##VIDEO ID:yGh7k7Lu8mI## e e e e afternoon welcome welcome welcome everyone welcome good afternoon and welcome it is 1:30 and welcome to the town of Highland Beach Town commission meeting today is Tuesday October 1st and it is now 1:30 and I'd like to call the meeting to order if we could have the roll call please commissioner Goldberg present commissioner Peters is absent commissioner David present vice mayor Stern present mayor Moore present Town manager labid present and town attorney Ruben present thank you we could all rise for the pledge and if we could have the invocation please oh yes invocation yes sorry yes uh firstly on behalf of the uh St Lucy Community I'd like to wish the Jewish Community a very happy rashish honana tomorrow evening and very happy new year and I'd like to share a prayer with you which is a blessing for peace for rashash Shana grant us peace your most merciful gift or Eternal source of peace and give us the will to Proclaim its message to all the peoples of the Earth bless our country that it may always be a stronghold of peace and an advocate of Peace amongst all nations may contentment Reign within its borders health and happiness within its homes strengthen the bonds of friendship amongst the inhabitants of all lands and may a yearning for your promise of Peace Inspire every home and every heart teach us to labor for righteousness and inscribe us always in the Book of Life for blessing and for peace for you are the source of all peace amen amen amen thank you very much thank you thank you and before we get started this is today marks the six year anniversary of Marshall ly so we wanted to wish you thank you thank you thank you for completing six years and hopefully 60 more years than 25 so congratulations and thank you uh moving on to approval of the agenda are there any modifications to the agenda if not I move that we approve the agenda as presented second that all in favor say I I motion carries unanimously so we have our first um presentation which is uh the uh state of education report by School Board member um Miss Whitfield District Four school district of Palm Beach County welcome thank you good afternoon thank you so much for having me here I really appreciate it I try um my very best to come and visit all of my communities every year really to give you an opport Unity to ask me any questions that you have so I'll just share some information with you and then um if you have any questions at all now or at any time I'm always happy to to share again I'm Erica Whitfield I've actually been on your school board now for 10 years believe it or not and um I've really enjoyed this position I feel like there's um so much that needs to be done within our schools and I just love the opportunity to support um I want you all to be proud of your school district and the work that we've been doing um we recently got back up to an a status in the State of Florida um Florida has recently they changed their uh grading scale they also changed the tests that we were tested on so last year we had a little bit of a hiccup went down to a b um it was very tragic for all of us and very much we were all very worried about it but within a year we were able to get back up to that a status so the test actually got harder the scale that we were on got harder but we were able to reach to that so we were very very proud of that um I know of you don't have um uh schools in your area so Highland Beach is not one that has um a public school within it but you do have schools around it and I wanted you to know how well some of them are doing um we've had a couple of really big standouts in the area that I'm so very proud of pamosa which is one of our art schools it's gone and become a middle school as well so it's a K8 school just a little bit to the east of you was one of our highest Achievers this past year they went from a c-grade to an a grade so we were really very proud of them that was an amazing uh addition especially with the middle school being a part of that um this morning I actually got to visit to the schools in Delray Beach and I was very proud of the work that they were doing as well um one of the ones many people always talk about is Carver and some of the issues we've had there in the past and I have to let you know that Carver Middle School this morning was very calm um doing a really good job they've been working very hard and they were just a few points away from a be last year and they are um working very hard towards that um we have had had a new principal this past year at Boon Beach High School which is the school just to your East or to your West as well and as a high school um this new leader he's very very young which I think just ages me more than anything else he is uh just in his uh late 20s I think right at we right at 30 he um brings in a lot of energy and it's been so wonderful to see him um growing into this position he came from John I Leonard and so having new leadership there has been really exciting um we've actually had quite a few people changing over the principal ships have um they're more competitive than ever and so we have these incredible people that are taking over some of these positions we recently also got a new principal at Congress Middle School who is um just an unbelievable light in her community I can already tell you that the school is feeling um happier and calmer than it's ever been in the past so that's been really nice to see so just seeing all of the schools in the area Congress is one of our schools that has been struggling last year they got a D which is unusual and you know something that we never like to see we can kind of understand C's but never D's so um she's working very hard she's brand new this year H and she has brought in so much uh support for the students that we really think it's going to do a lot better there so I'm very proud of of what the schools have been doing in the area and I definitely want to share with you um espec especially because of how much money you guys spend on your tax dollars here in Highland Beach and so I do really appreciate that and I want to let you know that it is going to um the best places possible and the work that we're doing is is really um is really going well so uh the other thing I wanted to talk a little bit about was attendance that's something that um you know when you look at our score our scores postco that was a real issue so we you know we had to close the schools we closed them for quite a long time many students were doing their work virtually virtual education is not the same especially depending on student um some students Excel but it's rare that you Excel just being on a computer all day and you all know this from sitting on computers constantly um the interaction is not quite the same especially when you're trying to learn something like a language or trying to learn how to read and math having that interaction can be really good so we know that most students do better that way and um during covid though we were able to do a great job about keeping schools going and we were very proud of that that schools did keep going it was just better than what the rest of the country was able to do just completely shutting down but the impact was very real and so you will see our grades throughout the throughout the community um really kind of took a a dive during that time and then we've been working our way back up from there well I'm happy to say I think we finally overcome covid um and we have finally gotten back to the place where our scores are where they really should be and then are excelling and as I mentioned we're an a district now we're actually one of only two a district districts in the State of Florida it's us and Miami day that are considered urban districts we don't um compare ourselves as much with the rural communities because we have different set of uh challenges but as far as urban districts we're one of the best that are doing um as far as scores and I think the education that you see that the children have the opportunity to receive is really excellent um one program I want to highlight on that is at Boon Beach High School we have the Bassa program which is an Aeronautics program and it is topnotch it's amazing what these kids are doing our validor and at Boon last year graduated from that program and he also graduated with his pilot's license and went off to Embry Riddle so we're very proud of that I think that's a really amazing program that many people don't know exists there but um I want to make sure people have the opportunity to to understand it because we put all these this money it's actually one of the most expensive programs we have in the district we put all this money into it um using Grant dollars from from different organizations and those programs really do give such different opportunities to our children that I think are really wonderful okay so let's talk about attendance so back when we were talking about covid uh one of the problems was is that people started believing that they didn't have to show up to school and because we told them they didn't have to so that's kind of on us so they um many of our students and our fam started believing that they didn't need to come and um one of the stories I like to share is uh literally a couple weeks ago my four-year-old came up to me and she said Mom I don't think I want to go to school today and I was like are you sick and she said no and I said well we go to school that's what we do that's what we do in this house and because you know obviously I believe a lot in education so um the uh issue we have is there's a lot of families that don't really see that as the default now they think oh you don't want to go you don't have to and I I I've seen it among my friends postco they go well you know they can make it up or they can put the time in later the problem with that is is that we really have so much to teach and you have to cover all of these subject areas and with the students not being there it makes it more difficult and now you're playing catch-up and you have a lot to do and when you have a student who's coming in to the school system potentially behind Any teacher that is um trying to teach that year the goal in a year is that you teach a Year's worth of Education seems very basic right but if you have a student who's two years behind then that teacher now needs to teach two years of education in that one year which is very very difficult because they're also teaching all the other students and so as a student gets further and further behind being able to just be on Pace with the rest of the class becomes more and more difficult so one of the solutions that we have is you got to be there um last year one of the problems that we saw was 39% of our students in Palm Beach County missed 11 days or more of the school year which is um kind of one of the one of the big cut offs for chronic absenteeism and this is the problem that's happened throughout the country so so and I'm coming to you all um I'm mentioning that if in your Communications with your with your community we can start changing the conversation around education to talk about the importance of attending so I know many of your students may go to private schools as well but just changing that story among our community is really important because we need people to believe that the default is you go to school whatever your school may be um in Rhode Island the governor actually made a really big push for this and was able to bring his attendance rates down by 10% absentee rates down by 10% in a year he put a lot of transparency around the numbers of people who were going to school and really pushed it um to be an important thing that we needed to see happening at all times within our schools and and among our students so I encourage you as a potential action step from today is really just continue to tell your communities how important education is and how that they need to get out to schools as every single day if sick make a plan with your teacher if you're not sick we want to see you in that in that seat and tired doesn't count as sick um so the last thing I really want to talk to you about before I take any questions is the handouts I just passed out I have enough actually that we could probably pass some to the community members y'all might have seen your ballots recently um I just came to answer any questions about that about um nine years ago as a school board we asked the community for more funding to pay for renovating our buildings and our buildings were about $2 billion behind in um repairs we had stopped repairing them after the 2008 recession completely we transferred all that money into operating because we were struggling so much with our funds um the State of Florida actually reduced the amount of money that we received to do Capital Improvements um and has never gone back from that so as a community we have asked help from everyone that lives here to help with our buildings so we came and asked you all for additional funds last time we did it we did it with the cities and with the county so half of it went to us half of it went to the city and the counties combined this time for those people who don't may not know the city and the county cities and Counties have decided not to um go after that sales tax again um so right now as a community we are at 7% for our sales tax after this end of the calendar year we will drop down to at least 6.5% and if you that is if you approve this tax if you don't approve the tax it would go down to 6% just so everybody understands where we kind of stand the reason the school board has decided to continue going forward for this tax um is because we really still need quite a bit of money um in the last referendum we asked for the half cent sales tax it got us just a little bit right around a billion dollars and um that billion dollars has gone to building new schools fixing HVAC systems floors roofs I was actually one of my schools I was at today the roof is leaking and and um a lot of these projects now it's like well let's see if we can get that referendum dollars before we decide if we're going to fix it um there has been a ton of need and with the Safety and Security issues that we're facing I mean there if you think about 10 years ago we weren't thinking Safety and Security the way we do now back then um we probably had Gates randomly left open around campuses that never happens anymore they are all fixed they're all checked every day we have police officers on campuses we have single point entry so that everybody has to come to the same entrance um we have put in camera systems we have put in that cnic system that was touted so much in Georgia and they're shooting recently we actually had that three years ago we have been working really hard to create an infrastructure that protects our children and this is a big part of that how do we make sure that we firm up that school so that it is the safest place we possibly can put our children every day I I would trust our schools over any other place in the community it's really um very well protected um and the reason we're able to do that is is through this also um when Co hit which was also unprecedented we had this funding set aside for technology and we had never thought that that was what we needed we had this dream of giving every person a computer in our school system but when we had to go virtual we kind of pushed it really fast using this funding for that so we were able to uh spend $80 million pretty quickly to buy a lot of computers everyone in the in the system got it we're now at about um coming up on five years from buying that computer so in the spring it'll be five years many of those computers are coming to their life's end we are being able to replenish that through our technology dollars that we have so you can see the the scope of what this referendum means to the school district was quite large and um so it's something that we're asking the community to consider if you have any questions about how we've spent it I'm I'm here to to answer any of those also we have an independent review oversight committee um with one of your neighbors on it Mr who lives down the street um he's sat on that for the whole time and uh they oversee our how we spend the funding and they have approved many many times um and it's a monthly meeting to see how the spending is going and they approve how we've been spending it so we make sure to to spend the money exactly how we said we would and I think that's been going pretty well so I will stop there and I'll take Absolut questions on anything that you have at all well since I have several kids who have gone through the public system and I I currently have two at bah high and I um am thrilled with bahi and the roster of classes that are offered and I have one that recently graduated and I feel like bahi definitely prepared her well for college so thank you for all that you do and I I really do appreciate it um just a couple comments on the half penny um I I think that's critically important especially the security for the school um and I know bahai just got the um metal detectors and uh you know definitely I you know I definitely feel the additional security that have has been implemented in the schools so that's really great and I think this is a very worthy thing for I think we all should vote in favor of this that's my own personal opinion um I do have a couple questions though um absente ISM so um so my kids actually took the bus and do you think any of the ISM has anything to do with the transportation and and what is your and I guess I'm not quite I'm a little confused about the bus transport transportation system and like the school like are you do you even oversee the buses or is that a completely different thing I guess could you comment on like the bus situation and how consistent it is and if that could potentially be an issue for absenteeism so things have gotten better this year um I think in the beginning of the year we always struggle and as we get going uh the complaints are down a lot which is huge we've definitely had some moments in the past where everything was thrown off a few years ago probably like six I was on the board then but it's been a while we we tried to change systems and that went very very badly I think it kind of got us a black eye when it comes to Transportation um our current Transportation managers doing a great job they're working very very hard that being said we are always down bus drivers it is really hard to find them so I think right now we're down about 70 bus drivers which means that all of our maintenance workers Drive every day so instead of maintaining the buses which we also want them to do um they have to take turns driving because we don't have enough drivers to be able to pull off a route all the time so when that happens what you're seeing is um a bus may have to go pick up kids fill up come back pick up more kids and then go back again which then throws off the rest of the route so they do their very best to work around that but it is a challenge also we do a lot of choice driving so when a student and my daughter was one of them as well um goes to a school that's not in their home school you get a bus and so we are sending buses all over the community um this is why we have to shut down when the the winds are over 35 miles an hour by the way so that that's why we closed last Thursday if the winds are that high the buses could fall over and we move so many children in buses every day um and we're moving them long distances so we absolutely can't risk it it's just too much so that becomes a real issue when you have not enough drivers our buses are actually doing pretty good because they were included in the half penny last time too so we got a bunch of new ones so the quality of the buses is actually um has kind come up quite a bit and that's been good we do drive them until they absolutely fall apart and then we sell them for almost nothing so if you're ever looking for a bus but um if it's pretty funny actually to see um but so this the quality of the buses is good but we need more people to drive we have given raises which really help we're over $20 an hour now for a starting salary for our bus drivers we're actually just doing a raise um coming up here in a couple of days uh so they're all going to get their next raise coming up but to start is about $20 an hour we try to stay competitive with everyone around us because otherwise we'll lose them the hours are terrible it's the other thing I always say they have to be there at like 5: in the morning every day and then they get this weird three- hour break in the middle and then they have to come back for the evening shift and there so afternoon evening and then we have some bus drivers who are driving you know for sports and things like that so um I I always say we need to love on the drivers that we have as much as possible but we try our best to make it an appealing job for them but I do think that so when we had that problem years ago you were seeing kids stuck at you know the bus stop for too long or stuck at school for too long waiting to go home most of that has been mitigated there are definitely one-offs where they're late the principles are supposed to excuse all those absences but there's no it's just not good to have um missing time so some of the principes I've talked to have gone to rotating schedules I'm not sure if they do that at bokeh but what they do is your first period is your first period on the first day but on the second day it's the second period is the first period that you have of the day and then the third and the fourth so you don't miss the same class every single day if your bus is late or if anything is happening if you just happen to be a late person um and so that does help kind of spread out the problems um with attendance but you know obviously it could be better I think I kind of just outlined all of the issues we're always trying to work through it if we um you know if you know anybody who wants to be a best driver please tell us it would be amazing um we do have really good benefits so there's that yeah um I think that'd be important to address that issue um because I think that would really help um and then I know they implemented uh like the vouchers right you can if you want to go to a private school you can take a voucher and apply how has that impacted enrollment has as our so far we're doing very well come wood um we are a really really good school system honestly um it is something that I'm I think is what makes us so competitive when you see Broward County they're actually a pretty good school system too but um when you see in Broward they they're going to have to start closing schools and the reason for that is because many students have left the system and you can choose to go wherever you want you can go to home school you can go to private school you can go to a charter school um and that all of those things can impact closing schools Beach County um last year we were up a thousand kids so we actually gained a thousand kids over uh the year before this year um we are right at finding out the complete numbers um and they think we're about the same as last year so either another thousand kids gained or within that area that's right where we think we are which is very good it's very very good to have your projections match where you're going to be in even exceed is wonderful I have some schools that are just busting at the seams I think bokeh might be bu at the seams as well um some of my schools are some are a little low and so when that happens we work really hard to try to create a school that can draw people in um we have 335 Choice programs and so that is like I was talking about the Bassa program at Boon those kids are um those kids are they're getting something extra something special when they go to that school and so those things can draw children in from other schools and hopefully as we're competing with private schools and what they're offering this gives another option for them so I would say not every school is drawing from the privates but we're trying to make sure that they feel that they have an opportunity and I always encourage people when they are um interested in public school system like don't give up on us give us a chance and usually we can find you a school that fits um we don't always give transportation to every school if you didn't get in through a choice program but we have lots of different opportunities we do Choice which is in um you know you apply in December or January depending on the program you're going into if there's an audition process or not and then you'll find out by April but after April we also have the opportunity for controlled open enrollment so if there's space at another school anywhere in the district you could choose to go there and we can get you in so we have a lot of things we do to work with families to make sure you're happy with your school because I want everyone to be happy I want you to like go to your school every day and think wow I'm so happy to be here and not feel like you know oh I just didn't have a choice so I think that's been a really good thing um so trying to work with our families to make sure that they want to be here um but the vouchers are real you can take the money it's about $88,000 so one of the other things like just it's over 8,000 now I think actually we're at like $ 8,900 now um so you can get that money and put it towards your child's education homeschool education private school education um most of our private schools are running much higher than that so that additional funds um you're going to still have to pay as a parent so that's something for everyone to keep in mind well I think that's compliments to you right that there wasn't some Mass Exodus you know that's that's really that's a um really positive sign for the work that you've done so I think that's excellent um another thing that's come out is we're we're providing our opinions on new start times so such a good I guess how is that coming going I mean I think bahi is kind of Lucky in that um the administration there had already recognized the importance of making the start time later we we start an hour later than most other high schools and I I can tell you that has been excellent for my family because no one likes to get up that early um where do you see that going how how all I'm super jealous I also have a 17-year-old and she leaves the house at 630 in the morning to get to school at 7:15ish starts at 7:25 uh it's like a half hour drive for us for her to get to her school so it is uh it is a hike and she drives herself which I hate um so I'm right there with you as parent watching my kid get up so early every day and not getting the sleep so I understand the health concerns um and I'm have a degree in public health this is my thing um I really uh have always been concerned about why we can't have the kids sleep in longer however go back to the buses it's all about the buses it always comes back to the buses we have a hard enough time getting our buses on the road right now and getting them running and we're a very successful School District we're currently one of the best in the state and so we are asking the legislature using our high achieving status and we actually do have a status for that um that we should be allowed to decide our own times on when schools start um mostly because our community is 50 miles by 50 miles we're busing kids from belade to Riviera Beach from you know bokeh up to Jupiter I mean we're we're moving some children every day and so to be able to pull that off um with the limited resources that we do have we're asking that they not readjust our not force us to readjust our times and we do believe that there may be some possibility in the legislature for that to happen this year so as you know that'll be in the spring we'll find out for real um so next year would be the year we would have to implement but we are going through a full process of asking the community what they want there's a survey that has been put out um also so there have been Community meetings there was one last night at Atlantic high school they are um finding out what the community would be okay with if it happened um different time slots by and large the early results are that everybody doesn't want the times to change um and like 75% is asking for no change at all um I you know even as a mom who who wants her kid to sleep in longer um I am worried about the ideas of Shifting elementary students to be outside in the dark um that you know it might help my older daughter it's not great for every other baby in the community that has to wait for a bus in the dark um and then when we have some of our middle schools potentially starting as late as 10: 10:30 um you're talking about child care and we don't know what's going to happen in that time so I think we're going to end up having to provide before care if that happens um and then we may end up having I think sports teams practicing before school because there was no lights on any Elementary or middle school fields we have high school Fields covered except for one um but that was because somebody stole the wiring but all the rest of them are good the things we deal with um but so with the middle schoolers you're going to see that they can't stay that late because there's no way to light up the fields and with this referendum we may be able to provide some more Middle School lighting so that is a possibility in the event that this does go that direction but my goal right now is to go to the legislature and ask for flexibility here so that we can adjust it as as possible but not as requirement and it's looking fairly decent um but we will know more obviously in the spring if you have an opportunity to speak to any of your legislators please feel free to plead the case on behalf of Palm Beach County some school districts have already shifted their times um but they're much smaller than we are and it's really our size that is the problem if we were just a community of five schools this wouldn't be an issue but we have 100 and almost 83 now so we're talking a lot of kids a lot of buses um and so back to the buses my dream was hey why don't we just have everybody start at 8:30 and we'll just get you know three times as many bus drivers and it's you know it's a good dream um but uh we have like 600 drivers right now maybe a little bit more than that and uh so I would need to find 1,200 more um to be able to cover all the routes and I can't find 70 so that's where we're at oh big issues yeah significant issues for sure um I guess one question how many of the high schools have the Ace Program um so only two are really imple I'm going to change the way you asked your question so I can go at it the different direction um only two are really implementing the IB program with real solid Fidelity some with medium Fidelity so the two best IB programs are Sun Coast and dwire um Forest Hill pooki Atlantic they have IB programs as well but within the entire District most programs most high school programs are leaning towards Ace so when you go to Boon high school for instance they only have an Ace Program they don't have an IB Program even at Atlantic you're starting to see the IB program is kind of getting smaller and Ace is getting bigger so for everybody in the audience just so you know the difference between the programs um the Ace Program is it's called the Cambridge program so it's from England from Cambridge England and that program is a higher education way of teaching classes so if you think of like an AP class we also create Ace curriculum classes which is um it's also you know you're going to get that higher points for it it's more challenging and you can get college credit but the college credit is only really recognized in the State of Florida so when you are an IB student you're also getting that highlevel class it's a separate class an international Balor class and it's recognized internationally part of the international baloria part of it so within those those classes you can get the the college credit and if you go to an out of state school your credits will transfer with the ace is you're really gearing it to students who are going to stay in the State of Florida so if you as a student in nth grade know exactly which one you're thinking of are you going to a Florida school or an out of state school you can choose the program that best fits you so the and Ace is like a smidge easier it's a little bit easier to get the credits the students tend to succeed at a higher rate and they get the ace diploma at a higher rate so with the IB it's much more difficult and so you're not seeing that as much the other thing we have an opportunity for if you are at a school with either of them you can also do dual enrollment classes so that's going to Palm Beach State or even um UF has some classes different programs have classes so you can get those credits and those will transfer even more easily because they're really a dual enrollment you're already getting college credit for it and then AP through the College Board you're actually recogn that's recognized um nationally internationally as well so those credits can transfer so we have those at all different schools but as far as the full diploma program um Ace is at most of our high schools and then only a few are really holding on to IB which is sunko is very successful DWI very successful and then the other ones it's like small little cohorts within each school that makes sense I think Ace is just so great I mean so great um mention you get to go to school for free with it too I know I mean I I can't say enough about Ace if if you want to stay in the State of Florida for your undergrad I mean I I just can't say enough about and I feel like Palm Beach County we are in such a great position because it seems like we have more Ace programs than some of the other counties they're all over we are because we really I mean we are pushing these opportunities for because Bright Futures as many of you all know you get an opportunity for a bright future scholarship which is getting your schooling paid for and we have some of the best schools in the country in Florida so you're not even having to go to a subpar education you're going to an excellent education system and it's paid for if you get an B diploma you get full ride if you get an IB diploma you get a full ride and so those are really enticing for our families because the students are going to come out and be able to go to a college for free and if they happen to have gotten the credits through us we have students constantly graduate like a ton of them graduating with 30 40 50 60 credit hours and So a family doesn't have to pay anything that's right and so as a student gets out they're coming in with two years of college credits they show up to college with years paid for they can get a master's before they leave awesome it's awesome it's really an incredible system be in favor of there I mean I hope this impressed everyone I I'm very impressed and uh yeah I really appreciate it you know what you do for families it just it makes you know college you know possible for a lot of people so I I think it's it's fabulous so thank you I my kid on college tours now so I'm really appreciating yes yes yeah you don't realize numb that's right until you get there you don't you really don't realize so it's excellent so thank you very much I you know sorry to hog up they I don't know if anybody else has any questions but hopefully you guys are impressed yeah I just want to applaud you for you know on behalf of uh of the Department of the whole education department what just fabulous and and I loved hearing about this I was unaware of all these programs so it's just great I was curious um if you had handy do you know what our ranking is our educational ranking throughout the us as a school district no I'm not sure I mean we we are really high up there because we are one of the only two a districts um if there's a ranking as a no I meant I meant the educational the how we are we are comparing to the rest of the country yes yes no I'm not really sure what that is I know how much money we make compared to the rest of the country unfortunately uh we're very low when it comes to that actually just to say as far as the funding um you know we have two referendums so one is the Capital One which is what you're looking at now that one we also get a referendum from the community um that's on the other two years um it's on a four-year rotation and um in that one you all are paying uh to give us additional funds for mental health school security safety police officers and teacher pay and thank God you do because without it we wouldn't we would be so so low so we're like 47th in the country as much as for as much money as we get per child but with that we get an additional funding to be able to keep our teachers um sticking around which is very difficult to do because it's not a high paid position and um you know after a while they start to catch on they could make more money other places so we don't we don't want them to leave so that's been difficult but as far as ranking I I'm not really sure where we are I'm sorry I should know that well I want to thank you for all the work that you're doing and everyone in the Departments to make it happen thank you yeah I feel that education is critically important that that's our future and if we don't educate our children there is no future and I think it's wonderful I also find it interesting that when my children who were well out of school went they had instead of an Ace Program they had honors classes we still have those you so and they had magnet schools so that there was no Force busing up North there was you had programs in the less desirable area schools where people from the more desirable areas and they would cross we still have those we call them choice now so there just a change of the name well that's it it's a lot of the programs are the same they just have new names exactly it's true and they worked so you don't mess with something that works but thank you for your time this is a full-time job for you I am sure thank you any else thank you okay thank you very much thank you for coming today thank you and again if anybody has any questions concerns issues I am always always always a available I'm uh erica. wit deal. Palm Beach schools.org thank you all so much I appreciate you having me here thank you thank you very much okay next item um is the domestic violence month Proclamation I'm going to read the proclamation and then I'll ask um Miss Brian to come up um the town of Highland Beach Proclamation whereas the town of Highland Beach recognizes the vital importance of reducing domestic violence through prevention and education and whereas the aid to victims of domestic abuse Incorporated avda uh facilitates prevention programming in line with the cdc's recommendations to prevent demestic violence and whereas the Palm Beach County coordinated Community Response Team builds key ke Partnerships among Justice agencies Health Providers Allied professionals domestic violence centers and victim services to assist victims and their families to hold offenders accountable and whereas in supporting victims of domestic violence the town of Highland Beach joins local programs State coalitions and National organizations committing committed to sending a clear message that domestic violence will not be tolerated now therefore I Natasha Moore and be and also my fellow Commissioners um of the town of Highland Beach on behalf we do pro proclaim the month of October 2024 as domestic violence awareness month and we have um the CEO of avda here today with us so please um come to the podium and thank you for being here today thank you very much mayor Moore and Commissioners for making this proclamation to recognize domestic violence awareness aess month excuse me sadly it's uh way too much of a problem affecting many people um and before I give a little comment about aftera I do want to also thank uh one of our board members Chief Hartman um it's very helpful having law enforcement represented on our board especially since there is such a connection um we work closely with law enforcement entities we also have Tammy Bobby one of our board members in fact our board secretary here and I'm also joined by outgoing our Pro uh Chief program Officer Jennifer Ray many of you know her and then our incoming new Chief program officer Lamie ascar who is two weeks on the job so um but uh if you look at the Center for Disease Control statistics which lists intimate partner violence as a community health problem you will see their statistics that one in four women and one in eight men in the United States report that they have been affected by intimate partner violence and those are the reported numbers which are huge to put it in perspective um the CDC also gives the statistics for breast women affected by breast cancer and this being also Breast Cancer Awareness Month my own little sister is a Survivor but those numbers are one and eight we all know someone who's affected by breast cancer so just double that number so this is a huge issue which is why we exist to provide life-saving services but also work toward creating social changes to end domestic violence and Dating Violence so in addition to providing a wonderful residential programs that keep people safe 247 every day of the year we also offer a robust prevention program and in fact we have a strong presence in the school where we have violence prevention Educators working in accord with the contract with Palm Beach County Schools to go out and teach healthy relationships so we are big nonprofit We are corporate office is headquartered in Del Beach our shelter is in an undisclosed location by state law and we have about 47 employees hundreds of volunteers and we've been around 38 years on your um somewhere in front of you there should be a yes a little piece of paper that talks about some of the events we have going on especially during demestic violence awareness month so we're hoping you can pay attention to the opportunities to to support avda and raise awareness our website is avda online.org and our social media handle so to speak is um uh avda commits avda commits so I wanted to be brief um but also if you have any questions I'm happy to answer I I don't have any specific questions I just wanted to comment you know I've um as a practicing attorney and family law for over 35 years up north i' I've seen a lot of this um in the divorce realm and just the um restraining orders uh that come by through court so it is really devastating to families to Children particularly and um if there's anything further that can be done if these events do uh highlighted is so so very important uh I think so much more should be done through um not only I it's wonderful that you're saying about the school programs I'm not aware of them all I know is the you know where the uh adults get sent to for the programs um uh to keep them from Criminal prosecution but so much more has to be done on the ground speaking to women and men of all ages through the churches through uh through the Physicians through the pediatricians through the gynecologists um so it's uh it's an ongo going problem and I'm very happy that you're here today to highlight it thank you thank you very much and we do all of that we do provide legal advocacy and we partner with legal aid uh to provide attorneys to help the people we're assisting and Jennifer over here and her team well they train all the doctors and reach out to many Health Care Professionals throughout really the state um to raise awareness and uh help identif y ear early warning signs and how to ask for help and we encourage you if you ever know someone that may need some help to uh be open-minded non-judgmental let them know in a nice kind way that help is available and you're there to be with them through the process it'll mean a lot and it's very important as you pointed out the housing that you that you have that you give and um uh how do you how is the word spread how do you get it to the population uh where they can obtain uh help many ways um mentioning schools earlier because um we do have a presence in the schools to work on prevention we uh are connected to a lot of teachers a lot of times children might raise an issue uh through Social Services uh there might be a referral that way law enforcement is another one and we do spend a lot of time Jennifer and her team do that as well training law enforcement officers on how to approach domestic violence victims and how to be sensitive to what they're going through and also culturally sensitive and working with them to uh help them get some services and again you mentioned also the doctors a lot of times hospitals are uh there somebody might recognize that this might be a domestic violence situation and they can make the referral we also of course are very involved with State and National entities that have hotline numbers and books in terms of resource manuals and of course through the a lot of people find us through the website we are the only Domestic Violence Center in southeast or in South Florida really that can reach our hotline by text we started that during covid for everyone's safety because people were stuck at home with violent partners and so we added the texting component which is safe and secure and um it's helped a lot thank you any other questions not question just thank you that I know this affects all areas of society across every kind of lines you can think of and it's a very important service that you provide so thank you thank you yeah and thank you and um I participate personally um I you have programs for men Band of Brothers right you can um uh participate in and then sassy sisters which is what um I do um and there's some really great events your race is coming up and um being fast is not important um just walking it and you know with a group of friends or whatever is you know in a very enjoyable um thing and to show support I actually saw Rich there last year um a lot of you it's very well attended and I would recommend anyone else um to also participate and also participate in the sassy sisters program and Band of Brothers program um and uh it's just a really very worthy organization that has so much impact in our community so thank you very much yes yes support and here's the proclamation for you so thank you very much next item on the agenda is public comments do we have anyone here yes state your name and where your address afternoon my name's Howard stall I love L cter un 3450 South oan Boulevard apartment ph5 I was here at the last meeting uh questioning about our mechanical rooms uh that uh the Fire Marshall mat has determined need to be emptied out of All Storage uh he's he's showing a a law that speaks of a electrical room with certain electrical equipment in it our mechanical rooms have nothing that is stated in that La uh when I was here last I was told that I did hear from Marshall or from the fire uh Chief or from Matthew as to a discussion about this if anything's going to be done about it I have not heard from anybody so I came and I was wondering if you guys discussed it if there's anything that's been done about it uh because clearly the law that Matthew is talking about does not speak about anything that with in our in our mechanical rooms so I was wondering if we're still in a situation where we're being asked to clean up mechanical rooms for no reason and being inconvenienced with that I mean we us for storage for water bottles for metal tools there's an air conditioning system in there there's hot water system in there there's nothing flammable in there uh the law does State certain things none of which are in these mechanical rooms so I was wondering where we are on that Marshall I don't know if you can comment or chief wants to comment mad about it I had Chief come today so he could step out and talk to you in more detail about it um my knowledge as Fire Marshall is quite limited so I will defer to the fire uh Department I I just can't speak to that with any speak and safety is of the most is the highest priority thank you yeah thank you and i' if I could add something Chief I'd like to maybe the next meeting hear a little bit more about it in general because I've heard a number of people are experiencing the same situation as you were talking thank you any other public comments okay go ahead hi Timothy Rolo I used to live in Highland Beach now from Boa Ron and I wish that the adva ladies had stuck around because I wanted to comment on uh the domestic violence uh we've all been part of domestic situations I think since our births or maybe most of us anyway and I think there's a lot of room for manipulation in the domestic violence um space Maybe Miss Goldberg has some experience with that of of just uh I think behind the scenes a lot of times the the people who know more about the law especially family law they may they may try to manipulate a domestic situation in in uh search of advantage in a parenting time or something like I just I I wanted to throw it out there I think there's a lot of a lot of manipulation that goes on in the domestic I don't know that that's relevant for this meeting right do um it's just yeah okay it's just a comment okay okay thank you you all have um a letter from barble Nestle in your agenda packet under public comments but she sent an email this morning saying that she would not be able to make the meeting so okay so it's in the agendas and yes it's in a packet okay thank you any other public comments no okay uh ordinances there are none consent agenda um we have some reappointments of for several different boards any discussion or anything like that ready to these were all reappointments is that correct and obviously we haven't heard from any of the chairmen of these committees and negatively you don't have to because the you all had in a previous meeting no no I'm thinking right now because having having worked with somebody on a board they would know if they would want them reappointed and since no one has says has said no Then I'm assuming everybody is fine with this yes yeah well if we're all in agreement we go ahead and do a motion I move we approve the consent agenda all in favor say I I motion carries unanimously moving on to unfinished business Florida Department of Transportation Triple R project update so they're uh picking back up with the drainage work um they' probably lost uh they I think the last report said 10 to 12 Days on contract time because of some of the weather the heavy rains in the afternoon uh appears they have now picked up pace again and are moving forward and again that's generally around a June 1st project completion so time is closing in on them so uh we'll see some Paving probably in a month and a half we'll probably get to that point but I think they're still doing all the drainage work and all that which um could be the slowest part but they're they're Pro proceeding they're not too far off they haven't received a ton of complaints the ones they have received uh they've been responding to for uh irrigation or other types of impacts so since I made my request for more information they put a portal potty on my property well um well we'll have to get out do if it becomes problem let us know well they're really digging up today very busy up there sanitary sewer lining Rehabilitation project so uh Sergio gave me an update there uh that contractor we're working on to to do a piggyback contract has found uh some pricing that could be acceptable they should have a proposal to us by the end of the week to see if we can execute a phase program based on someone else's contract if it isn't I will probably if this doesn't work this week by your next meeting I would then have the alternate of you know srf do the whole enchilada go out to bid and make it happen and we'll start that process rather than waiting for starts and stops if anyone will extend their contract to us so um so if we don't get more solid information or something we can work from at the end of this week then I will develop the process by which we would start moving forward with the state revolving uh Loan program do an RFP SC we'll get that going and then we'll do the whole project and just do bid the whole thing start to finish and let the vendor come in and then start that right behind uh the f. project so how long do you foresee that process oh when it's a Federal Loan program could be right year okay so I mean we just the good thing is we have it designed we we know how much it costs we have all the authorizations um we have to pass a a bond resolution we don't have to go to the voters because they already gave us every means to which execute the project so you figure there's at least six to nine months of just programmatic steps that that Federal program requires it's available to us again it's so you get the low interest loans one and a half 2% loans can't do better in the marketplace you want to proceed with that because I don't know unless you tell me something otherwise we know we don't want to you know take $3 million cash and pull it right out and a lot it when we're trying to strengthen ourselves over that long term but David's working on the fiveyear and we'll start tying those pieces together what that looks like and um so you know we'll probably start the project right after fot at some point in time so you do know how much the Project's going to cost I thought I know we asked for three and a half but I we bid it out three three four years ago three three years three years ago and was around 2.3 million so I'm guessing inflationary periods limited there's no new vendors uh plastic markets has gotten a little bit better as petroleum costs have come down so I'm guessing probably a $3 million project is probably with contingencies and yada yada y that's probably where we're at that's my best guess I'm not again I I'm not the Civil on the project or seeing the the bid markets but trying to get somebody to extend their prices from another town has been quite difficult so I'm guessing we have a limited number of vendors to come in here so the prices are probably going to be pushing up it's always more than you think right um sounds like it is likely we'll need a loan but if we could have the different options you know um just because like the the sewer fund does have some cash in there um seems like some excess cash in there we do we have some of the arpa dollars that we did uh remain to be allocated to the project um the srf program having started my career in it uh does allow for prepayments there's there so it's very flexible Municipal friendly so take the loan and then pay it off early or do incremental pay downs and then they recalculate your amortization schedule and you just keep on moving so uh it's it's GNA be better than a bank I just don't know and we'll look at it what it would mean if we dropped all of the cash at once what kind of hit that would be anticipating have these conversations some other capital projects coming up could put us in a pinch so um and again I don't know we might be able to do partial like a down payment if you will and then just loan or borrow a certain period amount so I mean you know with these long life infrastructure projects right you know it's not a bad idea to take out a low interest loan because the reason why is because we're earning better rates of Interest right and and use that cash for more emergencies lift stations pumps uh uh uh meter Replacements right you know what I mean because those meters they only last five or or so years and so you know focus on that but we'll we'll look at all the Alternatives I mean I I the the water fund I agree is kind of skinny and we need to definitely build that up but the sewer fund yep has you know and and um where does the money have to like come from right like the sewer fund extra dollars in there can only be put towards certain things right because you have rules you can't take money from One Fund to you know whatever so um yeah I guess that's a thought I have is since you can only use the sewer fund dollars for certain things and I think we have a lot we have more than we need in there you know it's like over 300 something almost 400 days or something like that we probably only need 150 days or something but um yeah we'll look at all that again we're talking about a long-term uh long lived asset right and so if I can borrow money from a state revolving fund at 2% you know and Meanwhile my funds are growing at at at at 5% you know in the bank you know so we'll look at it long term and we'll look at what that does with rates right because that's that's the thing right because we have to make sure that rates are sufficient enough not only to operate but also for repair maintenance and Capital right and so we we'll plan all that out so we'll look at all that okay sounds good thank you moving on to new business resolution number 2024-the correcting a scribner's error in resolution number 2024 d026 Yeah so basically I went back through the fee schedule I didn't C catch it but basically underneath water system connection charges and or connection charges in parenthesis for some reason there's impact fees it's a connection charge it can't be both so it's to strike the impact fee it's a connection charge just clarifying it and I noticed we didn't have anything for an irrigation meter so if a a resident or a condo wants an irrigation meter you get it by the meter and we'll install it so we just want to make sure it's not considered an impact fee because it has other statutory implications and it's not really an impact fee to connect it's if we were to build new system components then we would look at an impact fee but we're kind of built out so we really don't have impact fees for the most part um so I just want to clarify that it's a connection charge not an impact any discussion on that we're good no that's good I move that we approve resolution number 2024 d030 that commissioner David yes Vice minister yes commissioner Goldberg yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries moving on to consideration of the town of Highland Beach fire rescue Department Personnel rules and regulations yes so thank you uh in our Personnel manual uh we do not have any provisions that would apply to the nature of work that the fire rescue department does when you're on a 24 on 72 off shift work environment things a crew slightly different how you take time off is different um dis injury is a little bit different um how you earn time you work holidays how all that is in there we didn't have it uh in our Personnel rules so we wanted to add this as an addendum as we imagine eventually they will collectively bargain So eventually they'll form a union to to basically pay somebody else to do what we're doing but we will you know basically this is kind of the road map uh this is built off best practices we see in surrounding agencies we ran it by uh um our labor attorney they're comfortable with it um everything's good uh ran it through Administration over fire and this is this is common practices and uh again it kind of just addresses that unique nature of their work just like police is a little bit different on their 12-hour shifts versus 24-hour shift line of duty type work stuff so this just makes it clear so there's no confus Fusion uh Dedra is excited so she can calculate all the payroll figure out how they acrew all this stuff so uh this just adds some clarity and lays out expectations and consistency for uh application across that department but when you get eventually their collective bargaining agreement before you it's gonna look just like this right so I have a question just sure point of interest because I don't know what's a 42-hour employee so basically because they do 24 on 72 off if you look over a twoe period some weeks it's 48 some weeks it's slightly less I mean so you take it over that you know it could be 96 hours over two weeks and sometimes it goes down to 84 hours over so basically an average is it's a 42h hour shift uh per week instead of a 40 hour police is 42 I believe as well maybe a little bit different maybe they're a little bit different but um that's just basically on AES and then you'll notice in their overtime calculates at 96 not the 84 so basically we take that number to make sure um C overtime is calculated appropriately um but yeah yeah I just had never seen the term before yes I mean and then some are some are 48 so a harder number if they're two on one on two off but then they have these whole Provisions with Kelly days which we avoided uh so this a little bit cleaner so you'll notice a lot of it throughout it says 4 42 hour shift yes so I guess normally you would say 40 hour work week and now fulltime full full time basically it's how they calculate fulltime so we take it on an average basis across the whole year right no I don't have any further comment I think this is very uh comprehensive all inclusive so do you need a motion to uh yes please to you know approve okay I move we approve okay what are we calling this fire rescue Department personel rules rules and R okay I move that we approve the prior rescue Personnel rules and regulations into our town Personnel files I'll second that commissioner David yes commissioner Stern excuse me Vice May Stern yes commissioner Goldberg yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries thank you thank you moving on to town commission comments commissioner Goldberg do you have anything well I wanted to um uh send our prayers uh to the families uh affected and for their speedy recovery due to the hurricane um Helen which has devastated and and brought so much suffering and tragedies um our thoughts and prayer are with them uh their Town managers and municipalities that that they can regroup and and be there uh to enable a a quick Rehabilitation of the area that's all I have today oh I second that um I don't think anyone could have foreseen what's happening in the Asheville North Carolina area they're nowhere near a major body of water they're up high who would have thought that that kind of Devastation would come through it's not like you have deserts that we'll see flash floods sometimes this is not that situation either uh I can't imagine they had no opportunity to prepare because they had no experience no one had any experience with this and it's just heartbreaking really is I just like to reiterate we talked a little bit in our report my report the last meeting about rules and regulations on batteries on uh electric vehicles and bicycles and based on the hurricane what you've seen is some really horrific pictures of uh flooding which caused fires on the electrical vehicle and I just want to emphasize we ought to look at it very carefully and what our rules and regulation are for the town relative to um parking and where they can be parked and the safety issues because if you looked at some of these videos it's pretty scary uh nothing from me town attorney no nothing to report just happy New Year for those who'll be celebrating this week thank you uh yes uh shat TOA um I refrain from the Hebrew Marsh start everybody have a great holiday um uh got some numbers we'll have these conversations I have meetings with each of you next week to talk on some of these capital projects I got some numbers in for the old fire station uh nothing cheap on the island it appears uh so we'll have those conversations to see what your appetite is for a charter question for it or if we don't think about rebuilding or rethinking the project a bit um I'll have photos and the the the schematics to walk you through but uh the numbers uh a little bit shocking so we may want to rethink that because I don't know what your appetite is to ask everybody when you hear you know assessments and recertification Insurance Fire Safety Systems if we want if it's now is the time or do we scale that back so we I have that conversation I just want to put it out there it was a lot more than we thought um and I got quotes I got a written one um from our friends over at Kaufman l I also talk with golf building they kind of confirm the same numbers um so uh I have an authorized pjl to actually start doing hard design just the preliminary design and schematic so you guys can determine you know thumbs up thumbs down let's take a time out um especially when we're looking at sanitary sewer as our priority what I've heard from you all so that is still out the door and we're going to do all those things um but I'll just uh bring that to you ALS so yes thanks for the kind words uh my folks just arrived about an hour and a half ago so they were able to get out of the Carolinas I don't know how they'll have to tell me stories when they see them this evening uh but it from what they said they said it's pretty pretty bad uh devastating is not a an understatement from the level and scope of just damage and just uh it's it's pretty pretty pretty scary uh so hopefully uh not hopefully if I get some photos I'll share you to so you can get some ideas some the scale outside of what you're seeing probably on the news um other than that uh on behalf of the 75th Anniversary committee we had a good working uh meeting this morning kind of working through layouts that made me very nervous but I'm and comforted that it'll be a well planned event um uh but you know getting all those vendors in trying to come up with some unique engagement opportunities for the residents uh with the commission uh with employees with condo board words I think it's a good good chance for everybody to um engage and last and we're still waiting on the plaque for uh the for Mr hman for Doug hman uh don't get anything built out of bronze I guess it's like uh it's some kind of creative design process I didn't know that would take so long um but we're working on that and it's coming forward and I think the chair of the 75th anniversary is giving me the the eyes you want to come you gotta come up to this if you talk you gotta come up some I don't get to touch him much my only comment um years ago a Reverend Robert Schuler in California used to say there's Acres of diamonds underneath your feet and this morning at the meeting with Marshall and his team scander uh Madison I was really impressed I'll say the fire department and the police department coming together as these people spoke you have incredible experience uh the new group of people that are coming on board to be very Frank with they could put on events for the next 20 years without any outside assistance they are very very impressive ashy you had to be impressed this morning that's why I said I was nervous as well as you know impressed at first I was like oh my gosh this is growing into something kind of I'm used to shooting from the hip our events have been smaller than last one was bigger this one boy sure does have the potential to to really be something special as I listen to the uh other the professional speak from both the fire and police I sat back and I said to my team that was there and they worked Las Vegas for years I said wow you have some real real great brain power down here for the future and I went back and I said to my wife in the next 20 years I'd like to be around to enjoy you because they were very impressive Marshall I think you're GNA have some great years ahead I do have the best team so um and you see four five in the room so that's great so um my only comment thank you thank you I definitely Echo that team is outstanding really outstanding that's it thank you well I'm excited about this 75th uh party that that sounds uh something really to look forward to can't wait it's gonna be excellent yeah um announcements board vacancies Board of adjustment of Appeals we have one quote enforcement board we have two vac two three I guess four vacancies a lot of vacancies on the quote enforcement board but we have the magistrate and I guess the magistrate is meeting uh is it for the first time October 8th or something like that so yes that's correct so uh and that will be the first meeting yes that is correct so pretty good what we have implemented is getting started and is uh very good oh here it is under meetings and events October 8th at 1M special magistrate hearing o October 10th 9:30 in the morning planning board regular meeting um October 14th the town hall is closed for Columbus Day and then next day October 15th at 1:30 we have our next town commission meeting and if we have nothing else we can adjourn oh sorry go ahead uh just to follow up on that uh text we did have a chemical scoop bill on the plant uh Pat and his team were able to clean it up fire helped uh did we to evacuate some folks um we're up and running so we're back to we had to buy Boke of water over the weekend while we waited for the parts and new chemicals to come in everything's clean bar Health we're good to go so just want to let everyone know okay with that we adjourn thank you everyone thank you 245 just a broken Val the and got I don't know what else to do even I gave the information out the back of the Sunshine Man I you do you gave me all your yes so I'll check with them okay