Heat. Heat. down. Down. Welcome to today's regular schoolboard meeting. This regular meeting of the school board of Broward County, Florida is now called to order. Our primary focus is to create a safe and productive environment for all participants. Please
be reminded of the exit doors that are clearly marked for emergency exiting. While in the boardroom, refrain from obstructing the exit doors. All attendees must occupy a seat with the exception of media. Once the boardroom has reached its seating capacity, attendees will be directed to a designated overflow area. Upon
activation of the fire alarm system, please exit from the room in an orderly fashion and continue to exit the building and remain outside until the authority that has jurisdiction is deemed the building safe to return. Thank you for your cooperation. Board member Dr. Zean will now introduce
his school to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. Dr. Zean, >> thank you, Chair. I am overwhelmed and and joyous today and grateful uh that we have Western High School uh to be here with us today in two different ways. Uh
Western High School's cheerleading team was the state champion cheerleading team for the state of Florida this year, which is pretty darn remarkable. Led by Coach Kerry and under the leadership obviously of the principal, the great Michelle Padura. Uh we are
incredibly proud of you. If you could please join me uh by rising and let's join uh Western High School uh with the Pledge of >> Allegiance. Arch upward arch. Please stand for the pledge of
allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
>> Please be seated. Art blue. Chair, can I finish my comments about Western? Thank you so much. Uh Western is a remarkable high school. Many, many people in Broward are very familiar with its outstanding accomplishments. Last year, the class of uh 2025 earned $13
million in scholarships. 355 Bright Future scholarships. 195 of their students finished with a full Cambridge uh diploma. Several of their students went to militarymies. Uh the good news is they went to uh the Air Force and to the Army's West Point. Uh the bad news
is none of them qualified for the Navy. So we'll have to work on that, Miss Padura, uh a little bit for next year. Uh but Western High School is just one example of outstanding schools in our Broward County uh network. And I'm really really proud of their color guard under Master Sergeant Vieas coming here today to celebrate with us. Thank you,
Chair. Thank you. >> The superintendent released a revised agenda with certain changes for this meeting and published it on the school district's website. The chair finds pursuant to section 120.525 Florida statutes that good cause exists
for such changes and accepts the revised agenda. May the chair have a motion and a second to close the agenda. >> Moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon. All in favor of closing the agenda, say I. >> I. >> Those opposed say no. The agenda is now closed. Um, and Mr. Rupert is on the
line. May the chair and have a motion and a second on to approve the minutes for the following meetings. December 16th, 2025, regular schoolboard meeting. January 6th, 2026, special meeting. January 21st, 2026, special meeting. Expulsions. January 13, 2026, special
school board meeting. >> So moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon. Is there any discussion? All in favor of approving the minutes as listed say I. I. >> Those opposed say no. The minutes are approved. As we prepare to begin our
regular schoolboard meeting, we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all students. As an A-rated school district, our vital task is to sustain this achievement. We will continue educating all students to reach their highest potential. Our theme this year is believe, empower, achieve. One
Broward. The chief of staff and communications officer pulled the board of any agenda items they wish to address in advance of the meeting. The following consent of items have been p identified for discussion. B1, F2, M1, 01, and O2.
Um, Dr. Holus had originally pulled H2. He informed me this morning that he no longer needs to pull H2. So, I've removed that from the list. At this t time, may the chair have a motion and a second to pass the consent items that have not been pulled for discussion?
>> H1, H3, A1, A2, F1, and H2. >> So moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Thompson. Are there any registered speakers on the items that have not been pulled for discussion? >> Yes, Madam Chair. We have registered speakers for H1 and H2.
June Cole, Patricia Hill, Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh. You may please proceed to the podiums. >> Good morning. My name is June Cole. I want to address H1. Over the past year and a half and make a comment. Over the past year and a half, I've been dealing
with a series of health issues that have compromised my immune system. Because of this, I'm deeply concerned about the environmental conditions of several school facilities where I have worked and have been present. I'm formally requesting a facilities consision
condition assessment and an air quality analysis including but not limited to mold ventilation humidity and particle matter testing for the following locations high school Deerfield Beach High School
Blanch Elely High School and my current high school Coconut Creek High School. Documentation of any prior or ongoing environmental or air quality concerns at these sites, including reports, work orders, remediation efforts, and inspection results
to the extent permitted by law and privacy protections aggregate information not identifying individuals regarding current or former Broward County Public School employees who have reported respiratory issues or related
health complaints that may be associated with envir environmental conditions at these or any locations. Given my compromised health status, I'm requesting this information so I can better understand any potential environmental contributions to my condition
and ensure that appropriate corrective action are taken to protect staff and students. Please provide an estimated timeline for when these assessments and records will be available. If at any part in this request cannot be fulfilled, please specify the reason in
writing. And I want to say thank you from Coconut Creek High School. I'm currently on a leave of absence for the past year and a half because of this. Thank you. Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh, Plantation, Florida. I did not hear Ses in SAM, but
I'm also signed up for S1. Um, as for H1, every board meeting we're bring items are being brought where we're nickel and dimming sta the lower level staff. Um, what should be happening is an all day
workshop on what kind of structure you're going to have moving forward. Centralized decentralized I don't necessarily see that happening, but that's what should be happening. um specifically on this item because you
have duplicate finance, accounting, IT, and budget type positions in individual business units and there's no way they're not duplicating efforts. Um you have the business support center, which is neither procurement nor logistic
operations. It's hanging out over there. task assignments. In the real world, in the for-profit world that I come from, this is what would happen when somebody would leave. So and so just resigned, we're going to need you to take on their
responsibilities. Was there an item to give you more money? No. If after a few months you showed that you could do that job, you could probably negotiate yourself a raise. And if that didn't work, you went to
someplace else with your new found skills and they gave you a raise. And then sometimes the first company would hire you back after a couple of years at even more money. This is the only place where before you even know if they can do something, the second they get task
assigned, they're given more money. And you don't know if they're screwing up job number two worse than they screwed up job number one. or maybe they were competent at job number one, but you've taxed them too much for job number two. So now you're giving them money and and they're maybe doing the
job. So when you do start talking about the org chart, here are some additional suggestions. I would love to see an org chart that shows dollars attached to each position and below the line because we're
probably going to start cutting all of the little people instead of consolidating some of the people on the chart or eliminating them all together. uh lists a list with all of the positions with money and a 10-year history of the ORG chart costs per
student by department and in total because we keep seeing where the amount of administrative staff has grown as students have been shrinking and teachers have not grown. they grow with students in terms of the growth, but
administrative costs are way out there and you need to know all of these things so you know what kind of structure you need in the future and who you should be cutting. Thank you. >> Next, Patricia Hill followed by President Anna Fusco for H2, Ashley
Charles, Robert Merchant, Good morning. My name is Patricia Hill. Um, I was here at the last meeting. Um, I had got terminated because of someone using my identity, but um, I just spoke with a couple of
folks just now while I was sitting and they handled a situation already. So, I guess I'm good. Thank you. Have a nice day. >> Next public speaker,
>> President Anna Fusco, followed by Ashley Charles, Robert Merchant. >> So, I signed up for H1 and H2 just in case I want to cover everything. Um, Miss Hill is not in Broward Teachers
Union, but anybody that knows Anna Fusco likes to speak and and and stick up for the processes and how they're handled and how it goes through you. And you guys are deciding approval. You put your name on it. We
agreed with it. We agreed with staff. She sat up here last time and spoke. Well, I've had members come in and speak and I do appreciate that you guys hold back on some and let's go back and re but she clearly said someone lied and
stole their identity. And then staff came up and said, "Nah, we don't see it that way." So, I'm reading documents that clearly shows. Let's see. Miss, I had to call you out,
but you did ask me to help. So, this is how I roll because maybe they Oh, she might have left because she might be, you know, she's embarrassed. She deserves to get reinstated, but you shouldn't have never let her go. You guys are quick to drop the hammer on the the lowlevel rank and file, but yeah, we got millions of dollars sitting
right here. Let me see. >> Clearly from the state attorney that that someone stole her identity. I can't even imagine. I know they want to steal my identity. They don't want to they don't want to identify and be a fusco. I can't imagine
though. And then loses her job. And now we're going to rectify it. How many people have gone through 30,000 employees of Brower County Public Schools, not for this instant, but they release non-renew
our forget about our probationary teachers because we're on the topic right now of H1, our probationary teachers. You're not a good fit per statue. I'm going to let you go and then but don't worry, you can come back in August and we'll rehire you. So, I want you to pay attention to that because this is all
tied into what I'm saying of the recklessness and fearlessness of that. Let's just do it. Come back if you can or take us to court. That's the best one. Take us to court. Like, you guys got a boatload of money
to keep hiring these outside attorneys, which by the way, I have public records requested on what kind of money you pay out to them. And I don't get it. But I don't get the records haven't come. So that's telltale. So Broward Teachers Union and other
bargaining groups and the other unions have come with some solutions on how you can save money. But the releasing and then bringing back, I would like you guys to ask for cost factors on that. See, I always I puddle jump, but I always have a tiein
to where I'm really getting at. on what the real cost factors are when you have these large job fairs. You you hire people, then you released them on probation because whatever financial situation. What is that? What $100
million problem going on? And you want to keep it on the backs of the employees. So that's my uh conversation. And so whatever it takes, and I appreciate the group over there because they're a good group, you know, they're just being driven by somebody of a higher power to
reinstate when we do a wrong quicker than later. >> Ashley Charles, Robert Merchant, >> welcome. I'm not Ashley Childs. I'm Memorald. the administrative council. I'd ask to respond to uh the BTU representative
through the chair. Please go ahead. >> So with respect to Miss Hill, the Florida statute for level two screening uh is current and uh new employees, right? So we do background checks for new employees. Certain things
come back, they must be convictions. Um they can actually be not just convictions, but I won't get into those details. With respect to the situation with Miss Hill, this uh body um the the professional standards committee in consultation with
legal made a decision that on the 435.04 statute which is the level two screening when a disqualifying offense comes in under statute we have the authority even before the person is formally charged to dismiss them to terminate them. We have
that authority. However, a decision was made that we would wait to see if the person was formally charged. In this case, Miss Hill was formally charged. Once the state attorney issued the what's called nulls, the dismissal of
those charges, then we can proceed to reinstate. We received that yesterday and that's pretty quick. Normally, in these criminal charges, if an all proc is going to be issued, it could take up to a year. This happened faster and it
happened as a result of staff reaching out to see what was going on with the state attorney based on the last meeting because there was a concern. So, um, she's being reinstated. It is not willy-nilly. It is
required by statute. She's charged. We dismiss. She's exonerated or the charges are dismissed. we can reinstate and we reinstate effective the day that the charges are dismissed which is being done. I just wanted to respond to that
so that the record was clear. >> Any questions? >> Any board questions for our council? >> Mr. Severa then Dr. Holes. >> Thank you chair. Um is the young lady still here or did she leave? um to our general counsel. Uh I'm
reading the no pro. Well, first and foremost, I I just want to make sure that I understand and perhaps more importantly that the public understands. If you are employed in this district in any capacity and you are arrested and you are charged with a crime, uh I
apologize. I I tried to scribble the statute down, but I missed it. I think you said it was 400 something. >> It's 435.04. It's a disqualifying offense. It's not just any crime. >> Okay. So, if you are charged, arrested and charged with a disqualifying offense under this statute, does the statute
require the district to in fact either terminate or place on leave or take some sort of action? >> It requires the district to terminate, place on leave, or take some sort of action. Absolutely. And the disqualifier requires termination until such time as there's clarity with respect to the
charges. That means let the criminal dispos disposition work itself out. If the p the charges are dismissed, we reinstate. If the person is exonerated through a a jury trial, we dismiss. Uh so, >> okay. So, just just want to make sure we're clear. This district did what the
statute required us to do. >> Yes, sir. >> This wasn't a vendetta against anybody personally or anything like that? >> Absolutely not, sir. >> Okay. Fantastic. Um on the um I didn't read the entire information when it came down. I know it was talked about at the last hearing. I'm looking at the no pros document,
>> okay, that came in from the uh state attorney's office and uh this was Monroe County if I'm not uh mistaken, the 16th judicial circuit. The no pro document that I'm looking at says as to um defendant in counts three and 11 only,
>> which were the disqualifying offenses. >> Okay. Are there still pending charges against this young lady? >> My understanding is there's a little bit of confusion as to pending charges. I have other information that the charges I went to the Monroe County website
yesterday and looked and it appears that all her charges were dismissed. So, we do need clarity on that. But my concern, our concern and professional st the professional standards department concern was were the disqualifiers and those were the disqualifiers. Those have
been dismissed as far as as far as the other charges because there were other counts. Um my understanding is that she has been exonerated of those charges because those were the ones she was charged with. This was a multi-defendant case.
>> That's exactly what I was getting because it identified her as to a defendant. Yes. A in parenthesis. Okay. And clearly on the no pros we can agree that it says a subsequ and I quote subsequent investigation shows that the defendant's name and identity were used fraudulently during the course of
criminal activity and the defendant's actions did not demonstrate criminal intent. Um my recollection of when Miss uh Hill came in at the last meeting um she indicated that her identity was stolen. this. And of course, I'm not a
criminal defense attorney, nor do I care to be in that space, but my interpretation of this would indicate that in fact, her identity was improperly used in the commission of a crime and it didn't involve uh Miss Hill. Is that accurate?
>> That is accurate. And as I as was stated at the last meeting on that issue, that is the that is the that's the job of the state attorney to come to that decision >> 100%. >> Right. until until the charges are formally dismissed, our hands are proverbally tied.
>> Okay, fantastic. So, just just for the benefit of the public, um some charges were lodged. Miss Hill uh hired counsel. Uh council did what council does in a situation like this. The state attorney
investigated it, found out that in fact, Miss Hill's identity was either taken or someone gave the police her name when clearly it wasn't her. She has now been um dismissed and or exonerated from these charges. The state attorney has
issued a no pro document. Those cases that case is over as far as Miss Hill is concerned and now she has a right to be back uh and reinstated and joined BCPS again. Correct. >> Uh that is correct. And I witnessed a conversation between professional
standards where she was told as much. >> Okay. Fantastic. So this is certainly an unfortunate situation. I I think we can all agree, but what I what I what I want to be clear on is this is something from what I'm being told and from what it I'm
hearing in our conversation that the district followed the procedure that was in place. This is obviously a very unfortunate situation in in which the wrong person was was fingered for a crime. Right. She has now been cleared and the district is now going to make this right upon her. Correct.
>> Absolutely correct, sir. >> Okay. Thank you. And I want to thank uh Miss Hill for coming in twice uh and explaining what happened. Um tell your attorneys they did a a fantastic job. I think we heard from council that it usually takes a lot longer than this. So
uh certainly give your uh your kudos to your council who represented you in this case. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Holes. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. So um Miss Hill was an employee. How long was
she out of work? Um, how long was she um terminated? >> Heather Parente, director of professional practices. She was terminated at the last board meeting and we received her paperwork from as as
Malda just shared with you as of yesterday. So, she will be reinstated as of yesterday. >> Okay. So, I I know her identity was stolen and I know that the district um followed process. Um but Dr. Heburn um
stolen identity can happen to anyone. It can happen to us here on the board, right? Um it's just one of those things that's unfortunate that happened to this individual. So, can the district choose? I know it doesn't have to, but I just want to know
if we can choose to retropay for her lost time. >> I'm not sure what the specific protocols are. If HR can can u provide some info on that. >> Dr. Hois, we will look into that and um meet with the employee, work with legal
and followup. >> Okay. So, so I know we it's not something we have to do, but I I I think on a moral level it would seem like stolen identity could happen to any individual. It could happen to me. It could happen to Dr. Hepern.
>> So, we need to at in my opinion um be considerate and caring the best way we can for when those things happen. So, I would love to know and and I'm know I know you're going to do your research, but I think it would be a very kind gesture to this individual and to all of
our employees sending a message of care that when things like this happen out of your control and you're not at fault, then Broad County Public Schools will react in a caring and kind manner. So, I am hoping the answer will be yes. And if
it is, I I think we should. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Any other Oh, are Mr. Hill, are there any other public speakers? >> That concludes public speaking. >> Okay. Um, any other board discussion on the items
that have not been pulled? Okay. All in favor of approving the consent agenda items that have not been pulled for discussion say I. >> Those opposed say no. Uh, items pass unanimously. Um, at this time, I will turn it over to Dr.
Heburn for a presentation of recognition. Dr. Heepburn. >> Thank you. U Madam Chair, um board members, and the public. Before I get to the actual presentation, I want to give a quick report. Um first of all, I'd like to begin by recognizing the
district's annual Caliber Awards. I want to thank our staff who work behind the scenes to put together an outstanding event and thank our school board for joining us to celebrate excellence across Broward County Public Schools. The evening was a powerful reminder of the extraordinary talent, dedication, and heart within our district. This
caliber awards, this year's caliber award recipients are teacher of the year, Dr. Saima Sanala Sala. I know I was going to miss her day, but sorry, Dr. Sala, if you're listening. uh science teacher at Plantation High
School, principal of the year, Cormick Prister at Rock Island Elementary School, assistant principal of the year, Anna Colultonova at uh Marjorie Stoman Douglas High School, and our school district employee of the year, Vanderbilt Carpenter III,
security specialist at Deerfield Beach High School. Each of these winners represent the very best Bar of Barrett County Public Schools, and we are grateful for their impact they make every day in our schools and classrooms. With that, I'll ask Beacon to roll the tape now and then we'll have a a special
presentation right after Heat. Thank you. What an awesome event. So, now on to the uh special presentation. On Friday, January 16th, one of our producers at Beacon, Dino uh Deserie,
who everyone knows as Dino, visited William Dandy Middle School to film a student who was receiving a Just Do It award next month. While getting organized in the school patio, Dino suddenly fell to the ground and went into cardiac arrest. Principal Michelle Williams and the William Dandy
administrative team took immediate action. They shut down the patio area and placed the school on lockdown to ensure everyone's safety. The school nurse Tiana Graham began administering CPR, but Dino remained unresponsive for 11 long minutes. Miss Graham acted
decisively using a defibrillator to restart Dino's heart by the time EMTs arrived on the scene. When he left the campus, Dino was breathing again. Dino was transported to Florida Medical Center in critical condition and was later told by the doctors that his
survival was a miracle. Nine of nine out of 10 victims of cardiac arrest do not survive. Dino not only survived, he welcomed Principal Williams and Miss Graham for a visit that same evening at the hospital. After his surgery, he was back in the in the control room in the
board meeting on Wednesday following the three-day holiday weekend. The entire Yes, that's Dino. The entire school team is to be commended for their swift action. Bard County Public Schools celebrates Miss Graham's expeditious response and heroic
efforts to save Dino's life. Miss Graham, in recognition of your bravery and self selfishness, the school board of Ber County, Florida, and in partnership with our strategic partner Etna proudly presents you this specially curated gift basket, which includes a Visa gift card along with a selection of
valuable health and wellness items. We can have Miss Graham come to the front. Also, Dino, if you're back there, come on down. Also, we can have all of you guys come to the front.
Thank you, Miss Graham, for exemplifying courage and compassion in the for in the face of an emergency. And thank you for taking care of our students and staff at William Dandy. We'll recess the meeting. Highway anyway. Amazing.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Hey, Heat. Happy blue. Heat. Heat. That was moment. One ingredient. Let's turn.
King. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down
down All right, we are back to our regular school board meeting. Could I get a motion and a second on item G1? >> So moved. >> Moved by Miss Hixon, second by Dr. Zean. Public comment on G1. >> No comments. >> Um, I just pulled this because it was a
late addition. I wanted to give my colleagues the the courtesy of being able to speak to it. So, is there any board discussion on G1 >> G1 Golf One, >> Miss Baldman? >> Um, thanks, chair. I I just I just looked at this. Um, so just to our
general counsel, you feel comfortable with this conflict waiver? >> Yes. There's only three attorneys in the state that does this type of work, and the conflict is not such that it puts the board at risk. >> Perfect. Thank you. Any other board
discussion on item G1? All in favor of G1 say I. >> All oppose say no. >> Item passes unanimously with Miss Rouper on the line. I get a motion and a second on item G2. Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Bulman. Public comment on G2.
>> No comment. >> Board member discussion on G2. >> All in favor of G2 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. Item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion in a second on F2? >> So move. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss
Thompson. Public comment on F2. >> One speaker, Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh. >> Good morning again, Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh, Plantation, Florida. Um F2. Last year and the year before the audit
committee uh was relentless in trying to understand what was in the fund balance. We knew the charter school settlement was in there and uh we tried to get clarity on whether the referendum carryover was in
there and uh the answer is yes that's in there which means it's in assigned as opposed to say restricted for a specific purpose. Um so that those are the two things propping up the fund balance.
Were you to move either or both of those things um that percentage of assigned unassigned would uh disappear almost altogether. However, we heard because I can't unhear
these things. On the 21st of January, the CFO was asked as of today because that's how you have to phrase these things and I appreciate Dr. is even catching himself because depending on how you ask a question around here, you're going to get a different answer. Even though you think you're asking the
same question. If you ask of today as opposed to the November report, the December report, you're going to get a different assign unassigned percentage out of staff. So he asked on the 21st as of today, what would the balance be? And it what would the percentage be? And it
was 2.59. We're now in February and I see that a question's been asked again. We don't have We now have the December report which is I believe 2.94 was it? No, it
went up 3.94. I don't know. Um I'm not looking at December because now I'm I'm concerned about January because if it's at 2.59 on the 21st of January, what is it as of the end of January? Because we're now in February. But that is not a
question that's been asked of staff. They got asked what is it? But if you don't give as of a specific date, they come back with something. Oh, well, we expect it to be at or just above the 3% threshold on any given day they're projecting year end to be that. Is that
accurate? I don't know. Are you going to have uh referendum in there? And are you going to change how you classify that? Because understand that assigned has a lower um you can move they're moving things around. You don't they don't need board approval if they use it for
something else. With committed they do which is why that 54 million has sat there. With restricted they it's beyond the board. They just can't touch it which is where the referendum dollars should be. Um so it'll be very interesting to see what happens at the
end of January. Thank you. No other comments. >> I have Miss Sixon. Thank you. Um, and good morning. I just would like to ask the CFO if she could
kind of explain what was said in the January 21st because I think the way things were worded was concerning and I know that by state statute if we are projecting to be at a
certain number we have to notify the state and it sounded as if we were projecting below that number. So can you just kind of explain that and where we are in terms of what is our projected
p general fund per balance um as of today. Good morning to the chair. This is Romaner Johnson CFO. I just want to explain the fund balance with how it works. I'm going to respond to your last
question. The fund balance as of today projected for June 30th is at the 3% mark. Now when we do fund balance when we do budget amendments the budget amendments as is as of that month we're
showing actual fund balance. Now projections change based on third count did not come in yet. So we didn't know the exact number. So that's why it's projected. I have to wait till third count comes into play and get those
numbers and it does change. It varies. We could project the number but the actual number could be different. Thank you. So based on what you said as of today our projected number would be at 3%. Thank you very much for clarifying that.
>> Uh Miss Rupert, >> mine was the same question. Thank you >> Dr. Zean. >> Thanks so much chair. Um I have four questions today. Um first is a systems issue and I think we need to think about this as a board uh all the time because
of what happened last year. Last year we spent $75 million that was not approved in the school board's budget. And it's impossible to run an organization that doesn't manage uh to the budget. And this year we have a commitment from the superintendent uh
empowering the CFO to make sure we don't do that. So I'm going to start with this question. Will any cost centers, whether by function or object, spend more than they were budgeted this year? The >> answer is no. We have title controls and
monitoring. >> Terrific. Um, and I appreciate Miss Hixon's point and and our speaker's point about the end of year fund balance. The law says it's it's not your projected where you need to report, but at the end of the year, if you are below three, there's a reporting standard at two. There's some other things that
happen. Um, so it's great to hear from our CFO that we're projected to be uh over just over 3% at the end of the year. And for the audience and for anybody else that cares, there's this wonderful presentation next week that's coming and a discussion at the workshop
about how we're going to balance uh our expenses and revenue for the balance of the year. uh our system has changed uh because our atom of growth is a student and the student flows have changed uh in large urban districts in the United States and
it's very common now for us to um uh have more students who leave throughout the year than who join and that makes budgeting very very challenging and I'm really really tickled to uh take some time next week uh on the agenda and and spend some time uh talking about our our
budget this particular report end of December, uh, we have revenue up 15 million, but expenses up 22.5. So, our net financial positions down $7.5 million on a $5.5 billion base. That's, uh, u not too much to be concerned
about. But next week at the workshop, um, I do want to ask my colleagues to think about something this week before we get to the workshop next week, which is this item. This monthly report always starts out with the same sentence that says this is not required by schoolboard policy. This is required by state
statute. So, this is the minimally uh necessary report to the board. Here's our expenses. Here's our report. Um, we're at a new time in money in Broward County. Declining enrollment in big numbers that we've never seen before. Uh, state who has not added appreciably
to the funding uh stream for uh traditional or charter public education uh for the past several years. My belief is that we need to think seriously about what else we want to see every month as as we're tracking money in this new uh this new environment that we're living
in. Um so I'll talk about that next week. I might even bring a menu of some options that we can think about to add to this report. Um because the board is statutoily responsible for approving the budget and monitoring the budget all year long. If what we get is the minimally acceptable report uh as our uh
data, you know, to manage it, I think we have to um explicitly say that next week in the workshop and if not uh maybe come to consensus with some other things that we'd like the superintendent and the CFO to bring to us. That's all I have chair because we're going to be talking about this next week
at the workshop in in great detail. Uh but I would like us to think a little bit about whether or not this report is really giving us what we want or if there's other data that we might want to get on a monthly basis. Thanks chair. >> Any other board discussion? All in favor of F2 say I.
>> I. >> All oppose say no. >> Item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item 01? >> So moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hickston. Public comment on 01. >> No speakers. >> Board member comment. Can I have Miss
Rupert? Miss Rupert. Yeah, I had trouble getting back in there. Um I had the one question for this which um I'm not sure if the answer happened yet. Um and this is uh
who sits on the CQ committee. I don't know if that was sent to me. If it is, then I will look. Um, and I think maybe to check via the superintendent to John Sullivan. >> No, we have uh Mr. John White here in
procurement. Um, Miss Rupert, if you still have that question. >> Can we um Thank you. Uh, if we could answer that question. Thanks. >> Could you repeat the question, Miss uh Rupert? >> Um, who sits on on this committee? Names and companies. It could be a followup,
but um I just >> Okay. The >> that's the question. Who sits on it? >> The QC committee is determined by policy 7003 and 7003.1. Uh I can provide you a copy of that that
indicates the positions and organizations that are appointed to the QET committee. >> Okay. Um do you know what they are offand those committees or no? I mean those people who sit on the committee >> uh I do not have them by specific names.
I can email you the list of names and uh the uh excerpt from the policy that shows you the organizations. >> Um that would be perfect. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you madam chair superintendent.
>> Any other board discussion? >> All in favor of item 01 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. Item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on O2? >> So move. >> Moved by Dr. Zean. >> Could I get second by Miss Hixon? Public
comment on O2. >> No speakers. >> Uh board member comment. I have Dr. Hoess. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. So for item O2 which is a summary of progress for economic development opportunities and
compliance department. Um I am looking at the um the quarter 2 certified spend by ethnicity chart and it shows that
8% of the district spend for quarter 2 for certified small local business. It shows they receive 8% which is $30 million
from a total of $375 million in district spend. The 8% represents um the share of what was provided to um these certified small firms,
African-American, Asian, Hispanic, non-minority, veteran business, and white female. So from all of what we have, all of
these groups receive 8% Um, I think uh it is fair to say that um based on the demographics of Broward County uh that we should have
um we should have uh it appears there's disparity in and whether it's intentional or not um I think as a district we need to try to do the best we can to make sure that
we are giving opportunities to all groups because when you have 8% which means 92% goes to one group and 8% goes to everybody else white females veterans Hispanic Asian African-American
um Dr. Heburn, I I hope that we are doing everything we can to try to attract um uh minority firms uh to um you know to um uh bid for for
work and is can you reiterate what we are doing so far because the disparity here is pretty significant and to me it's concerning. >> Thanks for the question Dr. Hol. I have the procurement team um provide some info. >> Thank you very much. One thing you will
note if we go back and look at historically what we've been spending uh for example in the fourth quarter of FY25 that number was 13.8%. In the third quarter it was 12.56. So for the particular reporting period
our numbers are down. If you look on the second page of the report that was provided, you see the uh district spend by commodity and certain commodities we did extremely well in. For example, if you look at major construction, we were
spending 32%. Uh but there were some other areas like academic and student services where $48 million went to non-certified firms and only $108,000 went to certified firms. So that really
dilutes the fine efforts that the EDOC department has been doing. And I've got Michael Scott who's the director here who can give you a brief overview of the types of outreach activities that we are handling here. >> Okay. I'm sorry. Could you so would you
say in quarter 2 with 8% of the certified um small business firms comprising of African-American, Asian, Hispanic, white females, veterans? Would you say 8% is a bit low?
>> I would say it's low and it's an anomaly. Yes. >> Okay. So, so I'm assuming 92% would be uh firms owned by white males and everyone else is 8%. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay.
Michael, >> good morning. Economic development opportunity and compliance officer, Michael Scott, uh through the chair, Dr. Holdness. Yes, we are doing tons of outreach uh through our department. We're doing brunch and learns. They're doing matchmakers to let the community know that Broward County Public Schools
does like to do business with our local small businesses. We've I've spoken personally at uh city of Myiar events, uh Arrow events. I've spoken at numerous agency uh outreach events as well, just letting the community know that we are open for business and we are looking to
certify businesses to bring in more businesses to increase those numbers. >> Okay. So, I I appreciate the comments and I and just for the record, um 8% is is just it just doesn't look right. But thank you for your comments. Thank
you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. Any other board member discussion, Miss Thompson? >> I just wanted to give a shout out to Michael Scott's team because they did come to a event in Myiar um to talk to the community about small business opportunities. So, they definitely are getting out and doing their best. Thank
you. Any other board member discussion? Any other board member discussion? All in favor of O2 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. >> Item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion to second on item S1?
>> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon. Public comment on S1. >> One registered speakers, Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh. Good morning again, Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh. Um, I got to parse out my 12 minutes. So, on this one, when I heard what the issue was, I said, "This sounds
a lot like what happened to the chief auditor with the Forvis Masers being assigned. There seemed to be something where Broward was the lone hold out and everybody else could figure it out and get out of the way." So, I could not
tell from the language in the agreement what the problematic language was. And that would have been helpful because then I wouldn't have signed up to speak if I could see, you know, what was the problem, what was the holdup that had all of these parents losing their mind on social media. And there are dates
that start, I think, on the 21st. Nobody needs this kind of stress again, whether it's graduations, color guard, or anything dealing with children. So, I hope that you will get an explanation for what the holdup was because um I would certainly like to have one and I
hope I don't have to do a public records request to get it. Thank you. >> No other comments. >> I have board member comment. Miss Hixon. >> Thank you. Um and first I'd like to say thank you to Mrs. Jacques Adams. um I
think for getting this done just to give a little timeline because I think there was a lot of things on Facebook that um maybe weren't accurate. So January 30th at 4:41 p.m. I got a text which I'm going to guess many of my board members
um got a similar text around the same time um in desperation that there was an issue with this contract and that was the first time we as a board were were aware of that. So, I immediately called Superintendent and Miss Shock Adams, which I'm going to guess most of my colleagues did as well. Um, because this
was a very important thing for everyone across the district. Um, they went right into trying to figure it out. Miss Jacqu Adams was not aware of the situation. She called me at 9:00 on Friday night to tell me what she had figured out and that she had called them and they were
going to have a meeting with the WGI um lawyers to figure out how they could solve the issue. So the next week, last week, they met. They apparently figured out some of the the concerns with the language. And you know, I I believe
myself and everyone sitting on this day has made it perfectly clear that we wanted this contract to come to us no later than today. So, I just want to say thank you to Miss Shock Adams and her team for working diligently to be able to bring this to us today so that we
could vote on it and our students can participate. But if you just based on so that we everyone understands, Michad Adams, could you just give us a really brief synopsis of what the concerns were and you know what you were able to negotiate with them so that the contract
came to us today? Thank you. >> Sure. There was a fundamental difference with regards to the facts, the underlying facts of the agreement. Past agreements involved education records. So there is a federal law with regards
to education records and when the school board is providing education records to vendors there's a process we need to follow. you need to get uh consent from parents. And so WGI had changed the facts under which
the contract um the responsibilities under the contract such that they did not require that information and so that was acceptable. In addition, they did not want to add um a provision that we have in all of our contracts, an
auditing provision. um they were uh able to accept that auditing provision that's required because we must uh audit all of our contracts. Um there were other issues that was requested. They wanted
us to um provide consent on behalf of parents. Um under certain circumstances we could not do that. um they indicated that that was a provision that that that was resolved and taken out because of
the education um records issue uh was such that they didn't require those records. So that was taken out. Um there were issues with regards to indemnity. you know, they wanted us to indemnify them um and would not agree to the
language and we amicably um arrived at a provision that was satisfactory to both parties and acceptable to our risk department. So, those are some of the issues. There were many more, but those were some of the issues and our role is
to ensure that contracts are legally sufficient. And so it was after negotiations and and myself together with um um my team is Virginia Balcansky from our office was able to
negotiate and finalize it for this board meeting. >> Great. Thank you. And so based on the conversations that we had, a large portion of this was about data sharing. And I just want to be clear with the the public as a board, we have questioned
data sharing in almost all of our contracts because we want to make sure that we're protecting the privacy of our students um as much as possible and that they're we're not giving away information that's not necessary to
follow through on a on a contract. Um and and I know that's a big thing that we've talked about as a board. So that was a huge piece of what was holding this up. So, I do again appreciate um everybody working so hard on it and really happy to be able to vote yes on
this today. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Sea. >> Thank you, Chair. Uh I echo Miss Hixon's comments. This is a uh this is a big win for our kids. they were at risk of being held out of competition, which uh I
think I speak for everybody on this dis when I say nobody of course would have wanted that when this was brought to my attention um last week. Um I I sprung into action as well and now I'm I'm happy to be a part of of the board that will hopefully be voting unanimously to
approve um this contract. I do want to thank all of the kids and all of the parents who reached out and expressed concerns over this and made not only myself but presumably everybody on this board aware uh of what was going on.
When this was initially brought up, there were some contractual hurdles that um arguably took a lot of hard work from Miss Jock Adams and and her and her team in the general counsel office to get over uh them and get us to this point today. So, I am I am grateful for her
her efforts in getting us uh to a point where we can now uh vote. I I do want to take a moment to apologize to the parents and to the kids as well for the angst and anxiety you may have felt um over the last few days now thinking that
you had worked, you know, very hard uh for the school year and we're going to be potentially left out of of of competition. That was certainly unfair and um I do want to extend my apologies for that. However, I want to be clear
in this district, we follow the law and one of the major hurdles that was initially up for discussion were FURPA issues. And we had to work very very hard to get the WGI folks to see the proverbial uh
light, if you will, and getting them to uh understand the necessity for these safeguards and protecting all of our students uh private information. And I'm glad we're able to get to that point. This is a satisfactory contract. Our our our legal council has has blessed it.
But um as far as some of the initial concerns that you may have heard in in in the public or in in in Facebook about how unreasonable. The district was being um in this case in this case we were acting appropriately and I'm never going
to sign off or approve or be a part of any situation where our students sensitive information is not properly safeguarded or we are not following the parameters um of the law on that that was initially being requested to us for us to do by WGI. So, I want to thank
again our general counsel for standing firm and getting those uh issues resolved. I want to wish all of the kids the best of luck in the upcoming competition. Um I think it's pretty apparent the district kid, the district six kids in Cooper City and and Cypress
Bay are going to dominate with all due respect to Miss Thompson and her schools that will be competing. But, uh nonetheless, I wish all our kids the best of luck. Have a great time and go out and represent your high school and yourselves proudly. Thank you, chair. >> Any other board discussion? Miss Thompson?
>> I just want to echo my colleagues um thinking of Miss Jack Adams and her team for getting this through. It is always important that we're protecting our students data. And really, I want to thank um the team at Flanigan. Dance moms are not people that you should be
messing with. And I want to thank Jill Nyinberg for inviting me to the South Florida color guard competition this weekend. I watched uh district 2 dominate across the board. Also, district 4 u and Cooper City was was amazing as well. I don't know how they
placed. Um but I think any opportunity we have for our students is is imperative that we're offering because this is something that the charter schools only dream about having this opportunity and it's something that my schools are actually able to recruit from charter schools to give them this
opportunity. I would like an in-depth followup of how we got to this point, like when the WGI contract came to us because it does I've heard that this is an issue that happens reoccurringly every year. Um, not necessarily on our
legal department, but I want to see how this is happening. Could we find a way to extend contracts like this so it's not every year? um that way parents don't come come across this again. And that's it. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Dr. Zean. Then Miss Rupert. >> Thanks so much, Chair. Um I look forward to the response to Miss Thompson's question though. Um I don't share the same kind of deep interest though in just the legal department. This is a combined effort. It always is, you know,
between uh staff led by often or almost exclusively by a chief here in the in our employee trying to get a package together in time uh to get it for legal review. It's clear um that there's improvements. But I do want to zero in
on one other thing that I think we learned from this, which is our vendors don't know who to call when there's a crisis, and that's when social media becomes our worst nightmare because they know how to post a real. They know how to post a statement. They know how to get all over Insta and X and Facebook.
And before long, um, you know, we have a very public kind of issue where our process isn't working. So, Mr. Superintendent, do we have a an issue with vendors knowing who they can uh engage with on your staff uh if in fact
a process seems to be um not working in the best interest of the students? >> No. uh uh they have uh a a contact to contact because for most contracts procurement and the also the uh owner um are facilitating that process and
communicating with the vendors. Uh for this specific case UGI obviously they knew to contact legal and they chose to post their grievances instead of collaborate with legal to to find um a resolution for it. Well, I'm um very very impressed with uh our interim
general counsel's reaction to this to be moving cadre lawyers to a point where uh that's almost a first choice whenever we get to a a workload um uh challenge. you know, we are facing some vacancies in our office of general counsel and so uh
the board no doubt expects to use more uh cadre or external lawyers and I appreciate her uh uh not sure it was a lesson learned but at least advertising to us that she's already uh moving out to a lot of of external lawyers and things like that but I'm not satisfied
with with our vendors knowing who to talk to. There is a requirements owner. there's somebody who uh writes, you know, the body, the statement of work for solicitations, who understands how the program is supposed to work, who can engage our regional superintendents and principles and directors and executive
directors as needed. But WGI didn't seem like they knew who to talk to or weren't getting responses that were satisfactory to go. And I just don't want to adjudicate these things by social media. That's that's to me an indication of the system not working. Um, it's a
frustration that a vendor has or a frustration that a parent has. They don't know who to go to. And when they go to people, they get voicemail, voicemail, voicemail or twoe response times and the like. It is not what the superintendent has set as a standard for engaging parents uh members of the
community or or vendors. Uh but in this case uh you know that is uh you know part of the story. So, I look forward as Miss Thompson has requested to get this detailed, you know, timeline, you know, what happened and when um not to re-judicate WGI, but to say, hey, what
are the other um processes that we might uh need to look at um beyond just legal um requirements, uh owners and things like that. We have another item that's coming up soon about a crisis contract again. And um just as one member of this board, I'm over the crisis contracts.
I'm ready to table crisis contracts and just we'll eat it for a while until we can get to the point where somebody in this organization can write down what the top hundred contracts are and when they expire and maybe backdate that 6 months so that we don't have crisis
contracts anymore. It's embarrassing and we're going to do another one today because we have to. But it's not the way we're going to win the trust of the public and it's not even going to get us the best uh vendors to partner with. And it's not going to get us the best price for those vendors to keep giving away
other people's money under crisis conditions. And this is another indication that things are not perfect in Brower County Schools. But the one that's coming up on uh our price and cost controls contract um is just something that I'm I'm just I'm at the end of my patience with it. I'm going to
talk to the board when that item comes up and we're going to figure out, you know, what we do. But if we can't as a board of a 5.5 billion dollar organization write down the top hundred contracts and when they expire uh which this board chair I think has asked for dozens of times um then I don't know why
we're in this business. We're not telling the community how much that education matters to our community when we when we can't figure out how to do that. Thanks so much chair >> Miss Jack Adams. >> So I am going to provide that to you Miss Thompson but I wanted to touch on on two answers that I do have. one to
your question, Miss Thompson, and one um to Mr. Zean. So, with regards to the three-year contract, during our negotiations, we did make every attempt to make this a multi-year contract, but as a result of um WGI not being able to hold their prices um for the three
years, we didn't know what the prices for the second and third year was. So, we had to make it a a one-year contract. Um, additionally, um, with regards to, uh, contact, you know, the day before that
that letter, um, um, our our office attorney had, um, submitted legal comments and so WGI knew who to contact and the response was the letter that you all received. So, I wanted to respond to
your question of whether or not there was a contact person that they could speak to. >> Miss Rupert and then Miss Thompson. >> Um, thank you. I feel awkward now because it was uh, you know, speaking
about guard, but uh, after this conversation. Um, so I'm gonna have to interject happiness. So, everybody hold on yourself. Um, but as a mom of a former color guard girl and um, you know, those years were special. I'm so
happy that the board was able to um, you know, hear them and actually our staff to did a tremendous job to get everything done. Thank you, Miss Chuck Adams and your team um, superintendent and um, in those years of guard there
it's much more than just a competition. It's um you know an atmosphere. It's the best practices and the camaraderie. You can't put that into a a contract per se, but this is this is a real win for um Broward County students and Broward
County. So, um good luck to everyone uh and and to my friend who's not the band director at um at the school he used to be. I'm not going to out him. Uh you know, you're it's going to you're going to go well. everybody's gonna win and u
you know I'm gonna enjoy seeing it and uh um look forward to actually trying to catch some myself during the competition. So thanks. Bye. >> Thank you Miss Thompson. >> Very briefly I just wanted to to clarify it's not just the WGI it's more just the
process of how we got there. I think WGI you you managed it very quickly especially your given your short time in this role but it's more just so the board understands like how the contract process works and where there might be barriers to success. That's it. >> Absolutely.
>> Miss Bulman. >> Thank you. Thanks Miss Jock Adams. Um, I appreciate how you dropped everything to do this and I would imagine that um, moving forward you would like to avoid that situation um, as well as all the rest of us. So, we'll be, you know,
moving forward uh, planning ahead and I do think that as a board we have been asking for um, better contracts, making sure that we are protected and you're doing that for us. So, I
appreciate that and I think moving forward we're seeing um better results and I um just want to also comment on the depth of the color guard culture in our county. Who knew? Um I actually had uh
people that I work with that live with color guard coaches calling me about this and Miss Thompson and I went to the city of Penrook Pines commission meeting. There were multiple students waiting >> color guard and students waiting to be
assured that we were going to get this done and the you know volume of emails that received from students mobilizing to have this. So I think um if nothing else this has put color guard on the map for Brower County and they've acquired a lot more fans. So I also wish everyone
luck in the un upcoming competition season. Thank you. Thank you. Any other more board discussion? All in favor of item S1 say I. I. >> All oppose say no. Item passes unanimously.
>> This will be the part of the meeting where we will consider all the open agenda items. The following open items have been identified for discussion. BB1, CC1, special order for 1 p.m. FF1, JJ1, JJ2, JJ3, JJ4, JJ5, 67, O1, O2, O5,
06, 07, RR1, RR2, and RR3, special order 12:30 and R6. Dr. Heburn, at this time, may the chair have a motion and a second to pass the open items that have not been pulled for discussion. JJ8, JJ9, JJ10, JJ11, JJ12,
JJ13, 14, 15, 04, 08, and 03. >> So moved. >> Second. Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon. All in favor or are there any registered speakers on those items? >> No speakers. >> Um, all in favor of approving the open agenda items that have not been pulled for any discussion, say I. I.
>> Those opposed say no. >> Items pass unanimously. Yes, Miss Hixon. Don't we normally have after the open items that two minutes that each of us can talk on something that was Yeah, I'll go back. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
>> Um All right. So, those items pass unanimously. Um we will go back to uh the two minutes after the consent agenda um in a in a moment. Um, so at this
time, uh, 10:17 a.m., I want to, uh, we're going to go ahead and acknowledge this moment. On Saturday, Broward County Public Schools commemorates eight years since an active asalent at Marjgery Stoman Douglas High School injured 17
members of the school community and killed 17 innocent students and staff members. This morning, the school board of Brower County will pause for a moment of reflection to recognize the loved ones who were tragically taken on February 14th, 2018.
Mrs. Rupert, I'm here. Aaron Feice, Elena Petty, Alex Shakar, Cara Lan, Carmen Shintrop, Gina Montalto,
Helena Ramsey, Jamie Guttingberg, >> Alyssa Alhadef, >> my husband Chris Eixon, Walken Oliver, Luke Hoyer, Martin Teay Aguano,
Meadow Pollock, Nicholas Dorret, Peter Wong, and Scott Beagle. On Friday, February 13th, the district will honor the fallen Eagles with the Day of Service and Love and give back to their communities. Thank you to the
entire Brower County Public Schools community for participating in the Day of Service and Love and for honoring our beloved fallen Eagles. These 17 remarkable individuals will never be forgotten. Thank you. Thank you.
Right. We will recess the meeting briefly. Heat. Heat. Dick data. All right, this regular schoolware meeting is now reconvened. Um,
as Miss Hixon uh pointed out, do we have any comments on the consent items that passed? Any board member discussion on that? Um, I believe she may have had, so we can come back to that. Um, we'll do that after public comments. So, this is the
time of the agenda where we have split the general public speakers to incorporate a morning session. Each registered speaker is reminded to present their agenda comments in accordance with policy 1020. Um, we have Natalie Lynch Walsh, Trudy Dmanovich, Natalie Peliser, Joey Ida, and Mark
Norwitzer. So, if your name was called, please approach the mic. Good morning, Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh. Um, since today's theme is going to be about memories, people who keep forgetting,
um, and maybe we'll send them some forget you knots to help them to remember. uh a couple every now and again I speak to a board member and there's something I think I need to clear the air on that occurred when um a few superintendent ago actually I guess it's two with Dr.
Lacata. And to get us up to speed, we'll start in 2011 2012. So once upon a time when Runy was the superintendent, he and I discussed um having me help him because he thought I had the skills to
help reform this district. That remains true, but there's been resistance since 2011. So we discussed it. Nothing happened. So I figured, okay, I'll just do that as an advisory chair. In 2020, when the district was under investigation by the grand jury, I
offered to help keep the wheels on the bus um in facilities so that they could see that progress was being made before they came. This was March of 2020. It's now 6 years later. Um that same year, he issued a gag order on staff as it
relates to the facilities task force and he received help by the then general counsel, Barbara Mrick. Then we had Dr. Cartwright. She didn't want help. She actually attempted to bring charges against me. I'm not even clear what it was about. Um, that was the same that
was in 22 when I ended up running for school board the second time. She also had staff manipulate the policy 1070 committee into making the superintendent solely able to remove volunteers from committees. I think she had a plan, but unfortunately for her, she wasn't here
long enough to carry it out. Uh, then we had Dr. Smiley. I handed her a job description that was the chief strategy and accountability officer. It practically had my name on it in terms of qualifications and job functions. No response, but shortly thereafter um the
current chief strategy and innovation officer, because that's what it turned into, asked me if I'd like to submit a proposal to run the long range facility master planning process, which curiously was a function that could have been done under that affforementioned position.
But Dr. Lacata offered me a pos a TSP position, technical support position that paid 80,000. I ended up arguing him up to about 150 in a paygra pay C just because I had institutional knowledge. He said that though the state the
cabinet would be offended if he brought me in at their level and that I was a mom. That was the comment that stuck with me probably the most. It didn't matter what argument I made with him. It didn't matter. So that brings us up to today
where, not to be outdone, your current superintendent decided to live out Dr. Cartwright's dream and remove me from committees. I have not gotten back on them so that I can focus on holding him accountable. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trudy Germanovich.
>> My name is Dr. Trudy Germanovich. The following historical summary is from an article by in the Suns Sentinel by Scott Travis written in 2014 entitled state releases controversial evaluation data. The DOE released the
data for each teacher in the state. The scores are part of a controversial and complicated value added formula the state uses to evaluate public school teachers. The so-called BAM scores crunches student standardized test results with factors such as attendance,
class size, and prior achievement to determine how much a teach teacher helped the students learn. That score made up approximately 40 to 50% of a teacher's eval overall evaluation. School and union officials were quick to
caution that scores were only partial reflections of teacher performance. This state data is not meant to stand alone, nor does it represents the full spectrum of impact and influence a teacher has on his or her students, said Superintendent
Robert Reny. The state rolled out the controversial evaluation system more than two years ago. This was in 2014, so 2012 that assessed teachers based on student test score data and a rigorous classroom observation by school
principles. Starting next year, the evaluations affect teacher play pay and it still does. Sharon Glickman, president of BTU at the time, called the VAM scores flawed and meaningless. The score is based on FCAP at that time and
tests reading and math and other teachers are also judged on this. Only about a quarter of the district's 14,000 teachers taught subjects that were based on the test. So, a lot of inequality
happens in this testing. As teachers shouted when they went before the state board of education, VAM is a scam. Now you may think that VAM has gone away. But as you hear at the next workshop, it has changed and really expanded.
Teachers are overwhelmed and unhappy with the amount of data which is collected through the required testing by this district. Many teacher evaluations are presently heavily dependent on t district district collected data and other mandates. I
urge school board members to ask the superintendent to provide all written comments that were attached so that you can get real words from the teachers. I believe these comments should also be provided to the public along with the
presentation. Doing so supports the transparency you always say you're going to do. Thank you. >> Good morning. My name is Mark Merwitzer and I have traveled here all the way from southern Palmetto Bay. I'm the vice mayor of that municipality. It's in
southern Dade County. I fought the traffic to get up here. So, it's great to be here. So, thank you so much for putting me on the agenda. The reason why I am here is that there is a crisis in our state that unfortunately crosses county lines. And I'm currently attempting to to grow a statewide
coalition of organizations that believe our roads should be as focused and safe as our classrooms by banning handheld cell phones behind the wheel. I began this work nearly a decade ago, and I was proud to help lead the coalition that passed the 2019 law making texting while
driving a primary offense. But that work was only the first step. And I'm here today because that work is not finished. And we need your help to make our roads safer for everyone. In your schools, teachers work every day to manage distractions. A student looking at a phone in class might miss a lesson or a
grade. Um, educators unfortunately understand that that might just be a minor setback. But when someone's on their phone behind a wheel, it can cost a life. So, it's gotten to the point where distracted driving is unfortunately a leading cause of death for our children across our state and
country. So, what we're hoping to do with this law is make that law a lot more clear as to what the actual violation is of using a phone behind the wheel. And with your support, we can actually hopefully at one point ban distracted driving behind the wheel once and for all. So, hope you all can please
pass school survey resolution at the end of the meeting. Thank you all for your time. Have a great rest of your day. Good morning, everyone. Um, my name is Joey Eda. I'm actually the founder of a small little company, Fired Up Athletic
Force. Started just a few years ago, 2005. Um, in Bokeh. Uh, started with my first school teaching sports in an elementary school. From there, I was passed out to another school and another school. And
before you know it, here we are 20 years later. We're one of the largest, if not the largest, uh, leasing after school program in Palm Beach County, teaching soccer, cheerleading, flag football, so um, uh, basketball.
And we said after 20 years, okay, we're ready. We're ready to bring our programs down to Broward County. And we were very excited. uh got our first uh school, beautiful school, Coral Park Elementary with an amazing principal, amazing staff and uh
amazing parents and of course amazing kids. Um very excited to get started and here's why I'm here. Uh now I understand Palm Beach County, Broward County, two different counties, but of course you guys are, you know, together maybe
siblings, you know, sister counties. Um, when we rent in Palm Beach County, we have a charge of $60 an hour for rent. And we rent, we lease uh one hour per week for soccer, one hour per week for
cheer in each schools. When we started the um the leasing here, we noticed quite a higher charge. So looking into it to start the rates are
$150 for an hour at an elementary school after school. Then there's a consumption fee. I don't know what that is. $10 added to that one hour. And then, and I'm not here to attack any company, but
you have a company called Facilitron, I guess, that takes care of your leases, and they charge us a convenience fee or conveniently we have to pay. And and that adds $20 per class. We are now at
$180 for an hour to run a program for these kids. It's literally triple the amount of Palm Beach County. Uh, I'm not really sure what to do from here. I wanted to bring it up. Something that I think I think can be worked on because
the only people that lose are the kids. The schools lose because they don't get, you know, some fee. And then of course the companies, not just us. Whether it's art, extracurricular activities, art, music, it doesn't matter. Things that we can bring to the school so the parents
don't have to drive around the entire city to bring their kids to a program. our program comes to the school. Uh so hopefully there's something that we can we can do to maybe drop the rates uh for at least. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Is Natalie Pelister here?
>> Okay. I do want to go back uh to the the comments on consent. Miss Hixon, did you have Thank you. Yes. Just on H1, I always like to point out the retirees. So, we have 28 retirees on this month's agenda
and I just want to congratulate them all and wish them the best of luck in their new journey. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Thompson. >> Can we just have staff meet with that gentleman and discover what's wrong with the facilitron and if there's a
partnership thing he might be applicable for? >> Dr. Wanza, thank you. All right, Mr. ID, I believe Dr. Wanza will will come back and meet with you to try to troubleshoot. Um, any other board discussion?
>> Okay, I'd like to go to the updates. Do we have a BEF presentation? >> A Broward County C County Council of PTA PTA's PT essays. I know they emailed us a report. Employee and union groups, BTU, BPAA,
ASMA, Fauxi, Copa, PBA. Hi, Anna Fusco, teacher union president. So, it's it's very concerning that we have to have people that want to give to our community and our students that they have to come here and get your attention. There should be a process
that they don't have to do that. So, if you guys at the board can um work it out, direct the superintendent to come up with a process. I'm not sure about this company. I don't know yet exactly what they do, but anything that brings
any type of sports or athletics to our our students. It's a shame that we have to wait till after school. If you actually made sure PE was in our schools, Superintendent Howard Hatburn, we wouldn't have to be having kids, you know, get get it through the school
system afterwards. But hey, more the marrier. But having to gouge people to come and work with our students needs to change. I think you all heard him loud and clear. I certainly did. Him and I will talk after to see exactly what they do and why is it only in one school, but
that's not why I'm sitting up here. Um, but I encourage any type of activities for our students because all you do is test them, test them, test them, test them. That's why Judy Tmanovich had to get up here and speak about the data data data data. Do you ever hear like we
get all this amazing time to actually teach our kids? I mean, if you actually walked schools, you know, organically and not get walked around with the dog and pony show, you'd actually see that you'd be walking into more testing than teaching. That's true. You know, we have that board configurations, all this BS
data outside on the boards, all kinds of stuff because, you know, we're so data driven. Not that I'm against data. I have lots of data I do on this school district of why we're going to come to you when we get through negotiations. You got $100 million problem. Maybe you should work on data with that to get out
of that hole and stop taking things on the back of our employees. That's where I'm going to gateway into right now. So, I want to reach out to the not just our Brower County Public School employees, but the community. I need you to know what your schoolboard members are doing to your educators.
They are okay with decreasing things in their health insurance to make sure that they don't stay healthy in many ways. There's many ways to stay healthy, not just losing weight. There's gateways to that. There's
gateways to mental health. There's gateways to hypertension. There's gateways to uh blood pressures. There gateways to cancers. There's gateways to multiple things. If anybody's done any research, sugar intake is a real big
situation of causing cancer. Stress is a big way of causing cancer. Being sick in our schools every single day with mold, mildew, just, you know, not the proper cleanliness because you guys cut everywhere. Every you every
group is cut in our schools from cafeteria clerical to custodian to our educators. We might be down students but our class sizes haven't decreased and that's a fact. Now I've reached out to all of you with
the backdoor garbage you guys did on our health insurance. How dare you? And some of your opinions are pathetic and embarrassing and you should be ashamed of yourselves. the judgmental things that you guys have said and done.
You were snowed in that backdoor conversation with a group that's supposed to be a consultant to come back with alternatives and ways that we do stuff. The insurance committee was not talked to at all about what you guys are going
to cut. The unions were not talked to on what you were going to cut in our benefits. And yes, our attorneys are coming with information, but it has to be. Why does it have to be done this way? You say you are, you know, you're our friends of
public school. That's why you ran. We're going to sit here and be the greatness for our public schools. And what do you do? You start with going after school scheduling, student personalization, graduation for our students. Now, let's
go after their employees health insurance benefits. You don't want your teachers and your employees healthy. You want them. They already have to work two and three jobs to be able to substantiate their salaries. They're already sick and tired. And they're tired of being tired.
So, they're trying to find avenues to get healthy a certain way. You're not doctors. You didn't bring a doctor in the room. How dare you? bring back the medicines and cut other avenues to save your $20 million and to read your emails. We have to save money. We have
to get 20 million here. We have to It's enough. The employees just want to show up and work and they want to come to work healthy and they have avenues to get healthy and you want to take it away. Take away other avenues not on the backs of your employees.
>> Thank you. Do we have any other employee union groups? BPA, ESMAP, FOB, COPA, or PBA. All right. Could I get a motion and a second on item BB1? >> Second. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss
Thompson. Public comment on BB1. Dr. Natalie Lynch Wash. Uh, what item is this? I couldn't understand. >> Item P1 >> B is in boy. Ah,
okay. Um, Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh, Plantation, Florida, BB1. That's the interim chief auditor appointment. I was just reading something related to that. Um, yes. in favor of this item. Um, it keeps things consistent. You have someone with a similar background to the
current chief auditor and uh, keeps the wheels on the bus. I I don't know what else you would do if not make him the interim chief auditor. Thank you. >> No other comments. >> Board member discussion. I have Dr. Hoes. >> Thank you, Madam Chair.
So, um, I am in support of this item. I have seen the um detailed and and diligent work of Mr. Maggley and I am very supportive. I am confident that he will be able to come
into this role and and shine and I look forward to approving the item. Madam Chair, thank you. >> Thank you. Um Miss Hixon, >> thank you. I just had a question about this. It's not that I don't agree with
it, but I know that we received the um resumeumés for a number of people. So, could I'm just wondering if we need to task assign if we could just get through the process of just hiring someone in the timeline that we have. So, if Dr.
Lozano could kind of speak to because we're doing that internally, right, hiring the chief auditor. >> Correct. But there will be a small period where we we will need a um interim general counsel. >> Okay. That that was >> based on the retirement date of the
current. >> So can you tell us the what is the timeline for for hiring a new one and what in in relation to Mr. RH's retirement date? >> I believe we're going to have that conversation later today. I don't
>> we I mean we could have it now if you'd prefer >> just so it it makes sense to the public why we would need to task assign and what's the start date or this was to to go into negotiations to do that. Just
wondering if we need to do that if we're going to hire someone in the near future. So if you could talk about that. I think to ensure a consistent transition, we need to um continue the process of an interim.
>> Okay. >> Based on the today's date, >> I hear what you're saying, but I think for the public, I would like us to tell them what is our timeline so it's very clear that we do need someone because we
we're giving someone extra duties and and money. And I just want to be clear as to why we need that. >> Sure. >> Dr. Zaman. >> Well, thanks so much. Um, thank you, Miss Hixon, for um, asking about the timing. It's important. We have a chief auditor until March 2nd. And so, um, I'm
understanding that we're not likely to get through all the process to get somebody uh, in place full-time. Um I do want to kind of bring up a new uh idea to my colleagues here though if I could uh which is we've gotten into a um
tradition here of u paying people more when they get an opportunity to serve as interim. Um I am moved by the fact that we're removing a thousand positions from Broward County Public Schools. Uh I am moved by uh the reductions that we've
made in our security personnel already. Uh I'm moved by our inability to pay uh our school-based people more uh to the extent that we'd like to. And so I'm just going to publicly announce that uh if there's negotiations that come back with added salary on this, I will vote
against it. Uh because I don't think we can justify to our community anymore that we're going to pay people for uh doing an interim job. Uh there are people and let me just ask if I could chair if we um are uh assigned an
assistant principal to a job in a school because there's a vacancy for a limited amount of time do they get special pay for that assignment? >> Dr. Hub got to be more specific. Dr. Zean, are you talking about assistant principal being assigned to a principal or?
>> Uh no. So, um, say you have a gap and an assistant p principal and you pick up a coach or a very senior teacher and you say, "Hey, you know, there's a limited time period. We'd like to give you a shot for serving as an assistant principal in a school-based environment." If someone's assigned as an assistant principal that wasn't one,
uh, do they get special pay during that time? >> So, in in most situations, if you're at that school and principal says, "Hey, great experience. Want want you to pick up some of these duties?" No. But if it's uh something that official that needs to happen to change that person's
job um title to an administrator so they can actually help out with evaluations. Yes, that would result in in an increase. >> Sure. And so I mean obviously if we hire someone to be the assistant principal that comes with slightly higher pay than we pay teachers. >> As long as they're not evaluating
usually it's it's >> I'm with you. My point is I don't think the public supports this anymore. And I think as a board um it's time to think about some of our traditions. You know, this is not a uh fiscal
uh you know, hiccup. This is not a fiscal, you know, um uh temporary issue. It's a fiscal crisis full-blown. Um you know, we we uh lost in revenue this year roughly hundred million dollars due to our enrollment uh decrease. The projections for next year
are going to be on similar size, which means we're going to start next year having to find $100 million. We're cutting supplements for people who work in schools, or at least we're talking about it. Um, I agree with our public speaker actually. Um, you know, that the
experience to be able to fill in for other people has its own economic value. You can use that experience to go and apply for other jobs. you can do it to prove that you're really great and and and get additional uh salary benefits and things like that down the road. Um that is the standard in the private
sector when you fill in. You don't get extra money until you're the permanent hire. Um so I'm I'm going to be very public about this and tell people uh some of them who are sitting in the front two rows here that if if you get asked to serve as an interim um I will
not support additional compensation for you. Uh, and I think that is kind of one of the things that we need to be very serious about because if we're not treating our inschool people with extra money when they fill in for jobs, how do we stand before the public and and pay
people that have uh significantly higher salaries? Uh, I'm not going to hearken up the pay ban D and below issue. We'll deal with that separately. But um this is not a time where I believe uh that
people who uh fill in and in this case I think it's going to be a very short period of time uh that they get extra pay. And I think it's time in 2026 that we start a new practice in Broward County which is if you're given the privilege to serve and you get a chance to serve at a higher level uh you do
that uh because you want a chance to serve and the modest increase you know uh in the money really isn't the kind of funds that we can afford anymore. Um so that that's my view. Um it I don't know chair um I uh in this item you're being asked
to be the negotiator. Do you need uh any guidance from the board about parameters for negotiating? >> Um I I'm open to any guidance from the board. >> So my my recommendation and I'd ask uh my colleagues to chime in as well now or or I guess I guess now is the best time
uh about the idea. Do you expect to pay more for an interim chief auditor than um than his current salary for the person who's being asked to sit in? >> Miss, thank you. And thank you, Dr.
Zean. It was kind of to my point, and I I think I've said this the five years I've been on the board. It bothers me that we ask higher level people to do extra and we pay them. But daily we ask teachers, tsps, bus drivers, cafeteria
people, security monitors to do extra work and it never comes with extra pay. We do studies on on pay salaries for people at the higher level and give them these big chunks of raises and I've been very clear every time I voted that I
don't agree with that. So to to the point that you just made so if Mr. Rhodess was let me just ask this because it is going to be a short period of time which is why I asked the question initially. If Mr. Rhodess was out for a
week what would happen? Wouldn't the assistant the executive director just kind of step in and do that job? So, do we have to have a chief auditor for if we're I mean, I know we have to have one, but if we have this period of
transition in between, wouldn't it just make sense that the executive director who's who's the one going to be um the task assigned anyway? Isn't that just part of the job description is if you step in when the chief auditor is not available. And to me, if it's a short
period, because it appears it will be because we're already in the process of hiring a new one and and it may be um the executive director. Um I just don't think it makes sense to go through all of this extra work for a short period of
time when in the job description you're you're sitting in for that chief auditor if if they were to, you know, be gone for a certain period of time. And this is not personal in any shape or form. I just have said this all along. I don't
think that for me I don't think that this is necessary. So any other board discussion? Mr. Sea, >> just a followup question to um Dr. Zean's point. I I I don't think I got the answer that I was expecting from
from Dr. Heepern and I just want to um to clarify on the principal hypothetical at one of our schools. If someone is named interim principal, if they're an AP and the principal retires or goes somewhere else and there's an interim
principal that is that is put in place, are they given a salary increase for that position? >> Yes, correct. >> Okay. Thank you for the clarification. >> Does anyone else want to weigh on weigh in on Dr. Zean's point? >> Um, do you guys want to talk about the
timeline for Oh, go ahead, Miss Bulman. Yeah, that was going to be my question. >> But this staff didn't really answer my question, which was is, you know, what would happen if Mr. Rhodess was out for two weeks? What would typically happen in that situation based on job
descriptions? >> If if I may, um, I'll use myself as an example. If I'm out for two weeks for whatever the reason is, Dr. Fulton steps in in mystead. >> Yes, that's my point. Thank you. >> So, I guess I don't know if that's a
Miss Hixon, to your point, like do we even need to appoint an interim chief auditor? I don't know who can answer that question because it's not like uh Mr. Rhodess will be on vacation or taking sick leave. It's that he's not in the position at all. So, I mean, I I'm I
agree with you. If we don't have to do that, then uh yeah, I don't know, Miss Jack Adams or Dr. Lozano, if you guys can speak to that. So again, I think if it's a shortterm, um, our executive director is more than
capable of handling the task. The question becomes if you don't decide on a candidate and we have to go back out and continue the process, then you may revisit it at that time. >> Okay. So, Miss Hixon, do you do you have
a recommendation then, Miss Bulman? Well, I mean, we can either vote it up or vote it down. I don't think I have to make a recommendation, but I would agree if we if it turns out we find ourselves a week out from Mr. Rhodess's retirement
and we can clearly see that we don't have a path to getting someone soon, then we can revisit this item. But I just um personally don't think we need it right at this moment. >> Miss Bulman. >> Yeah. I I just want to have a better idea of what we're looking at in a
timeline. >> Um yeah, so I did ask staff to everyone should have received uh the resumes for the applicants um yesterday. Uh I guess my question would be to staff, would we be able to schedule a special
schoolboard meeting on the 17th? Uh so next week in order to vote on like finalists for that, >> Mr. Hill. >> Yes, Mr. Hill. I know we got a pack workshop up and it's at 8 hours.
>> We'd have to talk about that if they do that. >> And I guess is that is there a an appetite for that for my colleagues? >> I see one. Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, for the 17 the February 17th schoolboard workshop, we currently are
at our eight hour max. So, if we are willing to go past that eight 8 hour max, uh, could we schedule a special schoolboard meeting? >> Yes. >> We have enough time to advertise and all of that. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, is there any objection to scheduling a special schoolboard meeting on the 17th? Dr. Zean,
>> um, I have no objection. I just have a preference for doing this special before the workshop. Would that be possible? >> I don't think there's an issue with that. >> Thank you so much, chair. And I have a follow-up point when you come back to the item. >> Um, okay. And then so we would identify
finalists on the 17th. Um and then we would need to schedule a day of one-on-one interviews and then a day is that what we agreed on to do one-on-one interviews and then public inter like public interview? >> Yeah. Okay. So we would need to schedule
that. So we could we do that the week of uh the 23rd? >> I can't. I'm gone. >> Can you do it virtually? >> I I will be away for the first two days. So, uh, could we schedule I mean
>> Miss Thompson and I have limited a availability that that that week. So, >> are you one of the cons? >> I said the week of the 23rd, but again, Miss Thompson is unable to be be there. So, if we could accommodate her schedule, could we schedule something the week of March 2nd or is there
or is there a desire to move that earlier? Okay. Okay. So, could we do the one-on-one interviews on March 2nd and then schedule the public interview for March 3rd since we're going to be here for a workshop that day?
>> That works for me. >> Is there any objection to that? >> Okay. So, uh we would schedule a special schoolboard meeting for the morning of March 3rd. Okay. And then staff would help arrange one-on-one interviews for the second. >> Absolutely.
So just to confirm, Madam Chair, there will be a special school meeting on March 3rd, not February 17th. Correct. >> No, both. >> Oh, both. >> Yeah, because we need an item to identify the is am I wrong that we need an item? Yeah, >> correct. >> Yeah, we need an item to identify the finalists. >> Got it. Yes.
>> Okay. So, there will be a special school meeting February 17th in the morning before the workshop begins and then a special school board meeting the morning of March 3rd before the workshop. Is there any objection to that schedule?
And then one staff will work with u individual board members to schedule one-on-one interviews for March 2nd. >> Mr. Rhodess. Yeah, I just wanted to um ask Miss Jack Adams to opine uh because we've heard this in the past, the recent
past from u Miss Batista that um by statute there has to be a chief auditor in place whether it's acting interim um task assigned, whatever it happens to be. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't a situation where for a day
or a week or however long of a period that the board wasn't out of compliance with that requirement. >> Well, and to everyone needs to keep in mind as well just because we would be voting on the third the chair or whoever needs to to negotiate a contract. So it would not it would be more for for more
than just one day. >> Yeah. Miss Jack Adams. So one of the direct reports to the board is the auditor and the auditor has specific statutory duties and so I would need to take a look at what those duties
are because depending upon what they are having a lapse may be something that needs to be considered. So I can take a look at that and bring that back to you um as a followup.
>> Dr. even thanks much and we have heard multiple times from Miss Batisa there's a stat state statute you got to have one designated and it could be any of those titles before chief auditor passes it like it is for the superintendent we have a state law that says every day we're here we must have a superintendent
whether they're interim acting task assigned uh you know blessed by the chair whatever designation we want to have I don't want to lose track though of of I think the central issue here because um it's important I think now for us to give the chair uh direction. If we're
going to move forward with this interim, she can't go negotiate uh a contract that we're going to majority of us reject. That's just kind of I I think it's not in good order to do that. So, I'm going to ask I think chair if we can uh somehow get a vote uh or if you need
me to make a motion on that, I'm happy to do it. But I I believe that we've had two people talk about, you know, negotiating for an acting or an interim uh and not adjusting the pay. So I think uh we have to figure out would how would you like me to proceed?
>> I mean I've made a note. Uh I think the individual in the audience can hear as well. So I mean I I think for me if I'm in that position I it's very clear uh what my negotiation would be. Um I don't hear anyone objecting to the idea that there will not be uh supplemental pay
for this. So if someone wants to speak up um now about that. >> No objections from me. Thank you chair. >> Miss Hixon. Thank you. So going back to the other idea let's say we figure it's going to be a week. So
Miss Shock Adams in can you opine on when the superintendent's going to be gone for a week? He sends a memo to the chair that says he's going to be out and his designate is blah blah blah. So, Mr. Rhodess is going to retire. He obviously can't do that. But can the chair
um direct or appoint someone as the acting or designate for chief auditor for a certain period of time and that still fulfill the legal role just as it does for the superintendent? I'm going to check for any exceptions,
but the the way the statute reads, the board, you know, appoints um an auditor. So, it would be the board collective and not >> So, it could be a board item that says, could we do that today? act as a board
instead of have the negotiations, the contract negotiations, just make an appoint as of this date someone as the acting chief auditor until such time as an auditor is selected or or a certain
date if that's the need to determine whether we need to move into intim. So through the chair I I believe that the the agenda item needs to be brought by the superintendent in terms of
>> what the superintendent would suggest and then the board >> but it's not his there there are direct appointee I think it's up to us to decide who we want to appoint. So the item is asking part of it is to appoint
an interim chief auditor but maybe we change that term to acting chief auditor with a date on it. So maybe amend this where we are voting and appointing um the same person but not as intram as
acting chief auditor until March 12th or like if we picked a date and said this date or when a chief auditor is hired. >> Okay. So please forgive me. I was stating um processed. I don't I misspoke
in terms of um a direct report. You're absolutely right that that is different than you know uh another you know uh position that the superintendent would bring. The only question that would come to mind would be the notice um of the
item. But if the board collective wants to reverse what is planned and assign someone I guess the next question would be whether that person would accept. >> Well it's the same Sorry, it's the same
person. So, it's just changing that we're not negotiating a contract. We're just going to direct appoint them until a certain date or when the next chief auditor is selected. >> Okay. So, my um the next question that I
had in mind is if whether or not um uh Mr. Megley would accept. >> Okay. So, I guess we'll ask that because I'm going to make a motion here in a minute. um based I guess on that information. So chair if that makes sense to ask Mr.
>> Mr. Maggley >> I guess I may have anticipated some of this uh happening over the last since I've come here I've hit the ground running as you know um there's a lot of things and there's a lot of objectives that Mr. Rhodess and I have started into that we haven't gotten where we were. I
I thought that the opportunity to to do that in the interim role would have been uh to continue on with what we have been doing and continue to progress this thing. Um there's been a lot of things that have happened since I came here under conditions of employment um that have changed since the day I hit the
ground. So we continue to do that. I I didn't anticipate speaking on this right now, of course. Um doing the role, that's who I am. I'm going to do what I have to do. I always have since I was here 25 years ago. Um, but that doesn't mean that I think I should be the
groundbreaker on this. Um, I will say that. Um, there's a number of people that are currently in those roles right now and I and I wouldn't hate to see that that would happen with them because I know they're doing their part. So, uh, respective of what is taking place, um, I would accept whatever the board uh,
direction is. Um, but I'm I'm a little disappointed. Not not in the grand scheme of it all because I understand, but it's not what I anticipated. Um, but we'll move forward. >> Thank you very much for for your comments and I get that you don't want
to be the groundbreaker in this. So, um, so I would like to make a a motion or an alternate >> I apologize if I can interrupt um through the chair. I want to ensure that um um staff opines on any internal rules
or directives or on on this matter. >> So I think the only thing and we'll lean on you um general counsel is um you know you have a ESMA employee moving into a contracted position.
So that's the only uniqueness of of this um situation that's different than you know our other task assignments or acting positions. >> Well, didn't I'm I'm sorry. Didn't that
happen for our chief um facilities officer? >> Oh, but he went into That's right. He was tight. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I apologize. So um through the chair to opine a
little bit more um in response to what Dr. Lozano had indicated. So if the um if Mr. Magalie is currently in a meet and confer as MAB and now this is a contract um position a contract would
need to be negotiated. >> That's fine. I'm still confused though because we would just be making him the acting for a short period of like I would give it a deadline and if if we didn't hire
someone by that date then we would move into the interim position knowing we would have a longer period. So I don't see it at it just seems silly that we're going to go through contract negotiations for a week. It's not we're
we're making him the active chief auditor. I would suggest till March 13th or until a auditor is selected in case they get selected and and put in place before that. So through the chair um if
my memory serves there were other direct reports where um an interim um was assigned for a short period of time and there was still a contract for that short period of time. So I would defer to um to staff with regards to
those facts of direct reports. >> If I if I may, Madam Chair. >> Yeah. >> Um so we did this for um uh Dr. Wanza. who was the superintendent for a week and that was done through a a negotiation contract
>> because it was going from ESMAP to a direct report with the board. >> Right. But we task assigned her. This is >> but there was still a contract negotiation. >> Right. No, I understand that. That's why I'm saying if we said we we just made it acting, not task assigned. We weren't
changing his actual job title and then there wouldn't be the necess do you see what I'm saying? Just like the superintendent says I'm going to be gone for two weeks and I'm I'm designating Dr. Falton or whoever. I'm I'm not
understanding why this doesn't fall in the same way. But I guess the chief auditor isn't really going to be in the seat anymore. Is that what the difference is? I think the difference there too is Dr. Heepern is returning when Dr. Fton um takes on the designate.
Um that's the difference. Whereas once um Mr. Rhodess retires, he's now no longer employed with the district. So the position is vacant. >> I got it. Okay. I appreciate you walking us through. I I just want to make it clear for the public because it seems
like a lot of work for a short period of time. >> Um anyway, thank >> Miss Pullman. >> Okay, so we have it clear. We have to do the contract. >> Okay. Um I really appreciate Mr. Maggali's um
being such a class act. I because this is a short period of time, we're going to uh negotiate a contract and this is um a direct report. You know, I I don't know
that I support not compensating him accordingly. He's going to be um overseeing an entire department which has been performing very well and which we've been depending on. And um you know I think that we can
create a policy or an understanding with the board, but to do it on the fly like this when someone's coming in to negotiate um in good faith, I don't I don't know if I want this to be the the test case for this. I think we have some
distinguishing uh facts here between someone that like gets tasked assigned who's working for Dr. Heburn and the three people that we have working for us that are um leading our our three main
um branches that we oversee. So um I I would like to see us negotiate and to provide Mr. Maggley with the um opportunity to negotiate what would be a reasonable increase given the increase in his duties.
Okay. So, I'm hearing one objection. Dr. Zean, >> I'd like to make a motion that we uh hire uh Mark Maggley as the acting chief auditor on the first day that uh there is a
vacancy in that position for the period of 30 days. >> Is there a second? >> Second. A motion made by Dr. Zean, seconded by Miss Hixon. public comment on the motion >> to negotiation >> creating all kinds of problems here this
morning. Um Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh, Plantation, Florida, I appreciate that Dr. Zean heard me on H1, which was where I was my concern late. Um Mr. Magley would be the opposite of my concern. He
used to work in the district and came back and has been working alongside Mr. RH since he came back. There's almost no transition. Mr. Rhodess, much as I would love to see him stay, is going to be gone in a few weeks. When is the
transition so that he can take the stuff he's working on and hand it to a person going to happen? If you don't hire have an interim for at least the few weeks he has remaining, like you're about to create and then please don't ever add a date to
something whether it's a smart program or a higher date. it it's going to happen when it happens. I already looked at the resumes and I I have some thought there's like definite number twos there but I don't know about number one. Uh so
I am again I it's like and did they not plan for this? You guys can do the paperwork. >> Any other public comment on the motion? >> Dr. Trudy Germanovich. Um I just I'm happy that you finally have decided to
do the right thing as far as uh the pay. Uh I personal experience um I was um unfortunately I put uh administration on my certificate and so when there was an
uh you know a problem at the school I had to I was drafted. I did not want to do it. I didn't need the experience and so I took it off my certificate. So please don't do this because people don't get paid more at the at the base
level and you shouldn't be doing that for the people that are at the top. Thank you. >> Any other public comment on the motion? Board member discussion on the motion. Miss Hixon. >> So Miss Shock Adams, if you could weigh in because I think it's just intraming
is semantics, right? But what you're saying to us is if we appoint him, which is the action in the B item, we still have to negotiate a contract. There still has to be a contract in place if that's what I'm hearing correctly from
staff and from you >> through the chair. That is correct. Um there are two there are two designations, task assigned and interim. I do not believe that there's a third, but even if there was as a direct report, a contract would be necessary.
>> Okay. So, the the motion that was made isn't doesn't do anything different than the item that's already before us. >> So, as I understand it, instead of it being an an interim, now it's a permanent position. >> You said acting. No, he said acting,
which is the same word as interim. I mean it's just semantics in terms of >> so through the chair I would like to defer to um the um HR um because the two designations that I know of are task assign and interim. So acting
>> I do not know whether >> yeah so acting is when you meet the qualifications of the job task assignment is when you don't meet the minimum qualifications. So to Miss Hixon's point, it's semantics if you want to call it intram or acting if Mr.
Magley meets the qualifications of that position, which he does. We're good. So I'd ask the maker of the motion, do do you is your motion just to change the B item that's before BB item before us
from intram to acting because that yes >> okay thank you any other board member comment on the motion >> madam chair >> Dr. for us. >> Okay. So, I want to make sure I
understand the changes, right? So, we have interim that's there and now we have acting. Does the implication of acting um because I know the prior concern for Dr. Zean had to do with with with increased pay. So, with changing
this to acting, is this now meaning that it exclude any pay increase or what does what is the real difference between acting and interim? um as it is in reference to Dr. Zean's prior prior concern about increased pay. I just want
to make sure I understand it clearly. >> So even in the ASMAB salary handbook, it says may receive compensation. It doesn't say will. >> Okay. So for both um Dr. Lozana, so for both acting and interim, it could
include increasing compensation. Is that correct? >> That's up to the board for this position. >> Correct. So, so for either one of them, it would not have any bearing on increasing pay. It's just >> changing the wording. So, so Dr. Lozano,
from my understanding, can you reiterate what then would be the difference in the first motion and this motion being acting as opposed to interim? >> Changing that word from interim to acting. Does the word change any aspect
of the the job or the job description or >> No sir. >> So it's is it redundant then? >> It's the will of the board the preference. >> Okay.
>> Thank you Dr. >> Miss Bulman. >> I think if you're the acting interim you'd be redundant. if you pick one then you're then you're safe on redundancy but you know that's just my opinion. Um just to the to the point I just wanted
to say one thing. Um I hope we're all taking into consideration the fact that Mr. Maggley is one of our um applicants for this position. I I certain just to you know remind the board and I also
have concerns about other people working in the district that are given a lot more tasks and not paid more. I don't know if going to the lowest common denominator is necessarily the way we want to go or if we want to revisit piling on additional um responsibilities
on our employees and not compensating them for that. um maybe we need to look at it in the opposite direction where we need to re-evaluate how we're compensating people that are working hard. Um that's my opinion. So I I don't support the motion. I think when you
should get paid for the job that you're doing and I would like to see I don't know if we have a workshop or something so that we can look at how we're paying the rest of the employees in the district. Thank you. >> Any other board member discussion? Mr. Sea.
Just for purpose of clarity, the last day, the last official day for Mr. Rhodess is what, chair? >> I believe the resignation date was uh March 2nd. >> And to the maker of the motion, you asked for 30 days after March 2nd,
correct? >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Hol. Uh Miss Thompson, then Dr. Hoes. >> Thank you, chair. Um, I was going back and forth whether to chime in, but I just want to agree with Miss Bulman's sentiment that I think instead of taking
away pay for someone doing an increased amount of work, we should look at the opposite. And we do have supplements, and I know there's discussion around supplements, but giving more for tasks being done like um testing and and absentee
uh work. Um, I also just can't imagine that we wouldn't have paid Miss Jack Adams more for the incredible workload that she has taken on. So to treat a different direct appointee differently doesn't feel right. It's
also we wouldn't be paying Mr. RH's salary and I'm guessing there's a difference between the two salaries. Um, so there is the opportunity for that and also it's it's a month. Um, I just and I I get that we ask teachers to do it. We
ask social workers to do more every single day, but I don't think we should be going backward on this. Thank you. >> So, I'm hearing two objections. Uh, Dr. Hoes. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. So, what I can say is I fully understand
where Dr. Zean is coming from in terms of uh in terms of the concerns, the financial concerns of the district. and so on and so forth. But then I also struggle with the moral aspect of what we're doing, right? Because um should we continue to wrong the wrong,
right? Because the point of the matter is if we're not paying people more for doing more, then we need to figure out a way to have some plan of action over a time period to be able to do that. So
moving in this direction and while I understand Dr. And I had to think about it for a little bit. It's I think we would be continuing to wrong the wrong and we should figure out a way to write
the wrong over time. So I'm not sure if saying that since certain employees don't get an increase for doing more, then we should just continue to not give anybody increases for doing more. I think we're moving in the wrong direction. maybe we should start to
think about how can we even if it's meager how can we proceed to give people more for doing more um so I had to think about it Dr. Zean um and I understand where you're coming from, but I also um
I had to I guess I have to um look at the moral aspect of it as well. And I'm not sure that would be the best direction. So, Madame Chair, um I would prefer that when you go into negotiation that the salary increase is considered in the
negotiation. Hopefully, Mr. Maggley will be cognizant of the um financial concerns of the district in in that process. But um but I do believe that uh it would it would be in our best interest to provide some kind of a
increase for doing more. >> Thank you. Uh Miss Jack Adams, >> another consideration that would be placed in the contract would be um senior class for f FRS purposes. So I do
not know and staff um may want to opine on this as to whether or not if an increase was not given would it affect that senior class status because Mr. Maggali would be moving from ESMAB into
a direct report. So, I don't know if that is um a consideration or issue, but I I wanted to reference that. >> Um no. Um of lack of an increase or increase doesn't impact senior class status as is the specific designation
for um for FRS for retirement purposes. >> I just wanted to ensure that that was clarified. >> Hon, thank you. I just want to say we we sit here every day and we say how we're trying to find cuts and that we don't
have enough money and these are little pieces of of it's not a big amount of money. I get that but we we're doing so much at the school level and if we don't start doing something at the district level and I feel bad that
this happens to be the one that we start with. Um, but I I just can't see. It's a short period of time. It's a job he he's willing to do. Teachers do it every time. I'm just going to go back to the teachers and the people that are in the
school. Even principles, most of them, when we ask them to do different things, they don't get additional money. There are things that happen that they have to deal with in in chunks of time that um we don't give the people in the schools
extra money. If we are ever going to stand up for saying we want to be equitable across the board, it has to be equitable for everybody. And I know that this is a big position. And I'm not diminishing that or the job that you do
at all. I don't want to come across that way. But I just um I've said it, this isn't my first time and I have never agreed with paying task assigned extra. So this is not new for me. Um and I I just we keep saying we have to save
money. Where are we going to actually start doing that? And I feel like we just keep saying no to everything that we come across that would be able to do that. And again, this is a small drop, but those small drops add up. and I I just stand firm on I don't think any
task assigned should be getting extra compensation. Um thank you. >> Thank you. Um I'd like to weigh in briefly and uh my six and you're certainly not alone in those sentiments. I remember uh asking if we'd ever done a job study for our teachers. Um but I I
wanted to ask uh Dr. Hepern um how he's handled task assignment pay. um how it was done before uh he came into the position and and how >> Yes, thank you chair for the question. Um so I definitely walked into a
variance of how uh for a person being task assigned to a different level up for a position. It the variance was very wide um and concerning. I wouldn't go specific in the numbers but you know sometimes it's five grand all the way up to 30 grand in some in some situations.
So as recently we actually just um for most of this year I just decided to put a cap of 5%. No matter uh what the position is that you're going into just you know for equity sakes, for consistency sake um and to also make it
easier for staff um when we're trying to identify somebody and you know for the person that we're offering the position to just to maintain consistency and continue to work. They they can take it or leave it. Um but 5% is what we're doing right now >> and that's of their current base salary. >> Of their current base salary. You know
the unfortunate thing is that could fluctuate based on your base salary um comparatively speaking to somebody else. But that's what we're working on right now. >> Thank you. Um so so far I've heard three objections to uh the proposal to not
offer any supplemental pay. Um is there any other board discussion on the motion? Call a question. >> All in favor of calling the question say I. I. >> All oppose say no. >> Uh. All right. All in favor of the motion say I.
>> I. >> All oppose say no. >> No. >> Roll call. >> Roll call on the motion. School board members Ahadef not present. Bowman. >> No. >> Sea. >> Hixon.
>> No. Leonardi, >> no. >> Rupert, >> no. >> Thompson, >> no. >> Zean, >> yes. >> 62 fails. >> All right. Uh, Dr. Zean, you had the
floor since you made the motion. Do you have anything else you'd like to add? >> Um, just want to make sure that we get back to basics. um government agencies get X dollars to operate. And so anytime we spend money on one asset, we're
inherently not spending money on other assets. And so when we get to individual decisions or small group two decisions or team decisions and things like that um it's often that we uh are generous on
individuals and small teams and at the end of the day that prevents us in some measure from being generous to large groups. And the question before government boards like a school board is how do you split up all the money? Not you know do you want to give people more
money? Do you think it's fair? And so we strive for like equal fairness and equal, you know, kind of underpaying of everybody the same amount because in public education, we don't pay people what they're worth. We don't pay people what they contribute. We pay them less.
And so what we uh at best maybe can do is equally underpay the people that are doing all the amazing work that we do in public schools. Um I just believe that we are doing draconian things. A thousand jobs will be gone for next
year. Uh dramatic negotiations with our labor unions. All starting with zero. They may end up with zero. There's just no money in the bank. And more important to me than anything is the public perception of how we're managing the
public's money. We have made big mistakes. The chief auditor, ironically, just published a major report on a major major mistake and we're going to undo that mistake. I'm very confident as a board or otherwise we're going to undo that
mistake. But to compound that mistake by continuing to pay our highest paid people more uh does not pass the public muster. So you can make all the talks and speeches that you want. Those people do not want more money going to our highest paid people. They want the money
going in the classroom. They want it going in the schools. They want it to go to people that are working harder and they do not want it to go to the people that are already making a significant amount of money. And so, uh, I'm I'm anxious to see kind of where this item
goes. Um but I do believe that um if we think a little bit about a fixed pot of money and having to allocate that $5.5 billion or the $2.1 billion of operating money that we get across now uh you know 28,000 next year 27,000 employees uh
will continue to find you know good solutions about how we spread the pain equally. Thanks chair. >> Thank you Miss Thompson. >> Thank you chair. I think I'm feeling a little frustrated by this conversation because the board has tried or staff has presented things to save the district
money and the board through push back changed its mind. We could have saved money on graduations. We could have revisited scheduling. We could have looked at plenty of things at some point in the
future. We've been promised a org chart change. This is what through the superintendent like potentially $2,000 if $5,000. Does anyone have an idea of what
this minuscule amount would be for a month? It would not be above that for a month. And so I just if we're going to say we're going to make hard choices to cut, then we make
hard choices to cut across the board, not on one individual. The people that work in this district staff do hard work as well. And I'm getting increasingly frustrated by the way that some members of the board and some members of the public are
demonizing the people that work in this building because they support our kids as well. They support our teachers as well. They make sure our buses run on time. Not all the time, but we're working on it. They support our ESSE department.
and to continually berate them as we do or allow the public to is wrong. So if we want to actually fix the district, if we want to manage our $5.5 billion better, then let's make hard
choices even when the public gets mad because that's the right thing to do, not this. >> Madam, >> Dr. Holess, >> thank you, Madam Chair. So I just wanted to clarify my understanding as far as
the concern with senior leadership pay and I know we have um uh the referendum uh uh issue as far as senior leadership but I think this situation is different
right because in this situation in the in prior situation it's about senior leadership having the same position and getting increased pay in this particular case we have someone moving into another position that requires more responsibility not staying in the same
position um that require that person to do more. So it's a little different than if someone already has a senior leadership position and then you give them an increase in pay as opposed to say let's move you up to another position but keep your pay the same
there. That's completely two different things. So I just wanted to clarify that it's not apples to apples when you talk about increased pay. This is increasing pay on the rational that this individual will have increased responsibility increased uh a difference in job title.
And so while I fully understand that we should be doing the same for all of our staff that has increased responsibility or teachers with increased responsibilities or school-based staff and so on. I I don't think that the right direction for us to go is to say,
well, you know, we haven't been doing it right in the first place, so let's just continue not doing it right. Um, I think we need to look ahead into the future. I know we have financial constraints as to how we can make it right for everyone, but I don't want to go into the
direction of making it wrong for everyone. So I just wanted, Madam Chair, to differentiate between my thought process with what we have here and as opposed to the referendum increases for those who had senior leadership
positions, they they're not moving up in positions. This individual is and we're asking him to do more. So uh that's the basis of my support for an increased pay whatever it is 5% superintendent says or whatever you negotiate. Thank you, Madam Chair.
>> Thank you, Mr. Rhodess and Mr. Vera. >> So, um, as a chief auditor, I still just want to, uh, caution the board and and call back to, uh, general counsel's confirmation a little while ago that number one, um, the statute doesn't
require that we have an executive director that's running the audit function for a time period. It's that they have a chief auditor. And the method for doing that is to um appoint someone to do that role for whatever period of time is open. My second uh
caution to the board would be um I've I've been a hiring manager now in many different situations within this uh this district and I've not had a 30-day time period turnaround. I know that things
can be a lot different when the board is ultimately pushing that boulder down the hill instead of as a hiring manager pushing it up the hill. But I would urge the board to at least um raise the question with HR as to what the reasonable amount of time is and if
maybe uh for future motions that would come forward. It might include language that could include something to the effect of until the position is filled. Because if the position wasn't filled within a 30-day period, you could find yourself in a situation where that prior
agreement expires, leaving the district without a statutoily required chief auditor. And so I may be looking at things slightly different than you guys, but that's one of the things that I look at in terms of trying to assist you in maintaining the compliance required with
a an an item such as this. >> Thank you, Mr. Seivera. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, I want to touch on the pay issue if I may um briefly. Um, first and foremost, progress has to start somewhere, right?
You have to find you have to find a point in time where you are going to collectively agree to to start change. Uh we talk about change a lot up here and there are many many many instances where that change never comes to uh
fruition. Now this is not a personal slight on on Mr. Maggley. Uh I'm sure he's going to do a great job in the in the inner position. and I've I've watched him work uh in in the months. Admittedly, I wasn't here 25 years ago when when you
may have been. Um but I I've watched what he's been able to do and what he's been able to accomplish uh recently working uh with Mr. Roads and and I have all the confidence in the world that he'll do a fantastic job in this interim um position.
The public is tired of these increases that are coming out of these buildings. We hear this from my constitu I hear this from my constituents all the time. I'm sure everyone else on this dis hears it as well. And we know what our financial situation is. We have to start
making some progress now. And I understand it may only be, you know, 5,000 here or whatever. We have to start somewhere now. We've gone through this before. We've apparently set some sort of precedent about pay increases in
these situations and there has to be a moment in time if we're going to change it that we have to start. I admit that for Mr. Maggley it's probably not ideal for him but there has to be a moment in time where we start with this if we're going to get this district financially back on track. And
I I think just to address some of the the comments about some of the other things that perhaps could have been done uh with the graduations and the block scheduling and I understand the perspective uh of that. I do. Uh I'm just not in favor of some of these cost
measuring things being placed on the backs of our kids when we have an opportunity to do this in-house in this building and try to start and initiate some change as opposed to trying to save money off the backs of our of our kids with graduation venues and things like
that. Um I heard my colleagues obviously. However, my position on this is is very clear. We need to start some change. Change has to start happening now. And this is be a good opportunity to
implement some of that change and um we are where we are, but this is not a sustainable business model overall to keep spending at the rate we are and we do need some changes. Is that is that hand up for me? Oh, for her. Okay. I thought you were
going to tell me what a great comment I made, but I'll turn it back over so our general counsel can speak. Go ahead, Miss Bulman. >> Thank you. Um, I don't think anybody up here disagrees with the fact that we have uh serious budget concerns, budget
constraints, and that this needs to be addressed immediately. Um, but the way that this has been going with this peace meal, um, someone throws something out to save a few dollars, someone this, we know we asked the staff
to bring a plan back. it gets uncomfortable and um so we reject it and now we're gonna go and save a few thousand dollars on the back of one person. I just don't I don't like the optics of
this either. I think what we're looking for right now um is a plan. We need to have an overarching plan of how we're going to be addressing the budget instead of having one thing brought to us over here. Some three people are
getting a lot of push back from that. So, we're not going to approve that. Someone's going to bring something over here. We can save $35 million, but it's not communicated properly. And so, we have to back off of that. If we're all actually committed to saving money, then
we all need to be committed to saving money. And I think we need to be doing it in an overarching way that is addressing all the different aspects of the district and not having an hour conversation about as Miss
Thompson said what's going to result in probably $5,000. I understand that the our constituents we have had some very bad press recently about different issues that we have faced. I think the board has done a very
good job of coming together to address those issues. I think we can all be um proud of that, that we're taking the measures that we need to to make sure those things aren't happening again. Um but I don't feel comfortable with this
narrative right now that we have to start somewhere and we're going to start on Mr. Maggley's contract because of this budget crisis. I I want to see a plan where we can all look at it and agree these are the places that we're going to cut and
move forward with it and be committed to it. That's the only way that we are going to change the makeup of the district to fit what the current circumstances are and the only way that we're going to be healthy and be able to move forward into the next era of
Burough County Public Schools. So I I want to see a plan that we can all look at, discuss, and then collectively agree to the things that we think that we can do without and the things that we um
want to see in place. And and you know, particularly we don't want to cut on the backs of the kids. the money should be going to these schools, but as you know, as Miss Thompson said, there's many other people that make this work. So,
to just kind of randomly pick out who we think isn't really important on any given day so that we can um get a sound bite or what have you, I don't think is fair to anyone that's working here. So,
how are we getting a proposal, a plan of how we can really address the budget issue? Madam Chair, >> Dr. Heer, >> yes, we've sent the plan. What was that? Um,
months ago. Y >> yes, we've >> a plan that's actually actionable because if we're sitting up here talking for an hour, then that plan is not something that's actually >> it's it was actionable items. We can resend it. We're actually going to be sending something else to the board um
this week. So for more public facing as because we have a large decision to make in front of us about personnel downsizing too. Um so but we can resend that and we'll we'll be sending you guys something in addition to that this week also.
So I think for the public for the our constituents and our stake our stakeholders here, you know, to see what we're actually what is on the table that we can actually cut in terms of Yes. when we're bringing back the org chart. When do you think that that is going to be
>> the org chart? >> Yeah. Like our what we're looking at in terms of personnel. >> Uh the org chart discussion will start in April. So the first workshop in April. Um, and did we send that to the board, Mr. Sullivan? I don't. >> Uh, not. Yes. So, the, if I may, go
ahead. >> So, the plan is, uh, next week the, uh, CFO is given a presentation to the board on the budget. We'll have a press conference after that for, uh, public awareness. April 7th will be a workshop that the superintendent will present his plan for the um, his org chart and then
there'll be a vote on that in April 21st. As uh the board is aware, most of our uh funding is in positions. So that's where you'll see the majority of of the cost savings and staff reductions in that orchart.
>> So I guess for Thank you. So I guess for next week, um maybe if we can see very concrete ways that we've already made cuts so that we're all aware of it and then we can share that with the
public as they're asking us. um cuz it still seems kind of nebulous in terms of what we've actually cut so that we have concrete numbers. This is what we've done so far. This is what we intend to do moving forward. Um
and that's I mean I'm a big picture person so I really want to see the big picture before we get into the minutia of one person's one month pay. >> Agreed. >> Thank you. And I'm sorry, I need to
correct the the dates. The it's April 14th is is the workshop and then there'll be a a later uh board meeting for the a vote, but April 14th, not the 7th. I misspoke. Sorry. >> Um I'd like to weigh in a little bit. Um
I won't weigh in on uh whether or not I agree with with the proposal of additional pay or not. Um because I will negotiate the will of the board. Um, but I do appreciate Miss Bulman um and Miss Thompson bringing up the
the interesting aspect of this conversation. Um, you know, we're talking we spent quite a bit of time now talking about saving several thousand dollars. Um, and I think Miss Bulman is really uh challenging us to have a more strategic conversation.
um you know, whether or not we save a few thousand dollars on this interim contract uh feels silly in comparison to the idea that we'll be voting later on a contract that's almost 200 times that amount. Um
and I'll be curious to see if we set spend that same amount of time um on that on that item. Um, so again, I mean, I think we can spend a lot of time on like symbolism and uh, you know,
politically making choices that will appease certain people for the time being. But I think to Miss Bulman's point, we really need to get down to work and do the the hard work of really making smart, strategic,
responsible uh financial choices for this district. Um, and I I do want to be clear just so that everyone and I have the the same understanding. So far, I've heard um a majority of the board uh express a
desire to not have additional pay. Um I've heard Dr. Holes, Miss Bulman, and Miss Thompson um express a desire to compensate uh with with additional supplemental pay for this position. And
so if anyone has a different sentiment, um, I would ask that you share that so that we're all very clear on what my direction is going into these negotiations. Miss Jack Adams, I believe you had a comment to make.
>> Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to point out that during the time period that um, Mr. after Mr. RHS's uh retirement. I do not know from a factual perspective whether the auditor needs to perform
certain tasks in the auditor's official capacity. Um I just wanted to ensure that if that has any bearing on whether you you know vote on an official uh interim auditor that that is
considered. I don't know if from a factual perspective there are actual you know tasks that the auditor needs to perform in the auditor's official capacity as opposed to someone just pitch hitting for the auditor for a
period of time. >> Thank you Dr. Zean. >> I'd like to call the question chair. >> All in favor of calling the question say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. All in favor of item BB1 say I. >> I.
>> All oppose say no. Item passes unanimously. Um could I get a motion and a second on item GG1. >> So moved.
>> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon. Public comment on GG1. >> Yes, Madam Chair. One registered speaker, Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh. Good. Whatever it is. Oh, morning still. Um, I have no idea how much time I have left and I'm not planning to give up my
three minutes on B1. So, I'll try to be brief. Uh, nowhere in here do we know whose bad idea it was to to go lease space from Handy. We have a lot of information, but nobody's owning up to whose bad idea it
was. uh because getting a seat on the board doesn't seem like motivation enough to me. Um and there's only so many people who could have prompted that. When you have cash out one year and cash in the next year, that's a net zero. That's not a savings. Uh so this
should be turned over to the IG. And next thing, where does Rock Island go now? Where do the staff go? Are we spending thousands and thousands of dollars retrofitting somewhere else that you don't know about because nobody's brought you the plan? I know what I've heard, but we don't know where they're
going and you may want to ask about that to make sure that it's being done with some fiscal responsibility. Thank you. >> That concludes register speakers and for the speaker she has three minutes remaining >> Mr. Sea.
>> Thank you, Chair. Before uh I I give my my comments, I do have a question to our general counsel. Um, Miss Jock Adams, uh, are you aware one way or another if this property has been relet by the handy folks since we
properly terminated this lease some months ago >> through the chair. I have not been provided with any information from Handy that it has been relet. I can tell you as a part of the settlement agreement, they are required to tell us that.
they're required to report that to us. And um if they do either relet it or sell it, then the amounts of money from that either lease or sale goes towards uh payment under this settlement
agreement um by the the um uh school board. In other words, those funds will offset the amounts of money that is paid to Handy under the settlement agreement. Is there any requirement that Handy when it hopefully soon relets this
property that they can charge a higher amount that they were charging the district for our prior lease agreement >> through the chair. Um the school board has no control with regards to how much it's relet uh or how much the sale is.
the settlement agreement just specifically indicates that those proceeds go towards um uh paying them and so the amounts of money that the school board would owe is offset by those amounts.
>> Madame general counsel, how much is handy getting under this settlement agreement assuming it comes to fruition and they do not relet the property? Let me go ahead and pull those figures from the settlement agreement. So, the total amount
and then and then I have um some amounts that that go already go towards that right off the bat. The total amount is uh 355,525. Currently, Handy has a security deposit in the amount of 85,000 and that 85,000
would offset that total amount that I just gave you. And so the net of that would be 270,525 and that amount would be paid to handle handy in in uh payments. Um the initial
uh payment would be a partial lump sum payment of $228,25 and then the additional monthly payments there would be three would be 14,166.67. 67. Um, and then the last of which would be
14,166.66. >> So, just just so I'm clear and and perhaps more importantly that the public is clear, the settlement amount is roughly $355,000. Um, and they are getting an offset of the previously paid $85,000 that this district gave them when this
lease was being negotiated. So essentially the new money if you will is roughly 275,000 pursuant to the settlement >> specifically 275 270,525. Okay. >> Thank you for the clarification.
I am against this. I have been against this from from day one. And I think this is an asinine amount of money that we are paying these folks on a contract that we properly terminated.
We are having conversations about saving funds. We spent an hour arguing about $5,000 and we're going to give away three potentially 355,000 like this.
We spend a lot of money on our general counsel and our legal office to draft us lease documents and lease agreements to make sure that we have provisions that protect us. And we had one here. This contract was
properly terminated. this contract. We had a pro, we had an out, if you will, and we took it. And we got, in my opinion, and this is no disrespect to the attorney who drafted it, a very, very weak lawsuit
that was filed and we buckled. In a district that is operating at a hund00 million deficit, I don't think that we should be giving away this type of money on a settlement on a contract that we properly
terminated. Now, I of all people up here understand that there's litigation risk and all that stuff and attorneys fees and I can appreciate all of that. This was one that I think the risk was worth the reward. This handy situation was a debacle from
the beginning. We saw the ramifications. We no longer have a cabinet member because of this. Well, in part because of this. There was lots of blunders along the way. But for us now to retreat and go running back to Handy after this board did the
right thing, realized it made a mistake, terminated pursuant to a viable and proper termination cause, and now to settle for this much money, in my opinion, this is a travesty.
I am against this. I think this is a waste of money. We should have put our big boy pants on on this one. Let the legal process play out because I'm very confident that if we would have litigated this to fruition, we would have got a defense
verdict in this. But be that as it may, I know I am only one of nine. So, I just wanted to make sure that my position was stated very, very clearly that this is quite frankly absurd that we are now contemplating and
are about to write a check for this much money to these folks. Thank you, >> Miss Jack Adams. So, I wanted to point out that the office of general counsel received instruction from um the school board to
settle uh and >> this settlement agreement is within the parameters of our instruction. So, with any lawsuit that is filed, there is uncertainty. You may have a
winning case and lose. You may have a losing case and win. Literally, it's up to the judge or up to the jury with regards to whether we're going to win or lose. And so, as a result of that uncertainty, our instructions were to settle and we
settled successfully. For for the record, I'm not blaming general counsel by any stretch of the imagination. And if I came off that way, I apologize. That was not my intent. I was expressing my displeasure with the decision that was made by this board to
bring this item and to settle this case. I think this is a waste of money and I'm not going to I'm not going to beat a dead horse, but certainly I'm not blaming you, Miss Jack Adams. I know you were instructed to do something and and prepare a settlement agreement um in the manner that you did and I appreciate you
doing that. Uh so my intention was not to um assert any blame on you. Certainly not the case. I'm just expressing my displeasure with the um apparent desire to settle. Thank you, >> Miss Thompson. >> I would just like to echo Mr. Sea's
comments. I won't do it as fiery as he did, but I do think this should serve as a warning to the board to really think and for staff to really bring strong contracts, but also not settle when we were in the right. And I feel
like we were in the right. We caught an error. Miss Bowman proctored an item to to fix that error and then we kind of folded. Um, so I will not be supporting this item. >> Miss Bowman. >> Um, thanks Jack.
Miss Jack Adams, I apologize, but what is what's the amount over the one-year lease that we're paying to settle this? the one le the oneyear rental amount.
How much are we paying for that >> through the chair? If I could lean on staff to provide me with that factual information. >> I don't think we have that in front of us. Um Mr. Dors said if you can have your team down. >> When I did the math, it seemed like
about 31 grand that we're paying. >> That's correct. >> Okay. That was actually after we added the $85,000 security deposit. So really, we're looking at like aundred and >> or we just only paying 31. Okay. >> 35 over the over the one-year lease.
>> They're accepting the lease the >> So I you know to back it up a little bit and I have a little bit different viewpoint than Mr. Ca though I share his um spirit of uh being unhappy with this
entire uh transaction. I don't I think you know based on the fact that we have no um insurance assurance that we're going to win if if we take it to trial that settling is in
the best interest. Um it doesn't change the fact that this contract was brought to us that should never have been in front of us that we approved based on false premises. And I think, you know, we can beat a dead horse up here, but I think the real um
sticking point is that we should have never had this in front of us. So now we're doing damage control for something that we approved that we should never have approved. Um, and you know, the only thing that's kind of making me feel
a tiny bit better is that we terminated this lease when we discovered that it was not the terms and the uh circumstances surrounding it were not fully disclosed to us, the fact that it wasn't going to
fit our needs and a variety of other things. Um, and so we've actually saved some money in terms of continuing to cable prepare the premises for occupancy and we saved ourselves money not having
to move into not having moved into the property and then we've saved money not having to move out of the property when the we would have terminated this lease at the end of the year. So, I do think that given the very very bad facts and circumstances surrounding this
situation, um, by acting swiftly, the board has actually saved some money from a sit and that's the only way that I'm making myself feel better about it. So, I support the settlement because I don't want to spend another dollar on
it. Um, but I never want to see a contract like this come in front of us again. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Zean. >> Thanks so much, chair. Chair, how many days of occupancy did we get for this? >> Dr. Hepard or Miss Jack Adams.
So um through the chair my understanding because this is a factual issue um there was five different months five months in which um a monthly lease was paid.
>> I I'll help you all. We got zero days of occupancy for a half a million dollars. And that's our mistake because of of our responsibility to make sure that that uh you know we um are are getting all the information
that we need to make good decisions. It's plenty of of blame to go around. But this is the epitap of this is we're going to spend a half a million dollars. We got zero days of occupancy. Our staff still needs places to go. Thankfully, we've lost so many students. There's lots of opportunities for them to go and
work in lots of different places. I don't appreciate some things that are written in this item, Mr. Superintendent. Um I think sometimes for the public and me to uh recognize that we're going to hold ourselves
accountable for this. Um you know, there is no kind of joy juice in FY26 because we had a budgeted amount for a contract we never should have gone in. And so, oh boy, look, we have like a return to the capital reserve. This is $545,000
that we spent to get zero days occupancy on something. It's a it's something we need to think about, we need to study, we need to learn from and not do again. Um, but uh the the the descriptions that are in this item are overly optimistic. And I uh hope that the reality that
everybody has from this is different than the than the tone of this item because the end of the day, the epitath on this, the tombstone reads, $545,000 of taxpayer money, zero days of occupancy for our staff and that should never happen uh in a government agency.
Thank you, Chair. >> Dr. Hoes. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. So if the board should um vote no on this item, what would be the next step? If if the majority of the
board should say no through the chair from a legal perspective, then um more than likely we will be served. Currently uh the school board has not been served on this lawsuit. We would be served and we would have to litigate.
>> Okay. and >> spend attorney's fees and then after the attorney's fees there's no guarantee of success in this lawsuit. >> Reiterate how much we've spent so far in attorney fees.
>> So currently because we have not been served there has been no activity in the lawsuit. >> Okay. >> But as soon as we are served then then then there will be activity and we will start incurring.
item is to either approve the settlement agreement or not and I'm at not at liberty to discuss any further like what strategies we would follow. >> I understand but but it would obviously um start to result in increasing cost
for attorneys once we are served should this item be voted no by majority. Correct. >> Yes. Correct. and and that number could be anything uh because we don't know the cost of what attorney fees would be over a certain period of time as this case
goes on. Is that correct? >> Correct. Not only attorney's fees, but they um the the plaintiff in this case, Handy, is seeking the entirety of the contracted amount, which is 5 years.
>> Okay. Um, so and there's certainly no certainty even if it looks to be in our favor that that we'll win this case. There's always that possibility that we'll also lose which would then result
in a significant increase in cost to go through all of that. Correct. >> Correct. Worst case scenario, payment of the five years plus attorney's fees. >> Okay. So, um, Miss Jack Adams, um, thank
you for your work on this. Um, you know, like, um, board member Bulman and board member Thompson, I I have concerns with this whole contract just the same. But I also worry about continuing to increase
our cost and and there is a possibility uh that we may not be successful. There's also a possibility that we will. It's a matter of what chance do we want to take on it. And so I I don't feel good about it either. I have the same
sentiments. Um but I I just want to get it over with, you know, and I think that uh it's time to move on. Thank you, >> Mr. Civera. >> Miss Jack Adams. Um we just heard from Dr. Holless about um continued costs on
our end. If we were to if this were to get shot down and we were actually to defend this case, could this be handled in house >> through the chair? I would not like to discuss any strategies with regards to how to move forward um with this
litigation case right here and right now. >> Okay. In in a general sense, does our in-house council have the ability to handle a very simplistic breach of contract action without re without outsourcing it? >> Generally speaking,
>> once again, Mr. Sea, I am not at liberty to discuss. >> All right, let me let me ask it this way. If it's kept inhouse, if any legal matter is kept in house, do we get a bill every month for legal fees or do their attorneys just get paid their salary? our attorneys get paid
their salary. >> Okay. So, hypothetically speaking, if this was kept in house, we would have no additional monthly attorney fee bills from anybody, right? >> So, in order to answer that, I would have to make a determination of whether we are going to keep it in house or
outouse. And I'm not >> I'm not talking about this case. I'm not talking about this case. I'm talking about in generalities for the legal matters that our in-house lawyers are handling. They don't send us the district individual bills, right? They just work because they're salaried
employees, right? >> That is correct. >> Okay. So, every matter that is handled inhouse is covered by our lawyers and their annual salary. There's no quote unquote additional expenses, right? >> That is correct. >> Okay. Just want to make sure I'm I'm I'm clear on that. And I I'm going to leave
with this. We have to appreciate that everything that we do is in the public's eye and the public's perception. There's no, you know, secrets and or anything like that when it comes to settlements with our litigation. Obviously, we have stuff behind closed doors that will happen to
get to this point. But the fact that we're settling this is public, right? And in fact, Mr. Jack Adams, the actual settlement agreement is online, is it not? Anybody can see it. approving something like this on what I
deem to be a very, very, very weak case is sending a terrible message to everybody that that crossed paths with this district that if you sue BCPS, we're going to fold and you're going to get $275,000
in this case or whatever other matter, whatever dispute you have with us. Sue us. We'll fold. We don't want to defend our positions. We don't want to potentially spend other costs. This is an asinine amount of money to
pay for this. And I hope every person who's sitting to my to my right understands that it's not I understand we want to get rid of this. I want to get rid of this, too. Believe me, I want to put this handy thing completely in the rearview mirror. But you have to understand, you are sending a signal out
to people that if we're going to fold on things like that, let's just let's get them in. Let's just line up the lawsuits because they're coming. You have to have a backbone in this in this world sometimes. And you have to defend your position, especially when you're right.
And I strongly to my core believe that we are right for the basis that we terminated. So, I would caution all of my colleagues that if we settle this, we're sending a message to everybody that cross our paths in this county that if we get
sued, there's a there's a high probability that we're just going to fold because we don't want the additional expenses. Thank you. through the chair. Um, one thing I that's very important for me to say is whether or not um a case is weak
or strong, it's up to the judge um and or jury to decide what the outcome of the case is. So, I want to be, you know, just very clear about that that, you know, I know that people may assess a case as being weak
or strong, but it is up to the judge and if it's jury trial, it's up to the jury to decide who will win. >> 100%. And just to clarify, I'm giving my opinion as an individual board member who just also happens to be a litigation attorney who does this for a living, sir. >> And and I assess these types of cases.
And I would also note um we've got Judge Robinson on Judge Robinson is a very fine judge in this circuit and I have all the confidence in the world that he would do a a phenomenal job adjudicating this case if it is in fact a um a uh a bench trial if it gets there or along
the way. So I I appreciate those comments and I am speaking um obviously in my individual capacity. I'm not disclosing any confidences that that you or any from your anybody from your office would have suggested as to the strength or weakness. I, Adam Cera,
member of the Florida Bar who's read this complaint is familiar with the circumstances, believe in my personal opinion that this is a weak case. Thank you, >> Miss Pullman. >> Thank you, chair. And thank you, Mr. Cer, because I actually brought the item
to um cancel the contract. So, I appreciate that you find it to be a strong case. Um, I would just like to ask our general counsel, are we currently defending any
other lawsuits right now? >> So, do you mean internally or >> I mean, is Brower County Public Schools defending any actively litigating and defending any lawsuits right now? So currently there are litigation within
the district both from a plaintiff as well as a defendant perspective. >> Okay. So we are we are defending lawsuits when they come and when we feel that they're um that we have defenses that we can
exercise. I mean, I just in this particular case and I would love to I would love to have the faith that Mr. Cera has that we could win and have absolutely no repercussions. I don't have the I don't I don't have that level
of confidence. Um, and I also think that in this particular situation, this is a self-inflicted wound. This is something that we should not have been signing in the first place. And we made a mistake. Um, and I will use we very
lightly because if we had known the facts and circum like if we had known had a real I true understanding of what was happening I don't I'm confident that the board would not have agreed to enter into this contract. So
that is why I support the settlement. I don't think it is a hole in one for sure thing that we'd get away. I think for sure we can cancel this contract after year one. I don't think that there's any question that we can get away with not paying the four the four additional
years. But I do think it's sticky and I I don't have the stomach for paying a whole bunch of additional legal fees. I think we cut our losses and internally and I think we've already started doing this. We are setting up systems guided
drills and all of the board is on notice now about making asking the right questions and making sure that we're fully um uh advised in the premises and also I do think that we have pushed back enough that we're getting better executive summaries. I think people are
more accountable now because of this uh issue. This has been the direction of the board to get better executive summaries. Um, so moving forward, we don't have a problem like this again. But I really would not want to draw this out and then
end up paying a whole like another $100,000 for our opposing council's legal fees. And I, you know, and also to the point that Mr. Ca was making before, I think that we may have had some changes in circumstances from the last time that we talked about this in terms of the capability of doing this in house
because we are in a transition period in our legal department. Um, so it may not be that simple. Um, and then that if we have to incur fees on our side, potentially pay fees on other side, then we're just blowing it up. So
I think settle it and don't let it happen again. So let's call the question. >> All in favor the question say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no.
All in favor of item GG1 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. >> No. >> Uh item passes with two dissenting votes. Miss Thompson and Mr. Sea. Could I get a motion? A second on FF1. >> So moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon.
Public comment on FF1. >> No comment. >> For member comment, Miss Hixon. Thank you. On a more positive note, um I want to share that we had um almost $7 million brought into the district through a variety of different grants.
Thank you Dr. Zean for clapping on that. The biggest one was $3.5 million from CTE or you know the um career technical education, 2.8 8 for civics and history, $340,000 for teacher certifications um
through the state. There's also $115,000 um for the district threat assessment manager coordinator, which is so nice to finally see a state mandate that is funded instead of unfunded um on that. And then there were some um local grants
through Walmart and different things that allowed our schools to have gardens and drones and uh music. So I just want to say thank you to district staff, to the teachers, to the administrators, everybody in the schools who does this
extra work to bring in extra funds so our students can have these amazing opportunities. and we're really appreciative of that almost $7 million being brought into the district. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Rupert. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I in the same
vein as my uh my colleague, um I wanted to say congratulations to our high schools, including the Blanch High School and Monarch for being awarded the grant funding from FL DOE to support workforce development. I'm very excited
for that. those increasing opportunities and um which gives more opportunities for our students and our families and our communities. So, thank you. Thanks so much. >> Thank you. Any other board discussion? All in favor of FF1 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. Item passes
unanimously. Could I get a motion to second on JJ1? >> So move. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hicking. Public comment on JJ1. >> No comments. >> Board member comment. I have Dr. Zean. Thanks so much, Chair. Um, while we're in the process of, uh,
filling a couple uh, absolutely critical roles here in Brower County, uh, the chief operating officer and the chief facilities officer, um, I'm very excited about the work that's being done by the staff about linking together all the pieces of the system, the procurements, the org structure, the contracted out,
the government staffing, you know, really creating a system of success for going forward. But at the same time, we're in an interim role or an acting role or a task assigned role. Pick your favorite adjective. Um, and I think it'd be useful to just talk about uh these items so that the board gets a good idea
about the current administration uh both chief operating officer and our executive director of construction, acting chief facilities officer. um just to make sure that we understand what we're voting on and to give the public um some belief that we continue to
manage construction um to the greatest of our ability. So, chair, I wondered if you could uh pull the staff uh through the superintendent and see if we could get a short summary about uh change order number seven at Whitten Rogers. >> Dr. Hubard.
>> Yes, absolutely. Uh Mr. Dorsep. And that's uh number you're referring to JJ1, correct? >> Zema, >> that's the item we're on. >> Yep. >> Good afternoon. Mark Dorset, task assigned chief operating officer. Uh just to summarize where we are with uh
Wooden Rogers. We're 90% complete with with the work there. Uh we're asking for for an extension uh um of the change order to to deal with some issues that was brought up, termites and some water damage. We just want to go ahead and
clean that up. we are on target to complete this project um for the school. So we we uh we we just need uh a little indulgence on on this change order so we can complete this project. >> I appreciate that summary. Thank you uh
for helping to instill some confidence in the uh management and leadership uh that's going on in this thing. Chair, last week you moved me very much with your description about Whitten. you know, and we had a discussion as a board and we talked about this consolidation of Seagull and WDEN and that we were
going to meet Broward County standards. This contract, just so my board members are aware, was written years ago, well before we thought about moving Seagull and all of the faculty and staff and and constituents that will be going there.
Do we have any confidence, chair, that this contract is going to execute to get us to what we demanded last week was getting to Broward standards for all students are going there now that we have a change in in student composition and staff composition? >> Dr. Hbert, >> yes, this project could be completed um
no later than July. So, it gives us ample time to, you know, complete any additional punch list before the students actually set foot on on the campus. >> Now, let me ask a little slightly different question then. We have different students there. We have a different student load. We have different staff, different staff load.
There are changes in there. And what I heard this board say is that we want the facility by August 10th, the start of next year, to be completed to Broward standards for the new students and the new staff and the new operations at Whitten. I'm not confident that this
scope of work, which was written years ago for the students at Whitten, is really appropriate for this combined school that we decided. And again, we did this with Dr. Holdus last year. We had many, many, many discussions, maybe more than I would have even liked Dr. Holmes about, you know, we're closing
schools. We got to be careful about the the facilities, right, of of what we're doing um so long as it's a Broward County Schools property. Do we need to do some additional work um on defining what has to be there in order to meet Broward standards by August 10th? Or is this is this contract already perfect
even though we had no idea that the students and the staff of Seagull were going to move in? Yes, we uh we had a cabinet meeting out there last Monday. So, I personally with Mr. Dorset and also the principal and um additional staff, we walked every facet of that building, identified certain rooms for
relocation, um identified certain areas that needed some um um some upgrades or some beautifification. So, we've already done that work and everything will be done before the school year starts. >> Dyn is that reflected in the scope of work on this? >> It is reflected in the in what uh the facilities team will do within their
budget. Okay, I'm just going to like define risk here with you. >> I think what you're saying is that our PO is going to do all the upgrades that need to happen at Whidden, not not any outside help. >> Correct. >> And and our PO is going to have that
done by August 10th. >> Correct. May I ask in your report that's coming back to the board that you include the new scope of work that PO is going to get done in conjunction with whoever is working out at Whitten uh on the outside contract? >> Yes, we can provide that. >> Do you mind?
>> I I think that's important. Um you know the the the risk level is the risk level. Everybody picks kind of who can provide to get things done. Our PO is like incredibly taxed to do all kinds of things. I personally worry that we have another weather event. We have
a fire, we have, you know, somebody drives a truck through, you know, a school on the weekend. I mean, we have so many cat catastrophies that happen. That's our PO dives in and does a lot of that for us. And so, I'm a little bit worried that PO would do all these things, but I think the board's been
very, very clear that the standards at Whitten are Broward County standards. it will not be less than our Brower County standards for the for the the students and the others that we put there and for the new staff from Seagull that's transitioning there. Um so I'm looking forward to the bimonthly reports on
that. I'm looking forward to getting this work done because this work and the PO work is co-terminus. It's all going to be done by August 10th. >> That is the plan. Yes, sir. >> Uhuh. No, hold on. Time out. Chair, I don't think we said we want it done. I think we said we need this done. We are
closing a school, moving people, and we committed to them that on August 10th, we will deliver them Broward County school facility standards. >> That's correct, Dr. Zema. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you. That's all I have. Chair, >> um I I'd like to just add I think for me
I I it's important to highlight uh that the facilities are um suitable for our AWA program there. um there is additional needs of the the
pregnant um and the the pregnant students as well as the the mothers and parents at the facility. So just to emphasize the need for those facilities to be adequate for the specific needs of those students.
>> Yes. uh through the chair. Um after visiting the the site now on a few different occasions, we got a full scope of work from not only the principal but uh myself and Dr. Wanza and a few staff members actually met uh on site to see
exactly what was needed. Uh I had staff meet out there, the the the staff that's going to do the work. Uh we're talking about some some beautifification work. We we we're talking about getting the gym ready. We are talking about building four uh um uh configuring building four
to allow for students with disability in that building with to include ramps uh uh uh covered walk that that kind of thing. So we want to make sure that that facility is ready to accept the new students uh come the the the beginning of the school year and the plan is to
make sure that that's done before school starts. >> Thank you. And um I I plan to have a student roundt at Seagull uh at some point. We're in the process of scheduling that um to hear from the students because we did hear from staff
last week and as well as parents um and and staff our district staff was there for that. But I would invite uh you know I'll I'll send Dr. He the the date and time, but I would invite staff to join me um to have a conversation with the students because I think they're able to
highlight uh their unique uh concerns and questions around the transition and the facilities. Um so I just wanted to extend that invitation. Um do we have any other board member discussion on item JJ1?
>> All right. All in favor of JJ1 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. Item passes unanimously. Um, we will now go to our time certain. So, could I have a motion and a second on item RR2? >> So, moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, seconded by Miss
Hixon. Public comment on RR2. >> Uh, I don't think there's any register speakers, but I didn't know if you wanted to take uh R2 and three together. >> Okay. So, could I have a motion, a second on R2 and R3? >> So, moved together. >> Moved uh by Dr. There's even second by
Miss Hixon. Public There are no public speakers on RR2 or RR3. >> No speakers. >> Okay. Board discussion on RR2 and RR3. I had pulled this uh for the courtesy of my colleagues. >> No board discussion. >> I'm sorry. I do. Chair. >> Go ahead, Dr. Zean.
>> Yeah. I just want to make sure that we're aware um you know, kind of what we're doing with these two items. These are you know uh administrative items on on the flow of funds. We've had some speakers today talk about our uh fund balance, which is great. And I'm glad the community and my colleagues are both fully engaged in budget formulation and
budget execution uh which is going to be exciting. But to uh pay off what we borrow and to execute cops uh our standard transactions uh I appreciate the chief financial officer for many many things, but I really appreciate her for bringing these to us and cleaning
these things up. Um and so thank you very much. Look forward to getting past these. >> Any other board discussion? All in favor of RR2 and R3 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. Items pass
unanimously. Um, do I need to recess the meeting to go to the leasing court? >> Yes, madam chair. >> Okay. Uh, we will recess this regular schoolboard meeting to go to the leasing court meeting. Hey, come on.
diplomatic digit. Heat. Heat. Yeah. I see there. Yeah. Wo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Heat. Heat.
Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh, hey. King
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. The meeting of the board of directors of Broward School Board Leasing Court is hereby called to order. May I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of the last meeting held November 18th, 2025.
>> So moved. >> Moved by Miss Thompson, second by Miss Hixon. All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> I'll oppose say no. Motion carried. The purpose of this meeting is to consider the following. the adoption of resolution 26-01 authorizing the execution of amended and restated
schedule 20008A-1 amended and restated schedule 20009A-1 and amended and restated schedule 20009A-2 to the master lease purchase agreement approving the form of a series of 26
2026A supplemental trust agreement approving the negotiated sale of certificates of participation series 2026A and an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $125 million. Approving the use of a preliminary offering
statement and authorizing its distribution in use. Authorizing the execution and delivery of a final offering statement. Authorizing the execution of such further agreements and amendments to other agreements as shall be necessary or desirable to carry out the purposes of this resolution. Is
there any board discussion? Is there any audience discussion? May I have a motion and a second to approve resolution 26-01? >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Thompson. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. >> I. >> All opposed, say no. Motion carried.
There being no other business to be brought before this board and the president will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon. The motion having been made and seconded. The meeting is now adjourned. All right, we will return to
series 26 2026 negotiated sale of certificates of participation series 26A and an aggregate principal amount not to exceeding preliminary operating statement to authorize All right.
audio. There being no other business, Why don't you Uh we are now back to our regular schoolboard meeting. Um, Dr. Zean informed me that he no longer needs to
pull several JJ items, but we do have one JJ item. Um, that Miss Rupert also pulled. Uh, so could I get a motion and a second on item JJ2? >> So moving. Can I move J2 through six? Chair. >> Um, well actually Miss Roupert pulled J2. J2. >> Madam Chair,
>> keeping J1. >> Yes, Miss Rupert. >> Um, my questions were answered about two. >> Okay. Okay. So, could I get a motion and a second to move JJ2 through JJ6 to the floor? >> So, moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Roupert. Any public comment on JJ2, 3,
four, five, or six? >> No speakers. >> Um, board member discussion on any of those JJ items. All in favor of JJ2 through 6 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. >> Items pass unanimously. Could I get a
motion and a second on JJ7? So, move. Moved by uh Dr. Zean, seconded by Miss Hixon. Public comment on JJ7. >> No, ma'am. >> Board member comment. Miss Bulman. >> Thank you, chair. Um I ju I pulled this
just to recognize um Mr. Dorset. Thank you very much for this item. Uh this is for the renovation at MacArthur High School. When they uh did the planning for that, they did not plan for new furniture. And so we have a newly
renovated building that will now have new furniture. I really appreciate you working with the budget and being flexible. I know that um everyone at MacArthur is going to be very happy when this is finished. So thank you so much for making this happen. >> Any other board member discussion? Dr.
Zemen. >> Yeah, thank you. Chair, this item describes uh in essence an error. You know, when the original scope was put together, they didn't think about FFN. Um, is that the kind of error that will not happen in the future? >> That is the plan for us to make sure
that we do a comprehensive review of these projects to include FFNE. So, yeah, that was left off of this this particular uh uh project. >> Dynamite. Thank you very much, Chair. >> All right. Any other board member discussion on JJ7? All in favor of JJ7 say I. I.
>> All oppose say no. >> Item passes unanimously. Um, could I get a motion and a second on item CC1? >> So moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, seconded by Miss
Hixon. Public comment on item CC1. >> Yes. One registered speaker, President Anna Fusco. >> Hi, Anna Fusco. B Teachers Union President. I'm asking you guys to move forward and um approve to
accept this because um Miss Daniels is an amazing teacher been at that school for 29 plus years and you know false allegations do happen and that was what totally proven and I'm thoroughly
asking we have nine one two three four five six okay you have quorum um to approve this item and let's move forward we don't need continue talking on it. Thank you. >> No other speakers. >> Board member discussion on board member
discussion on CC1. I have Miss Bulman. >> Thank you, chair. Um yes, I fully support the recommendation. Um and I and I pulled this item one. this is a teacher in my district and I um you know I we've spoken about this a little bit
but I think the um employee groups are working with our HR um to make uh better guidelines for when we're making decisions about how we're um disciplining employees. And so um and I
and we've had kind of a similar fact pattern came up a few weeks ago and it was dealt with in a totally different way. So, I just want to commend the HR department for taking those steps in the right direction under the, you know, in um in step with our employee groups and so looking forward to continuing those
discussions so that we can make sure that these decisions are making are being made to keep our students safe, but also making sure that our employees are being treated properly and um that we're not, you know, falsely accusing people of things. So, thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Mr. Civera. Thank you, chair. Um, I am in favor of this. Obviously, I'm am supportive uh of the motion and the proposed final order. And um I I think it's important to point out in in this case that um due process
worked, right? Um you had an individual that or a a a teacher that was uh had some allegations that were lodged against her. uh she went through the due process uh proceeding and it was adjudicated by um the administrative law judge, Judge um Hinchelwood, that she
had in fact um not committed um any violations. And uh I I do want to commend the judge. The the order was was very thorough. It was very substantive. Um I spent the weekend uh reading it and I was thankful for the um the findings within there as well as the uh the
explanation. So, I am uh obviously in support of this. Um, and I I do think again it's important to just point out the fact that this due process um process, if you will, uh does work, right? And this is a a a shining example of that. So, I'm very much in support of
the motion. Thank you. >> Any other board discussion? >> All in favor of CC1 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. >> Item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on uh O1? So move >> moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon.
Public comment on O1. >> No comments. >> Board member discussion. I Miss Bulman. >> Um thank you chair. I, you know, continue to support these efforts that we're making to green our schools and reduce energy costs. Um I just I had one
question because I believe we're doing um it looks like 20 we are agreeing to do a 100 schools and we're doing rolling that out 25 a year. Um so my question
was if we are able to complete the 20 you know if we can complete the retrofitting on 25 schools would we have the capacity to increase that number in a one-year period so that we could hasten the process of getting our you
know because it will then be hastening the savings and the energy efficiency. >> Dr. Heburn. >> Yes. I've seen Miss Wachinsky in the room. um >> if you can provide any information on if we can speed up the process and add
additional schools or if not if there what are the barriers? >> Uh Allison Wesky, director of environmental health and safety. Um uh we our barriers are financial at this point. It is a loan that we get to uh
upfront the cost of the repairs or the modifications. Um, so we can talk more with capital budget if that's an interest of the board, but that that that was the the parameters that we were given was the 20 schools a year.
>> Okay. I don't know if the board had would like to discuss that because I I guess we'd want to see what the savings is versus the cost for the loan and that would kind of be the math that we're doing, right? Does anyone have those numbers? Um we're the savings for the um
the 20 schools that we're doing is about 1.4 million on average over the 15-year period. Um, and I think we're we're pretty close to that um break even point as far as the loan is going in the uh I
if if capital budget h Well, Ivan, do you want to speak? >> My god, the this is Ivan Prawn, the treasurer for the district. Usually what happens in this case when the savings gets greater as the as it matures even
longer. So the whole loan will basically uh be neutral. In other words um the the the interest that we pay on it and the savings of the um of the energy will be
equal based on the numbers that we have right now. If we increased the number of schools that we were retrofitting over a period of time, would that increase our savings or would that increase our costs?
>> Theor theoretically it would be um offset. It would be the same. >> Okay. >> It would be the cost and the savings wipe itself out. So, we'd have to seek further
a larger loan to be able to execute that. >> And Miss Pullman, uh, JCI is also in the audience if you'd like to hear from them. >> Yeah, they're ready to speak right here. >> Great. >> Uh, good afternoon board. Good afternoon, superintendent. Uh, my name is John Ridley with Johnson Controls.
Um, very appreciative that we've been the contractor for this program going back to May of 2020. uh we've completed uh three phases. The fourth phase is currently almost completed and this is for the fifth phase. So in terms of your your question about the savings um as
the number of schools and impact uh increases, the savings also increase and the goal with this program is for uh in addition to modernizing the schools and doing these great things that have been wellreceived within your district is that uh the savings offsets the cost of
the construction and the loan and the interest. And so that has been happening throughout the first four phases. Not not only uh has it met the the cost and offset it, we've actually exceeded the savings guarantee that we guaranteed contractually within our contract for
these first four phases. So uh we have all the proof points and data that we measure and verify that guarantees are happening each year. And we are projecting for this phase that's on the agenda 1 right now to uh save the district approximately $1.2 2 million per year uh each year going forward
throughout the term of the contract. >> Yeah, and I appreciate that. I think you guys are doing a great job on this. Um I was just wondering if we if there was any benefit to increasing the number of schools that we're addressing in a shorter period of time versus waiting and doing it over the the schedule that
we have set up right now. >> Sure. So for some context, the last phase that this board approved was um the phase 4 was in July of 2024. about 20 months ago. Uh with this passage today, we're working with the great staff here to uh look at the next phase
to be to come back in front of you within the next four to 6 months. So instead of waiting 20 months, we could have another 20 schools uh for consideration within the next four to 6 months. So to answer your question, yes, we're trying to make this uh accelerated for the benefit of the district. >> Awesome. All right. Thank you so much.
>> You're welcome. >> Thank you, Mr. Seivera. Miss Bowman um beat me to the punch. Thank you, >> Miss Rupert. >> Um I'm okay. Uh I'm I'm absolutely supportive of this. Looking forward to it. Um I did have a question except uh
you could send it to me in a in a memo. Um the second part of it I believe was talking about um compact trash um the being added to six schools. just uh when you have a minute just just it would be nice to know um
which which schools are getting that of of the 20 because it mentioned it. So in a in a follow-up would be great though. >> Yeah, she Miss Ruper, she actually has the answer right now if you don't mind. >> Allison Washinsky, director of environmental health and safety. So the six schools are Addex Middle School,
Bear Middle School, Crescent Park Elementary, Falcon Cove Middle, Lakeside Elementary, and Lauder Hill 6 through 12. >> Nice. Okay. I look forward to visiting them sometime. Thanks so much. >> Also, if I may, chair staff, does this
supposed to go jointly with RR1? >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Can we p Can we pass this and then go to RR1 or do we also need to bring R1 to the table? >> We could do one and then one and then the other is fine. >> Okay. Um Dr. Zean,
>> thanks so much. Uh two questions. How did we get in the business of this amazing, you know, contract with light and trash compacting at the same time? >> Are you asking how we added trash compactors to the program?
>> Um, environ Allison Washinsky, director of environmental health and safety. Uh, environmental health and safety was already doing trash compactors as part of the DEFP. We um were doing uh two or three a year as part of that and we are seeing um seeing savings associated with
that because we are reducing the number of pickups uh for the refues and um as a way to just keep keep that process moving and actually move moving it along a little faster. Um we we spoke with the
vendor about adding that to the contract for the next five years. Great. I guess um uh I'll submit a question separately on this. I I wouldn't normally expect for us to enter into contracts of lighting and and trash compacting together, but we'll figure
that out uh separately when I send in you a question on that. Second to the board's kind of expressed intent at this point. I would love to see this come back next month with some kind of fixed accelerated schedule. And and why? because of the time value of money. If
we could get this done, Miss Bulman, in less time, we get to realize the savings forever after that, right? So, there's a pretty big incentive for us to try and get this done. If it's a break even deal, if something gets done in four years instead of 10 years, you got six more years of cost savings uh baked in.
So, if you could come back with a real item that kind of describes, well, I should ask you, Mr. Superintendent, could we come back with an item that rephases this so that what we approve is they could go at the pace of of the vendor in getting this done because the
sooner we get this break even done, the more we're going to realize those savings for the rest of the life. >> So, um I would prefer bringing this on a timeline they just discussed. I think it was four to six months. And here's why. We have a discussion about um underenrolled schools coming up again in
um um just a simple update in March about some other things but in May really um initiating that that discussion again. Yes. >> So I don't want them to you know come back in a month and they have all these listed of schools and some of those schools may be you know for consideration for next steps uh based on
what the board uh uh gives us direction to um to do. So that's my only um my only concern is bringing it too early and they've identified schools that may not be this um schools that may be in existence for you know upcoming years.
>> I I understand it. I appreciate that. I >> um to the extent that we have u a good timing on this, it sounds to me like once we've identified the next round of schools, if there is one, >> that in fact u then we can maybe time them coming back and saying accelerate. would love Miss Bulman to realize those
savings faster. Um I don't understand the trash compactor part, so I'll have to work on that a little bit. But on the lighting part, you know, this is a very traditional, you know, loan pays you back with reduced cost real quick. Uh but in general, organizations would benefit by uh by doing this faster. To
your point to Dr. Dr. Heepern. Um, are we certain that the plan for the next six months doesn't include schools that uh, how, let me just ask it factually. Are any schools in the current six-month plan that we're approving today on the list of schools
that we considered for repurposing this year but did not close or did not repurpose >> that we may be considering in the future. Um, no. I I meant it what I the way I asked it because I don't want to I don't want to get into projections of who might be on the list next year, but we identified a list. >> Yes, there is there is uh one that will
be pulled off of this list. >> Oh, I'm sorry. So, that's going to get corrected on the way. I appreciate that. Thank you very much, chair. >> Thank you, Miss Hixon. Thank you. Um, and I appreciate the conversation because I think the last time we talked about this, I asked how we could add
more companies to this so we could get it done faster for all of those same reasons. Um, and I just have a couple of questions because when Mrs. Bulman asked about what is the barrier. The mention was about the loan, but I in
conversation with people also understood that some of the barrier is the amount of people that are working on it. So could you speak to that? Because even if we solve the money issue, if there's still an issue of people, we need to
know that because getting a bigger loan won't solve that problem. So if you could speak to that, please. >> Sure. So Allison Washinsky, director of environmental health and safety. Um, right. So the the number of staff that I have to support um the the collaboration
with the vendor, generating not us generating plans, but reviewing plans, getting them to the building department, all those kind of things. Um, we're doing in phase four right now about 30 schools. So that's kind of our limit. Um, and and this one is is this phase
five is 20 schools. So that there we can increase potentially with the current staffing but only to a certain um extent. >> And could you explain to us like what is it what is it that the staff is limited on
doing? And the re where I'm going with that is you know we're paying a project manager for some construction stuff. Is it possible that they could collaborate with your with our staff and help expedite those things where there's
different people because the company's working on the installing everything? The issue I understand is permitting and the paperwork part. So, how would we be able to collaborate with someone to increase that so that the company could
do more of those schools and we might be able to move this along faster? >> Um, yeah. So, we're we're the liaison. EHNS is the liaison between the vendor and all the the schools, the building
department. So we're coordinating the access and um making sure that the permits get processed in the building department. So I similar to the office of capital programs. >> I guess that's my point. If >> it's a project manager position,
>> right? So is there a way that we add another project manager or move some people around to do that faster? That's really the question I'm asking. How do we resolve the people barrier within the confines of what we have?
>> I mean, if you want to give me more staff, I'll take staff, >> right? But I mean, it's within the off the it, right? There's other people. My question is, I guess really to the superintendent and Mr. or said, is there
someone that could be shifted over there for a short period of time to help move the paperwork process along? >> So, as you know, we got a lot of downsizing, a lot of shifting to do. So, as we work on that holistically, we can look at the needs and see if there's a
possibility of shifting somebody around in other areas that essentially are actually um saving the district money. >> Right? That's why I think all of us have asked about doing this faster so that we can see the plan >> see that money better. So if if that's
possible, I'd love for us to be able to do that. Thank you. >> Any other board discussion? >> All in favor of O1 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. >> Item passes unanimously. Uh could I get a motion and a second on item O2?
>> So move. >> Sorry, chair. Weren't we supposed to go to the resolution that >> Oh, sorry. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> I move that we withdraw the item. >> Can we uh can I get a motion to second on R1? >> So moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, seconded by Miss
Hixon. Public comment on RR1. >> No comments. >> Board member discussion, Miss Rupert. >> Um I'm good. Thank you. >> Any other board member discussion? >> All in favor of RR1 say I. >> I. All post say no. Item RR1 passes
unanimously. Now, could I get a motion in a second on O2? So, >> moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon. Public comment on O2. >> One public registered speaker, Dr. Natalie Lynchwash. >> Uh, pass. I'm saving my three minutes for the referendum audit. Thank you.
>> No other comments. All >> right. Board member comment. Uh, Miss Bulman. >> Oh, I had um I had one question regarding this and that is when I'm when I was looking at the contract renewal, the renewal only goes
until September. Um, and this I think is supposed to complement our AECOM contract. So what are what's our options after we've ext made our final extension on this contract and we still have from
the termination in September all the way to January for the ACOM contract. Well, this will the the whole solicitation for construction manager and long range planner. All this is encompassed in that
too as part of that process as as far as a solicitation for a um controls. Um >> well just assume make you know just theoretically if we were not under
contract with a um peor whatever we decide to go with after we have our workshop how does this affect our ability to get the work done while we're still under contract with ACOM if they're if we're not under contract with Atkins do we have to do a RFQ for
controls >> yes >> okay so we would basically have no controls for >> so we're so the timeline is mirrored for the whole P more Seymour whatever the in ending concept would be so the same
timeline uh is mirrored for the construction management contract also as well as the long range planner >> but that would depend on us having a a contract in place when this contract expires >> correct >> but we don't really know that that's going to happen based on what's I guess
I'm looking for a and bey cuz that limits our contract. We have a year contract for AECOM and I guess when I was thinking about it before thinking that we have a year um but this really that takes a lot of months out of our
putting our program together can we can we function without controls? Um, no, not particularly. Um, >> and I'm not suggesting we can't. I'm just asking what's the So, I'd like to know what the plan is if we get to the
point where we don't have a contract um in September for a PMO equivalent, what we're going to what our options are. >> Yep. So, um I'm going to ask Miss Coley or um Ashley with um Atkins if we have another
extension. Um, this is the last extension, right? So, correct. But this is a totally different solicitation from the PO or Seymour, whatever the concept is. It's a totally different um solicitation, >> but they're working together. So,
presumably you'd be doing it on parallel. >> Correct. We're doing parallel time. We've got AECOM until the middle of January 27 and we've got Atkins, if we approve this today, until September of 2026. So, we've got a big gap, potential gap in time.
>> Yep. And and >> would this be like another time example of an emergency if we don't have >> No. So, um our anticipation is that we have a solicitation ready to be approved by the board for everything um by June
at the latest. June, July at the latest, not in January. We're working with a specific timeline so we're not in a predicament that we're right up against um the end of the emergency contract. We're working to have several months before an emergency contract is is done
so that there's uh proper transition time um for the new >> well um so maybe for our general counsel what's our what are our options if we don't >> what are our options if we don't have
our pe in in place that we're going to solicit >> separately the controls and then potentially have them in place for September then run that to the end of >> so if I can cl if and to clarify your
question are you asking you are or is it your assumption that the peour the controls is within the peour contract >> no we have so we have the we have the peour contract and that expires in January we're going out for a new RFQ >> correct >> for the peour
>> this is this is the first that I'm learning that this is expiring in September for the Atkins portion of it. So they should be running kind of parallel >> if they're right. >> Correct. >> To they don't need to run parallel.
>> So So Dr. But so then we would have to have someone else in place in September for the controls even. So it doesn't at the very least we'd have to have someone in place in September for the with the controls contract even if we didn't have
in place for the um pear contract until then. Okay. Correct. That's all that's >> Yes. >> Thank you Mr. Seiver. >> I'm satisfied. >> Miss Thank you. Um I I have a question and I
don't know how we end up changing it but you know when we had this discussion about AECOM within the contract we were able to put something that financially held them responsible if they didn't meet a certain deadline. Um, I would like to be able to do that in this
contract as well because when you look at the things that AECOM is supposed to be handling, we can't blame everything on on I'm sorry, Atkins. You can't we kind of blamed everything on AECOM landing us where we
are, but if Atkins is the control, they also allowed things to land where they landed. And there's some issues about Ebuilder in here and different things. So, how would we go about including some kind of accountability
in terms of not meeting those deadlines in this contract? The similar to how we did an ine contract, >> go ahead, Miss Coley. >> It'll come on. Just keep talking. >> Oh, good afternoon. Sonia Coley, executive director. So there is already
uh something within Atkins contract that uh they have to uh if they are delayed in reporting. So there is something within the contract for that. >> Is that your question? >> Well the the reporting part isn't where
where we're getting an issue having an issue. I mean reporting is that all that they're doing for they're doing a lot of other things than just reporting. They're making timelines. are doing all of these things. And to me, it feels like when we're falling
behind on a timeline, they just adjust the timeline. And that's how we ended up where we're at. How do we hold them accountable for keeping to the timelines that we have and the expectation of getting the projects done on time the
same way we're going to do with Atkins and the way we changed their contract. It was more about what what are the deliverables and I don't have a problem with the way they deliver the reports. I have more of a problem with the work that is done
behind that and how do we hold the company accountable and the what was in here isn't their original contract. It's just an addition. So I didn't see anything that that holds them accountable if we're not meeting the
expectations that are that we have. So theirs is not an accountability uh with regards to uh projects being completed on time. They're reporting uh really uh on the cost control level and also in terms of the master schedule. So they
are tracking whether or not again whether the program manager's schedule baseline schedule is tracked against the master schedule. So that's what their reporting is. They're not we can't hold them accountable for the contract. They're not completing their work on
time. What we can again we're uh tracking the master schedule. So they're at a high level reporting for us. Their issue is if they don't inform the district or inform the office of capital programs that there is an issue then that's what they can be held accountable
for not bringing it to our attention in a timely manner. But they do that with the monthly reporting that they do. I'm still struggling here. >> And we use that information to hold a comma, >> right? No, I get that. But I just feel
like a com I mean Atkins is been tied with, you know, moving along here and there are other things. There's things about Ebuilder in here that and I know we're having a lot of issues with how Ebuilder has come online and things of
that nature. So I don't know my board members can weigh in. Maybe I'm not understanding, but I just I don't see where there's an accountability piece in this contract, and I want to see an accountability piece in every contract
that comes before us. So, I'll just leave it at that. >> Thank you, Dr. Holes. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. So, um I understand board member Hixon's concern and um in terms of holding Atkins accountable
um but uh Dr. Heburn, I I I spoke to you in the past um so we can better understand because at one point I heard where Atkins was responsible for master schedule and and ACOM was doing master schedule and then now Atkins is doing
master schedule. I think it would be beneficial to us as a board maybe because we've heard sometimes from ACOM uh maybe hearing from Atkins as to I know the reports come to you and all of that but I think as a board um if we
hear from Atkins um on a consistent basis it would help us to better understand um what they do and how to hold them accountable for what they do because um I I understand that they create the timelines and so on
and so forth, but ACOM is responsible for carrying out those in a timely manner. So you hold ACOM accountable, but there there has to also be a way to define or at least us understanding the defined role of Atkins and how we can hold Atkins accountable for what they're
responsible for. and maybe Atkins report to us sometime so we can because I I have rarely heard from Atkins and I know we hear from you about the reports but it makes them almost invisible. So maybe if we if we have some frequency in which
they report to us um we could better understand what they do and and and how we can actually have measures to hold them accountable for what they do. So Dr. Heiner, do you have any comments? Um, I'll ask uh Miss Coley and even um
Miss Carpenter um to provide some detail, but I know it it probably seems like they're invisible, but every change order, every time, every uh time um impact analysis, all of those things are actually done >> by um by Atkins. Um go ahead u Miss Miss
Coley. Um, I'll just add that we can definitely bring back uh with a workshop so we can see, you know, you you all can see specifically what uh Atkins does for us and it's uh very extensive. >> Okay. So, I would personally appreciate that and I don't mean this has to be
every month, but since I've been here, I rarely ever heard about what Atkins is doing. I heard that through my monthly meetings with the superintendent, but I think every now and then in a workshop, it would be great to see the wonderful work they're doing. So, I mean, that's not in my expertise, so I I'm not going
to fully understand what they do, but if they talk about in the workshop, then I'll get a better picture. You know, um I'm teaching and learning. That's what I do. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Miss Thompson. >> Thank you, chair. I do have have several
concerns. I've already voiced them in previous workshops. Um a company we're paying $14 million to, we should probably have a a better understanding of what they're doing. Um, so that's one level of concern. I also feel like we
need to be building in controls on our district side and not spending $14 million to do this. So, I will be voting no on this. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Zean. >> Thanks, Chair. Um, couple things that I think are uh worth
noting uh about what uh a firm uh like this does uh to support. And to Miss Hixon's point, like how do we hold them accountable? I'll tell you the biggest piece of accountability is they're going to try and win a new contract in 6 months. And our staff, our government
staff is going to assess their performance right before they go into writing a proposal and and trying to compete. So right now Atkins is going to be on you know just have tremendous incentive to perform at a very very high level for what they do. So it's 1.3
million over 6 months. Uh they've got a staff of you know less than 10 people who are working on it. They do price controls, time impact analysis. They do analysis of um why things are going slow or fast and things like that. So they're kind of the brain, you know, kind of the deep thinking brain of this overall
construction project. I actually think we're doing pretty well on this. I have a much bigger kind of fatal problem with this item, which is, as I mentioned earlier, I'm out of patience. There should be a list of our top 100 contracts. Not hard to find. In fact,
there's some tools that can do it in about four minutes and when each one of those contracts is up. So, we now get a contract. Am I right, Chair? that this contract doesn't actually start though until March uh 17th, >> Dr. Hurn. >> Yes, that's correct.
>> And do we have a school board meeting between now and March 17th? >> Um, yes, I think so. We >> Okay. So, while this is urgent, at least we have one more school board meeting. If if uh Miss Thompson is successful or
if somebody decides to put lay this on the table and bring it back, we still have time to do that. Um, I just don't know when we do the Mark Maggley thing on contracts. Like when do we go to a contract that's presented to us with a gun to our head that says do this or
else the system fails and we tell the staff that this isn't good enough anymore? When do we stop the the the the process where we cannot figure out how to get contracts to us and compete it? The reason we're doing this right now is
because we didn't get the contract 6 months ago solicited and procured and through a process evaluated and awarded when what happens by the way board when we do that what happens when you compete a new requirement you get a lot of vendors that come in and compete what
does that do to the price it drops it down. What does it do to the promises and performance? It drives it up because now everybody who bids on the work has to come in and tell you how great they are and how cheap they are and how wonderful they've been to all of their clients. So, this is not a trivial
issue. Uh, it's $1.3 million. So, I think Miss Thompson, I'm above the thousand limit today on on this part of the item. Thank you, by the way, for your reminder on the scope earlier. But the the in reality, I'm just curious when the board wants to stop and say,
"We're the board. We're supposed to, you know, be able to say the will of the board is to bring contracts early to recompete things when they expire. But we continue to see contracts coming to us that have are on the edge of expiring, gun to our head, approve this at full price. Right. Chair, is there
any discount on this uh price to what we've paid before? >> Not that I'm aware of. >> No. Is there any u demonstration of, you know, improved performance that's been proposed as a part of this extension? >> Not that I'm aware of. >> Right. And and so that's where we're at. So, it's a rhetorical question to the board, but is this the one where we pull
the Mark Maggley out and say, "Hey, we're not doing this one." >> The Mark Maggley. >> And so, Dr. Zean, just to um add some comment to to your comments, this is this is not the standard. We do have um a working a dock with all the worksheets, all the dates that they are
that they actually u sunset. uh the team initiates many of the procurement processes a year to six months out right there's there is various variables um and I'm not talking specifically about this one but um
overall there are various variables amongst the whole entire process that uh create speed bumps for lack of a better term that slows that process down. Um and we're we have a continuous improvement process. We bring we bring contracts to cabinet now to discuss them
and and figure out where they are and and we're already bottlenecked. >> Would it help you overcome those bottlenecks and obstacles if we decided today that this is the last contract that we're going to pass? >> It would >> that that we have a gunhead. I mean, we
pay too much for services. We don't get competition uh because of this. And I got to tell you, I don't want to hear about obstacles and challenges anymore. I I watch other government agencies and they actually get contracts competed on time. Much bigger urban school districts, much
bigger cities, they will not do this. They will not continue kind of this this bad behavior which is costing us millions of dollars. If you want to figure out how to save money, let's save money in our processes because when we don't compete contracts, we pay more and
we get less service. Like I don't know why I don't know I don't know what the other side of this argument is. Why would we pass this contract with a gun to our head when we know it costs us more and we get less service? Is this the one where we say no?
Do we do we ever say no and do the right thing fiscally on a contract? If we don't do it on this contract, can we say this is the last one we're going to pass with a gun to our head? It costs us more. We get less service.
All right, I'm going to make a motion. This is um February 10th of 2026, and I would like uh Broward County School Board uh to uh make a decision right now that this is the last contract
that we're going to renew that's within 60 days of sunset. Is >> there a second? Okay, that's where you guys are. It's not where I am. And and I'm not there because I know this costs us more money
and it gives us less service and this is this is a management problem that is real and it needs to be solved. I I understand obstacles and challenges, but there are lots of other districts and lots of other government organizations have figured out how to get this right,
and I'm going to continue to talk about it until we get it right. And um I I don't like being put in a corner. This vendor has done great work for us. They are getting sullied by the fact that we have to talk about that we're passing this only under duress. Um and I don't
think it's the right thing to do. I appreciate the service that we've gotten so far. It will be a lot of accountability because of the recompete time. Uh but at some point this board's going to have to decide that we want to hold this administration accountable for doing the right thing. And today we took
a we took a pass. >> Thank you. Um I'd like to speak and then we can go to a round two. Um I suppose I I do want to clarify why I as one board member didn't second the
motion and you know I I agree completely with the sentiments expressed by Dr. Zean. Um I think a lot I think all of us on the deis have said so said as much um in the last several years.
I think like making a blanket policy uh like that without any exceptions um is maybe not realistic and I don't want to you know as Miss Hixon says like why have a policy if we're going to break the policy um but I guess I I
wonder to Dr. Heepburn um you know a lot of us do feel the same way as Dr. Zan when it comes to contracts that were kind of like pushed against a wall on um and I'm wondering what your uh plan of action is around that. I feel the same
way all of you do. Um, and my team knows that. Um, and so we are we have isolated many issues, but there are tons of variables that make the the procure the procurement process that goes through
specific workflow. It gets it can get hung up in certain areas. It can get hung up in risk management because the the uh vendors that we're negotiating with um want certain types of information from our students. It could get hung up in legal because there's certain aspects of a contract for us in
Broward County that we demand. So, there's tons of variables. All of them do not uh are not smooth sailing. Some of them get through the process super quick, but you have some that take quite a quite a lot of time to negotiate in in various steps of the workflow. Um and so
we're doing a better job. Uh Mr. John White has since he's been in has also done a better job of of of uh isolating um any contracts that have just been sitting there and in a stalemate and trying to figure out where's where's the barrier, where where's the uh um the hangup so we can isolate those. If it's
with if it's with procurement, we'll address it. If it's with risk management, we address it. And if it's with legal, they know we pick up the phone and call them and figure out what's going on, too. But um it is not one issue per contract. Also um Miss Hixon talked about this months ago um
about a contract tracker. So the team has been working on that. I know we have a new general counselor coming on board who I've communicated with and she's using a uh contract tracker where she is right now and uh the one that we've been looking at is the same one she's using. So we'll eventually adopt that so we can
actually have u a visible process for everybody versus what we're what we're using right now. But there's uh for each contract it is different. There's different aspects of each contract that could cause a delay that pushes us up
against the wall when it comes to the actual board. >> Got it. And to what extent I mean because we all I've certainly heard from staff anecdotally um about people you know bringing contracts at the last minute to legal or
or um you know trying to add it to a board agenda at the last minute uh and things have to because it's an emergency. So to what extent are you holding staff accountable for for things like that? you know, not things that are being held up by vendors, but just
people not um being proactive. >> So, a great question. We actually created a process, must have been last summer, where you have to fill out a form if you're trying to expedite a a contract because you didn't start the process on time. Uh that was one of the
things that wasn't visible for us in learning um some of these issues by talking to risk management and legal saying, "Hey, you just got this to me, you know, last weekend. you want me to get it done. So, we created a form to for folks to fill out so we can identify who's not following the process so we
can hold them accountable so we have a process um for that too. But if the uh Yeah. So, that's what we've instituted to try and identify those people because we know we have those issues too. >> Thank you. And I I appreciate the like the systems approach to that. Um I guess I'm wondering so then like how are those
people being held accountable that that have been identified by that system? they go through the uh process with their with their supervisor being if it's a chief or executive director um to it could be a summary memo to start and then it just um goes up progressive from
there. >> Will some of that be addressed in the ORC chart? >> Oh yeah, absolutely. Um, y I had the same I had the same concerns as Miss Bulman around like the the timing of this contract uh as not
matching up with the the peour process. Uh, I won't be redundant with that, but I did have those same concerns. Um, okay. Is does anyone Miss Bulman? >> Thanks, Chair. Um I I agree with Dr.
Zean as well and um in theory, but you know, I think we there's nuance to sometimes things become an emergency. So um that's why I didn't second that. Um so I have a question about this contract
because all we have is the amendment. Is do we still have the opport the ability to to terminate this contract on 30 days notice? Is that in the original contract with Jack Adams or Dr. He
>> so I would have to look at the original agreement. I think all that is attached to this particular uh construction contract is a third amendment. So if somebody can uh email me the agreement you usually it's uh section 3.05 of our
standard agreement but I'm not sure if this utilized our standard agreement. might be another provision. So, if someone can email that to me, I can let you know. But the 30 days is pretty standard. >> Okay. So, assuming we have the 30 days, then we can put the entire program back
on track the way that we need to. We can get the the various um bids out. Um and I in you know, we've experienced a lot of hiccups. I'll use that word. of but you know just had a lot of problems trying to get out
the RFQ the last time. Um and so I'm I will certainly be giving the benefit of the doubt. We're under new leadership for the procurement department that this is going going forward that we're not going to experience the same problems that we've had recently. Um, but like
the overarching program that we are putting together that we're meeting again to discuss on the workshop, I really and I don't know I don't know how my colleagues feel, but
I I'm going to assume that we really want to be confident that these RFQS and the RFPs that we're putting out for controls and for PMO are going to be wellformed. confirmed med this time and that they're based on good advice and
you know I an advice that's being given by a non-interested party that understands how to put this together. I just can't express enough how important it is that when we have our next um conversation at the workshop
that our options are very clear and that we achieve those by going out to o other entities that do government work that won't be bidding on these projects. I think that it's there's a way to do this. There's a way to present it to the
board so that we feel good about it. um and then we wouldn't have so many questions about the you know and about what's happening on a ba like a contract to contract basis. Um but I hope that we can have the um
assurance that that's what's going to happen because I don't want to go to our when are we having that next workshop like on the third I think. Okay. Okay. So, we have a couple weeks for that to happen, but I hope that when we get there, we're going to be overwhelmed by our options and how clear they are to us
and how that's all put together. >> Thank you. >> Excuse me, Madam Chair. I have an answer to Mrs. Bulman's question. So, yes, pursuant to 3.05 of the agreement, uh the board has the option to terminate with or without cost.
>> Thank you. >> Any other board discussion? All in favor of O2 say I. >> All in favor of O2 say I. I. All oppose say no. >> Roll call. >> I'm a I'm a yes.
>> Roll call. >> Roll call. Bullman. Yes. >> Sea >> Hixon. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Leonardi. >> Yes.
>> Rupert. >> Yes. >> Thompson. >> No. >> Zean, >> Alade, who's not here. Motion pass 53. >> All right. Um,
could I get a motion in a second on 05? >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon. Public comment on 05. >> No com no comments. >> Board member comment, Mr. Ca. >> Chair, may I be skipped momentarily to find myself? >> Miss Thompson.
U, >> my questions were actually answered, so sorry. >> You're good. Chair, where's the actual contract we're voting on? >> Dr. Heepern, >> I am check
>> I see a renewal letter. I I do have an answer in terms I don't know whether it's attached but with an ITB the ITB acts as the contract itself. So the formal solicitation package the
ITP acts as a contract as opposed to an RFP where there is a separate contract. >> Is that included in the materials Adams? So for O5, I see the renewal letter that renews the
ITB, but I don't seem to see the actual ITB itself. >> Do you think it's wise for uh board members to be voting on um agenda items in which u that type of documentation has not been provided in advance?
I can ask that question. Um, that is a no. Our standard is to make sure you guys have all the information you need to vote. Um, so we need to bring this back with the with the proper information. So one thing I would like to ask is um
>> if you are is this for an extension of the term of the contract? >> So if this is for extension of the term of the contract, I would advise that you take a look at what those dates are so that if you're bringing it back sometime
in the future, it's not beyond that expiration date because if it is, then you would have to formally solicit again. it would it would lapse. So in other words, you cannot extend a contract that has already expired. So >> if the executive summary is to be
believed, the I would it would appear that the current version um >> this is March 16th. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> So if that date's right, >> we'll bring back with the uh proper
information. >> Thank you. Yep. >> Would you like me to make I can make a motion or uh I'd like to move that we table this item until Could we do by February 17th since we have a special school meeting? >> Yes.
>> Second. >> Um motion made by Miss Leonardi, seconded by Miss Thompson to move this item to table this item until February 17th special school board meeting. Uh, public comment on the motion.
>> Um, board discussion, Miss Jack Adams. >> Yes. Um, let me take a look at the um the actual executive summary because there are times that um
the purchasing department has a hyperl to the ITB. So, let me take a look at the executive summary or if some if staff um who created the executive summary. >> I'm looking at the executive summary
right now. It says uh a copy of the RFP document is available online and there's a link. Um I suppose there has been some concern raised by my colleagues uh about you know lack of access to the
information if we weren't able to um you know consider that I still think it would be wise to table the item. >> Okay. Um I just confirmed and I'm not trying to stop that. I just confirmed in clicking the link that it
refers back to the ITB FY23-251. Mr. Sullivan. >> Yeah, I was going to say uh to Miss Jack Adams uh point uh that's how it's usually contained. Uh there is a earlier item that is also an ITB uh that had
already passed and I believe that also has the link to the original ITB, but that's how we've historically have u done it. I believe mostly um due to the size of the files that's why we do the the links but that's that's been the practice that we've done for ITBs.
>> So I guess my question is to my colleagues is your preference for that to be a separate attached item uh to the I mean document attached to the item in the future as opposed to embedded in the executive summary >> every time and in every instance.
>> Does is there any objection to that request? >> Okay. Um, >> repeat it. >> Oh, >> sorry, Miss Rupert. >> You said repeat it. >> Can you repeat it? >> Oh, I was just asking uh if the desire is to in the future have the ITBs or
RFPs, RFQS, whatever document um attached to the item separately instead of embedded in the executive summary >> um separately. >> Okay. All right. Dr. Heard, do you have your direction? >> Yes. We'll uh bring it back on the 17
separately. That way it gives um time for the board members to actually read the ITV. >> Miss Jack Adams >> and through the chair. I just wanted to clarify um to respond to Mr. Cera's question earlier when I was looking at whether it was attached. I was looking
at the ARF which had no attachments but there is a link to it within the executive summary. >> All right. Any other board discussion on the motion to table this item to February 17th? All in favor of tableabling the item to February 17 say I.
>> All oppose say no. >> Uh motion passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on O6? >> Moved by Miss Thompson. Second by Miss Hixon. Public comment on O6.
>> No comments. >> Uh board member comment. Mr. Sea. >> I found what I needed. Thank you. >> Miss Thompson. Um my question stemmed around um vape detection. It actually looks like the
majority of the the money is going to that. If someone could expand on what that means, Dr. Huburn, >> Mr. uh Davis and also Chief Gregory, if you guys can provide some detail on O6 questions about um vape detection as far
as uh the cabling and installation. >> Good afternoon, Trey Davies, Chief Information Officer. I'll address the Hold on a second. My mic moved. Um Trey Davies, Chief Information Officer, I'll address the uh the first uh the overall
spend authority is $8.48 $48 million of that is broken up in uh by facilities $2.04 million ISD $1.6 million and SP $4.84 million as you mentioned Miss Thompson that's al also includes vape
sensing pro uh projects as well um of that 1.6 6 million from ISD, we were able to expand that to 2.14 million uh which allows us to gain advantage uh with -ate discounts. So for that $2.14 million, we're getting $10.7 million uh
in equipment from the -ate side. That's the ISD side of it. I'm going to turn it over to uh uh to Mr. >> Chief Mike Gregory, Chief Safety and Security Officer. I did miss the first part about the vape. What was it? if someone could repeat that for me.
>> So, it seems like a significant amount of money is being spent on this surveillance surveillance program um and vape sensor projects and also the intercom projects. I don't I know we have talked about vape detection as a board and potentially
looking at investing into these types of programs, but I don't remember anything passing. So, I'm just curious on what this money is going towards and what kind of project So currently the uh network cabling function of this of this
contract supports the intercom project. So as you know we've been rolling replace intercoms across schools uh in the district. Uh so the vendor brings their equipment with the expectation that the networking connections exist in advance and that's where Mr. Davis's team comes in before the contractor
arrives, wires the building to the locations where the intercoms are connected and then they plug into them. Same thing will be the con is the concept with the um surveillance cameras where we need to add additional cameras in new locations at different schools as part of our
ongoing camera replacement and enhancement uh programs. The the expectation is that the wiring is already there. So when the contract or so when the camera installer arrives, they are merely plugging into a a outlet on the wall or in the ceiling, they just
plug into it. They don't run any additional cabling because all of that cabling work is consolidated in the contract for so we can get best pricing over an extended period of time. With regarding to vape, uh that program is in RFP uh development right now. We've
we're anticipating the RFP being released uh to v to vendors to bid on by the end of this month. And uh hopefully if that's successful, we we expect we'll see a good number of vendors to support closing that in about 30 days or so of it being on the street where we'll be
able to start a review committee to assess the vendors and make a selection to bring before the board for for an award. So, if I'm understanding correctly in my trusting my memory, we have not approved any vape sensor. We've approved an RFP
to go out, but we've not approved it. So, if we approve this additional spend authority we're spending, is it the same cablings for all three projects or are we setting up something for something that actually hasn't been approved yet?
It's the same contract for all of the safety security projects and the IT projects. The our the as I understand it uh historically that was before it predates my arrival here. There was a pilot conducted at three separate
schools for the vaping uh systems and for I believe six or seven different vendors installed those systems on campuses. My understanding is they utilize those cabling services to install that equipment. So it started back then with the pilot which is now
concluded but we're rolling into the real our the real product solicitation. So the expectation is those dollars would be used for um the same process as we did in the pilot. >> No I think I understand your question Thompson.
>> Yeah that as she's asking are the wiring that's being installed for all the other devices that we may be using cameras or whatever else that Mr. Avers talked about too. Will the same wiring be used uh for the vaping detection system or
are we going to install separate wiring for the vape detection system even though it's not have have come back for formal approve approval the the vaping system the vaping systems >> right? These would be additional wires
uh network cables that would be installed. The vapes, as we talked about in the pilot, are being installed in middle school and high school restrooms. Of course, we don't have cameras there, so there's no connections that exist for the vapes in the bathrooms. So, these
will be new additional cabling added to the middle school >> and you guys will start that once the approval of the RFQ, correct? >> Nothing before the approval. And this is not a purchase, as I understand. It's a spend authority. >> Spend authority. So you may not if you
guys don't approve it, we spend the money. >> Okay. So you no action will be taken until it comes back for a vote. >> That is correct with regard to vaping. >> Oh. >> All right. Dr. Zan,
>> I just want to um continue um this line of questioning though because I'm what what I did not hear is that uh or what I'm assuming is that there is wiring being run to places where vape detectors will be installed in. And now if we
don't approve the vape detectors, we've just spent some money running cable into places where there's going to be vape detectors. Is that in fact true? No, we won't run the Yeah, we won't run the wires until you approve the actual um >> Okay. Well, let's let's play here for a minute, folks. What's the requirement
for cabling in Broward County Public Schools for this type of stuff? What is the requirement? How much money do we need to do it right? if you want to provide any detail, Trey. >> So that would that would depend on on the number of uh locations, you know,
for where the vape sensing systems would be. Let let me break it down like in in my particular case. So the 1.6 million that you see allocated for ISD is specifically for upgrading to 10 gig networks from two gig networks uh which we currently have targeted at middle
schools. So we just completed this past year high schools. So that's the core network >> to 10 gig. >> Yeah. To 10 gig. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And and that's the and that's the core that's the core network upgrade. Now uh depending on where the runs based on the assessments are of of the vaping
vape sensing systems, right? Different rooms, different needs. Additional cabling would be done to accommodate those applications, but not until it was approved uh by the board. >> Right. And so here's where I get lost as a board. We're being asked to approve $8.5 million of spend authority and we
have no requirement to back it up. Like no one has a requirement for vaping systems in the Broward County School Board. We've not approved that. We have a requirement to get to 10 gig in middle schools even though they can't use cell phones in middle schools anymore. We want them to get to 10 gig. I think they're all getting laptops if they want them and there tons of other reasons
they want connectivity. I get that 1.6. But the what is the requirement that gets us to $ 8.5 million of spend? Like what what what is the what are we chasing? Does this win back students? Does this improve academic performance? Does this uh like why why why do we need
to have a spend authority of $8.5 million? It doesn't say that in the item. >> Mhm. Well, we're just wondering, we're looking at where the uh majority of the expense would come from. It's a consensus that majority of it
would be supportive of the video camera projects and >> okay, what's the requirement for for security cameras in Brower County Schools? How much money do we need to spend to make sure our schools are secure and safe? That's our strategic goal. One of our strategic pillars is safe, secure
schools. How much do we need to spend on cameras and wiring to make us meet that standard that's assessed each year when I present to you the security risk assessment that we're required to do by the state of Florida. So, of course, we've got cameras in all the schools. Now, uh, most would venture to say we we
cover the bare minimum. But with that security risk assessment where we rewalk the school, look to see what's changed, what new per what new, uh, features or locations are now of importance to us. Uh, we look to move those old cameras and put them in new places. Uh, that's
when we determine what the new standard is each year. Right. Well, my preference would be when you're done with that, come ask me for some money because right now it's like the money's in the budget, so we want to put it on this contract. Like I don't like spending money because it's in a budget. I want to spend money because it meets one of our strategic
goals and right now you don't know what your requirement is because you haven't done the assessment yet. >> We've completed the assessment. >> Okay. Then how much do you need for for cabling to give us safe and secure schools? >> Good. Please. The the um numbers for the
security risk assessment have been submitted as we do each year. Yep. >> To the state for grant support. That's our first uh our first wave request. other people's money. That's what we're going for. What we don't get accomplished or covered by those by the other people's money. Uh that's what we
will bring back to for capital expenditures which is coming up as I understand from Mr. Shim I believe later this month if not uh uh beginning of March. We'll be having capital discussions and how to build out the capital requests. Okay. For this year. So that's the process that we're following for those camera projects uh
and some of the security projects. Right. But you understand my problem. I'd like to know how many dollars you need to make our schools safe and and instead I have an item that says I need $8.5 million of a blank check that we can spend because I just gave
you the spend authority and it feels like the budget is chasing the requirement instead of the requirement is coming once you know you need X dollars. Your co colleague there just said I need 1.6 to get to 10 gig in all all middle schools. I'm happy to write a check for that. That's great. I need a
number for safety and security that that says I need the cabling and wiring to get to >> this the the safe and secure schools and it's going to cost us the balance of the 8.5 and that's when I think you come to the board and ask for approval not you know I have this money in the budget and
so I'm going to put it on this contract. >> Mr. Greenberg also supported development of the uh estimate so we could ask him to >> go ahead Mr. Greenberg. >> Hey Jason Greenberg I'm the director of infrastructure services. So the breakdown on the security side is 1.2 2 million for the cameras, 2.8 million for
intercoms, and about 600,000 for um vaping. >> Okay. And it's 1.6 for 10 gig. I'm still not at 8.5 yet. >> So the other two million is facility projects. Facility projects. >> Facility projects.
like new new buildings at >> Markham Coral Glades and I I'd prefer that um chair how urgent is this? Is this >> Can you just a second? Um if you don't mind that does it mean u can you repeat that u Mr. Greenberg they couldn't hear
you? So two million uh was for two million is for the um facility projects which are at Markham Coral Glades High Parkway and um Bthoon >> and those are for dedicated security offices for those four quadrants of Ber County. >> Those are for the new admin buildings.
So the cabling and the network equipment for those new buildings that are coming up in the 26 27 year. Um that's the cost for the cabling in the >> um chair is this urgent that we act on this today or is this something that we can come back on next month and after we have a little bit more definition of the
requirement >> Dr. Hurn >> Mr. Davis >> so Trey Davis chief information officer relative to the ISD projects that are -ate funded uh we couldn't wait till next month because we have a filing deadline for -ate in March that won't
start until July 1st. That's how works. >> Could you do next week? we can do next week. >> Yeah, I'd like I'd like to make a motion that we just lay this on the table for just that one week. Um, and what I'm looking for, chair, is just some very specific requirements um broken down by
ISD and by security in general, but with the details and I'd be curious what the what the what the real requirement is. What do you really need? And I know you're asking for 8.5% spend, and I'm confident this board will release that next week. But, um, I'd be curious.
Don't stop at the eight and a half. like tell us what you need and then uh we'll understand that this is eight and a half toward the total. Um but it's really important I think for this board to understand when we give you a strategic goal for our safe and secure schools, there's a bill that comes with that and
we want to know what it is and we might not always fund it. Uh but we we'll at least understand kind of what are the things that would make our schools even safer and more secure if that's okay. >> So that's my mo motion lay on the table for one week. Could you postpone the
item instead of laying it on the table? I believe uh >> certainly. >> Okay. So, motion to >> I made a Robert's rules mistake. Thank you for being kind with me, chair. I'd like to postpone this for one week >> till February 17th. Seconded by Miss Thompson. Motion B made by Dr. Zean. Uh
public comment on the motion. >> Wait till >> I would like to say thank you for thinking this through a little better. As I've said a couple of times, I've been coming here for more than 10 years, watching money just go, go, go, go, go, and then sitting in negotiations at BTU
and being told, "There's no money. There's no money. There's no money." It seems like there's money for lots of things and stuff. There's money that needs to be addressed a little bit more carefully because yeah, it's good to have some things,
but things are not people. people make this district an a district and all the things and all the projects and all the programs that they can try to sell you. They're not our people. So, I appreciate waiting and finding out a little bit more on each and every item each and
every time, not just this one. But thank you. >> Any other public comment on the motion? Board discussion on the motion. Miss Hixon, thank you. It's not particularly on the motion sort of. Um, the gentleman that was just here, can you read all of
the numbers? I we the 1.2 million that staff. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. We didn't have >> Mr. Greenberg. >> Mr. Greenberg. Thank you. >> So, for you want the all the numbers or just >> with all of the number you started with
1.2 for cameras and then I >> 1.2 million for cameras, 2.8 8 million for intercoms and 600,000 for the vaping cabling >> for the vaping.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um and to Dr. Zean's point, I've said this every time we talk about spend authority. We when you do spend authority, you're putting that money away that can't be
used for and people argue with me with this all the time, but my understanding is if we are saying we have $8.5 million for these things, we're putting that aside and we're not touching it. And if we find out that we only needed six million of it, there's $2.5 million that
somebody else could have used for something. So I always question when we do the spend authority and I understand sometimes it comes to us because you don't want to have to come keep coming back to ask for more but we are just in a situation that we can only be giving
authority to spend what it is is absolutely necessary and to that point I also just want to point out there are two buckets no one ever wants to hear this but there's a capital bucket and there is a general fund we can't mix and match them and we cannot do employee
salary increases out of the capital budget. So, it gets mixed up when we're having these discussions. This is about capital dollars. Still have to be very intentional with them, but freeing up capital dollars does not give us a place to be able to
give unfortunately employee employee salary raises, although we wish that we were in that situation. So, thank you. Any other board member discussion on the motion to postpone this item to February 17th? All in favor of the motion say I. I. >> All oppose say no.
>> Motion passes unanimously. >> Um could I get a motion and a second on item on our time certain item B1. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, seconded by Miss Thompson. Public comment on B1.
>> Yes, Madam Chair. Three registered speakers. Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh, President Anna Fusco, and Dr. Trudy Germanovich. >> Good afternoon, Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh, Plantation, Florida. Where to start on this? Um housekeeping
issue. Items added after the participation deadline, you know, like at 8:30 the night before a meeting. Um the comment and sign up deadline should be extended. We shouldn't be getting a message that, oh, you can come down here or send the board an email. Like, who
knows to do that. That's that's first and foremost. Um, the public never intended the word staff, and I'm speaking as one taxpayer, to apply to cabinet members and other executives. We were trying to get teachers and other
low-paid employees more money. And we voted for that. And now, as a result of everybody coming with their handout, including your recently departed general counsel, how do you get money back from her? Don't know. But she got like over 20 grand probably. Um, because of that, this thing is at risk. the next time it
goes out, which is why it needs to be narrowly, narrowly, narrowly defined. Number three, every item the school board votes on is a recommendation from the superintendent. It's just that simple. So, how did the school board
approve and is it binding? An item where language was removed that effectively changed who received the supplement. And this is where the memory issues come in. I don't know about you, but I've had Michael McDonald on repeat in my head singing keep forgetting uh all weekend.
2023, the executive summary was clear. The supporting schedules I've seen are meticulous and clear. I've done a public records request for the supporting schedules from 2425 and 2526. I hope they don't take too long to fulfill that. Um the executive summary not clear
because it doesn't tell you about the missing language. So then there's a difference in people's memories. On page three, the former CPO, uh, Mr. Azerito said he discussed the change with the superintendent, Dr. Heepburn. On page
10, there's a closed door agenda item that would imply that you had to have come somewhere close to this, but nobody remembers. Nobody can remember. So, how many board members were aware? How is the superintendent not aware if he is bringing the recommendation to the
board? How does he not know what he is recommending? So, I'm concluding that he's either covering for knowing now that this is blown back or he's completely clueless and is covering that. So, my next conclusion is if
you're going to believe your superintendent, then you've need to report these these rogue staff members who made written mis written misrepresentations to mislead the superintendent, the schoolboard, and the public. effectively misappropriating
public funds to line their own pockets. Turn them over to the FDLE and then expedite the referendum payout audit. For the record, I believe Azero. Thank you. Uh Dr. Trudy Germanovich. Um I don't think I have to say much after that, but
I will say that this will hurt the next referendum. We need to be extremely careful about the wording in that and and I don't know I know you have to keep them concise and
there's rules and all this stuff but I don't I don't know whether you should put staff ever again in a referendum because that covers everybody in the district and that's what you've done. You've covered everybody in the district.
You did it because you voted for it. So, it's not your fault that you didn't understand probably because staff didn't explain it to you.
It would have been very simple to say this person is getting $20,000. This person is getting 10,000. That's a year per year. Do you know what teachers could do with that? Do you know what
ESPs anybody that makes a reasonable salary in this district under $100,000? Now, I know people don't want to put a line like that because there's always going
to leave some people out, but I say you need that in the referendum next time because you've got to you got to put a stop to this. I'm sorry, but Dr. Heperin knew what was going on
because he didn't take the money. What happened to all the rest of the people? They should have known, too. Thanks. >> President Anna Fusco. >> Well, I got to follow those two. It's usually people saying that about me.
Anna Fusco, Bart teachers union president. We all know the intent of the referendum. We all know that this clearly a situation happened. Um I stand and I believe uh David Azero. He's never
been anything but with high integrity. And when you read um pieces in there of saying I don't recall, I find that hard to um to accept. I know I represent uh members through over my decade of
being a union president. When we're when they're getting interviewed, I never accept them to say I don't recall. It's not an acceptable answer. It it's not acceptable. So
what we what I am asking you to do is do what you need to do today. Peel the band-aid off. Get it done with. We cannot keep revisiting this. Beating a a dead horse as a cliche we say in our Italian world. We know that this
happened. You guys took a position and you made um a determination to cease further. Um, at the end of the day, you voted on an item. I can't explain in detail because I
didn't get a chance to investigate. I didn't get a chance to go in out and question. I know if I did, there's certainly be some straightforward answers that would be made demanding, but that's how I roll. Sometimes you guys like to accept things as is, and that's why you're in the
position you're in. Now, I know three of you were not on the board at the time. School board member Thompson, school board Bowman, school board member Sea, and you're kind of seeing from the outside in, but you're in it because you
guys get prepped and information before you sit at a board. And I see Dr. Zean saying, and I see Alan Adam, Adam Adam saying right now, no, I need more. So, I've been saying it for a very long
time. Certain staffers tend to bring things minimal because that's how it is. Not all the time at times or they just figured you know it, you understand it or you're going to read it. But we do have to sit here at
the end of the day that I say all the time when you sign off on something, you should know every piece of it. And if it's in writing and wherever you can get it, whether it's a hyperlink or digital or in your blackbox or whatever,
but apparently something happened in closed door. I mean, I just lived it at what you all did to us in closed door about our insurance. That's another topic. I'm not done with that one. But send us today, move on so we can get to real business. Thank you.
>> That concludes public speaking. >> Thank you. Um board member discussion. >> Go ahead, Mr. Tenjent. >> Madame Chair, I failed to sign up. May I speak? >> Go ahead, Mr. Tenjent. >> Okay.
Okay. Thank you. My name is Pete Tingum. I'm Representative ESMAB, and a lot of the discussion has centered around people in the district who are at the upper end of the pay scale. I just want to know these are the people that answer to you the board. These are the people
that do a lot of the work here. And yesterday in a discussion with Dr. Heeper it was stated why can't we get more candidates and referred to some of his engineering friends who don't come here because the salary is so poor and I
can't disagree with that. Well, I gave all of you a chart that showed how flatlined all ESMAB positions were for almost a 10-year period of time. and also how we were excluded from the first referendum and after discussions with Mr. Sullivan, we were included as a
possibility in the second referendum and this board voted to give that money to those people and I don't think it's right to cut it off or even call it back. Thank you, >> Madame Chair. I also neglected to sign up.
>> Go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, okay. Part of the problem that we've been having is that certain people who are already making over $100,000, and yes, I will use that figure, >> you were able to benefit from the
referendum. That includes people in bargaining units where the money is already higher. We know that. You know that. The public knows that. They knew darn well when they voted on this, it was because teachers, teacher
assistants, and those people who are just barely scraping by. My personal insurance went from $4,000 to 15,000. How does a teacher do that? She doesn't. She loses her house. Okay, that's what happens. So, those are the people that
we're trying to help. And those are the people that you need to think about when you reward this. I appreciate that uh you allowed the gentleman to speak. I actually told him he should if he wanted to even though he didn't sign up. So, thank you for
letting me speak also because that's one of the problems that we have is that we don't know the exact amount that's going into everyone's pocket and why some of it just doesn't make sense. When we wrote the referendum, we already knew how much admin and other people were
making. It was never in the picture of our mind at that time. Things have changed. But I question why? Because as someone else said, the money's there, and now everybody wants
to say, well, the money's there. Well, we fought for the money. We went out and knocked on doors. We told the community it was going to be for teachers and for teacher assistance. That's what we did. We did it. And I'm never going to let anybody anybody
forget that. And I know that sometimes as a Broward teacher union, we are very generous. But I am not going to let anybody forget that because we're the ones who brought it forward. We're the ones who saw the need. And you know what? If we would have been in power, uh, President
Fusco's leadership when they took away our steps, we would have come up with a solution for that, too. We wouldn't have let that happen either. So when we say we need this for us because we can't make a living, it's for us. So whatever you need to do to make
sure that it stays with the people who really are having trouble paying their bills, sending their kids to college, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. >> Sorry. Um I think there's been a lot of conversation about the money involved with this item. So, I want to just bring
up a different issue with you. I have confidence in each of you individually and collectively to make good decisions when you're given information. But if you're not given good information, you're not going to make good decisions. And there is nothing. You have so many
challenges facing you right now. It's just overwhelming. It's imperative that you be given accurate information. And if you walk away with one thing today, walk away with it with a plan to make sure that when an item is brought to
you, all sides are brought to you. Now, I've heard different conversations about what could and couldn't happen with this money, who needs money, who doesn't, hiring, how much it costs. All of that could have been presented to you in an item and should have been. And this is
just one item before you. So my takeaway, one of them after reading this was how incredibly important it is that you insist that you mandate that when an item is brought to you, it has correct and accurate information. Thank you.
All right. Um, and just before we begin, because I do want to address the issue with the public speaking, since we had a number of speakers who uh were unable to sign up, I hope that in the future when we do a late ad, we can make accommodations for the public speakers to sign up. So, we have a were able to
follow our policy. Uh, Mr. Seivera, since you brought the item, >> thank you. This audit report uh confirms what parents, teachers, and taxpayers have have feared. Serious
failures in process, transparency, and oversight when handling voterapproved referendum funds. Those dollars were meant to support our teachers,
frontline educators, student safety. mental health services not to be quietly redirected without full disclosure to the board or to the public. When voters are asked to tax themselves for education, we as a district have a
duty to be crystal clear, disciplined, and accountable in how every dollar is spent. Our teachers are stretched thin. Our classrooms need resources. Families are worried about budgets, staffings, school
closures. In that environment, even the appearance of mismanagement is unacceptable. We have to restore trust, and that starts with transparency, accountability,
and putting our students and our teachers first. They deserve, quite frankly, nothing less. This audit is quite damning to this district.
It makes clear that there was a lack of fidelity, inconsistencies, lapses in communication, and failures to follow basic governance. And who got screwed? The teachers.
Once again, it's bad enough we can't give them adequate raises. It's bad enough we cannot give them a living wage. And now we're going to take, depending on whose estimates you look at, roughly $500,000
in referendum funds that should have gone to the teachers. We need to fix this now. Mr. Superintendent, have you reviewed this um audit report?
>> Yes, that's affirmative. Have you reviewed the recommendations that Mr. Rhodess prepared uh in the conclusion section of the report? >> Affirmative. >> How long will attempt will it take you to implement all of these needed um
guard rails and to make sure that this does not happen again? >> They're already implemented, sir. >> Every single one of them. >> Correct. >> When were these implementations made? >> Uh various times. Some some were made for over a year now. Um and some were
recently instituted. >> Well, wait a second, sir. I'm I'm I'm confused. This audit report was released a week ago. The You're telling me that the guard rails that were in suggested to be put in place in this recommendation that was
released a week ago have already been in place for the last year? >> Some. >> Which ones? >> Um hold on just a second, sir. I am pulling up the report just to make sure I can provide you accurate information here. >> 16. Okay.
Am I in the right? Yeah. So, um pretty much let me uh clarify. So, these are specific to when the referendum comes. Um but holistically it's talking about as uh u Miss Ferdict just mentioned about ensuring that the
board is well informed about all information related to future decision-m that the board has to make and we've made those changes to ensure that we include all financials all background information and and ensuring that our our file is not a static our document
for executive summary is not a a static doc. get us a living dock and continue to make updates as we find any additional issues or or get any additional recommendations from the board. >> So, it's your position, sir, today on on February 10th that all five of these
recommendations have already been implemented implemented, excuse me, and are in place at BCPS. >> Um, some of these are not applicable to us. I think um like number two is for the board. >> Let me re rephrase all those that are in
your control sir. >> Yes. >> Okay. Fantastic. Um are you satisfied with these recommendations? >> Um no we we go beyond these recommendations. it it our discussions cabinet um we meet after every board
meeting to reflect about processes and information that the board needs to know that we probably didn't uh provide um i.e. something happened today. Um um based on the lack of information that you felt you didn't have at that time, instead of including the additional
documents in a link in the summary um based on your um comments about the information, the board decided, hey, can we separate that out and add that as an amendment or or or an attachment um to the actual item? So, those are the things that we constantly try to update
based on what we hear from the board. It it may not be um overt um direction. It may be something as we as we listen and we go back and reflect just to make sure the board has all the information possible. So my team know that my stance is that uh we want the board to be well
informed so you can make the best possible decision that's going to be impactful for this district. >> Fantastic. So you're not you're not satisfied with these recommendations alone, sir? >> No. >> Okay. Fantastic. Because neither am I. And if we're going to go back and we're going to ask the voters to pass another
referendum in November after this debacle, uh I don't think that we're going to be successful, how can they trust us as a board to get this right after going through what we just went through? I don't think they will. That's why I think further action
uh is needed here to get to the bottom of this and to start the long path of restoring trust with the public. Madam Chair, I'd make I'd like to make a supplemental motion if I can. My motion is that we need to hire
outside counsel to fully investigate what happened with this issue. We have to have accountability here. We do not if we don't get to the bottom of this and find out who was told what or who said what or who voted what,
the public is not going to trust us in November with this. And if the public does not trust us in November with this, guess who's going to get screwed again? The teachers.
If this referendum doesn't pass, they are going to be the ones who are losing dollars from their um from their paychecks. So um chair, that is my motion that we hire outside council to fully investigate uh all the processes in
these. I think Mr. roads did a good job with the uh initial version of the audit report. However, uh with all due respect for him, I don't think it went further far far enough. We need an outside investigation to find out from A to Z what exactly uh happened here.
>> Is there a second? >> If I may continue. >> Go ahead. >> So, thank you. Um, I'm disappointed, although not shocked, and I have uh a great fear that unfortunately, and I'm speaking to the
members of the public here, that um the missteps of this district is going to cost our teachers. I don't see how we fully move on from this unless we can fully understand how this happened and how we got on for this. And um with all due respect to
President Fusco and not beating a dead horse and moving on, I think there's a lot of unquestion unanswered questions here and I'm not ready to move on for this and I'm uh sorrowed and disappointed that my colleagues don't share that uh position
with me. Um Madam Chair, if I may address our our general counsel. >> Go ahead, >> Miss Jack Adams. Um, we've heard over the weeks since this has happened, uh, about corrective action and not only
doing things to make sure that this doesn't happen again should a referendum pass, but how do we correct what has happened in the past? Now, have you compiled from a legal standpoint all of our options regarding
possible clawbacks of these $500,000 in referendum monies that were given to others who are not teachers? So through the chair, so asking whether there are like what the options are
um in terms of the results of this investigation. I'm not sure whether that is our role. We legally review. In terms of some of the options that have been floated, yes, I have begun to look into whether
or not there is um what what liabilities that the board may have as a result of moving forward with some of those options. I have begun to
take a look at that. But in terms of coming up with what you believe needs to happen after this um this uh audit, that's not truly our role to make that decision. >> Let let me clarify just so there's no
confusion. Um what I believe needs to happen after this audit is a full investigation. Obviously, my colleagues don't agree with me and and that's fine. What I'm asking of you is, and I believe this request was made on legal um almost immediately once this was brought to
light, was are there options that this board can consider in potentially clawing back the monies that were given to certain district staff that should have gone to teachers? Are you working on a a legal memo or any opinion letters
or anything of that nature to explain to this board what the options are as to potentially clawing back those monies from district staff and redistributing it to teachers? So to be yes, I am working on a memo,
but not um I want to clarify the way that you posted like it's not up to me to determine what those options are because from a logistical standpoint, our office does not take care of um understanding how to take back money
from an employee. So that's not that's not the question that I'm answering. The question that I'm answering in terms of clawing back is what liability does the board have to um clawing back I'm going
to utilize your your phrase uh monies from the various um people who received it whether they have contracts whether they they are a part of a meet and confer whether they're part of um any
type of you know other group >> I appreciate that And uh when will your your legal memo be prepared? Be ready for distribution more or less. >> Well, um depending upon the priorities that the board sets for me, I I was trying very hard to provide that to you
as soon as possible, but there were some other priorities that the board wished for me to focus on. So, um I'm hopeful to provide that to you as soon as possible within the next couple of weeks. um providing that there's no
urgent matters. >> Now, you also mentioned that there's other people in districts whose job it would be to determine how or to to get these monies back. You're just giving a legal opinion on it. Correct. >> Yes. I'm not focusing on the logistics of how that is done because that's
outside my uh our office's role. >> Who would be in charge of making that logistical determination? >> So, that would be something that um staff would need to respond to. I don't know the answer to that question. >> May I inquire from the super?
>> You may. >> Yes. So, we already have um written a specific memo. Um I know we sent it to legal for their review, so we're just waiting on their specific review just to make sure. I did receive that and I responded um um
over a week ago as to certain um caveats that need to be put in because once again I cannot comment on the logistics. Um but I' I've already provided that response on 129. >> When can we expect that memo?
>> So in terms of the memo that I spoke about a little earlier, my goal is to provide that to you within the next couple of weeks. barring any any other priorities that you place before me. >> Okay. I'm I'm I'm I apologize. I'm confused because I'm hearing that
there's two memos. There's a memo that Dr. Heper submitted and then there's a memo that you're working on for as far as the legalities of things that we can do. >> So, in terms of looking at the memo that um Dr. Heburn is referring to. I was requested to
take a look at it from a legal perspective and although I could not respond to the logistics of it, my comments were to add a caveat that the perspective of the memo was on the logistics and not whether or not it was
possible legally speaking. >> Okay. So, can you distribute that memo this afternoon? um staff has that um the the final uh and they can distribute it. I don't have I only have a copy of it, but >> staff,
>> we'll take a look because our memo actually um originated from a board question. I think it was Dr. Zean. >> Um so it's a board response. So we'll take a look at what you put in because I haven't um reviewed it since since you sent it since they sent it up and if you sent it back. So we'll check it out. And
>> Mr. Superintendent, will you make a commitment this afternoon to make that a priority and make sure we get that by the end of the week? >> Yes, if we get out of here on time. Yeah. >> Well, fair enough. Uh, thank you, chair. >> Thank you, Miss Hixon.
>> Thank you. Um, and I just wanted to to ask a couple questions and point out I also appreciate how fast the the audit came out in the investigation, but I was very concerned that it didn't really
like it says staff. It doesn't really give specifics to staff. But I do have a question because I didn't see it mentioned in here um to Mr. Rhodess. Did you go back and watch the schoolboard meetings um specifically on these
particular items? >> Yes. And more. >> Okay. Thank you. because I don't see it referenced in there. And I will um my my perspective of things that happened in those board meetings was on the June
30th, 2024, the board did vote to give that 5.5% to the ESMAB band EN below, right? D and below. Um, and in the discussion there, which I didn't
see, hold. Yes, sir. >> I'm I'm sorry to interrupt, but you said June of 24, but then you referenced the D band and below, which was August of 23, and then the meeting that I think you were referring to was the July 30th
24 where they the approval was for the and above without it being >> Okay. So, yeah, I'm just trying to put a a perspective from someone that was sitting on the board. So when it first was approved, it wasn't approved by everyone on the board. There were a
number of us that didn't agree, but it passed with um with cons enough votes for consent. But the discussion at that time, which I think you did reference in there, there were board members that were saying all means all. If we're
giving it to all, it means all. It was very clear that there were board members that were driving that discussion in terms of their expectation was it was everybody. And even before that, the reason we changed the wording in the
referendum on the ballot was so that we could expand it beyond teachers. Um so that it could the intention was to include principles and and um bus drivers more people than just teach
people who are directly impacting students in a school setting. Um, and to that point, I'd like to when we have this discussion, I think that's what the wording in the ballot should say is that it you could say staff, but staff that
directly impact or or are in a school setting because I think that is what um the public is asking for. And I think us as board members sitting up here have to be really careful of what we're saying to the public because it sounds right
now like we're telling them not to trust us and don't vote for the referendum. That's what I'm hearing. And we immediately when there was um when it became obvious to the chair, she brought an item forward and we immediately stopped what we believed to not be what
the intention of the public or the board was. But just going backwards, the first time we voted on it, it was clear that it was going to go to more people than just in the school. When it came back to us to vote in the July of 2024, am I
saying that right? That only came to us to say make it for three years, not one year. Am I correct in saying that? It wasn't really a discussion about percentages anymore. or it was about extending the contract longer. >> Between the comments that were made at that meeting and the backup
documentation that was provided with that agenda item, I would agree with your assessment. >> Thank you. So, I just want to put it in context for everyone that when it came back to us that following year, there was no discussion about adjusting percentages anywhere. It was just
because we had we were just going to make it for the the rest of the remaining time of the referendum so we didn't have to continue to bring it up. So to be clear, that's why I don't think anybody was reading the fine prints of anything because we weren't changing percentages
as we understood it on the on the board or who we were giving the money to. We were just extending the time period to cover the the entirety of the referendum. So I just kind of want to give a little context. A lot of things got thrown out and people weren't
necessarily here at that time. Um, so I think it's important that people understand that when it got changed, it wasn't like we weren't paying attention. It just wasn't that wasn't the part we were discussing sitting at the board. So
for me, it's very hard to read the audit and not be able to know who made that change even though we weren't because we weren't aware that there was anything being added except for time space to it.
So I um you know it was disappointing to not be able to pinpoint something and be able to say okay we know that's how this happened and we know that it won't happen again. But I I do think that we can be all assured that it won't happen
again and we will be more diligent on on asking better questions now that we have seen this. But I think the public, you know, this is really important and we really appreciate that the public has continued to support the referendum for
our our teachers, our staff that's in the schools for mental health and for um safety and security because we know we just don't get the funding from the state to be able to give the salaries that we would like to give. I also want
to point out that the money that was distributed to the higher bands that we were not really aware of did not get taken away from teachers. And I think that's where we have to be really intentional about the way that we're
talking about this. There was a set amount of money that was put aside for this is how many teachers there are. This is the percentage you're going to get. This is how many teachers. No one took any of that money away from teachers. Although that extra $500,000
that was there could have been used for mental health or or for something else. But I just want to be really clear that that money was not taken away from teachers. So, I think putting that out
in context really hurts us in the idea that we're going to be able to continue to have trust in the public in that we need to go out for a referendum and continue to make sure our teachers are getting a higher salary that we know
we're not able to give them. also want to make a point and we'll discuss this later that there should never be anyone who gets more money from the referendum than the people who are working in a school. So that will be a structure
we'll look at once we we get the the next referendum passed. But I just it's really important as board members who are going to go out and ask the public to do this again that we have to give them the right information. And I don't think it's fair to be telling the public
that we took money away from from a from teachers to be able to to give it to higherups when that's not really what that situation was. Um, also in the recommendations, if people are not sure what's on here, there were five
recommendations and the item that Mr. Sea, thank you very much, brought forward today was to ask the superintendent to make sure that he is um implementing all of these recommendations moving forward. So, that's really the specific item that
came before us today and those things are specifically related to referendum funded supplements. So, um, I just wanted to point out that we need to make sure that we're we're talking factual information because I don't want the
public to think that anybody on the board took money away from teachers. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, as a co-sponsor, I'd like to go next and ask some questions and then I'll go to the rest of my colleagues. Um, I have a question for
Miss Hixon, actually. Um when uh you made the motion uh to d or I believe it was a substitute motion to direct the chief auditor to to conduct this investigation. Did you not also ask for us to refer it to the IG for
investigation? >> Thank you. Yes, I was going to ask that. So we did say to do both. So I I guess your direction is going to be where do we sit with that? So, >> um, well, I I actually I wanted to clarify because I felt like some of our
intentions were mischaracterized, uh, when we didn't second, uh, a motion that was made by my colleague. Um, we already have an outside investigation going on. We directed that uh, in January when when we, you know, ordered
that this this investigation be done. um the OIG has uh more authority uh to compel um you know testimony and things like that than an outside counsel would.
So I don't see the sense in hiring an outside counsel when we have an outside uh organization with more legal authority to do that investigation which is why I didn't second the motion. It wasn't that I don't believe there should be an outside investigation. we are
already doing that work. Um further I I believe that there is a concern I have a concern um about the our general counsel um doing figuring out options for clawing back this money
because there may be a conflict of interest because there are people in uh the legal department who are getting that that money. So, this is a situation where well, let me ask uh our HR staff. What in what scenarios do we um does the
district uh have the authority to ask employees to pay money back to the district? >> Hi, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. Susan Rocklman, executive director for talent management. When there are situations when we have discovered that there's been an error in a paycheck, for
example, a teacher may have been paid for a master's degree and they only have a bachelor's degree, the HR, the support system team will go ahead and make that correction. We notify the employee of the mistake and then we refer them to payroll to set up repayment plans.
>> Okay. Um, so it would be like an accidental overpayment that that's when we are able to ask employees to pay us back. >> Correct. Okay. Um, I also have my own concerns about our staff figuring out ways to uh claw
back that money because again some of that staff has received the supplement. So again, there's an inherent conflict of interest. Um, so I will make a motion later, but I did want to um add to the context that my colleague Miss Hixon uh
spoke to. You know, when this item originally came to us, we were still recovering from the aftermath of six superintendent in three years. And I just want to remind everyone that when
there is such turnover and leadership, there is chaos and in that chaos there are failures and things fall through the cracks and this is a perfect example of that. Um, so I I think it's really important to to reflect on that context
in which this item came to us. Um, I'm grateful to the chief auditor's office in doing this investigation and doing it thoroughly and quickly and I'm glad that we as a district and as a board can reflect on something that happened
almost two years ago and implement changes. And I'm hearing from the superintendent again, a complete willingness to improve and acknowledge failures and make changes. Um, something that we would not have heard four years
ago. Um, so I just think it's important to acknowledge that and to acknowledge that there are still going to be mistakes that need to be fixed and and I hear from the superintendent a willingness to implement systems to fix those things. Um, so I I just think it's
important to to put that all out there. Um, I will go ahead and make a motion uh to hire outside counsel uh to weigh in on um the legality of uh clawing back
money that was paid out to employees banned E and above. um and determine whether or not those were accidental overp payments. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Leonardi, seconded by Dr. Zean. Public comment on the
motion. >> Dr. Natalie Lynch Walsh, Plantation, Florida. I support the motion because I think you do need outside counsel for that given that your current interim general counsel is one of the people getting referendum dollars. Um, as you
pointed out, um, and if I were putting myself in the shoes of the employees that are still here, I would be annoyed doesn't quite cover it. But if you if you do claw it back, I'm going to say this again. How how do you address what
h the fact that your general counsel former general counsel who was the highest paid employee after the superintendent? How do you claw it back from her? Because you claw it back from all or none something. I mean, and she hightailed it out of here. You're going to have to figure it out. It's not like
you didn't know this was an issue when she was giving you her long goodbye. Someone could have held on to the money till this was resolved. Did you guys let her sa out of here without addressing that with her? because she she knew it was in her contract, but I support the
motion. >> Any other public comment on the motion? Go ahead. Hi, I'm super new to going to these meetings, but is there any kind of documentation that specifies the kind of positions uh to give clarity to the
population that's voting on these referendums? I just want to know. I voted in the election last year. I don't recall if this was on it or a couple years ago. Um but it would be helpful because it seems like there's a definition issue that I don't know if it's been resolved in this conversation.
Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment? Good afternoon. Um, thank you for the motions both of you. As you were speaking, Mr. Sea, I was thinking that as you are talking about outside counseling and I think Miss Leonardi,
your your um explanation of why that is necessary was very good. Um I was thinking to broaden it slightly and ask what remedies are available to the school board to deal with this issue. Um
maybe going beyond what your initial um thoughts would be. I know Dr. Dr. Zean pre at at a few meetings ago came up and that was spontaneous but as you have this audit before you I would look at what different remedies and what their recommendations for preventing this in
the future would be thank you any other public comment board member discuss oh go ahead fast I got to get faster teaching the president no I don't support the motion
I don't think why you have to go and hire outside counsel. We've got a ton of counsel here and if they're not sufficient under the barriers of having to meet the needs of that they have a bar over their head to do it correctly and right, I'm at a loss and um
you know the end of the day you guys voted for it. Now, how we come to the conclusion of how or why I think I've gotten or heard
aside from the three that weren't here plus the council plus a superintendent. So, that's six plus one that's eight different ration. I'm asking to vote this down and let's move this forward. It's it it happened.
There's multiple rationes why your report showed. Let's move on. >> Any other public comment? Board member discussion. Dr. Zean. >> Thanks much, chair. Um, we're 8 months and 24 days from the referendum. And the
the concern I have is that last sentence of the motion. Chair, um, the first half, I think, if I characterize it this way, would be we want outside council to look at recouping the funds on the legality of that. Was that the first half >> and the legality of recouping the funds? Yes.
>> Thank you. And then the second half was to investigate further uh the root causes of why this happened. >> That wasn't No, it was uh whether or not this was an accidental overpayment. >> Um and I appreciate that. Um, but the
first one would allow them to opine about the accidental overp payment or any other cause that would allow to be >> I'm happy to eliminate the last one. You >> mind? Yeah. >> Yeah, I would think that would make a better one and I'd happy to second that uh that amended motion. Um, I really
think this is the way to close this. Um, the the idea that we want to do it with outside counsel, avoid the conflict, ask them to do it promptly. uh come back and tell us uh what recruitment looks like. Um I'm very very um
desirous of of doing the recruitment largely because we need to always do what's right and what we did wasn't right and the way it was done was not right. And um you know we we have to put it back uh in place to the extent
that we can. Clearly, we can if the lawyer agrees, we can recoup those funds uh from at least from those people uh that were here. And so, yes, there will be people who left. Um we have other people who are leaving in the near term that probably won't get caught in the recruitment effort, but um there are
ways to recoup funds. Um and there are um you know, great reasons to do this. Couple of um I'll reserve my comments when we get back to the item though. Thanks, chair. Great motion. Board member comment on the motion. Miss Thompson.
>> Thank you, chair. I am agreement with the BTU president. I don't think we need to continue continue with this conversation. I think I obviously was not on the board, but I watched the meetings and I remember clearly that it said all staff. And I
understand that it was a a period of transition and mistakes were made, but that was not on the individual employees. That was on the board. The board voted for it. So I have a question for our general counsel. So given that
employees received referendum supplements only after board approval based on that and their salary schedules, is there any legal basis for holding individual employees responsible for governance and documentation
failures through the chair. So each each type of employee um should be treated differently. there are employees who are receiving it as a result of the
decision of the board to give it to all. So in that case if if the permission was given based upon board approval then staff was moving forward with what
the board approved. That's one aspect of it. I just want to clarify because it wasn't if the board approved the item. That's not an if the board. That is a statement of fact. That is what happened. >> Continue. >> Yes. Um so with the board approving a
matter and staff moving forward with what the board approved, that's the statement there. it is um staff move forward with what the board requested them to do. Additionally, there are uh there are employees who
have contracts. So in addition to that approval, the contract subsequently was approved with those raises within the written contract. And so those class of
employees would have contracts wherein the only way to change that would be a change in the contract an amendment to the contract and that would be have to be a voluntary amendment of that contract. So by by example if you have a
vendor where you have a contract with them board approved it vendor approved it in order to amend that contract both parties need to um approve. And then of course there are the the next class are the employees that are in unions.
>> Understood. And I through the chair to general counsel and maybe HR. What legal labor or employee relation risks would the district assume by attempting to recover compensation that was paid again under board approved actions?
So, and that is what I was looking into. Um, but thus far, you know, if it's a contract, then, you know, trying to do something different than what the contract requires would be a breach of that
contract. >> Anyone from HR want to weigh in? So again, your question is more of a legal question than a HR question. >> I think the audit makes it clear that there was failure. There was failure in governance and transparency and our
internal controls. I think it's also clear that the superintendent has heard these concerns and is already moving forward with correcting them. I think it is clear that this board should be required to craft language
that or craft a policy if it's too long to put in the referendum language to make sure that this never happens again. However, it happened because the board approved it point blank. So, I would not be in favor of going through legal
counsel. I am not in favor of forcing employees to pay back money that the board approved to do so. Thank you. >> Thank you. And Miss Thompson, I happen to agree with you. Um, the reason that I I feel I felt like it
was necessary to make this motion is because, you know, we have uh people saying that they intend to bring an item next month. And uh to to to have staff recoup those funds and I don't feel
comfortable voting on that item without clear legal guidance on whether or not that is allowed. And I don't think um and it's and I don't mean this as a slight to our general counsel or our staff, but I don't think that the public
would be satisfied with someone who is receiving who had received those funds um weighing in on whether or not they should be forced to pay those funds back. Um so I'm with you like I I would also like to move on. Um, and I I agree
with your assessment on it, but I in case an item is brought, I would really like to have clear legal guidance um, one way or the other if that is even allowed. >> Thank you for your clarification. I will now support that motion, but I just want to be abundantly clear that I am not
interested in forcing employees to make up for our mistakes. Thank you. >> Any other board member discussion on the motion? Dr. Zean. Oh, uh, Dr. Zimman, could we give Yeah, Miss Bulman and then Miss Hixon and then Dr. Zean.
>> Thank you. I appreciate the comments of Miss Thompson and our chair. Um, and I appreciate the clarification as well based on the assumption or based on the fact that the board approved this. Um,
you know, unless we unless we identify a bad actor, um, who can be pinpointed as having been the mastermind of this and the person and, you know, something of that nature where you can actually
um, find fault with an individual or group of individuals. I I don't support trying to claw back these dollars. It the board approved it and people were paid accordingly. my you know my understanding I can ask HR I think
people have these funds in their contracts moving forward after this was was do people I know it was discovered by the chair in our um in negotiations but did anyone after the this was passed
have referendum funds offered as part of their contract >> so again um ESAB employees don't have contracts where annual reappoint appointments >> or part of their >> but when people were part of their compensation package
>> the referendum dollars were included when we offered salary packages to to employees >> right um I don't really see a fact pattern where someone accepts a
job and relies on the fact that they're getting these funds that we would then try to claw that back. Um, and it's a great hardship when the board approves something and then you try to claw money back from
when the money's already been spent. I mean, you know, that's that's a hardship on our employees. Um, so I I am not in favor of except the very specific fact pattern of trying to claw
back these funds. I think we made, you know, the the thing was done. We've taken steps to um realign the referendum funds being distributed as intended by the voters and I think it's just time to move forward. But if we but to you know
I I don't mind supporting your motion if we insist upon this but I will not be supporting climbing back funds if that item is brought later. >> Thank you, Miss Hixon. Thank you. I just will echo that. I I
appreciate the motion so that we can decide whether it's even legal to do it or not. Um but I am not in favor of doing that. I think that although this board doesn't agree with it and I also wasn't a person on the board that didn't
at the time that it was voted on, there was a board who believed all meant all and and had enough votes to get that through. So, I as much as I'd like to push this off on someone else, I think that that was how the votes landed
unfortunately at that meeting and you know, we've addressed it as a new board moving forward that we don't agree with it and and we'll fix that moving forward for the next year. Um, but I don't think we should punish people for money. It's
different when you're overpaid because of a mistake and when somebody agreed to give you money and then decided it was a bad idea. Um, so I understand optically it will look better to the public if we do that, but again it wasn't money that
was taken from teachers. So taking it back isn't going to give it back to teachers. So I think we need to be really clear that that wouldn't be the end result of this. Um, and I just I don't agree, but I would agree with having someone at least weigh in to
whether it's legal or not because I would venture to guess it's probably not. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Zean. >> Um, I'm the unnamed person that plans on bringing the item next month. I will bring the item and I'll tell you why.
This total amount of money that was paid is less than onethird of 1% of the referendum dollars. And if you take today's referendum dollars, roughly $350 million, and you divide it by 13,000 teachers,
you get $27,000 per teacher. And contrary to what was set up here today, we could have paid every dime to teachers. Our referendum said we'd spend at least 75% on staff and up to uh 17% on safety and security
and 8% on mental health. So, we could have spent 100% on staff and um and and we didn't and I think we didn't for good reasons. There was a very rational split on mental health and safety and security demands and on pay. But here's the
bottom line. Some of my colleagues may not recognize that this referendum represents 17% of our operating dollars. Dr. Heepburn, would be be an a district if we lost 17% of our operating dollars immediately? >> Would cause some ch some challenges in
maintaining that. >> How many teachers, Dr. Hepper, do you think would stay if we took away their up to $12,000 typen from the referendum? >> Um, that I'm not sure. It's not a pretty picture though, right? Our teachers, everybody in this room and everyone outside acknowledges are underpaid to
what they deliver in terms of value. But not recouping that money means you are now going from a 60% referendum that passed in 2022 to an unknown number that no doubt will be less than 60%. And I'm not willing to take that risk. And I don't think anyone that got the money
wants us to take that risk. It isn't about, you know, hurting people that spent the money or already bought stuff with it. One, I don't think that the board, while the literal transcript of the meeting
was clear, those of us that were here were not informed that the underlying resource allocation tool had changed, that it was no longer schedule D and below. Mr. RHS's report made it very clear that that was omitted from the item but not
struck out. I hope that we uh do what Mr. Sea says but not just about referendum money. I hope that we write items that are crystal clear that are not wildly optimistic that don't present just the joy juice of something that happened rather than be honest with the public
about what we're doing with their money. I hope that we give all of the data to the board. I hope that we're crystal clear in our answers. I hope we bring trends and timelines and better analysis to it so that the board uh does a better job. I would have made your item much
stronger, Mr. Sea, and I would have said on all items, let's take the spirit of these recommendations and improve the agenda packet that we get in Broward County Schools by a letter to or grade letter, grade, or two. But for me, uh, for one-third of 1% of
the referendum, I'm not willing to take that chance. It's probably ambiguous about who is responsible. So, I'll say everybody's responsible for what happened, but I'm not going to be on this board and take a risk with 17% of our operating dollars.
And this is what voters will be thinking about when they go in the poll. Did they spend the last amount of money that we gave them? It's over$1.2 2 billion over four years that we collect and it'll be another 1.5 or 1.6 given property values going forward because this is an
advalorum tax. Um I do have to be clear that we could have spent more of this money on teachers than we did. Uh I think we made very responsible allocations between mental health safety and and teachers. But to pay um uh our highest compensated
administrators uh a bonus is not consistent with what we sold to the voters or what we wrote in the referendum. And I hope that when the item comes that cooler heads will prevail and it won't be personal and it won't be about someone's name having to pay it back. It'll be about do we want
17% of our money with a high probability of passing or do we want to uh pray like hell uh at 700 p.m. on November 3rd that voters either forgot about this or forgave us because it was a mistake. And I just don't want to take that risk. I
mean, it's just a difference of opinion. But I don't I don't gamble with 17% of our operating budget. And I and and uh I I I I can't even imagine. You know, we we go crazy with our CFO trying to find $100 million.
How on earth could you find $350 million out of the budget? Like like that's it's literally inconceivable. You know, we would do a Hillsboro County and reboundry the whole district and close 70 or 80 schools just
to stay open. like that we'd be going through, you know, unbelievable torture to to to take a reduction of that all at one time. Uh, and the state's not going to help us. Our our private sector donations aren't going to help us. We're going to take a hit. And it's it's a lot
of money. And so that's that's why I think we need to have a lawyer look at this and tell us what we can do. If we can't do it, we can't do it. And that's uh that's the end of the story. I will not bring the item. But if the lawyer says there's a way to recoup the funds, uh, then I'll bring the item. and I hope
cooler heads prevail at that point and we realize that the risk that we're taking is the future of our community and the future of our school system. Thanks, chair. >> Any other board discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion say I. >> I. I.
>> All oppose say no. >> Motion passes unanimously. We are back to the item. I am done with my comments. Um, I believe Miss Thompson, you were next. >> I made my comments during the last thing. Thank you, >> Miss Bulman.
>> Thanks, Sher. Um, I think we need to make sure that we're and you know, to Dr. Zemen's point, which I don't agree that with the con the way that he gets there, but um I think that the most important aspect of this entire conversation is
making sure that we're trusted by the public and that we have our referendum passed coming up. and we need to do whatever you we need to take the steps to make sure that every day we're regaining the public trust. I mean,
again, we've talked about this multiple times today and during the meeting and other items, but we as a board have been addressing this as quickly as we can when these things are coming to us. So, I think that we collectively all agree
that public trust is our number one priority. And so, um, you know, I I'm wondering when do we have to have the referendum language submitted? When do we have to agree to that? >> Dr. Huburn, >> Mr. Sullivan,
>> I can tell you when we plan to bring it. Uh, legally, I'm not sure uh when you have to bring it, but we're mirroring uh last uh schedule. So, I know we'll be ahead of schedule, which will be next board meeting. Uh we're just waiting for outside counsel to uh review the
resolution to make sure it's aligned to state statute. >> Is this something that we could workshop before we bring to the board so that we can have public input and do we have time for that? >> Dr. Heer,
>> Mr. Silva. >> So there's there's two things that happened with the referendum based on uh the last two. one, there's a board vote on the resolution. The resolution contains the reason the board feels the um ballot measure is needed and then the
actual ballot language. Uh after that vote, there's a there's a separate vote uh that the board historically has done to let the voters know how that is intended to be spent. So there's a vote on the intended allocation that would be if we follow last time around. Uh so
this resolution will be voted on in the March meeting and then tendant allocation could be workshopped and then voted on. Uh so that would be um April uh and May. >> So can we put it can we put the language
on a workshop before so we can get public? >> I don't know when we have to have the resolution. um I'd have to work with legal and maybe the outside council to determine the timeline of that because that would delay the the resolution
portion. But again, there's there's two aspects of it. There's the resolution itself, which I know the board will want to um structure the language in such a way to um account for what happened in the past, but the ballot language only
could be 75 words. So, I think the board will have a challenge on restricting those funds the way they want to. That's why there's a separate vote that you're not limited in terms of award count uh to say how you intend to spend the funds if it were to pass. >> Well, I don't want to be self-defeating
before we we get to it. >> A workshop for the second part. >> A workshop for the second part >> about how you would spend it. >> Okay. I mean, I I think we're going to have a conversation about it when it comes to the board anyway. So, I don't know how we want to spend that time. If we want to do it in a workshop first or
if we want to spend it all day at the meeting, >> I'd recommend that the board uh takes up the resolution in a board meeting. The public will have an opportunity to to speak on that item as well and the board will have an opportunity to discuss it as well and then have a workshop for the
intended allocation and then a board vote would be my recommendation. >> Is there any objection to that process? I just want to be clear, chair, that we're not going to be having a workshop to write the referendum language, but to hear about the how those funds ought to be allocated and then separately the
staff writes a referendum, bring it to the board. Is that what we just heard? Yeah. >> Thank you so much, chair. I love that idea. >> But and what about the resolution language? >> The I mean the resolution language is uh I don't want to say it's not important. The only important part within the resolution is the ballot language which
is contained in the resolution because the resolution goes to the county commission and then that's what dictates the ballot language on on the on the referendum. So the language behind the ballot language isn't the important part. It's the actual ballot language which is contained inside the resolution
in my opinion. So, under the current proposal, there would not be a workshop on the ballot language. >> Okay. But we can talk about it at the board meeting and then the public can comment on it. I know it's 75 words, but obviously the those words
>> provided some ambiguity last time that we'd like to >> I know I'm out of order, but you're you're way too short of time. You need to get >> Please yield the mic. Please yield the mic. Okay. >> I was going to um just add, madam chair,
that the um I believe the intent of the board will be very similar to the previous referendums in terms of the the buckets. So I don't imagine there'll be a lot of change of the ballot language with the exception to see if there's a way to restrict the funds. But again, with 75 words, I think the board will
have a hard time doing that. And that's why the intended allocation is probably the more appropriate place to place any kind of restrictions that the board wants in terms of those funds. >> I I just want to make sure that we're not offputting to the voters in the
meantime. I mean, the intent here is that we're going to pass this um and that the voters understand that we've got the um guard rails in place so that this isn't going to happen again. So, I don't know how we're making that. >> So, we'll have a lot of runway. Last time uh the board did this uh it was about a 4mon turnaround. Uh with the
time table that I described it's closer to a six sevenmon timeline cuz we're going out in November versus an August primary that the last two referendum ballots were. So by the time the board votes on the allocation we would make that part of the communication plan and
the uhformational information that we hand out to the stakeholders. >> Okay. I could. Okay. Um, and I just one other comment I wanted to make. I It always uh
just cheers. Well, I I have a great deal of respect when um Miss Puitis tells us about knocking doors. as someone that's knocked a lot of doors, I I think that as we're going into this next referendum, um we need to remember who
really worked to get it passed originally and um the reason why we have it right now and um I certainly will be remembering that, but there was a lot of uh blood, sweat, and tears that went
into this originally. And so, um, in order, you know, to be able for the original intent here for our teachers and other staff to be able to afford to live here and to serve our students. I think we need to remember that and to
have that message um, loud and clear to the public that that is the intent of the referendum and that's where their the majority of their tax dollars are going to be going moving forward. So, um, that's all I have to say on that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Zean.
>> Thanks so much, chair. I think I've uh shared a lot, but um I look forward to all the things that we could do to regain the trust. And I think that, you know, this board is full of very uh thoughtful, intentional people. We have honest, good conversations about things
and we're clearly trying to find the best things to do moving forward. to the extent that we keep that tone from now until November, the more we're going to win the confidence of Broward County. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Seivera. >> Thank you, Chair. I want to address a couple things that were that were said
in the in the first go around. Um, first and foremost, obviously, I want the 2026 referendum to pass. Uh, and I would never suggest to anybody that they shouldn't vote for it. The reason I brought this item was to make sure that safeguards are in place so that the
public can feel comfortable in voting for this um come November. And as long as I'm on this board, I'll be extremely vocal and I'll do everything in my power to make sure that future referendum monies go to our teachers. So, the insinuation that I was suggesting that I was not in favor uh of the referendum
certainly not accurate. Um, that being said, this $500,000 that was given to district staff as opposed to teachers was taken from the teachers. If there is a sum of money that could go to the teachers and
instead it went somewhere else, that money was taken from the teachers. So, it's it's contingent on all of us to make sure that we do whatever needs to be done so this never happens again uh in the future. Now, I I realize that that the that the prior board voted the
way that they need they they voted and you may have had information. You may not have information. I'm very much looking forward to our outside counsel coming forward with their report and reviewing that and we'll take the uh appropriate action, but I I I I don't want this to come off as as some sort of
simple mistake or like an oopsie. We took $500,000 that should have gone to the teachers and distributed to other folks that quite frankly, in all due respect, did not deserve it. That money was not earmarked for them. Nobody in their right mind who voted on this uh several years ago ever thought that
people in this KCW building would be getting any of that money. It was meant for teachers and school-based staff. Period. Full stop. It didn't go there. It was taken from them and it's contingent upon us to make sure that that never happens again. Thank you, >> Miss Thompson. I just want to make a
clarification that social workers, school psychologists, those people are all considered district staff as well, but that's not how it actually is put in the language. I also just want to clarify and ask the question, was money in the referendum
set aside for teachers? >> Dr. Heer? >> Yes. >> So, I just want to reemphasize Miss Hixon, Mrs. Hixon's point that it wasn't taken from teachers, it was taken from the other pot of money. I also want to remind
that is 100% accurate. But anyway, um I also want to state that the reason it was expanded in the referendum language was to give those people part of the referendum and also our principles and our APS. So anyway, I would like to call the
question now. Thank you. >> All in favor of calling the question say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. >> No. I had a question that I needed to ask. It's okay. Um, so does the motion pass or >> I'm not sure because you need uh I
believe a super majority for a question. I'm not sure you got that. >> I would like to recall my calling the question so the chair can ask a question. >> No. All right. Um, I just had one quick question. In terms of the logistics of
hiring the outside counsel, does that go through the general counsel's office? >> Yes, Mrs. Lena. We have contrary counsel that can be able to handle labor and employment questions. >> Got it. And I it was not in the motion, but I do feel the need to make it clear that that need that opinion needs to
come to us before uh the next board meeting. >> Understood. Thank you. Dr. Zean, did you have anything else? >> Only on the timing. Uh again, um general counsel, I hate to press on this, but if it's available a week before and they
say that we can't do it, then we avoid community drama by not submitting the item. Thank you so much. >> All right. Any other board discussion on the item? All in favor of the item as amended say I. I. All oppose say no.
Item passes unanimously amended as amended. Um all right. Could I get a motion and a second on item RR6? Moved by Dr. Zean. Could I get a second
from someone? >> Okay, I'll go back to that. Did I get a second? >> Motion made by uh Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon. Um public comment on RR6 resolution in support of handfree wireless communication device. No
comments. >> Uh board member discussion. Mr. Ca. >> If um board member Rupert is on the line still, I would like to temporarily yield my time and speak last on this if I may. >> Miss Rupert. >> Um I'm okay.
>> You're good. >> I think she said okay. >> Yes. >> Okay, Mr. Vera. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chair. Um, >> thank you. >> I um I want to take the the opportunity
to um acknowledge some of the folks who have been working um diligently on this um throughout this throughout the state, which ultimately allowed it to get before this um board this afternoon. Um, I I want to start
with some of our elected folks in in Tallahassee, uh, Senator Ellen Growl, as well as, uh, State Representative Omar Blanco from District 115 in regards to the, uh, known dangers of distracted driving and why state laws
and resolutions such as these um, are necessary. So, I'm super uh supportive and super appreciative of those folks for laying the the foundation here on getting these passed at a at a state level as well as a local and city municipal level. And I'm excited to
bring this resolution um before the Brower County School Board today. Um motor vehicle crashes are the second leading cause of death for children and teens in America. In 2023, 3,200 people died in distracting distraction affected
crashes uh nationwide. Teen drivers are 16% more likely to be involved in fatal crashes when distracted. And we all know how unfortunately a lot of us are, especially the younger drivers when it comes to our phones with the technology
and the iPhones and uh all of those uh items. In Broward County last year, there were 27 se 2,763 total distracted driving crashes, 1,700 of which involve serious injuries and two fatalities. That's more than seven
distracted driving crashes every single day right here uh in Broward County. Now, while there there are current laws on the books that ban texting and emailing, emailing while driving, handheld use in only banned in school
zones and construction zones does not go far enough. So, I'm very thankful for this proposed legislation that's working its way uh through Tallahassee. And I'm very um appreciative for the opportunity to present uh the resolution to the board this afternoon for hopefully
unanimous support. Uh, I'd also like to thank Vice Mayor Mark uh Merwoods from uh Palmetto Bay who came this morning during public comment in support of the motion and for his hard work uh and our sister county in getting things like
this passed. Uh that being said, um I'm uh asking for everybody's support in this very very important resolution involving hands-free wireless communication devices while driving. Thank you, chair. >> Thank you. Any other board member discussion on the resolution?
>> Thank you from the from the skies. Thank you. >> Any other board discussion? >> All in favor of R6 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. >> I. >> Item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on O7? >> So moved. >> Moved by Dr. Zean, second by Miss Hixon.
Public comment on O7. >> No comment. >> Board member discussion. Miss Bulman. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, I actually pulled this uh because I was talking to Miss Formosa who is um the head of our CES
department and she was rattling off a lot of um statistics about uh the way that um we are just having amazing successes with our CTA program. So um I don't think she's here but I don't know if any is she here? Okay. So I I wanted
her to um just share with us um a major major successes that we're having right now. So if you don't mind, could you could you give me those great statistics that you were um sharing the other day? >> So we were number one for industry
certifications for the entire state. Second year in a row. >> Nice job. >> Also uh number one for dual enrollment. This is for the first year. And then our overall acceleration. So all of our accelerated buckets, we were number one
for funding as well. So we've increased 10,000 industry certifications over the last two years, 6,000 last year alone. >> Wow. >> Awesome. Well, keep up the good work. Um very proud to hear um of these successes and
I know that you're working really hard to continue to expand the program. you know, when we're out in the community, people want these programs. And I think with the changing environment and AI and all these other things, um, these, uh, industry certifications are going to be
invaluable for our students. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. I just want to add that our school teams are doing an absolutely fantastic job implementing the program and our scholars are rising to the occasion. So, thank you. >> Awesome. Thanks. Thank you, Dr. Zean. >> Thanks so much. I wonder if I could
continue uh with our same witness here today. Um this program is not big enough. >> Which one are is it Barry? >> Uh the EMT program is in 10 high schools. What is the demand for people to become ENT certified?
>> So essentially what we've been doing was we surveyed the principles and we were able to have the 10 principles on board and they put it on their course selection sheets as well. So it was totally student driven. But aside from the EMT program, we also have 21 health
science programs uh across our district. So >> I'm familiar with all the programs. My issue is that um I want to make sure that we as a district are uh meeting the demands of what the students want. And that's so important. It's absolutely
essential that we keep going out and survey the students and wherever we can, even if you have to come mid year and and ask Barry to find some more people and do this. Uh we not only just to be clear about this, chair, when we get uh these kinds of uh certifications done,
Mr. Superintendent, how does that affect our student district grade overall? >> Well, but it's depends on the industry certification. And a lot of the industry certifications do count towards the Florida's um accountability system and some don't. Um but nonetheless, the ones
that don't, they actually help to propel new opportunities for the students after high school, even some during high school and during college or part-time jobs and have utilizing those industry searchs. >> Dr. Heburn, do you think any charter school offers an EMT program through Barry University? >> I'm not sure. >> They do not.
>> And and it's one of the big distinct advantages we have. that helps us become and and and excel as an A district because it counts toward it's one of the 13 I think subc scores that there are to give us an A district. Does EMT count towards state uh accreditation points?
>> So they do if the students sit and take the EMR industry certification at the end. >> Perfect. I just I I keep wanting to find the secret sauce of figuring out what people want so we can get it to them. And if what you're doing is surveying the students and asking them what kind of certifications do you want, they're
going to stay in school longer. They're going to come to our schools more often. They're going to graduate with the ability to get a job. Uh those jobs allow them to do a whole bunch of other things in their life. I don't like to talk about my life very much, but my certification in high school allowed me to earn three times minimum wage when I
was in high school. And I paid my own way through college. And I didn't have any trouble paying for college because I had this really, really great trade that I learned uh through one of these certifications in high school. And it just paid huge dividends. that I'm one of hundreds of thousands of stories in Broward County where that's been the
case. But our job is to recruit more students to Broward County to give them opportunities to earn as much as they want in a trade that they'd really want. And by God, doesn't Broward County need more EMTs that are fully certified that are created here rather than to have to go recruit people? I know we recruit
people from Orange County, Dr. He which is unfortunate but uh we need to produce them right here in Broward County you know so that we can uh make sure that we have enough to fulfill our requirement because according to all the industry on the other side when you talk to the the the Broward Health and the Baptist
Health and Jack Nicholas and all the other ones they're short on EMTs they can't get enough and they're all working overtime. So thank you for doing this and if there's more demand I hope you come back to the board and ask us for more money. >> Sounds great. >> You any other board discussion Mr. Sea.
>> Yeah, I I echo Dr. Zean's comments. I think I think this is phenomenal. Um I'm excited for this to go um into uh fruition and hit stride. Uh I know all of my my my kids in Cooper City High School and Nova High School are tremendously excited about this and um
you know this this EMT field is an ever growing field. Um, I talk to kids um all the time, whether they're high school kids or kids who just got it out of high school, and the need and desire to be in this space is is ever expanding. So, I'm thankful for this opportunity that we're
we're giving these kids and this partnership that we're providing with Barry and um you know, these first 10 schools are a good a good start, but let's kind of keep the momentum going and see if we can expand it throughout the uh the district as well. So, thank you. Kudos. >> Thank you. Any other board member
discussion? All in favor of O7 say I. >> I. >> All oppose say no. >> I. >> Item passes unanimously. >> Um this is the time of the agenda when the school board members will hear from
our evening speakers. So we on our list for our evening speakers Sherifa McKinley, Joyce Claxton, Lisa Quinn, Diane Bishop, and Dedra Fank. chair. I believe they're outside.
>> Here they come. >> Right on Q. >> Right on Q. Thank you so much. Just waiting for my friends to arrive. Um hi. I just came from school at Fort Lauderdale High School. We just wanted to communally wish um all of you guys flying out. Um wish all of you guys um a
thank you a thank you for taking the time to um look at this issue with graduation venues etc. So, we just wanted to at least, you know, you guys took the time to examine this and look at all of the um data, etc. So, we just wanted to say we're appreciative. The kids are appreciative. We're
appreciative of you. You guys get so much flack, slack, all of those awards. Um, and we just wanted to at least come to say we're very grateful. So, thank you so much from Fort Lauderdale as well as the other schools in Broward who are thankful as well. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. I'm PTA President Joyce Claxton. On behalf of me and my
students and my parents, I wanted to thank you. There's over 200 signatures on this little board. >> Wow. >> From all our seniors at class of 2026. This was a hard year for you guys and I understand why you guys did this decision that you did. But thank you for
reconsidering and choosing our old venues that for we did for 2025. Just so you know, for next year or upcoming years that you have, if you want to coordinate with me, with Lisa or Diane or other members of our um PTA and the
school, we have tons of venues that have reached out to us willing to work with us. I have a budget list. I have price lists. I have everything you guys need. >> Are willing to do it for >> very low cost that are willing to help Fort Lauderdale as well as other schools across the county. So again, my name is
Joyce Claxton, PTA president. I work for Marty Kur's office. He's amazing. So, um, if you guys need anything, please reach out. Adam, thank you so much. You have been all about the parents. It makes me cry. All about our voices and
the students voices as well. So, thank you for supporting us, our teachers, our students, and the county as a whole. Thank you. >> Oh, how do we give this to you guys? >> Oh, there you go. The gentleman behind you. >> Thank you. Sorry.
>> Um, I'm Diane Bishop. I initially spoke at the first school board meeting and my daughter is a senior at Fort Lauderdale High School and um, I just wanted to come back because I know that people come and constantly complain about things and request things, but I thought
it was really important that you guys know that we appreciate you and we we listen to you, too. And it's nice to see that you guys work together. I know you guys care about our kids as much as we care about our kids. And I think that's the whole point of all of this and I can't tell you how excited the kids were
when we told them that this was working out for them. They were thrilled and um we really appreciate that. So, thank you so much and keep up the good work and we appreciate you. Have a great day and I'll talk to you soon. Bye. >> Thank you. Can the first first public speaker please restate their name for
the record? >> Oh, I'm so sorry. My name is Lisa Quinn. I'm a parent and a teacher and the senior adviser at Fort Lauderdale High School. Thank you. I'm a senior and I tell my students I'm a senior citizen. >> Thank you. Also, >> Joyce Claxton,
uh, PTA president last two years in a row, vice president. Everybody knows me. Thank you again. >> I think you got my name, Diane Bishop. Yep. and I've volunteered at all a lot of schools, even schools my daughter didn't
go to. But anyway, um thank you so much and we appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> We also had Sherifa Mckenley and Dedra Farank. >> Good afternoon. My name is Sharifa Mckenley. I am the vice president of
programs for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Broward County. As many of you all know, we are a mentoring program that has served the county for over 50 years. We are currently within 32 Broward County public schools, and we are hoping to
expand our reach to many other schools. Last year, we engaged 1,311 youth in Broward County throughout our programs and our different initiatives. This year, however, we are trying to expand in many more Brower County public
schools, and we've run into a hiccup with our contract. We have principles that are very interested currently in some of our new initiatives, which is the non-traditional um mentoring spaces where we're offering group mentorship versus the traditional
one-to-one mentorship. We currently collaborate with other mentoring programs like mentoring leaders of tomorrow that serve our Miramar High School youth. We cover youth from the ages of 5 years old to 21 years old. And we just want to make sure that we are
able to create a larger impact. We've created our wellness initiative, Little Steps, Big Strides. We are collaborating currently with Henderson Behavioral to offer all of our participants wellness and mental health services that will come free of charge as we've always done
for our youth in the county and our youth that attend our Ber County public schools. Previously, we've already had a BCPS contract from 2019 to 2022. We submitted our draft in 2024 and we were
able to work with Tom Albino to add the additional exhibits that we were missing for our contract. However, we submitted our final draft last year and we have been in pending status for quite some time. That has sorry that has created
some of our principles to not want to move forward until we are officially BCPS contracted vendor. So I am here on behalf of our organization to try to find out what would be the next steps, what assistance can we receive so that
we can continue to provide the amazing services that we do to our youth. Last year, we gave out over $400,000 to our high school juniors and seniors to go to college for scholarships. And we want to be able to continue to give out funding
free of charge to our youth, give out programming free of charge to our youth, which many other organizations do not provide. although it cost Big Brothers Big Sisters of Broward County $2,500 per child to establish a mentorship
program for each of them. So, I'm just here to speak to you all on behalf of the organization and hope that this will gain the attention of many other board members that could assist when proceeding and having our contract approved and moved forward. And thank
you so much for your time. >> Thank you, Miss Hixon. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming today. I appreciated our conversation last week and the suggestion you come and share the concern with the board. I'd just like to ask Miss Jacqu Adams to address
um because I did reach out to general counsel to find out where we are. So if Miss Jock Adams if you could give us an update and let them know what the process is so that we can move this forward. Yes. So, our office did receive that um
late um last last year um in October and we're going to go ahead and legally review that and provide it to staff. >> Okay. Thank you so much. I know that we've um had an issue with the data sharing because we do use grades as a
metric to show that we are providing impact to the youth throughout the county, but we are willing to remove that portion because we can receive report cards directly from parents with their assigned permission. So, whatever we need to do, we're we're hopeful. Thank you.
>> Any other public speakers? Now is the time of the agenda where uh we go to our board member discussion. So if you have any concerns or student successes you'd like to share, please go ahead. Dr. Zean. >> Thanks so much, Chair. Two things. Um one, u Mr. Superintendent, you offered
to bring uh the draft of the next year or chart on April 14th. would you be bringing kind of your final draft on April 14th so that we can spend 6 weeks or so with you in in thinking and organizing around that?
>> Is that a is that a first draft or is that a final draft that you might be bringing April? >> That would be pretty final. Um just like we normally do get feedback from the board at that workshop and um we come back and sometimes there's some small changes before the vote. >> I appreciate that. I think chair um this
year in particular um with the shifts and changes in budgets that we have for Brower County Schools that's going to be a robust discussion from the 14th until it's finally approved at the end of June. Um second is uh there's an instance in which the board gave
direction to the staff about a relatively minor action that was supposed to happen last week and that uh direction was not followed. I'm not convinced that polling school board members is an effective way to uh uh
change direction. Uh when this board gets together and meets as a group, we get to hear each other. We get to have speech just we get to talk about things. Um can uh chair let me just ask you is it is it a acceptable for polling the
school board members to change the direction that the school board gave to the superintendent and staff? >> From me as one board member I think it you know depends on the situation. Um I think these things are nuanced. Uh but I
think that is something that would need larger board discussion. I don't I don't think I'm the purveyor of what is acceptable or not as >> terrific. I I would like to add that when it's a available to it. Um I'm very concerned about it. Um uh we we don't
get a whole lot of actions given to us where we get to say explicit direction. Um and I understand that life sometimes gets in the way of a really good plan. Um but uh it's just uh uh it's something that doesn't settle well with me because
of the authorities and vested in this board versus the authorities vested in the superintendent. So if we can find a good time uh to discuss and figure out kind of the best way forward, I'd appreciate. >> Thank you, Miss Hixon. Thank you. Um I'd
just like to again congratulate all of the the winners. Well, I'd like to argue that everyone was a winner at the Caliber Awards on Friday night, but also a shout out to Dr. Stewart and the district team. It was a magical night.
It was a beautiful venue. Um, everybody had such a really nice time and it's just nice to be able to celebrate all of our teachers. I know there were there were winners that night, but I would just say that everybody who was there
and was recognized by their peers as um someone of excellence should be so proud of themselves for for being recognized. Also, it was already mentioned, but congratulations to West Broward for
winning the two class 2A extra-large non-tumbling state championship and Western for winning the class 2A small co-ed state championship in cheerleading. That's very exciting. And
I just would like to um ask the superintendent, we've had this discussion already and really just staff, you know, we the families really appreciate that the district has made sure that our loved ones are remembered
every single year. And this year, February 13th, is a day of love and service. And I think it's really important um we appreciate all of those those service projects, but I think it's important that it's consistent across the district and that everyone
understands what that day is about and that we are not calling meetings and we are not doing um any of those things that were not supposed to be and it needs to be consistent. Um, it's been brought to my attention a number of times that there are meetings being
called on that day and they're treating as if it's a regular teacher work day and that is not what that day is set aside for. So, if we could just make sure that it's consistent across the district and again would just like to thank all of the schools who spend so much time preparing. They're very
excited to share with me and all of the families, you know, the different projects that they're doing. and they put a lot of time and effort into that and I just want them to know it doesn't go unnoticed. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Bulman.
>> Thanks, Chair. Um, last Friday I along with Miss Hixon had the pleasure of attending the eighth annual youth climate summit um that was put on by our applied learning department in um
conjunction with the environmental health and safety department and it was amazing. We had over,200 students attend. Um a student keynote speaker Beam Fur was there. Um I actually had the privilege of sitting on a panel with
him in front of um very engaged and um enthusiastic students. And so, um, I just, these are kind of things that aren't necessarily recognized when we're talking about student gains and things like that, but there's so much else
going on in our district and all of the hard work that's going that went into doing that. And really like seeing students outside of the classroom, becoming leaders, and um, being willing to engage and really tackle problems. Uh
we actually had like a call to action. So I look forward to engaging our students further. But I just like to thank um Susie Canrick, Allison Whitesinsky, uh Lisa Malankovic, and Summer Scarlet. Just off the top of my head, we're all um very uh integral to
making this day happen and we're looking forward to year nine. Thanks. >> Thank you, Miss Thompson. >> Thank you, chair. I just want to add that West Broward is also national champions, but thank you Miss Hixon for the shout out. I also want to
acknowledge um the schools for stepping up their social media game. I know this is something that often goes unrecognized by traditional marketing methods, but I do think having a presence online is something that is so important in this day and age. So,
Hawkluff has been putting out some really cute, funny videos. follow them on Instagram. Same with Coral Cove with our CTE department and also our brace advisors and our mental health always have really good videos that are informative and I think um the public
appreciates. And also to give a shout out uh to our district itself for being number one in Florida for APA dual enrollment and industry certifications funding. I think too often we are not acknowledging our successes and we spend
eight hours kind of tearing our district down and I just wanted to give that a shout out. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Seivera. >> Thank you, chair. Uh, I want to recognize a special senior from Western High School in District 6, Cherish
Huggin. Cherish is a 5'9 defensive back. She plays flag football and she was selected to participate in the uh NFL sanctioned girls flag football showcase out in San Francisco during Super Bowl week and she had the opportunity to
represent the Miami Dolphins and obviously for the AFC and her AFC team defeated the NFC team 7 to6 and of extreme importance no other Miami date or Broward player was chosen for this game. So, great job,
Cherish, representing Broward County as the lone football player from Western High School. Good job, young lady. >> Thank you. Um, any other board member discussion? I just had a quick question for the superintendent about an upcoming workshop. I understand that we'll be
addressing um testing in a in an upcoming workshop, I believe, next week. and we have heard from different community members um the desire to have teachers at the table uh for that discussion. I happen to think that that
would be a valuable voice to have at the table and I'm wondering if we've made any uh plans to incorporate teacher voice into that workshop. >> Yes, that is affirmative. There there will be teacher voice um contrasting
teacher voice in the workshop. >> Great. Okay. So, we will have teachers at the workshop. >> Yes. >> Awesome. Um, okay. Any other board member discussion or questions? All right. Uh, the scheduled order of
min business for this regular school board meeting of the school board of Brower County, Florida has been completed. Seeing no objection, I now adjourn the meeting. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.