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[Music] he he [Music] he he [Music] welcome to today's Schoolboard Workshop
we are happy to have you join us and we are thankful for your time and dedication to our district this workshop at the school board of Brower 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 refrained from obstructing the exit doors all attendees must occupy a seat with the exception of a me 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 has deemed the building safe to return thank
you for your cooperation board board member Thompson will now introduce her school to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag Miss Thompson good morning chair I am super excited to be able to introduce Lakeside Elementary um under the direction of Dr Rodriguez
and assistant principal leel we are in for a special treat especially afterwards um and so if we could all rise and remain standing for the pledge please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance 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 [Music]
you [Music] see what sooud we and the Twilight last
we and bright stars through the paress light all the r be soam and The [Music]
Rock through through the night was still there oh St fa let
way for the land of the and the home of the pr [Music] I see bright [Music]
Minds hey it's on the beat L any challenge we going beat High watch wein got to cheat for excellence we going keep yeah we leading way showing gping resiliency I tell you what it mean Integrity tenacity that's what we
achieved County we the best you ever seen huh Lake Side Lake Side Lake Side on we on top can be stop under Dr Rodriguez now we flop it's a bird it's a plane what's that in the sky now and we going
St till we thve sessional 17 that's Regent PR to the scholars and the teacher do the reason that we shine to the PT staff yeah they keep us on our grind we are a school that's why we going shine we going St we exceling success we the epon we say what our CH
lak side that's the school that We R L side with a school that's the best side rise up we going to do our stuff why you worri about the rest we on fire trying to strike a cord a r is our [Music]
desire they not like us they not like us they not like us they not like us they not like us they not like us they not like us they not like us they not like they not like us they not like us
they not like us now step way step that way now step that way step that way now step that way step that way now step step step step L side L side L side
[Applause] thank you to Lakeside for doing a great job with the pledge um as we prepare to begin this Schoolboard Workshop we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all our students as an a-rated School
District We Begin the vital task of sustaining this achievement we will continue educating all students to reach their Highest Potential our theme this year is believe Empower achieve one Broward today's Workshop will operate in accordance with the Schoolboard policy
1020 and the board will review the items as advertised and presented by the superintendent our first item for discussion is student performance winter 2024 2025 I now turn it over to staff for a brief presentation good morning Madame chair on board
members and the public and turn it over to Dr Fulton and her team at this time thank you and before we start I just have to say we need to give it up for Lakeside Elementary School that was amazing the challenge is on let's see who can top that so good morning
Schoolboard members Dr heurn and members of the uh staff and members of the public we appreciate this opportunity to engage with you today around the district's Core Business which is teaching and learning today's presentation will provide a midyear academic update on student performance
as measured by the Florida assessment of student thinking progress monitoring 2 which was administered to students in grades kindergarten through 10 10th grade and concluded on January the 24th but before we dive into the data I
want to take a moment to reflect on our fall Workshop where we took you all on a transformational journey from The Boardroom to the classroom demonstrating how our Regional Offices in the academic division provide ongoing tiered support
for schools you heard from our amazing teachers administrators and our precious commodity our students we also highlighted the impress impressive growth of blanch ILY High School Nova Middle School and DEA Primary Learning
Center in Oakridge Elementary School where they celebrated their remarkable achievements made possible through strategic alignment and support we are a proud a district focus on our commitment
to continuous growth and Excellence for us success is not a destination but a journey one fued by dedication Innovation and unwavering belief in the potential of all of our students the
results of the fast tum data which you will hear in a moment reflect reflect the hard work of our Educators the resilience of our students and the strength of our Collective efforts our district is committed to high quality instruction for all cuttingedge
Innovation and support to ensure every student graduates ready for college career and Life to assess our impact my team will now present an analysis of the fast 2m P the fast pm2 data and I'll
turn it over to miss hollandsworth our chief academic officer who's going to kick it off good morning could we put the deck up please thank you um just to summarize this slide presents us uh the ELA
proficiency data for students scoring a level three or higher for the district three regions and the stto office based on those results it includes the data from the pm3 at the end of last year 2024 pm1 beginning of 2025 and the most
recent pm2 Administration to demonstrate student achievement this slide provides a three-year comparison of ela pm2 performance for the district three regions and the St office proficiency proficiency rates level three have
slightly increased from 23 to 2023 to 2025 however we continue to monitor the data to address areas of needed support through development of instructional strategies professional development and targeted interventions on this slide we break down the ELA pm2
performance for grades 3 to 3 through 10 from 2023 to 2025 the 2025 pm2 State data is included for comparison to assess how our district aligns with Statewide Trends while overall pm2 performance has improved the data
reveals areas where additional support is needed this comparison underscores the importance of redeploying targeted resources to schools based on specific needs and that's for five and six slides seven and eight demonstrate
the ELA PM two performance for students and subgroups both including race ethnicity English language Learners and our students with disabilities 20125 pm2 data shows an overall increase in proficiency reflecting district-wide efforts to support historically
underserved groups the off office of academics and Regional Offices have developed action plans to address subgroup Performance gaps these plans focus on targeted interventions professional learning and additional instructional
support just to show eight good morning everyone Fabian con executive director of academics I'll take the next couple of slides slide nine is an overall fast performance of math for the past three years and you'll see that slide this slide mirrors Ela
trends for math across the past administrations we see a positive movement between pm1 and pm2 indicating the success of Target math interventions in professional development and conceptual math strategies this data also helps confirm where we're making
systemic gains and where we need to intensify Focus slide 10 is a three-year Trend overall for fast Pim 2 performance in math by region you'll note that Regional Trends in math performance show similar patterns in ela which is steady
Improvement in all three regions the data allows each region to identify schools requireing more targeted math coaching and differentiated support slides 11 12 and 13 show positive math growth uh although we do
have some gaps that we're focusing on uh through our crunch time plan we have Regional Trends uh where our our uh students of color Hispanic Ela and SW uh D students are focused on math instruction small group uh pushin high
dosage tutoring in El Camps to strengthen uh that area of focus and I'll turn it over to Mr Bal good morning um my name is Richard Bal the director of uh educational assessment analysis and research we can
put the presentation back up uh we will go to the star results one second so first before we before we go into the star results we do have some information for the science performance
um uh it's a 2year comparison of fifth grade science as a reminder fifth grade science is uh the tested grade level for uh for the state for school grades um this performance uh comparison is our local midyear part one test for grade
five and we have a part two test that will be administered uh that is currently being administered so now we'll go through the Renaissance star assessments these star assessments while they're not part of uh the school grade they they do kind of
give us a picture um uh into the future of how our students are going to perform and so and these are Statewide assessments so uh we'll um show you the performance of um of the star assessments uh we'll go through basically we will look by grade level so
kindergarten uh separately from first grade second uh first and second grade um uh kindergarten does the star early literacy and you can see the the performance increases in kindergarten over time for the district and the
regions um and the comparison uh by race ethnicity and the comparison by elll and s swd status next we'll go into the grade one performance um and grade one performance
shows two a two-year comparison because in 2023 uh the we had a a mixed Administration where half the students were administered the early star early literacy and the other half were were administered star reading um and since
then we have uh continued to uh to administer star reading for first graders in the in the pm2 window for um for all first graders for pm2 for 24 and 25 so it's a better comparison and finally our grade two
performance for Star reading um this is the one area where we saw uh sort of flat performance uh in all other areas we saw uh increase es so this is one area where we will look um um to look at the grade two performance um at our
schools the rest of the the rest of the slides show the math performance and we saw um we saw increases in math performance for kindergarten grade one and grade two I'm going to pass it over to Dr Co thank you
sir slides 36 through 41 are graduation acceleration and College and Career Readiness uh these slides uh shift the focus to secondary outcomes including graduation weights acceleration and college conc readiness I want to draw your attention to slide 37 where this
data represents our 2025 District grade for two of the 12 components so as we can see our data shows a positive trend in the right direction here uh there is about eight increase in College and Career acceleration the remaining slides
show uh how we made those increases and the strategies we used uh to get to there uh and we can see that these are having some positive Trends and that they are working uh as we move into our emphasis around this particular area we know that acceleration rates will
continue to climb with professional learning school-based acceleration coaches and intentional scheduling practices our senior action plans combined with counseling check-ins will help to support ongoing progress monitoring help identify students needing additional support and then our
focus on aligning Middle School offerings to high school acceleration Pathways will also uh show some strengthening across our acceleration pipeline that concludes our presentation we'll turn it over to the board for any questions thank you so much for your
presentation okay Dr holness thank you madam chair um good morning everyone thank you for the presentation very detailed very thorough I do have some questions um if you go to slide
seven okay so on slide seven um I couldn't help but to notice and it's it's an ongoing concern when we look at pm2 Trend um from 2023 to
2025 in terms of ela uh by race and ethnicity um it appears that our uh black students um seem to uh
not be performing at the same level as our white students and Hispanics um when we look at for example the
pm2 2025 level three and above um it shows 36 um for black students 40 5% for Hispanics and 61% for whites now
I know a lot of the performance issues that we observe among our African-American students uh some of it has to do with um different kind of issues uh some of it could be economic disparity Equity
issues um and I believe we tried to address some issues in terms of in in some of the actions that we take Dr heurn including our last discussion on when we talk about making sure all of our students have access to uh computers and internet access and so on and these
are that's one of many measures that we need to take as a district to make sure that we address the disparities so we can narrow the gaps between our student Performance Based on Race um and um we
also can look at how how the kind of programs that we provide and the kind of interventions for these students we need to look at uh areas such as discipline attendance all these issues that result
in students not performing um so I am concerned about the difference in performance with uh our students um and the question that I have is what actions are we taken to narrow the Gap that seem
to Exist by race and ethnicity uh when we look at performance on slide 7even for ELA students thank you Dr hold it's a good question um so I'll I'll before I turn it over to Dr fton I just want to do I do want to point out that the students
are making progress year after year so they're they're continuing to um progress from year after year which is a good thing um and so another team will talk about some detailed strategies and things like that but we also understand that many of our communities either have
certain levels of outside support for students versus what we offer in in school right so when folks are starting the race will resource will engage um with community and parents and things like that that does make a difference too and so we're
not just focused on what we're doing inside of our buildings also focus on a holistic approach and ensuring that we engage our families too to talk about the importance of what they can do to to supplement instruction at home as well so I'll turn it over to the team so they can add any more additional details so
our St I also Echo uh what Dr heurn said um there is some positive but certainly not enough progress for all of us to say that we are doing a great job for all of our students right but if you see from year to year they're making progress within their own group but also the Gap is closing narrowly but not closed
enough and I always talk about when you look at research it's are we closing achievement gaps and I personally I don't like the term closing I like the term eliminating because eliminating means they should not be there all kids should be learning and learning at the same rates and so part of it is looking
at access and opportunity to make sure all of our students has the same access and opportunity to highquality instruction and high quality learning right so it it's it to really eradicate and to make sure these opportunities are closed and eliminated to start from the very beginning like early learning uh
what what we provide our students before they even walk in the door ready for a formalized k to2 environment so if you walk in the door uh in kindergarten with um a a high vocabulary right understanding numeracy uh pre-basic skills you're on the track to be
successful so often times we are um doing two tracks in terms of where our students show up and where we need them to be and always playing catchup so will we find our gaps in some of our schools is making sure they have all of the resources and the supports to accelerate the learning learning in all of our
students we all agree that all students can learn there isn't a group of students that is more Superior than the other group it's just making sure that all of our students are in front of high quality teachers and when they are in front of high quality teachers they are going to learn so this continues as it is a concern for you it is a concern for
me it concern for our students and also administrators and we work in diligently to make sure that we that we eliminate these gaps that we see here because our goal is to educate to graduate all of our students whether they going to college career or life we want to make sure we set them on the path to be
successful and I'll have my team share some more specific things that we are doing to support our teachers and our administrators in that area Okay um thank you Dr Fulton and I you must have been thinking what I'm thinking because I was about to um talk
about you know um our early learning programs because how you start a race has a lot to do with how you finish it right so if you're starting out for example we we talk about students um in say for example the broad States
Community with 70% of those students not being kindergarten ready and then by third grade we have a lot of those students uh repeating uh not being eligible for promotion so you know um the emphasis uh has to be as well on our
early learning um approach or early learning programs um I believe that third grad is is a good place to predict uh how successful a student will be so if they come into kindergarten and think thinking about a community that 70% are
coming into kindergarten not ready for kindergarten and by third grade those students are repeating um and unfortunately sometimes this impact communities um that experience certain um uh uh concerns such as economic concerns in terms of availability of
resources and so on so as a school district I believe we have a respons responsibility to address those needs the best way we can so we can um uh reduce disparities among our students um because I think all of our students can
learn and uh if provided with right resources and and as a district I think we have an obligation to do everything we can to do so so I'd like to go to slide nine for slide nine it's shows that overall fast performance in math
for past three administration of the fast testing I did notice however that the South seems to have a reasonable higher um
performance on the um pm3 of 2024 I am assuming the same Trend will continue with pm three of 2025 or even higher so uh just a question is is the South doing anything
different that that they've uh achieved this level and it's not meaning to to say the others are not doing great but is there something there doing that we can emulate that will enable the the rest of the regions to to be equally
successful so I'll take this and um what I will say We Are One District right and we try not to look at our district in silos the South North Central and however there are pockets of success that we like to make sure we scale up across our district and there are great
things that are happening um in all of our schools when we looking at the data when we find some schools that are um consistently performing higher we definitely want to see what what is the the magic formula that may be happening in that school that is showing
consistent trends of positive data moving forward and so what we try to what we do is we we we definitely um do what we call we walking learning communities we take principles at schools and we look at specific best
practices that may be happening at those schools and seeing what is it that you can take to scale up what you're doing at your school just to make your your progress even better um there are some great things going on in the South there are some great things going in North Central and even in stto and our goal is
to making sure all of the great things are happening Not In Pockets but full scale across our entire District because it's for all of our students to benefit from Best Practices okay great because um you know for example in District 5 uh you may have schools like Endeavor that
I'm impressed with under the the former principal and you look at Best Practices that they have that you can share with other schools so not to say the the south is is any any different than the rest of the District but maybe there's
something there that we could um look at uh that would benefit the rest of the district so we are one District um but I I couldn't help but to notice the difference in the performance and wondering what what is it that we could adopt uh districtwide that they're doing
so slide 13 and I'm almost done so on slide 13 for high I looked at the Broward strategy where it says High achieving eth graders in Broad do not take the fast math grade 8 assessment
and this seems to be the rational for um I guess the the performance of our eighth grade math um so is brow the only District that where students um uh
in eighth grade high achieving eighth graders do not take the fast math um because the I guess my concern is when we look at the Statewide pm2 achievement level three and above it seems to be significantly
higher than um you know than the uh the data that we have um for pm2 and the pm2 2023 was higher than our pm2 2025 for 8th grade math
so um what are we doing to ensure that we are trending upwards as opposed to be trending downwards and to get closer to the state average and I understand the rational of high achievement eight grade is not doing fast they're taking other options such as algebra but um I would
assume that looking at the Statewide average that other school districts are also having students not the high achievement students not taking uh the fast so how do we I'm not sure if that's a good rational to explain why we're not
performing to the state average so what is what can we do to mirror the state average or at least to Trend upwards for 8th gradeon if I if I may and then I'll turn over to you so I just want to explain the the the strategy here um so most of the large school districts in
the state we we um pretty much Implement a similar strategy in the State of Florida if a student comes out of seventh grade with a level three or above in math they a part of our my m is it numerator they're part of the numerator
for acceleration um so denominator right denominator for acceleration that's what I thought I was about to say the d word but the denominator for uh acceleration so in a sense the state says hey if you come out of math out of seventh grade math with a level three you should be in
algebra or above okay so and that counts toward our accountability um grade for acceleration most most of the large school districts uh implement the same practice where we ensure that the majority of our eth grade students who
receive a level three in math or above are in algebra in Middle School some school districts may not practice that and they put those kids in eighth grade math and hence why you see a higher state average um but for us we we support acceleration we make sure that
if kids have the potential and meet the potential with the right data we're going to put them in the right courses so what happens is you have all of your level three fours and fives in algebra in in in eth grade and in eth grade in eighth grade math you have your level ones and twos students who started the
race a little bit late but for whatever reason that may be resources Early Learning issues whatever the case may be um and so we have two things we're working on number one we're implementing strategies to close that gap for our students who are in eighth grade M so they can continue to progress um because
we want them to be successful in algebra when they actually get to high school cuz that we know that is a gateway course uh for a lot of other courses to have those great post-secondary opportunities number two on the back end we understand that uh philosophies in
the past may have affected students right now who are in seventh and eighth grade so we're ensuring starting early on at elementary school and especially in sixth grade math that we're exposing students to the right standards the right content so they can be successful by seventh and eighth grade year so it's
a it's a compression of two things deal with the issue right now of our level ones and twos in eighth grade math making sure they progress with the right strategy supporting our schools and also starting in elementary school and into Middle School making sure they're getting the right dose of instruction so
they're not we don't have this large amount of ones and twos continuing to move up the ladder we want to make sure they are threes and above moving up the ladder okay and I appreciate that Dr her when we when we look at the data for those who actually took the fast testing
in in 8th grade those who weren't exempt because of algebra and geometry it it tends to be slightly trending downwards right so um could you reiterate the actions to Trend upwards for those who are actually take I'll get them um to
talk about the details of the specific strategies but um these the students who are currently eighth grade math and even last year um there are some deficits that the team is addressing in their current year right now so we continue to
to Trend up but as far as state average that's why you see the state average like twice as large um for Mo it and that'll be reflected of most of the large Urban school districts because our philosophies is that all of our level 3es and above um will be in algebra the
state is holding us accountable for it already anyway and it's also a Gateway course to ensure that our kids are taking advantage of great post-secondary opportunities After High School go ahead so we have a short-term uh response to your question and also a long-term response because this is a a problem
that we want to make sure we eradicate me meaning our data Trends upward uh moving forward and Dr he is correct in terms of the cohort of students who are taking the the the uh fast test in eth grade the majority of the students who
are accelerating in math or sitting in Geometry or sitting in algebra and they're taking the eoc's at the end of the year so the students who are taking this course are typically a level one students and our level two students who have traditionally struggled in mathematics so longterm is we want to make sure our
teachers are equipped to be able to um lay the foundation for mathematical skills and concepts for our students in as early as elementary school right because math is a math is a spiral subject meaning you constantly revisit a lot of things over and over right so if
you miss something and as you build on mathematics it can create a deficit because your foundation isn't strong enough so for example uh addition subtraction dividing and multiply and adding fractions there's the answer will always be the same it doesn't change but
our students are sometimes missing the fundamentals so when they start going to the higher grades they don't have anything to build on so what we're doing is to ensure at the elementary level that we're building a strong foundation for our students and when they go to
Middle School even if they're not having success at level threes or higher we're still exposing them to to to rigorous course like advanced math so they can be exposed to the the pre-algebra skills that they're going to have because eventually our students have to get into algebra and we don't want to set them up
for failure so we're trying to build that Foundation early on so that when they get into eighth grade they will have more success than what we're having now uh for the long term and I'll have Dr k kick off on what we're doing right now because as we received this pm2 data
we made a lot of uh realignments uh to be able to support our teachers but most importantly our students so that when pm3 comes that we would definitely meet the target goals that we set yeah and so in addition to what Dr hebburn and Dr Folton shared uh we have uh reshift some
of our support to schools that are our critical schools based on the pm2 results so that they have quality Exemplar teachers in there and part of the Gap is not only just with our students but our teachers as as you are well aware that not every teacher is fluent in math and so we have to really
dedicate some time to professional learning to ensure that uh when they are providing lesson plans around math that they provide concrete represent representational abstract conceptual thinking they have explicit instruction they're using work samples and rubrics to help drill down those particular
deficits they're using tier 2 and tier three intervention through the mtss process to really drill drill down the isolated areas of deficit uh and so this year we focused on math critical content PD that we are focusing around a lot of our critical schools to get those
teachers really up and to understand what that looks like in application and so we're doing a deeper dive with our teachers to make sure that explicitly they understand the concepts and the standards and the resources and aligning it to make sure that students as Dr heurn said in those earlier grades
Plateau to a point where they are not really over the summer losing that summer gap or that implementation Gap but they're really resurging uh so that the teachers as they get them in Middle School are having those reciprocal vertical conversations handing the students off to them and saying here are
where the deficits are I'm going to actually retach spiral and make sure that you're ready so we're doing a lot of things this this year in terms of pushing in additional support we're also leveraging high dosage tutoring in many of those schools we use Varsity Tutors to push in because one of the things
that you talked about earlier in the ELA piece is we don't always have a captive audience after school and so what do we do during day to really capture them so high dosage tutoring is pushing in in math pushing in uh in ela so that you get a high quality second teacher
credential to focus on math and literacy so that we're really moving the gauge okay so I appreciate that Dr con um because you know when I look at that data right I I appreciate the high achieving uh students um but looking at
our students who are not taking algebra or geomet omry and looking at their performance uh and as Dr Fulton mentioned math is sequential right um uh acquisition of content has a lot to do with repetition and remedial efforts right to ensure that students and
ongoing remedial support uh as they move from one grade level to the next that they have that solid foundation to succeed because when they get to eighth grade and you're looking at students taking the fast testing in math um and you look at the performance not being up to par with the average or it's trending
downwards you know it it leaves a concern uh for me because these kids are going on to high school and then those kids move on to college you know so that I am hoping that that will be an active area of concentration because math is essential to succeed even when you enter
College even if math is not your major or your your major is not math specific you still have to get through college algebra and all these other pre uh um you know preliminary math courses with anything that you're going to do so I'm hoping for eighth graders who are taking the Fast Math that we have um continue
significant interventive approach to make sure they succeed and can succeed in high school all right thank you I'm finished thank you thank you Dr Zan chair uh in your house when you get like really really awesome news what do you
do share it with others yeah well we ought to be uh in every one of our two 239 campuses and every Kanis club and Key Club and Rotary Club and City commission meeting talking about these results these results are not good they're
great there are a confirmation of a strategy uh that has been going on here for a little while uh which I talk to outside of the board as a rising tide lifts All Ships it's a significant investment in data chats and in datadriven decision-
making it's a significant investment in compensation for our Frontline teachers and administrators its policies and procedures and budgets all around that kind of remind the community that traditional public education contributes
more to the well-being and the welfare of Broward County than any other institution in Brower County and thankfully we have a metric at the end of all of that investment and that strategizing which turns out to be either fast scores uh components of
school better grades and the like last year we were excited because we became an a district and ended the year with no dnf schools uh I haven't heard anything Mr superintendent in your briefing about dnf schools so I'm going to assume that we also will not have any uh by the end of this
year um which means that our next Target according to the superintendent strategy is SE schools we had 43 Elementary sea schools last year uh if in fact our strategy is a rising tide lifts all ships there's a lot of
ships rising up and the Tide's high and I'm dying to see uh where this takes us uh by the end of the year so one there's a huge confirmation of what is going on out there this is a board we don't do school things we don't teach we don't hire teachers we don't get involved in
the operations of schools but what's going on in those schools is a result of the policies and the budgets and other decisions made by this board and so we should be proud of that but we really need to make sure that we recognize that there's 13 ,600 teachers out there 206
principles roughly 550 assistant principles and school bus drivers and custodial workers and all that who have lifted this up as we've mentioned before there's over 800,000 people in Broward County who are directly contributing to these scores and to me this is front of
the Sun Sentinel front of the Florida news uh this is a big deal uh I cannot wait to see what happens to se schools by the end of this year uh but I think that the results are going to be absolutely shocking to the community uh because of their positive
nature uh this news is so big I I'd be tempted to ask to recess this meeting we need to focus on our core Mission and this presentation is our core Mission it's K through 12 education and this is our report card on how you're
doing from graduation rates to letter grades in schools to pm3 results it's remarkable I'm going to carry on as I often do with Dr hess's comments uh he pointed out on slide seven that black students are not doing as well as white
students and Hispanic students or Latino students are not doing as well as uh as white students one of the comments made here earlier today is that the the scores are closing um I don't see any evidence of that in these scores I have stared at these scores for a week since
they came out I don't see ev any evidence that the gap between black and white or Hispanic and white are closing in fact I see a lot of evidence that it's growing and Dr holess a very effective way that big large urban districts are working on that issue is
to focus on letter grade schools and to disproportionately invest in those schools because right now if you look at the 43 c-rated elementary schools we have in Brower County 83% of the students are black and brown I think it's time that we challenge the superintendent to come
back with a formal plan and say what are you doing about the C rate elementary schools because if we fix the kids before they get out of fifth grade middle school and high school is a lot easier right we've talked a lot about how quickly do we get people to math and English but other subjects as well to
grade level because once you get to grade level you can learn faster it's easier there's no social stigma there's no risk of being not promoted and the like things get better you know if we get them early and I would ask uh chair for the board to think about asking the
superintendent to come back in time to implement next year a plan to lift All Ships including black and brown ships which means we need a plan for the c-rated schools it might be a plan that extends the learning day it might be a
plan that uh asks teachers if they're really committed to a title one kind of environment in which many of these schools operate in it might be a time for leadership to be selected specifically for those schools but to me Dr holess that's that's walking the
talk because right now I don't think we have any evidence that the talking the talk that we've done here has made any improvements up to this year our pm2 results the gap between black and white and brown and white are either worse or the same and so I think it's time that we
ask Dr heurn to come back and tell us what are we going to do about SE schools next year and how much money does he need in order to do whatever is the most effective thing uh for those schools so that's uh where I hear your comments I get the data but I want to walk the talk
I can't just sit here and stare at these numbers any longer and say uh gee that's unfortunate I also know that a black brain and a brown brain and a white brain are all equally capable so when we have results like that I feel like our system is
responsible not theirs little bit more reality uh we continue as a board to be okay with operating inefficiently we know that if we close 33 schools we'll be able to increase educator pay
by 10 percentage points and increase our Capital account between and $500 million I'm not going to be quiet about this because I'm here to make this the best District in the country not to enjoy 4% improvements in pm2 scores which is wonderful because of where it's
going to take us but we continue as a board to be okay with inefficiency and this board member is not we also Mr superintendent continue in my mind to operate in very traditional models other districts of the United States are
innovating they're doing exciting things they're putting more hours into schools where it makes sense they're vectoring teachers to transition grades like Sixth and nth grade the most effective teachers and they're also vectoring to K through two so that by third grade they're enjoying much better results in
terms of grade level achievement by the third grade I would challenge this board and I challenge our staff to think a little bit about the innovations that are going on out there and ask us if we're willing to take the risk to move forward with some of those Innovations I don't know that the board and the
superintendent are um but I know that if we don't take some risks all we're going to be doing is shooting for being really good and I think we ought to be shooting for being the best that we possibly can the biggest issue that I see in all of this is kind of this lingering uh concern that I have that Broward County
public schools are are four times bigger than private schools Broward County's traditional public schools are four times bigger than the number of students in public charter schools but the perception of traditional Public Schools lags behind the reality when you look at these results
when you see the test grades when you realize that maybe 90% of our schools next year will be a or b schools a huge percentage of our schools will be a or b by the end of this year a big challenge that we have is how do we get this message out to people while still
working on ways to make it better that's great but the real issue and the reason I asked our chair about how she celebrates is that this is a huge celebration the results here are AB just astronomical and as we move forward with
this Rising tide liftall ship model it's great to see that the feedback the honest feedback we get you can't make up test scores you just cannot in fact if schools don't have 95% of their kids taking the test what happens to the test scores chair sorry can you repeat
that if 95% of a student in a school don't take a a fast test what happens to the test scores Dr heurn they're not um validate it right away right but the community needs to know that this is an honest test you can't fake this right these are teachers
these are parents these are students working their butts off to make better progress in a system that is getting better and better better and better every year and if they don't get all of their kids virtually to take the test they don't count right and so this is a
good honest feedback test um it includes students of all types it includes the kid that came here last year that didn't speak English right you get a year transition then you got to sit for the test I mean it is ruthless the way the state administers this test um but this
is a good test it's an honest test and it says that Brower county is doing some great things and I'm looking forward to thinking about how do you make great even greater uh because the big message here today is that the academics of barer County Schools is strong it will continue to get stronger so thank you
all for all the hard work thank you Mrs rert thank you um I'm not going to ask uh an exorbitant amount of questions because I assume that my colleagues would have already asked that um so it just a few uh slides I'd like to refer
to page three and most Michel questions I'm going to ask for a followup for later not today to give you an opportunity cuz like I said I'm sure my colleagues asked the same question um why are we decreasing in all these
columns since 2024 unless that's I'm on page three slide three yes did you so let me um just explain it um just for clarification so the um Gray Line or gray bar is PM 3 data from last year yes
the uh purple bar um and the um green are pm1 and pm2 so if you go to um if you go to the next slide slide
four so what what you are looking at um right now that was on slide three is 2025 which is represented in the green bar on page four so last year's pm2 data 40 uh is the orange got it right so we've increased our pm2 data so which
sense yeah so the trend for pm3 for this upcoming for this school year should continuously go up and surpass the gray line on the previous page okay well there's that and I'm assuming it's going to be the same thing for this uh on page eight
the um our subgroups under elll and swds correct so we're moving up uh again uh like Dr Fon said we're not satisfied with the achievement of of both of those subgroups and continue to um figure out what we need to to continue to help them close their their uh proficiency and
learning gaps um but yeah they're trending up also right very slowly I I noticed that and I would actually like to get as a follow-up um some specific strategies on what we will be doing differently um that really is going to
show um a very positive sustaining increase um I have been asking about um our subgroups from day one getting here it's hard to be a reading teacher in high school with kids with third grade reading levels and trying to get them
six years into that one year so doing the right things which is what we're doing focusing on getting them to that point much earlier um but especially um our Ells and our swd so when you come with that um I really appreciate it and
I also wanted to comment that we are slowly increasing our race um black and brown students however it it is absolutely not enough and same thing with them you know what what particular
specific strategies are we going to be utilizing um so every student in every classroom with every teacher um will be able to make progress in every school so thank you so much thank you we noted that um followup thank you thank you uh
Landon good morning I want to sorry want to thank you I want to start off by uh thanking you all and your teams for the work you all do I I have to give two uh special shout outs not that anybody else is not my favorite uh but I from
feedback you know I'm in in schools almost every day uh different schools ac across the district hearing feedback I want to first start off by thanking our sea taste Department uh led by m formoso the feedback that I hear from students all around the district about the CTE
offerings is impressive um and I I wanted to make sure I recognize that also our esel programs with Miss salala uh the dedicated intervention that students are receiving uh in the eso program is is fascinating to learn about
and I've uh seen some really impressive uh stories from students so wanted to share that my my main point that I wanted to bring up this morning uh is the concept of course planning and guidance intervention at the high school level what I've heard we're on school
busit number 29 what I've probably heard at 29 schools is that students feel like they don't know what is available to them um and to me I feel like it's an easy fix right I think that you know our schools have such amazing programs and not even if it's an accelerated
opportunity but maybe it's a a program that students don't know about or a class that students don't know about we're hearing a lot that students aren't aware of what's available to them um and something I think would be would be very beneficial and obviously I'm not an
expert in this area at all so I I don't want to you know say like I'm I'm sharing an idea with maybe the not without without the experience of knowing how this works but I think it would be really helpful for students to be able to in freshman year take a look at what's available to them over the
next four years right because I think it would be beneficial for students to kind of map out what their four years in high school would look like um you know I have an older sibling I was able to work with them to kind of figure out what
classes I should take when um but I think showing students freshman year what that matriculation could look like would be very beneficial uh but overall I I I'm grateful for the work that you all do the work that our school-based staff do it's been amazing to hear about
the academic opportunities and improvements that students are having at their schools so I absolutely wanted to recognize that thank you thank you so much I guess I will wrap it up with just saying thank you so much for the information um as my my uh
board members have said great great information and we are definitely moving in the right direction there are things that need to move a little higher a little faster but we appreciate all the work that you do and we look forward to um getting this information again when
we finish the pm3 Madam chair so much I just have a 10c comment um so I just want to reiterate and um for Dr heern um when I look at slide 19 and slide 28 and I'm not necessarily going to go back
there but it shows our kindergarten Performance Based on race and ethnicity and you can see how you start the race determine how you finish the race so we have to have a great focus on our pre-learning programs on our
kindergarten programs and I think if we start there over time and uh and over the years we'll change this because uh when you look at for example on slide 19 uh black students at pm2 is 27%
Hispanic students is 32% white students 51% so there's a huge difference even at the kindergarten level so I think that's where we need to start with a major Focus so we can ensure that whatever all
of our students need from the beginning when they enter kindergarten they have it and can succeed so I think slide 19 and 28 pretty much summarize what we see as the culmination later on in 8th grade and other higher grade levels thank you and chair before you go I have a
question as well okay it's okay now I talked a little bit about uh a consensus on asking the superintendent to bring back a plan for lifting up the c-rated schools uh that we end the school year yet next year uh we need to do that now there's financial implications and
people implications and things like that um uh if the takeaway from this meeting is that we'll see that in time for implementing next year that's great if we need to get consensus I'd appreciate that as well okay Dr heer did um I don't think we need to do consensus this is
the work we do every day um and how we plan for the future which is the upcoming school year and looking at the past to see how we can move our move the needle for instruction so we have no problem producing something then sending that to the board um separately in an email okay y so you'll send that to us
as a followup in what time frame um whatever time frame the team needs they don't need a lot of time just the brain team right here they they get it done in short order which we're already getting it done so chair can we do it in a month because we we may need to bring some actions to the board related resources
and other things to implement the ideas by the next school board or the April school board meeting yes ma' y that'll work is that right thank you very much chair thank you we're going to take a five minute recess so that we can um reorganize for the next item thank you again so much
staff to do that C all these are available good up this whole section so at least exactly between they usually everybody than
you need water I guess GRE advis can't have a water bottle know pass I could I'm not invol next to you out I don't think so
nope that you can't see the chair so this is isn't really a good e e thank you and welcome back to our board Workshop our next item for discussion is committee reports please note for those
who are participating in the quarterly joint Schoolboard and advisory committee groups discussion that will be the opportunity to share information that's outside of your committee reports so you're giving reports right now and then we'll move to the next meeting and that's where you
can um give anything that's beyond your committee reports um before we get started I'd just like to make a little announcement uh to all committee chairs liaison and members we are pleased to announce that nominations for the district advisory and committee
volunteers category for the 2025 Community involvement Awards to be held on Thursday May 22nd 2025 at 9:00 a.m. at the Lauder Hill Performing Art Center are now being accepted until March 21st
the public can nominate any member of any advisory for their work and service performed on the committee through December 2024 please visit the get involved with BP bpcs web page for more details to access
the nomination forms so again nominations are being taken for the district advisory and committee volunteers category until March 21st so thank you so much he we'll start with our reports and we will start with the audit
committee good morning Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh chair of the audit committee flu and sinus infection free and head totally clear it should be a fun day um so so the audit committee's last
meeting was on February 13th uh since one of the purposes of this new format was to convey motions and have discussion on it the motion uh that we one of the Motions we passed was to recommend that the audit committee be
provided with a technological device that includes the necessary software security and ability to update agenda information automatically to reduce the financial and Personnel costs associated with transporting and transmitting paper the motion passed unanimously this is a
discussion that has been going round and round for the past couple of years um and it would also help me as the chair because I have been using my own personal device uh to transmit what we're looking at on screen so that was
that motion we also transmitted as usual internal funds property and inventory and the annual comprehensive financial report the AER which at your last meeting I believe was ff2 we were unaware at our meeting that the Acer
would show up on the agenda the a few days later so our concerns were not transmitted with the Acer um however you have since received the audit committee report that mentions the
concerns uh and in terms of the minority the three of us that voted against transmitting it because of all of the concerns the committee had which had to do with how the how the interest for the
settlement payment was being conveyed in the financials basically we've had prior meetings where the Chief Financial Officer B uh stated that this was to avoid falling below 3% we also had
concerns about the new format uh the of the interim financial statements which have turned into budget reports the fund balance policy requires you to show the percentage and uh there's a state
statute that's tied to that policy uh we also invited the superintendent and the Chief Financial Officer to our future meeting so that we can discuss our concerns related to the fund balance and the budget reports so um since you guys already
heard this the first time and actually what I did not go over last time was the audit committee had also passed some motions that were brought to you oh looks like February 19th uh there were responses from staff
some of this we'd gotten responses so the motion is no longer um an open item but we also transmitted the cap and gown audit and some of the concerns from the audit committee was that they just
simply cut a check for the 16 Grand you can cut a check without without that being a sign that you're admitting to anything it's just a gesture of good faith so that everybody can move on we're looking for followup on the adk and um but basically after the
conversation it seems like the next place for that audit to go and are unanswered questions and um especially the confusion over and the lack of response regarding the 16k and the 80k for the audit is to
Simply give it to the brow County oig and um that was it as far as audit goes okay thank you next is Brower County Association of student councils and student advisor to the board good
morning landberg student adviser to the school board the reason I was a little lzy this morning is because I was able to stop by our Broward student leaders day conference uh that has over 200 students attending today with a great presentations by jost's Renaissance
education uh who's providing a really Innovative program for our student leaders uh across the district in a fully paid for and uh Transportation provided event so want to give a shout out to miss Ena Santiago from Athletics and Student Activities uh in the entire
athletic and Student Activities team for putting this together today on the student government side this week on Thursday we will have our annual mascot Mania competition uh where all the different Mascots from across the different high schools will come
together to compete against one another uh so that is a really fun event that's going on this week in an update on our school visits we have reached 29 schools uh and are on track to complete all 36 speakup speakout sessions by the the end of
March uh we've received some amazing feedback from students and I continue to work with staff on various initiatives uh that we are working on based off of the feedback we receive primarily we're receiving feedback regarding the area of guidance and School counseling Safety
and Security and mental health I want to say thank you to all of our staff and leaders in those areas who've been extremely collaborative and trying to make improvements next week on Thursday the barard County Association of student council will meet uh to have a
discussion on the new District website and hearing from students what they think should be included uh on the district's website so we're really looking forward to that discussion as well as having elections for student advisor for next school year uh as always students are able to reach out to
Alana or I and I at student. advisor browardschools.com and uh as always we're here to be your voice and the vehicle of your voice thank you thank you so much next is District advisory
Council uh Natalie Lynch walan I don't have a placard but last I checked I'm still the chair of DAC uh so DAC met on the 12th and our next meeting is next week um we have also invited the superintendent um and
staff to the next daac meeting because we have been discussing basically creating a framework that's student centered um and also is aimed at increasing uh student enrollment and the parents are concerned about transparency
in terms of what's happening in the classroom so we have discussed pacing guides with staff syllabi and having standards for those uh as well as canvas courses having standards there and lesson plans and all of these things
being public facing that was our last discussion which is why we need as much as we had a great discussion with the staff that was in the room without having someone that can make a decision that's as far as that can go unless we then um take it straight to the school
board uh as far we did not pass any motions at our last meeting but let me check on motions that were passed before that we've seen responses to some of our
motions and we'll be following up District advisory Council passed a motion regarding um we recommend the school board implement the US Department of education's planning together A playbook for student personal device policies for the 2526 school year as it
relates to student cell phone use policy what we got as a response was the document reference was provided to the group of FAU researchers who will be conducting the study on cell phone policies in schools what that doesn't tell us is whether the district intends
to use any of the wisdom in that document in moving forward because just for anyone that wasn't there last summer the cell phone ban happened all of a sudden at a board meeting and did not follow any of the guidelines in this
Playbook The Playbook was not put out by volunteers The Playbook was put out by the US Department of educations and I believe their technology department so I don't know how much more expert you can get in terms of um guidance but that was the response we
got so we're looking for a better response because uh you have this is something this policy gets looked at every year and what the guidance was saying in term is the exact opposite of what happened in implementing the cell
phone ban so we're looking for a better response to that um DAC coming up next week I see there's an item on the the schol Schoolboard agenda directing the superintendent to standardize grading or
something like that which leads us to the student progression plan and by the way um we can thank Linda for finding those ever elusive standards of service they were apparently attached to the student progression policy and were removed 20 years ago um but the student
progression plan addresses grading and I haven't read all 130 pages of it but it looks like I will before the next DAC meeting and we'll have to see what's in there because what we don't need to be doing is Reinventing the wheel every time
um and once we get into just in terms of membership on DAC I don't believe that board appointees were always there but we have esol as a seat um so we have and if you eliminate esol which that's a whole other discussion but then how
would we fill that seat because I'm I'm getting I'm glad to see the areas were recognize as being separate things cuz the areas feed into DAC and DAC has seats on other committees um one of which is facilities so there's a lot of
questions that um this Doge like movement is uh brings up that it looks like we'll be discussing next but uh one of which is how do we get seats filled on DAC If you eliminate those committees and then where do the seats that you for
committees you didn't eliminate go um and how do we get there and that's all I have for DAC right now thank you thank you next is diversity committee good
morning um I forgot that you guys had passed the 10:20 so I was like sort of kind of prepared but not um come uh common themes and I apologize I'm not doing too well this morning um common themes observed uh are facility issues
standards of service issues Safety and Security issues as I mentioned last month um several schools visited are experiencing major facility issues and I know that you guys are working on that and I believe the superintendent has a
um you guys are doing a uh what's that assessment um condition assessment yes thank you facilities assessment thank you so much um so um the last uh uh site visit and I was reprimanded last month
not to mention the school so I make sure I won't do that um what we've noticing now is you guys have like a serious rat infestation issue and that's across the board so um if someone from it's it's
not it's not it doesn't work when you just send someone and say we're going to do like a what's that terminate what is it yes extermination or whatever that y'all need to kind of like bomb the place cuz it's it's it's really it's it's awful um
and so I don't know if the the extermination is the however that's set up maybe someone need can look look into that but it's there's a a real issue with mice rats and whatever um the other issue we notice is that some of the some
of the principles are with this reciprocal agreement you have with cities there seems to be a disconnect between the principal the district and the city and while some schools have like it on Lock and they know exactly what they need to do other schools are like kind of confused and
they don't know who to speak to um they're making they're trying to make recommendations and requests but they're not sure where that is so if we can streamline that better where um principles have the autonomy to kind of reach out to the city or however that
process is um maybe have like a um like a training with the principles on how that works because I think it's really great that the cities are involved with their schools and putting money into the schools and I I think that helps uh with the district and alleviate some of the financial pressures and so if we can
have um the principles a little bit more versed in how that works I think that would be a great partnership for the district I know you guys are working on it so I just want to emphasize on that um the other thing two is um there seems to be some disconnect
with project managers um uh like uh I guess the smart Bond program versus there's another term but I can't remember on the top of my head I I apologize this this report is trash and I apologize I'm just not doing well yet not dfp something else I don't know
what it is I can't remember off the top of my head I'm sorry um and the um shoot I'm sorry this is a horrible week for me and I apolog apologize
um you know what I'm just I'll I'll write something up and send it to you guys I'm just not having a good day today I apologize yes thank you so much for coming today next up will be human Relations Committee
she's I got it I got it sorry having technical difficulties here uh hi Nancy fry chair for human Relations Committee um at our last meeting we had a great presentation from Kathy Keith uh updating us on uh cessor
management as well as the bully Busters program uh we also got word that we are up to 30 staff members at at the time of the meeting uh that have been trained on think before you post and that is going to be rolled out to all middle and high schools to work on uh what our students
are posting online and on social media to try and remedy some of those issues uh We've also started uh with our human Relations Committee human relations Council conversations where we are reaching out to the schools and talking
directly with the hrc's there on the ground to get more information about what's going on and we're getting some fantastic feedback um we've so far heard from uh JP Tavella um sorry trying to go through my notes Here uh Coral Springs middle and
west hour high so um phenomenal students and we're compiling all the feedback from them um so that we can um know what other issues we need to bring to the Forefront and uh what we need to be advocating for
um and this feedback will also uh be helping with creating some new curriculum for the uh leadership development program for all of our staff members that are looking to um looking for promotions uh we also
have uh some feedback directly from our HRC students as to what HRC means to them they've been uh telling us some of that as well in light of our uh Workshop later that is happening uh but I just
want to remind everyone the purpose of the human relations committee is that we are the committee that is charged with getting student feedback and that we were created after Coline for for the purpose of making sure that all students
voices are heard not just those that have the ability to join student council that those that have the the popularity or the funds or the grades to be able to participate in those Realms but to have participation from the entire student body and so I just want to read uh some
comments that our HRC students have made about what HRC means to them um so first one this organization has made me think deeply about my relationships with others and has allowed me to spread this mindset further I believe that human relations Council has made a big impact on our community and it would be
devastating to see it Go HRC showed me the individual responsibility and impact that we have in our school with our actions or the or the absent from it being part of the solution and see that hate manifest not only in bullying or fights but there's a
background that I must stop before it ends in bigger issues HRC gave me a voice and makes my school a better place with the combined efforts of my friends within the committee just knowing there is an organization advocating this issue is important to all students knowing that they have a voice and a way to be
part of the solution inside and outside the events in every school that wants to promote awareness of students well-being HRC must be there the HRC has had a huge impact on my school experience it was the first space in school where I was able to share my ideas and contribute to my
school Community the HRC is important in every school because it creates a space for kids who still haven't found their voice room to shine I feel that HRC is incredibly impactful in terms of making the school our home and teaching others the importance of respecting one another and
making everyone feel safe in our school HRC has had an extremely strong impact in my school experience important events that allow students to learn new things as in how to help themselves and others regarding mental health communication and integrity HRC is something that should be in every school
because it allows administrators and teachers the ability to hear their students freely without judgment this Council gives students a way to change things they feel need to be turned into something better and I'm just highlighting these comments because I know that it is a priority of this
District to welcome and focus on our student feedback and while and this is not to um diminish anything that the student adviser is doing and and those listening sessions are just as important we need to make sure that we are accumulating as much student feedback as
possible and we should not be eliminating any uh methods by which our students can give feedback because we have heard some important things from these students over the years including urgent facilities issues issues with Administration that have needed to be remedied and we have seen a
lot of positive outcomes based on the student feedback and with that I will uh give the rest of my time back thank you thank you very much next is exceptional student education advisory Council good morning
Jackie lusam chair of ESC advisory um I reported at the um Schoolboard meeting a couple of weeks ago Phils uh with our report and on the basis that I'm sure probably none of you could name any of the things that I
brought up there I'll do it all again um because we have so many important issues going on in our community and I would like to also remind um board members and the superintendent it is so important to understand that the um advisory um operates not just as
a tool for making formal recommendations and people putting their hands in the air making a vote but for us to be channeling you this feedback that we bring at these meetings so I want to tell you a little about some of our committee's work as well um our Ace autism committee has
been supporting the autism Community they hold their meetings in the mornings in order to give people who can't make the evenings an opportunity to um to come along and um provide that feedback learn things anything about um how to draw up IEPs to understanding behavior
management um And discussing their various concerns with District staff like to say actually District staff do come along to each and every one of our meetings um to provide that um collaborative um mechanism too um our Down syndrome committee partners with
the Gold Coast Down syndrome organization to provide meetings for the parent community in both capacities um at the end of last month um their meeting was about developing IEPs and related services and providing updates
from District staff on the end of school year esy um program coming up um our meaningful inclusion committee held a a virtual meeting um for uh a parent
education session by two neurodiverse college students talking about how they advocate for their unique needs in school and the community to be successful and at ESC advisory as I've recapped before as well we had a love a lovely um guest speaker talking about uh
the importance of every child being seen for their abilities not their disabilities um there was a lot else as well we had issues with progress reports not going out I said at this board meeting um back on whenever it was a couple of weeks ago 19th I think was the
last regular school board meeting I mentioned that and I still have not had any um formal provision of the various memos that went around providing you folks the board members with information about Why Us folks the parents didn't
get our kids IEPs uh IEP progress reports on focus in the Focus Parent Portal and I do think it would be courteous that if the memo that you folks received was prompted by the fact that I let you know about it and asked questions I think it would be very
courteous for me to be included um as a representative of our stakeholders um in the responses and answers to the questions that that raised um I had a lovely meeting with the superintendent a couple of weeks ago I'm sorry he's had to leave in the middle of a committee reports um when
we're not the seventh inning stretch and I do hope that we have the attention of everybody when we speak it's such an important five minutes um my meeting with the superintendent um we spoke about cameras in classrooms um the need for you folks to please please move forward with the
cameras in classrooms policy get that done I don't see it coming up on a scoreboard agenda but you could have that in place by the end of the year and ready for esy for the students with disabilities whose parents want a camera in an ESC classroom um there is no need um in our parents' um opinions to be
waiting for the state to bring in a program which it may or may not do and is just talking about and hasn't really um might not actually go anywhere with legislation you could beat that to the drawer get this this program put in and
be providing parents who are looking at putting their kids into brow schools this Summer that extra extra safety layer that no other um District offers it would be so important um my work also includes a lot of offline work not just at meetings meetings are the tip of the
iceberg and just just to give you an idea of what some of those parent issues have been we've had parents of kids without Services um parents of kids kids who are being susp suspended without any paperwork or process parents looking at private and Charter schooles and believe
me I do my bit to speak up for BCPS parents having problems with Charter Schools as well as BCPS parents lost in the system parents wanting to know how to make a state or OCR complaint parents looking to hire lawyers parents having bullying assault issues not dealt with
parents a parent adjudicated a bully for bringing a discrimination complaint on behalf of their student and so much more so I do hope you understand that the work we do and I look forward to discussion later thank you thank you so much next is the facilities task
force good morning my name is Kimberly Burke mohorn facility task force um chair our meeting was February 6th we did have Quorum again we're located in our new location in miror Lakes um Media
Center our next meeting our upcoming meeting will be Thursday March 6 you're invited um new business um we did have a guest one of our frequent guest and the only guest that we we seem to can get to
our meeting um thank you Dr wanza um providing providing an update for our redefining process um she gave us some key points of dealing with the cost savings the grade extension and the community input um one of the facilities
condition assessment was brought up for Broward Estates we request for raw data from the facilities condition assessment um discussion on the importance of transparency and that um public records
it was mentioned that an assessment of brow Estates was completed on January 8th um there was some confusion and frustration about the availability and transparency of the assessment data the members requested the raw data from the facilities condition assessment
emphasizing that this is public records the um talked about cost um we were it was mentioned that the cost saving for brow Estates was um a little over a million and the cost savings primary due to elimination of support
allocations for traditional Elementary School at the Broward Estates um we asked for an itemized breakdown of this cost savings because you know you can say it's a milon but we we wanted to see where where the um the cost or the
savings were um Dr wza talked about the Community Partners and we we would like to see a detailed list of these partners because we did have guests there from the brow estate
Community um she she mentioned that the Early Learning programs would start in the newest classrooms and not the older um 1915 1950 buildings um and she talked about having an upcoming um meeting with
the community which I I think they had they had Monday not think they had they had it on Monday and um we were um asking for um what's the goals as far as the services that will be needed at the early um Learning
Center um also during our meeting we had a motion to recommend that the facilities Chief and the re relevant staff members um attend monthly facility task force meetings it has our liaison is effective however what he doesn't
know he don't he doesn't know and it's very hard for us to keep communication going back and forth with the liaison asking questions and getting answers very late um you have a whole month to
get answers but we seem to still not be receiving the an ERS um it's a lack of you know members expressed frustration the facilities Chiefs and regular staffs were not consistently attending um our questions our issues that have been
raised were not being answered um it's important to have um a direct communication that's why we've asked that they come to the meetings um uh members wanted to ensure the staff responsible for facilities were directly involved in the discussion and decision
making and we we needed that transparency and consistency so we're asking again that um that they show up because we have issues such as the HVAC filters the
lightning protection system um we talked about different items um concerning um the Aging the work order aging and open work orders and the increase of work
orders compared to decreasing of work orders um we we have hbac filters piling up in hallways um concerns about fire hazard waste of taxpayer funds um we need
clarification on all of these things that don't don't seem to be um being expressed through our liaison or he's not getting answers we don't know we're not blaming him but somehow we're not getting answers to our questions so
consistently we have the same agenda every week every month and um we're not getting much done thank you thank you very much next is parent Community involvement task force thank you um apparently uh Mary
ferdig parent Community involvement task force um the parent Community involvement task force has been very busy these past few weeks last week we partnered with Dr canning and several other staff members uh on a parent University program welcome to
kindergarten and we thank uh we thank Miss Hixon Dr heurn for participating in our program and uh we look forward to seeing all the kindergarten children come uh Wednesday of last week we were in this room hosting the uh uh Community
Partners forum and again I want to thank uh thank you uh Debbie for participating in the program and and Dr heurn and um we are very appreciative to the staff who were our initial speakers and just for those of you who don't know when we
hold these we have about 10 to 15 minutes of speaking up front so these were some of our speakers um we had Dr Stewart and N Nasha Mighty Hines and Eric Chisum come speak about strategic Partnerships and the superintendent screening committee and then we go and
we are group discussions with table set all over the room and we talk with we we talk with nonprofits those conversations are facilitated by members of our task force we found over time that having volunteers talk to people in the community really um elicits great
responses and it's a very upbeat experience for those people for I mean our we love it so and and so we had nine questions and I think most groups got to two we um we started at 11:30 we ended at 1:30 and it was a great
discussion um so and and who comes nonprofits come municipalities come other people in our community who help to augment the services that you provide for students um we are summarizing the information that we received from the
participants and we will be uh submitting that to you in a few future report so uh the task force met last last evening um that would be March 3rd and um we uh had a had we were kind of talking about our nonprofit forum and
it's great Dr holess because your representative Jessica left the Forum and went back to her school uh Ken King had come from Children's Services Council and told us about their Mar magazine and all that tells about all the services that families have and Jessica brought that to us last night
and said these were sitting in an office of a school I went to but they weren't in the hands of the families so what can we do and that took us back to where we started we actually looked up our recommendations where one of our recommendations was to have an online
resource for uh families to be able to go to to find the nonprofits that provide that have been approved by the superintendent screening committee and and our um available to families so um our first motion is that um to we're
recommending the school board make the SE the community services Council resource guide available on every school's website and ask all um sack and saf share chairs to share the resource with their membership at least once a year and um there's just a feeling that
yes you might walk in and grab a magazine but you also might go online on your school website or somewhere else to find these Services I I had thought that was done it could have fallen by the wayside okay and then we discussed the conversation that we will have later I'll share this now and then have more
to say about it later um we have a comment a motion coming forward with a recommendation for the workshop agenda item uh motion was made to recommend um the the parent Community involvement task force recommends the
district do a comprehensive review of parent Community involvement in our district completed by a group that includes Community stakeholders with the purpose of researching and understanding community and parent involvement in BR County Public Schools reviewing what is working identifying what changes would
be made to lead to Greater involvement we ask this process be done before the board considers a policy to restructure the advisory committee model this applies to current and future policy proposals and the motion passed unanimously and
finally stay tuned we have our next parent unit University uh on March 12th with Dr Wilson so thank you so much thank you I don't see the sign but I don't want to skip anyone so um small business advisory
committee okay technology advisory committee okay um good morning board members superintendent Linda Ferrara te advisory committee I just want to mention that your green committee is not listed on the agenda so if you just want to add that you got it okay so put on
there um we met on February 10th and we reviewed the um uh membership policy for TAC and that led to the discussion of succession planning which I guess we'll get into later uh we did have a review of final
site uh hopefully to launch by June this keeps getting pushed back and hopefully by that time we'll have something we've been waiting two years for this uh discussed uh features Avail that would be made available and the training Miss Collins and Miss Wilson um provided uh
the overview of final site uh in reference to computer and internet access it raised a flag for me by not maintaining the Strategic plan for technology from 2014 internet access seems to have dropped from from focus by
the district we used to have a Strate technology strategic plan every 5 years and now it's 10 years we haven't seen a new one and reviewing that one um a lot of things seem to have dropped off so maybe it's time to reconvene a committee
to review our strategic plan most of uh I would say 90% of the counties do have one and we do not um we also discussed uh possible options we know that what was there during covid is no longer
available for those companies that came forward with internet access for students um funding dried up their um model business model changed and they're no longer available but what we did find is there are smart spots
available uh that's similar to what the libraries use but they do come at a cost but are available or are eligible for e- rate funding um but they also have restrictive usage which is outlined on their um web pages
we did discuss job descriptions as we brought it up a couple of years ago um stating that there was no entrylevel position for our it students so what we did was we reviewed the jobs descriptions looking at the barriers from hiring BCPS students it is looking
at it too using certifications instead of four-year job experience would be a start the other option for uh beginners is a an AA or two years experience so that's not helping the students that we're already coming out of our
system um the final question is back in June 24 we developed a Internet safety plan uh rule 6A 10957 Florida Administrative Code required an Internet safety poy by September 1st
2003 so we probably will get an update as to where that stands right now cuz we're running two years behind it seems like a lot of the other counties already have their established and that is my report okay thank you so
much again I don't see the sign but Bond oversight committee so want to make sure someone's not sitting in the audience okay uh next is Esau Leadership Council you go thank you
okay good morning is schoolb members superintendent Dr HR ladies and gentlemen uh my name is Adrian Scar and I honor it to serve at the chair of the stting committee for the eso Leadership Council for the 2024 2025 school year
today I stand before you to reffin the vital role of the iso Leadership Council and the necessity of the is Contin presence as an advisory body to the school board of brow County Public School we are here today to express our
surprise and the concern regarding the unilateral decision to restructure the district advisory committees why we will like to understand the reasoning behind this decision which had yet to be properly explained it evident that the
process had been conducted without proper Reserve consultation or engagement with those directly impacted in particular we must address the misrepresentation of the Isel parent leader chair Cil the parent leader chair council is
not optional it is required under the Mera consent decree a legal agreement that protect the educational rights of English language learner ell a student in Florida this decree mandat that the district formally promote parental
involvement throughout the PLC at both the school and the level ensure the par of ela student have a structural way to engage with their children education furthermore the parent leadership council is an integral part of the ELA
District plan which every Florida school district must submitted to the state every three years this plan will be signed by the superintendent the director of the Isel Department of the chairperson of the iso Leadership
Council I responsibility I personally fulfill really just last week the suggestion that no other district has an ISO Leadership Council is simply false a basic review of the district website confirm that the Miami
day Palm Beach orange regar Leon Pasco Oola ernando and Lee counties among others all have active par in leadership conso serving eel families why not all of them report directly to their school
board br word Isel leaders Council has done so far years providing a critical and value connection between eel party and District leadership for years this Council has given is old bar a direct voice to chair how grateful they are for
the service their children receive how supportive they feel in navigating the school system what expectation they have for their children future eliminated the iso Leadership Council advisor role will
send a troubling message to Brower County 37,000 Plus eily student and their families and me that their voices no longer matter we strongly urge the board to reconsider this decision and recognize the independable role the iso
Leadership Council plays in advocacy for immigrant and multilingual family across our district for a specific regulation and guidelines on paring leaders Council to May refer to the Florida Department of ucation
documentation on The Meta consent decree I'm also happy to provide this information via email upon request here our format report scene our La report we have continued to fulfill this mission in January we hosted an ESO general
meeting with over 150 parings in attendance we provide essential information about district and state assessment including fax testing sat act and CLT a ke aing
family with test taking strategies and resource to support their children Academy success parent left feeling Empower and informed understanding the district the direct impact of this assessment of their children Futures the
international Welcome Center has expanded it its collaboration with the esce department and the family counseling department bringing essential workshop and resources for our es of family additional Isel parent engagement
n an Isel family game creating welcome as a parent volunteer we actively support the international world concer and in sta holding by monal in person studing meeting and working alongside Educators to ensure the all family receive consistent Advocate information and
support looking ahead for the N meeting and March 13 2025 so thank you thank you very much next is gifted advisory Council uh good morning Carla Figaroa chair of gifted advisory um January we
had an online informational meeting um where Mr bomb gave a similar presentation as was discussed earlier regarding the student um assessments and progress monitoring it was very great informative session um again similar to what was shown today so I don't want to go through it since our concerns were
similar to what was noted um with the seventh 8th grade math um the students taking the eocc for algebra geometry versus um the regular um math uh courses um but we also had a presentation um to help students with testing anxiety um
how to help them with test preparation mindfulness practices uh different methods it was very helpful and resourceful for parents to help um kids you know when that time comes um how to better prepare and lessen that anxiety for students um our February meeting we had a presentation uh from school
climate regarding uh the discipline based Matrix there's been some grave concern regarding bullying in schools and how it's handled um so uh we went over and reviewed the student code of conduct the infractions consequences interventions and um opportunity
obviously for Q&A um where the department um was able to um answer the the questions for the parents so it was very again engaging and informative um our meeting this month were um is next week and we're um excited to have uh Dr heurn uh to discuss gifted education in
our uh schools um and pretty much also have a Q&A with parents so that's it thank you thank you very much next is the multilingual advisory committee hello my name is Danielle Hoffman and I'm the chair of the multilingual advisory committee also
known as the Mac the Mac has had a successful quarter and has compiled some data to help us better prioritize our advocacy we surveyed parents that filled a choice application to any school that offers the Dual language program to inquire if dual language was a reason for selecting that school and 41% of the
responses verified that they were applying to the school in hopes of being admitted into the Dual language program this aligns with the information Administration has shared on how dual language helps fill their open seats and increases enrollment at their schools in some schools the administrations has said that dual language program fills up
to 80% of their vacant seats and is growing we also uncovered that there's no real feeder pattern for this program for example at Eagle Ridge Elementary last year's fifth grade graduating dual language class had students going to nine different middle schools these type of scenarios are causing parents to pull
out of Broward County Public Schools and go to Charter and private since they are no there's no real certainty on where the child can continue a program like dual language in Middle School while meeting with middle school administrators with that have the program Dual language classes are much
smaller than their other classes they offer some Administration said it would be great if they could open Choice seats for the Dual language program classes to fill them as a committee we thought it would make sense to designate a feeder pattern for dual language program schools for example if you're in dual language at Westchester and pass the
proficiency test you would feed into the Coral Springs or west Glades Middle School this will allow parents and students to know they will go to Middle where to know where they will go to middle school next and not explore private and Charter options for this program to have the most success in
Middle School it works best with a block scheduling we strongly suggest to only implement this program in middle schools that have walk scheduling we also identify that there's no real high school dual language program as most students pass the AP Spanish test in eth or n9th grade we believe that it would
be beneficial to offer business in Spanish course in n9th grade and encourage internships for credits we encourage the district to partner with businesses and embassies in South America Spain Latin Caribbean countries that have corporate presences here in South Florida to create a work local abroad program where they can pull
candidates from this program this will help students take all those years of dual language learning and apply in real life work experiences in elementary schools we're still struggling with retaining teachers and having a budget to justify um to to justify two teachers in lower level and upper level
Elementary classes this has caus students serious interruption in their investment in their advancement of acquiring the language and impacts their academic performance we've discovered that departmentalization is a good option for elementary schools that hesitation of departmentalization has always been that the fast Ela scores
would be tied to a teacher that was not teaching Ela when we visited C Castle Elementary we uncovered that there is a way for the IMT to code the student in Focus since so many of the seats in this program are filled with Choice applicants we feel that you should look at Wild red you should look at Wild
redefining Broward as an opportunity to create K through 12 full emersion schools in each region we know that parents are willing to drive far for programs like this we also feel the data we've collected can help you strategically place the program where it will be in high demand and there's a
need for it we compared pm1 and pm2 test scores of dual language schools that the Mac has visited and the Dual language um students score higher than the non-dual language students dual language students on average scored 9% higher in elementary and 3% higher in Middle School the committee has been sharing
our visit summaries to our Mac meetings and we have started to compile the data to see where we can start to look at consistencies and Trends we followed up with the district to see if um they have successfully launched the Latinos in Action to help tutor students struggling in the program we look forward to hearing an update on when that will be implemented we survey dual language
teachers and uncover there are few resources that are not being utilized and the district can focus on train and retraining we also got feedback that teachers find Value in the program feel valued by their students and parents but they do not feel valued by the district and feel they should get compensated for the additional workload we need to be
paying dual language teachers more money for the additional workload and certifications they need in every company we pay employees based on experience degree certifications workload Merit and performance BCPS needs to start doing this same or it will continue to lose teachers to entrylevel work that is that is compensating them higher we received
praise from Lakeside parents that we're happy this program will start in Walter SE young and Silver Lakes we want to thank Miss alh Hada as she's the only School Board member that has attended one of our meetings which we do offer in person and online because we always hit Quorum we also want to thank Miss fam and Miss Thompson for acknowledging the
email that we received that shared a lot of this information and more detail we welcome everyone to join our next Mac meeting at Westchester Elementary on March 19th at 9:00 a.m. thank you so much and we will finish our um advisory reports with the green
advisory committee thank you so much Madam chair my name is Alec boganov um I am the chair of the green advisory committee um we were reformed just over a year and a half ago um just a little about me I'm a product of Broward County Public Schools
uh um harbordale Elementary Virginia Schuman young Sunrise Middle Fort Lauderdale High I got a master's and B uh a bachelor's and masters from Florida State meteorology and went on to get a PhD in oceanography from MIT and the woodo oceanographic institution I tell
you that because I don't think we celebrate the successes of this District enough and we have a lot of employers that are employing people that are products of this school district that are doing amazing things for our community I started a business here I employ over 10 people here and I made
the business decision not to work with the district but rather to work as in an advisory capacity on the green advisory committee um the big thing our committee did in the past year was fact finding figuring out what's going on in the district and um what I can tell you is
there's absolutely no consistency and that was what we learned um and so we sent uh an official correspondence to uh John Sullivan last night uh our main recommendation is the creation of a chief sustainability and resilience officer for the district um that's for a
couple reasons first um our committee estimated that just by implementing smart energy saving measures across the district we could save the district over $10 million a year in electric bills in water savings we could save 10 to20
million a year in water reduction by doing smart things in our district and that's what this is about right now for us is figuring out how we can make a difference from an environment standpoint but also save the district money um this position would more than pay for itself in addition um we cannot
deny the fact that sea levels are rising we are seeing more frequent flooding and that is going to impact the operations maintenance and long-term vision for this district and we need someone if we're thinking about re how what the district looks like in the future we
cannot ignore the fact that this community is going to look significantly different in 20 years and we need to start planning for that and incorporating that in our long-term planning uh lastly um we also wanted to figure out how to encourage encourage
the savings at a school level and one of the things we'd love the district to start looking at is the concept of a sustainability and resilience dividend so rather than the district just saying hey um we're going to great you're saving money we're just going to take that back as the district but actually using those dollars at least a portion
of those back to the schools for recycling education for uh environmental programs for compensating teachers for the additional work they're doing across the board um so that proposal uh was given to John Sullivan uh we will be submitting it to the uh superintendent
and the board more broadly I would also point out that uh the business Community as a whole is making a strong effort to train if you look at all of the deg we have degree programs in resilience Masters in Environmental Education a lot of these jobs you don't need to go to
college to do right a GIS technician does not need a college degree and these are really important jobs that we have a strong need for here and so this position could also incorporate our uh Lia with the business Community with things like the climate
and risk Tech Hub that Miami is starting that could allow us to create jobs real jobs for students coming out of this school district so uh I greatly appreciate the opportunity to be here today I know our committee has not presented to this board before um but we
look forward to um having more discussions on this in the future thank you so much um next we'll go to board discussion any board members have anything they want to discuss I know I do so I guess I'll start it um
thank you so much for coming and for embracing the change the whole point was to be able to sit collaboratively hear your reports and recommendations and be able to have some conversation so I appreciate um that I have a couple of
questions I guess for the superintendent um for DAC one of the things I heard them um asking about was pacing guides doesn't the district already have pacing guides for I'm going to guess just about every that is that is correct we have
pacing guides for definitely for all core content courses and probably for most electives too so so is that something that's available to the public it sounded as if they didn't have access to that um yes it's just a matter of
compiling that information and getting it to the public in a way that they can read it because I think a lot of that is housed um in a way that it's hard for the team to access it and send it out so but we'll work on that and figure out what's the best strategy to get it get
it out so I would ask um Dr Lynch Walsh that's that's what DAC was asking in specific the pacing guides that you wanted it accessible to the public is that correct correct and we way past pacing guides like I said at our next meeting we'll be discussing an entire
infrastructure right and vision for pulling together things that are based on standards so we have consistency since we keep losing students it started with pacing guides it then morphed into syllabi canvas courses and lesson plans
okay um so that's all part of the structure that we're looking at we did a lot of research on syllabi but it started with can't even see pacing guides um because they're not public facing okay so I I get there's a bigger picture just trying to find where we can
get some wins so if we have it already and we can make it accessible I think that would be um great my next question also was someone made a suggest or made a comment about student progression plan so to Dr heern or staff do are we
looking at that um yes we're we're already looking at that that's one of our concerns too especially for our high school students um as we go out and about and talk to kids and you know the worst thing you can hear from a kid is hey what are you doing um After High School oh I don't know um so we're
looking at that to create better academic plans that they can start with their freshman year and also at the middle school level too um so they can have a plan throughout their whole four years in high school and also start in elementary school so that's something that we're already working on and and diving into okay thank you great um also
divers University committee made a comment about some um Critter issues so could you find out offline what schools that is yeah we will um I think the issue with the critters is that we are
demoing um Portables and I think some of these old Portables we have some Critters that are nesting in there so we may need to come up with a better strategy of addressing the concern in the de the the Portables prior to Mo cuz I think they're just scurrying once we
turn on the Portables and find it somewhere else to to Nest which is near campus great thank you and um they also brought up some concerns about reciprocal usage that seems like an easy enough win I'm not sure where the communication breakdown is but if we
could just if um Miss Pier Grant if you can be specific about reciprocal use uh yes so um we went to one Middle School where the principal was like in deep with the uh city um got monies
for the school and there she negotiated most of the agreements when we go to another school in a high school the principal talks about all these things that she would like to have through the um with the city but she's unaware of how the reciprocal agreement goes who is
supposed to um negotiate that one school the the principals negotiating in another school they're they're told not to or they don't know who to reach out to so um if there can be some consistency I think that would help the district if you getting monies from your cities and they're helping I just think
that there there some of them know and some of them don't know so if there needs to be a consistency with that because I think the reciprocal agreement is a district level thing yeah I think you're talking about um interlocal agreements but I know um and Cher you you would notice too in our mayor round
taes we've discovered that there is inconsistency and how they support their support their their schools within their city so we'll we'll kind of compress on both ends with our schools understanding what the what things they could ask for based on what the cities are telling us in our marriage Round Table about how
they can support and I would add a caveat to that is um also explain to the principles that even though the city may have portions of the school po still covers that I think that there's like a disconnect with that too and so as long as everybody's on the same page I think
this is a great partnership it's just there's some inconsistency of who does what and I think the the principles just need that extra help to kind of help them be able to be more vocal with their City absolutely we can help them close that Gap yes thank you so much um just a couple of more things so cameras in the
classroom um Dr heern that is a policy that is coming back to us is that correct yes that is a policy that's coming back great thank you um Internet safety plan do we have that I'll let awesome CIO kind of chime in on that cuz
um I know he's itching back there to kind of talk about some of the security measures that uh he's implementing good morning Trey Davis Chief Information officer firstly we take Internet Security overall and safety for our students very seriously
you know up on our website uh for example off school sites as well as our primary website uh we do have Internet safety uh you know procedures and recommendations against things like cyber bullying uh obviously the the internal information security uh
programs and procedures that we have in place are kind of opsc so we can't can't talk about that piece operationally uh but but ensuring that our students have the necessary information around you know uh Internet safety is really important it's also part of our U 5306
acceptable use technology policy and our emerging 8500 variant um ironically we're also working on expanding that at the moment so uh it's very important that uh that students understand and parents uh and staff you know that we uh
take that very seriously because um the reality is it's not just an individual issue is that it could also be you know a risk for our our facilities you know and our staff as well so so we do take that seriously thank you thank you very much may I um yes
okay um that was never the question we know the district takes its Internet safety security very um responsibly um what the issue was is Florida Administrative Code directed with specific guidelines as to an internet
policy an Internet safety policy and that the tag committee put together last year so we wondering where that was to comply with the state because we're now two years behind uh something we're supposed to have okay thanks that was my issue got you Dr heer yeah we'll just
provide a followup on that um so we'll reach out and then provide a followup see where we are with that okay thank you um my let's see I want to say to the the Mac um thank you so much for the suggestions that you had I think we've
had a discussion over and over through redefining that the feeder pattern is really important especially in dual language because we know a lot of people are looking at that so I do believe it's something we're going to be looking at as we Dr heern yes um that's absolutely
something we're going to be looking at not just for um gifted and dual language uh we have broken feeder patterns all over the place um there is not a lot of continuity from elementary to Middle School the Middle School to high school so that's something that we're looking at overall to improve the feeder pattern
the articulation make sure kids have defined programs within may not be specific within the community but at least within the region to and it helps us as a district alleviate pains we have for transportations I'm sure pretty sure to alleviate the same pains for parents
who go to a school in one side of the district and the only feeder program is on the other side of the district so we're working on that overall as we speak thank you and other question they I heard them say is they were asking about Latinos in Action providing tutoring so um can you give us any
followup on if that's moving forward y I have to provide a followup on that one okay thank you um I also would like to say very happy to see the green advisory here we did recently pass a resolution promising that we were going to move
towards um zero neutral I forget what the the whole resolution but yes that we were we were going to move towards being more sustainable so I appreciate all of your suggestions and um look forward to talking to the superintendent about that
um in general and just in general listening to everyone what I gathered from this is that there are some committees that have concerns about not getting answers to questions in order to be able to move their agenda forward so I would like to ask the super intendent
how it is we can resolve this I know that we have Liaisons so some people were mentioning they didn't feel their liaison had the information that was needed to be able to answer the questions so moving forward is how how can we resolve this to make sure that
our committees are being as successful as possible y absolutely so we can work with the lons and find out what the specific ask is and make sure the pertinent staff that can address those needs are present um if some things can be done with they follow up in writing
um we'll we'll exercise that too um with the amount of committees that we have and the the number of staff is sometimes it's hard to get to to meetings you can be in a meeting every day um so we'll try and work as efficient as possible to either get somebody there the pertinent
staff that can answer the questions or give the Insight or to follow up in in writing but we'll um Mr Sullivan's team uh we can work with him and the to find out where the gaps are we can continue to communicate what the advisor reair and follow find out what the gaps are and see we see if we can plug all these
holes that I'm hearing I'm hearing concerns about lack of information um lack a follow through um pertinent staff not um being at the meetings and so I I hear the concerns understanding so we'll work together to see if we can alleviate all that to be be a little bit more efficient and effective um in that
process okay and you'll get back to us on how that's and I I did and leverage technology to to help us out with that we have tons of Technology at our disposal so certainly can help us um become more efficient in that aspect too awesome and I did have a conversation
with I'm not sure if it was here or prior some of the concern also is that the information the answers to the questions get back to them in time that they can have their agendas ready so if we could be sure as we move forward that I think it's a week it's supposed to be
that they get the information if we could make sure that we're providing that I think it would help them as well so um yes Miss mahore um as the facility task force um chair I
I'm asking that if um I know that we have a lot of meetings or do you have a lot of meetings but um seeing the superintendent at one of our meetings would be helpful because what we cover it affects the whole the entire um
County and what we cover is very important and and it's cost of the cost of is the most expensive of all all the of advisories so it's important that you
make us important absolutely I disagree with you and as you can see I'm making my rounds I'm getting around so yes thank you any other board members have discussion questions Dr Zan chair thank you so much I'm fascinated um with all of the input and I appreciate uh all the
effort that goes into that uh I'd like to ask more from the green committee chair though um uh about um where these ideas have gone we have a relatively robust program for LED lights that are going into dozens of our schools it is
realizing a tremendous financial and environmental Roi uh but if there are other uh opportunities for us um I'd like to know what those are and then uh to the superintendent you know we we must have some kind of process to hear
these ideas throughout the year and and as we build our budgets you know think about an investment pot that because these things aren't free you know if you're going to reduce cost longterm by 10 or 20 million dollars a year which is a tremendous amount of money um it's going to cost you some money up front
but it is a wise organization that always tries to find some of those investment opportunities uh even to sign them up as money's become available during the year because some of these things are like LED lights you can do 12 schools a year or you can do 50 schools a year the capacity in the industry is there uh it's really about how fast can
you get to the better lighting um which is great for all kinds of reasons but then also the financial savings so could you tell us just a little bit more about these two ideas and then to the superintendent if there's a way to figure out an on-ramp for these ideas so
they get fully vetted by uh it's more than just the C Chief Financial Officer it's a Chief Financial Officer and various departments um that that need to look at this and see what the options might be for board funding so we we have an incredibly collaborative committee um we actually have representatives from
facilities from environmental services from education one of the amazing Parts about our committee is it's not just our Advisory Board we actually listen and have a a great rapport with a lot of the staff and a lot of the ideas are from them and the reason why we our first recommendation was this Chief sustainability and resilience officer is
because so many things in the district are siloed in one department and they're not able to implement things purely from not having that that figurehead at a higher level who can do things Cross departmentally or work with districts um
a perfect example is the number of uh uh you know you all have to have water contracts with every single municipality and you have sometimes trash contracts with every single municipality and those are different departments nobody's looking holistically and saying where are those ways that we can kind of lean
in as a district and do this not to mention that all of these things then have to go to procurement and procurement is a separate Department that's sometimes won't listen and not not in a bad way but just hey you know they're they're balancing a lot of things right and and this might not be
the top of their priority when they're worried about how do you procure things in in the best possible way and so the idea is that a lot of places are doing this uh Governor Ronda santz put in a chief resilience officer at a state level whose job it is is to look across
all agencies Broward County has a chief resilience officer in Dr Jennifer herado this isn't a unique position and the idea is you need someone who can build collaboration across silos whether we like it or not bureaucracy creates silos and this is a position that can kind of
cut that red tape and help bring these things you talked about an on-ramp one of the reasons why is because every time we kind of oh well we tried this but it just never got up the food chain high enough and so we heard that over and over and over again that your staff already have these ideas they're just a
lot of roadblocks to get them implemented and just one more question um in in the light of spreading good news where again did you go to high school sir Fort Lauderdale high was that Fort Lauderdale High School is that a a traditional Public School in Broward County uh it is oh wonderful thank
you so if I if I can comment um on this initiative so it is up the food chain um uh and the the board and my staff know we're wholeheartly um trying to find uh areas of efficiencies um ultimately to save costs which ultimately can help us
pay our our our faculty and staff better right that's one of our main priorities um we've actually been discussing this issue with a specific company um to help us with many of the things that you've talked about um to come into our schools
evaluate and um there's no upfront cost to the district um they kind of make their money on the actual savings um and we've done our research and they work with some other large school districts um and and we're talking to those other law school large school districts to see
how this has gone for them what was the cost savings um etc etc so that's definitely on the horizon of us taking advantage of that because we see the need in inefficiencies across the board old practices old equipment all of those things that uh continue to uh have us
with a wide Eco footprint where we can be way more efficient moving forward and and if I might add just you know we've talked a lot about sustainability the importance of resilience flooding and sea level rise uh in this County we have a future conditions groundwater map that you are required to use for large
development schools will fall under that right this these regulation are going to change the way this district has to build in the future and how you modify sites and how you store water and how you move children safely right so there
there the the challenge is that this is all multifaceted and you really have to think about it holistically this is why you're seeing every almost every large bureaucracy create a position like this every local government create a position like this because they need that person thinking holistically and how it's going
to impact every portion of your operations okay thank you so much um we're actually going to um recess for just a few minutes and we'll move into our um our quarterly meeting so we're going to give everybody
a break to be able to go to the restroom and stuff and then we're going to go [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
[Laughter]
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] there we go welcome back to the school board Workshop we are now going to
transition into the quarterly Joint School Board and advisory committee groups discussion for today's discussion we will open the item with presenting advisory Representatives with the opportunity to provide brief five minute verbal remarks for the board's consideration followed by public
comments and then board member remarks and discussion we have um 16 people signed up to speak so we will limit that to two minutes to each person um I look forward to hearing your insights and ideas on how we can improve our district
for our students so we're going to start with the North Area representative is it on yes okay I didn't know that I was going first but okay uh good good morning uh chair board members and School staff or
District staff my name is Cynthia Dominique I'm the chair of North Area advisory we are an amazing group of committed parents who um are real we have real kids who go to real schools in Broward County and we're
really really um passionate in ensuring that our district is successful and that we have a a thriving public school system for generations to come um if you're not familiar the North Area represents about 75 schools and about 85,000 of the district students we have
a parent representative from each school that attends our meeting monthly so we have a lot of direct um connection with the community and hearing what parents have to say and ensuring that we provide a platform for them to be able to express their concerns and bring that up
the chain um as need be um our concerns don't change um one of our major concerns is always ensuring that in everything that Broward school's done it is done with Fidelity it is done in
ensuring that um students have equality or equity in the education that they're getting um and making sure that the district does right by students some of the things that we've discussed in our meetings throughout this year are
academics have been a strong focus of our discussions um we've had the conversation of ensuring that parents are well informed about what their students are learning what we've heard from a lot of parents is that I don't know how to support my child because I don't know
what they're doing in the classroom um C some schools have created mechanisms in which they help to uh share that information with parents by creating newsletters that go out monthly that tell them what standards are being
taught in the classroom so that they can support their Learners in that way one of the things that middle school and high school parents have asked for is a course overview some teachers do it some don't but having some sort of clear expectation so that they can uh support
their Learners in those high stakes classrooms I don't know what's going on with this mic um you know another big concern of ours is suicides we had two suicides this year in the North Region and for us one
is too many we cannot afford to lose our babies and so we have to implement interventions in Broward schools during their school day that help them to be resilient because children are not just resilient I think that's a big
misconception is that we have to teach them how to be resilient we have to teach them how to manage some of the social influences that they're going to experience in life and also in an era of extremely high stakes testing a lot of our kids are suffering from
anxiety and all sorts of other mental health challenges that I don't think that we're proper properly equipping them for um so we will be having that drug and alcohol awareness tonight we had getting and customer service at our most recent meeting and
we provided a lot of feedback we think that we have so many gems here in the district but the problem is the community doesn't know about them a parents don't know about them we've asked for mailers to go out because unless you drive by the elementary school in your neighborhood you don't know that it's there but if you got a
mailer saying hey guess what this school is right down the street and we want to see you personally inviting those families to the schools um we might perhaps get a better um response um let's see I'm going to go back to academics
for a little bit um I know that we're an a district but we are not satisfied with being 62% when still almost half of our kids don't know how to read they don't know they don't have math numeracy um and so we really want to ensure that the
district is providing or implementing their strategic plan in a way that not just honor the top performing students but also targets and implements interventions for those lower performing students not just in the school transformation office but in schools
across the district um see last year we passed a motion to well we didn't pass a motion Dr Phillips was at our meeting and we made a recommend ation to implement a new attendance code
to track student attendance or tardiness based on school transportation and we've requested that information and we still haven't got it back but we'd really like to know what the data is because we know that that has an impact on students receiving Services um like push in or
speech or whatever it might be so we'd really love to know what the data is okay thank you so much next I'm going to let the Central Area go good oh no that's not gonna work closer all is that okay all right uh
good morning to the board and Dr heurn staff and my fellow dedicated volunteer colleagues I Brooke bardy the elementary representative for the Central Area advisory I'm filling in for D too today uh Central is set up the same way as North area so I won't repeat that but
will double down on what Cynthia just said which is Broward County might be an a district but not every school is an A and not every kid is getting an a education and with half of our kids not reading at grade level That Remains the top priority so everything else I say
comes after that we want our kids up to grade level we want them beyond that um since our last quarterly joint meeting we've had several District staff present at our meetings in December Dr Lozano came and we hope to have him back soon
uh to continue the conversation about metal detector implementation perimeter security measures weather system alerts and uh schoolwide intercom systems have also continued to be of concern in January Miss Kimberly Young came to speak to us as the mental health
coordinator she came to discuss how um the state mandated resiliency education um and how it's taught in Broward schools uh while the feedback was generally positive and helpful it should be noted that many of the parent parents had no idea about the resiliency
education that their kids are receiving at school um so generally the request was better communication from the schools and from the district um I thought the materials were really nice and they can be used at home the the videos um there's also consistent
feedback to make the instruction for the older students the secondary students a little more appealing was a little goofy to be honest um in February we hosted uh Farah Wilson and Charlene Collins they came to explain how the district website
is being overhauled and how individual schools will have improved websites as part of the choose the best choose BCPS campaign the meeting was largely collaborative with a good energy sometimes the meetings can be a little adversarial and that wasn't the case here uh the attendees really felt that
they were working um kind of on a source spot when parents go to use the Broward County website it's clunky the search function doesn't n work a lot of dead links um so the attendees were really relieved to see that this had been identified as a problem area that there's an action plan in place and that
it's already being improved and the target date is actually May June 25 so we hope to see that new website soon as well as improved school websites um so that we can compete with those charter schools and private schools so while we feel these presentations we're bringing awareness
and substantive feedback to the district um and it's many departments and campaigns there's still a concern that advisory consensus and even formal recommendations are not reaching the decision-making ears in this room it's the same complaint that you've heard around this table um we talk we feel
like we work hard on something that we're getting consensus that it's a useful recommendation and then it just ends there uh so that continues to be a major concern uh we really truly seek a better process for bringing results of the meetings to the board and the District
staff uh on that note I think it's important to point out that policy 1070 will be spoken about today I know we'll get to the details later but I wish I could have come today with some sort of notes from Central Area I couldn't do that because the presentation from the
superintendent's office was shared one to two days after district and the area meetings concluded so we didn't get to discuss that so it's not helpful to have a workshop today on something that we couldn't talk about at our meetings and even so it's been revised twice
including last night so even people here right now we were up late last night re reviewing those changes um I have one minute left I will say that this proposal would eliminate and consolidate advisories from 19 down to
six six it would restrict leadership terms and it would hamper succession planning in these advisories it was made without input or even notice to the advisories who consist of the district's most dedicated parents and volunteers who are on the front lines of all of these District decisions and
policies uh Additionally the proposal contains numerous factual and accuracies and demonstrates the author's lack of understanding of how our advisories operate while we will reach this matter later Central Area suggest that the district focus on its Mandate of student achievement wellness and safety rather
than dismantling stakeholder input systems uh lastly I'll speak to Brower toates later but there are major concerns about the mischaracterization of feedback from the community disregard of the boundary committee's vote to not close the school disruption of the feeder pattern and other consequences to
the education of individ individual students from that school thank you thank you next diversity committee I'm sorry what's the port what portion are we on so now we're on the quarterly report so you've already given your reports now is where you have
anything additional that you'd like to bring up to discuss with us thank you my apologies um so I know that we got 1070 coming after and um I don't know I just I'm just going to say this and leave it here um it just it
comes off really um adversarial that there was not a conversation we had this meeting coming up we have a quarterly meeting with all chairs I think the best approach would have been hey this is what we're thinking about your your um
the Committees we have a lot we're thinking about maybe consolidating some getting rid of some what are the what are your your thoughts and and do you want to have you know input in it the fact that we're having this ctly meeting and then the next item is basically to
dismantle committees I feel it's like ADV like antagonistic almost it feels that way um and so while my presentation was trashed earlier and I apologize for that um and I'm not in the mental capacity to be as
articulate and forthcoming like I normally am I don't know if I am but I guess I am um I just feel like uh the the direction I understand the the the the thought process behind what the superintendent is trying to do I get it
I just think that you know if we're emphasizing collaboration a lot and that's something that is um essential to the district it would have been nicer had you had this conversation with us prior to we figure out how we can make
things work and then you know you guys bring this into a workshop but the fact that we're doing this now and then you have it after is really for me um I don't know it's just like disingenuous to me um the next thing I
wanted to point out is that while I know some committees are not mandated and some are um whoever did the presentation no disrespect but that was just like the facts was wrong one minute was okay one minute was not one minute there
was a committee on and they put it out and whoever else was talking behind the scenes to get somebody else on the committee or back I just think that that was just it should have been a conversation um a lot of us are intentional in these committees these are for we're doing this for
free we know what the commitment levels are we agree to the commitment levels so we're intentionally being here and the fact that no one had a conversation with us to just even say hey this is what we're thinking to me is just like
disrespectful almost and and let's be clear I know that this is because there's certain there's certain chairs that y'all don't like that are causing issues in my personal opinion you want if you have a problem with one specific chair or two specific chairs y'all
isolate the isolate those people because we can't be collateral damag we're out here I'm minding my own black business doing what I'm supposed to be doing following my Lane I I'm as collaborative as as I need to be sometimes I come off a little bit too
assertive that's because I care about kids kids should be the reason why we're here I'm okay like if you were asked most of the chairs most of us are in consensus that some of us we we have too many committees and we're willing to talk about that but that wasn't even a
conversation for us um and so am I a little bit frustrated about it yeah I ain't mad but I'm frustrated um because I know how much work I put into I put like countless hours because I want to because kids are my priority for
me and the staff but to do what to to to have this presentation and all that other stuff or whatever and I was one of the ones that kind of mentioned if you guys can't get you know if you have an issue with the Committees get rid of the ones you want whatever but have a conversation though um and so that's my input for
that I just think that you know we're all adults it doesn't need to be this antagonistic type relationship it doesn't have to be that way we all can have conversations some of us may not be well receptive as others but the point
is we care about kids and so I wish this would have been a conversation I wish that um it doesn't have to come to this and I hope the board members um understand what goes into being a Committee Member a committee chair and being dedicated cuz the people you see
up here are the same people that come every single time and those are the ones that are committed we are committed so thank you thank you so much a multilingual advisory
committee hello thank you um I did cover most of what I wanted to cover in our quarterly update um we will be having two additional meetings I know you guys saw us at 60% the other two meetings haven't been happening we have have five meetings a year and the next one will be
March and April so our participation is where it should be based on our our meetings um I did want to educate those that don't know I know some of these schooler board members are newer the Mac is a grass root effort by parents the
reason we are a committee today was because a bunch of schools got together and in our effort to try to find a place where we could voice concerns for the program that our children are in and why some of us are in private uh not in private school and in public school there wasn't really a place for us to go
um it wasn't that the esol committee or North Area diversity weren't welcoming to us it was more of they have packed agendas of other items that they have to discuss and when you go into those meetings for those of you that haven't they these chairs take the time to put
together a pretty elaborate agenda and they have a hard time covering all of it and there was really no opportunity for us as a invested group to have a forum for us to discuss our needs and to really help move this um this program
forward um I I think that from the Inception when we put our petition we shared that we are concerned that teachers are not getting paid well and we're losing them left and right I think that we feel that in our program and we feel that outside of our program and we
do feel that that is a priority and should be a priority for the district for all teachers um and we also do believe that there is an opportunity for us to work collaboratively with the district to make this program better um as a new chair I can tell you
that I didn't get much guidance of anything um I was told to watch the Sunshine video which me and all of my committee did and that was it we weren't told who is in charge of minutes to take minutes how to run a meeting all of that stuff we figured out ourselves we built
our own website and my committee is um comprised of professionals I have you know lawyers phds Executives that are giving their time to the district at no cost and I think time is the most expensive commodity you can't get that
back and um with their expertise are offering up you know good recommendations we're very happy that you guys passed the motion to add the badge to the website that seems logical since people are looking for the program you should highlight that you have the program but you guys don't still don't
do that for the areas that have like ASD or other certain um programs where families are looking for schools to have that um you guys did not move forward with the motion for us to collect the data of the choice applicants if dual
language was an option you should we ourselves emailed applicants that applied to our schools and of the response 41% said that they are applying to the school and hopes to getting in the program that information the
programs that you guys offers should be an option on the choice application how are you guys going to know where you should put your money and effort and better if you're not letting you know the public tell you why they're actually
choosing to go to these schools um us as a committee do believe that advisories are necessary I think that everyone that volunteers their time is doing so because they care about public education they care about children but they also
have a vested interest in a specific program or passionate about something in particular that they're wanting to be a part of um in terms of guidance on what is required from us it would be nice if the district would
put something together in terms of like what a chair responsibility is versus the liaison because my Liaisons are kind of knew and although have been wonderful they've we've had great support from our Liaisons they go to Every meeting and support us there still isn't really clear roles and responsibilities and
there's no documentation that I've been able to find um onlineer that's been handed to us so I think if you have expectations of what we should be doing those expectations should be shared because you can't deliver on things that you don't know thank you so much uh NE next is
gifted advisory uh good morning I just have three quick points um again I just kind of want to reiterate Excel program for elementary Learners um that was a recommendation that we passed um earlier this year um
and I just want to ensure that that is um something that is provided to the students uh next year that have already mastered uh pm1 and received a five um cuz again they have mastered the uh grade level content um so I just kind of
want to bring that back up um cuz it's still a a continuous conversation at gifted advisory um secondly uh something that came up with some parents was I ready which is something that's districtwide this year in middle and elementary school um there was some concerns with
some parents um stating that a lot of the students have already finished the lessons that were provided and um they don't longer have a pathway or additional um a Les uh lessons to continue so they kind of just sit in the class uh boarded or with a hand out or
just something that's just not necessarily they're learning it's just like an additional worksheet um so um you know while other students that had um you know their pathway the other ones were kind of just sitting around so I think um that was a a subject that we're
looking into and seeing how we can Rectify that um lastly um regarding the Committees for I think it would be extremely beneficial and it's I think been a topic of conversation for the last 3 to four years um District web we sites there wouldn't be any issue with
um receiving records or maintaining records if we had District websites where we can upload those minutes attendance agendas uh bylaws um it it will be all there so that way there's any other any question it's already available so thank
you thank you very much human Relations Committee sorry all the mics seem to want to follow each other um could just uh could I get a point of clarification is this the time that we're supposed to be discussing our issues with uh the policy 1070 Workshop that's coming up you can use this time if you'd like to
but it really it's a quarterly meeting so things that weren't covered in your report if that's how you want to use your time that's completely up to you I just want to clarify for the the other chairs though is there other time that they will be able to participate in that discussion so we have two 30 the last 30
minutes will be two questions that you can ask and then of course when we get to 1070 you'll have um public speaking time thank you thank you um so I'll do some of my comments now for um uh 1070 I
wanted to First highlight the fact that I think a lot of us uh most of the parties involved have kind of lost sight of what advisories are meant to be and we are meant to be the guidance for the
Schoolboard and we are meant to provide advice and um information on detail more detailed levels of the district then the Schoolboard members are able to access on their own we should not expect school board members to be subject matter experts and that is why the advisories
exist and that is a very important function that is also meant to be a collaborative function not an adversarial one from either direction and I think I we we're looking at getting rid of advisories or how
advisories are addressing staff and Schoolboard members whichever the case may be we need to remember our purpose our purpose is not to direct staff onto doing anything other than requesting the information that we need um we're not
supposed to be doing anything other than providing the information that the School Board needs and likewise I think the School Board needs to recognize that we are a service for you and should be utilizing us not looking at us as an
adversary because you should not be as I said subject matter experts there's a lot of things going on that you are not fully aware of nor should you be fully aware of because each of you is one human being and there are only nine of you total for a school district with hundreds of thousands of people and I
just would like to stress that we Circle back and I don't know if that includes a Reformation or what needs to happen but we need to have a pattern interrupt of how things have been progressing because as uh I I know this
phrase has been used before we're focusing on adult problems and not student problems and and I'm not attributing this to any one particular party I think that there has been a buildup of relationship issues over the year years and I really want to see all
of us succeed and not to be like Kumbaya kind of moment but we need to figure out something and I think just coming at the advisories and saying we're going to cancel a bunch of you is not an appropriate way to do it nor is any any other behavior that might
be coming from uh the volunteer side that might be less than appropriate and um and I would just like to conclude my remarks on this by uh letting the board know and I you've heard it from a few other people already that some of the data in the presentation is inaccurate
so please remember that when you are making your decisions I know that a number of the um attendance uh details for the chairs is inaccurate so I did not have the time personally to go and check my own but I know it's not correct and I know there
are some others as well and even the percentages were not calculated correctly and to also remember that we are off during the summer so we should not even be calculating the percentages on a 12-month year it should be a 10-month year so um just please keep all that in mind when you're making your
decision thank you thank you uh ESC advisory Council thank you um I think the qu you asked the question how can we collectively be more effective so I had some suggestions you've heard them all before um I bring
them not just from me this isn't just me speak speaking when I speak I speak on behalf of stakeholders you have 40,000 students with IEPs and 504s in Broward County um and uh it's a parent community
that is not easily um able to get along to meetings um or know how to engage and actually coming up on my to-do list I do actually have um plans for a webinar to show them how they don't have to come to a meeting but how they can be a a good
keyboard Warrior from the comfort of their own home and how they canined agenda papers because God knows they're difficult enough for us to find I didn't even know there was a second revision to the to the next item so um if I wasn't up at 2 a.m. last night looking for it
it seems that once passed me by um but I think empowering parents um to be able to um give input like we do on their behalf would be good I think I would like it just recognize that when we sit here and then we hear comments about we're the same old faces or you need to
get out and meet real parents we are real parents and we're the same old faces because people put us here by election to do so um you asked um as well about improvements um one of the things we discussed our last ESC advisory meeting with customer service
it's very clear that there is a kind of layer of customer service that just isn't clearly defined in Broward schools so you can take an issue to your teacher or to your principal I always encourage people go to your principal have a meeting but beyond that they don't know where to go people aren't aware of the
structure of regional superintendents and Beyond the regional superintendent when things really hit the fan um there's not a clear process for where to go beyond that so now I have parents who are mired in an abusive process um of being adjudicated a bully by some
mystery unseen hidden non-disclosed procedure by Broward schools that some meeting was had and a parent was cled a bully just because they had filed a discrimination complaint on behalf of a student with disability I'm appealing to all of you I will speak to each and every one of you
to talk about what that case is about I fear that sometimes we sit at these microphones and we kind of put things out there and then some of you very kindly go away and make follow-up questions and you're told something and that something that you're told doesn't come back to us so that we can say actually yeah no let me give you some
more perspective that's going to um put things back on the rails for you to understand what the pro processes um I think there's so much to say about the next board item so I'll try and save some of it for there but it came out of the blue I'd actually even met the superintendent about 4 hours previously
this had not been mentioned that uh ESC advisory or any other was going to be on the chopping block when I contacted him with some surprise later that evening after finding it out um well he can say what what what what then happened but anyway we're then back on the survivors
list um but I very concerned about both the lack of detail on the proposal um to realign or abolish or whatever we want to call it advisories um I have brought here um our not obscured membership and
attendance records on the proposal it states that because of the structure of ESC advisory and gifted and I think one other that our membership is obscured you're all welcome to come and look right through these years of Records I think an apology is due to our recording
secretary or corresponding secretary she has flitted between the two um uh BK todero who keeps meticulous records every single person who comes into the room signs in we show exactly at each meeting who the voting members are who are present it is absolutely offensive
in the extreme to say that we obscure our membership and also for there to be Veil references to us not understanding our issues I can assure you my comprehension of issues and the comprehension of some of my board members and members sitting behind me who have kindly come along as well um is
actually spot on we are the parents encountering these issues and we bring them to you every day um uh I think something else that is admitted that it would have been really good for you to have been brought by your staff on the proposal is the fact that um we actually
have revised our policy and bylaws in order to find better ways and easier ways of reaching Quorum in the room but we we can't reach quorum to pass our bylaws but as your staff have our draft policy Matrix and I'm dismayed that that was not presented as part of The
Proposal um in terms of improvements customer service Focus please listen to what I've brought you about Focus I'm not lying it's been catastrophic for ese thank you very much thank you very much next is facilities task force um I would like to go over some of
the um stuff I wasn't able to go over in my early um discussion um work order and aging and open orders so we got a chance to review the agent analysis of 2023 and 24
noted that a 47.2% increase in work orders over a year old and a 29.6% increase in total work orders emphasize the need for accurate data and
REM removal of duplic duplicates because we understand that there may be many duplicates um we discussed the impact of resource limitations on addressing work orders we highlighted the importance of giving the principles access to the work orders but not just only the principles
assistant principles um whoever is going to take care of the work order we raise questions about the correlation between open work orders in school enrollment or or attendance um got a chance to speak to
um one of the coordinators of helping out with Maximo and they said that they had a problem with customer service so if they if they um send out an order to a plumber and they found out that the
job was not a plumber's job they closed the report the report they don't send it back so then that means that the maintenance person has to call
again and put in another report and there should be a streamlining where if the plumber says that they can't do it then they can forward it to the next person or forward it back to customer service our action items we um we wanted
to make sure that we have another meeting with Manny for response regarding the work order agent analysis um request an updated agent report rep on a reoccurring basis request a breakdown of agent report by
work order type um confirm the status of giving um the principals access to work order systems and provide an ETA on that analyze the correlation between open work orders and School enrollment or
attendance continue the effort to clean up the work order data and maximal maximal maximal maximal we need to make sure that um they have everything they need to be efficient with
Maximo um lighting Protection Systems um we discussed the concerns about the functionality of the lightning protection system at various schools um issues with permits non-working horns installation problems um we understand
that it's been going on since 2017 um we emphasized the importance of maintaining these systems for safety um the action items we provide we wanted to them to provide us with a service contract details for lightning protection systems ensure the systems
are operational by the end it was supposed to be a February um explore the possibility of using the city operated systems for cost savings um but the only thing about that is if there's a if there's not working if the City's uh
machine is not working then we're the responsibility is back on b b BCPS um again we talked about the HVAC I understand you change out the systems you still have the filters um making
sure that those filters are out of the schools put away and not um causing you know Havoc or hazardous um to um what's going on at the schools um a little bit about um what
we're getting ready to talk about it is um very disheartening to hear that a lot of you would like to get rid of the facility task force or collaborate with another group or you know add it to another group I think it's too big I
think there's way too much that we have to accomplish in the facilities task force and I think because of whatever reason not liking a person or thinking you're silencing a person it or people um that's the way you deal with things
and I think that um we should definitely take a long heart look at that and understand that the facilities task force is very important to our community they they email us they call us they are
steadily working to help us help them so and help us help you as board members so please reconsider that thank you very much next is the technology advisory committee sorry mine's real simple we have no
technology going on in the district because nothing comes before Tech and end of report we have nothing okay so this isn't really a report it's a discussion well it's a discussion okay
so our purpose is not adhere to so nobody comes to us when they're renewing contracts for technology they're not coming uh forward to us for rfps to um at least review them so that
we can give provide our input there are people with expertise in those on our committee the other problem we have is uh board member appointments not coming up or nobody appointing somebody um so that affects our Quorum that we
have um the committee is a majority of um uh staff so when I first joined the committee the purpose of the committee was to um get rid of the silos that are in each of the Departments to understand you know how everybody works how we can
all work together and everything um that's just not happening you know there's no representation we're looking to change our uh policy to include whoever is needed at the committee so that we don't rely on one single person
every single time um but we can't get it pasted if we don't have Quorum so that proves to be a little bit difficult uh trying to get answers sometimes is also difficult uh along with you know just basic information I
mean and as far as the uh Records that somebody mentioned before uh to come at 2:00 on a Friday afternoon on a three-day weekend I wasn't working on it but I did spend six hours compiling the information and resending it that
liaison should have had and the information for liaison and facilitators to collect that information was put into policy not only at the request of the uh committee members that sat on policy 1.7 at that time but also by General
counsel's office because in essence the district was responsible for the information so we wanted to ensure that that was you know relay uh directly to our Liaisons the problem we encountered is there is no transition there is no
process for transition of information so when our liaison changes or retires or leaves a district or moves to another department that information is not taken and then relay to the next person so the next person comes in and
says well I was never told that I didn't realize I had to keep the information so there there has to be more of a structure placed together with not only chairs but liaison together so that everybody understands the functions that occur within each committee so
there is a smooth transition and we're not say spending six hours recreating something we already gave already uh handed to the leaon and um the other issue was you know the attendance of uh the school board members because 10 committees are
comprised of Schoolboard members there's a to total of 108 seats that school board members fill so my question which is not reflective in this report is what is the attendance rate of the Schoolboard members that are affecting the Quorum of each committee because I
know as far as Tac goes um I think we're missing five people out of nine thank you thank you I think you mean School Board appointees appointees yeah so and it would be important for school board members to look and see if they haven't
appointed someone to make sure that you've done all of that because it does affect their Quorum so thank you green advisory committee thank you um I I apologize I'm not going to be able to stay for the whole discussion later because I have to go back to work but um
I wanted to Echo um what the chair just said please look at your appointments to all of our committees especially green advisory and make those appointments if they're vacant uh it says in our by in the standard bylaws that the chair is supposed to work with the board to make
recommendations so if you do not have recommendations please reach out to us we have people whom we know in this community that would likely serve in those capacities um I I want to Echo something that's been said this is my first time talking with you all um when we started as a committee we rece we had
a a new department that was new to liaising they have been fantastic the applied learning department has leaned in so much more than I could ever ask but we were never trained but for this amazing person to my left I would have
received no training no input on how to do anything and it is really important if you want your advisory groups to be successful to help support them better and and that gets to I understand the spirit of what you all are trying to do
in consolidation it is a lot of work on the district it is a lot of Staff time um but I just I disagree with how this has been provided to us at ad as Advisory board members um we didn't have time to discuss this as an Advisory
Board member because it was never it was put out after our previous meeting um also I just point out that those numbers that you all listed in the PowerPoint I as a chair was never reached out to and asked for our bylaws which are available all of our minutes which are available our attendance records I'd be happy to
share them um but I would really re make a recommendation let's be thoughtful about this I don't think any of us are going to sit here and disagree and say it couldn't be done better but you all have the power to create an Advisory board or a task force let us as Advisory board members come back to you with a
proposal put a group together each of you can appoint a person we could come back to you in 30 days 60 days with a consolidation plan or multiple options of a consolidation plan because there might be ways to consolidate these advisory boards but as you saw we're
going to completely eliminate the green Advisory Board well you all just made a resolution to become net zero I'm going to tell you becoming net zero right now is impossible there's not a government agency that can do it because it doesn't exist it's a great aspiration but that
means you need subject matter experts advising you and taking you to the next level and that only happens in Committees of subject matter experts it doesn't mean that green advisory can't fall under another committee or another Council maybe we could come up with a different structure to help alleviate
some of these challenges but I would just it's it's my this is me speaking as a chair who has been through this we have amazing people who care a lot they want to give back it is just a frustration of like you've heard over
and over sometimes learning the process I'll be honest it took me six to eight months to figure out how to even get a motion to you all um our bylaws took seven months after we passed them to get passed by the board so technically we were operating without bylaws
we why bylaws have to go to the board for ratification if they're standard that's a great question we could look at some processes and some policies that you all have put on us that can help alleviate a lot of these challenges and I know I would be more than willing and
I'm sure a lot of the people at this table would as well so I thank you all so much for your time today um and really appreciate that thank you very much next is audit committee Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh chair of the
audit committee um the audit committee has been increasingly frustrated this year we made recommendations to not water down the chief uh I think it was the director of financial accounting and
Reporting um we provided rationale and the job description removed I the CPA requirements been removed from things um there are probably more degreed accountants on your audit committee than there are in any Department in this
District uh there are CPAs on the audit committee there are CPAs that used to work for the district on that committee um and one specifically that used to be the director of financial reporting and
at another time the director of budget and yet I heard a comment that the accountants on the audit committee don't understand governmental accounting I'll freely admit that when I was getting my accounting degree that we did we didn't usually take uh governmental accounting
seriously we would do consolidations because we all wanted to work in Private Industry nobody was aspiring to um public um and I kind of regret not taking governmental accounting but I've had to get up to speed um one of the we talked about the
laptops and the reason for this new format was to address committee motions and that was one of the few things that wasn't talked about because now we don't know what to do next as far as reporting back to the committee on whether they'll be getting those devices that we
unanimously passed a motion about um one of the former board members uh used to had said to me that the reason that my arguments were so compelling is that they were based on facts um so and that can make you not so
popular around here because I don't lead with a motion it was my emotions that got me here because I was a real parent with real children and I wanted to see what this District was proposing to do to my children um and I'm the eldest child and um with an overdeveloped sense
of responsibility for others I think but the fund balance policy is a fact it is a board policy and it is not being followed one of the provisions in here it says the superintendent shall provide the school board with interim financial
statements that include the current projected percentage of the general fund ending balance not classified as restricted committed or nonspendable as it relates to the total general fund revenues as required by rule 6 A- 1.008
comma Florida Administrative Code there's another provision and I don't know how you can tell this because your interim financial statements do not look the way they used to look just a few months ago if at any time the portion of the general fund's ending balance not classified as restricted committed or
nonspendable is projected to fall below 3% of the general fund revenues during the current fiscal year and and notice I said the word projected the state is also on board with this whole projected idea because that's in state law too this fund
balance policy is based on state law no I do not as a chair work from my emotions I don't come and cry on you I come and quote you state law policy and it because there's a state law that says you're supposed to be following those
the audit committee accountants by Nature tend to be less emotional is expecting this to be followed and it's very frustrating to ask questions ask people to come to meetings which they are required to do by policy and we're
all looking at an empty room because nobody wants to be held accountable so I I'm reiterating this and Madam chair I'm going to going to be I guess requesting um a meeting to make sure that you are clear because to someone's point the idea behind these
advisories is that you can't possibly be expected to be subject matter experts in all of these areas that's why you have something like an audit committee I would like to think I was put on there because I have an accounting background when I was first put on there Years Ago by Mrs Rupert not
because she liked me although we do like each other I think but because I was qualified to sit on there and I only just became chair this is my second Year's chair so please it is disrespectful to all of the
professionals on the audit committee to have their input dismiss and marginalized by people that don't even know what they're talking about sometimes um I gave you some handouts grand jury um investigations from the past
1997 2002 2011 2021 and I'll be back at that later thank you uh DAC okay continuing on um and and just because we're adding context today um and you some of you
might want to write this down personality type in NJ which is not the cheerleader personality type so I can't be expected to adhere to that I'm introverted intuitive thinking and judgmental usually guys are this personality type
not a guy I would think an institution of learning that is so accepting of people that don't conform to stereotype would certainly understand that every now and again you get a unicorn and some women don't care if you like them or not um however I am protective of others so the top of my list here Esau the Esau
Leadership Council has a seat on daac if you get rid of it the question becomes what do we do with that seat um facts The Meta consent decree is a fact it was a lawsuit and it says among other things parental involvement
parental involvement and participation in LEP students educational programming and academic achievement shall be promoted among other ways by establishing parent leadership councils at each school or at the district level composed in the majority of parents of
LEP students how the heck do you do that when it becomes one bullet in an academic in academic uh committee did anybody research this they took bullets and cobbled together commentary from policies but totally skipped over all of the shs on The Meta consent decree
language how does that happen how does that come to the board and yes I get to be annoyed about this because these are some of our most fragile students that you're just going optional to it's not optional there's a it's the law you know
where I found the Met consent decree a quick Google and it popped up on the Florida Department of education's website it was the first f it was the first search term you also have a board policy that mentions the Meda consent decree more than once how does that get
missed when you come and recommend and say they're optional they're not optional you cannot make them a bullet in some combined focked up committee sorry but you can't DAC has facilities reps on it I did some
handouts here one of them is oh one of them fact checks and mythbust the assertion that oh FTF will still be FTF it'll just do it as this combined community and infrastructure committee a wrong in red and and notice I put X's
just because for the visual Learners in here look at what they are removing from even the one bullet they've reduced FTF to and make recommendations to the school board of Brad County and recommend prior ities to the school board the facilities task force shall
provide input to the district's educational specifications committee what are those that's the thing that governs how you how big rooms are and stuff like that the facility's task force shall advise the school board on specific observations how disingenuous by cutting off any any
contact with the board and removing the actual purpose because what's left I don't know you just sit around and talk about stuff I guess and lastly and this is more General almost a year ago I had a meeting with Dr wanza and I think at the
time Dr wanza and Dr Phillips were actually sincere in what they were going to do next except that first Dr Phillips left and then we had the great transition where we got rid of the chief of staff position and transitioned advisories to the ironically named
position Communications Chief and legislative affairs which is also ironic when you consider the medic decree not being um read these were the following things we talked about Microsoft planner creating templates and automating minutes motions and
reports um and we also noted templates were not developed with input from the end user agenda backup getting that in time onboarding process there's no internal controls over public records for advisories there's no procedure manual that flows from
1070 staff to work on a uniform set of tools email address addresses outward facing websites library of documents none of that has happened and it's a year later so if you're going to you do not victim blame which to me is what this is about and yes it's very Doge
likee and not in the way Mrs fam that you're thinking it's a good thing um I it's in the wrong hands it's a very dangerous thing so this is It's disingenuous it's been disrespectful and it's been it's been weighed it's been measured and found
wanting by everybody there's inaccuracies Galore um and don't even get me starting on long range facilities master plan steering committee because that's a whole other mess thank you so much and our last committee is the parent involve parent Community
involvement task force sorry I forgot on that side but go ahead yeah then you'll be last me the button thank you that really makes a difference appreciate that okay um
well I I think we've all had a reaction to the PowerPoint that was put out on December 19th I December what am I saying should have been put out on December 19th February to us when we had those meetings in the fall didn't we have meetings in the fall talking about the reports and all the things as
advisory chairs that we were doing so I'm just going to welcome this opportunity to share with you what our task force does I'm not sure anybody knows I mean I know you know we do parent universities because you might occasionally watch one um but I would just like to go back to why we were
formed we were formed when the district realized they needed a comprehensive review of community involvement because we want the community involved in our schools because we are public schools and we want our community to come to our schools so we want our parents to feel
welcomed and involved and and research shows that students are more successful with parent with parent Community involvement so we did a comprehensive review at that time and we came out with all kinds of recommendations I'm just going to tell you a few because they
seem so common sense that you probably think they've always been part of what happens this is a really uh simple one how do you want the district to communicate with you at the time they might be doing a ro Robo call for
everybody but some parents might prefer to have a text some parents might prefer to have an email some parents might prefer to have a phone call from the teacher whatever all of that was then Incorporated and to give parents options it just seems so simple you wonder why
it wasn't always there but where did we get that from we got that from the community and how did we get it we got it by asking the community and listening to the community um I as all you all know believe that public education successful
public education is critical to a successful democracy and that I have been a lifelong advocate for it I taught in public schools I sent my children to Public Schools my grandson's in a public school I can't think Jackie luscom enough for what she does because I
realize every day the importance of what she does when I when I uh work with my grandson so I know how advis how important public schools are are to our families and our community what are some other things we did we developed ways to
listen to people one of those was called the secondary forum and with that we invited every High School to send parents to talk about a variety of topics we have discussion groups we like discussion groups so we discussion groups on sack on saf on all of the
different things on booster clubs esol Ese and out of that we come forward with first of all the first time we did it was a first time in this County that school advisory Council had ever had the opportunity to be in the same room and collaborate so we continue to do that
and that is why we continue to exist you probably don't even know that we're doing these things we have a secondary Forum we bring people together we let them work with each other and we build community and building Community is incredibly important so as I listened to
the reports today I was so impressed with what everybody was doing and every everybody was doing something different and if it takes 10 advisories to do that great if it takes 20 advisories to do that great if it takes a hundred advisories Hey listen wouldn't it be
great if you had that many people involved in your public education sending their kids to your schools so um what are what's another thing we did that we're really proud of our empowering parent conference I know Monica nelsis is is here she was just so
instrumental and helping us to achieve a conference in four languages a conference in four languages why did we come up with that idea because for a year we worked with a Innovation Zone in Deerfield listening to parents about what worked and what didn't work for them and one of the things that we
learned from those parents was they wish that all of them could be at the same table regardless of language and we held a conference and and it was fabulous and we have nonprofit fairs where we showcase the nonprofits and we have and
most of those we have um arrangements for a food bank to come in and be there for the community so we're not necessarily duplicating what someone else does but our whole goal is Outreach and listening to people and bringing them in and helping them to be involved
and increasing that parent and Community involvement when I saw this I was absolutely shocked I want to go to human relations and what Nancy does oh let's just fold that into diversity there is a reason there's a human Relations Committee in the early years with the
diversity committee everybody would want to get on every topic and there wasn't time I know there still is not time but out of that spun out human relations there is a reason for this and when you come back we will have a proposal for how you should proceed thanks Debbie
thank you so much I want to thank Debbie for actually having served on our committee too thank you thank you um and we will finish up with Esau leadership sorry about that okay don't worry okay thank you so much Dr l
uh you hear me yeah okay got it okay uh thank you so much Dr L my limited English profan Do Lord help me to say the thing the way you did it for that I want to give you thanks in name of all our e as parents I don't have anything
else to add just to recommend you two to do the right thing get your F do research come with all of you to do this in the right way and remember isol is not optional is a mandate is a mandator
by the mea consent decree thank you uh graas Merc um thank you for your support and all for our student is thank you okay thank you so much um I have oh I'm going to start with Mrs fam for
board comments um she was interested before thank you madam chair um I want to thank everyone for coming today I really appreciated um you taking the time to be here um what you've said is
very um enlightening I I hear you and I want you to know that that I support you you um from what I'm hearing you feel under undervalued and unappreciated and and I know you're volunteers you don't get
paid for this and it takes a lot of time and energy and commitment I mean some of you have been chairs for years um Nar Nique you have um Jackie you have um Kim Welcome you just stepped up as a chair but you've been on committees for a
while so um I'm glad that we have some of these people that have this experience and and are leading so I just wanted to to make sure that you know that and and some of the things and I made notes on um the EO committee is
necessary we definitely need it and and we in my opinion you should be separate and on your own if you want to partner with other people to get assistance on things but I think what you do is so important that that you need to keep pushing through especially in South
Florida we have such a diverse Community for sure um I was really glad that um you brought forth the feed patterns in reference to the Dual learning schools I think that's really relevant and how
that got overlooked I don't know but that definitely should be a priority and it is um dual schools does attract a lot of people when I went to your meeting over in in Weston we had a woman that was coming down U bringing her children from boka remember she she when she
found out about it she so she communes with her kids every day and I just think that's fabulous that that kind of commitment so so I would definitely make that a priority and I I will bring that up at the next board meeting and ask that the superintendent uh direct staff
to look into feder P patterns so that can happen um in addition the ESC cameras are super important um I think um we shouldn't hesitate to Institute this program I know we've known about it and I'm hoping that we get it up for the
20 2025 2026 year but um I know I just want to know um the parents have clearly indicated that they want cameras and they're committed where they signed up to enroll the students to be in ESC classrooms with cameras so the question
is what is the delay is it a financial delay because we wa um before we were a pilot program because if it is a financial delay um why have we not reached out to the State of Florida and try to partner with them where we can
get these cameras or we can engage in some kind of uh payment plan where we repay them just as long as we have these cameras set up for the 2025 2026 year and I I think we could work something out somehow if there's something other
than finances then um what is the delay to get this implemented if it's not Financial Dr heurn Mr Sullivan uh sure so um there's a variety of reasons why the policy was delayed in role making at this Point um
the school year we're close to the end of the school year and we're waiting to see um what happens in Tallahassee however the superintendent is committed to ensure that the board is presenting with a um option to vote on this policy in time for the uh upcoming school
year point of clarification what do you mean we're waiting to see what happens in tah has is this a financial it is a financial burden but we already incurred the cost but we are asking Tallahassee to fund it so we were uh the only District that had a pilot program uh for
the cameras in the classroom so Tallahasse is looking to expand that to all 67 districts so we didn't think it made a lot of sense to change it right at this point um a policy that the board may have to reconsider since Tallahassee started their session to their 60-day
session today uh and considering where we're at at the point of this of the school year anyway so you're not you're not looking at a lot of time with the cameras being in place by the time the board votes on it so we thought was prudent to ensure that the policy the board was presented was going to be uh
the policy that would have to be into effect this upcoming school year but again the superintendent is committed the board will have an opportunity to vote on it to make sure that the cameras well we have the cameras that the policies in place for this upcoming school year if I could just jump in I
believe when we did it under rule Pol uh rule making that the consensus of the board was bring the policy to us regardless because there may not be a bill so to the superintendent I I if I could just correct that the the will of
the board at that point was to give the superintendent the flexibility to decide when to bring it back based on the movement in Tallahassee okay through the chair um I'd like to ask the superintendent um has anyone explored the option with Tallahassee that if we
go forward and buy this equipment in the event that they do approve it where it is 67 countywide that we would be reimbursed for the equipment so we don't have our hands tide and we can get this in place for the for the fall of 2026 Dr
heer 25 I'm sorry M yes so if I may it's not so well again there is a financial burden uh on the district to get those cameras my understanding is we already have the equipment so it's not so much of the equipment and what we would is to scale out but what we would seek um
assistance from Tallahasse is to maintain that footage is a cost to us that we incur annually but again it was more about ensuring that the legislation that might inform the policy was up to date so we wouldn't have to come back to the board with a different proposal
since we're so close to the session being over because right now today's day one of 60 days so you're not looking at a long if we don't bring it in April we're definitely bringing it in May uh April might make sense depending on how fast they passed the legislation that is moving in Tallahassee and again
regardless it will be in place before this uh upcoming school year well be I hope you do choose a path where we can go now to Tallahassee and like I again like I suggested before even it's for storage for the equipment whatever we are to allow us to proceed when hands
aren't tied and they would reimburse us I don't think that's a uh um negotiation that would be too difficult if they're going to re you know pay for out right so I hope we approach that so we can be ahead of the curve um with everyone else and get this this um set up right away
for our ESC student thank you um see um to this gentleman over here for the granden advisory um thank you so much for your input and Advising us that you did not receive any assistance in
coordinating um your committee and I think someone else said they had the same experience too um that's our fault and I want to apologize that we dropped the ball on that apparently because you we should AB absolutely be supporting you and at the next hearing the next
school board meeting I'm going to make a motion to uh for the superintendent to instruct the staff to com um to put together an assemble manual how to structure and organize a committee how to conduct a meeting how to conduct voting and Quorum requirements and to
include training training links specific reference materials and ask for possibly three mentors for each chair in which the Comm Committee Member chair and their committee members can observe and consult so I will be doing that and
thank you for bringing that to my attention Mrs fam um since everyone kind of said the same thing would rather than doing that can we maybe do a consensus today to ask the superintendent to get that manual together ABS absolutely I'd
love a consensus today okay um is there anyone that's not in agreement that there should be a manual for committees since we've heard it from a number of people that would be um a procedural manual manual that goes along for
committee members is there anyone that dis any Schoolboard members that disagree with that we're just taking a consensus Dr the only caveat I'd ask chair is would it make sense for that manual to come out after the policy done because it would obviously have a big is
that all right I I yes once we thank you Shake everything out community members would like to comment on the motion um go ahead U thank you madam chair um I just want to make be be sure that we're clear and we know what we're asking for because the issue that a lot of
committees have had da included where our poor liaison couldn't even get a meeting started for 20 minutes is the lack of procedures and training manuals currently that flow from policy 1070 and so we have been living that and
even the new ones are living what we live all all day every day and it's only because we've been doing this that we even have a clue o we need to call this person can you call that person so the the thing is that a lot of what is being
touted as lack of Quorum lack of this lack of that it stems from a lack of a procedure manual which you you have policy and then you have procedures that tell everybody how to go about implementing the policy we don't have
that now we don't have that and yes it's what are we in March so at this point I guess we'll all just limp to the end but on behalf of the Liaisons who are staff people at levels that can't usually speak up because none of my issues are
with the Liaisons for DAC or for audit and I'm sitting next to my liaison for audit they all go above and beyond but they have also been frustrated because they don't have there's the Train the liaison training did not it would seem address record retention because the
idea that you can't find bylaws when they're sitting on a website is again lack of a procedure manual so maybe even before the procedure manual and this was one of the reasons that I did this handout with what we discussed a year ago um and I'm going to form a question
because I believe we get to ask the superintendent a couple of questions eventually we're getting there yes yeah so let me go craft my question and frontload it as much as possible and I would um ask the superintendent is it possible in the
process of making this manual that that's a collaborative thing I mean I think the Committees would know what they need like what their procedure is that staff might not know so I think making a a manual procedural manual would be a
collaborative effort with the Committees so that we there may be pieces we're missing right that they need so I would ask that um as as you get move forward in doing that that you work with the committee chairs to get that done yep
not it um Jackie y yeah sorry that was actually what I was just going to say because we have seen a dangerous level of non- understanding of advisories how policy applies to us why policy is as it is if that manual is just going to be another staff um production it's not
going to work I actually even had to file or call in and say I would like to file an ADA complaint just to get microphones at my last ese advisory meeting because I was told they would not be provided and I've just been provided a recording of our last meeting
by staff that's missing the last hour of um of the footage and I've not been told why these are really important because they are limiting our ability to function so it's important for staff to know what their duties are and it's really difficult for us to say to them what their jobs are we don't employ them
you do thank you right and I think it's important just to work together to make sure it's a working procedural manual um Mary thanks I I I don't know if this is with all advisories I kind of think it is we're
referencing meetings we had in the fall where we were discussing the forms for the um reports and the fors for this and the forms for that but I've actually lost support I we have we have a wonderful leison and Dr Lori canning who actually has a major job to do but the
person that we had as our leaz on we lost and um and with that I find and I don't know how many chairs are finding this that I'm doing a lot more of the uh coordination work to make things happen and I would just tell you this is
becoming more and more and more and one last one other thing Debbie as long as I have this I'm going to just say this when you did how many meetings and and we have or how many reports we're doing to the board what I didn't see added in there was how we're attending quarterly meetings how we're attending meetings with the superintendent and how we're
doing other things which all kind of adds up to a lot of communication and I applaud you for having these quarterly meetings I just think we need to reflect that we are participating thank you thank you and
Dominique so I think that in addition to the procedure manual and I believe that we sort of have one for um the district and area advisory councils except it's extensive but the problem is that even in reading that most people don't
understand it and they need training on the practical application of how to run a meeting how to be an advisory chair um if the goal is to have people who are educated um in addition to being passionate to run effective meetings and
be able to come here and sit and have um a productive dialogue then there needs to be live training and I know North Area advisor we we've hosted trainings in the past for our saff chairs we had one um earlier this year that was
offered in person and online last year we had an in-person training for all of our stff chair in the beginning of the years and then we followed up with four subsequent trainings that broke down Robert's rules that broke down motions that broke down how we engage parents
and the community we also had budget training for our staff chair so that they could be well equipped and be able to Advocate effectively at their school levels in addition to at the district level because I think that we are more powerful cuz we can't do it all right
and we can't be everywhere but we have staff chairs in every single school that should be attending their sack and saff meeting so it's great that we have all these people here but how many of them are actually going to their sack and saff meetings and are we encouraging
that but they have to be trained and equipped to be able to to do that work in person and hopefully with some funding thank you for that suggestion I was just thinking um because Jack he had mentioned that she's doing a webinar so
I know you said in person but maybe there maybe collaboratively people who are questions you know you would have maybe it would make sense to do a webinar that besides in-person training you could have for new chairs as they
come on so I think that maybe we could do that in addition to the procedure manual yes ma'am um so as a new chair yes it would have been really nice to have like a welcome kit um you know I I had to build my own website I'm storing my own things
and I don't think it's fair to ask parent volunteers to have those type of skill sets because I don't know if everyone has those type of skill sets um but even just like Basics uh like what meetings we need to be at what should be prepared for those meetings what you
know what when you are looking for updates what are the core things that the school board and the superintendent are looking for updates in the world we live in we're all just kind of like winging it um and I think structure would definitely help and keep us to be more efficient uh an efficient group um
I also just want to call out everyone in the yellow behind me has come to support keeping advisories together especially multilingual advisory and I know that some of them have to go to work and have been way past lunch cuz we said 12:30 and we're way past that and some of them
have to do pickups and I know that they wanted to talk so I just wanted to acknowledge them and make sure that you guys saw them and know that they're here in support to keeping um our advisories as is especially multilingual advisory um and then I was just kind of hoping as
well when you guys are saying that you want communication from us when I email school board members of nine three responded of the three that responded was because I sent up a follow-up response as well so when you guys are saying that you
want us to submit these summaries and submit this information I don't know if anyone's reading it so you guys need to also figure out a process for us to send stuff where you know it's us I understand I worked in Corporate America I had a large team you get inundated
with emails I'm presuming and it's sometimes hard to figure out and decipher which ones are speaking for a governing body right if Cynthia is sending an email she's not just sending an emails like hi am Cynthia the parent she's sending an email for a whole bunch of parents right multilingual gifted and everyone here so there should be some
way where you guys flag and prioritize our emails where you guys are actually getting them and receiving them so I think that that's another process that needs to be considered in this like rules and responsibilities on how that should be submitted to ensure that you guys are getting the information thank
you and we'll finish up with Linda um DIC has a manual we did one about 20 years ago we started one and we have maintained it we do need to brush it off um but every time somebody mentions 1070 we put it on hold because
we don't know what the changes are going to be the policy hasn't been stable in two years actually it hasn't been stable in 10 years um we've tried to get that passed we've tried to move on but whatever um always a problem but we do have manuals on motions we have on
Robert rules we have on a number of things so we do provide um we were supposed to have a website by December so items like that you know are on our websites but the problem with our websites is the security certificate has
expired so nobody can really get access to it unless they're willing to take that chance and hit Advanced and move into them so that's been part of the problem but these are things that we want to see on our websites so that everybody has access to them because the information is there no great thank you
for that and maybe you could share that it's a good place to start if they already have a procedure manual so we don't start start from the end um before we move to um public comment the superintendant would like to have a few
words yes thank you uh Madam chair so um just want to acknowledge the great feedback we've been receiving from the committee chairs um it's been valuable it's been a gift um to identify certain areas for improvement um and and especially in light of
misperceptions or or perceptions whatever the case may be about how our advisories and committees provide value to the school board and to the school district um but with that said I want to take a different approach based off for what I'm what I've been hearing today um and especially from Alec you're going to
have to help me pronounce your last name I'm sorry BG off band off so especially for close I I've been I've been practicing for the past 10 minutes trying to be honest with like is it Bogen KN Bogen do I think tongue and and
also um um short conversation with Miss verdict too this concept around the task force um um um definitely enlightened to implement something like that where we kind of put this in the realm of working with our committees um in the task force
um and myself with some of my people to come to a better resolution of how we move forward as a district together as you know um right now we're in the concept around Innovation and moving our district forward for the betterment of everybody every student in our district
as well as faculty and staff and the communities that it impact so that's time I'm going to turn it over to Mr selan so he can get a little bit more detailed um and then we'll move forward sure thank you superintendent uh so like the superintendent said we're going to have a task force uh we're going to present um prepare the item uh and
upload it uh hopefully y by tomorrow for a board consideration this upcoming Schoolboard meeting uh the the membership of the task force would be each board member gets one appointee on that task force the superintendent will get two uh they will have 90 days to come up with a report to give to the
board uh and then for board action after those uh 90 days which should align to um orc chart and the new school year so we're going to present the that again that item for board vote so the uh board can approve that new task force it have an end date and a very clear Mission uh
so with that being said unless there's objection from the school board we will be removing the next uh Workshop item uh there will be no need for it anymore Mrs rert I'm sorry I just got whiplash I thought we were
um I thought we were we were actually having a conversation with with the people in this room and that we were listening and I understand that you just said task force but then you said the next thing that kind of you know made me uh swallow pretty badly which
was which was it's going to be ready for the next meeting I think that's a bit you know and let's actually clarification sure so for the only thing that's presenting uh to the board next meeting is uh the formation of the task force
okay the task force is going to look into all our advisories and all our committees to see if we're structure appropriately and make recommendations based I'm sorry if I missed that part um yeah they're going to look they're going to look into so we're going to start again the superintendent is walking away from his recommendation as it stands
today and that task force is going to come up with a recommendation if they feel the need to have a recommendation and based on that they would present to the board and the board will act I guess I missed a very key function so the task force is to review our current
structures to make sure we're aligned to best practices ac across the district but the only thing the board would be voting on next uh week is the formation of the task force okay and then and then that'll explain the parameters and also how long it will take to get that I I
missed what you said was it 60 days or we're hoping for 90 days that way we can the board can react before this upcoming school year okay um I'd been lying if I didn't say I'm still uneasy about this well I'm I'm just trying to share you know with with which way which way we're
going on this and I know we were very patiently listening to everybody and taking notes and um I think that's the right idea is to have a task force to look at it absolutely um and then you clarifi the second part so that made me feel a little bit better um but I still
uh have a feeling like this is maybe a little bit too rushed so get your hand up so that's that's just me I'll hear what my colleagues have to say thank you Dr Zeman what this is just board discussion right now but I I think that might be useful
chair uh to to have some board discussion um we have heard uh not just what you said today but the emails that came in uh putting together a task force which is by definition a short-term uh group that go
out do one specific task that's exactly I think the appropriate name I hope it doesn't confuse people um I look forward to nominating somebody on that uh uh group Mr superintendent and just in terms of um Gathering uh Schoolboard
input uh I don't know if it wouldn't be useful for us we all came here today to give some ideas that we had you know we spent a lot of time doing it we have listened a lot we've heard a lot we've read a lot and that's wonderful um just in terms of a path forward it may be
useful to gather some Schoolboard input before that task board force is put together um uh but it in the in the event that the item has been pulled yeah in if I understand correctly this item is going to be pulled Mr superintendent
which is your discretion I understand that yes that's correct but it might uh it might be valuable to you and to the task force members to hear maybe highlights of what we think about the path forward about things that are working well and things that can work even better uh maybe some of the principles that school board members
would like to share I think also chair it obviates a need for two questions from from advisory groups I think if the school board gave uh our principles of the path forward uh to the superintendent and then we nominate somebody to that task force um we'll get
it back and again just in terms of timing whatever number you want to pick but we've got to get something in place so whatever whatever timing it needs to so they can go back to the board either in a workshop and then a discuss um a Schoolboard meeting to vote so it's in place for next year uh I think is really important we spent a lot of time and
energy it'd be nice to finish this item and create uh the kind of structure that works great for Brower County Schools thanks chair Miss Thompson so I think we're kind of missing the point and one of the reasons I wanted to have this conversation at a
workshop is so I could hear from my colleagues about how they Envision advisory boards and I understand that the superintendent proposed something I always viewed that as a start off for our conversation and we've gotten
feedback I've worked on comments I think if it just goes back to the staff again like our input isn't there we don't get to have discussion with our colleagues since this is the only way we can have these discussions and I would be very if there
is a way that we can like Dr Zeman said give our comments that we would have done to the policy prior to pulling it that's fine but otherwise I feel like we just wasted the home War when Now The Advisory chairs don't even know where
where we stand because what happens if during this whole presentation there wasn't even consensus to to restructure consolidate whatever word you want to use so to just skip our input is incredibly
frustrating if I could just be before we're going to get to public comment we just haven't gotten that fart yet we the the the item anyway I just want to address one thing I don't agree that
the morning time was wasted I mean we had committee reports and we had our quarterly report and we got a lot of really good information I appreciate so much the time that we've had today to hear the concerns and stuff I understand the frustration about the item but
remember the policy didn't pull the policy item he pulled the item um for for him to present us so I understand that frustration but I just want to be clear that I don't don't think any of us feel that we wasted the morning so I do
Mrs uh Mrs leonardy thank you so I just I want some clarification um is there anything preventing us from giving our comments on policy 1070 right now Dr
heurn Miss batia we're we're still going to do 10 that's not the item oh he's pulling it all it was okay so are you were you still planning on discussing I guess we need to know that answer because I think we were still planning on discussing
1070 so can I just this is my understanding of what's happening and I asked that question because I thought it was pretty straightforward apparently it's not um the the policy 1070 was routinely brought up today in in this in this discussion the superintendent heard the feedback he's reacting to the
feedback in real time proposing something else it was my understanding that um there would be board discussion on this quarterly joint uh school board and advisory groups discussion which included much of it comments on policy 1070 um it was also my understanding
that the advisories would would have an opportunity to ask the superintendent some questions so I'm not understanding what the issue is with pulling the next item which is proposing something that is now uh irrelevant because the
superintendent is trying to operate in a solutions-based way by taking in the feedback which we've been getting for you know two weeks now I think um and proposing a solution that you know I've heard from multiple people in this room
that would be amenable to them so I'm not sure what what the issue is here Dr heer so just to clarify the confusion the item number four is being pulled we're still in item number three so in
that regard the board and the um advisory chairs can still provide can still discuss and and just to clarify we have not taken public comment on this item either correct right not on item number four on item number three
correct right right so there is still an opportunity for the public to comment there is still an opportunity for board members to comment there is still an opportunity for advisories to ask questions correct I'm correct unless Miss batia says otherwise I the only thing I would
say is if I may um I don't believe it make if we're going down with the superintendent's Amendment recommendation there's really no need for the two questions for the chairs because their questions would be about an item that is being withdrawn so it's
it's a me Point don't miss Bowman M controlling the narrative there's a bridge in Brooklyn if you can't see it thanks chair um I don't first of all I had not
spoken earlier because I was waiting to speak on the main item so I wasn't being repetitive so I do I I really appreciate every everybody's input everybody coming here today all of the time and energy that you all spend obviously the passion that
you bring to this is very evident um and having been a volunteer on many occasions myself I really do appreciate that I know it's a thanless job many times it's very frustrating when you don't feel heard and so I hope that you feel today that this was somewhat
productive um and know that we're listening I am reading the email I might not be responding but I'm reading all the emails I'm definitely taking that into consideration and all the input that has been given the time that you're putting into doing that so thank you very much um I don't in terms of pulling
this item I don't know if we're talking on that are we okay I think we're I think we're reaching by doing that we're maybe reaching what is the foregone conclusion based on everybody's input that we need to have the community's
input and much more of a discussion with all of our stakeholders in order to come up with a better picture of what we need to do moving forward I absolutely think that we need that collaboration and so I I support that
um and yes we can make some improvements I'm listening to what you guys are saying so um I think that that will be for and Forefront in our minds as we're going forward to make sure we're having the support and you know there maybe there's some places that we can merge
groups or do things but we need to know really what's happening out of basic level so that we can make those decisions in an informed manner so I I support polling and then coming back with Community input so that we have a
better um basis for making decisions moving forward thank you Mrs Fam thank than you madam chair um I also um believe that we need to get community input I think we need to have a conversation with these committees and
their chairs and committee members and they should be given the opportunity to speak and to engage in question and answers before we come to any kind of Vote or decision and I just feel like what they've said all morning that you've been left out you been left
behind and I want to make sure that you're you're um contribute to this process because you're part of this process and for um someone to come in and oversee your process I think that's um um it can be a little invasive you
know so I want to make sure that you're part of the procedures and everyone understands the boundaries and limitations so you don't feel inhibited where you can't conduct business like you normally would so thank you thank you um so I appreciate again
all of you coming today I thought we had a very good discussion appreciate a lot of the suggestions on moving forward and also some of the concerns and barriers that you've had so hopefully we will be able to remove some of them um it seemed
to me as I was hearing um a lot of you speaking you wanted this item to be pulled so it sounds like that's going to be happening now and I like the idea of the task force where it is allowing you to have people come together and and
give recommendations I will I've said this to a lot of people and kind of echo what Miss Thompson said was the only way we can discuss this as a board is in this setting it's ugly it's um it's frustrating but the only way the superintendent can share what his
thoughts are with us collectively is in a workshop so that's what we were doing here today we didn't ask for this item so I just want to be very clear we did not ask the board did not say superintendent we want to see you shrink the committee so I think it's important
you guys understand that nothing wrong with him bringing us the recommendation it has been something that has been said as um some of you said by committee members themselves and the superintendent in conversations but this is the only way that we could could
discuss whether we agree we disagree so I just wanted to be clear that this wasn't something that that the board asked to come but it was important to come this way so that we could give our feedback um I there are some of those committees that were just recently
formed as was mentioned and I was um disappointed not to see them on the list especially the green committee since we I pushed for that one and we just did a resolution but also the multilingual advisory committee which I think could
fall under the academic so I think combining them is not necessarily a bad idea but love would love to see the input from the different committees and community so that when he brings the item back to us there has been that input but you have to remember that we
can't talk about it in any other way except for this so it is ugly and frustrating and and a lot of extra time but it's important and so we need to hear what thoughts are what are his thoughts are behind it just as you do
but we have to do that first before like what if all of us said no we hate this idea and we're just going to move forward then all of the time for you to give feedback wouldn't have really matter I don't want to say mattered but it wouldn't have been necessary because
we already agreed so I know the the process seems unfortunate and frustrating but that's how government works I'll use it you have a big company and a CEO decides that they want to reduce the company they call in the board have a discussion
and then they bring in the worker bees on how that's going to happen so I look at it that way so I I feel bad that you felt disregarded and frustrated and felt as if we didn't value you but I want to be clear the way I looked at how this
came was it's just how government works and so um we are very interested in in what you have to say and we're going to go to to um public comments in just a minute but I just wanted to be clear because I heard a lot of you saying how
frustrated you were that we asked for this and I just wanted to be clear it was not necessarily a board initiated it was through the superintendent and because it was something he felt we needed to discuss so um I appreciate him bringing it forward in all of the
discussion and we are going to now Madam chair oh we need to take a two-minute recess I didn't get the comment oh I'm you didn't raise your hand so all right yes after your comments for recess chair I'd like to comment too please I can go
ahead I can go ahead okay so um I know that in the regular school board meeting December 17th um we approve a recommended action uh to direct the superintendent of schools to initiate rul making for
revisions to policy 1070 and their membership and all policies that create any and all committees currently in existence um and so uh while I'm going to respect the superintendent's uh decision regarding
the task force and bringing this item back um um I believe I came prepared as many board members to discuss the item um and I believe that this was a a a um
majority vote of the board to bring this back for Ru making and that's what I assume that we are doing so there appears to be um a change so I I have a couple of questions um when when will
this come back after the task force is created and input is gathered Dr heurn siiv I'm going to amend my original 90 days because I don't believe that would be um if we did the 90 days it' be really close to the start of next
school year so with the goal of it being implemented if there are changes for next school year I think it's going to have to be a 60-day task force okay so John is 60 days the the um minimum number of days that we can move
ahead because I believe we were trying to implement these changes in the upcoming school year and many board members came prepared to provide their input to the revision of this policy that would go forward in the upcoming school year uh um we're inching close to the end of the school year which will
make it difficult to implement any changes and this will push forward a year and a half down the road so while I respect the superintendent suggestion I'm also concerned about time constraints and like I said uh many of
us came very prepared to discuss this today and to provide our input and um this is being postponed so John is there any any way the time can be even um less than the 60
days I think you would need the the 60 days um just due to the complexity um scheduling of the of the meetings um I'm sure the the board members if they were uh to uh vote on this item their appointees would have uh some scheduling
challenges as well so I would be I would be concerned if it was less than the 60 days okay 90 is too long because we 90 we definitely wouldn't make um this upcoming school year but I believe with the 60 days we're in March now so that would be um we can do role making in May
for a vote in June okay so if there's a vote in June uh part of these items are suggesting not only consolidating um committees but also there parts of the suggestion that we
brought forward in the prior board meeting in December to have certain limits on on um the time leadership can serve and so on and so forth um that it would be very difficult to transition into those changes when this occur in
June when usually the rotation of leadership for chairs and vice chairs is in June that's when they're so I'm just concerned about the things that we're proposing pushing this further down the road is going to put us a year
Beyond Dr heer I was actually going to mention um I think this is actually going to coincide with the June vote for the org chart so it's actually good timing um to bring that to the board at that
time for for a vote probably be on the same agenda if we look we we can make it on the same so we'll make sure the the task force completes its work uh for the May um workshop on the or chart and they will correspond with the June board vote on the or chart which would include uh
any change to the committee structure in June okay so the task force would be uh their charge would be one to review our existing committee structure to ensure It lines with best practices and the goal of the of the of the school board
uh each again board member would get an appointee so um we imagine those appointees will honor the wishes and respects of of the the board member that appointed them and also review uh policy 1070 for any changes okay so I'll just
finalize my comments I will respect the the superintendent's recommendation um with concerns uh because we had initiated we had approved the initiation the initiation of a rulemaking process
for policy 1070 and it came before us today as a part of that process that was approved prior in December we are postponing it adding another component to it and I will respect that uh but there are some unanswered concerns that
I that I have thank you John okay we're going to go to public comment sorry alen I know the board discussion can finish after public comment they've been waiting a while so
um first up is Feliz Parada okay uh Nar narik Pier Grant you can do it from there I my apologies the public comment um so a
couple of chairs mentioned they have um elections coming up next month so you know I know you're talking about the time frame but there's elections around the corner um uh the other thing is um I would I would have liked to hear the
concerns from the chair from the board members about the two-year limit or whatever because there's a learning curve and um you want to limit the four years to two and then it's the three Vice chair chair and and
coresponding secretary and and so there's no succession plan um and there is a learning curve and I heard a couple of um chairs talking about training like there there there's a lot going on and I think that if you just leave the 1070 the way that
it is I understand you all have you have concerns um but you all have fouryear limits and and and don't try to say that you know there's no comparison or whatever cuz at the end of the day the people who are in these advisories are the ones that elected you to be here to
be a a servant for the people um so while I appreciate the superintendent trying to um be solution oriented um would have liked to hear what the board members had to say in terms of how they feel about 1070 and why they feel that
these these changes need to be made um but moving forward uh it's important you making a task force that's great I'm not sure who's going to be on it and I'm not volunteering to be on it either um just saying that make sure that you do have um input from chairs and the committee
members thank you thank you next is Jackie lus thank you gosh I'm all over the place with all these different items and which bit fits into what item but I did sign up to um to speak to this further I'm
I'm so sorry I'm still a little confused about the task force I am all on board with the idea of a task force um um I advocated for that because I think a step back was needed I'm just unclear so this could be nine people of of any
they're not nine people drawn from the advisor Community necessarily um it'll be 11 nine board member one from each board member and two superintendent so it would be 11 member task
force okay interest all right so I'm going to return to some of my I'm I'm still a little confused but let's see um I did just want to go back to what I had prepared to talk about though the policy 1070 I think um to go into this task
force or whatever's now going to be proposed and whatever that looks like understanding um what we do and why policy 1070 was went through an 18month review process two years ago or that would finalized two years ago um I think
that's really important none of that context and background and history has been taken into account in the proposal and I know the proposal is now off the table but I think there's I think there's some damage done in how this has all tumbled out because
it has betrayed to us a gross misunderstanding of of that policy why the pieces were in that policy that now you're trying to take out again that you put and when I say you I mean board members who Wherever Whenever they were on whichever board um that policy was
drawn up for a reason I think understanding it and understanding how it applies to our advisories come along to our meetings please have your appointees come and even make your appointees some of you so that there can be a better understanding of it all thank you thank you Dr Natalie Lynch
Walsh uh thank you madam chair Madam chair I I believe at least I tell myself I believe that your intentions are good here um but this is beginning to feel like I'm like I'm stuck in the movie Tombstone and I I fear that Johnny Ringo
and Curly Bill may have sold you the Brooklyn Bridge so what was said here by all these advisory chairs is that they they wanted to provide input into what advisories might look like the solution
that is being proposed does not at all guarantee that that will happen because there will you're proposing a task force that is comprised of board appointees that does not guarantee at all that any of us sitting here would be on that
we've already established that there's been a complete ignorance demonstrated in terms of the policies governing let's starting with the meta consent decree which isn't even a policy it's a lawsuit starting there staff has already
demonstrated complete disregard or lack of familiarity with any of the policies and the functions the membership um some of the res the the assertions are just insane and then we would then take it and have boards board members who
probably mean well but again some might pick somebody random who oh I I think I have the solution it requires people that know the advisories that are going to read the policy that have sat on the advisories and that is not guaranteed to
happen under this proposed structure not at all there is no guarantee that this will not turn into an even bigger train wreck as we all have to form nominating committees and try to recruit people to take on leadership responsibilities we
already proved the math doesn't math if you knock out the recording secretary the vice chair and the chair you're left with no one thank you which might be the goal uh Alex bogof I'll wave it okay thank you um
need my glasses for the next one pareri okay uh Maria Jewel Danielle Hoffman um so I do I I Echo some of um Dr Lynch Walt's um opinion I do think that the
task force does need to have chair representation um those are the people that are doing the job the way like the best practices should include the chair um some chairs as well I I do have a concern with your timeline as a new committee we do have nominations in
April but um Miss Hixon you said that you thought that maybe multilingual could go under academics I'm not 100% in agreements with you there but let's say that that's what you decide I don't have the opportunity to run for a position under academics because that's already
been selected before you guys have even made the decision so now I have no voice at all and no seat at the table because you've eliminated my committee and elections have already happened so I don't think that that's fair at all and that's my
comment thank you so much uh Amanda Amita did I say that right I don't think she's here Nancy fry every time this mic just really wants to get away from me um I want to issue a caution when I'm hearing all
this I I do think we need to have a deeper dive whether it's a task force or something else we definitely need to have a bigger analysis one of the reasons we struggle with getting volunteers and getting input from the public and getting parents and Guardians on board with what
we're doing is the immense levels of bureaucracy to cut through to understand what you're doing it's taken me years to figure out a lot of this and there's still a lot that I don't know and I I really want to caution us of applying
this I understand you have to have a lot of bureaucracy when you have a lot of students and you have a lot of Staff but we are ostracizing people with the amount that we have and the number of meetings that people have to attend to to um chair Dominique's point that I
came from a saff me saf sack meeting this morning before I came here this is already my second school meeting of the day and people are intimidated people have to attend so many meetings we can't come to everything and there's either we have no
representation from chairs meaning that the task force is not getting the appropriate feedback that they need to know our side of what we do or you're asking people that are already committing as much time as we've all discussed to then put in more time to
fight for our positions basically or to fight for our committees um and I I would just invite the the board to be a little self-reflective you know what advisories there are you know what committees exist this isn't something that's being thrusted upon you in anyway to go back to my previous comments we
are your representation on these committees and I just invite you all to just go through make a list of the Committees figure out if you are getting something out of that committee or not and if you're not maybe evaluate why and if that's a result of the committee or if it's a result of your representation
there and and figure that out and I think the board just needs to take a look at that as well thank you thank you wendelin Andre Andreas Andre and Trisha
okay Sarah Coral Mary ferdig I was number 14 so I didn't think I'd be so fast here um good job multilingual on getting people to come out um I have a handout summarizing a lot of
conversations I've heard in the last few weeks and it's very similar to what Dr Hut bur is suggesting that there be a group to discuss this um I would tell you this is why our task force was created and and you might consider that in addition to the nine board appointees
we have a DAC appointee and a PTA appointee for a reason as well as a teacher appointee and uh principal and and I'm saying that because I think it's a broader perspective of people you can create it but I think that what you're
doing is to create it task force whether they can do it in 60 days I am not sure because I think that's a very very ambitious um goal I'm going to pass this out to you later but what I I really want you to think about is the overall issue of parent Community involvement
and what it means and the fact that we want to know what our community thinks as well I think it's important to know what the existing um advisories thinks I think it's also important to be doing community outreach and to that end we
will um I know aerin's here be trying to do that more with our task force um we've seen several communities several committees that were formed in the last year and in fact just in the last 10 days you've gone from a PowerPoint that
showed five advisories to one that showed six to one that showed 10 and that's not yet adding esol so it may be that reconfiguring is not as much an issue as how can you be how can we create the most effective model possible
and I hope that whatever group you you charge with doing this that that is what the goal is we have a large community we need to make sure everybody has a voice thank you thank you Cynthia [Music] Dominique good evening um good evening
I'm already at [Laughter] nighttime um while again I want to Echo the sentiments that were already shared here I do agree that potentially There's an opportunity to consolidate some advisories because um our
the things that we do overlap um but I would say that and I'm not against the formation of a task force I do think that there should be representation from each area um seeing as how we're probably the ones who have the most contact directly
with the schools um since we have a parent that sit on sits on our committee um I do think that potentially we should keep 1070 on because I think that any changes that are made or not made
just leads to ambiguity as to how we move forward because we already have an extremely challenging um time getting uh staff chairs elected at the schools and often times we're not
getting the names of those elected uh chairs until maybe October for one reason or another and it really affects us being able to have our own elections at the area and District advisory level
um and also depending on what happens with 1070 or when changes are made we'll determine who can sit in a position at the uh area level if it still exists because our membership is not just made
of random people it's made of parents who are elected at the school level and they then serve on the area advisory and then those the membership at the area makes up some of the membership at District advisory so I think that we need a clear Direction moving forward as
to what we're going to do so that we can know how to proceed because if this goes to rle making in June then I don't know how we move forward thank you so much uh Lorina Kagan
okay Kimberly mohar I have been stepping in and out because I had another meeting but I just want to make sure that um the review of the 1070 is going
to be a discussion another discussion M through the chair it would be part of the task force to review t 70 along with advisories okay and so the task force will have to be by the board members who
can pick two people to be a part of the task force or one we're proposing one that's right one and then the superintendent fixs two and what is the um time frame time frame yes so um the board would vote on it on March 11th
next week uh we would hope to doesn't fit perfectly with the 60 days so we'll have to work on that um May 6 uh workshop for role making for a June 17 uh vote so then you will let us know who was chosen for this task force
absolutely okay thank you if I can add to chair I'm I'm hearing uh the concerns about the work that needs to be done in the current committees as far as voting and all those other things this doesn't prevent you from not doing that um right so just
to convey that information because I've heard the that what it's not that I know we can vote I'm just saying if if for example my committing is on The Chopping Block right you move me to another committee I don't know where you're moving me so how do I run in a committee that I don't know I'm going to be a part
of Y understood I would I would um act as normal as there are no changes cuz even if this discussion continued for item four the vote wouldn't be till April for to come back to the board so I
know there are some sequences of events that happen in every advisory and every committee I just don't want um what we're proposing to cause caution for you to stop what you're doing because we don't know the outcome of what the task force will bring back um to the board I'll just remind you we're on public
comment so we don't typically go back and forth so um Zyra L Lees sorry Hi everyone my name is Zyra lentes from Deerfield Beach I was a past Esau
chair thank you so much for coming I did want you guys to know that um the Esau Leadership Council is established by the MAA consent decree it is not an option um when we when we do come here to
engage with you and give a report I saw the presentation it said three reports it's really just to communicate with you um and to work collaboratively with you and to sit on other advisory committees
or uh policy 6000.1 Etc but as I watch a Schoolboard meetings from home usually I don't like coming here I do notice that um it seems like you don't want to hear from parents especially when you're talking when I'm
speaking um and as a elll rep P representative your acronyms your policy is understanding how the district Works takes well more
than a year being a chair more than two years more than three possibly if there's a language barrier with that chair I find it insulting and strange and bizarre that a presentation would be put
out with staff not knowing it so I don't really trust a task force and a decision made right here while you guys are still still conversing while I'm speaking um this is why I don't come this is why I don't sit on advisories I
appreciate narni and all the and Natalie and all the people that I've seen walk in here Lou nayor Janet Bravo all these people have been around for years and years cuz we know but they don't want you
here and that's the truth thank you Maria Catalina Rubio okay thank you Vincente thrower he left Aron gou I thought I had signed up for the
next one so I didn't realize I was going to be called um I just I want to Echo a lot that's been said so I'm really really happy that we're kind of pausing and saying we're going to bring together a group of community members to provide um input on how this you know is going
forward um I the time line does worry me I think that we really need to be looking very broadly we need to be looking at people who are part of these processes we also need to be reaching out to people who aren't right now and figuring out why and figuring out how we can get others involved right um and so
I think that adding that um to this process would be very valuable again 60 days I'm not sure we can do that but still thank you for for thinking and considering to pause um the one other thing I want to just kind of put out there is the presentation that I know
has been pulled kind of was working under the assumption that having more advisories in committees was inherently a weakness of Broward and I actually want to say I think it might be a real strength I'm not saying I think everyone in this room agrees that we need to
rethink the process that's what healthy organizations do we can improve this we can improve the system we can improve how things work but I actually think it's pretty incredible that we as a school district have made it part of our structure that we want Community engagement in all of these different
ways it's really intimidating to come here to a meeting and stand at this microphone right but it's so much more accessible to go on an evening when you're talking with other parents and community members and you don't have to get you know up in a microphone these
advisories are really really critical to us getting parents involved community members involved and getting really important feedback to you board members and staff so I just as we go forward with this process let's just consider
let's do what's right for Broward maybe we can be the model right that others strive for thank you thank you so much next is Dr Trudy Janovich uh my name is Dr Trudy germanovich and I'm Gob
smacked I cannot believe this I'm sorry I wish you would have told these people sitting here what your proposal was before they gave all the information that they give you because
that should have been what was discussed at this at this meeting why not wait till next year to do this why push this like this you've got people here Mary ferdig and I have been here since
1977 doing this we know that this is the strength this is why you pass Bond issues you don't pass Bond issues without good community support and you
get it by having lots of committees not shrinking them because it's more convenient for staff that's your job I'm sorry when I started when I was on District
advisory I was one of the people that met with the superintendent once a month that was the only thing that we had we didn't have anything like this and let me tell you there was a lot less staff
and we had 250,000 students so something's off here if the staff can't work work with the community it's not the right staff sorry I don't usually say stuff
like that because I know there are good people that work in this building I know there are people that work in this building that have told me stories about how their kids did so well in these schools and what you're doing here is wrong wait till next year do it next
year just keep it the way it is next is Brooke uh bordy Brook 40 is that right okay okay hi all I have to change what I'm going to say because I spent hours criticizing pulling apart that
PowerPoint presentation that was uh provided just a couple weeks ago I went Page by Page to critique it I read the executive sum summary from the item 2B which only centered around term limits I had nothing to do hold on one second the
time went off oh I'll just keep going please all right so anyways I did read the executive summ hold on hold on one one second okay anyone got a phone yeah yeah
hold on yes I will hold on timer sorry yeah fun okay ready go I'm gonna talk fast don't
go ahead I'm ready all right we're good um okay so I read the executive summary it had nothing to do with cutting down advisories that did not come from the school board it was about term limits which we can take up but that was the background I also rewatched the December
17th board meeting you all spoke for an hour about this item I saw comments about building the bench I saw that uh it was not my responsibility to volun to police the volunteers or we're going to support free public elections for um our
leadership at these advisories uh one board member voted uh to open ruem on 1070 just to give the advisories more support so the context is really important as to why this item is here now uh I did go through the PowerPoint I
found it curious that uh the superintendent's office wanted to point to other districts um I don't think that's particularly helpful and as was said I think it's a strength for us to have specialized advisories and I want them
to stay intact going to the community meeting for 1070 that happened last week the feedback was excoriating it was truly awful it was painful to listen to but that was available before today and it's part of the agenda the written comments the summaries things that
people submitted it was available before today and all you heard today was repetition of that so why it would be pulled in the middle of the school board meeting is very confusing a lot of us put a lot of work into reviewing this policy and coming here prepared we don't have staff to help us out I sat at my
computer double-checking the statistics for all these other districts it it really does us a disservice um so the point is why I do even have a task force if you want to achieve a little bit of improved efficiency at the advisories
you don't need to have a task force do that you can have a conversation with us and then get back to your job of taking care of the kids we don't need to pull apart the advisories you need to focus on the kids thank you thank you so much okay that concludes public comments so we'll finish up I think there were a few
board members that had some more things to say so Dr Zeman and then Miss Thompson thanks chair um does our current policy 1070 allow the superintendent to establish a task force Dr uh heer
Mr salivan I would def I don't believe he anything precluding it especially since we're preparing an item for board consideration uh this upcoming school board meeting on the 11th but I will defer to our amazing general counsel Miss
Batista there's nothing in 1070 um uh prescribing either way whether the superintendent is able to do that okay terrific um let me just share a couple comments then um which I think um ought to help guide uh the work
of this 11 person task force um some of the comments we've heard today is about some people being on the cut block and some people being off the cut block or people being included and excluded I think what Broward County needs is a
system and processes and governance and training and support that will allow us to get the most from advisers that live in brard County I'm not sure if it's 17 or 19
advisory or task force committee kind of things um but I think we have issues that we can improve on many we've heard about today things that could get better but I don't want to forget some of the other questions that we need to
ask how do we get the best advisors to sit on advis committees how do we get them to show up to meetings how do we make sure they're informed of what's going on because too many times I hear Advisory Group
spinning around working on something and staff was working on something in parallel and they weren't talking to one another what kind of guard rails do we need about participation at Schoolboard meetings so that the advice that we get
from Advisory Group is heard how do staff Liaisons do their job well how do staff members who attend task force and advisory committee meetings get treated with respect and the dignity that they
deserve what are reasonable expectations the board should have about advisory groups and task force and how do we take advantage of technology to cut through the bureaucracy that you talked about how do we take a model of positive interaction with the community and advisers and
create the governance system and the structure and the practices and the training so that what we end up with is something that actually contributes 100% for the energy that's put into it into the Strategic goals that this community has for its traditional public schools that doesn't mean any one task
force or advisory committee would get cut it would mean we might go back to the drawing board and say how many is a great number for which the information can flow best what would those look like how do we always preserve the dignity to stand up a new one whether it's for
resilience or green or AI I mean I could argue very passionately about an AI task force because we don't know a lot about it and and and actually no one knows a lot about it we got a lot a lot to learn and we could learn that uh together um but I would prefer that we um stop
questioning each other's intentions I would prefer whether you have facts to the contrary or not that you try and take a positive outlook on what this task force might do these are going to be public meetings no doubt superintendent so all of you are welcome to come uh this is not going to be an exclusion group we don't do that in
Broward County um and so uh we need to get on with this there are improvements that can be made and um I'm anxious to see what this task group goes uh comes up with um and I um just want to make sure that we start with a blank sheet of
paper there is no kind of positive outcome that comes from people thinking about winners and losers the winners in this group need to be the students of brard County how we get advice from Key experts in their fields that can come and talk to us and give that advice
without questioning people's intentions without casting aspersions uh is really important and I think we need to look at all of those things so that when we get done and we adopt a new model for how we ingest advice from people uh that we could do it in a way that's generally positive
and generally contributory to what we're trying to do this organization is too important for uh people to think about themselves as winners and losers we are nothing compared to the system all of us are just here trying to do their best all in
different roles Schoolboard members members of the a CEO equivalent members of the CEO staff we've got to figure out how to work together uh to achieve the goals that Brower county has for our traditional schools it's just too big to take this personally uh it just doesn't
work that way we have to find out what's going to work for everybody and uh then we have to move forward it is the school board's prerogative to approve this policy and to set all this in motion advisory boards and task forces are created and and sponsored by the school board so it's a different role um but no
school board member would be wise to think uh anybody is lesser than one of us there is no lesser or greater than us we have a role advisory boards have role students have roles teachers have roles how do we harmonize the symphony so that in fact we make great music that's to me the challenge here it isn't about one
committee going or staying it's about how do we make sure that we're getting the advice that we need to make the best decisions that we can so I hope we can approach this with positivity and a and a blank sheet of paper and I can't wait for the superintendent's task force uh to come back to us and say hey we looked
at this we looked at other models not just uh Public School models but corporate models other nonprofit models we you can look at municipalities I served for six years on a on an Advisory board for the city of Fort Lauderdale they had 37 each some of them had 40 members so we had over a thousand
advisers helping the the city commission um and it was a system that was full of people that wanted to make a difference and when you put somebody on a board they didn't quit uh they went to the board they contributed they felt heard uh so there's lots of good models out there we don't have to start with 1070
maybe we throw that whole policy away and create another one uh but one that's really designed for the outcomes in mind and it ought to include governance practices guard rails Communications uh and the like so I look forward to hearing from this uh group I look forward to nominating somebody to serve
on it um and I I think we're going to end up in a better place and I would really like us all to kind of look at each other as partners in trying to create a great school district and uh maybe dial back a little bit of The Angst and anxiety we're going to do our best we trust that you'll do your best
uh let's see what we come up with out of this Tas Force thanks chair thank you Miss Thompson thank you chair I just had some uh questions and then come some comments so if if this task force is voted on next meeting will it then the
recommendations come back as a workshop or would it then come back as whatever we're going to vote on Dr heurn Mr San it'd be on the May 6 Workshop to ensure we're complying with roeming and be a final board vote on June 17th
um okay so I think I kind of think this is what we were doing with the task force it's having the the chairs here to to give feedback um so I am a little confused I wanted to clarify my statements I didn't think hearing from you guys was a waste
of time I thought Gathering everyone here to give our feedback on this proposal whether it ended up being six committees or 20 committees or whatever and then for that to be we pulled was frustrating so I just wanted that to be very clear that I value your
guys' input narni your report was not trash so stop being so hard on yourself um but it seems like there's consensus for a task force so I guess that's that's how we'll move forward and then I will save my comments for for the workshop
thank you thank you U Mrs Bulman thank you chair um so listen here as we're uh discussing forming a task force um I think that the committee chairs are making a good point I I'd
just like to kind of understand the mechanics of how this is going to work if we are taking them out of the conversation we're each appointing who someone that could be totally random to this task force and then coming back with um
recommendations it seems like that might not be the most effective way to accomplish our goal which is ultimately to have Community a forum for Community input to come to us to advise us about
how to make decisions to have the best school district and have the best outcomes for our kids so Dr hurn sure so we're not taking anyone out of the process um I'm sure some of these committee chairs will be appointed by the board and to serve in the task force
and again the the task force would comply with all public notice and public uh speaking or participation so it's not about um boxing anybody out again I'm pretty sure some of the chairs I'm looking at right now will be on this task force because board members will
select some of them to serve in that capacity and it's a perfect forum for them to make recommendations of what they think advisories and committee should look like most of the feedback I received in the community meeting wasn't how it should look like it was just not
to do it right so okay so I just want to make sure that we're getting those yeah so they're not being boxed out again I would be shocked if some of them aren't serving at that task force okay maybe there's a mechanism where we can make sure that I mean I
don't I can tell you that the superintendent's recommendation will be members of of current committees okay I can't speak well that's that's I just want to clarify that so that know what it looks like going forward unless they just are on the task force then if they want to give input or if they're invited
to give the input I I just like to they'll still IDE they'll still have an opportunity if they're not in the task force to provide feedback um the may6 will be a public Workshop that' be an opportunity uh doesn't stop anyone from U emailing the board now or having conversations with the board and again I
imagine a lot of the chairs that are sitting in this room will be on that task force okay and I just um one thing that I think that we need to be focusing on because it's something else that I'm hearing um is the need for support and
resources so that the Committees can do their jobs effectively and I think that that needs we need to look at that in terms of our own resources too that might dictate kind of what we're looking at in terms of composition going forward because it is a disservice to everybody if they're not getting the resources
that they need to effectively run their committees yes so um thanks for that Miss Bulman so wholeheartedly heard everything they said about the plethora of gaps they discussed about uh communication Resources Personnel support all of that um plus the additional feedback hence my
um desire to go in a different direction with the whole process um so I listened and reacting to the feedback that they were providing throughout the the morning and up up to now so I appreciate it yes thank you Dr Hess thank you Madam chair
so I just want to um mention for the record that um you know what the superintendent has brought to us regarding um policy 1070 um was not recommendations based
upon his own accord um that the what was brought to us was based on directives from the board and um I appreciate him for doing that um I realized that based upon input today that the superintendent would like to um
continue with actions to have added measure of input from uh the task force but for anyone who's thinking that the superintendent brought before us today um any sort of recommendations on his own that is incorrect uh these
everything in this uh um revision was directed by the board including leadership rotation including relevance of committees and so forth uh so these were all recommendations brought to him by the board in December that he brought
to us so um I am hoping that we are not um thinking that the superintendent is uh bringing this item based upon what he feels or what he his objectives are but this is based upon board directive that
we gave in in December um and I look forward to the task force um uh but I commend the superintendent for responding continually to board directives which he has done here thank you Mrs Fam thank you madam chair I just um need
some clarification um of exactly what we're looking for when we're seeing a task force um if you would um through the chair is this an individual that's um input get they have input at
committee meetings and and on decisions is this an a person that Recaps the recommendations in little the committee giv a decision and tells us their interpretation or what they recommend is this someone that oversees and assists
in proctoring without input I don't know where it starts and ends and I don't know if you feel that way but I'm very um uncertain because it's just not clear it's very cloudy where the roles begin and end with the Committees and the task
force What specifically are their rules and limitations if any thank you Dr heer Mr Solan uh sure so to work like any other U um board appoint to established uh committee so they would select the their chair and that would manage that committee work and then they would
present their findings and work to the board to take action maybe I wasn't clear um let me resay it differently I know what the task force will do when they meet but they're going into all these over these other committees and overseeing them sounds like they're observing them
modeling them and they're going to be either giving input from what was determined in these committees or they're not I distinguished from me yeah they're not overseeing any committees or function of the district they're looking at what we're currently doing and struct how we're structured as it relates to
our advisories and then presenting their findings and if they have any recommendations as it relates to streamlining those committees but they have no over they wouldn't have any oversight over uh these committees they wouldn't participate in these committees unless they're already a member of those committees uh but that's the intent of
this task force so there excuse me mate another question thank you madam chair so they're not having input on what the committee recommendations or decision-making is doing they're only having input uh in OBS observing how the
compane is performing as a group they're not observing they they're only looking at how the Committees have been functioning but not in an oversight matter it's just looking at how there if there needs to be an adjustment of how committees are structured but they're not providing oversight of our
committees what does that mean how a committee is structured they means that certain committee members need to be replaced or there's an imbalance just a number so right now we have 16 uh committees along with the areas so they would look and compare I'm I'm assuming this is what they're going to do they'll
be up to them what to do but they would look at other districts perhaps seeing how they're structured seeing if the current committee structure is aligned to the school board's uh goals and missions but they're not overseeing or evaluating performance of committee members or anything like that but they
are evaluating if the board the committee members um opinions align with the school board members no isn't that what you just said how did you say that no there so again this task force would over will provide their recommendations
if they have any recommendations of how we're structured as it relates to the 16 committees but they're not providing oversight to these committees okay I hope that clears it up for other people I'm still a little foggy but thank you thank you and I will
um end this first of all I again want to say thank you all for coming today and engaging in this discussion um again sometimes government is messy um but we really do appreciate your input I would like to ask the superintendent a
question which may um resolve some of the concerns once the task force meets and and creates some recommendations could we Loop it through some specific not all the Committees but maybe DAC um which has the area
superintendent sitting on it um maybe pick the ESC a few of the Committees to Loop it through so that they could you know kind of give back some feedback and then we could hear from everyone just in case not all the committee members are on the the task
force I I know um time is of the essence um no time is of the essence to try and um get this to a vote by June um so we would loop at the direction of the board but as far as me initiating the process
of looping I'm concerned about time so I would let the task force do their work provide the recommendations to myself and the board and then we can take it from there as far as the discussion on next steps okay I personally would like to see it looped at least through ESC
and DAC and I I think it's really important so on a personal note if it falls into waiting another year I don't think it's of the utmost importance to have this done by June I'm just one of nine I
understand the importance but I think we want to do it right and we want to make sure that um it doesn't look as messy as it feels right now so just as one board member I would be okay if it didn't make
the cut for the next school year but the next school year and I would like to see it looped if I make through the superintendent I believe that discussion whether it should be looped or not should take place in that May 6 uh Workshop that's fine I was just giving
my input okay chair just a point of order I just want to ask one more time about whether we need to wait a week to initiate this action is it possible um for us to give consensus to the uh superintendent to move forward or could we reread our current policy 1070 which
to me seems to suggest the superintendent can make his own task force and do this on his own Miss Batista so if there is a um task force a superintendent task force that does not have to go through the process of being
voted upon by the board um if it's you know if if you're if your consensus that you are okay with uh putting uh nominees your nominees or recommendations into that into that
committee or that task force um that that would be sufficient if it is the is for the superintendent to hear the recommendations so it's his task force not the board's task force thank you I appreciate that chair which means we gain a week of extra time uh if we move
forward as a superintendent's Task Force if he's willing to do that thank you Dr heurn yes um we can we can do that if that's the will of the board okay I think we need to trying to land the plane here but U it's okay so
um the S I'm a little confused the suggestion by Dr Zan then is to just let the superintendent select the task force is that what I heard no no okay what can you so if I may so this would um allow
us to do it to initiate it today versus taken to the board it would be the superintendent's task force but he would still take one recommendation for that task force for each board member okay um so cons well consensus around the board Mrs fam are you okay with the
superintendent starting that task force today yes yes or no I I would prefer to to hold off at this point not start today okay M um Mrs Bowman she's okay Dr Zan's good Miss Leonardi it's okay I'm
okay Mrs Thompson Miss Thompson she's fine Miss rert ask Dr H okay the Old Guard asking the Newbie yes okay so um you have your
direction roll I did Dr Hol said okay yeah all right thank you so much um we're going to take a 5 minute recess to let the next group come thank you again so much for coming and um thanks for your input anyway
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thank you and welcome back again to the school board Workshop the last item is the Smart Bond program transition plan I now turn it over to staff for a brief presentation thank you madam chair we turn it over to miss Paul and her team good afternoon um my name is Wanda
Paul I'm the uh Chief Operating and Facilities offer officer for the district I have uh with me task assigned executive director Sonia kohy as well as our legal council uh Tom Cooney and so
you have before you a copy of the capital program update it's a very high level to a certain extent in terms of the numbers uh uh on projects we asked Atkins realis
to do uh the computation of projects completed uh so at this time um we can uh go to questions okay thank you Mrs Leonardi thank you my mic's got moved around
um okay so reviewing the presentation I'm wondering is there a recommendation that staff has because I know you presented multiple options is there a recommendation you all have Dr heer Miss
Paul that's definitely going straight to the point um so I've I've said often times in our previous meeting we had one febru February 11th and uh one prior to that
that I believe the hybrid approach is uh my recommendation but again it's up to the board based on the information we provided to uh decide which way we go okay so when you say a hybrid approach um could you go into a little
bit more detail so what I mean by hybrid approach or called also staff augmentation is that we would basically be able to um work with our
um consultant to add the number of people we need at any point in time of uh the projects so we would be able to staff up and staff Down based on activity and the amount of need that we
have it gives us more flexibility okay so then would we be hiring a we would obviously be hiring a firm or consultant to manage that that work um what is the plan for that then if if the board so chooses to go that
way so we have um several options one of the things that we did not want to do uh is box The District in and not have any kind of flexibility going forward on our program and so this is including the smart program as well as the capital
program extensive Capital program we have uh so there is an existing contract uh in Duval County uh we would piggyback off that contract uh and then we would be able to renew with them annually if
we so CH chose to do that also uh we would still go forward with a uh RFQ uh for staff augmentation as well as a uh pmore or owner representative so it gives us a little bit more flexibility
than a lot more flexibility than we have now okay um have we looked at like I guess I'm wondering why specifically the piggy back in Duvall and if we've looked at other piggybacks that we could do so that is the piggyback that I know exist or we
know exist in Florida um and they have an accountability measure that we currently do not have in our current contract whereby uh they renew annually so if at any point we become dissatisfied with the contract uh uh
with the piggyback contract we have the RFQ that we can execute okay do we know or or has there been any research done about if there are other piggybacks in Florida that we could utili I think that uh there may be but it's a question of
do they form just for our work or or are they already existing and so the one that I'm aware of that seems to be somewhat successful with Deval um is the is the current one that they're using got it and um I forgive me if you
already said this what is the firm that Duval is working with the firm they're working with is Jacobs okay okay and do we have a history of working with Jacobs as the district I think initially Jacobs did part of the uh
2014 facility uh condition assessment okay but of course I wasn't hear but based on a historical uh part uh perspective I think it all right um given that that was mentioned in a grand jury report that's a bit concerning but
um you know I know things things change um if we do that piggyback would we be bringing in um would that bring in new subs and new staff I uh would not advocate for bringing in new Subs I would Advocate to work with the subs that we currently
have okay they are the most familiar with the projects and so um it it would be my recommendation to keep the current Subs in place and is that possible to do that with a pig with a piggyback it's a part of the negotiation that would take
place based on the consensus of the board today uh we would start that conversation okay and bring a contract back to the board uh for the April meeting got it and if we do a piggyback what does that look like in terms of the contract and I mean we're kind of
talking about that right now but do do we have to follow Duvall's contract exactly um and specifically I'm wondering about the hourly rates um it's a negotiation so we can definitely go lower so we can yes that is correct
sorry U we can definitely go lower but not higher okay my expectation is that we would go lower okay um have we looked at emergency procurement procedures I know the the
previous superintendent mentioned this I think in the summer of 2023 have we can someone tell me what that looks like an emergency procurement procedure I'm not sure in what context because we have uh if the decision is
made uh for consensus today we can bring the contract back in April so I'm not sure in what context we're so I guess my my point is if we were to if the board did not agree that we should do a piggy back um and we wanted to to move forward
with something else um would there be a way to do an emergency procurement for um a consultant to do this work so given the time um I I think that would be a question that I would have to go back to
procurement and ask or to miss Andreu uh but uh if that is part of the board's consideration then we also have the option of um putting back their original um content of aom's contract and
extending it for six months that definitely that will give us enough time to go the procurement route okay um and if we were to go out for another bond in 2028 um and we also had this this
piggyback going would that what would that look like would we have like two separate Consultants overseeing like the bond work and then the I guess the dfp or these these leftover projects like would that could that be a scenario that would be
happening I think it's a a scenario but I don't think it'll be this scenario I think that U with the accountability measures that we put in place uh uh my expectation is that we
would fil uh finish the majority if not all of the contracts before we go out for another Bond okay and okay um I suppose my
concern all my my head is here so what I what I don't want to see is that we um so say we do the piggyback and then we go out for an RFQ and we award it to a different consultant like
that lack of stability is concerning to me so I don't want us to be in a position where we're going from one consultant to another consultant um given just the the history of this Bond and and how um challenged it's been um
I definitely understand your concern um the the main uh reason that I chose uh this Lane is so that we do have flexibility and that we wouldn't be boxed into one particular course of
action so we can do a RF the intent was to do a RFQ to have that in our back pocket um we have accountability built into the Deval contract if we want it to go that way if the board decides well
hey I just want to do the extension of six months of aaom and then see what the RFQ or go with the RFQ we have that option too okay um and just one more comment and and I don't know if someone else can
you know clarify this but it was my it's my understanding that with piggyback contracts very little can can be negotiated like I understand that the hourly rates can be negotiated lower but the specific terms of the contract um are are rather rigid so maybe I'm I'm
incorrect because I'm not um the director of procurement um and I'm not an attorney and expert in P piggyback contracts but that's the way it's been explained to me um so I don't know if someone can provide some clarity about that but I would have concerns around um
doing like a copy paste from a different County um especially given just the the complicated nature of this program Miss Batista can you speak to that I'm going to refer to Mr Cooney thank you Miss Batista uh
typically with a piggyback Arrangement you all the material uh terms of the agreement must be followed you are correct you can negotiate the cost or the fees what have you downwards never upwards uh you do have a little flexibility with regards to uh tweaking
the scope of work that's being assigned but the material terms you have to kind of fit your criteria and your um your program going forward into the material terms of the agreement that you're piggybacking so the true advantage to doing that is the time savings without
having to go out and advertise review Rank and score and enter into a new contract but the the trade-off would be you you have to take that contract as you find it got it and one more question now that you mentioned that if we were to extend the contract with a
um is there do we have negot are we able to negotiate the terms of that contract at all uh similar to the last two extensions we did had some uh changing changes to the terms which are negotiated uh Mutual negotiation in
other words they're they have an obligation to consider it but they don't have an obligation to accept it okay thank you um okay I I just will reiterate my concern about um um going from consultant to
consultant um I have a little bit of a concern about uh being confined to a contract that was established in a a different County um I know that that we do piggybacks often um so I understand that but this is just a very sensitive
matter here in Broward um and and I just have to say this in in Miss Paul you haven't you weren't around when when a lot of this happened but um there is a history of the board being kind of boxed into making decisions at
the last minute um and we don't really have any negotiating power because an item is being brought to us right before a renewal or a contract extension um so I just hope that we can avoid that and I I appreciate you having a longer term
Vision um for moving forward thank you thank you I inadvertently skipped public comment so I'm going to go backwards and then the next board member will be Dr holus um first public speaker is na Dr Natalie Lynch
Walsh did she okay I think she left and then our second speaker is cyony do Cynthia Dominique Cynthia Dominique corl Springs Florida um the public doesn't have a lot of trust um and I think going after another
referendum or another Bond the district is going to have to do a lot of work to rebuild the trust in the community um and I can tell you unrelated to the bond when the district makes certain uh decisions that disenfranchise certain
communities or groups of students it also makes it very difficult for those uh communities to trust um decisions that are being made but one of the questions that I want to ask or I guess the board should ask themselves is how are we prioritizing projects and funding
so whatever consultant or contractor that is secured the Board needs to give really clear directions to them as to what the priorities are what their focus should be as well as requiring frequent reporting as to what's being done what's
not being done and what the setbacks are for example in the North Area we have several schools that have Smart projects that haven't even started active construction or they've started active construction and they've been in active construction for 3 four years one
example is laa State's Elementary that has um need some support in order to um continue on with its HVAC um projects and they've just been stalled and so there needs to be more
accountability whatever you choose whatever consultant whatever contractor there needs to be oversight I've been at schools where I see the work that these contractors are doing and it's not up to standards um um so there needs to be supervision there needs to be over oversight there needs to be um
accountability um and again ensuring that schools that are in Black communities assuring that schools that are in socioeconomically challenged communities it's not about Equity it's not about diversity it's about ensuring
that every single School in Broward County looks the same as another school in another zip code so we should be able to pick up that school put it anywhere and they should have facilities that are up to standards they should have the same amenities as any other school
across the district so that's all I have to say thank you thank you okay Dr holes thank you madam chair so I was listening keenly to the comments of board member
Leonardi and um I seem to share similar concerns and have um some questions as as well so I think that regarding
piggybacking that it is important that we um continue to include the current local and mwbe firms I also think that it is important
that it is equal or less costly when we negotiate um or should we negotiate with this particular entity in dval but I also share some concerns because I wasn't here then but I've have
heard while I've been here some of the concerns regarding the company mentioned uh by Miss Paul which is Jacobs I know they've done the facilities assessment in
2014 and I believe there were some concerns regarding that um I'm not sure how relevant that is to um piggybacking with such company but
um uh it's concerning in the in the sense that um the track record with us as far as what I've heard uh with the facilities assessment um wasn't near perfect so um I would be very
cautious in how we engage a company that we've had past experience with and we weren't necessarily considered the job performance a rated um and again I will reiterate that if we move in that
direction that we're not paying more than we already are that it is negotiated to be less costly and that it includes our current local and mwbe firms um I also have another concern
with the piggybacking um because I have inquired and I have been told that it would likely not be permissible to change the subc Consultants involved with a piggyback so I want to know has this been considered and has
this been researched and can we as a board get a definitive answer as to whether or not we can include or continue to include our current subs and local firms uh to maintain
continuity um of work as we try to finish out the bond uh projects that's a question um do Mr Aero Miss Paul or Mr Cooney thank you sir uh Dr holness yes the uh that that's the same
concern question that I had as well uh whether or not you could supplement or replace the existing list of subc Consultants under the piggyback um we have not taken undertaken an independent analysis of that yet but we've asked of Jacobs and their Council to provide an
opinion the initial response that we received not directly from their Council but from an officer with the corporation was that um they didn't have an issue they did not take issue with doing that so there has not been an independent review by us or any of our outside Cadre
um and if that's a concern uh we definitely will do that okay so Mr Cooney if the board should direct staff to move in that direction um it appears that we don't have
any definitive response as to whether or not we can guarantee including our current local firms and mwbe firms based on your response and I I thought I heard something different when board member Leonardi made the same inquiry or
similar inquiry so can you tell this board because I think it's important that we understand um clearly uh you know how we move forward so can you tell this board
definitively that we are able to in include our current local and mwbe firms for continuity of the smart Bond projects or will we should we move in this Direction with this particular company in Duval which is Jacobs that we
will now have to have their own uh subc consultant which means there's a learning curve that would probably create more time delays and so on and so forth because I think it's important for this this District to have a measure of
continuity and no further disruption in terms of our construction projects if I may speak to that so that would definitely be a essential part of negotiating uh with Jacobs uh that we would remain with our local firms and so
that's a that's a a deal breaker for us okay and I thank you Miss Paul but the other part of that question is is it permissible right under piggyback contracts I don't know the guidelines that govern these things but I
I I don't know if they've already had an existing contract if if part of their uh piggybacking guidelines or laws that govern that um allow for them to change a greater portion of their subc
Consultants because currently I believe the work is being done by 75% of the work is been done currently as it Exist by our subc Consultants so that's a significant change to to their contract and the subc Consultants that they're
using to assume the ones we have so I just want to make sure there's no legal uh compliance issue that a piggyback contract would have in place where that can't take place even if they said it it's okay with them then we would not do business
with them we would not move the contract forward uh our our subc Consultants have been a key in accelerating the program over the time that I've been here I can't speak prior of me getting here but uh so they are our key uh players in
trying to get the smart program uh button up and finished as well as our uh Capital program the dfp so that would definitely be a deal breaker uh one of the things that we want to have is just continuity moving forward and stability
of the program program and so um as I said you know um that is my uh recommendation going forward but you know of course it's the will of the board in terms of which direction uh we go right okay so I appreciate that
response Miss Paul and I would also just reiterate that outside of including our current um local and mwbe firms that it is equal or less costly should we do um this piggyback with dval with
Jacobs um and also on the record that I have concerns regarding Jacobs because of our prior experience with work that was done that we didn't necessarily consider a-rated in terms of our facilities assessment in 2014 so that's a concern for this board
because I think that resulted in increased cost to the district uh the way assessments were done um so I I just um have concerns as to
based on someone's experience as to the kind of work they will do in the future um I think part of me being a small business owner resume is important when I hire someone and their experience is important and
and so on and so forth so there's some concern there um as well so I'd like to ask some questions and on staff augmentation that you mentioned right cuz that was the next thing so what type and how many positions are to be in
house in in your view of St of Staff augmentation I don't have an exact number uh part of it depends on um how we move forward but one thing I know one of our vulnerabilities is just not having enough internal staff uh over the
years the staff has been uh depleted for various reasons and I don't think we need to revisit that but I think that one of the uh uh responsibilities that the superintendent has charged me with
is to to build a bench and to have uh uh capacity uh in in our departments and so when I look at and analyze the the the the capital uh uh Department our
construction Department our building department Department our fire code Department uh you know and I've provided uh previous um numbers to you about where they where they currently sit uh we we definitely need to build more
capacity there but the the idea of having staff augmentation or having U uh a let's call it a limited pmore gives us more capacity quickly and so my intent as we go forward uh with the board's
approval and of course uh superintendent Hepburn's um uh approval is to add additional internal staff because I think that's one of our um uh significant weaknesses and so to hire
these type people um uh you know we have to um be selective and competitive at the same time right and Miss Paul I I told agree in terms of building capacity um however I'm hoping that we're not
looking at building a a construction Army as we did in the past where we had major issues um absolutely not absolutely not you know I don't know if you remember Miss Paul but in March last year I had proposed an item I don't
know if you were here then or um were you here March of last year I started March 19 19th so no when did I start May 19th so no May so you weren't here so before you came Miss Paul I had proposed an item meant to
direct the superintendent and Dr hurn you were here uh to expand the district capacity to conduct program controls and oversee Capital programs and because of what we're discussing today I went and I pulled my item and so when we talk about
building capacity as far as construction um uh the item didn't necessarily to make it but the item was to um uh direct the superintendent of schools to develop an organizational structure that establishes internal capacity for the
district the plan administer program controls and oversee the district's Capital program and So within that item uh it it talks about um basically um recommending the in uh that it includes
um hiring full-time in-house program management professionals not limited to program director program controls director planning director and construction director so that was an item I had um at the time uh that was not uh supported at the time but the
question that I have for you based on that item that I had last year in March um will your staff augmentation um be similar in moving in that direction or or or how are you
planning to to implement staff augmentation as far as inhouse positions so if you look at page eight you can see that we have uh the office of capital programs these are 90 active projects that we manage
inhouse uh so we we have uh some capacity to do in-house smaller projects but really what I think we need to focus on uh um is completing the smart
program um and structuring our dfp or a capital program similar to how you would run a bond or you would organize a bond with completion dates and and those sort of things so the staff augmentation that I will ask for will you know mainly
focus on smart as well as um the the dfp uh but I want to also build internal capacity uh to focus on as you see on page 8 the 90 active projects to actually bring that number up internally
too because that's also where our staff um uh gets that learning uh ability to to to manage these projects we have very experienced people uh in our capital projects office we just don't have
enough of them so we have two two fronts that we're fighting you know the the the the the bigger smart closeout dfp and then the ones that uh that the
current um office of capital programs manag so we need we need Improvement on both okay so I want to ask a couple of questions on because you mentioned RFQ right um So
currently we have Acom and I also saw where um there is a suggestion as far as a six-month extension for Acom is that correct so that's an that's an option that's an option that's an option right
now as it stands the aom contract is for 90 days 90 additional days uh but I think um to be prudent um we need to have a successful
transition um if the board chooses to go with uh the piggyback contract but we have a number of things in motion at the same time we have the ability to the board has the ability to extend the U
Acom contract for 6 months 180 days uh we have the ability to execute the um piggyback contract in two to three months and then we have the longer early time uh to do the RFQ for pmore if we
want to go back to the traditional pmore model so we have a number of options um that uh to to uh look at uh also to hire in staff people uh to shore up our
Capital uh office so you know again I want to make sure that we are flexible we're able to uh uh move uh and accelerate the program okay so at the current Pace when would the smart
projects be substantially completed and and I'll just say this right I think this board is concerned about getting the smart projects completed right and in maintaining continuity to do so so at the current Pace that we're going when
would the smart projects be substantially completed in your best so the smart program ends October 31st 2025 uh that was a a board um um decision to end the smart
program that uh at that time so they will all roll over if we still have existing programs going on or projects going on they will roll over we will they will roll over into the capital program or the dfp so that is the
mechanical aspect of it uh one of the things that we did uh the V board voted on um the last board me meeting and I thank them for that is uh they gave us the ability to have uh Atkins realis
manage our master schedule and so um those are the dates that uh you see reflected based on history um of the projects uh on page let's see on uh
slide six and so what I um had have um gathered and learned from the board is they want you know you want real dates you know and so that is what I've asked that's how I've asked Atkins to manage our master schedule with real actual
completion dates now understanding that we have to have a really heavy push in some of our policies to update some of our policies because they haven't been updated in a while one uh so that is another layer uh the intent is to
accelerate the program recover as much time as we can where we can uh but again you know when the program started in 2014 we were flat-footed didn't have didn't have a plan and so each time you
see the amount of projects that H he completed in five years and you see what aom has completed in five years you know and I I thank aom in terms of uh working collaboratively with me me since I've
been here but I think you know again uh my concern is the district in our current contract does not have the flexibility we need to accelerate um as we need to okay Madame chair I'm almost
finished so in terms of the the smart projects that you mentioned that will possibly not be completed by October and we'll roll over do we have a number on those if if you will look at at uh slide six and also this is a forecast through
uh uh as of June 30th so you see uh on page on slide six and I guess I could go to that if they'll put the presentation up we got
it oh you got it yes ma'am so if we keep our current Pace uh you see 127 Pro projects and I can ask um Ashley Carpenter with Atkins to talk about um uh the numbers if she would
come up and speak to that this is a snapshot on page six of the uh smart program as it stands uh as of June 30th or will stand as of June 30th hi Ashley Carpenter with Atkins um
so for uh your question Dr holess again these are projections but as you said based on um the recent um rate of I guess completing projects per month um
on October 31st 2025 there would be approximately 1003 projects um still remaining to be completed of course if the pace increases it would be less okay all right so so we have 103 projects that
unless there's an increase in the pace that will be left to be completed Madam chair I'm almost finished um we are providing an option for Acom to get a six-month extension for me I would love to see all of these projects
completed and um if this means additional time for Acom and the current subc Consultants that we're using because this will maintain continuity for those projects to be done if we change the driver in the middle of this and bring on new individuals new
folks um I just feel like we are we started a race we're not finished and we are now getting new people on board to do so in terms of an RFQ so I appreciate the six-month extension for Acom and the question that I have is which is where
I'm leaning um are we able to do a six- Monon extension for Acom with another six-month option for Acom to complete those projects no no we're not okay and what is the reason the the reason is that the original contract is for 5 and
a half years so the six months was an extension of the five years so Tom Cooney can speak to that yeah that's correct so the original terms of the agreement we've already uh we will expire naturally the five years in the end of June and we have currently
a 90-day extension available which the board can and revert back to the 180 days and that's it because that's what we advertised initially so it's still necessary to do an RFQ period so regardless of whether we whether the board votes to add that additional six
months we still have to go out for another RFQ okay so if the board decides that it wants Acom to continue for an additional six Monon um with a six-month option um what is what is the path that the board can
take for that to happen so just Dr hold if I can the the six-month option and extension is is a one-time extension so once that six months occurs that's it you cannot no longer extended beyond that six months
so uh the October extension would be it okay so if and I understand that so if the board decides that it wants to continue with Acom and the current subc Consultants to finish up these projects that are existing which is over 100 and that time period is up what's the
process to bring Acom back they would have to be one of a pool of potential new uh vendors to come back and respond to an RFQ so they would throw their hat back on the ring again for a new RFQ that would be advertised okay so Dr holness we Dr Zeman has to
leave at 3 and you've gone well beyond your ATT I'll come back for my qu I have a second round thank you I know thank you Dr Zeman and I I'm not sure that you'll have to um I'm following Dr holus and Dr Leonard's lead here but I want to kind
of introduce a little Southern lore here uh chair if you're really a southern person and you hear someone say y'all what's the plural of y'all thank you Judy all y'all it's all y'all right that's all y'all go to the picnic right that's what we need in
construction in brard County we need all y' we don't need just a six-month extension we don't just need a pmore to help us do work we need staff internal as you pointed out Miss Paul we need staff that we can hire uh that can come in and do
some work we have a critical need to increase spent to close projects to do ribbon cuttings to put in hvacs to do facade upgrades to win back students we are sitting on $800 million in our Capital Bank account we need to
spend it otherwise what what good is the money it is there to improve facilities it is there to do faad upgrades it is there to do all the things we spend Capital Money on and we're staring at this question and the answer is all
y'all so yes and I I think we can just ask for consensus a six-month extension to keep Ecom around I think that's a great idea um I would propose instead of a piggyback which has some legal issues with it um and some negotiations that
have to get done is immediately going out for an RFP for a new pmore after the six-month extension is gone Miss Paul just I'm sorry to be so direct here but in your calendar here um on page 14 if we today as you say here in the calendar
March 4th six-month approval which I think we just got consensus on that starts July 21st it goes 6 months which I think is January 21st is it possible in nine months to do a competitive solicitation for a new port great nine months to get a new contract
can we do that Miss Paul yes so an obvious solution is yes to Acom yes to staff augmentation but you can't do staff augmentation if you don't have staff and we need staff we
need more staff staff augmentation is contractors you have in that help government employees do work and we need a lot of that as well and and I know you're working on a Model I don't want to wait for a 12 to 18mon window to hire people though I think there are ways for
this board to make some decisions like at our next board meeting to say hey here are some positions here are some money you tell me what you want let's get going because under the all y'all approach if we really want to win a bond in 2028 we need a new pmore that we
competitively select because that's how you get the best rates go out and let them compete and see who wins a separate contract would be my proposal but it's up to you Miss Paul on on how do you do staff augmentation do you want an idiq so you have five contractors and you can pick one or of each so that you have
like this infinite variety that you're talking about in in a in a hybrid model but why can't we go out with the RFP now for a p more RFP now for the stac mation higher people into your staff so we can get things done and then hold the system accountable for spend for ribbon
cuttings for hvacs for facility facade upgrades for all the things that the students of Broward County deserve and they need it because if we don't do cting Chair by 2028 one of our speakers is going to be unfortunately correct the pessimism of Broward County the economic conditions
of 2028 we could be the first time in Broward County that we don't get a bond passed for schools and I don't want to be on the board when that happens I want to be on the board when we race to the Finish Line we show them we can get stuff done we win them back um but I think we need staff augmentation as do you miss Paul you got to have staff to
do staff augmentation and I think that a competitive solicitation for a new p Mr holess Dr holess and to miss Lenard's point will get us the best rates and allow us to have a now because one of the problems with piggybacks we all agree on is if the Jacobs piggyback or any other piggyback has two years left
that's all you get and then you're right back into getting another pmore I'd rather go out with a pmore and get a 5e with a six-month option again or some long time whatever the staff recommends but I really know that we need an all y' approach we need staff staff a pmore
Atkins to stay um uh people to you know figure out how to close uh projects uh I love the stats that are in this presentation but I will continue to advocate for an all y'all approach because I think that's what we need I think that's what the community deserves we should be running as fast as we can
to open new wings of buildings to rebuild the things we can to do facility uh Renovations um and and uh and get things done to the extent possible the question I have is how do we do that if what we want to do is dramatically
improve this Bend what what staff do you need what augmen do you need from contractors how big is the pmore contract look like uh and the like and yes let's run for that six months chair do you need anything else on the consensus for the six months we're going to have to come back
to that I'm going have to recess for our Schoolboard meeting cuz yes we we didn't take a consensus we just do that before the break before I go we have to go to the school board meeting I need to make sure I have quorum to do that we'll do it you will lose a school board member if you don't do it now but I'm going to lose two of them if I don't don't do the
school board meeting right now so um so we're going to recess get ready for the special school board meeting and then we'll come back to the workshop to get consensus e e e e
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parp unknown particip is join that welcome to today's special school board meeting we are happy to have you join us and we are thankful for your time and dedication to our district this special Schoolboard meeting of the school board
of Broward county 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 has deemed the building safe to return thank thank you for your cooperation all please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
I flag United States ofice thank you as we prepare to begin our special school board meeting we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficient iciency for all our 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 EMP power achieve one Broward today's special school board meeting will operate in accordance with the school board policy 2010 and the board will review the items as
advertised and presented by the superintendent 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 120525 Florida statute that good cause
exists for such changes and accepts the revised agenda may I have a motion in a second to close the agenda to Mo second been moved by Zan seconded by Mrs rert um all in favor of closing the agenda let it be known by saying I I I any
opposed the agenda is now closed we're going to take all three it items together so the the business on the agenda is items 1 through three which is a motion to adopt the provision providing an average
3.0% reoccurring salary increase to eligible bpaa esab and BTU EP employees for the 2425 school year may have an Motion in a second on items 1 through three moved by Dr Zan seconded by School
Board member Thompson moved and seconded to adopt item one is there any public comment on the items yes Madam chair we have one registered speaker Dr Trudy germanovich U my name is Dr Trudy germanovich I'm heartened that this
board has pushed to get Bond money through directly into teachers Pockets early in the school year this agreement you're approving today has finally come to pass so teachers will have a little bit more money in their paycheck we all know it's not enough to cover Rising costs in Broward but the earlier these
negotiations start the earlier they can be finished something to work on for next year I hope the board will also ask administrators to be cognizant of things which do not cost money find the very best principles and APS who do not overburden their teachers but allow them
to have flexibility and how they reach their students here's a story of why teachers are often frustrated with my management the term Fidelity comes from the sciences and refers to the precise execution of a protocol in an experiment
to ensure results are reliable teachers are often told to teach something with Fidelity however a classroom is not a lab and students are not experiments as a result teachers and teacher Educators
have long decried Fidelity and the impact it has on them and their students one participant in the study a fourth grade public school teacher described an oppressive environment at her school they were really driving the curriculum down our throats we need to meet this at
this date and everyone should be at this lesson on this date this countered what she was taught in college every student is different and every classroom is different and every year is different not all teachers will be on the same lesson on the same day you can't teach
science that's way because you don't have enough uh things to do any kinds of experiments with students you have to share them she said to her to in her new placement my administrator is always saying is if
there's anything that you feel your students need then do it if it doesn't completely align with the expensive curriculum we've invested in that's okay she said it's been a weight lifted off my my shoulders our motto should be
trust teachers trust teachers let them be seen as professionals and just let them teach next week we going to have uh Anna FCO president of BTU and then Lisa
Maxwell executive director of BPA good afternoon Anna Fusco teachers union um we waited a little bit longer than we thought to get this um increased but you know we we appreciate the urgency with our new superintendent and some of our
newly elected Schoolboard members that you are seeing the the need to take care of all of our Educators and our Public Schools we have a wide variety of groups that represent in our in our teachers from our social workers guidance counsel
psychologists family counselors uh anybody that's in our ESC world every between support facilitators e Specialists and of course our our classroom teachers so we know that there's trying times out there with Financial Peace but there's also trying times out there that you know that
there's an assault on our public education we're going to get a speech later tonight to to see what's going to happen with the Department of Education from our for our whole country we're hoping that some special words of um heart and wisdom we're going to go through our elected president and do
what's right for our public education and not cut funding but we know that things may get harder if that happens so we need you guys to be cognizant that you know um what Dr Trudy just said that we know that there's a pressure to meet the needs of our students and our
teachers are amazing they're building such great relationships with our students but they're also building relationships with their colleagues in the schools along with their admin you know we have great relationships with our principl and our assistant principles but we know the pressure is real that comes from the super top we
we've made this a and we know that the need to to keep it we all know it's not a hidden secret and everybody's out there doing their part the first thing that they do is that they show up and then while they're showing up they're giving that extra piece and then after they're given that
extra piece they're going out they getting more to give that extra so we have everybody that works the extra hours to meet the needs of our students in our schools and then they go out and sometimes have to work that extra job to be able to meet the needs of their own family so when we get this type of
increase and we can continue to to make sure that an increase happens it is it's well deserved and needed so we um are asking you to make sure that you approve the increase and I do believe I think I not going to speak out of uh turn of
saying that the superintendent has made a commitment for us to get to the table sooner than later to work on an increase in conversations about pieces in our contract to meet the needs of our educators to have a better working environment and get an increase
before um the new year starts in our school year for next year so if you guys keep those conversations open talk together bring it out and then talk to the group that that brings it to us to the table we have a great um across the table relationship with your HR
department um I think they're getting it because everybody's impacted by everything that's happening in our public school system thank you thank you next we have Lisa Maxwell I'm not sure Mark kaple wants to speak and then after him to close us up we'll have uh Pete tenum from
esmat thank you um Madam chair school board members and staff um I I just am here today to thank you basically this is really um such a step in the right direction you know we've had some really
tough years financially uh and we know that but this marks uh the point at which we're all kind of on the same page equitably with the raise amount and this is a reoccurring raise so I want to
particularly thank the superintendent um because I know he worked diligently on this and this was a a high priority for him as well as our CFO who spent as I understand it most of her winter break uh scratching and digging for additional
funds to be able to provide raises across the board for all of our employees this is really a triumphant time um and we're going to continue to get better so I just appreciate every single one of you and your support for
this um and I just want to introduce our president Mark Kaplan he is the principal of coral blaz ditto thank you on behalf of over 600 principles and assistant principles for recurring raise I cannot tell you how much that my colleagues and I really
appreciate it we know the tough Financial Times right now but to find it uh meant a lot to us so thank you Madame chair Schoolboard members Dr heurn my name is Pete tingum and I am the representative for esab that's to support employees I'm here to thank you
for the 3% raise to all smm employees I also want to thank you for being included in the referendum dollars which we were excluded from the first time around and that certainly has helped us a great deal to be included in that as
well esmap employees perform a number of functions with development and implementation of curriculum maintenance of buildings and even though we may be suffering with some declining enrollment those programs both federal state and
Schoolboard policies still have to be implemented and the square footage and acreage that has to be maintained doesn't go down so it's very difficult when um employees are not rehired or there's a freeze on hiring to maintain
those so same Services it slows the amount of service that can be done both in curriculum as well as maintenance another issue that smap employees have is we are requesting some parody with to advaned degrees it is different for each
level obviously there's a minimum level of education required but currently it is there is disparity between that and I hope that we could be able to correct that next year one other point I would like to try to make is the fact that I think the school board this may be a
personal opinion is receiving significantly more accurate financial data now than they had previously and I think it's helped you make wise decisions again ASM want to thank you for your support and we appreciate the raise thank
you thank you very much is there any board debate on items 1 through three Madam chair I just have a quick question Dr Hess okay so um uh Mr tinam mentioned uh uh that regarding Advanced degrees
that smab uh have different um I guess uh stien for advanced degrees is that true and and if so why Dr heer I ask Mr azero give some detail on that yep good afternoon David azero Chief people officer yes Dr holness that's correct so
there is some disparity uh for instance I know doctor teachers with PhD are at 8,000 our principals are at 4,000 esab is lower than that so we are working with the leaders of the meet and confer groups to put all that together there's a salary handbook that the meet and confer groups have that we want to bring
to a workshop in May so we're running the numbers right now to to kind of put all that together why it's dispar I don't know why but we're looking to fix it okay great I'm glad we're taking action so we look forward to that in the future thank you yes thank you and I just like to say it was really important
for us as a board to make sure that we were able to give increases and that they were Equitable um for all of our employees so we're really glad to be here although we wished we were here earlier um and and we thank you all for
everything that you do although the question is on the adoption of items 1 through three all those in favor of adopting items 1 through three say I I any opposed the eyes have it and it is passed
unanimously thank you okay let's see here the wait the scheduled order of business for this special school board meeting of the school board of Broward County Florida has been completed seeing no obligation I now adjourn the meeting and we will be having a press conference
and then we'll come back to our Workshop we going this way yeah be help don't make me hug you don't make me hug you [Music]
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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you and welcome back one more time to our school board workshop and next uh we have board member
rert thank you so much well that was a fun thing to do it's great to go and celebrate our um our employees and how wonderful they are um going back to the topic which was uh about possibly uh doing a piggyback with Jacobs um and
doing a hybrid approach as a board member that's been here for a second maybe a minute um I can tell you that the hybrid approach with Jacobs and our staff from 2014 was a fiasco at the very beginning
of the bond um the the pre facility assessment was a mess and we all know that because that's the basic plans that we had moving forward and it was very hard to get back up and over again it would be another Fiasco at the end of the Bond as we had in the beginning of
the bond I will not support a contract with Jacobs and it would be like closing my eyes while putting the cruise control function on former superintendent wanted to staff up and staff down to augment the bonds that sounded good at the time
but in hindsight it was a colossal mistake um so I say caution caution caution there are many many grand jury reports to look at but as someone who lived through this and is still living through
this and my community is still going through with this in pompo and Deerfield Beach morgate those areas with predominantly black and brown children are still waiting for roofs they are waiting for fixing things up and to be
completely on par with every other school in the District so for me the hybrid approach I I don't think it's going to work um and I'm definitely not going to support the Jacob's um decision with
this a as for the superintendent who um we going um hi um it'll be up to him to to decide to move forward and my colleagues but um I will not be supporting this and um it was a fiasco and we we know
certain things uh now that we can't uh possibly go back and fix but there were things that had alarm Bells going off back then and you need people to say whoa we need we need to take a step back because this is what happened or this will happen or this happened in in
Houston and it'll happen here and it did so I'm not clear voyant but I've lived through this so I caution caution caution you and thank you thank you m
Bulman thank you chair um so I I I think we all are familiar with the fact that there have been a lot of problems in the with this bond from the beginning um and I just want to focus on the fact
that we are now in charge of making sure that this goes forward in the best manner possible so given the um you know the choices that we have I with all due respect to um Miss
rert I do think that a hybrid approach in terms of having some capacity inhouse and then also having um uh the um project manager pmore um also on board
is probably the best way to go forward I I like that approach it gives us flexibility and I think is that correct that would give us the most flexibility for going forward because then we're not um married to having Allin house or having just a pmore and really and
relying totally on what they're telling us because I think we can know we can see historically that that's not something that we can 100% rely and like to have some accountability in in house as well or um advisability so um to that but to miss
rubber's point I looking at the timelines um and the best way to do this and to what Dr holess and Miss Leonardi said earlier I think when we're looking at stability and continuity um hopping on board with
Jacobs at this late hour doesn't make a lot of sense to me um I think that if we can stay with Acom for the six-month extension and then do uh um RFQ that that seems to
be the best option for us because then we have the ability to negotiate our own contract going forward instead of relying on a contract that was um negotiated by Deval County and it seems like we're not
really uh 100% confident that our um subcontractors can be used or that about the legality of what that looks like for us using a Deval contract and I also definitely want to make sure that
we are using our local service providers as much as possible because we're having our local tax dollars should be going out to our local um companies as much as possible so that those would be the things that I want to look at so I like the hybrid a extending the aom for six
months and then starting with a with a new RFQ so we have our own negotiation thank you thank you Miss Thompson um I just want to Echo my colleagues concerns about Jacobs and
also I agree with uh Miss Bowman about the hybrid method so six months of aom looking at that possibility and then kind of building up our staff capacity so the the hybrid as it is uh detailed
in in the slides here is Staff augmentation so a come when we're talking about extending their contract that's the current contract that we have now and we can extend that if the board approves for six months right so that's
one thing the staff augmentation is and until I have more capacity here I can exercise the piggyback to add to internal staff until I can hire and I can get out of that whenever I want to
get out of it right uh the staff augmentation is an annual contract that Duval currently exercises right so each year it would come to the board to be approved so that is kind of the staff Aug the RFP RFQ process we're going to
do that anyway right so there are three lanes so the board has the option to pick um the six-month Lane with Acom uh
the staff Aug piggyback and the RFQ that we're going to do anyway so those are the three lanes and you can do all of them or you can do two of them or you could do well you have to do the
RFQ can I just clarify um so I just was looking at in a short-term long-term option so I think shortterm the six-month contract of aom and then long term we should have a hybrid system oh okay gotta sorry I understand gotcha thank you so I have a
few questions um and thoughts so you it to me it's very confusing when you smush everything together so the smart bond is separate than the capital projects is that correct it's separate
it is separate until October end of October when the smart bun right sunsets right so whatever was classified as smart um that program uh based on the board's vote will end October okay and
we have we already approved aeom to get us to that end or that's what you're asking us also for today so so what we have is a 90-day extension that the board voted on uh to extend aom's
contract from July when it was uh an uh the last amendment was approved for for 90 days and so the 180 day extension will get us to J January so it will go past October date okay
thank you for that clarification so I I agree with all of my colleagues that continuity and consistency is important so I would say definitely the six months continuation with aeom because it doesn't make sense to change that in in
the middle um I along with my colleagues have concerns about the piggy back not Piggyback in general just that specific company since we um are living with the repercussions of not doing a great needs
assessment at the beginning of the time and you know perception is reality for a lot of people and although you may have a different perception and experience with them we do in Broward County live under under the shadow of a grand jury
report that that called that out so I think we have to be cognizant of that as we move forward and what we do with our decisions I don't necessarily have a problem with piggyback is there a a possibility of selecting someone
different than Duval County that is the existing contract that I'm aware of so you know if if if the board votes to extend aom in April for 6 months then the RFQ uh will put that out and then
we'll see what happens you know what companies bid on the work okay so the piggyback was the suggestion on the piggyback is in lie of extending aeom for the six months it can be in lie or in addition in addition to if we want to
add more capacity so we could have both okay um so we'll we'll take a consensus in in in a minute so we give you some clear Direction but I think you're seeing a theme as we move through here I would be okay doing all three of them as was
suggested by Dr Zeman because we have a lot of things going on and the more people the better but I will just reiterate my concern with that particular piggyback so I don't know if it's possible to do research to see if there's a different one or if it just
doesn't make sense then just do the extension of a and then the RFQ and not do the piggyback if that's the only option for piggyback so that's that would be my particular um thoughts on that so I'd like to go around real quick to give you
kind of a consensus and then we'll wrap this up um so board member Bowman you're which lane all right well please forgive me I just to clarify what the lane is uh it
was the RFQ what okay the piggyback right and then extending AE commom for 6 months okay I this is how I'm seeing it and I don't know if this is correct so correct me for extending the aeom contract for six
months and then pursuing the hybrid method um moving forward so we'd have to have an RFQ and then we'd have some kind of Staff augmentation as well no I don't know not necessarily from a
piggyback contract but just as a general so if I can is that something so if I can explain again and I uh so the most we can extend Acom is six months so my recommendation is that we
do that because we will need transition time at you know whatever the board desires right so extend an Aon for 6 months another option we have is um to
do the piggy back off of the existing Duval contract and the way it works in dval is they renew that contract every year so they the the company brings it to the board and the board votes on it every year and based on their performance of the past year determines
whether they go forward with that contract so that's one option that's the piggy bag uh and we can use it for staff augmentation so uh until we hire I can also exercise that contract to add
additional bodies to to move the projects faster and then the and then the overarching let me do it this way the overarching uh option is uh to do a
RFQ um to get a new pmore or multiple peores right so we have to advertise anyway because the aom contract extension is only good for 6 months so that brings us to January so between now
and January we have to put out an RFQ uh to get another pmore uh if we so choose we need to or staff a contract or however we present it to the board that's what we have to do anyway because the most we can extend
aom's contract is 6 months does that clear it up a little bit I think because are we just deciding what we want to do for the next six months and then get to the RFQ that well yes you you can you know because definitely
if the board uh reaches consensus I will need to and my staff will need to bring back to you a contract to or a Amendment to the contract for an additional six months for aom that would put that date to January uh of uh next year 2026 and
then meanwhile you'd be preparing preparing the RFQ right and the plan going forward which could include a hybrid approach like if you even if you have a pmore we looking at having that as a less less of a scope of work and
then also focusing on building our right so I can you know we can look at um uh that's like two to three months to put a um staff Aug in place uh if we we do the piggyback off of uh deval's contract so
if you look I have it in the slide that kind of gives the timelines uh for each step but we'll be doing uh two things at any one time anyway because we have to you know my recommendation is extend for six months with aom and then we have to
do the RFQ right so those two actions uh if the board approves are uh kind of the choices and then if we want to add a staff a component uh we can do that also and when you're saying staff Aug are you
talking about solely about looking out to Outsource that or would we because I guess I'm I guess I'm confusing actually hiring the way it could work and I know this is kind of how the sausage is made but the way it can work is we have capital projects
that uh Miss handles over in her department so I can exercise the Duvall contract and say hey can I get two more project managers to help her over in that particular area for that specific
purpose right uh to accelerate the projects the 90 projects that she has uh Acom already has the projects that they're working on uh and then I think they also have t 10 dfp projects that they're working on so I can add
additional capacity uh um with a stag or with a a a stag augmentation contract if we if we wanted to do that can it's sort of like the piggyback is sort of like us having Kelly Services for Subs we don't
have to find Subs anymore they take care of it so it's allart same idea if that helps yeah it's it's like allart you know I I don't want a steak but I want mashed potatoes but that's what you would suggest and instead of actually hiring
full-time staff eventually that no I I definitely that's kind of what I'm thinking we do that gives us a that gives us additional capacity until we can hire full-time uh staff because uh uh you know just building that capacity
takes time so that would be the goal okay so I I still um because of the you know the concerns that have been brought up I I still support extending the Acom um contract for the six months and
then doing the RFQ that piggy B contract might still be available if we had to go back to it later anyway right okay okay Mrs leonardy I'm for extending aom um and
then doing an RFQ thank you I I'm for all three if there was a choice of a different company um so if not then I would just be in favor of the RFQ and extending aeom for right nowson um I'm for extending aom not for
the piggyback and then an rfu afterwards Mrs rert no surprise um I'm for extending um aeom and for the six months and RFQ Dr holess thank you madam chair I am
for extend in Acom for 6 months and then for the RFQ I am absolutely not for piggy back in on the Duval contract okay thank you staff do you have everything that you need okay great thank you um at this
time do any of my colleagues have anything to bring to the board or student successes to share I would just like to actually wanted to bring this up when um the North Area chair was talking about
suicide and and things that they wanted to implement and just give a huge shout out and kudos to our staff and uh our partner communitybased connections along with um my my staff of one Jessica U we
were able to host the everyone counts healing through the Arts and it was a fantastic day on Saturday at pompo not pompo Plantation Middle School students walked in P families walked in it was like an art gallery McFatter um did the
food but it was a resource for parents to know how to deal with their students um when they have stresses maybe instead of yelling at them when they have a bad grade how is it that they approach them um to reduce their stress students
learned about resilience in terms of it's okay to fail because you've you learn by failing they learned a little yoga um they were able to do some artwork to help release the stress so the whole point of that act that event was to give our students and our
families some skills and resources and Community Based connection did a great job with the parent workshops they did little skits like how you should react to things and things of that nature they had a panel thank you to Dr holess for coming out and saying hello um but it
was a great event and I think that we should do more of those and and maybe different areas so that we're highlighting our students but we're also giving the families some of those Mental Health Resources and and tools that would help them to reduce the anxiety
and stress that their students have so it would be great to see that replicated in other places and I just want to one more time give a plug um to say that we are pleased to announce that nominations for the district advisory and committee volunteer categories for the 2025
Community involvement Awards to be held on Thursday May 22nd 2025 at 9:00 a.m. at the Lauder Hill Performing Arts Center are now being accepted until March 21st the public can nominate any member of an advisory for their work and service performed on the committee
through December 2024 visit get involved with Brower County Public Schools web page for more details and to access nomination forms and on a different note we have two Broward County students that are up for the Eco hero Channel 10 um award one
goes to South Plantation the other one goes to American Heritage and you can vote for them daily until March 14th and the winner gets a week trip to Australia so it's pretty awesome so if you go and and help them to be successful they win
by people voting online so Channel 10 local 10.com thank you the scheduled order oh sorry madam chair I just have one thing really I'm so sorry okay I I I forgot to mention this so regarding artificial
intelligence recently I learned about three excellent events focus on artificial intelligence hosted by the Innovative learning Department which I wanted to share the teacher voice teen ties and interactive engagement with students which I will be attending on
Thursday March 6 parent University on March 12th as AI continues to be integrated into every aspect our of our life lives especially in education I wanted to inquire about the possibility of providing the board with training or
a webinar on this topic it is important for us to understand how AI is being implemented in schools and its impact on our educational system so just wanted to mention that um if the board would have interest in a board training or a webinar on on on AI as it impacts our
students and in the classro okay um anybody opposed to having some training on AI okay okay Dr heer certainly uh we can work with the Innovative learning Department um to
create some training um probably do it in a workshop probably um and yeah so you know ever Advan in technology we're leveraging it ourselves to make sure we're being as efficient as possible so I think it's a great opportunity for the board and also um the board secretaries
as well yes yes we're all learning to use co-pilot it's a great tool um the scheduled order of business for this school board Workshop of the school board of brard County Florida has been completed seeing no obligation I now adjourn the meeting
thank you all and have a great great evening e e e for