have a quorum so I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting at 4:34 on May 6 uh 2024 um I'd like to welcome you all to the last uh superintendent student advisory council meeting of the year um I see a lot of new faces so I would just like to welcome you all to this meeting and I hope that you all enjoy um what we have in store for you um so we're going to go ahead and start with our roll call Olivia if you want to take the rooll yeah of course mm okay Deja Mitchell me sorry Deja Mitchell virtually is she there no okay Connor Upson here Cameron Co here Samuel Matthew I don't see him okay Johan Gordon okay Christopher Thomas here Karina balkon here Francisco sandal Katherine melum okay Dariana mja Cruz okay Kelly May house solarez she's online online she's on way and she's on our way okay should I put in person yeah okay Delila lenan hi guys yeah I'm here okay Gabriella Burke here Nathan ver vertez here Carla Gonzalez here and yep and Samuel Richards here okay perfect all right so we've taken the role so we're going to go ahead and move on to public comment um is there anyone that would like to make a public comment okay seeing that there is no one we're going to go ahead and move on um through our agenda uh we're going to have the opening comment from our superintendent Mr Bert oh thanks Mr Thompson good afternoon everybody um well this is our last meeting at the school year I was just curious how many of you are seniors and graduating uh in the next couple weeks pretty good group of us well hey we really appreciate your service and we're going to miss you next year but we know you're going off to bigger and better things and we'll welcome in some new folks to uh to fill your shoes um I see we're we're dressed up today we got EI our shirts on or where we're heading off to school yeah Miss Burke you're going to FSU that's very fitting like but there's somebody u i saw there's somebody going to UF yeah I thought I saw okay yeah no that's great well presented go no go everybody I'm I'm big supporter I have three kids they went to all different schools so we got to cover between the Gators and the noes and the fa Al can't go wrong but uh any of do any of you have to give a speech at your ceremony commencement St I for president all right okay Samuel you too are you ready you got your speeches ready all right yeah yes I like had to like write the whole thing and have it finalized by last week all I get to do is congratulations you your that's pretty good gig hey that's an important job I wish I had to do that and not give a speech I'm the uh I've been working on my speech and I was going to bounce a couple things off you guys to see because I'm not sure if you would have you heard does anybody know what it means if I say No Cap like does that right so that means so it means please do it please the trth I'll pay you5 okay well now I'm worried what have I said like you guys left no crumbs so that does that make sense that's how you say eight and all right okay guys um when you're talking make sure you turn your mics on and move them close so people online can hear you just side I not and raise your hands as well so we can call on you but for right now it's okay all right well that's really all I had for you today but the I do want to just tell you all joking aside like I really value having this committee I I brag about you guys all the time when I'm out giv different speeches like Chambers of Commerce or groups of parents or whatever and uh you know you're impressive group you really are I mean you're I feel like you're further along in life than I was when I was at your age like you're very I find you'd be very thoughtful and that you care about people Beyond yourself and uh you know you're very articulate with your and eloquent with your comments so appreciate you know all the input you've provided um it is helpful and we do you know trying to get more and more student voice at the table we're making decisions so each school is working on creating their own kind of advisory committee and uh you guys are pioneers so you got us on a good track here we're going to keep it going uh well after you leave us so Simmons that's it for me all right thank you Mr Burke uh we're going to go ahead and move on to an update on the adoption process by Miss Shannon Caruso oh is this hey it's on yes hey everybody it's so good to see you all again and I'm so excited to be here in your presence to see you at the last session it was amazing there you go it was really great to spend some time and to hear your feedback and input on the curriculum process um back in February I am excited to say that in all the categories that you look through the rethink Ed was the main choice and pending board approval pending board approval it will um be going through what's really important is that we heard you we saw you and we understand how important it was that we had that component of the the the group discussion the teacher facilitating the the the lessons and just that incorporation of being able to share the content and the subject matter and so as the SL Team Works to do a roll out of this um curriculum we are going to be making sure that it's facilitator Le and that there are group discussions of the content so really appreciate that um we'll say that there may be some you know small components where there is some independent work along with it but it's not going to be Click Clack Moo it's not just going to be typing and one and done so we really appreciate your feedback on that and we will keep you all posted as the process continues thank you I just want to jump in I just want to jump in and add into what you said we had to actually go back to a couple Publishers and kind of had to read advertise based on your feedback so it made a a huge like Shannon said a huge difference but really appreciate that so hopefully you just you that for seniors won't see that but it'll help other kids in the future so thank you for that hello okay uh thank you Miss Caruso and thank you Mr Oswald um my bad I skipped the uh approval of the minutes so um if everyone want to look over the uh agenda real quick for today just take look at it the green paper excuse me I'm over here looking at the blue um and uh is there a motion to approve the minutes I move to approve the minutes uh is there a second I also move to approve minutes all right uh Cameron second so the minutes are approved so we're going to go ahead and move on um to the student wellness policy uh student input on the student wellness policy by uh Mr Bruce Harris chanina do you want to present or would you like me to present um no um Mr Harris you can go ahead and present okay um there's been a wellness promotion policy since 2006 as required by federal law and state law and we've had five uh revisions since then and they're going through another one right now this is a policy that's um owned by the Food Services I was the attorney for who did the legal review and I'm here as the uh Food Service people cannot be here tonight um I wanted to let you know uh you had seen a copy of this previously because they held a workshop for the for public input um but we wanted uh since the policy has not moved forward since then we want to give you another opportunity to provide input here since they want student input in into this uh policy as well as parents teachers and the whole community and um if you'd like to discuss this here now you can there are certain areas that are in the policy um it tells you the 10 areas that IT addresses you may have some other ideas that you want to present um or uh or addition to that you can also send in comments and uh one of these slides Pro provides you the email address as well as um the square where you can fit figure how to send them in before May 13th because they're trying to wrap it up however if you don't have time to do it by then there's always public comment for board meetings because this would have to go to a board workshop and two public hearings in which you can either appear in person or you can send in written comments the notices to those meetings will indicate how to do that so if you'd like to discuss it right now you're welcome to have discussion among yourselves or you can send it in and you can discuss with other people just can't discuss with other people in this Comm on this committee because of sunshine issues but you can discuss with parents you can send it to parents you can send it to other students you can send it to teachers if they want to give input um so I would open it up now if you want to discuss this here now so um yes um Mr Harris so we're going to give you an opportunity I know I sent the wellness policy to you we're going to give you an opportunity to read the well wellness policy um amongst yourself and cons consider the question considering the current wellness policy for the Palm Beach County School District what additional resources or programs could be implemented to better support the social emotional well-being of students um you can jot down ideas on the copy that I gave you and then we're going to discuss elaborate and build upon each other's ideas in this room you can't discuss it outside of the room um with each other because of sunshine law but you can discuss it in this room and then you can use a QR code to provide feedback before May 13th or you can email your feedback but I'm going to give you about um five minutes to kind of go peruse the wellness policy and think about ideas and thoughts that you can share with the group and if you didn't have time to look at the policy just so if you look on the bottom of the first page there's 10 components that are covered within this wellness policy so you can see and then the rest of the policy broken down into those particular areas from physical education physical activity was the section one section two nutrition environment Services section three counseling Etc so you can see how that's organize sorry I didn't know we were supposed to grab it we came in that's good so an idea is to think about one of the 10 tenants that I mean the nine tenants at the bottom and maybe go to one of those tenants and look that over that interest you [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] see for [Music] [Music] um also make sure you turn your um Chromebooks on and log in just in case they take a few minutes to you know wind up [Music] all right so we're going to go ahead and call for comments and discussion questions um we're going to go ahead and talk about uh the things that we have uh concerning this uh topic so are there any comments discussion questions anything that we wanted to bring up concerning this or just remember guys raise your hands um it's a part of the sunshine laws that we raise our hands and you're called upon to um answer so go ahead Conor um I just is this still a thing being practiced all the schools or are we trying to bring it back into the school system it still occurs within the the school um but we make adjustments each year for the policy to try to strengthen it or make it better based on feedback you say I have a followup question I have a a followup question uh what happens if the school doesn't follow these guidelines well there's a lot of areas that are covered in here so they could be incorporated in certain classes along the K12 Continuum not necessarily all in a particular school that make sense if you have feedback or concerns about a certain area that you'd like to see more of that would be good to give that all right uh Francisco you have a question so it says that the District offers youth Mental Health First Aid training as a as a resource to staff to develop skills to help students um who may be experiencing a mental health or addiction challenge do all teachers and staff know this at all schools or is it just yes currently we're at about 90% % of all of our employees that are trained in youth Mental Health First Aid so the majority of teachers at all your schools have been trained thank you yeah unless they're newer all right do we have any more questions comments concerns concerning uh this feedback feedback like I like I indicated before if you want to think about it or share it with your parents or share with other students who are not part of this committee um please do so and you have an opportunity till May 13 to send to this particular um email address or otherwise when it goes before the board uh you're allowed to provide public comment either verbally or in writing to the board office and uh you may have you know those comments will be considered Mr chairman a point of personal privilege Mr Bruce Harris is a one of our senior attorneys he's had a stellar career with the school district and he's going to be retiring uh in just a couple weeks so the committee would join me and just wishing him well and a big round of applause Mr Bruce Harris my great thank you than you it was a pleasure I I don't know if you recall I spoke at your first meeting and discussed sunshine and a little bit about Robert's Rules oh yeah they're all nodding in the affirmative they remember every Everything said Bruce D you're the one that tries to keep them out of getting in trouble that's right thank you Mr Harris thank you have a great night all right so uh if that's all said and done we're going to go ahead and move on to the next um point in our agenda so right now we are going to have a presentation um by Mr Joseph Sanchez um concerning uh school start time so uh Mr Joseph if You' like to introduce yourself good evening everyone I'm Joseph Sanchez I'm the Chief Operating Officer here at the school district and I'm joined by two of our colleagues I'll let them introduce themselves as well I'm Tasha pier and I'm a manager in the CO's office James Campbell director in Co office all right doc Dr Campell yeah Dr Campbell just he joined us from semal Ridge High School he's a former principal over there a couple other places as well um so I want to talk to you guys about the house bill 733 um so this is the we're going to cover these issues so we going to do a little overview some of the district parameters that we're working through some comparisons some the different St start time options that we start looking at um we look at a couple of different school districts and we look at options that we have for ourselves some of the objections that that I've gathered or we've gathered as a team and then the next steps that we're going to be taking to move forward so first of all House Bill 733 which was passed not this past session but the previous session in 2023 uh by the by the legislature requires that by uh July 1st of 2026 that um that middle schools can't start any earlier than 8:00 and high schools cannot start any earlier than 8:30 um this require this the law also requires that we inform the stakeholders about the impacts of sleep privation on health safety and academics inform them about the benefits of latest start times and also discuss different strategies for implementing latest start times so some of the parameters that we're dealing with uh first of all most of our bus routes take your three take your all three levels they go to high school then they go to elementary school then they go to middle school then it's a little bit different order in the afternoon there's some exceptions to that um if any of you guys are in Choice programs you may be in a different route they don't cover three routes necessarily but most of our buses carry uh take care of three different tiers the elementary schools they're generally around just around just over six hours the school days is over six hours and most of those routes on average about 45 minutes they range hopefully in the morning in the afternoon middle schools are about 6 and a half hour long school day and they rout those routes take about 70 minutes in the morning in the afternoon and then high schools are between seven and seven and a half hours or so um and those routes take about 65 minutes again this is different from choice this is just a typical routes um on the right you see that our bus drivers have an8 hour work day um that's important to them they they need to earn a living and then um they have on in the mornings they do a pre-check on the bus for about 15 minutes and in the afternoons they do another pre they do a post trip check again just to make sure nobody's left on the bus you know things like that again it's all about safety making sure the brakes are work and everything is good like that um the all morning drop offs we need to factor in um give students enough time for breakfast if they want to have breakfast and then at the high schools we just we're implementing the metal detectors so we have to allow enough time for students to get to the metal detectors and get to the get to the to get to the M Tech to have breakfast and then get to class and then for high schools um one of the things high schools have a lot more have flexibility with lunches some of them have one Lunch Period some have two lunch periods some have three lunch periods um we want to make sure there's enough time for students to sit down and have lunch so we don't want to squeeze the day down too too far so we looked at some other the school some other school districts um the first three of them are actually already implementing those those times that they have there and Martin County is going to be introducing their their new schedule next year to comply with the law um you see that Hillsboro is about the size is number of students so Hillsboro is about the same number of students we are they're about 220 we're around 190 or so um geographically Hillsboro is a lot smaller than we are they're about 1, 151 square miles we're almost 2,000 square miles and that makes a big difference because the more compact you are the easier it is to to get your buses around so they have a little bit easier time of doing that but you can see the districts the four District who have determined their times for next year or have already have them in place they're all going ele Elementary then High and the middle that's how they work things out and you can see that the high schools don't start before 8:30 and the middle schools typically start later by by 99 about 9:30 or so down the bottom you see what Palm Beach county is where we are today we3 and then Elementary at 8 and then middle schools um after that thanks so now I'm going to go through the three different options that we've come with and we we have a uh a work group similar to you guys we have a work group of about uh 20 different departments 13 uh principles who have sit on that that work group who have helped who've helped us consider different options and consider all the different challenges that we're going to have with implementing um this law so this first option with elementary schools first um starts with Elementary starting at 7:30 in the morning and finishing up at 1:35 and then you subtitute parentheses for each one of of those you'll see a drop off time that's again to taking place take into consideration giv time for breakfast and giv time for um for getting through the metal detector so you see the drop off times a little bit earlier and sometimes that drop off time is is also determined based upon how much time they need to complete the routes to get to the next schools so that's factored in there as well so we have Elementary stting at 7:30 to 1:35 High School right after that at 8:45 to uh 3 3:45 and then middle schools at 10:15 through 450 so like I said this is most similar to Hillsboro County um one of the major concerns this raised is that um the smallest children the elementary students will be picked up first and in the winter time it's dark in the mornings um so we're concerned about having youngest students waiting for buses or making their way wa to school in the dark um there's also some opportunity there's some concerns about overtime for bus drivers because there's a bigger Gap in the in the middle of the day for the bus drivers our bus drivers work they work the mornings then they they off midday and then they work in the afternoons um so that Gap is longer and then um that's that's one of the concerns that we have as well and then I'm sorry just finish up yeah and then the late start for um they start in in for middle school so you see they starting at 10:15 and finishing at at 4:50 um there's an impact on Middle School sports um we do not have lights on our on our Middle School field so that's going to be an issue um activity buses will be pretty late and then uh Middle School staff middle schools are some of the hardest schools the staff already um but middle schools that have uh you know teachers that have kids in elementary school they're going to have challenges um doing that so we're going to have tough of challenge Staffing our middle schools all right now so um with this second option is the middle school first and remember the law says that middle schools cannot start any earlier than 8 o'clock so this option puts middle schools at exactly 8:00 in the morning and we could drop them off a little bit earlier um Then followed up by by high school starting at 9:15 through 4:35 and then elementary schools um start at 9:45 through 5 550 so a big concern with this one is morning care for for elementary schools one of our bigger challenges also right now as a district is having enough before care and after care workers we there's just not enough people out there who want those jobs right now and that's a challenge after school care for middle school there's not not many of our middle schools do not have after scare programs right now um High School needs to end at 4 435 this is one of those cases where we so the law says that high schools can start as early as 8:30 but this one you see we pulled it back to 9:15 and that's because we need that time in order to drop off those to pick up the kids from elementary school at 350 drop them off and then get those buses to the high schools so they could pick those kids up and and and and get them home if we left it if we try to make that 8:30 then we wouldn't have enough time to to pick up the kids in the afternoon for the high school so that kind of impacts that one this definitely the fourth bullet would impact I'm sure you guys are the brightest are the bright it impacts a lot of dual enrollment kids it's going to impact kids who have have volunteer or after work after that work after after school um kids would pick up their younger siblings big issue for that then the high school sports are going to be impacted because we have to um kids may have to leave St may have to leave school early in order to to make it to their their um the competitions on time and we don't want students to be missing out on um academics in order to make the Athletics then the third option starts with the high schools first again the law says high schools can't start before 8:30 so we'll drop the kids high schools kids off at 8:00 um start school at 8:30 um then we get to the elementary starting at 9:00 and then the Middle Schools starting at at 10:20 so this is the same order as our our current bus routes right now so this is you know basically moving all our routes back an hour or so um just about so it's it's the easiest to implement because we're just moving it back in our but it's also very complicated for some other reasons um so we're again the high school hours are impacted by the drop off time for for the um at the end of the day for for elementary schools and then we have a late start and end for middle schools again middle schools are finishing right around Rush Hour um so that's a big challenge morning care um one thing about about special about the morning care in particular is that you for students who have um IEPs or know students who are have special needs we have to make sure that they're still getting they're being serviced by people who have the skills to service them so it's not you can't just pick up any college kid to watch over kids that that have um they have special needs we have to make sure that they get the care that they need and then um there a number of similar concerns to the first one first option as well all right so um as I mentioned there was a bunch of objections that we received from various stakeholders about the different options and and so some of the things that we that we've heard is that the state should allow us to have some flexibility we are school district pomes county is still a high performing School District um we are doing certain things right that makes us a high performing School District so um we know what we're doing so let's give us that flexibility so we continue to do what we're doing second one is school districts have different programs um like our many of our high schools have seven period days we have Choice programs not all school districts offer the things that we offer here in palmach County so it may be easier for somebody else to do um to to meet the law than it is for us because we we offer such variety of variety of programs third bullet is school districts have different challenges in terms of size of the counties as I mentioned we're different than than Hillsboro we're different than Martin County we're different than places so it takes us it takes our buses to go around um you guys have seen the congestion build even in your short 18 17 18 years you see there's a lot more traffic on the roads these days than um than than it was a few years ago so we believe local communities should have be able to decide for themselves local control and then we believe parents and and students should have options we already have a couple of schools that have later start times Forest Hill High School bah high they already start at 8:30 we have some other schools that start umer as well give give parents and students a choice rather than saying you mandating that you can't start any earlier than this so that's that's what we believe thanks St so um this is the timeline that we have first of we want to make sure we give you guys an opportunity to provide some input as well so there you see a QR code which has a very lead you to a very short um two-minute survey if you want to give your input it's some multiple choice questions but also give you a chance to write things in so I appreciate you do that next month we're going to be going before the school board to present our recommendations to them um then and when we come back in the fall well actually starting in the summer through the fall we're going to be doing State Cal in inut um you guys are part of that stakeholder input um may see graduating Moving on but want to make sure we get the community and others to to provide their input we're going to have some we have a survey that's going to be available and we're also going to have forums throughout forums throughout the um throughout the county in November October November we're going to be having a workshop with our board to talk about what our priorities are to bring back to the state legislature which meets in um beginning of 20 25 and let them know what's important to us and then uh January through March of next year we're going to incorporate all that input that we got from the community from the stakeholders and by um April of 2025 we want the board to vote on which option they want to go with and then we're going to spend the next 14 months from May 25 to August 26 communicating the plan making sure we prepare get the routes together preliminary routes because routes change every year somewhat um um let you know adapts to Extended Learning early if we have Early Child Care you know Sports all those things need to make some adjustments allow for transfers when we when we if we have to change the schedules we have to let employees have an opportunity to change schools if they want to um if we make some impact there could be an impact on Choice transportation and courtesy writers and we have to give those parents and those students an opportunity to appeal those changes so they can say you know don't change this because this is how this negatively affects us we know that absente absente is an issue and we want to we don't want to make things worse by creating schedules and calendars that are going to make things harder for for kids to get to school and then um by August 2026 we're going to meet the law if the law is still in place and we'll we'll be in we'll be ready to go but the key for this slide here really is we want to get your input we want to hear from you guys um we want to know what's important to you I know represent high schools primarily but I know that you you probably have younger siblings but you also speak for for other students as well so your input is is very viable to us so with that um ready to take any questions Mr chair um I actually have my own question sure so concerning uh well thank you for uh giving us this presentation it's actually very informational um concerning times I feel well this is more of a comment I don't know if you are you open to taking comments absolutely okay so um as a high schooler um I'm involved I'm in the marching band we just came from Atlanta I'm very tired right now you can probably hear it in my voice but being um very involved I'm staying after school daily and for high schoolers moving the start time back up a lot how does moving let's say we move the high school start time to 9:00 that pushes back um our times for after school activities and events because normally high schoolers have more after school uh and then maybe middle school and Elementary so if you were to push back High School by a lot then how would that affect things like the activity bus how would that affect things like when am I getting home after band practice or football practice so that's just the way I'm thinking about it how does that play a role in everything after school as well not just you know dealing with the morning getting to school and then leaving what about those kids that are actually involved as well absolutely that that's that's major major concern is how does that impact kids that do all that stuff because you're right if it's it's going to be hard it's gonna be harder for you guys to participate in all those things that you participate in now because it basically puts it back later they the the legislature voted for this because they believe that you would get more sleep and You' be more rested in the morning I don't know if that's a true if that's true or not um because we we have like I said we have two high schools that that have a later start time and I when I hear from their principles they tell me that the kids just stay up later you know but you know I want to hear from you guys well and uh thank you for that comment and uh just to pick it back off of what Mr Sanchez said the the counties that are doing this like Hillsboro um you know from what we understand they don't offer as much as much as we do here in Palm Beach County for our students so yes that is a valid concern about extracurriculars which are very important um to you guys and sometimes for some students that's what drives you you know to come here is being a part of those activities so um we we thank you for that because we're that's what we're here for to hear how makes you feel and how you feel that your uh classmates will feel about this I turned it off sorry so we're gonna go ahead and call on Delilah I think that is I can't see from here delil okay Delila you have a comment or question hi guys can you guys hear me yes we can hear you okay I just kind of wanted to build off of what you said because that was honestly one of the first things that I thought of too that I'm so involved that I feel like I right now feel like I don't have enough hours in the day to get everything done because as a student not only am I worried about my academics and study time and homework and stuff but also getting my sports done my job everything like that and I know that if I had like an extra hour to wake up that wouldn't be helping me with sleep at all if anything that would be like making me stay up later because now I'm getting home from work later and I have homework to finish that's going to be finished even later and honestly I think about like the real world all jobs start around like 6 7 early so I don't understand why we'd be like enabling students to get adjusted and used to like later start times when in the real world that's not how it works and then also um like I understand like I'm one of the like few students who are very involved in school and that would have like those problems but a lot of students that I know work and I think that like by starting it later we would be getting to like work later which means we'd be working later but also like cutting it down on our hours and an hour a day is a lot of money