you get this nice list um the only problem is I don't like the list like it takes way too long and so to the extent that we can get to Schoolboard meetings faster uh to the extent that we can maybe do things in parallel rather than do one uh step at a time my concern is this looks like a list that's going to take three or four years and I'd like to sell this property now and so to the extent that um the board agrees with me that maybe we can kind of uh uh do all the things that are possible to get this to school board meetings on time to do some things in parallel if that if they're all possible um whether this goes to Broward Health or goes to someone else uh this land right now is doing nothing of value for Broward County and once it's sold and becomes something else it'll actually have value so I think as representatives of the people we should not only sell this but we should sell it expeditiously so to the extent any of these steps are optional to the extent we could do them in parallel to the extent you know you can get it on a board agenda you know 5 days before a meeting instead of waiting till the next meeting uh to the extent we have to a special school board meeting to deal with these things um I just think that we need to get into the practice of doing things quicker uh that are clearly in the best interest to the community thanks chair thank you Dr Zan that actually was my question is what is the time process you have all these steps what what is the time frame are you looking at 3 months 6 months a year two years okay so to Dr zimman's comment some of the steps can be done simultaneously but a lot of the steps are required by law you know so we have to follow them for example the sport survey we have to bring it independently to Workshop then I have to bring a Bo item separately to then submit that sport survey to Florida Department of of education then after they approve it I have to come back with this different board item to suplus I can't do those two things simultaneously it's in the law um for one but the appraisals have been done hold on hold on just a minute so to your to your question uh and you have all the steps and what we can do concurrently or together we will but to your question I will work with Dr hiitburn to see if we can get uh if it's a item a real estate item like this added to the agenda and request uh permission to add it late to get it on the next available board uh uh meeting instead of waiting a month or whenever the next one is so and if it's the board's concurrence with Speedy is is is fast as we can Mr Cooney might be able to indicate some things that we could do provisionally like the school board approves it conditioned on the state saying yes and so we might be able to jump some things in the process but you and the lawyers and the superintendent can work it out all I'm trying to do is Express a Need for Speed so going back to my question can you answer it yeah go yeah I'm sorry the timeline what what are you looking at one year two years five years 10 So based on this last comment hopefully we can bring something back to the board because I have to then work with procurement to put out I mean okay so can I get clarification are we saying deal directly with brow health or do we want it to put on the street that's not what we're saying I me you one board member said that but that was not that wasn't just one potential B okay okay good so if I mean because it makes a difference so if we put it on the market um I'm thinking to put it on the market we can say something by potentially no later than maybe December January or less and then that takes care of the time frame when you do a contract if you put it on the market we normally give the buyers one year for their governmental approval and inspection so potentially by next year um once you go into contract then the contract dictates in terms of when you're going to close that's so what we'll do is we'll uh uh work together uh my team to come up with a timeline to present to you but going going in I'm asking if we have things uh ready to go and we're a week from the board meeting I would need uh the superintendent's permission to add it to the agenda uh that's one thing but we'll work together and provide a a a a more uh precise timeline of uh how this will work M fam you had a com may I weigh in go ahead M rert thank you I can't wait to get home so you don't have to keep remembering me I'm such a pain I'm so sorry um I'm actually very supportive of this um expeditiously absolutely um I I would be remiss if I didn't say um you know working in the Deerfield Beach Community with the fabulous municipality that they are um doing Town Halls on Mental Health especially Suicide Prevention um and they made that wonderful beach house I would love to see um mental health uh another opportunity for our students to get there I can tell you as as a parent when they go off to college nobody wants to go on the second floor where everybody knows is the is the room where you go for mental health so I think having another opportunity off campus would be um absolutely fabulous and I would be very supportive of that so thank you so much thank you Mr Robert okay Miss Miss Hixon I go ahead M thank you madam chair um I just would ask um that we inquire of Mayor bre break crw what their deadline is for the animal Wilderness Sanctuary to be red to be moved because they apparently they mentioned the airport is expanding and I don't know what their timeline is if we can find out as well Dr Aon yes mayor if you can expound on the timeline yeah great thank you um appreciate that I'm GNA I'm going to ask Alesandra to that this is really a timeline that is associated with the south Florida Wildlife Center not really with the town she's more familiar with that if you allow me to just defer thank you mayor yes thank you um so I lease expires September 30 2025 uh we are currently in talks with Brower County to allow us for an extension that is contingent upon the fact that we are successfully able to secure our home at the Southwest Ranches so that that is our internal timeline so we hope that we're going to get like you know a positive uh answer regarding relocating Southwest Ranches so we can go back to the bord of County Commissioners and ask for an extension to do the construction of the hospital and the educational facility which you know it's contingent upon you know permits and drawing the plants so we we already have um a pretty good idea we already have the plans we just need to have like a little bit of time to to initiate construction and permitting requirement okay thank you and correct me if I'm wrong uh is my mic on okay uh I think I don't know I think I was talking to the the um the county mayor and they just needed something from us as far as a a letter of commitment of some sort for you not to go through um so you can maintain the space but with the good faith that we're collaborating yes so that is correct um the county is more than willing to let us stay for the time that we need to build a new facility but we will need a leral commitment um from from you you know the school board that you actually are going to allow us to lease a portion of that land so we can initiate you know the the planning and the permiting process and everything else so we need to have that in order for brow County to give us an extension thank you Mr Zen thank you I have a different question but to that point Didn't we as a board already approve leasing the land to the Wildlife Center um yes uh Mr Austin I got the motion U that Mr Austin made I think sometime last year about um the board um approving that motion for the superintendent to work with the facility and also Southwest Ranches for the purpose of um utilizing some of that land for for the um Wildlife Center and it was 10 wasn't it 10 acres if I'm not mistaken I want to say it was 10 to 12 acres I can't remember the exact amount but so we've that part's already been done right so we they should be able to move forward with what they're doing and then we're just approving selling the other 20 acres of it go ahead Miss Paul can I clarify um I think we'll have to I don't know Mr Sullivan to double check if there was an actual motion I remember there was some discussions but we don't have any kind of formal lease with them um they've indicated some kind of acreage that the site is approximately 30.1 Acres they've indicated the acreage that they would like to lease but if we can double check just to put it in know but I know there was some discussions right that's my point we you don't need us we've done what we need to do to approve it now it's back between you and the Wildlife Center to work on the lease and and move forward with that I we still have to bring former lease right and the consens I think we also need to maybe agree here what that lease is going to look like or is that cuz if we want to make it a minimal amount of money do we decide that as planning like let's let them leave here today knowing what's going to happen what the next steps are I have a different question but that mayor do do you want to weigh in I just wanted to say that my understanding and I could be wrong you all are the experts I'm not my understanding was that initial um approval that you gave was the approval to continue the investigation of it if if in fact it's it's an approval to say we are going to do this and we need need to work out the details that's awesome um it wasn't it wasn't my understanding but uh you know staff can clarify that but that that's I think that's what they really need that the Board needs something that says we've got a new home we know all the details aren't worked out but we've got a new home and I don't think they feel like they have that yet but if they do we just need to clarify that I don't believe we have that yet um and that's what I I don't believe we have that yet okay but um it was a commitment as uh Dr hiitburn said to to continue conversations uh we're bringing this forward uh the spot survey uh to to kind of start the process of uh making this land Surplus that's why we're here today uh and then the next step would be um as you alluded to to work with them to figure out you know how do we uh provide that letter of commitment to them and and so forth I I understand why the spot survey is coming but I would beg to differ in the part that we as a board agreed we were going to let them build on a certain part of that land so I I mean they can go back and check I I don't think another item needs to come to us we told them to move forward and work it out so I I don't know he's looking it up right now I just don't want make this more labor intensive than it needs to be I feel like we already did that Dr yes so I have the actual uh motion is to approve the superintendent of schools to work with the town of Southwest Ranches and the south Florida wild Life Center on a potential partnership to utilize a portion of available land in the town for educational purpose and we approved that motion yes so we the school board already said yes move ahead and figure it out with them so you don't need to wait for us to do that we've already done that piece of it so you can so we will figure it out yes that's my point I mean I think you can walk away today with a absolute yes you work out the details but there was no doubt because we've already approved that a while ago that's exciting it's awesome thank you very much okay um I don't see it that way I just don't uh that was a great item it's a great intent I think there's very likely that it'll be approved sometime but when you say you're going to do something potentially is not saying that you're going to do something and so the wording of that was set up so that they could go do some work and then bring back some options for us so we know exactly which acreage and how much and the lease and all that so there's still a an item I think that needs to come back to the board for appr right now all we signaled is superintendent go work on this potential deal I wouldn't want them to walk away thinking that we've said yes yet because we haven't put the deal on the table yet well I we have said yes we are going to make a deal with them that's what they need to walk away from here with today so I believe we said that now the details have to get worked out but we agreed that we were going to work on a partnership with them and now they don't have to keep I mean if we need an item bring an item but I feel like we already did that so I don't maybe you want a consensus on that I yeah so let me read you the what was approved approve the superintendent school so work with the town of Southwest Ranches and the south Florida Wildlife Center on a potential partnership to utilize a portion of available land in the town for an educational purpose so I would interpret that it is that word potential and then that Dr heer's working on something and he's going to come back to the board with an idea of something uh an actual plan well I wasn't disputing that we don't have a plan in place but they for them to walk away today they need to know that a plan is we agree we we are going to work with you and a plan will be forthcoming but you don't need to walk away wondering if the school board is going to provide whatever that number is there's not a number on there apparently um if I if I may if you can look at page 17 these are steps that we absolutely must do um in the process uh for this uh vacant parcel of land what page are you on 17 of the presentation slide 17 yeah I'm not disputing any of that I'm just saying for them to walk away today knowing that we are moving forward there will be a partnership we just haven't worked out all the details I'm not saying they're walking away today with a don't agree with that I'm going to go to you Mr Cooney can you weigh in all agree yes thank you madam chair um I would tend to agree that the the addition of the word potential does mean that uh it's it's a direction to the superintendent his staff to investigate the potential and therefore you'd have to come back with some information for evaluation obviously the recommendation would come from staff and the superintendent for the board to reconsider but with the addition of that word I would I would condition it I would not make it absolute so then once the super intendent comes back with a plan the board is going to vote on that actual plan that's correct that's why I interpret that so when will that how fast can that plan come back to us or do we have to go through all these steps first well one thing I I I want you to be aware of on on this particular piece of property is the U uh site mitigation on that and I have uh allisoni here to speak to that to speak to that so Allison can you talk about the the mitigation of the site so I think sorry Allison wosinski director environmental health and safety uh I think as was mentioned earlier the site does contain Wetlands about 80% of the site is a wetland wow um to do the development um based on the preliminary plans that were provided to us it's almost 10 acres uh the remainder based on calculations from our civil engineer um the remainder of the property would be needed to be used for on-site mitigation or there there could be opportunities for wetland mitigation bank but they are not currently available but that is of course at a cost so potentially $3 million or more um and the availability is uncertain at this time so there's there's a lot of unknowns right now and then I'm not sure where the South uh Florida Wildlife is with with those discussions at this time thank you I I had a completely different question just was going on there back to the Parkland land um that space is zoned for something in particular if I'm not mistaken so any potential buyer would have to go through I don't think it's zon for commercial use um so any potential buyer would have to also go through Reon zoning so that would add time correct to the process of purchasing that land yeah that's what I loaded to currently the Zone it in CF Community facility and then the land use is commercial so when we go into contract right the contract is normally one year for the governmental approval which includes the developer going through land use zoning and things like that it's normally put in and and when we do the bid if you as a developer say you can do it sooner then it's going to be in the agreement so yeah okay I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware it was zoned for not for commercial use okay so would it be uh faster to do an RFQ or is that what you're planning on doing for the trail send yeah we normally do invitation to to bid we work with procurement on warehous uh warehousing um we can put language in the bid document and part of it is if you say your governmental it's going to be six months then you can you know be you know get an additional point so we can structure the deal that whoever wants to do it sooner and then that that's how we can B number is invitation to bid not not a request for information invitation to bid to buy the property that's normally how we sell our property not not an RFI that's what I'm trying to say RFQ RFQ no no no RFQ just qualification that you're selling property so normally we used to do RFP request for proposal but the um currently the version of the procurement we normally for the past properties we have sold is itbs invitation to invitation to bid mhm they're just bidding for the property to buy the property so I think what we owe the board um is uh kind of of the next steps and try to come up with a timeline uh for you uh so you can uh have more clarity around uh the two pieces of property the Southwest as well as the Trails End okay and then I think the other part of that is whether or not the board wants us or wants the superintendent to enter into a commitment with um the uh South Florida Wildlife um on uh the property okay and Dr he what is your takeaway staff's takeaway as far as trails and being competitively fitted stff ensuring while they're looking up um the information ensuring um that the facility um Eagles Haven is part of the yes but also that you're competitively bidding it yes correct so that that would be our recommendation on on uh uh Trail an is to competitively B bid it and you know do it that way okay thank you any other comments thank you very much can I can I make one final comment I I I I know I'm out of order just very quickly sorry go ahead mayor thank you so much I just wanted to weigh in just for a second on the wetlands discussion that we just had um just just a couple of thoughts number one a portion of the wetlands will be if this goes through as we envision it will be welcomed by the south Florida Wildlife Center so that's a piece of it that automatically goes away the other piece of it um I think it it's I don't I don't want to overstate it but it's not really your problem um you would be selling the the property with those wetlands and whoever purchased it would have to deal with that I will say beyond that that uh we and the ranchers are very familiar with Wetlands issues we're we're basically a Wetlands um from one end to the other so we're very familiar with that we have a um we're working on agreements with other properties with Broward County for those mitigation factors and so I don't believe that it's really going to be a burden on the school board it's going to be a burden on the town the wildlife center and whoever the purchaser of it is so I just wouldn't get hung up on that piece thank you thank you so much okay our next item up and most importantly redefining our schools update we have public speakers artha Wimberly Janet gutier Janet go ahead Janet please exit quietly you may begin Janet hi I'm justan yes yes okay I'm Janet gualter from Fort laudale and um I am currently the chair of the education Advisory Board for the city of Fort Lauderdale uh we were very instrumental in reviewing the last plan that was put forth and I just have a couple of questions and I would like to know what the process will be from this F this position forward and how you're going to get The Advisory Board and our citizens involved in these discussions I know the last time that we got a presentation at from your representation on to our EAB um they set out saying that there would be participation from members of advisory boards and we have not heard from uh that point on what is going on we did see your timeline and we know that uh there's some a September date we just would like to know what you have in store for getting our input and our involvement that's all thank you thank you Mary feric hi good afternoon um Mary ferdig I have so much to say and not enough time so I want to start with saying something positive about your presentation the recognition of the importance of customer service and the plan to improve it is definitely a step in the right direction as you know this has been an ongoing recommendation from the parent and Community involvement task force uh next a recommendation for Meaningful Community Dialogue on this topic don't schedule the meeting when parents and caregivers are picking up their students um advertise it with the community we receive plenty of emails texts Robo calls about a variety of topics but where students will go to school and what they will learn is critically important and I don't think hardly anybody knew about this meeting today um ultimately the more input and participation you receive the more successful the final plan will be some other thoughts an exhibit three bottom quad trial quart trial operational efficiency was consideration given to the programs that are placed in the school for example I see Wilton maners Elementary on there which has an Autism cluster do some of these schools have larger ESC populations Career Technical education or some other special program further context needs to be added to this exhibit on exhibit one I assume that when you're talking about historical you meant flan which is a line below William Dandy which was built in 1991 uh what criteria was used for historical significance how does Cypress Bay built in 2001 have 50 57,164 square ft of pre-1970s facility um I did talk with some parents who could not come today say um they couldn't arrange make any changes to their pickup schedules so I wanted to add some things with the marketing initiative uh that I heard back from them and emails will the marking initiative um understand the importance of broad uh decisions such as the new rules on cell phones um and on the metal detectors and so forth and the comment the person was made are the climate can drive people out of the public school system so you need to be surveying what impact your decisions are having to see how you or marketing so that you can make sure you don't actually lose people uh the clustering approach this person says I like the clustering approach and I'm pleased that Fort Lauderdale only has one cluster much more appropriate than the previous plan glaringly absent next point is any reference to repurposing um next Point there's a reference of regionalizing academic programs offerings the devil is in the details as to what this will mean will there be more but similar offerings any countywide offerings will this mean more school within a school programs offering two distinct schools and one physical facility there are a lot of questions here was hoping there would be more uh another comment CTE emphasis on Middle High School facility usage this could connect with evening Adult Ed as well and I think the whole issue of Industry certifications and I have one last comment so they're still nervous about how you're going to engage the potentially impacted School community thank you thank you so much Daniel Aqua thank you so much um I'm excited that I was able to speak before I have to run off to carpo really quickly I'm glad we made it I I crossed my name up but uh this is what I want to say there is such a demand in the market right now in South Florida for zoned uh School space that's up to Fire and Building Code I I don't know that you can propably appreciate the value of your build right now I'm in the private school world we represent 55 Jewish Day schools and I get a call almost weekly from someone who is struggling to find school space with the expansion of our our student population um we have tried to to lease Space Miami Dade actually has had a policy for many years where they will split campuses and share with Charter Schools so they had they've had both Charter Schools share with entrances on the same property they've even had a charter school on the third floor of a building where the first and second floor were public schools and they're currently looking into you know whether this is possible to do this with private schools as well um I think that many of our schools would pay great money to lease this base I think there's tremendous opportunity for integration uh for taking classes together participating activities together and so I would encourage you in whatever policy you're doing instead of uh think creatively think about what if we were able to share School space to lease School space to generate revenue for the district while integrating children together um and that's it thanks so much thank you Dr Herber Dr wanza you may proceed good afternoon again board members Dr hurn um to all of our uh colleagues across the organization and to the community both here in the boardroom as well as those listening online certainly thank you for the opportunity I do want to introduce my team um who I have the great Fortune of working with we have Willie Wood who is the director of um Performance Management Adrian Parker the executive director of um strategic initiative management Joe Beck who's the director of um demographics and enrollment planning Dante Fon Collins who is the director of choice and Charter School management and support and our other team member who's out in the field right now for all the right reasons is um Patty good the director of Athletics and Student Activities so I want Jesus sorry I guess I broke the ice I guess I broke the ice I apologize no disrespect intended boy was I going to be surprised no no disrespect intended I'm sorry I took my glasses off that's what happens when I take my glasses off am um so I wanted to um first acknowledge and thank our community members who have provided feedback because that is a part of the conver a great part of the conversation today um we are here to talk about the path forward as we know in the spring when we ended the school year there was a lot of um concern and a lot of community outcry for inclusion into the process of whatever is going forward so today we want to actually talk about what the path forward looks like um I'm going to I'm can I uh Beacon can you load the presentation please thank you who has the clicker clicker should be right there front Mr Parker okay there you go all right so the superintendent goals for redefining many people in the room are either products of the school district they have children in the school district or who have through the school district or children who are on their way to enrolling into the school district like most of you I have the blessing of being the third of five generations of my family to come through the Brower County Public Schools and what our Collective um denominator is is our superintendent wants Broward County Public Schools to be the choice for our students and families and we know that in order for that to occur we must offer Innovative programs where students live and we've heard a lot um about students have to travel across the county to access certain programs or other programs not being available in their immediate neighborhood we know that this is also necessary to optimize student um outcomes as well as ensuring that they have quality experiences in their educational life more importantly we know that we must exhibit fiscal responsibility in doing so and optimize our facilities as well as ensure that our current footprint matches our current reality as it relates to enrollment and Dr H jump in at any time yes absolutely okay so on doing a great job okay except for my one f p don't hold it against me on um June 18th the board is well aware that board action was taken to direct the superintendent to really in truly do four things number one expand programmatic options that our schools districtwide to recommend the closure of a minimum of five schools to develop a plan to attract students back to our schools for the 2520 six school year and to approve a recommended timeline so we're going to speak um our conversation today is really around those four tenants the first thing we'll look at is the timeline we've been very busy um over the months of June most of July and some of August and actually meeting with uh Community groups meeting with advisories meeting with faith based organizations meeting with municipalities actually Slide Five is more in detail I'll get to that in a second we know that that's just the very beginning it certainly does not speak to the depths of everything that we must do and the conversations that we must have however September 10th is um a very pivotal moment for us at that board meeting the board will consider potential amendments to two policies that were identified as um needing necessary revisions to address the redefining process and that's policy uh 004 which is currently school choice which will eventually go to policy 6400 and then policy 5000 that we all commonly know as the School boundaries policy which will become policy um 810 once it's finally um revised by the board we are currently and I'll get to it but I just want to remind the board that the board did ask us to go back out and reloop those two policies and we're on our third iteration of Rel looping those policies with six different advisories and right now um there are some recommendations if you will for some minor tweaks in language to policy what would be 6400 the school choice policy but there's at least one um committee motion you will see when you receive your delivery for the September 10 10th meeting and there's another um motion that may come where our uh advisory members are really asking that that policy be left alone as it sits until we get through this year and look at a complete rewrite in subsequent years in the month of in the months of September and October we do need to do um a couple of things to really initiate what would be the boundary process if we would eventually um repurpose some schools so we would have to have a board Workshop to look at a boundary resolution then we would have to come back to the board and for the board to take formal action the boundary resolution would really and truly Define the actual process um how long a boundary committee would be in effect what they would do if that's um the will that the board would wish to take and it would also um codify the expectations for Community engagement and then once that is approved by the board in a subsequent board meeting then we would really begin the process of working with the communities around anything School boundary related on Slide Five that's just overview of um the majority of the meetings that we had out in the community um in the months of June through August and we know on slide six we know that we must continue some targeted as we heard today stakeholder engagement not only with um district and Schoolboard committees but also municipalities we have some meetings coming up in the next couple weeks with municipalities um where enrollment train friends seem to um be concerning in certain municipalities we also know that we have to meet with individual schools we have to meet with individual communities we know that um Municipal education advisory boards are essential to the work but more importantly we have to meet with our schools we have to meet with our students our parents and then um you can see the wide range of community Civic parent faith-based Municipal and Business Leaders that we know we have to meet with over the next two months on the next slide what we what we did here was was kind of try to just illustrate that there are two streams of work that would run simultaneously so the the programmatic redefining should happen regardless of school every that we should be looking at our all of our schools the programs they offer um the viability of the programs the enrollment are they doing what they intended are they even a desire of the community at this point or do they need to look at or they wish to look at offering something different something unique something specific and also are we offering too much to the point that some schools cannot focus on doing a few things well because they are trying to undertake too many things and then on the other side of that there's redep purpos repurposing and repurposing of a facility is board action it is where we have to now look at amending attendance areas that we know as School boundaries repurposing facilities and what will happen with those respective facilities but those are two processes that happen simultaneously and they are very much equally a part of the redefining process as we look at the magnet and Innovative programs uh that are offered in our schools we are working with our colleagues in the teaching and learning division to really do a deep dive um for all of our programs across all of our schools and we are looking at at the programs or studying them through enrollment data I won't read them all but U one of the main ones is student outcomes we also look at finances that are associated with the programs uh Pupil Transportation and transportation costs is a big one but more importantly um looking at true opportunities to regionalize perhaps some programs for operational efficiency and fiscal responsibility we hope to have that done probably by the third week of September yeah and um just to pigb on that Dr W I think um it's going to be very glaring information for the board um to really see some of the gaps um with our programs we have many broken feeder patterns for certain programs and we have very low enrollment in some Choice programs at schools um when I looked at the preliminary data that Dr wans and a team is collecting some programs only have five kids and there is no established feeder pattern but we're spending a lot of money and transporting those kids to those five kids to that specific school um and then it begs the question if the program is sufficiently uh producing the outcomes that we are expecting for those students so it's going to be it's a very deep dive um into those specific programs and make sure they're having the intended outcomes um and if they're if they're not um making decisions about sunsetting and and um implementing new innovating programs that's going to be uh benef icial to the students and and the families in the community um or the programs that we actually are having success with very successful outcomes for kids and reviewing those for possibility of scaling out in other schools um but it's going to be some really good data um once they're done um putting it all together and and triangulating it okay so as we look at Pathways to um attract well not only attract but keep maintain the enrollment that we have some of the um ideas and some of the concepts and some of the the uh Pathways that we have heard from our parents from our students from our Business Leaders great reconfigurations perhaps more k8s or 612s uh expanded preek options I'm not going to read all of them but you see the full list of 10 and there may be others as we meet with communities and have more in-depth conversations but these are the programs that we um hear more and more in the community I tell you one them um as everyone knows can't help what happened Saturday but I'm in Die Hard Florida State seminar um we will rebound but when you look at number seven um when we look at what happened this past weekend we had our regional uh show football Showcase with with Elite programs from across the country who came and played some of our schools here in Broward County and there has been this um interest in can Broward County create its own own Regional Sports Academy that we would really um draw students from across the country so that that one really um excites me as well and then um number 10 looking at opportunities for um college readiness or collegate feeder patterns from elementary middle high a pure feeder pattern so those are some opportunities as well as we know that dual language is very popular with a lot of our families as well as montor we've heard this over and over from the board and the community about um how we have fallen short as it relates to marketing and telling our story but one of the things that we know is that sometimes people aren't as receptive to hearing our story if we are not treating our customers well if we are not providing individual and Collective worldclass customer service so Mr Sullivan I am not going to take the Thunder from your team the next four slides I believe are yours thank you uh so as it relates to the marketing plan I think this on now um we're very excited uh to have a budget we haven't had a budget for marketing K12 schools in quite some time the board did recently approve $1.2 million for this endeavor uh so right now we do a great job in our free media so our um social media presence our press releases uh getting the media to our schools but this this money is really to expand that reach and go into areas that we normally don't um are not in so paid ads on TV or social media ads or um uh smaller newspapers to get our uh great programs that we know we have in Broward schools um you won't see a lot of this until after the election cycle the reason for that is uh to buy these ads right now would be extremely expensive and would eat up most of our funds so that's why you won't see any commercials anytime soon but after that uh uh high cost uh period is done then you'll we'll start uh pushing that out if you can go to the next slide in terms of uh as Dr wanza said customer service is very important uh uh Miss Wilson director over marketing has done a great job of uh putting this together getting together with a key stakeholders within our uh District uh so they came up with the ABCs of customer service and as you can see from the slide uh attitude behavior and Communications so we want to make sure um everyone is greeted with a smile uh in terms of positive attitude Behavior be mindful we want everyone to have a courteous and a respectful interaction with us and more importantly or most importantly Communications we really want to uh increase uh our responsive time so we're asking everyone to respond within one day business day and that doesn't mean they get their issues resolved but at least we acknowledge uh that they have made contact with us and this is very important not only for the schools but for the district level so I know the superintendent has spare time he's become a secret shopper he's been calling departments to see how they answer if they answer so if you are uh over a department I encourage you to answer your phones because it might be the superintendent um so next slide if you don't mind so can go over the timeline um as you see from the this Slide the timeline we spent the summer uh creating this uh initiative uh September 2024 we are going to uh push out the district campaign districtwide and those are again are really the uh the the ab C that we're going to expect all of us to follow so greet with a smile standard greetings respond within one business day and then the superintendent really wanted to ensure that there is a way to measure this so we're going to be utilizing our thought exchange which is uh uh an investment the board made so each school and department will have QR codes available where uh folks can uh rate their experience either at the school or at the department we will be tracking that school leaders will also be able to track that the superintendent will be highlighting the more successful ones quarterly uh to encourage and more importantly the principles will have that accountability as well because they'd be able to see how um their parents are rating their experience within their schools and again this is equally important for District staff this is not something that we're telling the schools to do and not F we want to lead by example so the Departments will also be held uh accountable in that regard uh phe two will start next year January through July and what we want to do here is really uh pilot schools for enhancing strategies uh we want to go into a selected number of schools to uh provide intense training opportunities for their staff and also give them some uh funds to really Market their specific schools and programs some marketing makes sense to do districtwide but really when you're looking at enrollment we need to Market uh programs and schools particularly the ones who have enrollment challenges and then uh the third phase would be after next summer of 2025 and uh through that pilot see how we can expand that districtwide uh so those are my slides and I'll Stick Around for questions I appreciate your winning attitude winwin a rated yes so on slide 14 we'll move um currently policy 5000 which we are it's a very long title but we all know it affectionately as the School boundaries policy the policy speaks to a school um meeting one of the following three criteria to be considered for repurposing consolidation and or closing operational costs and you see I'm the elements under operational costs under enrollment and right now uh 70% of permanent fish capacity is The Benchmark for under enrollment and then there's the facility condition and again it's any one of the three not all three are not a combination it's any one of the three beyond that if SE with the 70% um threshold we then look at well is there sufficient capacity in adjacent schools to absorb this um enrollment for a school that may be considered for consolidation repurposing or closing and we have two that will have the conversation just as an example today and then we also look at other um conditions or elements I should say such as the facility condition or cost of renovation or replacement as well as the operational cost and then historical significance and to answer the question in the appendix on page 39 in the appendix is a full definition of what is meant by historical significance you you will see that as we start to go through the next couple of slides we do not have any opportunities to explore if you will for high schools because when we look at our high schools there isn't an adjacent high school that um is large or that has enough space to absorb what would be the full enrollment of a high school if it were up for um consolidation or repurposing so I want to make something very clear the next few slides are just opportunities for us to have those in-depth conversations with communities it is not schools that the superintendent is saying are schools that need to be closed rep it is not that at all this is what we wanted to share with the board so the board is aware that these are the communities that we are going to start to go have those in-depth intimate personal conversations with one of the things that we heard very clearly um from our advisories when we met with them this Summer as well as our Municipal leaders and our faith based leaders everyone spoke to the district is in a can we work through programmatic opportunities as opposed to closing or repurposing schools can we work through programmatic options for schools so I I just want to reiterate again this is not the list this isn't in any way a list that the superintendent is recommending uh for us to do anything other than have conversations with these communities about what it is um the communities would like to see happen in their schools so you will see on slide um six are eight different clusters for elementaries let me add to that um real quick Dr Dr wano so um as she mentioned so we're going to go out and talk talk about clusters of schools in different communities one thing as we were um going over the information and creating this deck um we thought it was very important not to go to the community like we did in the past with one school um within that area um don't think it's fair to the community to come into talk about one school when we have in that cluster all of those schools have sufficient adjacent capacity it depends on the opportunity might be consolidation it may it may be increasing programmatic um um programs or enhancing them um but we're going to when we talk to the the that Community about these clusters we're going to be talking about challenges within that cluster that's specific and unique to that Community some have enrollment challenges um some may not have let me rephrase this some may not have uh specific enrollment challenges just got kids who aren't taking advantage of the options that we presenting to them um because there's numerous kids in that area um and then we will present um some specific options um that we've learned about that we know are are um having successful outcomes in certain schools um or successful outcomes in other areas around the state um so we'll present some of those options and also listen to the community as they provide additional feedback cuz there's I'm guaranteed we're going to come out of some of these conversations with some options that we did not think about at all so that's one of the the great things about doing this differently it will not be a town hall we will not be sitting on a stage listen to people talking the mic for a minute or two and not having open dialogue back and forth it will be a an engaging conversation um we we're the next time that we come in front of the board with this we're going to have the specifics on how that process is going to actually look and also um the the stakeholders within those committees um that's going to help us support us in that work in the conversation with the community um but I think this approach provides more dialogue it provides more input and more feedback it provides uh uh more engagement um and it provides us an opportunity to say hey here's the challenges Here's the the the Dollars around the challenges here is the uh outcomes student outcomes of performance around those challenges um and here are some opportunities that we've explored our all summer and talking to different entities that want to be a part of Broward County Public Schools uh we've been we've been making our rounds this summer I think last week we went out to the Museum of Discovery and science they want to commit to supporting um our schools and actually having a large footprint in our schools we met with the brow Performing Arts Center they want to have a large footprint in our schools we're continuing to meet with other entities and evaluating other programs that we already have in our schools so we can widen out the things or scale out the things that are actually working um for us um so we think this going to be a fruitful conversation some difficult decisions right because we are um tasked with um presenting uh up to a minimum of five schools to close or consolidate so it's going to be some difficult decisions but we think um this process is going to be fruitful uh for the school school district and the community that we serve go ahead Dr on absolutely um in in the presentation packet in the appendix on slides 26 through 32 actually give um more granular enrollment information for the schools within each cluster um and so you can see in there the actual um enrollment of the school the under enrollment numbers the seats available but also the percentage of the students um assigned to that school that Charter Schools as well so that's on slides 26 through 32 in the appendix section but again um slides 16 and 17 speak to the in-depth conversations that we will have um with with these communities around opportunities that they would like to explore in the schools with within their surrounding area if we look at slide 18 um obviously we know that our chief facilities and operations or operations and Facilities officer I'm sorry if I get it wrong um has a methodology to look at some preliminary uh facility cost for all schools within the identified cluster she has a a preliminary methodology that they will look at and then once we identify the specific schools within each cluster that may be identified for repurposing consolidation things of that nature then a facilities assessment will be done on those identified sites and then a district Level facility assessment districtwide is anticipated to be completed in early 2026 so it's about a 18-month project we did want to provide an update the board saw this um back in when were we here last in June you we will notice one change the uh District Administrative Center here um District headquarters is no longer on this table however what is on on the table is the uh tssc or technology and support services facility that we know is there as well as the annex that was already there and that's the status for each one of these um pieces of District owned properties yeah just to expound on that so um so staff to take off this building um lesson learned as with the I think it's the Rock Island site yeah right The Rock Island site has um been through the process and agreement um but the difficulty with that site is that we have to find space for the employees in that site uh which is taking um a bit of time so with the tssc facility and tssc Annex we have employees in no sites and we have to find space for those employees first and we're going to go through the Surplus in process um but we also have to find space for those employees through during our repurposing efforts um and due to the number of employees in this building that it will not be part of this specific phase um of of uh of the redefining process but it will be included in a in a later time so I I want the public and the board to know that we're just not taking it off say no we're not doing anything with this building but um we have to go through this in a methodical um um and intentional way to understand that we have to find space for employees and buildings that we're Surplus and to do all of that at once um would be very difficult um in the early part of our redefining process just a brief explanation of why that's off of there and for now and then um just to update again to the board for the uh potential revisions to policies what would be 64810 just a reminder we are meeting with the last two advisories one one tomorrow and one Thursday and then at on at the September 10th regular school board meeting the policies will come back to the board we will have the feedback um from all of the the collective feedback from all of the advisories as I said you definitely there's one motion already on there may be um others coming but we know that we do have one motion from the diversity committee as it relates to policy 810 just one more slide and I'm done okay okay yeah um so these are just the our immediate next steps they are certainly not the comprehensive um explanation of next steps but just in the immediacy for the month of September these are the things that we will be working on to ensure that we keep um with the timeline that was prescribed I think on slide three I think is the slide um and with that that is the presentation I do want Mr Beck to clarify why there's that square footage listed for Cypress Bay High School so that that um clarification is on the record and then Dr heurn whatever Clos and comments you have and then we're ready for questions yes thank you Dr Dr W joeck director of demographics and enrollment planning uh thank you Mrs fer for pointing that out that that square footage of pre-1970 uh classroom space at Cypress Bay was actually all the 60 Portables that were there they should that should have come off but but it wasn't a wasn't a crazy mistake there actually were 60 Portables there that were pre-1970 structures say by the Bell yep so um not no real closing um comments I think I've um said it time and time again that we're trying to um move forward with a more methodical and engaging process we've heard from the public in the spring um I don't like Town Hall formats when it comes to situations like this bless you that have a very large impact on communities it needs to be uh open dialogue it needs to be engaging um and um also an empowering um strategy so people feel like they have some ownership and next steps of of of the opportunities within their schools and and that ultimately affects their community so looking forward to um board discussion and some feedback and some and some questions Dr Zan thank you chair uh just a question for the general council is there anything from stopping this school board from closing a school at any defined school board meeting in the future Dr heurn uh for the general Council for Miss Batista so the answer um is M the answer to that is is no generally um however you obviously have to provide for um the boundaries of the school you know the you know all the things that come with the logistics of closing a school thank you very much chair uh Council um there's just some uh processes where the board has actions and has statutory responsibility including uh making big definitions about our facilities uh that includes our headquarters building it includes uh the schools that are entrusted to us for the production of public education um and uh our policies while very important uh right now do not prohibit us from doing that it's it says there are three things we have to look at when we're making a decision well we can look at them um but we have to make uh difficult decisions and what I'm concerned about is there's a lot of attention on policy changes here and not enough attention on community engagement on slide four we have a September to October TW month time window where Community engagement happens toward the end of that and to my knowledge we were looking to get uh recommendations from the superintendent in November I don't see those things as being consistent with what we're trying to do here because if we're not making decisions before Thanksgiving about potentially closing schools in 25 26 we're not giving the community enough time to react and and adjust uh as they see fit my sense is as superintendent pointed out our community engagement needs to be different it needs to be real it needs to be uh sincere it needs to have integrity it has to be two-way we have to listen to the community um because to Mr Sullivan's point a big part of marketing is knowing and learning what people want and you can't know what people want unless you go out and listen to them listen to them earnestly um I'm very worried about this timeline U because last year we said we were going to make some decisions uh we did what we did and we didn't make uh decisions we said though we're going to do that this year we had plenty of lead time uh and and I'm worried uh about the schedule here I'm worried that slide four says our community engagement is priority 4 I just uh I I don't understand uh this this timeline and I don't understand the heavy emphasis on policy because our policies right now do not prohibit us from making decisions that we have set forth in this on slide three we talk a lot about uh programmatics at about thinking about how are we going to rebuild our system so that what we are is really reacting and and being honest about what the community would like us to do it envelops everything we've talked about about programmatics about financial and fiduciary responsibilities it's about taking advantage of being an a district and saying yeah we're an a district but you want us to be the best we can be with the facilities and with the programming and with the feeder patterns uh that we have um but I'm I'm very worried about this so I have a few questions chair um just to be clear do our policies that we have in place today prevent us from reaching uh a decision point in November about closing Five schools Dr urn I would say yes because of the um policies around the boundary um which is has caused a delay because we did not make an approval of that policy in the August meeting um but I also uh have Dr W way in too cuz I know she's been intimately involved with the policy in the Lop so I'm going to actually turn thank you Dr H I'm going to turn to miss Batista because I know that the the the policy speaks about a boundary committee right while it doesn't say that we shall we have been advised that since that language is is there there is an expectation for lack of a better term from the community that this is the process we will follow and typically the boundary committee that whole selection process begins in late May of a prior school year so that they hit the ground running um in early fall of the upcoming school year so I'm going to ask Miss Batista if she could weigh in Miss Batista my understanding is that the policy is going to be brought back for changes is that correct all right and that the committee will not be part of the new policy is that correct um to general council's question so the new policy leaves um certain elements of the process open for the superintendent recommendation each year that includes whether or not there will be a committee and what the committee will be composed of the timeline the considerations that will be used to evaluate proposals and specific schools that are being recommended to be addressed so I I think this is a two-part answer to um the original question from Dr Zan which would be um if the board wanted to make a determination as to what schools to close uh prior to November or around the November time frame um there wouldn't be any issue with designating those schools um clearly the schools would not be able to be closed in November so that would you know in other words it would be your plan you would be um um explaining to the public what the plan is for the future and then that would have to be implemented at a later time not between now and November I'll be more clear there's nothing in our current policies or nothing that stops us from updating our policies that would prevent us from making decisions in November about schools that would close in the fall of 2025 yes that is correct great I what I'm worried about is our community is asking us to do something that's horrific to some small parts to to specific people who are influenced by these decisions it is horrific to them it it's horrific to graduates of schools that are closing it is a traumatic experience and that calls on us as a group to be very agile and thoughtful and analytic and and to move forward in a way that allows them to feel heard uh through the process and it may be in the end that while some people oppose the decisions that need to be made that there are still decisions that need to be made for the health of the entire Community um I don't want to waste a lot of the great energy out there in the community who has been working for a long time with their cities with their eabs with uh other community groups uh trying to think about what could be better because they've been told that we're going to make changes and so they're out there thinking about what could be better and we're back here talking about uh bureaucratic steps and policies and I don't think those policies actually inhibit us from doing anything but this this plan about Community engagement in September and October uh and all the policy changes doesn't seem to me like it's going to get us to decisions in time to let people know for the 25 26 year um and I'm very worried about that because we've set an expectation last year and we did not come through we set the same expectation about what we're going to do this year uh and I want to make sure that we don't go back to the community and say yeah we told you once didn't do it we told you a second time looks like we're not going to do it now and not for any reasons that there weren't good answers out there but for the reason that we couldn't figure out as an organization about how to execute this change and it's a huge change and it's a traumatic change for some people but I still think it's a change that that has the potential for us to create a better system system to serve our community even better than what we're doing we have very expensive things called schools and we run 236 different campuses in this County and we've lost 20% of our students and those are the facts and I want us to make sure that we're coming to grips with those facts and thinking about what our job is which is really to create a system that serves our community best um I'll save my comments for the second round thanks chair may I respond if it's okay so um Dr Zan thank you for your concern I I would um having been through boundary processes in the past where we typically aren't through until April or May I would say that this timeline sets us up to be finished sooner than we have in many years in the past where we where families would actually the the we would come to the board for the board to take board action if you will looks um uh probably in um January February if you will when in in previous years we've gone as late as May for boundary decisions so um but we certainly will work at whatever the will in the direction through the superintendent and I think and correct me from wrong um team that we can bring after our community engagement meetings we can bring the list of schools I think our intentions are to bring a package where we're addressing the boundaries um at the same time um that's correct yes so that is correct we can bifurcate the process by bringing those school names uh after those Community meetings in in October in in November uh but I think the intent from from us is to do this the right way and uh do the boundary work simultaneously so that we bring all of that nicely packaged to the board Miss Leonardi thank you um first first I would I want to ask this question because it keeps you know we we always have a slide on these presentations for this um but I I feel like we really haven't delved into it what can someone please explain the the charter school law that's in this presentation M Batista appendix it's in the appendix sorry I don't remember what slide it's on it's on slide 33 if you're looking at slide numbers for the statute un closed facilities and Charter School access while I look for that particular slide are you um asking about um what we do with our facilities or how the facilities are made available to the shter schools yeah okay so um let me I can try and find the do you have another question if she looks for that um I have some comments that I can give um one I I also appreciate that we did clusters of schools this time um and I look forward to the conversations that are going to happen at at those clusters at those schools um I really appreciated the marketing piece um I think that's a really exciting plan um I'm glad we're finally going going forward in and doing something with marketing um I'm really looking forward to the programmatic analysis that that's going to happen and looking at um you know what are certain schools asking for What's duplicative um how to clean up the the feeder patterns and all of that so I'm really looking forward to those things um I I do have a question since this was this was brought up what is the plan to meet with the eabs and this the school Advisory board so we're going to um work obviously with our regionals and teaching and learning as it relates to specific schools School advisory but when but when you talk about clusters so I'll I'll use um they're here not to call anybody out but the city of Fort Lauderdale so we do have a meeting I think it's next week first with the city manager so that we can kind of sit down and the city manager understands and then our next reaches to the EAB to have a conversation so that there's multiple layers of conversation um within the within the municipality and then as as we so I'll take one of the Clusters let's say it's the one with Charles Drew and the then we would have those schools together and it could be at the high school auditorium so that it allows for enough space enough time for the community and for us to present data to have conversations and then start to hear from them as opposed to us just speaking you know uh giving some numbers and just giving District facts we really want to hear from them about what they would see and what they believe um would make a difference in their community and then let's say um the the community would say well we realize that there's significant under enrollment in this one school if we did if if we repurpose this school this is what we may want to see in this facility uh knowing that you're going to provide ab and C in the other schools around um in this cluster got it that's really good to hear um and just to so this is on the record the city of Fort Lauderdale also has a chief education officer so I hope we're meeting with those folks too I know her well yes see she'll be on the call next week excellent um I did want to share so an organization empowered governance has a model uh School closure policy and what I thought was particularly interesting about the policy uh was around Community engagement board engagement student and parent engagement and School staff engagement um so I I did want to share some of this information I Shar the document with Dr heurn um but around Community engagement it recommends that the superintendent present preliminary recommendations for school closure or consolidation at a minimum of three public hearings held at locations most relevant and accessible to the communities most affected by the recommendations at least one of the public hearings shall be held at schools under consideration for closure or consolidation and that the three public hearings shall take place no later than November 30th of the preceding School year of potential closure or consolidation um for board engagement it says the superintendent shall present a summary of The District's final recommendations in a regular in a regular uh school board meeting of the board no later than December 15th of the Year preceding the school year um school year of potential closure or consolidation and then for student and parent engagement no later than 14 days following board approval of school closures or consolidations the superintendent shall hold at least one meeting at the affected schools to fully inform students and parents or Guardians affected by the closures or consolidations um and then the same thing for school staff so I think you know the point I want to make is there needs to be a very clear timeline when we do make these decisions um about stakeholder engagement and it needs to be very personalized to those areas and to those schools um do we have an answer about the the law yet okay M so I I I knew the answer about the law I just wanted to get the or be able to read the language from the statute that states that if a district school board facility or property is available because it is Surplus marked for disposal or otherwise unused it shall be provided for a shorter school's use on the same basis and that's the critical language as it is made available to other public schools in the district so the interpretation for of that language is that if the district um chooses to Surplus a particular property and that property is not available to public schools at large um then it would not be available to a shter school either so it's it's something that has to be done on the same basis as C is made available to other Public Schools okay so there's not a situation in which we close a school and we cannot put the the property up for sale correct correct okay all right thank you those are my questions and comments thank you not on the basis of this statute right okay thank you thank you and I'm going to talk real quick and then give the gavl to miss hion because I have to step out for a few minutes but real quick I just feel like we're chasing our tail and I know there's a process and I want to go through the process but I just want to I I know it's difficult to identify schools right away and quickly without going through the process but I think you don't really get serious parent input or Community input until we know what those schools are and I also would like the superintendent to bring to the board for them to vote on it because I don't want to to drag communities through possibly closing their school and then it comes to a board vote and we have 500 people that come to be a public speaker and the board votes it down so I don't know what that looks like I just know that I feel like we're chasing our tail here and but I want to make it as easy seamless as possible for the community and and but then I want us as a board to be able to vote on whatever that looks like so then you can do your job to to move forward with that action know that and I think this process lends itself to that um let's say for instance I won't pick on a cluster but let's say a cluster um all those schools in a cluster have sufficient adjacent capacity meaning no matter what school is closed either one of those schools can absorb those students um and presenting the enhanced options uh based on consolidation providing the data for the specific schools how uh what's the the year of the school what's been the maintenance cost how much would it cost to actually renovate this specific space um is it comparably different from the other schools within the cluster if you got a school that's built in 19160 within that cluster you have a school that's built in um the early 2000s um so it creates viable options for the community to say hey based on what you're telling me based on things that we're going to receive to enhance student opportunities um close this one right but that's it may not be that easy too for some some uh areas because as Dr Zan alluded to some people they have emotional attachments to their schools um so uh but having the conversation and empowering folks to um uh be engaged with this process even though we have to make tough decisions at the end of it is I I think is a a better option versus how we've done it in the past where we're telling you something not a lot of open dialogue and you're going to get a couple of thousand people rotating through board meetings okay I just want us to vote on whatever those option are sooner than later because I I just think that it's okay it's important so um like I was mentioning earlier um if the board uh is the Pledge of the board to bring back schools those schools in November we can bifurcate the the the um the strategy um and the team and I can sit down and work and see how that bifurcation would look like um so we would have to have two separate paths one for identifying those schools through our conversations and then there's going to be another path of identifying uh boundaries and the sort so that's the that makes it a little bit more complex but it can be done but the secondary path which is the boundary would be the one that will take some time um versus totally just identifying the schools and bringing them um to the board so if that's the pleasure of the board we can we can do that also okay thank you um I'm actually next but I'll wait to go last so Mrs rert you're up um okay hopefully you can hear me um because I don't have my headphones anymore are you guys can you hear me yes ma'am yes ma'am okay here we go um thank you for the presentation and the uh the warning thank goodness before I I looked at this because I had been assured um that there was not going to be any major things happening in district 7 um so my my surprise at finding Coconut Creek Elementary Liberty Elementary and Charles Drew Elementary which basically uh in that one area Coconut Creek Elementary is three streets from my house and the school that all my three children went to to the left of that is Liberty Elementary in the city of Margate and then going back to coka Creek to the right Charles Drew Elementary School um the last time I was at cocon Creek Elementary was probably me right right before we came and I had a conversation with the departing principal and the departing principal who who I absolutely love she had said that she had asked for um permission to have prek ESC classes at her school because there had been parents that were asking for that and I can tell you they're also asking for it in my neighborhood of which um we several years ago uh created the magnet program at coka Creek High School and it's lovely to see more children coming from my neighborhood walking to the high school instead of the 40 buses that we used to have so um one thing I'm going to say about Coconut Creek Elementary you have veteran teachers there that are unbelievable they retire and they still come back to give to our community so I I am before I talk about Coconut Creek Elementary and closing it or repurposing it or anything to get my uh neighborhood up up in a roar um what I want want to throw out to my colleagues is this when a school and a principal say they need something that should have been I'm assuming to to the North Area director that North Area director should have at the time reached out to Dr heern who might have still been the uh the super assistant superintendent of academic so those conversations I do know those conversations were having with Dr Lata and um I I just recently had a conversation with Dr hebburn about this very same thing so I I I think it's rather and I understand why Lori alhf would like it sooner than later I get it and and the same thing with with Dr um Dr Zeman that we've talked about this before and then put out there quote quote quote unquote No No schools from different district 7 and that was at many many meetings on camera on tape so it's very uh surprising and very upsetting to get phone calls back home in America when I'm still up here so I appreciate all the work that has gone for this gone through for this point um however let's look at Charles Drew Elementary School Charles Drew Elementary School is is a little gem does it need a a little bit of work yeah does it need more money does it need better programs does it fit a need in my community yeah it does and we have homeless children we have people who are pregnant we have all sorts of uh people there that need to go to school and try to get their GED Etc so this is something that if you do move it from there I'm not sure cuz it's like two schools in one so when we go into the neighborhoods we have these conversations then I I think the Board needs to really be educated on including May educated on which schools are now on a list that need to be looked at for programmatic uh for under enrollment for lack of uh clean and up-to-date facilities those are all various things that that could be in the conversation as well as historic buildings but we also have to look um you can't put a Charles Drew and then close them up and then try to get to some of the other schools that are nearby them so um yes I went through the entire sets and and I did see the enrollment numbers and of course I went through all those but then I was thinking you know what there's some schools like I thought we were all supposed to get something in our district for for schools to be looked at well nowhere in my possibilities in district 7 would I think three schools three different cities and some districts do not have anyone because there is no openings in their nearby schools so I I just want to say this leaves a really bad taste in my mouth and um I'm not playing this and I know my colleagues aren't going to play it at all so we need to be very clear on the criteria because when I'm at an event and somebody ask me hey I heard in the board meeting that we're going to be okay in Coconut Creek yes that's what the superintendent said so now I have to say yeah but now the criteria is changing and and I even remember and you guys probably do as well that I would say okay I understand that you might sell some land cuz that's how it was with the other land I forgot which place it was it was probably in pompo so selling land to do something I said okay so that was even part of the definition it's not part of the definition now but it is part of the definition so um I don't know what is going to be planned uh for instance Liberty element is a much newer School a great facility a great new principal that's there new principal the Liberty uh we have a fabulous new principal who's an old principal who I love um at cooken Creek Elementary and we pulled her from one of the complaints I've always said to you guys is don't take my principles my principles are great but when you're offered x amount of money more to go from Deerfield Park to another school then uh that is not performing well I let let them get more pay I get that but I'm happy to see that there's also um a plan rightly so to take care of that situation when you move at a high performing principle elsewhere you got to be you have to make sure that whoever is going to be replaced either the program is is going to stay the same or you're going to have at least an AP someone who knows something so I understand that because before Dr Lata and before Dr heurn it was really a halfhazard way of looking at schools yeah I want this school to be able to be an A or a b or a c so I'm going to move that principle so um I I appreciate the the the thoughtfulness um and and I'm super happy jump up and down that uh Miss Reed is back she's in Coconut Creek Elementary but what happens where does that request go I mean if I didn't mention it to the board the board wouldn't even know that that was a possibility that they were trying to to take care of it even before uh this name got back in there so first question is when a principal tells I'm going to think their North Area director or their kadre director where did it go from there that it didn't get into the information for school board members to think about this when this whole item came back again Mrs Rupert um just because the the buzzer gone a couple of times on the time frame here you're kind of is there a specific question cuz you're jumping kind of all over the place and Dr he's trying to formulate an answer um but you jump to Staffing which isn't really part of of what this is so can you just kind of bring that home for us or I can try and answer I think I heard your two questions uh miss rert one is about Coconut Creek L and the request for for um the um ESC prek um I have Miss hollandsworth three classes yes three classes I have Miss hollandsworth here she she can answer that let me hop on the um the cluster for that area so I just want to make sure that every the the terminology that everyone is using I just want to be careful just to make sure you're not using the word closing for these clusters these are uh these clusters are schools that need to be addressed they need that to look for for opportunities um to leverage within those clusters that for the benefit of of the students and the kids one thing I would look at too for the public and also the board members is the in the appendix for the more detailed information for those clusters looking at the percentage of students or number of students that are actually attending charter schools so for some of those clusters the opportunities the conversation isn't about consolidation and all those other things it's more about how do we recapture those kids that are in the charter school so for instance Miss Miss Rupert if you look at the I would call it the Coconut Creek cluster since you've used that school name many of those uh students um are in charter schools I think about 25 to 30% depending on the schools are in charter schools so that's a different type of conversation um like I said we're going to go to certain clusters with specific challenges that are unique to their cluster and one of the the uh conversations to initiate with that with that cluster is enh and programs to bring back students versus some other clusters the conversations may be a little bit different so I want to make sure we use the right terminology as we talk to our constituents our parents our students um and to not use the word closing but to use the word opportunities and and uh uh addressing challenges um I'm going to turn it over to miss hollandsworth to talk about Coconut Creek and their ESC prek uh and the request and and the the strategy that was leveraged first before they actually are moving forward with that go ahead Miss Hollingsworth thank you Simone hollingworth Chief academic officer good afternoon um Miss rert and obviously board members and Community knowing that um each year each of the schools are reviewed with the ESC department and the Regional Offices to determine exactly what special programs are at schools um in specifics to Coconut Creek Elementary School currently they have 8 to nine special programs for our ASD programs and then obviously wanting to add program we have to do that in a transitional phase because we don't want to overwhelm a school add three preschool ESC programs plus eight or nine so working with the schools and with the Regional Offices to realign that throughout the district so that we don't add too many programs to a school so that's something that um Miss Egan who's in the room and her team works with all the time to then disperse programs and make sure we're also addressing students that live in their community so that we're not having to send them to other schools as we open programs and realign them to other schools so so not that it wasn't heard Miss rert but just really trying to be uh very strategic and systematic when we do ad programs and then also um adjust them based on the needs of the pro of the community with the students okay so so the point still being if if during these Community meetings it it comes out that parents would like um to have more opportunities I I understand you were saying we have an as ASD classes how many are there in that cluster it's 8 to nine in that school 8 to nine okay eight to nine and what is the biggest amount that any other elementary school has that's very large we try to keep it at the most five or six we've had other sites that have about that same and we've realigned those programs and then obviously working within that zone in the community to make sure that we have programs to meet the needs of students whether it be prek ESC or other special programs um to meet those um students needs but really true that's a very large program when you think the average class probably has about eight or nine students so that's 70 plus um students with autism in one school and then obviously if we added preschool ESC that could be you know 12 to 14 students per classroom right um I just passing on what the principal expressed to me um and I'm certainly walking the my neighborhood before we came up here and you know a lot of questions it was about pre do we have any prek not even just ese do we have more seats for prek um and a lot of the families are choosing private schools to to go to in my area where honestly people would buy in South Creek they'd stay for PK to five and then when their kids get ready for middle school they would move uh the moving part is not so much because Margate Middle is is kicking it and Lion's Creek as well so there there is a vast choice for people in Coconut Creek to go to um Lion's Creek or or Margate Middle and then of course we have uh fabulously performing pompino Beach and Deerfield Beach which were highlighted today um so those are opportunities but and I guess and I'll take this as a question answered for later because I don't want to hold up my my colleagues and I want to hear what they have to say but um what what would we be thinking about closing I I'm going to resay it again um repurposing or programmatically changing uh Charles Drew so I don't I don't really know what because certainly it's um you know honestly just just have somebody from the facilities Department tell me what can be utilized in that school space so when we have that conversation with the community at least you'll be prepared to answer those questions and um I'll be able to to voice um the community's uh uh needs and what they really would like to see um same thing for Liberty uh Liberty's fantastic I got to tell you um love them and I'll say it one more time today and I swear to you I don't get a dollar every time I say this Margate Elementary and Tommy schrder wow Dr heurn if you haven't seen the video yet see it before you drive home it'll make your entire day it'll make you happy to be doing the job and remember that every single kid and customer service is treated like the absolute gold that they are um you know I hate to sound like I'm upset but I really am um this is a lot to take into when I was told no so and I'm not even sure that the board even voted for 70% or under but I I could I could be fine with that as long as you've got other districts that their needs are going to be met as well I certainly don't want to have three of my schools maybe one of them will close that's a lot for one District so so I I just ask my colleagues that when we get the information and when we have that opportunity to to go and listen and I would suggest um roundtables are a lot better than Town Halls because that way you have the OB obvious connection you're sitting with people that you're asking questions you're talking and it's more of a conversation and less of a speech so um I know that has worked better for me I'm not adverse to town halls but I think you get more done and people feel more comfortable in a in a round table type situation um so that is my point with all those three so we'll have to make an appointment with pomino which has a EAB um uh Margate which has or starting an EAB and Coconut Creek I would suggest unless you've already been there I know John has I think uh to go to the Lunch Bunch where um that's when you have all the principles from the area but you have your you have your Commissioners there as well so it's a nice opportunity to get a a big room and uh get lunch together so th those are opportunities for for us and um I think it's important because even though I know that some schools are going to be uh repurposed and some of them are going to have maybe land sold and some some of them are going to um have programmatic changes still when people see that there's a a list of schools now it's kind of very much feeling like you are uh you're being highlighted somehow and not in a good way um I know that I will certainly look at every single information that comes with all the other schools and scenarios and make the best choice like I've done since 2010 we're going to have Tove on thank you so much opinions out and really focus on we're moving on as a whole so um I'm going to leave now I can't hear you once again so I'm assuming that you're probably cutting me off which I appreciate um but I just want to say you know those are my thoughts I I appreciate it and uh Dr heer and you and I can uh talk some more in another date so thank you thank you Mrs rer Dr holess okay I'll just consider board member Rupert can have 3 minutes of my time cuz I will be much shorter um on uh on page 10 regarding the marketing aspect uh the marketing plan I just want to find out if the marketing plan if if these are additional uh uh marketing options um uh or uh some of these are what we're already doing so if you could um expound on uh which of these uh options here in the marketing plan on page 10 is additional to what we are already doing uh Dr heurn Mr s yes thank you superintendent so everything you see there's basically an addition to what we're currently doing so we have not done any um except for I'm looking at Mr Perez who ran the last uh campaign that we did I think it was ready for you uh besides that campaign that we did back I think it was 20 summer 2022 2021 uh besides that we haven't really done commercials or targeted social media ad so that would be in addition to what we're doing now so what we do now is what we call our free channel so our social media our website um sometimes when we get press releases out and we get uh some coverage through there but that's all free what we're using the 1.2 million is really to go into commercials and uh social media ads and then specific marketing of schools okay great so John I'm sure I'm going to have a couple more questions that you'll have to answer um uh Dr hi I really appreciate the emphasis now on customer service I've always said that that we need to improve in customer service I've had those experiences myself um where I thought the customer service in some of the schools really need to improve and anyone who's um whether it's a small business or a large business and Dr Zan you can attest to that that uh the quality of the product that you offer the quality of the environment as well as the quality of the service really matters and any one of those three that falters is going to impact your business whether it's it's a school district whether it's a private business uh and so while the quality of our product is certainly uh commendable with us being an a district um I've always felt that the quality of our learning environment is a work in progress as well as the quality of our customer service so I'm very happy to see that we're moving in the direction of customer service um I do have some questions um in terms of uh our customer service obviously there should be an action plan which we have one in place there should be monitoring and then there should be uh consequences right so when you look at the action plan um uh is it um is the action plan uh parent driven have we done any type of Baseline survey or input to understand uh where we are faltering and where we need to focus on and if not is there intent to do that because I think a baseline data of some sort based upon the customers that we have to understand where we're faltering would be essential in moving forward yes excellent question um The Sims team uh had to be a year or two ago I think um collected a lot of data um from parents as in regards to customer service and to the point where they uh the regions had secret shoppers out and about and experiencing some of the things that we've talked about that you've experienced um at some of our schools including myself um another um monitoring mechanism um I don't know if they talked about it that we're actually utilizing is that they're going to be QR codes because one of the things that um I talked about when we started this initiative is I don't want the annual survey to be the mechanism that we're using to monitor how well we're doing with customer service and how our constituents and parents and in their experiences in our schools or in our departments we need everyday real- time data that can be collected so there'll be QR codes um that will be displayed at schools so um anybody who's interacting with our front offices our schools can scan that QR code and give realtime feedback about their experience so we'll have constant data coming in that we can monitor the experience of uh of people who are interacting with our schools and also for our departments for for uh schools leveraging services from our departments also so we've heard that loud and clear from our our principles that they're not having the best customer service experiences with you know our our Central office services and regional office services too thank you and and for the time monitor in person my time shouldn't be moving if I'm not talking but I'll keep moving on I see my time moving which means I'm getting far less time we'll add some time back thank you so much um now regarding um uh monitoring I I did hear um that the superintendent is making calls but do we have and I appreciate that uh Dr heurn but do we have a more robust monitoring of customer service and what is that the the the real time uh use of the QR codes instead of just just sending out an annual survey which is not the best tool to use and getting uh information static information one time a year we're going to be receiving information daily um and we can and what I plan to do as superintendent is incentivize great customer service as we identify those schools those departments that's doing a great job with customer service based on the data we're receiving daily uh we'll figure out how to celebrate that accomplishment so we can continue to help scale out the initiative and encourage folks to really double down on customer service um when you make it competitive and recognizing folks for the great work they're doing it spreads faster spreads like wildfire but we have a strong monitoring mechanism that we're implementing where just like you go shop somewhere online in person or restaurant or what whatnot you can provide um uh you get a quick survey to to uh provide information about your experience so we're we're replicating that same process of uh folks can give us information about their experience on a daily basis okay and in terms of uh consequence and consequence can be positive right so if you notice there issues with customer service at specific schools um how do we proceed with additional training or what's in place for that so um Miss Wilson Miss Farah Wilson is leading that charge and so she's been providing going out and providing training to our school leaders also our departments since this summer so it's on it's an ongoing process for PD um I think the next thing that's coming up um she presented sen a cabinet uh just Monday about um the HR department providing robust training to our clerical staff in our schools too cuz usually they're the first line of um in in encounter encountering our uh constituents that are coming to our scho okay so that ongoing process is based upon information gathered from the monitoring aspect of it and I just have a few more comments um I do notice for example with parent conferences when a conference is uh requested by a parent some parents have to wait 3 four five weeks to have a conference because of scheduling and all of that um I would love to see that we improve in those timelines um so that a parents doesn't a parent doesn't have to wait six seven weeks to get a conference for their kid in addition to that um when we have parent concerns that those are resolved in a timely manner because those are customers when we have phone calls that um during the opening hours that we have and uh we weren't able to answer the phones um that hopefully those calls are return the same day as opposed to someone who called after hours you know stuff like that I think is important and if we put someone on hold that we recognize that person every so often every 2 or 3 minutes instead of having them on hold 15 20 minutes while we're resolving other concerns so those are things that I think we need to improve on thank you absolutely thank you Mrs Hixon thank you um just a couple of questions so on page 11 where we talk about customer service I'm going to ask if we could ask add something it's some we actually should have already added it and if we go to where it says contact us on our Brower County Public School page all the way down at the bottom I think this was kind of the attempt to do it where it says can't find what you're looking for complete this form but I would like to suggest on the front page the homepage right where we have that bar that has see something say something mental health support child abuse that there's a place people can click that is a type of hotline so if they're at a school and they see um that the bathrooms aren't clean that they can click on there if they need a transcript we are getting tons of emails to to the Broward County school board that really shouldn't be coming to us but they don't know anywhere else to click except for click everybody here um and our assistants are having to answer answer things that they don't really have the the answer to and then following around so we' already had the disc discuss with Dr heurn but some place where someone can click and there's someone monitoring that so in the next 24 hours they get an answer back where do I go to get transcripts where do I go to do whatever kind of like a hotline I guess you'd call it something else CU it's not a phone line but you get the idea of what I'm saying um would add a lot to the customer service often times people are putting concerns they have on social media that shouldn't be where they think I mean we happen to see it or someone sens it to us that shouldn't be where they're dropping their concerns it should be where we can do action on them and action at a point where we see something happening instead of somebody trying to you know just complain about it somewhere if we really want customer service we have to give them a place to put that information so I don't know how hard or easy I would guess it's similar to what's on that contact us on the very bottom was couple of superintendant ago we had this discussion it should be right on that front page there should be somebody monitoring it and it would reduce I think some of the frustration of the emails that come to us because we don't really know the answers and it has to go to five people before they actually get an answer um so that's one and then the other the only other thing I want to ask is on page 21 where we have the dates on things I have similar concerns to everyone else so um it says between September 11th and 18th meeting with identified municipalities and District committees and advisory chairs um and then the 17th something comes to the workshop but really we're not really going to the community until way downward it says ongoing stakeholder and Community meetings but how are they ongoing if there's no dates anywhere on and you made a a um a suggestion or a comment about going to the high school auditorium to meet with those schools in the Clusters and to miss Mrs alad's point that should be earlier on cuz I think your September 11th to 18th are really like the cities not the people in the cities but the city manager and stuff but where are we meeting with community members so that that list of we've had this this conversation with the community we've decided what schools are going to close or I guess that's really the biggest thing that has to come to us in a more timely manner instead of putting it ongoing stakeholder and Community meetings when I think to us stakeholders are people who live in that community and I don't see them anywhere sure cuz I I can explain thank you Miss Hixon so September um 11th through the 18th is where we have really carved out time to meet with the municipalities that tend to experience under enrollment in their cities the ongoing we actually wanted to at least let School get open let people start to before we start to encroach on we need your media center we need your cafeteria we obviously do not want to be in the auditorium because that's just not conducive to small group so really um after probably after the SE the September 17th conversation with the board then we are going to schedule the actual cluster meetings and those would take place when I say ongoing it would it it it may not be just a oneand done because we may have to go back to a community or a a cluster that says listen these are the things that we're interested in and then we may have to do some some um research bring some examples and come back to them again so those conversations would really start to happen after the September 18th I'm sorry after September 17th because what we did not want to do this time and we heard it loud and clear when we met you know um and I believe you were there miss Hixon when we met with the Broward League of cities all of the Mayors and they were saying please at least let the cities know what you know what you're thinking so that we can help in the conversation with our residents so we wanted to have the conversation with them around what we're doing here today our path going forward but really September October is the ongoing meetings and then we would come back to the board um we would be back like late October early November with and these are the schools and so um one thing with the last go around with redefining the reason why we're doing this in the front end with the cities is that we learned about a lot of things from the cities after the fact and uh we wish we would have known that before they shared a lot of uh things going on in their cities uh be it new um uh units being built new recreational space new plazas uh to attract more citizens to to their cities um and really enhance those opportunities so we we're doing this in the front end so we have all that information um um so we're we're ready when we're going to the community because we have all that information in addition to some of the things that we've acquired as far as um enhanced programs and the like yeah and I app I appreciate that the the problem I'm having is that nowhere on here is this is a specific time of going to the community so it would have been good to say September 18th on community conversations because it looks like we're doing exactly what we did the first time and that causing a problem with people in the community they want to know where do they fit in it says ongoing stakeholder and Community but if you look at if you listen to ongoing it never started in here so how is it ongoing so I think it's important on the 17th that you come back to us with that workshop with specific dates and where you know where it's going to be because this looks like we're skipping that step and that's my concern we we'll have all of that information when we come back um and also specifics of how we're going to facilitate the community engagement process too so we'll have all those dates uh most likely we'll have all those dates before and probably advertise those dates before so we can the community has a good heads up um so they can schedule their time accordingly to make sure they can be there and participate also um with the website um um concern that you mentioned uh so we're we're we're uh ahead of you we're we're working on that as we speak um the team understands the charge in making sure that we have a easily uh easy navigatable website for the largest concerns for our parents um and having um some form of a contact us question support button that um can go directly to the responsive um Department uh so they can fill those questions accordingly um also we are transitioning to a new website um next school year um which will hopefully enhance those capabilities of making it more user friendly um replicating you know similar websites that the public and the board is used to navigating without like Dr I mean uh Miss Paul uh mentioned uh she measures hers by how many clicks it takes to get there I do the same thing too yeah and I appreciate that and I think when we discussed it before they were also going to put some common question and answers so that maybe it would be able to answer like we get a lot of how do I get my transcript so simple things like that that would be on there first and then if they didn't any a like a question that's not on here then you could fill out a form um to ask that question so thank you madam chair if I may just want one one of the things that we'll do um more frequently because the board got them I think that you got like three um two or three but we will do um the one pager that we would do the updates so that we would do those more frequently now so that they can be disseminated obviously in the community the websites and it can be posted so that people start to get probably bi-weekly updates on the redefining process okay thank you and we're close to Landing the plane I have three more speakers Mrs Fam thank you madam chair um I'm in agreement we need to automate and what I mean by automate is the the form that you suggested Mrs Mixon but we don't need even know need to tell them to go to a department we should have that form online where they can fill it out and it automatically shoots to that department unless there's a fee for it or something like that but that way it's just cutting down on the communication oh you have to do this and that have it right there and readily available all kinds of forms um in addition one of the things I just wanted to talk with Dr heurn is I said automated and we have to update and when I when I say update is be creative and our thinking if we want to track students back and I am perfectly willing willing to go with you and speak to the airlines right here we have Broward we have Dade and we have Palm Beach and a lot of these students are not going to be able to afford to go to college or they're not looking to go to college so um they can look at uh careers in flying and they started 18 I was just looking up 18 to 20 years old to be a flight attendant and it's so fun it's so fun we could set up a service um you know where we're training them through whatever airine it is they get their lessons and and we partner with them for jobs and the reason it's a win-win is because when airlines are looking for flight attendance they want people that live there already in that area so they don't have to move they don't have to worry about them not adapting to the new environment they're already here and they like it here and they have connections and ties and family so they like that and they also like that they don't have to fly them in and out you know for testing and um other things that they need to do to keep their license valid so and I also met someone down from Dade who they repair um aircraft engines and they said they would be interested in opening uh place where they can teach students how to work on jet engines I mean that's great paying money so and I'm just using these two as an example but if we start offering careers where um our students don't necessarily have to go to college they're using their vocational skills or being inspecting elevators repairing elevator whatever but good paying jobs a bulldozzer man came up to me and said I'll pay $50 an hour for one of your students to train them to run my bulldozers I mean this is opportunity is that we need to present that no one else is presenting and that makes us special and that's going to make us wanted if you do it they will come Landon thank you madam chair quick 30- second um piece regarding student involvement we had a great conversation this morning and a continuing conversation uh with Dr W and Dr heer regarding our student involvement uh you know we've met one-on-one with most board members not all board members but part of that conversation has been talking about our speak up speakout sessions and a major uh component component of that will be campus specific programmatic reviews um so we're looking to be able to hear from students what they love about their schools what they want to improve about their schools and we'll be able to give that uh feedback back and I said 30 seconds I did 33 four thank you Landon Dr Zan land the plane land in the plane here we go um one I want to say that the idea of of community engagement in 60 days is heroic and which means if we really are going to do community engagement in two months and bring back ideas to the board at the end of October um it's got to be an all y' effort there must be hundreds of people that are going out to talk to people in a really Consolidated system to gather honest and sincere input from a two-way conversation one way to help that is Lor's idea Miss alad's idea about saying what's on and what's off the list because if there is something that the board looks at and says we're not doing that uh it would be nice to let people know now and hundreds of families can calm down and then go work on on a friend's uh school that might might be in it the last point though that I think is really important is there are opportunities to do really great things for our community here uh the Mayors in particular the City commissioners uh some major hospitals some major commercial organizations um are looking to do better things for our community and let me just give you one quick example to help guide our efforts maybe uh West Palm Beach this week announced that Vanderbilt University is coming wholesale to West Palm Beach that builds Community value to have a university like Vanderbilt uh come down here and offer their programs uh to the residents uh on or around West Palm Beach makes their Community better off and I know Mr superintendent you said there are no high schools on this year's list but we have more high schools than we have high school students and thinking about a university uh coming to Broward County to augment the other awesome universities that we have here already uh are the kinds of ideas um that allow Broward County to be a better Community RIT large and so we're not just going through the trauma uh to go to see what's the least negative thing to do there's also some very positive things to do with affordable housing Workforce housing reusing some of this land to do major libraries and parks and cities that are Park deserts and inviting things eventually like universities uh to come to brard County yeah and so I look forward to that but I can I can tell you 60 days of community engagement I'm scared to death as a countywide guy that that's not going to be enough we have we have too many schools in our in our in our on our on our our slides right now to for them to effectively engage us because they know we're looking for five but if we can neck that list down maybe halfway through the community engagement then we can have uh better and deeper conversations with the folks that are closest to uh being repurposed thanks chair thank you Dr heon do you have your takeaways or have any final thoughts yes we have our takeaways uh my final thoughts is I want to um um thank my team um Dr wanza Miss Paul Dr Fulton and the teams that they that they lead um great work today um I think the public and the board can see how we're moving forward as a district by presenting quality products demonstrating Quality Service really demonstrating why we're a school district and continuing to move forward and enhance our capabilities and therefore enhancing the district and the students that we serve every day um just want to give a good Kudos um to my team and thank them for the quality work that they do um in and out uh every day and we also appreciate the board feedback and also the Public's feedback um it is truly a gift to help us get better quicker um and we appreciate all that everybody does to contribute to this large system that we call brow County Public Schools thank you Dr urn at this time do any of my colleagues have anything to bring to The Bard student successes to share Mrs Hixon I'll be quick I know you're ready to go um I have two um suggestions or or requests one I'd like to request that we bring back the policy 8020 the one that had rental fees on it I think there were a lot of unintended consequences with that policy there are things that need to be tweaked so I'm asking if we could pre please bring that back um so that we can make the changes that have to be made hold on M thumbs up do we all agree thank you because we're we'll bring that back second the last thing is um transportation so traditional in the beginning of October we do open seats for buses school started earlier so um and we had this discussion before I think by the third week of school we know how many open seats are going to be on the bus so I would like to ask Dr heer through Dr Fulton if we could please by the end of this week or the beginning of next week open up those open seats because there are people who live 1.7 1.8 miles that really need the transportation and to make them wait until October is silly thumbs up yes yes okay other board members all right the scheduler of business for this school board workshop at the school board of BR County Florida has been completed seeing no obligation I now adjin the meeting e e e e