##VIDEO ID:hbB-6hkopbg## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] aah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah yeah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah w w yeah yeah yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] to [Music] [Music] good morning morning this special meeting of the school board of Brower County Florida is now called to order Dr heurn are there any items to be added to the am I reading the wrong one no there any items to be added to the agenda oh not yet no chair okay hold on one second we don't have the yeah we don't do the pledge yet for this okay thank you um may I have a motion in a second to close the agenda so moved been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs alhf all in favor of closing the agenda say I I all those opposed say no the agenda is now closed are there any are there any parents present to speak against recommended or final orders okay since there are no disputed facts and no parents are present to speak against the final against recommended or final orders may I have a motion in a second to approve all final orders so moved been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs Al is there any discussion all in favor of approving all final orders say I I I those opposed say no all final orders have been approved I now declare the special school board meeting is adjourned e e welcome to today's regular school board meeting we are happy to have you join us and we are thankful for your time and dedication to our district this regular meeting meeting of 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 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 you for your cooperation board member fam has um selected the schools for today so um let's see please rise and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance by Falcon Cove Middle School and and the Cypress Bay Roc col to the fal please rise for the pledge of alance we are middle home of the fal please rise for the pledge of alance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for IT stand one nation under God indivisible fory and justice for all thank you you may be seated board member Bowman has requested a moment of silence for a staff member from South barard High School Mrs Bowman um thank you chair is there a I think there was a little thing they were supposed to play no be Beacon do you have the memorial slides um that's not mine yeah okay I'll go first I guess okay I also have a moment of silence for the crossing guard at Tropical Elementary it is sorry there it is with great sadness that I share that one of our dear longtime crossing guards from tropical Elementary Miss Connie Shepard passed away just before Christmas miss Connie was an amazing woman with a vibrant kind and generous soul who was always so caring for our children she will be greatly missed please join me in a moment of silence thank you thank you chair um I would like to take a moment to remember Andrew Landry who was a custodian at South Broward High School he was originally from my home state of Michigan but was a Floridian at heart loved Florida loved his job at South Broward was a lifelong learner had um recently been certified in HVAC and was very happy with his job at Al Broward and with the students and his colleagues and will be missed thank you thank you the superintendent released a revised agenda with certain changes for this meeting and published it on the school board School District's website the chair finds pursuant to section 120.5 25 Florida statute that good cause exists for such changes and accepts the revised agenda May the chair have a motion and second to close the agenda second by moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs Thompson all in favor of closing the agenda say I I those opposed say no the agenda is now closed May the chair have a motion in a second to approve the minutes for the following meetings October 15 2024 regular Schoolboard meeting October 22nd 2024 special school board meeting December 17th 2024 special expulsions so moved moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs Leonardi is there any discussion all in favor of approving the minutes as listed say I I I all those oppos say no the minutes are approved as we prepare to begin our regular school board meeting we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficient proficiency 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 sorry our theme this year is believe in power achieve one Broward the chief Communications and legislative officer pulled the board of any agenda items they wish to address in advance of the meeting at this time May the chair have a motion in a second to pass the consent items that not have not been pulled for discussion which are are H5 H6 A1 J1 J2 o1 O2 and S2 so moved H3 was pulled I called the ones that aren't pulled S3 I it it's been moved by Dr Zan we need a seconded by Miss uh Mrs Thompson okay Madam chair yes can you repeat it again sure so these are the items that have not been pulled that's H5 H6 A1 J1 J2 o1 O2 and S2 thank you you're welcome at this time yes I'm sorry chair to interrupt but I pulled F2 yes I only I I called the ones that were not pulled the ones I read are the items that have not been pulled I didn't call F2 okay yeah I'm sorry I just I heard F2 must have been someone in the audience asking to pull it okay so at this time we have a registered speaker for oh it's pulled H6 is pulled though oh oh I'm sorry yes we have a register be for speaker for H6 which was not pulled so at this time if Natalie Lynch Walsh would come up for her chair did we complete the approval of consent items that haven't been pulled I didn't hear a vote oh sorry yes we did you oh no the public gets to speak first and then we vote so that's the part where we're at okay so the public speaker is not here so all in favor of approving the consent agenda items that have not been pulled for discussion say I I I those opposed say no okay the next item of business on the agenda is H1 a motion to approve appointments leaves and separations of employment May the chair have a motion in a second on item H1 it moved it's been proved it's been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs Leonardi it is moved and seconded to approve H1 a motion to approve appointments leaves and separations of employment is there any public comment on H1 no register speakers Madam chair okay uh board debate let me go to H1 uh Dr holes Madam chair I am okay with that item now okay uh Mrs rert thank you um where are we in this time last year and now with resignations and retirements uh we used to actually have that with the agenda items when they did come so we can see it engage um how well we are retaining our employees and the number of retirements and and resignations so through the superintendent Dr um thank you m chair m ruper u Mr azero you have that info if not we can provide a followup and make sure we could add that in the future okay we'll do a follow-up Miss ruper and also add that um moving forward moving forward to compare and contrast at the same time of the previous year it's it's really helpful because then we can actually zero in if if certain U groups of individuals have a rising numbers so thank you so much absolutely although for the record I did have this in ahead of time so thanks thank you the question is on the approval of H1 those in favor of approving H1 say I I I those opposed say no the eyes have it and H1 is [Applause] approved the chair would like to take a moment to recognize new staff appointments we would like to congratulate each of you for your career advancement with Broward County Public Schools we value you and your families if we could give the appointees a round of applause again Dr heern do you have um any new leaders that you would like to introduce for a few remarks um no new directors or above at this at this moment in time but I definitely want to congratulate all of our new team members welcome to team BCPS or if you got a recent promotion uh congratulations on that looking forward to supporting you um as many of my staff know we are about supporting you making sure that you can do your job as best as you can for all the students that we serve so congratulations again thank [Applause] you at this time we will now recess this regular school board meeting for a board photo with the new staff appointees [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e this regular school board meeting is now reconvened next I will take a motion and a second for item H2 which is employee corrective action so it's been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs Leonardi um any public comment on H2 no register speakers Madam chair okay Dr holness thank you madam chair so for employee um Victoria card Cardoza um it appears that there is a 3-day suspension based upon this particular employee failing to notify Administration that a another employee was sleeping on the job is that correct Dr heurn Mr Aero yes that's correct okay so what is the um normal um is is a 3-day suspension for any employee who has observed someone doing something that they're not supposed to do but decided not to report it is a 3-day suspension the the norm for such an employee Mr AO no so it's um Dr holess it yes it was an employee but it's also because it was a campus monitor so is it a safety reason for that okay so the question then is a 3-day suspension the usual uh um consequence for any for an employee observing a another employee who may be um involved in security uh is a 3-day suspension in Norm as far as consequence for that person yes it is okay so basically then uh based on this item any employee within the school district observing another employee uh not doing what they're supposed to do is under obligation to report that or they will be consequence to those employees that's possible yes okay um the other question I have is on uh actually I just want to follow up with another question H has there been any other employee that you may be aware of who has been punished because they observe uh security Personnel or any employee not doing what they're supposed to do but by the mere fact that they did not report it they decided I'm going to mind my own business um that that employee was punished do we have any any history of punishing someone for deciding not to report an incident that they observe Dr heer Mr ASO so to our knowledge this is the first time an employee has been disciplined for not reporting uh a Security employee sleeping on the job okay do we have any information and and um Miss Batista I'm not sure if we're privy to that uh you can educate me on that but do we have any information on what the reason was for this employee deciding I'm going to mind my own business I I don't want to get involved Dr heer I give uh Mr a on team some time to go through the doc um but but while they're doing that I do want to comment that due to the Life Safety and Security issue with the security guard sleeping on a job that that is a huge deal for us because somebody could penetrate our our um single point or other other issues of getting on campus um without knowledge go ahead Mr Azo M loo or Mr loano go through the chair Ernie Lozano executive director Professional Standards so she said she didn't directly this individual said they didn't directly see the individual ual sleeping it was reported by a parent to this individual okay so the individual that we're that we're consequenc in um is saying they did not see the security monitor sleeping is that what you're saying that's correct me from R Lozano a parent observed a security guard sleeping on a job alerted this individual and this individual did not uh carry forth the information to school administration that's correct okay and this individual what is the this um scope of responsibility that this individual has um besides being a a classroom assistant general clerk most likely a front office clerk where where a parent has access to um give information okay so I'd like to make a motion to extract this particular item from the list and vote separately there a second okay thank you all right Madame chair that's it for me thank you okay thank you so much all those in favor of item H2 employee corrective action say I I all those opposed say no motion carries the next item up is H3 supplemental pay position six can I have a motion in a second second it's been moved by Dr Zan seconded um by Mrs Rupert any public comment on H3 no public comment Madam chair board discussion Mrs ala thank you so I would like to just bring to the board's attention uh possible opportunity for the superintendent to look into saving some money within the service learning allocation we spend a total of $ 23,36 for basically triaging service hour um volunteer hours that students have to do so I know there is an app out there that uh I would ask if the superintendent can look into the possibility so we're very paper driven when students do service hours they have to fill out a paper but there's apps out there that students can have all the information filled out electronically and then with 67,68 students with all that paper it's difficult right and so I think this is an opportunity that we can be green and and go through an app to help us and then possibly that would lower the allocations and supplements that we have to to give out Dr Zan thanks so much chair uh I think that's a brilliant idea um and every time we find a way that we're using paper and people to do things with technology most cases not all cases but in most cases the technology does it better and one of the things that we've seen on U the app that uh one of my children uses for service hours is it also gives you a list of 1,200 organizations that you can get in touch with in order to do it and we have a lot of students that believe it or not get very little information on how to volunteer and to donate their time but the technology allows you to put in your zip code and you can get U things that you can walk to things that your parents could drive you to um and other things that uh other students have done it's a pretty simple algorithm to just capture these things uh but moving this process and moving every other process we can to an app to web- based kind of tools reduces the death of trees reduces paperwork and more importantly reduces the mind-numbing tasks that we ask people to do when they look at a form come over here type it in and they do that 67,000 times a year uh there's a better way to do this um it's a really big uh strength of Brower County Public Schools uh it's shocking the millions of hours that our kids donate every year but I think we don't attract we don't account for all of the hours because of the processes we use to do them so this is a great idea thank you nobody else I I'd also think it's a great idea um I just would have a question would the app tie it right into wherever it needed to go so for graduation purpose is because that's really what the person who does service hours is doing is just verifying that they have enough service hours to graduate so would that does anybody know if those apps link to our system or would we still need somebody to input it into the system um I would say this U Madam chair give us opportunity to explore um these options and uh we could provide some feedback to the board and and see how we can implement this okay and I just say three of us said something but if everybody could kind of either give a thumbs up or thumbs down if you're interested in having the superintendent do this okay great all right thank you thank you Mrs alad for the suggestion the next item um we need a motion in a second for is H4 out of field teacher approvals FTE survey 3 so mve uh chair I'm sorry you have to vote oh oh I'm sorry what vote all those in favor of H3 say I I all those opposed H3 passes thank you sorry about that um now we need a motion for H4 so move second moved by Dr Zeman seconded by Mrs rert is there any public comment on H4 Mr Sullivan I'm sorry no public comment thank you Dr Zan thanks so much chair I just want to um kind of highlight some data that's really I think important for us to think a little bit about and make a suggestion about how we do this report in the future um parents are always concerned about certified teachers they're concerned about teachers that are certified for that specific uh subject matter at the grade level or at the school level it's a legitimate concern when they see a thousand students that are teaching outside of what they're certified to do you get emails and phone calls and I think it puts out um a narrative that really isn't very accurate Brer County schools for the last five years has average 93% on day one of the school year of having a teacher certified to teach the class by uh February of that year Brower County Schools average for eight years is 98% it is something that we ought to brag about uh we talk a lot about school choice from this table and in that well down there but in terms of having certified teachers having teachers are certified in the subject matter and the level for which they are assigned uh we are the best in Broward County by far not even close uh so if you look at alternate ways of getting your education that's great if you want to have a certified teacher who is certified in their trade and you want them to be certified in the subject matters uh Brower County Public Schools is 98% uh by the middle of the year and has been at that level for five years uh no motion on that chair but I would like to make a suggestion about future reports on this um there are certainly some lack of certifications that are different than others if we wanted to know whether or not a computer science uh teacher or a chemistry teacher or a physics teacher certified that might really make a big difference uh there are some other uh working out of certifications that are only because you're certified at high school level and not yet at middle or certified at middle not yet at High um I view that second group is kind of a benign set of working out of certific out of uh out of of of what's required um and and but we keep telling the public just big numbers of people so my suggestion would be by the time we bring this report back next year that we have something that the the public can consume that kind of segregates things that are um uh kind of one category of impact and another a larger category of impact but it's just a a way of reporting the data uh next year okay thank you anybody else okay all those in favor of item H4 say I I any opposed say no H4 passes thank you the next item um up on the agenda that we need a motion in a second is for F1 which is the surplus of tangible personal property so move been moved by Dr Zeman seconded by Mrs rert any public comment no ma'am okay um Mrs ala thank you so originally this this item came with uh there was about 20ish uh items that had a net Book value of $3,665 which I thought was very interesting however we had a followup that zeroed that all out again thought that was very interesting so my question was going to be if they had values which they originally said they did what are we doing with those items are we donating them them but now with the followup there there is no value so that was my thoughts and um I know we had an audit and there was no Netbook value so I just think that's something to take into consideration if there is a netbook value thank you Dr heurn do you want to Yes um absolutely um thanks thanks for the comments U Miss alad yes so many of these items they reach their their useless um their useful life and can't be used even if we donate them so essentially they are useless um and so uh and they're pass warranty they're not um good use for donating to other facilities or or or places like that but uh Mr Davis is actually working to acquire services from recyclable recycling companies that would actually pay us for these items um in the future it's about all we can do with them besides putting them in a trash so we're trying to make money off of recycling them too thank you the next item up for vote is F2 the budget report Madam chair you do have to vote oh I'm sorry I keep skipping that all those in favor of item F1 say I I all those opposed say no item passes next up is F2 budget reports for the period July 1st to November mber 30th 2024 need a motion in a second so move it's moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs Thompson is there any no comment Madam chair okay uh Dr Zan thanks so much chair um amongst the character flaws that I have I enjoy uh reading Financial reports um it's it's uh it's an important thing to do as this board has said repeated ly if you want to know the values of Brer County Public Schools look at what we fund and look at what we don't fund um going forward uh chair uh my expectation is we're going to get uh each month of budget amendments uh within some reasonable amount of period of time after that month closes right now we have five to digest all at once um but is that your expectation going forward that we'll have uh each month we'll be review be able to review budget amendments for the previous month Dr heurn I'll um put that to our expert Miss Johnson yes um through the chair superintendent board members this is romaner Johnson Chief Financial off yes going forward we're going to have monthly reports and we'll be having meetings with each board members to go through the reports I know it's a new style of looking at Financial reports and we're going to do our due diligence and go through these reports thoroughly before coming to a board meeting chair thanks so much uh I my second question was uh um predicted I think by our Chief Financial Officer these reports are different and in some ways um uh they're trivial things but I will tell you that footnotes in these reports are clear they're concise they don't hide things uh you know lots of financial reports will have footnotes to explain bu numbers in I like this one we took 443 out of the budget on the revenue side because we're not going to track passrs to Charters anymore and you look at the footnote and it says we're not going to track Charters anymore it's just a pass through and so this is Crystal Clear uh the public can understand it and uh board members and and anyone else that's interested can understand exactly what's going on to that end though um there's also changes between what's been forecasted versus what's actual and things like that I think it's really important for the board and for the community to understand how these reports are different than last year and chair what I'd ask is could we just get kind of the significant highlights about these reports being different from previous reports Dr heurn yes um absolutely uh Miss Johnson and her team during the individual board meetings can go over all the changes in in detail so everybody has a greater understanding of the new where we're rep reporting our financial situation and what I'm curious about now chair is what what are are the differences the major differences typ two or three differences in these reports because they're significantly different than the ones we had before so that um the public and us can digest them in the right way Dr heer Mr Johnson do the chair yes these reports are different because now we're not doing projections we're doing actuals when we close the um month so we want to know our financial positions you can look at the financial reports and understand where the district at at that point in time also it show some flaws you know if we have errors when we close out the month we would not be making correction to the reports those Corrections will be made in the next month and we will be detailing what those Corrections are in our budget amendments terrific and for the board's consumption more maybe than the public uh changes going from projected amounts of Revenue versus actual Revenue being compared to actual expenditures is a big deal because in the past we could ask our CFO fund balance questions and the answer was well we projected this much revenue and we've had this many expenditures and so what we were making decisions based on was not our actual fund balance but a kind of funny um thing in the accounting space which I've never seen before in my life where we were looking at projected on the money in but we're looking at actuals on the money out uh nobody would run their family that way nobody would run a company that way um it's a it's a wonky kind of issue but it's just not uh kosher I want us though to be prepared to understand that the fund balance figures that we see on a month-to-month basis follow an annual cycle now because it's actual Revenue versus actual expenditures um and so when we ask questions about can we afford uh covered walkways at school X and we say well what's our fund balance CFO well that answer is going to be different because it's could be actual fund balance and it has a cycle to it um I would just like us to get a little bit maybe one minute of an explanation of what those fund balance numbers look like and what the CFO would ask us to focus on uh when we're making in-year decisions ourselves about changes in the budget Dr heurn Mr Johnson yes um it kind of portray our cash flow at the time we did have to go out for a 10 if you don't have sufficient amount of money and your F balance we have to go out in Barrow so we're showing that we're actually going out and Barrow in July to cover when our months we're low because our Revenue doesn't come as people see we're going to show the projection of the cash flow state revenue is consistent it comes every month but we only get our local revenues starting in November and December which is we get the majority of our local revenues which is is our millage and our local revenue from our referendum um so when that comes in we'll show that cash flow will increase and we'll pay off the loan the tax anticipated notes and it just give you a better picture of how our Revenue flows through the district what is our revenue and how it flows how it come in and how it goes out and if we don't have an adequate fund balance we have to actually go out for a tan thank you very much and I not in the financial reports chair that the tan this year is $270 million it's a normal amount of money for us we go and borrow it at the beginning of the year because we don't have the money coming in until middle of the year really when we start to get a lot more revenue and then we take the extra Revenue we have we invest that money and we get paid interest for the basically the second half of the year which I understand um I just wouldn't want the public maybe there's not that many members of the public that read these reports but if you read these reports it looks like we're going out and borrowing a lot of money to run our schools and we are uh but on the second half of the year we take the excess of Revenue to expenditures and we invest that back and earn a pretty pretty U reasonable uh interest rate on those things so thank you for getting these in every month look forward to talking about them uh in the future appreciate it chair thank you although oh yes Mrs rert um and thank you for that um through the superintendent sorry for for that answer and um I think that that explained a little bit why we went on negative in October 2024 so thank you for that um the one thing I would ask is um and I'm going to be very careful about phrasing this because I know that there's certain things I can say and can't say um how come this is coming now instead of next month after these reports went to the audit committee um you know because they passed they passed motions to require um the CPA I'm sorry wrong item I think right yes ma'am wrong item yes Mr that item passed already got it okay I missed that one there we go thank you okay thank you all those in F favor of item F2 say I I I all those opposed say no no okay item passes with one descending vote the next item up is F3 authorization to advertise right yeah authorization to advertise amended Capital outlay millage for fiscal year 2425 I need a Motion in a second move second okay moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs rert is there any public comments no public comments thank you Dr Zeman thanks chair chair why are we going out uh publicly and asking for a change in the mill Dr heurn Mr Johnson let's see um Mr shim is walking up now now go ahead Mr CH good morning good morning Omar shim director of capital budget uh yes this is just a change to the language in the uh what is what can be expended uh by the capital millage and it's required to do this according to the trim manual um truth and millage um uh and this would allow us to utilize Capital funding for eligible expenditures in the general fund terrific chair so um will this increase the millage rate to Bar County residents Dr heurn Mr shim no it will not thank you very much chair thank you anybody else on F three okay all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no F3 passes thank you the next item up is j3 which is the appointment reappointment of school board representative to the oversight committee I need a motion in a second should move move by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs leonardy and um Mrs Bowman oh any public comment on j3 no ma'am okay Mrs Bowman um thank you chair I just wanted to take a moment I was reviewing the agenda um to recognize Mr Tim curtain who uh who I know from serving with him years ago on the Broward Healthy Start Coalition board and um who also serve has served as the past chair of the Broward Education Foundation is currently the chair of the Hollywood Arts and culture center um and is just an amazing individual I'm just so happy to have him reappointed and wanted to recognize his service to district one and to Bar County in general thank you very much anybody else okay all those in favor of item j3 say I I I any opposed say no item j3 passes thank you the next item up is S3 I need um so S3 is agreement with the city of North Lauderdale I need a motion in a second to move so moved by Mrs Leonardi seconded by Dr Zan any public comment on S3 no ma'am just need to correct something when I can on the record yes any board member comment Mr Sullivan uh just a scrier error the agreement and the item is correct but the ARF um misstates the term of the agreement the further record the correct term of the agreement is January 22nd 2025 to September 30th 202 7 and again it's correct on the agreement just not on the RF thank you thank you very much any other discussion all those in favor of S3 say I I any opposed say no S3 passes thank you so much next we'll go to the committee reports so I I know we're a little earlier than expected so I I'm going to make a executive decision if you don't mind um since there's a lot of committees not here I'm going to go to public speakers and then the superintendent or can we just go to the superintendent report um Madam chair if I may yes we do have some folks here from committees do you want to start with the ones that are here we do have I believe at least uh four okay um just suggestion or we can well I know that who Dr um heurn wants to recognize is here and waiting so maybe it makes sense to do that first and give them a little more time sure is that okay with you we're ready all right so we are going to U move to the superintendent's report all right thank you madam chair good morning um Vice chair board members and entire BR County Public Schools today we proudly recognize three extraordinary employees for their heroic efforts and saving the life at South BR high school that is Mr Dennis Waters miss Robin laier here and Miss suette [Applause] boner all right so I'm actually going to describe what they actually did if you give me a moment hold hold tight U on Friday November 22nd while riding on a golf cart driven by miss laier one of our school volunteers who is also the husband of one of our amazing English teachers suddenly collapsed recognizing the urgency of the situation Miss laier immediately pulled over and alerted School administration and security about the medical emergency within moments M Mr Waters and Miss Bonner arrived on the scene with an AED machine together they administered the AED and performed life-saving CPR on the volunteer successfully Reviving him before Hollywood fire rescue transported him to the hospital according to the volunteers health professional the Swift and decisive actions of Miss laier Mr Waters and Miss Bonner were instrumental in in Saving his life her teamwork and quick response exemplified extraordinary dedication and training of our school community in recognition of their bravery and selflessness the school board of brow County Florida and partnership with Etna is presenting these individuals with this with the plaque and specially curated gift baskets each basket includes a $250 Visa gift card and a selection of valuable health and wellness items such as back massager scale a blender and much more we're honored to have Miss rinia Jackson vice president of client management for Etna public and labor sector here to representa in celebrating these remarkable individuals thank you uh Dennis Robin susette for exemplifying courage and compassion in the face of an emergency you are true [Applause] heroes e e [Applause] now I want to ask Beacon to play our new monthly video updates highlighting key moments from the last month in our district Beacon if you can cue the video up [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] roward County Public Schools the best teachers the best schools from preas through high school and Beyond choose the best choose BCPS as you can see there are great things happening in our district a special shout out to our showcase that took place at the amarand bank arena and sunrise this free event highlighted the district's diverse programs and services featuring nearly 300 schools and departments over 6,000 attendees explored offerings such as magnet schools technical colleges Athletics art exceptional education and much much more with staff available to answer questions I got to see our staff and students in action and it was truly an awesome event and I would be remiss because I know Mr Chisum will hurt me if I don't uh have myself and my staff say this choose the best choose thank you okay thank you so much for that report um we will go to committee reports and we'll see how that goes uh first report up is the audit committee okay Broward County Association of student councils and student advisor to the board good morning I think this morning is all is an example of why we are all BCPS proud I'm Landon spelberg student adviser to the school board this morning I'm excited to update you all on the work that Alana and I have been doing uh in this new new year so far our speakup speakout sessions are continuing we've had a great time uh visiting all of our high schools across the district and really receiving some great feedback from our students next week we'll be joining you for a Schoolboard Workshop presentation giving you a midyear update on what we're hearing at our schools uh so looking forward to that I want to say a thank you to Mrs Paul and Miss Johnson for as well as Dr wanza and Mr Adrien Parker for spending some time with us a few weeks ago talking about you know in line with what Miss alad was talking about this morning about uh digitalizing if that's a a word um making sure that our club activities and fundraiser process uh can be streamlined so grateful for them taking the time to discuss that in line with what we're hearing at our schools at every speak up speakout session we conduct we hear from students that they want to be able to have an enhanced voice on their campus uh we get asked at almost every session when are you coming back when are we going to be able to talk again um so grateful for the superintendant uh and his partnership and making sure that we can have a program where students are regularly heard on their campuses so looking forward um to working on that the BR County Association of student councils met last week we were joined uh by Sarah Perry who is the founder of the Aiden Perry Foundation the Aiden Perry Good Samaritan fund um talking about various scholarship opportunities available to students um as well as we were joined by the student adviser to the Miami D School Board who was able to see what our meetings look like how Broward County Association of student councils works so it was great to have a visit from them applications for student adviser to the school board are due on January 28th next Tuesday if students are interested they can see their Student Government adviser at their school for more information on how to apply next week on January 29th from 4:30 to 5:30 Vice chair Leonardi will be hosting an exclusive student chat on Microsoft teams to be able to hear from students in District 3 all parents thanks to uh Jose Perez and marketing and Communications all parents in District 3 from elementary middle and high school have a link in their email uh as well as principls have been contacted with this information so we are looking forward to hosting this event uh with Miss Le and if any other board members would like to host either a virtual or iners town hall for students in their District uh we would love to do that as well and that is our report thank you very much thank you so much uh Broward County Council PT and ptsas okay Broward Education Foundation good morning uh James naap president CEO BR Education Foundation it's a pleasure to address the board uh for the first time during my uh during my presidency um I just wanted to uh say thank you so much for all your support but also I wanted to um come to and just talk about a few things um one of them being that I think everybody on the day and I know it's gone it's gone around the school district is we've talked about the uh Innovative teacher idea Expo that we have coming up February first at for leral high school it is a um it is a Showcase of our best and brightest uh that we have here in Broward County we know that we have the best and brightest um teachers in the country and we have the opportunity to continue to Showcase that on February 1st um and we would love for you to uh make sure that all of our principles continue to share that information with their with their teachers and and let them know that this is something that they can go to um learn from each other and also receive Grant dollars um towards uh towards uh different types of initiatives that they have um I would also like to um say thank you for the support of our board from the uh from bef we have Sue Colton here and as well as uh Coco burns from our from our team um we have been diligently working on many different things and one of those things that we have been working on is um is student scholarships and so our obviously our three pillars being you know we have a school supply Center we have our teacher grants and we also have um student scholarships and with that being said um a little while ago I don't know if anybody heard we became an a-rated District District so uh as as we moved into the a-rated district our uh esteemed leadership in terms of you know Dr heurn said that he wanted to do something and he wanted to get back and starting a superintendent scholarship is what he's decided to do so kudos to Dr heurn um and we're going to go ahead and do the check presentation today but before we actually get up there and do the check presentation itself I'd like to put a a call out that we're doing on the community side since the Broward Education Foundation is the bridge to the community and we are um that TI that binds the community back to the school district especi especially when it comes to funding and opportunities for our students you know we're going to we're to put a call out to act to action to our uh members um in the community to to match that and we wanted to go up to $100,000 so we've already received some um some initial um interest in in doing so so we look forward to everybody else within the community continuing to jump on um and as the bridge you know brard Education Foundation being the bridge from the school district to the community we're excited about this opportunity continue to do so so thank you so much and I think we're up here for a check presentation [Applause] [Music] just just go ahead I'll wait till Eric takes his picture just some quick comments um thanks um to the board support their ongoing support and ongoing um challenging me to make sure we Excel as a district and do what we need to do for our students um I felt it was a priority for me um with that bonus to give it back and pay it for it for our kids um so this is going to the superintendent scholarship fund um and uh BR kid Education Foundation has been an excellent partner in ensuring that I can do this for for our kids we have tons of kids across our district all they need is a tiny boost to take advantage of their post-secondary opportunities so they can live out their dreams and so as uh Mr nap talked about earlier we have a call to action to increase this superintendent scholarship fund to $100,000 this year the more money the more dreams we can make come true and we have excellent students and all they need is that tiny boost and that tiny boost just pays it for for our County as a whole to continue to um you know spark Economic Development velopment um um keep our businesses here being able to recruit be able to our students to change the trajectory of their lives and also their trajectory of their family so I'm I'm so humbled and so happy to do this and continue to do this in the future also thank [Applause] you okay thank you so much next up is District advisory Council okay diversity committee no I want to be in your face all the time um good morning uh school board members Dr superintendent heurn and staff Nar Pier grant for the diversity committee diversity chair diversity has um has had 10 site visits thus far common theme observed or facility issues standard of service inconsistencies and Safety and Security issues several schools visited are experiencing major facility issues work orders are in an all-time high uh projects are stalemated with project managers being transient however even with that being said I've been in contact with uh Miss Paul and Mr Dorset so um they are aware and they've been um working with me collaboratively so we can address some of these issues um safety protocol assessments safety protocols excuse me assessments and guidelines are inconsistent all schools visited thus far have blind spots several schools have inoperable security cameras and single point entry issues a few schools do not have PA systems or it's inoperable making code drills problematic a few schools do not have safe space Insignia a few schools have not done a security assessment for this school year yet we have uh this is all in my face sorry we have discovered inconsistencies with standard of service student progression plans we are noticing that grade weight weights vary from school to school which can potentially create grading disparities throughout the district we are seeing inconsistencies with level of teacher engagement and parent engagement uh we had a present presenter Melissa Miller from the curriculum uh she is the curriculum supervisor for elementary learning uh she presented to our committee for our January meeting in terms of Elementary attention the committee was very concerned about the brow retention percentage for the 2023 2024 school year and the district's current process for retention in our April report we will have several recommendations for this board to consider we are still seeing schools uh with media clerks instead of the media Specialists which would be in accordance of the hb1 1476 the committee has observed that the cessor data is still not on displayed on uh individual school websites and we were told that it was because the issue with Focus um and the transitioning data is still an issue the recent audit of the discipline was discussed and the committee is concerned with a number of discrepancies we will have several recommendations in our April report for the board to consider technology protocols access warranties and distributions are currently inconsistent I am hard at work at the response report for April I was made aware that the district report was out however the diversity committee was not sent a copy to review I'm not sure what the protocol on that is but I would think that the committee would be furnished with a copy copy so we can review it and discuss um uh as as uh in looking in we passed MLK day we weren't here but we celebrated him and I still celebrate him every day I just wanted to leave you guys with a quote from him um there comes a time when one must take position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular but he must take it because his conscience tells him it's right it is right I will always end my report with the phrase that the power is with the people not the people in perceived power we work better together than apart and I want to emphasize the importance of community input and collaboration uh with that I wish you all a great new year I don't know if I had had an opportunity to say that yet um and I hope that uh as we move forward in the district that um as you starting off with a positive note we want to continue on that and I look forward that look looking forward with especially with the clips with the um the superintendent have I really love that I love that he's instituted that I think this important a lot of people are watching it um and that uh great turnout you guys had for the um showcase was amazing and I just want you guys to continue on that momentum have a great day thank you so much next is employee union groups yes ma'am um Dr hurn can staff please get with Miss Grant to discuss the security issues that Miss Grant spoke of yes thank you uh Miss Al yes um we will follow up with Miss Grant security is our top priority so we're going to make sure we close those gaps immediately um I don't know if she's already spoken to Mr Lozano and his team but we'll make sure and follow up with her today thank you yep absolutely thank you BTU well good morning board happy New Year Anna Fusco Brower teacher Union president representing four groups here in Brower County Public Schools um a few things that I I got to meet the new CFO who actually came to our new year as in calendar year negotiations um and they brought along the executive director for insurance uh and benefits to have a I feel a very um open honest conversation we spent about well over six hours in negotiations I I felt was um positive but confident that we're going to come to a resolution hopefully we have a next week scheduled negotiations I'm going to mention in a minute um we know we have some new board members um my first time getting this stand in front of you um Thompson and uh Mara how are you guys doing welcome and welcome back to our newly elected again school board members and ones that are there that have been there okay so we have um a board of nine and we feel that it's going to be uh positive with our new superintendent we have some great initiatives as the Brower teachers union we um are a great partner with the Broward Education Foundation um we help in donations to them we support basically every one of their activities because we know it all goes back into our Brower County Public Schools to make our school stronger to make our students um have some chances that they might not get and our teachers so they can bring it into the classroom to them so you could see that the Brower teachers union is a strong um organization ation that's not just there that you know people want to have the understanding that we just want to fight um we fight when there's a need to fight as when we hear when there's schools that need um uh another voice if the uh facilities are not intact or or things are breaking down and it might get missed or the work order might get you know overlooked when you have that extra voice you know we we're voices to parents in the community we voices to community members in the community for things that they want to see in our public schools and you know having a great outcome to our show um the Showcase that happened what is that telling you we're we're moving in in the great direction that we are so I'm going to turn into where I'm standing here to bring it back to negotiations um we don't want it to look as that you know our Educators and our support staff that are in our schools and in our buildings that are taking care of all of the nooks and crannies that bring it together for the student that it's you know a wine or a plane or a beg we know that you guys know that cost of living is is just happening out there for everybody and the need to have an increase is really needed and it's also welld deserved you know the a-rated district was because of everybody in this Brower County Public Schools from the bus driver the cafeteria worker the clerical the educator the support staff the social workers the guy the guidance counselors every single person our leaders at sit up here our our principls our APS the superintendent all of his uh cabinet you know our our school security team everybody touches each other to make it work and that's why we're an a-rated district and um we are asking you to make sure that you are working hard to work on that budget that we know is has been a struggle it's a $6 billion doll budget we know that's a struggle we know when a new CFO she seen um already versed in it she seems confident that they that she can get to where we need to be I also felt that there was a confidence that we can get to an increase that would be worthy of our Educators and all employees in Brower County Public Schools you know I'm the biggest advocate for our Brower teachers union but I don't believe leaving any person left behind because everybody's part of this Brower County Public Schools and then I want to touch base real quick on the insurance piece we know it is a a huge comment of the Brower County Public Schools but I have to bring It Forward strong that there is an expectation to bring it on the backs of all of the employees of bower County Public Schools this is not the time to continue to do it I have asked to hold it off and let's have some more conversation we we agreed in our meeting that there's things that are known that people don't know and I think if we work together to get what's known out there what's really offered we can come to a an understanding of moving forward in in in a year or two a come of where we need to be with insurance but right now it needs to stay where it is don't rise any cost on the backs of employees and let's move forward and keeping us an a district and keeping people healthy and the expectation that the benefit is great and let's keep it that way thank you thank you so much uh bpaa esab fi Copa PBA okay then next is the ES advisory Council good morning Jackie lusum chair of ESC advisory um we met last week our monthly general meeting we were missing four out of nine um board appointees thank you to the five who came um I recognize of course that things come up or people might not be able to attend for any reason but I hope they are accounting to you because not all are accounting to me for absences um and that you are still having some way of them feeding back to you um the um things that occur at our meeting that we would love for you to be hearing about our main topic of discussion was um was a a new strings parent L discussion about the potential merits of a separate autism school for Broward um as Palm Beach and Miami Dade have um and this being an Innovative District managed Charter that's different to a number of the uh of the regular Charters that we we see in the district District that don't necessarily meet all needs um but there is a model in Miami day and Palm Beach that has caught the eye of a lot of parents there are 96 students from Broward who cross the border to Miami Dade every day and travel 30 40 miles to get to this school because Broward doesn't have one there are parents who take their students out of uh of uh Broward schools because they don't feel that there is a model that suits their children's needs and we're talking about the most complex um learn uh and intensive therapeutic needs um so we had a discussion about the potential merits of BCPS uh considering uh adopting this hybrid Charter model um and um over the years I have watched a number of parents who have um pulled out of BCPS um because of the lack of something like this among the attractions that some see in a model such as this or the rigorous application of requirements when we know that for for all the great work that is done in BCPS we know that compliance with IEPs is still an issue in a number of cases it is one of the leading issues still that I handle when parents come to me um and uh another Merit of this school is that it has ABA infused curriculum that's applied Behavior Analysis again an issue that parents encounter in Broward is sometimes not being able to have their child's registered Behavior therapist in the classroom or in the classroom for as long as they would like for the entirety of their schedule um so having a model where ABA is actually just part of the day-to-day regular um environment uh that they're in is an attraction when I first mentioned this kind of model to Dr lcard back when the redefining schools process began I stated that one concern would be that a separate autism school for the most complex Learners could risk having the appearance of segregation um however it's also important to recognize that not every parent prefers an inclusion model some do actually value a separate autism school and we hope that you will continue to uh um or that you can be part of the dialogue and consideration um as this discussion moves on it is an interesting one and you're at a point where um you're considering all kinds of Innovations and suggestions um also at our meeting uh we heard from a bunch of parents at Balwin um Baldwin is one of your contract scores for students with autism um just starting out in the school system they have not been getting emails from Broward count Public Schools they have asked over a period of one if not I think actually two meeting uh two years now at our meetings they've not been getting emails I'm not sure what the issue is but they don't hear about our meetings they don't hear about your good news they don't hear about all those things that that BCPS is trying to communicate with parents on it's been brought up a number of times it does please need resolution Al Lea with your Communications Guru Mr Sullivan to see if he can fix it um our Ace meeting that's our autism subcommittee February 13 10: a.m. Glades Middle is uh going to be discussing misbehaved versus misunderstood um that being the topic of how some schools are or aren't um handling behavior issues um I came across one parent just last week I'm going to pass on to Dr Fulton at her request um who pulled their child out of Broward schools because of repeated their child was getting repeated suspensions over disabilities related behavior that they didn't feel they were getting interventions or support for um and ended in the end just pulling out a brow scores all together uh and their sibling um focus we still have no Gap analysis no plan no timeline no dialogue ongoing please we need it and then um looking forward to next month's um ESC advisory meeting we're going to be having a guest speaker Logan priest he's an award-winning thespian and ese student in Broward schools he's going to be sharing his sto story of trial tribulation and Triumph Logan overcame a disability became successful not only in mics but in the world of theater he took the CR Critics Choice Award for costume design State selected technical representative for this District at States um we look forward to celebrating him thank you very much thank you Dr heurn did you want to address something yes absolutely um thanks Miss uh Miss Lum about the um autism the the school in our phase two as you know redefin is a multiphase process but in our phase two we'll definitely um be looking at opportunities to try and replicate something like that in BR County we know there's a need and we don't want kids crossing the border to exercise the choice to to address their needs so we want them right here um and we'll follow up somebody will follow up with you about one comment you made about the the emails from from Baldwin just to kind of dive in and see what the issue is thank you okay next is the Esau Leadership Council facilities task force gifted advisory Council green advisory committee human Relations Committee uh good morning chair uh school board members superintendent and staff my name is Nancy fry I'm the chair of the human Relations Committee uh first of all happy New Year um forgot that it's this month has gone by so fast I didn't realize that we hadn't even seen each other since last year um the first thing I want to do is thank Dr heurn for uh our meeting we had earlier this month uh we discussed the culture and morale in our schools uh that was the main topic and uh we're very much aligned uh him uh the the district and uh the committee are very much aligned on uh how our leadership and administration can positively or negatively impact the culture in our schools and uh what the district can do to help and just to reiterate uh Dr heer's tagline feedback is a gift and we hope that you'll continue to uh operate accordingly with that uh we discussed uh speaking and feedback the Agents of change Summit uh that we had with our students back in the fall uh we received uh survey results back from the students that attended this was a a cross-section of middle school and high school students from schools across the district we received 179 responses and I will start with the negative and then go to the positive uh the negative was uh those 179 responses bullying or some variation on the word was mentioned 30 times uh there was a number of students that mentioned toxic environments exclusion rumors General negativity in their schools and uh there was a number of students that mentioned that they in some way or another did not trust the adults in the room to handle these issues appropriately that they were either not stepping up they were ignoring the issues they were giving the students lip service and uh the students just really wanted to see more adults uh involved in the process when these issues are happening the good news is they showed a deep desire for seeing inclusion and kindness in their schools uh they talked about how they wanted to personally take action and be a part of the solution and and they were crying out for activities and events and things to boost morale in their schools um the last thing that we discussed and I'll go more into this in my uh meeting report was uh there were uh at our December meeting we had a student that came in and represented a number of the Muslim Students in the district to discuss issues of islamophobia and um thanks to the discussion with Dr heurn uh he said that he is now looking into creating an anonymous reporting uh mechanism on canvas for students so we're looking forward to when that is rolled out and we'll be happy to help promote it and um in general we appreciate the focus on student feedback that the district has prioritized uh so with that uh we've had two meetings since my last report just based on how the scheduling worked out uh so our December meeting it was an informational meeting uh we did not reach Quorum um we did meet reach Cor in January though so I appreciate uh the Schoolboard members that had talks with your appointees and for those that are missing appointees still happy to discuss if you need any insight onto what we do in order to best select uh an appointee and um I've also reached out to those that are having uh repeated attendance problems uh so with that in our December meeting the uh main Crux of that meeting was this presentation from a Muslim student and uh he had brought in feedback from other students that couldn't attend the meeting that day and there were some very disturbing reports um a number of the things were student on student issues student stealing a backpack from a Muslim student tossing it to their friends saying oh it's a bomb things like that but the most troubling things were the uh reports about what our adults in the room were doing we had reports of uh a Muslim student who was told to lift up her hijab to ensure she was in dress code to show if she had a collored shirt on uh there was a teacher that was getting repeated complaints and would come back to the class the next day and tell the students I know you complained about me I'm not changing what I'm doing um there a teacher there's uh issues in the curriculum about uh the religion being misrepresented I can I can give more details cuz I'm running out of time here uh but with that uh I appreciate uh the focus on hopefully um because the students did not feel safe was the um main point that they did not feel safe reporting there's teachers that were going through it that did not feel safe reporting and so giving them an anonymous reporting mechanism would uh greatly solve that um we also and I'm going to skip ahead because I see my time's almost running out in our January meeting we did have Quorum and um we did pass a motion that we are recommending to the board that uh moving forward in the leadership development program that anyone going through that process that's looking to be promoted must take a course on how to create a positive culture in school environment we feel that that will help with these issues that we're discussing and it's a way to U be in compliance with state law while still putting forward the kind of training they need thank you thank you Madame chair uh Dr holess okay so um what uh cheer fry mention regarding the Muslim Students to me that's concerning so I am just wondering if the superintendent could ensure that staff they are properly trained to understand uh different religious practices and to respect those um while at the same time keeping our school safe Dr heurn yes um thanks for the comment and and the question Dr holness yes Dr fton and I met and we talked about these concerns and putting uh the allowable trainings that we can do uh right because we're under the constraints of of the state of what we can and can't talk about just to make sure our employees understand how they should support kids um also we we understand that many of our employees they were their cultures their belief um um their ideal on their sleeves um we want you to hang that up before you walk into our doors right it has no place in our classroom so we're going to do what we can also really creating this um this Anonymous feedback from students that we can capture right to to increase our accountability measures for the adults in the class rooms because there's one thing about training them they may still do it but if we don't have a mechanism to understand what's going on from our students we can't correct it in in real time so we're we're putting some things in place that we can get information from our kids who are experiencing this so we can nip it in the butt immediately Mrs all yeah so every student or teacher have the ability to download the safe for watch app and they have the ability to report something anonymously or as themselves it's an amazing app where if you see something say something and and you'll be able to report that so students can't have access to the The saer Watch app to report a tip thank you okay the next committee is the multilingual advisory committee okay parent Community involvement task Force good morning is that on yes um parent Community involvement task force met January 13th the meeting focused on our plans to develop podcast programming to enhance Communications and augment uh the programming opportunities offered by parent University we currently have two parent universities on the calendar in February and March welcome to kindergarten and navigating the digital world together and we have a third one that we're talking about right now for uh February we're going to be incorporating surveys into this so we hopefully will be able to do some of our research through those surveys and and um we're looking forward to that February 16th we'll be holding the nonprofit Forum in this room and um this is one of our most successful events it gives volunteers and nonprofits an opportunity to share information and ideas um and I just want to stop here and say that it's with great sadness that I share that our longtime pcitf member Natalie Moffett passed away this weekend Natalie has been such an integral part of our task force for so long serving as the Q&A lady for parent University a moderator and co-chair of the nonprofit Forum a facilitator of the secondary forum and empowering parent conferences and so much more in addition to serving on the task force she served on sack and safs at various schools as a p ta vice president on the district advisory Council and on the diversity committee Natalie's volunteerism has enhanced her was enhanced by her kindness compassion dependability sense of humor and commitment her contributions then and uh have and will continue to impact many over the years Natalie would bring her daughter Sophie to our um task force meetings on occasion and we feel like we watched her grow up she's currently a senior and I would ask that you keep Natalie parents sister friends and Sophie in your thoughts and prayers and I just wanted to mention this today to me Natalie was just one of the most outstanding volunteers I've ever seen and she's just kind of symbolic of the thousands of people that volunteer in your schools every day and give so much because they believe in what we're doing so please keep our the family and your thoughts and prayers thank you thank you very much and thank you to Natalie for her many years of service I worked with her on the committee and she was an intrical part of all those parent universities that happened so thank you uh next is the small business advisory committee and finally technology advisory committee okay next we're going to take item ll1 as it goes with the advisory committee reports so can I have a motion in a second to bring ll1 to the floor been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs rert just cting okay um any public comment on ll1 Madam chair we have Dr Natalie Lynch Walsh so I I don't see her in the audience okay all right so I pulled ll1 because I um I promised I would do this every meeting so on ll1 there are two recommendations by um the district advisory Council so the first one was a recommendation that the um brow County Schools develop finalized and receive school board approval for school calendars at least two years in advance by the first school board meeting held in in October so Dr heurn can you speak to that yes um thank you madam chair I've directed um Mr azero and his team a few months ago now to start working on a 2-year calendar process instead of the the one-year process that we've been doing in the past um since that is definitely more friendly to the to families and communities so they can plan accordingly uh over a longer period of time thank you so much so that one has been addressed and the second one um is a recommendation to um to actually recommend the school board formally adopt the aeom framework and adopt a resolution establishing the steering committee as a committee reporting directly to the school board so if you could also speak to that Dr hepp yes um this is work essential through the superintendent's office um I a COO and and chief facilities officer um to make sure that this work moves forward expeditiously and and to complete uh future projects um we're in the midst of of our facilities condition assessment um with that said I'll be send in the memo to the board uh about the superintendent's long range planning um and steering committee and the makeup of that committee to ensure that we have industry experts on that committee to help us move this work forward um instead of the stalemates that we've um experienced in in the past and also um uh maybe a subset of uh individuals to help the academic and programmatic parts of redefining so we can ensure as we plan for the future with our facilities that our programmatic structures are are uh matching so the facilities are going to meet the needs of the programs with within our individual schools um and we'll further codify that with a with a resolution but the board will get a memo from me um soon about the makeup of that committee so we can move this work forward thank you very much any board members have any other discussion on ll1 okay all those in favor of ll1 say I I any opposed L1 passes unanimously thank you um next next up we have public general public comments and the first speaker that is signed up is Natalie Lynch Walsh and I don't think she's here so next up we have Dr Judy janich hi I'm not Judy I'm Trudy my name is Dr Trudy Janovich I wish the board would discuss today the plan to not have committee reports during the board meetings and instead having them during workshops although it was discussed at a workshop only Jackie and I were there to speak for everyone I believe committees are an integral part of this process and should be there reports should be at a board meeting and at a time certain like 10:00 a.m. with public speakers right after that time afternoon public speaker public speakers should also be advertised as a Time ser certain as well to facilitate people being able to get here when there it's time to speak I'll now speak about the negotiations for teachers we know that teachers in Broward have been stretched to the Limit financially and every raise is important teachers also want to see that the district Cuts money from the administrative budget that does not appear to be happening also more edicts from above continue to take away a teachers autonomy in the classroom teachers want to be a part of the decisions for the curriculum which they use they feel these decisions are made from the top and teachers are forced to just take it give teachers back their autonomy and work to give them a decent raise so we don't continue to lose them to other districts also testing testing testing I have my shirt on that I hate to say is 14 years old that's how long we've been fighting against high stakes testing you need to take away some of the things that are related to that I know you can't take away anything from the state but there is a definitely a way that elementary teachers could use a portfolio of classwork not some portfolio of other tests which is what the district seems to think a portfolio is I'll send you some information on what a real portfolio is it's what a student has done for 180 days that's what should count not what's done for one day which is the last test in the whole year that's what everything in this district is based on and it's wrong we are also on the cusp of a major change of programs at the federal level our elementary school is this is one teacher that was talking about how she was going to lose funding for possibly for title one and also ese we need to be on top of this you need to be proactive make sure every es student has an updated IEP thank you thank you Mr Sullivan do you have something to speak to uh yes just so the public knows 10:20 will be a public hearing on February 4th in this R room for those who want to attend and comment on that policy before the board takes action on it thank you thank you very much uh next general public speaker is Shan Greenfield and our last public speaker is congresswoman Sheila sheres McCormick okay asking to speak Edwin ma m I don't see any of them here okay thank you so much all right now this will be the part of the meeting where we will consider all the open Agenda items at this time May the chair have a motion in a second to pass the open items that have not been pulled for discussion which include bb1 BB2 ff2 ff3 jj3 jj5 jj7 jj8 jj9 JJ 13 jj1 14 JJ 15 jj1 16 jj1 17 jj1 18 JJ 21 JJ 22 JJ 23 o1 O2 O3 o4 o5 O8 9 o1 P2 and rr1 all the other items have been pulled can I have a motion in chair before you do that can you just help me with jj8 that Miss fam pulled as she withdrawn that she's not here um I worry that she might be here by the end of the meeting I'm trying to be fair to all members of the board she asked P that item right but she did indicate to us that she probably wasn't going to make it today uh at the end of the meeting if she does show up would she have the ability to pull that item back no yes yeah yeah okay one of us could bring it back thank you yes okay uh can I have a motion in a second so moved second been moved by Mrs rubbert seconded by Dr Zeman are there any public comments on uh oh the only public comments we have registered is for mm1 which is a u special time certain okay all those in favor of approving the open Agenda items that have not been pulled for discussion say I I I any opposed say no all those items pass unanimously okay so the first item up we have a couple of special time certains that we'll come back to um one of them is S1 just to let the public know we're going to move forward until then so the first item up for discussion that we need a motion for is item hh1 so moved second it's been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs alhf any public comment on hh1 no register speakers thank you uh Dr holes thank you madam chair um so for for the objective part of the evaluation um we did suggest some changes in the workshop that we had and I am happy to see that those changes um were implemented here however um it also indicates that one of the objectives um where its actions in audit and it's um specific to the principles so um Can the chief auditor um elaborate or expound on um as it relates to The District in general um are there any other stakeholders to which um audit is subjected besides school base Dr heurn Mr roads thank you um yeah with regard to that um I feel like it's important uh at the level principle um area to uh discuss and build a rapport with the principles to have a better understanding of their uh perception of audits uh so I would be very very careful to steer clear of anything that would resemble training but certainly uh have conversations with level principles so we would have meetings that would discuss items that affect everyone at the high school level for example or the Middle School level or the elementary school level and because I Want It ultimately to be uh four sessions per year the final would have been um that that I would perceive um would be talking to the business support center because they're integral in all the things that happen at those levels in terms of the services that they provide um that would give me just uh a bit more area to touch on with that the other uh option is to uh combine a business uh support center with an operations component so that the overall assistance and having uh the different folks understand uh what is involved in audits what are the components or the the anatomy of audits um that would I think be helpful to making sure that they understand how to avoid audit findings that's one of the ultimate goals that I've had uh spoken to me by the principles and by the folks out in operations in general and so if there's anything that we can do to raise that level of awareness that's what that's about okay so I understand your rational for the school-based principal principles rather based upon your comments um Mr rhods however uh I guess the concern that I have is well I'll ask this question besides the principles what other and school base what other areas of the district is subjected to auditing on the operation side there are audits that happen in the construction area uh we are about to as a result of an external AG audit uh look at FTE Fe FP and then uh student transp ation areas and what would happen is we would be able to look at some of the lessons learned from some of those prior audits whether they have been done by external audit firms or the AG to provide some additional audit related information uh to those folks and outside of uh the teaching and learning side is really more like the way that I would like to say it instead of just principles um and then the idea there is is that there again there would be a better understanding of what the difference is between Audits and management as well as a conversation about how we can use both to improve that process and uh decrease findings decrease um uh discussion items while increasing the strength of internal controls throughout the district okay so outside of the teaching and learning um are there actions in audit sessions conducted for others besides es um the school based leadership that will depend on um how the um how the discussion goes today because my initial thought was uh four sessions per year having three of them being focused on the different level uh School levels and then also uh leaving the fourth one open for the discussion that we're having right now okay so would you agree that it would be beneficial to have actions in audit sessions uh to those um outside of teaching and learning besides school-based leadership or principles as it as it specifically mentioned here absolutely and the reason that I focus on the uh the principles was because there was a comment last time when the uh objective was to seek input from the audit committee related to how much time that my function and role is spent with them that it would also incorporate some of the input from the principal groups my thought was to do it in a different way where we could provide information to the principles so that they could understand whether or not that was a benefit to them versus uh providing uh feedback on what their current perception is of audits okay so um as a board member I believe this evaluation is for us to appropriately evaluate you on functioning as a chief auditor and I believe that uh having principles alone is too narrow I would like to see this um uh extend beyond principles to the other leadership areas to which you to which is subjected to auditing um I believe based upon your comments it appears that actions in audit session would be beneficial to other aspects of the district that would involved leadership so while I appreciate the changes to objective one I believe that just uh um surveying principles alone is not uh adequate enough I would like to see that this extends to include other key stakeholders that would be relevant in providing uh feedback on sessions that you would provide to them and and I agree that that change is a a great recommendation I just want you to understand that with regard to this initial um listing of objectives uh there is a self appraisal date of April 30th of this year and then an ultimate um evaluation done in May so the time necessary to do what it is that you're recommending would likely not happen until the following year but that's the idea of setting up this model so that we could start to include and incorporate more groups in these discussions okay so this evaluation model that we are voting on today isn't it applicable to subsequent years beside the current year absolutely okay so um would you agree then Mr RADS that even though we may not be able to implement that part of it this year due to time constraints that in subsequent years it would be beneficial to include a wider scope Beyond principles as far as leadership that would benefit from action in audit sessions I re I reiterate yes okay so I would like to make a motion that for objective one that it includes uh key leadership stakeholders for the action and audit sessions to which the chief auditor is evaluated on second okay it's been moved in second and is there any public comment on the motion okay board discussion go ahead but can you just clarify your motion because is this going into year two okay um based upon the comments from Mr rhs this will be effective uh going into not this year but um subsequent years Beyond this year to which the evaluation would be applicable do you want to because that was going to be my question you want to update your motion yes okay are you okay with the second any board discussion Dr well Dr Zeman you pulled this item also so go ahead thanks so much chair um just a general comment that this uh work from last week to this week was amazing so to our chief auditor and to our director of uh evaluations thank you it's a lot of work to do and get it out in time so that we can look at it but it's really really you took the comments last week to heart and this is uh significantly better Dr holus I'm curious about the the nature of stakeholders uh we've done audits to vendors um would the vendor the stakeholder to which you refer or would it be the director of procurement uh can you repeat the last part of what you said um uh you're adding in your motion Beyond principles this idea of stakeholders other stakeholders correct and I'm curious um in an example where the auditor looks at uh the performance of a vendor or or the entire process from solicitation to bidding to evaluation to Performance uh audit do that it's a classic kind of accounting function uh traditional audit who would be the stakeholder that you are referring to stakeholders is just such a broad term I know what a principle is I know the principles I trust the principles understand um and in some sense the idea last week was to uh get away from uh a first recommendation that came to us uh and to and to create something that would be compelling to the board it would be compelling to me if a principal said uh over 80% of the time that they would agree uh or strongly agree that the audit was performed and they were trained and they understand the findings I mean I like the findings but the performance of the art audit was was that would blow me away okay uh because Auditors and and subjects to audits don't always get along with each other right so that would be like a really big test I'm trying to understand what a stakeholder would be and I'm just giving you one example where you might let me know okay thank you Dr Zan so um to clarify my point um the the the qualifying word is key key stakeholders so when we talk about uh when I had questioned Mr RADS he mentioned that there are other areas in the district outside of teaching and learning school-based leadership to which um action in audit sessions would be beneficial um so he uh agreed with that and I would go ahead and have Mr roads reiterate again those other areas to which he believes that audit action in audit sessions would be beneficial outside of school-based leadership which would be principles um I want to make sure that we are being comprehensive uh that we are actually looking at all aspects of the district um to which there are key stakeholders not just any stakeholders that would be beneficial for us to better evaluate the chief auditor on his job performance so Mr rhods could you reiterate uh your comments um when we talk about key stakeholders outside of teaching and learning to which you believe action in audit sessions would be beneficial yes I I could um the for for the Simplicity of the discussion I would say you have teaching and learning and then operations uh operations would be the other area with respect to Dr Zeman's Point um I don't think that key stakeholders would fall outside of district Key stakeholders and the reason that I say that is because um The District's key stakeholders are the folks who are responsible for um upholding and ensuring that internal controls are both created and and complied with uh that would not be something that a vendor would do although whenever we do audits of vendors vendors always have the opportunity to provide their discretionary responses which is essentially feedback on the work that we've done so I want to make sure that it's clear that on that operation side which could be anywhere from uh facilities Transportation po um uh those types of areas outside of principles and on the school uh teaching and learning side uh would be involved in that area that I have agreed to I just wanted to clarify that District stakeholders would be what we would be looking at absolutely so did that answer your question Dr Zan it does and I wonder if you would consider changing in your motion by that one word as well so that um i' I've just heard conversations about things and I suspect we'd get consensus on this and then it gets written without that clarification would you mind absolutely so um uh chair uh Hixon um District stakeholders is what I'm referring to Mrs Leonard you still good with the second terrific thanks so much I support this stuff Mrs M thank you so currently right now based on objective number one it's principles that are going to be doing the action in audits I would make the suggestion that you know based on what Mr Rood said that either facilities or po be the one that will be focusing on an objective number one I think we have a lot of more issues in in those areas with facilities and po so why not Target them first I understand in year two you're going to be you going to other groups but I rather focus on PO this year and then bring on principles in the following year okay we're still on the motion um I would just like to also make a suggestion I don't want to muddle year two with year one I would rather wait and let them bring back the evaluation after the first evaluation with all the right wording and terms and have a a chance to look at who those key stakeholders are and spell it out um as opposed to trying to rush it right now we know that he can't get to that until after we finish year one so bring back the evaluation after it's finished for this year and tweak it for the following years so I think we're trying to smush too much into to something right now and it's going to get confusing um later so I although I appreciate the motion I would rather see it come back to us more with more clarity on what's what's happening so um first I think we need to Mrs alad you can make a motion but we'll finish Dr hess's motion and then we'll go to you for a new motion okay so Madam chair I just want to and I appreciate your comment I just want to clarify that the motion um is um pretty clear that it's going to be uh subsequent year Beyond this year and that the current uh evaluation that includes principal is is what will stand but in subsequent years to which the motion because this evaluation is applicable for multiple years so the motion is uh implying uh that subsequent years that those key stakehold holders which would which would be um defined as District stakeholders will be part of the action and audit sessions so if we vote on that motion we're not voting to change anything this year we're simply voting to ensure that this will be applicable for subsequent years to which the chief auditor indicated that there are stakeholders District stakeholders outside of uh teaching and learning school-based leadership that could benefit from action in audit sessions and that would be relevant for us to evaluate him on so I'm just ensuring that we have that in place in subsequent years so we can properly evaluate the chief auditor um Beyond this current year right and I I I understand that but my thought is we still aren't sure who those key stakeholders are if we gave them enough time to finish the evaluation for this year and bring it back to us with spe specific people on who or specific departments not people that they'll include in it it gives him a little more time to spell that out we'll know exactly who those key stakeholders are CU what you might think is key might not be what do Zeman or I think is key or even the auditor so I'd like it to be more specific but it we're not going to do it for this year so I'd rather ask them to bring it back afterwards with more specifics so so that we're not being um ambigu ambiguous is probably not the right word but more specific on it so that's just my own personal thought on it so thank you for clarifying them okay can we take a vote on the motion so all those in favor in Dr hess's motion which is to add that in year two that they would include in the the action audit and action um sessions that would include distri key stakeholders um for the subsequent years all those in favor say I I all those post say no no can we take a roll call roll call on the motion school board members AA no bman yes Bam's not present Hixon no Honus yes leonardy yes rert Thompson yes Zeman yes motion passes 62 okay thank you so much um Mrs Al well I'm I'm not sure now because that passed if I make a motion to change principles to PO if that's allowable Miss Batista Miss Batista yes you're allowed to make that motion okay cuz the change ches are for next year so you're voting on this year or making a motion for this year okay I move to change objective number one to say at least 80% of Po will respond that they agree or strongly agree and then continuing that sentence okay is there a second second okay uh any public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion Dr Zan yeah um in the workshop when we talked about this last week um there was a a rich I think understanding of how many school audits are done every year and it's a significant portion of it it's directed by Department of Education and the intent was to as a result of the training of them so that they can part partner and provide the data that they need to for a successful audit that they would look at that training and they'd say wow I I got the training that I need it is a big issue it's a it's a significant part of the audit uh um um audits that are done over the course of a year and it's a tremendous issue to the board to make sure that schools are executing the dollars they get uh in a way that's consistent with the law uh and our policy so in some sense I thought that the motion was going to be principles and po added because principles do school audits which is at the end of the end of the first criteria so we probably need to do a little English on that if we want to add it but I'd love to to add po to that because they are also um a significant uh partner in understanding what audits do in an area in which we have tremendous vulnerability um thank you madam chair um Mrs well Mrs Al would you like to tweak your motion um I just have some comments first okay so this is for this year this would be for this year correct okay and my question is how many times has principles been trained on audits Dr heurn I know last year we trained a group of principles for specific uh reoccurring audit exceptions um with Mr um murus was still the the um Chief auditor this school year I don't think we've done any any trainings this current school year how many times say in the last five years has po been trained on audits Dr heurn um I don't have that answer right now we'll probably have to provide a followup I don't know if um Mr rhs and his team actually has that information from the past five years uh through um an audit that we recently went through there was well first let me back up and say I just have to make it clear anytime that these terms kind of get comingled what audits does is not training what audits does is raise awareness about what the standards require Auditors to do training uh by definition would uh prohibit us from being able to come back and audit because we don't train management management gets trained by management based on this the policies procedures and statutes and otherwise governance we come in and test to see that they're actually applying uh those uh governance components as we measure and test what it is that they've done uh the the followup that man that audits would be giving would be looking at some of those Lessons Learned and providing some strategies for how to avoid that and how to strengthen the internal controls which is really the key component uh having said that to get that part straight um there have been uh since I've been back uh with the district there has been one training that I'm aware of that included a bunch of principles um in a media center at an elementary school I apologize I can't remember the name of it um but that was one of the the sessions that we did at that time that limited the number of people that could be there just because of size and of the uh of the room that we were in as opposed to what we could reach out to uh by doing this via teams um and again by doing it in a way that uh looks at strata meaning U Elementary levels that have a lot of the same uh findings and or challenges middle schools that have a lot of the same findings and challenges and then uh high schools and centers that have the same findings and challenges we could look at that from there going back to the idea of Po I do not know and I am not directly aware of any specific training other than what was the outcome of a recent audit that um had to do with their use of contracts and um issuing uh purchase orders and work orders for work that they were using on contracts Miss seon yes uh I have a question for chief auditor can you define action and audit session I'm sorry can you repeat that can you define what you mean by action and audit session uh I'll I'll go over what I just said which was ultimately defining what it is which is using teams and inviting folks from these various areas to come in and bring both uh their ears to hear uh some of the uh strategies Trends and patterns that audits has found uh as well as to describe for them what some of the audit standards are and the audit steps and objectives that we have to take in our process to evaluate theirs um that would be the transfer of information in the action and audit sessions okay I would take that as training but I don't think you are saying that as training okay so I would assume po has never been trained or given an action and audit session I think it would be uh advantageous for them to get this I'm okay if you want to add principles and po but I heard the chief auditor say this year he would only be able to do one category uh one um group to facilitate this is that true Mr WS there's a possibility that there could be two between now and April 30th um and if it pleases the board that could be uh an area of um principles as well as a PO action and audit session I mean it to me um what I heard last week based on what uh Dr Zeman was just describing again was um a need for us to take a look at the uh audits that we do that are statutorily driven um but I also know that again knowing that next year we would be getting on schedule to do all four of these areas that we're talking about um including the the principles at at the level principles as well as um an area of of operations which could include more than PO for that matter right so I would say this year I'm comfortable with the principles and po the following year though I think it should also be facilities Transportation right should be on there too uh and and then also I think there's an opportunity for you Mr RADS to use thought exchange this is our AI technology that you'll be able to quickly gather information to to give you the feedback probably in a faster way to um get your outcomes so I'll modify my motion to include principles and po second okay Dr holess did you want to speak um actually the modified motion was my suggestion okay great Mrs Leonardi yeah same thing thank you all right all those in favor of Mrs alv motion to add principles and PO for this year um say I I I all those oppos say no motion carries thank you so much um Dr Zan did you have you are on board to speak on this item did you have anything else to add I wanted to heat Praise on uh our chap auditor and the evaluation team for doing uh precisely what we talked about last week I really appreciate it okay great so now we have to vote on item hh1 as amended so all those in favor of hh1 as amended say I I I all those opposed say no motion carries okay the next item up is item BB3 which is a scooter policy can I have a motion in a second moved so M moved by Mrs alh seconded by Mrs rert is there any public comment on item BB3 no ma'am okay thank you uh first up um is the maker of the item Mrs alad thank you so I wanted to bring this forward as quickly as possible for the board I know I brought it up probably six months ago and it just never went anywhere and I think it's really important for the board to ask the superintendent to bring back a scooter policy we did unfortunately have one student die from being hit by they were on a scooter and and then we've also have had incidents of of kids getting injured being on scooters it's very dangerous kids are on electric scooters they're not even wearing helmets and and we want to make sure that our kids are getting to school as safely as possible so I think it is incumbent on us as a board to do the right thing and create a scooter policy thank you thank you next is Dr holess uh thank you madam chair and I am certainly in agreement with that there are a lot of kids getting hurt on scooters there has to be guidelines um to which the um the school district responds to so to ensure their safety um I am just hoping though as as we look into a scooter policy that we don't uh necessarily reach the conclusion that we should ban them um I hope that we can provide guidelines that will create safety um um it could be having I I don't I'm not familiar with the speed of the scooters and and different things surrounding it um but I would be very open um to entertain uh looking at how we can provide safety guidelines um for for students using scooters thank you Mrs Leonardi yeah thank you I appreciate um this item you know when we're talking about protecting our students and providing safety it's obviously the most important thing we do I just had a few questions um and I'm wondering if we need to uh if we're talking about like all Scooters or specifically electric scooters and if we need to clarify that at all Dr hipper um from what I gather we're talking about all scooters um our students tend to display more riskier Behavior Behavior because they're they're more maneuverable versus a bicycle um and I've heard concerns from law enforcement too about our students um on scooters going to and from school and just generally in their in their communities that create unsafe um environments for themselves got it thank you and then do we have a policy governing um like other devices like bikes and skateboards Dr heurn I'm not currently aware enough the the team knows if we have any policies governing any other mode of transportation for our kids seeing a a resounding no okay so I mean I I think that we definitely need a policy on scooters I'm wondering if we also need to include you know bicycles and skateboards um other modes of transportation um and um I had another question but now I can't remember but that those are my comments for now chair thank you hold on one second Dr Zan thanks so much chair um I love sitting next to miss Leonardi because sometimes she kind of jumps right into where I was going too our kids matter a lot and uh the county uh has rules um they have done things for example like banded electric scooters near the beach and things like that um where we had uh lots and lots of accidents and lots of people not just injured but killed and so the county stepped in and said look there's going to be some areas where we we're just not going to allow that to happen uh cities do it as well uh who also provide uh crossing guards often to us and things like that try to reforce the city's laws uh near our schools but the idea of having a kind of a a transportation policy that covers uh skateboards and electric and and others is still I think wise because it gives us an opportunity to tell kids what's safe and what's not um I was shattered when a 10th grader was killed earlier this year crossing a street it was a rainy day it was dark it was six in the morning not on a crosswalk and I want to learn from all the tragedies that we have all the tragedies that we have it's a great way to learn it's a great content for U communicating and training people on what right looks like so to the extent that we can modify this particular item to include those other forms of transportation I think we be just be telling kids there's a good way to do those things and then there there's an awful way to do it if we care about our kids even though it's not really our jurisdiction with what they do outside of our fence lines um I still think it's a very wise thing to do even if the impact that we have is is whatever it can be um I still believe we need to have policies U that kind of remind them that we really love them and we want them to get to school safe and we want them to get home or to work or wherever they go after school safely so if the author of this is interested in that I think I think we can really put together kind of a short thoughtful policy uh that kind of reminds bar County how much we care and love the kids that come to school here okay thank you I'm going to go then we'll do second round um I agree with all of the transportation because as we know it's not just an issue with scooters it's bicycles crossing the street when you're walking even I've gotten I don't know how many emails about students with the earbuds in and crossing the street and walking right in front of a car so you could even add walking with cell phones on there so I just worry though about making a policy that we can enforce so I've said this so many times so the policy wouldn't really like if they're off our campus we can't enforce anything so I would hope that whatever that policy is is directed at something that's enforc able because we don't want to be we don't want to make up rules that we can't enforce so I'm for this I I think it should be comprehensive not necessarily just scooters because we do want our students to know so I don't know if it's really though a policy about how students transport to school more of a public safety announcement because how would we it'll just be interesting I guess to see how the policy rolls out because if it's on school campus we can enforce it if it's not we can't so I just want to keep that in mind um board member Thompson um I would agree I think it should be more of a policy of public education that we're directing principals and staff to teach during Kindergarten Roundup or the first meetings of school um I don't think punishing our students for how they're getting to school is really encouraging students to come to school um so I would not be in favor of a punitive policy thank you thank you Dr holess oh um yeah I was just suggesting as well if we move forward with the scooter policy um that the superintendent also brings back research I'd like to to understand the um the data as far as students um incidents with scooters versus bicycles versus skateboards all of that um just a kind of get an idea as to the scope of the problem so since we're looking to possibly include all means of transportation that students are individually using um I think data on that would be would be helpful in in actually um uh voting on that policy or tweaking the policy um and possibly data uh for surrounding districts as well Dade and Palm Beach thank you thank you Mrs rer thank you and um thank you Miss alep for bringing this forward and um for my colleagues coming about the idea to be comprehensive um I do want to say what an easy way that we could start is look at State statutes uh I believe that 16 and under for bicycles they should be wearing their helmets close to that anyway um and I can tell you in my area where I live kids do not as young as kindergarten first grade preschool kids they're not putting their helmets on and I'm been the neighbor that's knocking on doors to tell them so uh I I think it would be very good as a communication plan to go with this and everybody gets knowledge and more safety so I I appreciate it I'll be supporting it thank you thank you Mrs Leonardi thank you um I have a few comments questions and then I have a motion I'd like to make um I'm I don't want to put our student adviser on the spot but I'm curious to hear um some student input on this through the chair go ahead thank you Lon spelberg student advisor to the school board uh I would definitely say the communication of a policy or uh really a communication of how this works to students is very important right a policy can happen in this boardroom and if students aren't informed of it uh there's not signs you know regular communication with students I think that can make it obsolete uh the other part that we hear at a lot of school visits is the bike areas students aren't able to at some Schools they're not able to use them um they have to leave their bikes scooters around the campus um so that kind of adds an element to this as well about definitely finding an area where students can put these different modes of transportation uh when they come on campus but we would definitely support something that is communicable to students um and is very clear to them about what the expectation is with these modes of transportation and thank you for asking Miss Ley yeah thank you um I would just ask that uh because several board members have brought this up that you know if this item does pass we include staff consults with other governmental agencies and law enforcement in the development of this policy um and just as a another note um since chair Hixon brought this up regarding this being a policy we can enforce what I was envisioning was um something that's governing like when students arrive to campus when they leave and then uh as our student advisor suggested a communication plan around um educating our students and and just like what where member Thompson did um so with that I have a motion to make um to amend the requested action so it said it would read directing the superintendent to develop and Implement a comprehensive policy regarding various modes of transportation within our district including data a communication plan in designated areas for uh storage of these modes of transportation second it's been moved in seconded is there any public comment on the motion board member comment on the motion okay do you want to speak on the motion or I know I I skipped you I'm sorry I'll come back to you after she's done with the motion unless you want to talk on the motion well I I I have a question about policy versus guideline and what our real jurisdiction is I mean if we really only have jurisdiction over the students once they get on school property then a policy wouldn't be enforceable I think as we've talked about before so um what I was going to say before is maybe we need to focus on the education part of it and the safety education and that might be the best thing that we can do because I agree with board member Thompson about the ability of students to get to school um and there's also a lot of cost involved in safety equipment and making other um requirements for the students thank you Mrs Al can miss batia speak to the statute if there is a statute in regards to parents having the responsibility to make sure their child gets to school safely Miss Batista so um thank you Madame share um so yes you know that's one of the responsibilities for uh parents um you know as far as the the policies concerned um as you may recall a policy is a statement of General applicability so it has to apply to the students and it has to be within our jurisdiction to be able to enforce it um you know having said that I think you know the superintendent may be able to put something together that um uh either encourages or is able to um you know to the extent that we're able to um figure out something regarding the modes of transportation so thank you Miss Pisa so I guess what I'm saying is we can't dictate how the kids are going to get to school but we C we can dictate do we allow the storing of scooters at our school so I think that's part of the conversation and what Dr he when he does his research on this can come back to the board with a suggestion for us but I do think there is an opportunity today that we can do some educating out to the community in regards to just wearing a helmet basic standard whether it's a bike or scooter thank you thank you Dr Z thanks so much chair um I'm curious about another legal question which is I mean one to miss ala's point you get on a school campus first you cross the property line and then you go through the parking lot and down the sidewalk to get to that place too so we can have a policy about using Scooters or bikes or any kind of vehicle while you're on our property and we can enforce that clearly chair um when does in loco parentis cover us as the acting parent for students Miss Batista so in in local parenes would be once the student is on our property um or um you well it is with definitely when the student is on our property uh I was going to go into you know whenever they're like at the bus stop and and that kind of thing which you know we are not uh responsible or have any duty at that point until the bus gets and picks up the student but from that moment forward and charas and local Paras cover students when they're on the bus Miss Batista yes Madam shair I does and and I appreciate the legal definition of that the community thinks that there's a shared responsibility between the school and parent and the family in the community on getting kids safely to school and so having a policy that says uh we are or are not going to allow scooters uh what if we have a school that's in like on a really really dangerous Street it may be in our best interest to not let kids store scooters during the day just because we don't think they ought to be doing it um so I love this we just got to kind of get out of our own way I think here a little bit I mean yes uh our policy should govern things that we can enforce they also how to govern things we care about and we care about kids getting to school safely and if that just means we educate them while they're there it's great but what a great policy to have on the record to say that we care so much about our kids 200,000 of them that we want them to be educated and have policies on school properties and wear a dang helmet when you're on a property live near the beach and I can't tell you how many times I see two 12-year-olds on electric scooter and the drivers on their cell phone texting and when they're on a way to one of our schools and they get killed which is has happened not just once multiple times I feel terrible I feel like maybe we didn't educate them enough maybe we didn't remind them about wearing helmets and things like that and so I just think this is the right thing to do across the board and it ought to be it ought to cover the the time for when you leave your home or wherever you you leave to come to school until you get to school property and then it ought to cover what you know a separate set of rules which we can enforce uh once they get on on school property so um I appreciate all the all the recommendations but I'm dying to hear what the superintendent staff come back okay thank you and I would um just before I call Mrs Leonardi and see I really appreciate Mrs Leonard's motion because I think it encompasses all of what we're saying that will enforce what we can on campus we'll give them communication safety education pieces so it's a good directive to the superintendent I think of what we'd like to see that policy look like so um I'm thank you for the motion and I'm looking forward to voting Mrs leonardy yep just really quickly um I appreciate the debate around uh doing a policy versus guidelines um I do want to clarify we have policies about how and when we educate and communicate certain information so I think you know that's why I included that as a part of my motion um I think that's a vital part of this um and to the point that Dr Zan was making just now we do have policy about how students leave us for instance um we are not allowed to release a student to an adult that a guardian has not does not has not approved as a person for pickup right so I think it would be appropriate to have a policy governing like how a student leaves us on a bike or a scooter or you know whatever mode of transportation and I don't think that like we need to be debating those specific things today um I do think that it's important that we issue this directive um so that we can ultimately create a safer environment for our students as was the the objective of Mrs ala's item thank you thank you okay so we're going to vote on the motion which was to add all of those things that Mrs Le and already had to the directive to the superintendent so all those in favor say I I any opposed okay the motion carries now we have to vote on the item as amended so all those in favor of BB3 as amended say I I any opposed the motion carries thank you so much so it is my pleasure to bring to the floor and ask for motions for item S1 the Carlton B Campbell Innovative learning lab Miss Bulman thank you chair um it is my privilege as the board member representing district one to um introduce the district's intention to rename the Verizon Innovation Lab at Gulfstream Academy of Hollandale beaches uh K through 8 to the Carlton B Campbell Innovation learning lab um to recognize and commemorate the late golf stream Academy principal car Carlton Campbell who served our BR County public schools for 35 years as a teacher principal Community leader and Mentor um he survived by his three sons Carlton Jr Caleb and Carrington and his wife Dr josetta Campbell who is the amazing principal of Sheridan Hill's Elementary um and principal Campbell's brother Pastor Javin Campbell um I believe will be giving some remarks on behalf of the family okay so public comments on item S1 Mr Sullivan we'll start with Pastor Campbell it should be on there we go good morning everybody good morning I know it's kind of cold but uh it's a great morning and uh we are both humbled and proud to be here to celebrate the Colton B Campbell computer lab at G stream Academy this occasion is uh very meaningful as it comes just over a year since Colton's passing you know it's really amazing to know that his light is still shining and that we still have friends and support here at the Broward County school system that is still willing to acknowledge his legacy with that being said on behalf of Dr josetta Campbell his sons Caleb Carrington and Carlton Jr the entire Campbell family we want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to superintendent Dr Howard Hepburn principal Miss Lyn Bonnie special shout out to miss Charlene Alexandria and of course the esteem members of the school board and staff at the golf stream Academy your decision to honor Colton in this way ensures that his legacy will live on inspiring generations of students to aim higher work harder and walk with purpose just as he did you know Colton's Journey was one of resilience determination from his early days as a football champion at Hollandale high school he demonstrated success and he showed that long as you have a great vision you can get anything done his life exemplified the power of Education discipline and a deep sense of community and I can think of no better tribute than this computer lab and this space designed to empower young people to explore to learn and to dream beyond their boundaries this dedication is not only a celebration of his life but it's also a reminder that each of us has the power to leave an indelible mark on the world through service and love and may every student who steps into this lab know that it carries the name of someone who believed in hard work and the potential of others so once again I want to say thank you on behalf of our family I want to say thank you uh to all of you that were friends to uh Mr Campbell on behalf of Dr Josie this means a lot to to us uh he one of his his three sons are here with us the others are away shout out to Dr wanza and all of you we love you we appreciate you and we say a good God bless you on behalf of now church we say we are people impacting people and Colton truly was a person that impact people and I just want to say to all of you here today because you have to go through so much information over and over and over again sometimes it can become mundane it can become frustrating I'm sure sometimes you get bored but I just want you to know you are impact children's lives so keep doing what you're doing God bless you all thank you so much next public speaker next is principal Bonnie good morning esteemed members of the school board superintendent heern cabinet members and guests my name is LIN Bonnie the proud principal of gstream Academy of Hollandale Beach K8 it is both an honor and a privilege to stand before you today on behalf of the the entire Gulf Stream Academy of Hollandale Beach k Community to speak about a proposal that holds deep significance for us the renaming of the Verizon Innovation lab to the Carlton B Campbell Innovation lab Mr Campbell served as the principal of gstream Academy of Hollandale Beach K to8 from July 2023 to October 2024 though his time with us was brief due to his untimely passing the mark he left on on this school and its people is profound and Lasting his leadership was characterized by a vision of Hope a commitment to Excellence and a genuine care for each individual he encountered one of the last projects Mr Campbell poured his heart into was the planning of the opening of the Verizon Innovation lab in partnership with Verizon and Arizona State University which took place on January 17th 2024 after his passing the vision for this place was to have an environment that fostered creativity Innovation and a passion for lifelong learning Mr Campbell's dedication to this project embodied his broader mission to provide our students with the tools and opportunities to succeed in an everchanging World in December 2023 the Gom Academy of Hollandale Beach K8 Community came together to propose renaming the Verizon Innovation lab in honor of Mr Campbell's Legacy we believe this would be a fitting tribute to a leader whose impact continues to inspire us all on behalf of the entire gstream Academy of Hollandale Beach KDA Community we respectfully urge the school board to approve this proposal to honor Mr Campbell's Legacy and his lasting contributions to our school thank you for your time and for your consideration thank you so much next public speaker okay great any board member comments I just like to take the opportunity to say I'm very excited to be able to vote on this um I had visited Mr Campbell not too long before everything happened and he was very excited about this new opportunity in their school and for the students so it's it's such an honor to be able to vote on this today so so um thank you so much all those in favor of item S1 name U the naming of the Carlton B Campbell Innovation learning Lab at GF stream Academy say I I I any opposed with great pleasure I say it passes unanimously thank you so [Applause] much okay the next item up is item ff1 which is is Grants um Grant applications can I have a motion in a second to bring ff1 to the floor so move to move by Dr Zan second in by Mrs rert any public comment on f f one um Mrs ala yes my question is will AI technology be used in any of these uh grants applications Dr heer yes that is a confirmation of a yes thank you thank you and I just wanted to shout out um as I do monthly to the Grant application Department their this this month's total is 3,815 418 um Dollar in Grants and 3,771 5568 is a hardening Grant to help with the safety in our schools so thank you so much for all of your hard work um in providing these additional FS to our district all those in favor of ff1 say I I any opposed say no motion passes um the ff1 passes passes unanimously the next item up is gg1 can I have a motion in a second to bring gg1 to the floor it's been moved by Mrs rert seconded by Mrs Leonardi is there any public discussion no ma'am uh board member discussion Mrs alhad yes I would just like to uh get input from Miss Batista in regarding this recommended action of the of the interest waiver yes thank you Madame share so this is an item um where uh Mr opton is an employee of Morgan Stanley the company serves as an investment banker Bond underwriter for certain fin financial matters for the school board and um but Mr opton is not part of that Municipal banking services Branch he's he's in an area that is unrelated to the services that Morgan Stanley provides to the school board um in an abundance of caution the company actually requested that the district um enter into this waiver or or wave any potential conflict um we do not believe and I have looked at the item um it's an item that I have drafted so I don't believe that there is any actual conflict but you know just in in an abundance of caution we are putting this before the board for your approval thank you Dr Zan thank you chair um I suspect that I the answer this pretty straightforward but did Morgan Stanley uh agree for their employee to serve on this in this voluntary capacity for bar County Schools um yes Madam sherff um okay so so this was right this was a request this is someone I'd like to put on the audit committee he has a lot of knowledge about finances and because he works for Morgan Stanley and they do do business in a different department with the district they asked for this so they're happy for him to be on the committee they just wanted it to be out of an abundance of caution clear that there was no conflict of interest and I'm I'm just doing our produ share Duty chair which is if the company is aware that he's doing it and we say yes we wave the conflict then both sides are good if I've seen cases before where an employee comes and says oh you got to sign this conflict a waiver and they didn't inform their company that they're doing it I just wanted to make sure that's the case so thank you very much yes thank you so much any other board discussion all those in favor of gg1 say I I I any opposed no thank you motion passes with one descending vote thank you I think we'll bring one more item the next item up is jj1 I have a motion in a second to bring jj1 to the floor moved it's been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs Leonardi is there any public comment on J one okay board discussion m board member Thompson um I was wondering because in the background history of this item exterior painting is supposed to be happening to the school it has not happened in a significant amount of time and I would like to know the timeline for that and also I'll start with our timeline for when that school will be painted please C Castle Dr heurn Miss Paul good afternoon good morning and Merry Christmas um we are uh on SE Castle uh the scope did not include the entire school um but what we are looking at is the uh areas that were not included in the scope to pressure wash them and then see what painting needs to be done we're also in the process of setting up a a a a more a robust program for painting across the district because quite honestly we really don't have one and so uh we're focusing on preventive maintenance uh as opposed to emergency maintenance and so just trying to reset the entire District to uh follow best practices across the country so in response to your answer we need to pressure wash uh across the district uh we have quite a few vendors that we uh have selected to help us with that and a lot of more small businesses also uh and we're going to as a part of the FCA assess our facilities uh across the district uh so in response to your answer we're going to Pink the the areas that are within scope we're going to assess the remaining parts of SE Castle uh we know uh from um visiting a campus that we need to pressure wash a lot of it and then we're going to come up with a plan to see how we can assist with the painting of it thank you you actually preempted my next question a lot of the schools that I've been visiting have a significant delay in when they were supposed to be painted in fact the feedback we got from staff was that is still working on the 2007 schools that were supposed to be painted um I think as we're talking about redefining our school district and beautification and making our schools a welcoming environment I think we need a better districtwide plan um to do so I also that's thank you Mrs yes so to that point I would ask if that we can um in the budget our next budget meeting that there could be funding allocated to support Miss Paul's suggestion as far as us needing to paint you know our schools and if we can figure that out in the budget I think that is paramont it is so important that our schools are painted they look clean they look fresh you know as we're redefining Broward County Public Schools it's so important that people see inviting schools that look new um and I think that painting is a great first start thank you and before I go there just I'm going to push back a little there is a list about painting I have it it's very hard to follow but I asked for it probably a year and a half ago because as Mrs Thompson said when she went around as I went around to schools they were saying that there was there's like a cycle and and a lot of them were promised as soon as the smart project was done that they were going to get painted so their staff provided me with a list it's not easy to follow but I will share it with you but I will say there there was some kind of plan as M um board member Thompson mentioned we're definitely behind in the plan but um there there there is a list so um Miss Thompson sorry my last comment is I've gotten people especially small businesses who are interested in the idea of adopting a school so painting our school is there a way that we can is there anything that prohibits that kind of donation our partnership and if not why aren't we doing that Dr heurn yes um we pass that information on to Mr Chisum uh director of strategic partnership um there aren't many limiting factors the only limiting factors is just to ensure that they're using the right type of paint the right type of materials um that adhere to our our specs and in codes yeah Mrs rert um thank you and uh a nod to uh my new colleague Miss Thompson um what I was going to speak on you already just did um I'd love the fact that Mr Chisum would be um brought into the conversation I know I've had a limited amount but still success um by reaching out to our local businesses located in the area so North Area South Central um we do have adopted school and there's a whole pram that goes with that but I understand the um emphasis of wanting to get it done yesterday um and I think it's a good time also business with within the area and donations so um and we need to reach out to our organizations like bef uh and ask if they want to do it but also a time maybe not so very long ago than a year um eight common Atkins had talked about donating some time and donating some supplies for painting um I don't I haven't talked to them about it but it would probably behoove the superintendent to kind of bring that up again and see if there's still an appetite because we could certainly uh utilize that Dr he thank you yes that's U that's noted Miss rubert okay and finally Mrs Al I just want to go back to my point and clarify I just want us to be more aggressive in our timing of painting our schools I know there's a list but that list could be for the next 10 years what I'm saying is that we need to fund the painting and and get that done in a fast manner so our schools are painted and look amazing yes I don't think anybody disagrees with that um okay all those in favor of item jj1 say I I I any opposed jj1 passes unanimously I'm going to take one more because I skipped it and then we'll go to our special order um can I have a motion in a second for jj2 moved it's been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs rert any public comment on jj2 no ma'am any board member comment on jj2 all those in favor of jj2 say I I I any opposed say no perfect jj2 passes unanimously we will now move to um items mm 1 through six we're going to take them together and then we'll take mm7 directly after that so can um I have a motion a second to move mm 1 through six to the floor second it's been moved by Mrs rert seconded by Dr Zeman we will go to public comment and just to let you know since we have over 10 people the time limit will be reduced to two minutes per speaker so we will start Mr Sullivan with the first Speaker sure uh we're going to start with Edward Mahia and as he's getting ready to speak uh Nicole Morris and commissioner Melissa Dunn will be be next good morning everyone my name is Edward Mahia and I serve as a district Outreach manager for congresswoman Sheila shus McCormack I bring you greetings from your congresswoman she wish she could be here today but she's currently Washington voting thank you all for being here today to fight for our community education is a golden ticket in our country it opens our kids to new ideas new ways of thinking and new experiences it is foundational and necessary to secure a strong future for our children we must ensure every child in Broad County and in laud Hill has a chance to receive an education which is why congresswoman sherf lless McCormick strongly and sincerely opposes the consolidation of broad States Elementary while we recognize the need for new resources and programs for our youngest Learners consolidating Broad estate's Elementary into Dr Martin Luther King Jr montor Academy means displacing hundreds of students who depend on the school the community has strong ties to this campus and the impact on these children and their families cannot be overlooked schools are not businesses they are the found Foundation of a child's future we cannot treat our schools like they're are just another business our children are not Commodities they are the promise of tomorrow to invest in their future is to invest in America's future right here in our community we are grappling with real issues issues that may that may not be resolved by this generation who will resolve them if not them then who we have a responsib ability to our children and to our community to give them a shot at becoming the next Supreme Court Justice member of Congress educator business nonprofit executive solving our community's tough toughest challenges I urge you to listen to our community keeping broad States open and invest in our children invest in our community and invest in America thank you very much thank you next up as Nicole gets ready to speak we're going to have Melissa Dum and mayor uh Denise Grant next thank you hello Nicole Morris Coral Springs um so I was asked to go to Broward Estates to the community meeting as a representative for the North Area advisory because they had a seat on the boundary committee and our chair couldn't go um so I went and I met parents and teachers and uh students and Monica and different community members who um said they did not want their school to close they were concerned about students going to a mon story um the option was to go across the street to Plantation Elementary there's no guarantee of a bus Plantation Elementary is a completely different feeder pattern than uh MLK and B state so that would separate the children from their friends so the choice is go to a montauri or go across the street it is across 441 um maybe there will be a bus but will there'll be activity buses the students participate in debate and such things after school so will there'll be a um an activity bus uh typically there's not um so I did a little bit of research and it seems that there are 216 student stations that were uh built between 1991 and 2001 in brow Estates and the rest of the student stations are in 1959 buildings so if you have 228 students at Bara States currently and you take them to montauri are you just going to essentially swap the students that are in the school for early learning students um or will you be housing the VPK and the Early Learning students in uh the 1957 buildings have there been um costales or um infrastructure inspections uh MLK I've been told is not truly a montau if that's the case then I hope that we would stop calling that I've been told twice in the last week by District officials that it is not a montauri so it's disingenuous that we are representing it as a montau um I went to the HOA meeting last night um these folks would like to have a VPK and uh both schools MLK and brow States thank you next speaker commissioner dun yes good afternoon um Madame chair Vice chair Mr superintendent board members I'm commissioner Melissa P dun from the city of Lauder Hill Florida and thank you for the opportunity to address you today uh you you know I believe that we share a common commitment to making sure that all children in Broward County are educated well with teachers who are kind and loving and professional and in buildings that's safe and resourceful uh we share that that common commitment with you in the city of Lauderhill and so I understand the need to make some shifts right the attendance and the enrollment is not what we would like to see the building is is not fully engaged and so while I understand that I do urge you to um consider creating a win-win opportunity in the recommendation I understand that um the intention is to merge our children with those of MLK and then to lease the space to a learning Early Learning model uh and I would really like for you to consider the community's request which is to keep the students at Broward Estates and also add a early learning component I think that there's still an opportunity for us to to have conversations hopefully and and create a win-win where um even if you move only some of the children and keep the others there but we have to look at ways to not displace all of the children and move them to another school um I think that uh we do have the opportunity and if not the opportunity alone but the responsib posibility to make sure that all 200 odd students in the school um are not completely displaced I know the intention is to to honor them and to honor providing quality education and so let's keep talking I know you have to vote but let's keep talking thank you thank you so much next public speaker next we have uh mayor Grant and after the mayor we have Robert Kum thank you so much and thank you for the opportunity to be here uh Dr heurn uh Schoolboard chair Miss Hixon and of course our Schoolboard member Dr Jeff holess and other members in their respective places I am Denise Grant the mayor of the city of La Hill and I am representing the interest of my city in particular the communities of St George and brow States I stand before you today with the support of my colleagues along with our city manager Community leaders such as homeowners association president Mr Wilkerson board members May Smith who is the former uh Association president and other stakeholders with vested and concerned interest there is a great outcry in the city as it relates to the proposed repurposing of row Estates Elementary School the neighborhood of row States and the surrounding neighborhoods are not in favor of the potential plans instead we were requesting a compromise which will then mean that we are looking for a publicly funded public school to remain to implement the Early Learning Center but ensure that we retain the students that are already in the school and essentially we are not in support of transferring the students to the Martin Luther King montauri school we are aware of the low enrollments and there are many factors that has contributed to this reality nevertheless brow State's Elementary is a historical landmark and Jewel in our community school has historical significance and adds to identity of the community and the preservation of its Heritage having a traditional Elementary School in the neighborhood gives the community a sense of Pride and ownership many of the families living in the vicinity now are aged and care for are caring for their grandchildren attended Broward Estates and the proximity to Martin Luther King is approximately a mile and many many of our elderly uh family members who walk their children to school find that to be a challenge we're looking at Community impact sorry thank may I so much no only two minutes thank you thank you kindly thank you next up is Mr Crum then after Mr Crum we got artha wly and Miss Greaves all right good morning everyone how you guys doing today um I am Robert Crum of the Hughes family and I am a residing resident with in the great city of Ludy Hill I will have been a single father and my my daughter for since the time she was 6 months and until I got married until she was 12 years old I am a father of an 8-year-old student and a six-year-old student I am the parent that you are looking for to bring children back to your schools I am also a community leader through our community uh only the beginning program we've been doing great beautification projects and school incentive programs as you guys have been a part of and have seen I would like to ask one where is the Innovation when it comes to our schools and what we're going to do as we proceed unfortunately I do not feel that we have received the community meetings with our school board members and reference to how do we create the best step for going forward and it leaves us at a disadvantage where we only have the option of a learning center and moving to MLK other communities are getting upgrades collegate programs that are outstanding but for our community all we're getting is moved from one school to another and our kids being transferred to one area to another it is nothing that anyone has came to say hey this is could be option A B C or D and we are not educated in this world of Schoolboard so I am hurt that no one has come to us besides the Schoolboard meetings to say what is our opinion but not give us different options for we can actually learn and make great decisions for our community so I would ask for you guys to have more conversations that not just a big group of people but how do we make sure that we make the best decision for our kids and realize that we were ripping them from their environment and changing everything thank you very much next speaker I agree with everything the previous speakers have said nonetheless I stand for some of the undeserved dis Advantage families who look like me and want to exercise our rights to advocate for top tier Early Learning Professional Services and Community partner resources accessible accessible to our babies within our District 5 Eastside um neighborhoods where children have a where we have a hyperfocus on our children and their educational equity and equality and where they have historically bear the consequences of poor fiscal management political agendas racism and classism I restate my advocacy for Broward estate's Elementary School campus to meet critical unmet needs for Stellar Early Learning experiences for families currently with babies and they do not have access to Affordable top tier early Lo learning programs that better prepare the babies for elementary school proof of this need is reflected in the students at school performance rankings however since I last appeared to this board I learned that some board members and board um Brower County Public Schools Executives did not communicate with me in a spirit of one Broward because they did not disclose that the board has no intention to invest any of the $6 million smart bun funds into improving the campus for our babies it is a dishonest and it is an insult that you would admit that you are willing to bring our babies onto a campus that you know is substandard and you had $6 million allocated that you will not reconsider to put back into the resources for that campus yes I report that you close it as it is but I do not suggest that you abandon it and then send our babies you say yeah we'll bring it we'll turn it into a Early Learning Center but then you would deny to make it a top tier Stellar learning environment for our children shame on you shame on you because you did not say that you also did not tell me that you could potentially close Gul stream Learning Center and then that would be actually replacing instead of being an addition you're going to use our babies to absorb somebody next speakers thank you please no clapping then we can't hear the speakers next speaker we have ad Delphia uh kler and Monica syrup or and Miss Greaves if she hasn't Miss Greaves is at the go ahead miss grees good morning Madam chair Vice chair superintendent board members Happy New Year I stand before you um this morning asking that you allow br states to remain as a public school properly funded and resourced for our community for our children no one can dispute the fact that quality education is crucial to both as an individual and Community success our children are our future and investing in their education is essential the BR estate's Community urges the BR School Board to reconsider any plans for our school we ask that the board explore keeping bro State's Elementary adding an Early Learning Center build a new school keep the current boundaries and ensure that bride State's Elementary remains open and fully functional and I'll close by saying this for those that don't know again my name is Latricia Greaves and I am the mother to over 200,000 kids in BR County school I love you and God bless thank you next speaker I'm I'm Delia Kegler 91 years old been in a brow State uh since uh 1970 this is no new story for me I was before this school board in the70s and the 80s trying to save Broward State and Parkway we were able to keep the doors open but that was it you all have done nothing for brow estate since that time but given us promises uh my children had to go to uh Plantation across 441 if if I didn't drive them they had to walk no one cared but um you all uh uh our school was built in 57 Plantation Elementary was built since that time you all gave us nothing but promises but you were able to find land to build another plantation school and now you all you all only thing you did to us was give us pressure cleaning and a little paint and now I understand you say our school is so bad you can't repair it and we are not going to give you a new school you all have never given the schools in our neighborhood absolutely nothing but promises so if I sound like I'm angry it's because I am thank you so much next public speaker hi good afternoon sorry everyone that spoke definitely I I'm almost like um I'm very humbled to be here to speak um my name is Monica surup I am not a member of the community but yet I do love the community uh last year I was introduced to BR States elementary through the souls for Souls um project I went down on a shoe distribution and I fell in love with this little child who didn't get a pair of shoes that day but he whispered to me what he wanted pair of Jordans so I went back and two weeks later um I got connected with Miss Brinson so here's my thing everyone here speaks so eloquently and I was praying to God that I could speak so you could hear us I know you're listening but do you hear what they're saying my kids were fortunate to go to a very good school district in Parkland and I got to tell you the PowerHouse up there like moms don't put up with it they get what they want I want to be the voice for the moms who can't be here today who are working who are really trying desperately to like give their kids a better opportunity Miss Brinson Miss Freeman the principal there these are the women that can do it these are the women that could produce the next president I've seen them work I mean I live in Parkland I volunteer at the school because I believe in the work that they do the Um passion that they have the want they know what to do they know what to implement the the drama clubs the debate clubs student council The Cooking Club all of these are essential for these kids to learn if they do not get that they do not learn anything else and how are they going to go anywhere else the these are the women here that are supplying all of that listen if they were your children and you had great school teachers and a great safe environment and a loving Community would you not fight for them to stay in their school yes do all of the betterment because I was in there last summer we were helping to paint and find like people to help like make it pretty again I'm just asking you to to just really hear the people these children are amazing thank you next public speaker now next we have uh Cheryl uh Lewis and D muray kildo good morning my name is Sheryl Lewis thank you all the Schoolboard members and Dr heurn for giving me this opportunity I've done a lot of research about this conversation and we must position our children for Success when schools are severely underr Ro District like the fundings necessary to provide adequate resources for students to address this we need to pay closer attention to Tallahassee as the way the state allocate funding to schools is the most is the root of the problem currently the State of Florida funds Early Learning K through 12 Workforce education and postsecondary education separately this means the district cannot use Early Learning funds to support K through2 education relocating elementary students a few blocks away to Martin Luther King Elementry puts them in a fully resourced environment specifically focusing on Elementary learning at the same time establishing An Early Learning Center at Broward state provides critical opportunities for younger children to start their education early Reviving parents to return to work this approach not only increased educational OPP opportunities for the entire Community but also gives youth a head start in preparing children for success by working with them thank you so much you like I said I worked at brow State thank you I was thank you so [Music] much next thank you next speaker next speaker on nm1 we have Anna Fusco go ahead good morning good morning and blessings to the Broward County School Board as well as all attendees my name is Don Marie keldo and I stand before you not only as a resident of Lauder Hill but also as a parent to a bee that attends Broward estate's Elementary I am also a faculty there with the firewall centers that tutors our students I have been working with Broward County for some time to not only enrich but also to hold down a tradition within our community I am also looking to you and all pleading in regards to let's continue to add to the community we have students who are amazing who are gifted but they have to go out of our areas in order to receive the education that they need my my student also attended M and that year was transitioning for us because it showed where we needed to also put into our own for our students at Broward states it is a family it is a home but it's a loving environment that our families want to continue and add on to we have students that I also had to go through school choice to let my little be attend Broward States for that choice that we had we need to continue to add to it we are pleading to the board and to the city to the county so that we can still do all that we need to to enrich our students so that they bring back in we have medical magnet programs we have the stem school we are a stem school and a lot of the parents don't know of the opportunities to add on to it we want to show that we can still do that we have the funds to do it let's please put the funds to brard states keep the doors open add enrichment programs so that we can bring back into the community thank you thank you so much next public speaker Anna Fusco Brower teachers union um speaking as a Brower teachers union president educator Brower County Public Schools a mother that her son graduated from Brower County Public Schools and as a resident of Brower County so I got multiple pieces that I want to speak about how about that app parent her little bee and I bet you if every parent that was able to be here today because you know they have to work they would be here speaking on behalf of their little bees also so that's one you have a great group of community that have come out I've been saying this from day one don't close any of our schools don't turn it over to anybody I'm never going to waver from that ever I did it with Robert runy and I'll do it with anybody else two I'm asking board members take a strong position today and do not vote to turn this school into anything but keeping it as power to states have more indepth conversations with the powers that be of the brains that sit here in front of us and find a way to get into your $6 billion doll budget and make it work I don't have the answer what will make it work because I haven't been in tune in every little nook and cranny but I bet you if I did get involved in every little nook and cranny I'd have a solution for you because one thing that people may know that I might be an ass at times but one thing that people come to me is when they know I'm going to come with a solution to get it done with for the right of our Brower count County Public Schools we have Brower County public schools that have wonderful people that come in here and speak highly of a school take it while you've got it when I sit here and watch multiple times the people they want to do is come in here and trash us we' got new people sitting on the board right now this is all too new to you don't rush this we know we've got situations we're in a district everybody's moved Broward Estates is a staple in our community for multiple reasons and all those little bees deserve the stay there every single one of them and I guarantee if it's having another meeting I can get more people here but we cannot move to do anything but keep it intact right now and have a more in-depth conversation and figure it out I know you guys can do it thank you so much do we have another public speaker yes we have three remaining for mm2 we have mayor Walsh from cokernut Creek and then for mm4 we have commissioner uh shuham from Hollywood okay ladies if you'll come on up to a microphone one on each side and the last speaker is going to be uh Amanda George thank you commissioner shuham go ahead thank you so much um chair Hixon Vice chair Leonardi members of the school board superintendent heurn my name is Carol shuham and I am a proud mom of three Broward County public school graduates I am I'm also a City Commissioner in the city of Hollywood District 1 district one home of the mighty manatees at Hollywood Central Elementary School I am here today to express the strong support of our community to convert Hollywood Central to a K8 School uh now board member uh Bullman and I and members of our community for years have been working on this initiative to make this happen I know based on countless conversations with members of the community that this is transformational for this school parents have been waiting for today even before you vote today parents have been reaching out to that school in absolute excitement and you have an amazing team there right now you have a new principal uh misson a fantastic assistant principal and you have a team that is ready to take your vote and turn this school into something even more Magic than it is today so I hope that you approve this and make Hollywood Central at K8 and transform that Community thank you so much thank you so much mayor Welch yes good morning mayor Welch Coconut Creek and I'm here on behalf of mm2 the proposal to turn Coconut Creek Elementary School into a k through eight model and uh in speaking with the principal who is is very excited to uh see this transformation as it would if it were additionally to be a Cambridge Middle School it would radically transfer uh transfer those students right to Coconut Creek High School who has a successful graduated classes of Cambridge so uh anyway we're very much in support of this and appreciate all the research and investigation that's taken place before it came before you today so thank you again and we're here to help God bless thank you so much and our final speaker hi members of the board and everyone here today thank you so much for your time and for being here I think that's a testament to how important these measures are for us my name is Amanda George I'm a resident of Hollywood a proud parent of two students at Hollywood Central Elementary a school volunteer and currently serving as the PTA president of our school I'm here to advocate for the transformation of Hollywood Central into a k School a change that would benefit our public schools and our community as a whole for years our community has been very eager for this transition and I can confidently say it's been broad enthusiastic support from not only our school but our neighborhood families and also our city officials I want to also add that the support is an amazing Testament to our Administration our Educators and you the board the proof is that we're all here taking time out of our day to say we want to stay and continue at a school that's been serving our students we attended the town halls we've attended the meetings and we're here again today to just strongly encourage you guys to expand this wonderful school this isn't just an opportunity to enhance our school but a critical chance to retain students in the public school system and attract the families who are considering private or troter options we can stop the drainin because there hasn't been a local KO alternative I encourage you in the strongest manner that I possibly can to please take charge and allow Hollywood Central as a kd8 school to better serve the wants and needs of our community we ask for your vote of support to make this reality and further show your dedication to Student Success strengthening our public schools and meeting the evolving needs of our families thank you thank you so much that concludes public comment concludes our public comment um before we go to board comment Dr heern would like to make a few statements yes thank you um good good afternoon chair Vice chair board members and the entire Brower County Schools Community First I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our leadership team and staff your unring dedication has been instrumental in moving our district forward and your commitment to Excellence is TR truly appreciated as we redefine BCPS our Focus remains on offering the best educational options for our students and their families this process is not just about closing schools it's about creating opportunities meeting the diverse needs of every child and ensuring families feel confident in choosing Brower County Public Schools I want to emphasize that this is just the beginning the recommendations I've made reflect what I believe is the path to move forward on at this time but I'm committed to make adjustments as needed to ensure we meet the evolving needs of our community to our parents community members and leaders thank you for your input in Partnership your voices have been essential in shaping our Direction I'm also proud of the transparent approach we've taken throughout this process I believe we have built rebuilt trust with our community and that trust will continue to guide our progress to the board thank you for your trust and support the future of BCPS is bright and I look forward to continuing this work together to build a stronger better BCPS for all thank you madam chair thank you now we'll go to board member discussion and so you can just talk on any of the items one through six and first up is board member Bulman can you give me a minute and go to the next person then I'll come back sure I was picking you first since I keep forgetting to look over that way um so next uh Dr holess thank you Madame chair and um Madame chair I know that we normally have um time limits uh but I believe that mm1 seems to be a really um important uh and uh the community has expressed a lot of interest here so if you could give me a little bit more time I would appreciate that if I needed okay so I wanted to um first of all thank the superintendent Dr hurn for bringing forth these recommendations that are uh here today um I really appreciate the effort that he and his team had has put into this and I also want to thank the uh Community for coming out and expressing um their views on the the different um proposals here for the mm items um so to begin with I just want to um as a board member uh the items that are before us today um I don't view them as closing schools I think what we have for us today is repurposing schools so we can provide um even greater educational options for our uh students and families in Broad County so I think that's what's before us today uh I don't see any of these items where a school will be closed literally in in the definition of what closing means so with that being said I wanted to ask uh uh Dr Hein uh one of our um uh members of the community Miss Wimberly had mentioned that some concerns although it appears that she um in some way uh supporting the current proposal for brow Estates in terms of An Early Learning Center she did Express concerns with um spending adequate spending to ensure that uh the facility at Broad Estates will be uh conducive to um students coming in as early Learners so can you speak to that aspect or that concern she has and secondly she mentioned a concern regarding um Gulf Stream potentially closing and uh broad Estates uh becoming the sole Early Learning Center can you also um provide some context on that as well yes um thank you Dr Holden for the question and opportunity to kind of dispel some myths um the last thought we golf stream uh for myself and my staff that has not been part of our discussion to close Gulf Stream or do anything other than what uh the services um that are provided to that community and the kids all the way up to adults at that facility so that has not come for myself nor anyone on my team so just to dispel that myth um um about District staff having a discussion about closing Gul stream that's not on our radar um um at this moment um but to move forward about Broward EST States um we of course um in mult in multiple conversations we understand that there are very old buildings on that campus and some usable space I going to say about 200 Plus student stations that are in the usable portion of that school as we start to um implement this early learning concept we will be using Nat space first um and collaborating with nonprofit partners and other partners to provide additional services to families in additional space which they would help to build out the additional space for those for those services to assist uh families in the community but the usable space it's about uh 200 plus uh student stations um that are not in the oldest part of the facility will be used for the Early Learning um Center first okay so Dr hurn can um based upon your uh feedback uh there apparently are um two different age type buildings on the campus so can you speak to the age of the space of the buildings that we're uh considering using for the Early Learning Center and to hear you correctly the remainder of the campus will be used for partners ship but as far as the part of the campus that will serve our early learning students uh will be the newer part of the campus can you speak to the condition of the newer part of campus and if there will be any resources uh potentially allocated for that part yes so I'll um actually ask Dr wanza to chime in and her team to chime in on some of the other specifics about the buildings but yes we'll utilize funds necessary to help up update the space um to fit our needs and work with the partners to up for them to update the space to provide other uh services to the community if Dr wza or anybody on your team if you could talk about the specifics of the Space Age um or whatever condition so and condition so um good afternoon Valerie WS the chief strategy and Innovation officer I have to make sure I say it correctly um so I will say that there are buildings that are um pre 1960 1957 buildings um those spaces um have been affectionately known if you will as the finger Wings if you will of the school that's the portion Dr heon that you are referring to that we would work with um Partners who have already reached out to us about working in the school providing resources but I actually want to back up and say that we wouldn't put any Community Resources there without first Consulting with the community because I think that that's one part of The Proposal that um may not come out as expressly as it should is that the The Proposal speaks to providing Early Learning and Community um resources in working with the community to identify what those would be um Mrs Paul can speak to the process that her staff is going through as it relates to a facilities condition assessment for all of the facilities that are noted here today and what that process will look like but to what both you and um Dr holess have said is that should board vote in favor of the proposal The Early Learning portion would begin in the newer buildings on campus and then we would work to address the um older buildings on campus but I would like for Miss Paul if she um so chooses to speak to the process that her staff would go through as it relates to um the facility needs condition and any other funds for on the capital side Miss Paul good afternoon uh yes we are uh in the middle of doing or conducting um a facility condition assessment uh uh The Firm Bureau veritis is very uh thorough in the assessment so we'll use that as uh a means to make sure that we take care of the needs of our students uh we have moved those schools that are in question to the front of the line so the assist or the assessment uh assessments are are being conducted but um let's be clear that before we put students um in uh buildings we need to we will make sure that life safety issues are addressed and that the facilities are suitable uh uh for students in regards to the age of facilities you know it's just uh truly about the upkeep of them so uh I've been in uh beautiful buildings that are were built in 1950 and 1940 it's just it's just a matter of how we maintain them and so we are fully committed to make sure that uh all of our schools are in adequate uh condition and are inviting for our parents and students okay so Dr hiitburn um based on the concern that was received would it be fair to say that we will allocate necess AR funding to ensure that the newer space for the Early Learning Center students or children um will be um in the condition necessary um to ensure their safety and to also ensure their well-being that's correct okay um also I did hear Miss Paul mention that um there are some schools that are moved to the top of the list um considering that we're making these changes to Broad Estates I would hope that broad Estates would be one of the schools being moved to the top of the list as far as the facility condition and so on uh could miss Paul speak to that um I can actually speak to that that is correct all the schools that are listed here today from M1 to M7 are at the top of the list and are part of that uh first phase of the fac facility condition assessment okay so now I have a series of questions if you don't mind um so that the community can understand how we got here um so what are the reasons we are considering repurposing broad Estates and I and I intentionally not use the word closing because we are repurposing broad Estates so what are the reasons we consider in the first place repurposing broad Estates um so I'll start it off and then Dr wanza and her amazing demographer um Can can chime in with some specific data around student numbers but initially um during this whole redefining phase we looked at opportunities looked at schools that that were severely under enrolled um um in the case with Broward States severely under enrolled um not utilizing um only utilizing a fraction of the capacity of the campus and also the the age of the campus and also in addition as we started strategizing and listening to community needs and and going out and having those discussions really really analyzing the area around it and one of the things that we discovered is not only low enrollment um future enrollment is predicted to continue to decline for this school right now you have 200 plus students probably have brought approximately 100 of those kids aren't zoned for the school they're reassigned there for um the magnet that's on that campus so truly only about a 100 or so students are actually zoned or bounded for that school um this year we had an incoming class of about 20 kindergartens so if we continue that Trend you multiply 5 by 20 um you get 100 so the the the school is continuing to have a steady decline enrollment and and as I said in addition the surrounding area around brow the states um when you start Fanning out probably two or three or four or five miles is that we look at kindergarten Readiness data the kindergarten Readiness data um for us um um as as educational leaders was was very startling for us because only about an average about 35% of those students are ready for kindergarten and so as a result they're playing catchup starting in kindergarten and I can talk about all type of research and data that pretty much will let you know if a kid's going to graduate or not on time as far as how they start in kindergarten with any public school um so that's why the conversation listening shifted to repurposing to An Early Learning Center just to make sure we can address the needs of Readiness for kindergarten for all of our students around that about four or five mile radius around um U brow stage which includes probably about 8 to nine other elementary schools that those kids will be going to um and then the other facilities really having conversations with nonprofit Partners um and other in community to find out what we can do in addition to early learning to service families um in addition to servicing um students so those conversations are not finite because as Dr W wanza mentioned earlier we're going to as soon as the board is done with their vote today um uh which is hopefully for the recommendation in front in front of everybody that we go back out to the community to really have a conversation in detail out how this is going to look um for the for the students and also the families that we could potentially serve at that facility okay so I appreciate the answer in terms of why we consider repurposing and I also appreciate you expounding on the need for an early learning center um you did indicate that there's approximately if I hear correctly uh 30% of students within a 5 mile radius uh that are actually kindergarten ready right so an early learning Center would um help to resolve this concern where our students being in an academic base Early Learning option will be far more ready for kindergarten and that 30% that we have would likely increase significantly if we have a robust Early Learning Center for kids within a 5 m radius of that Community correct that is correct and I can go into so much other data Dr holness about um student outcomes during High school and post high school that starts at that age okay so we're looking at a generational uh success of students uh having an academic base in Pre kindergarten to get them ready for kindergarten when we have this option and there's a significant need for that because the data shows that 30 only 30% of students within a 5 m radius of that school is kindergarten ready providing an early learning option will ensure that we increase this percentage significantly so these students can succeed from kindergarten they can succeed in third grade without being uh uh repeating third grade as it's a promotion year and so on so the long-term benefit to the community is significant is that correct that that is absolutely correct and as you mentioned we're not thinking about right now we're not thinking about two or three years from now we're thinking about 10 15 20 years from now and um to change the trajectory of kids in that Community to come back and gentrify their own Community okay and you did mention the enrollment of the the school the the current enrollment the capacity is 695 students the current enrollment is 222 students and from that 222 I believe 2016 is within the the the bound the boundary of broad Estates and when I look at the data between now and 2030 the enrollment will decrease from 31% based upon incoming uh uh students to 24% by 2030 so it will continually Decline and the question I have for you sir is with the increase in Decline how does significantly low enrollment of a school impact students absolutely um so many factors uh decline in the availability of of resources that are that can't be leveraged at that school versus being leveraged at other schools the higher the population of students the more things the school can do they can provide other extracurricular Services uh other per additional Personnel um because for us our budget is based on the number of kids within the school um so it's and we're spending more money in on operational and Facilities things to keep the school running versus spending money on kids um and so that's the huge difference when we have a school at capacity we're spending money on kids right because the amount of kids in the and the facility is garnering so much funding that we can spread it out and do what we need to do to to to create the best learning environment and learning experiences for a kid versus a a a a school that has a small number of kids but are not nearly meeting their capacity at all we're spending a lot of money on maintaining operating the school um uh so a large amount of the funding that the kids are receiving is going to operational and Facilities issues at the at the school versus to the teaching and learning of okay so students have brought it states with broad States I believe um is the second lowest enrollment it might be the lowest in the county at this time uh those students are not gaining uh the full benefit of the FTE dollar because the funds have to be used to maintain a campus with 700 capacity with a 200 student enrollment because we receive money based on per student is that correct that is correct okay so in terms of An Early Learning Center can you expound on what the vision is of the campus in for an early learning center as well as the other options that are being considered in addition to that yes uh I see um Dr cig in the audience so I'm going to have her go over uh the Early Learning concept at at gstream um which we're going to implement and and enhance for the community of brow state so she can quickly go over that and then we'll go talk about some of the other services to provide to families thank you so much superintendent board members and everyone in the group my name is Lori canning I'm executive director for family and Community engagement and back in 2016 we went through the redefining process for Gulfstream middle school and we're able to transform it or redefine it into an early learning center with Community wraparound supports so I'm thrilled to say that we now have 180 children at that Center we started with Head Start and I have our Head Start director Shira Bailey right here Early Head Start is infant and toddlers Head Start are three and fouryear olds we've been able to add classes for VPK for four-year-olds and prekese classes including specialized and intensive now we work to build up those numbers but we would be able to start with an infant and todler class depending on our Head Start Grant to be able to start that program immediately and work with the community to identify their needs and really build up that program and as you shared Dr heurn it's all about about building that strong foundation for our youngest most fragile children that we have so that they can have the strong Foundation that will lead to kindergarten Readiness third grade proficiency and what they need for school and lifelong success okay so Dr hurn I have a few more questions um so some members of the public um suggested a phase in process can you speak to the challenges that that would create and also some members of the Comm Community suggested that well they asked the question why can't we have an early learning center as well as keep the students that are currently there so can you speak to both of those y I'll start with the with the latter first um to have both on campus in the conditions of the facilities right now just not just not feasible just not tenable for uh how we want kids to engage in an environment um so that's why the discussion is around utilizing the newer or or fairly better buildings first for Early Learning Center versus trying to spread kids out um multiple grade levels and whatnot on that campus it's it's just just not suitable um for for our needs okay and aren't there um different funding uh for early learning versus Elementary that could create some kind of a concern as to how we Implement that as well yes um so we we we have a person who's done it before um and utilized a plethora funding to make it work uh with with with support of District funding in addition to all the other grants the Head Start Grants and and um support from other nonprofit organizations in brow County uh which has turned it into a sustainable program for how long lry about how long n years nine years um in in in counting so we will replicate and Al also further enhance the opportunities for those families and the fir repeat the first question okay the phase in some suggest a phase in process yes um so Dr W is going to go back out to the community especially the parents of the students in those schools to have these conversations about what are the possibility possibilities of how we transition students to the schools that they're going to attend um some of the challenges and I know she's going to get more detail and discuss so that the parents can understand if you have uh a hundred or so students that are not zoned for the school and are there for reassignment they most likely automatically going to go back to to their home school their their Zone school so that leaves behind a 100 Kids that actually zone for uh Broward the states now speaking as a dad if you come to me as a parent and say hey we can phase in and you know you will probably have one class of of third grade and one class of fourth grade um I particularly I would may not want my uh baby in to not uh have the opportunity to socialize in a larger environment of of kids because that is important for students at that certain age but we're I'm not going to say this is how we're going to do it right now here on the de because we're going to go back out to the parents and have those discussions of how we transition students out to their new newer school and come to you know an agreement in a good meaningful and engaging conversation to make sure we're doing our best in addressing the needs of their kids okay and have we had conversations with the principals for MLK and pl Plantation Elementary to support the transition of these students and will we have ongoing conversation should this pass today and and secondly how what will Transportation look like for students who decides to go to Plantation Elementary so we've had conversations with both principles the conversations have been ongoing even talking about uh programmatic structures and and opportunities that may need to shift to to provide uh or address the needs of the students that are that are coming to their schools and updating their their and enhancing their programs for uh the plantation L students that as we do with any any student if you have to cross a large busy road we provide transportation so we'll be evaluating all of those things we definitely are not going to put Kids In Harm's Way uh if if it regardless if they're within the boundary to walk we do assess the the the road and the hazards of the road and things like that and make the decision that's best for our kids to to make sure they're safe and secure on their way to school okay so those parents who decides to choose Plantation Elementary will be provided with Transportation so their kids are safe and not having to cross the road yes so Madame chair this is my first round I would like a second round if we have thank you thank you Miss Bowman are you ready to go I am ready thank you I thought uh Dr holess should go first in the interest of um his uh District having the first M item um so thank you everyone for being here today um I'd like to talk just to to two different things first of all um Hollywood Central the proposal for that is in district one and I'm very intimately familiar with that proposal that's been something that the community's been working on for five plus years um and very much supports uh particularly because there are many kids living in the area and a lot of them are choosing other K8 options so I think that by creating a kr8 a public K through 8 in that area will'll be able to from the kindergarten level bring kids back into the BR Colony Public Schools I think it's an excellent opportunity um we there's Partnerships with the Hollywood art and culture center a very enthusiastic director who's ready to bring art um performing and other media into the school and having a partnership with the school so I think that there's just a lot of opportunities and I think that it'll be a very successful program and really bring kids back into the schools um to speak to Broward to States having been a parent of children that attend under enrolled schools you don't know what's going to happen I'm very empathetic to that uh and so it's it's a very difficult decision I think one of the things that's kind of um guiding my way on this is the fact that there's only there's a finite number of kids in that area and so as Dr heurn was um discussing you know they're they're the kids are missing out on various experiences in elementary school because of the way that the funding is done so when there's not any other kids to take into our schools because it's not that we're losing them to other options they're just aren't kids in that neighborhood I think it you know it would be in the best interest of all the students to be in a school where there is the funding and the enrollment that allows them to have the things that they need to have the best education um and I I love the idea of the Early Learning Center I had the opportunity to tour with Dr canning a couple weeks ago the golf stream Early Learning Center which is in my district um and it's amazing what she's done from uh I think having a shell of a school and the way that she has Grant funded and just expanded the services to not only the kids to make sure that they're kindergarten ready but also to support the families and if you don't you know supporting the families allows the children to have a better opportunity to really be successful and be educated than they the way that they should be and so the statistics here with the kindergarten Readiness um and the need in the brow Estates and the surrounding Community speaks volumes I think that we would be doing a great service to the entire Community by providing those Services um and so that's kind of where my head is right now thank you thank you so much Mrs Leonardi thank you um and I won't rehash uh many of the questions that have been asked I think Dr hus and M bman both asked some good questions um I just want to clarify a few things um an assertion was made about uh MLK being a monor and not being a monor so could someone clarify that for the public Dr heer yes um currently MLK is a monor school um our leadership team to um figure out next steps on programmatic structures if it's continuing to enhance monor if it's if it's um to bring in a different type of program that meets the students in community needs so we're in we're currently in those discussions um right now but as it is today it's a monory school okay so would um if the students from Broward Estates were to attend MLK would the expectation be that they are you know involuntary enrolled in a monor program at the moment yes okay but you are looking to restructure that correct we we're looking to address the needs of of the students based on conversations with their with their parents um and also looking at impact data for monor at MLK impact data at other programs around the district and the like just to make sure we're providing the best options for our for our students to leverage thank you and I'm a big believer in monor you know as an educator I think it's very valuable done correctly and resourced correctly um so I think it's important to to look at that and not use it as this derogatory uh term um but I do think you know we we need to take a hard look and I know you are taking a hard look at how we resource our schools and the inequities that that exist um I Heard and I think I think it's a very um relevant concern around the ability of some of our grandparents to walk further to MLK and I'm wondering if there is an opportunity to um you know work with the community if this item does pass to assist uh those folks um you know I know in in one of my schools you know parents have gotten together to help with Transportation I'm wondering if there's something that the district can do to assist the community in that transition in in transportation and I I flaged the concern about transportation and pl Plantation Elementary um I heard you address that but I think you know when we're when we're repurposing a school um these kinds of details get overlooked but they're very meaningful for the community um so I would encourage staff to look at ways we can assist our community members in that that additional you know distance to MLK Dr hurn yes um the conversation is definitely not dead as soon as this meeting is over we're scheduling uh meetings with u parents and other constituents or Guardians um just to make sure that we're having a robust conversation about needs what is the expectation and I I believe you've addressed this but I think it's very important to be on the record with this what is the expectation for who will run the Early Learning Center if this item passes Dr hipper and the expectation is going to be an administrator um similar to what we have at Goldstream um someone who understands how to operate a school understand instruction and and and strategies and practices um to to address the needs of our kids academically and also their well-being let me I I should have been more specific District run thank you oh okay yes District run so the expectation is not we not that we will be leasing the property or or anything like that it will be a district run orar Learning Center cor um and I just want to to reiterate there are facilities Improvement um planned for Broward Estates for for that campus that is correct um I'll I'll keep it at that you know me Miss lard my my I have big big ideas and big Visions so and so I'll keep it at that um and I I appreciate you and I have conversations regularly about the needs for facilities improvements um you are out at schools every week uh you often comment about the inequities and um I know that you are actively trying to address those inequities and I appreciate that um I had I I agree with board member Bulman in the the need for an early learning center I think the data is very clear that early childhood education has lifetime impacts on a a child's success uh both emotionally academically Prof professionally um there is a crisis for parents right now in terms of finding child care for their children and it it impacts you know the Surgeon General issued a report talking about how these things impact the mental health and financial well-being of families and parents um so I you know I think there is an extreme need for this um both for students and for families um and then I I just wanted to make one quick comment about Hollywood Central I know that board member of Bulman has been working very hard um on this for many years as a parent and as a private citizen and I just I think it's very cool um if that item P passes uh for you to be able to see that to fruition as a school board member so in advance congratulations thank you thank you Mrs R Mrs rert thank you um and we're doing mm1 and two like all of them we're doing one through six we're not discussing seven yet okay I got it thank you so my first comments will about mm1 um back to the conversation of the Earl Learning Center for Broward Estates um is there the possibility for zero to three age employee children being considered for child care they will use at this site because there is still a waiting list to add to our existing programs yes um Sorry Miss um miss miss miss Hixon got ahead of you um yes absolutely we're we're we know that is key to us recruiting and R retaining our instructors so yes exactly I know I know you get it I mean since uh Britney uh shout out to tradewins Elementary um brought this information to me I I think it's you know it's an area we really need to put much more focus in um and then I'm going to also comment oh actually a deadline so if we're going to be doing this for the following year I would hope that our I mean and I know that our employees right now are looking at their finances you know can I stay working do I do I need to make other plans do I need to come home so I would say sooner than later but that's you know just just advice um because we certainly don't want to lose any of our um our teachers and any of our staff if we can uh help them with their family situation all right now on to mm2 um this would be the Coconut Creek Elementary School reconfigured into a K8 Academy um I my question while looking at this and I believe what your answer is going to be Dr heurn is that it's going to be part of conversation part two um but my question is are we considering the availability of being a whole school IB prep especially since we are reconfiguring K to8 with the intention these students matriculate into Coconut Creek High School and as a board member who brought the idea of a magnet Pro program to a very low enrolled at the time Coconut Creek High School that's an example of success we have a magnet program there we have excitement we have more than neighborhoods I I I won't stop until I can find that all the kids in my neighborhood walk right across the street to Coconut Creek High School instead of getting on a bus and we started that I think this is just the part two that we really need and I do know um I'm going to reference Zer o seven that's funny but okay um I guess that's me no when when is a good time to start that conversation for 007 so that'll be a preview to when we actually pull that one it's just related to Coconut Creek so I wanted to put it out there so I will ask that question later on in the meeting and um when are we are we actually looking at the intention of matriculating these kids into Coconut Creek High School's IB Program Dr heer yes so um real quick on IB um or or any program for that matter in any of our schools the regional staff has been directed to to start looking at uh working with the principles examining their existing programs seeing what needs to be sunset see seeing what needs to be scaled out and the mechanisms and support needed to scale it out so those conversations are already happening not just with Coconut Creek but other schools around the district um as a a holistic redefining um effort um and then the second question I'm I'm having a brain F already about the second question what was it uh I'm right with you there um oh matriculating matriculating to high school so um in theory we when you transition to school from a k through eight we always do that over a three-year period the sixth graders the fifth graders are moving to six and so forth um and sometimes it's accelerated if you have if you see that multiple kids from other areas want to come into the school so right now it'll be a three-year metric matriculation as kids transition from grade to grade before they get to high school and then we would ready the high school way before then right about what program offerings are are at uh Coconut Creek K through 8 um to prepare the high schools to have the instructors the curriculum the programs to so kids have a direct feeder pattern into a program coming out of a certain school right and that's what I was looking for is the is the feeder pattern um also uh you know there are Standalone middle schools that to have those programs that matriculate into the high school um for for the succession of that so um I look forward to voting on this item I'm obviously I'm going to support um mm2 and I thank you so much thank you next board member Thompson thank you um so I'm going to start in the district that has the most changes which is my district um I am a strong supporter of all the changes uh Coral Co principal Sabin is absolutely amazing she is so thrilled with the idea of this becoming an Arts Academy I do think it will make us competitive as well as being the district with the most Charter Schools we are going to be able to compete and win our kids back um not only through principal sabin's work but Dr left at Silver Shores is also extremely thrilled about these changes he's already talking about big plans about getting grants and and bringing in our community back and um principal AOK at Pines has already don't want to R her out out but has already gone to Millennial and seen what they're doing at their school and I just think it's going to be have such an amazing impact to District 2 um so I am a strong supporter um and then Coconut Creek I defer to their commission and to the board member I think that is also a great idea to continue with and then Hollywood Central we've gotten all your emails thank you so much for your time for reaching out um I think that will also be an asset to district one um on Broward Estates I think research has shown us time and time and time again that early childhood education is imperative to the success of every child in our community being able to offer this is lifechanging yes are there going to be some hiccups and bumps and and and sadness on a changing of the school of course but I I feel reassured by our superintendent by Dr wanza by the staff who have worked diligently on this that we are going to provide your children with amazing opportunities I was able to go to golf stream with Dr canning and her amazing staff it is just so imperative that we start looking at all children 0o through five because when they're successful in early childhood they will be successful through K through2 and Beyond um so I am a strong supporter of that as well I did have one one question there was a comment about activity buses is that going to be provided Dr heer we'll have to look at that um uh I know high schools have activity buses I'm not sure about elementary and middle so but we'll have those conversations with the school uh community and parents like I said we're we're going to ensure that our parents can our students can leverage every opportunity and every every experience right to get a holistic um education that's impactful for them for their lives so we'll have all those conversations like the conversation is not done after today we'll continue having discussions um with the folks that are impacted thank you and what just one more comment I think it's really imperative that this board works with the community we've actually gone back and had second rounds of town halls to make sure that we are transparent that we are listening to the good to the bad to everything we've release this plan we put trust in superintendent and I just think it's so vital to of the success of our school district that we continue with this plan and and working in phase two and three and four and what beyond that we are hearing from the community and we are partners because at the end of the day we want the success of all students in Broward County and Miami D if we can get them over here thank you thank you so much um board member Zan thanks chair uh before I get into my comments uh just a question for our general councel what does 101 363 say about Florida Schoolboard member representation Miss Batista thank you madam chair um that's the statute that um states that each member of The District School Board Shall Serve as the representative of the entire district and not just the area that their residence area is found in thanks so much uh general counsel I wanted that to be um a prep statement in a way for how I view the decisions before us today because amongst the people who have spoken so far I do not agree with any one of you and uh and let me tell you why I think about the operations of a school system with 197,000 students traditional Public School students another 48,000 public charter students as the biggest contributor to our community I want it to be the best that it can be I want the system to be the best that it can be and I've seen over a lifetime of working for government agencies that when agencies Drift from their mission when they spend money on things that don't matter when they get pulled into discussions about what's greatest of all other things when they trespass on other people's missions including cities and counties who have the mission to do other things besides K through2 education they're not focusing on their mission I'm ready to show Broward County that I care so much about educating students that I'm willing to make some courageous decisions today to create an effective and efficient school system the most effective and efficient school system that this nation has ever seen I believe in business principles too and you've heard me talk about it for two years and two months that if we're not watching how we spend our dollars we're not going to know what our millions and billions are doing so I'm going to follow a little bit of a outline that we use in my other life running a business why are we here what options do we have what are the outcomes for those options both the primary outcomes and the things that we wouldn't normally expect kind of secondary outcomes and I'm going to finish with what I think is what's best for our students what will increase funding for their instruction which is what our job is what'll give them the best programs what'll put them in the schools which have demonstrated the highest levels of academic success and how long it should take us to get there what we have ignored today is this this is the data that we have gotten handed to us I don't know I almost want to say thousands of times hundreds of times this is the enrollment of traditional public schools and the enrollment of public charter schools over the last 23 years in brard County if you look at the chart you'll see that for 23 years Brower County schools has declined by 1% a year and chair how many schools have we closed over the last 23 years under this uh this this continuous decline in enrollment superintendent heurn I'll defer to my uh local historian Dr wanza well I thought it worked so the schools that we've actually closed it's it's probably um closer to the number of five or fewer and I I'll name them um just so and in case I missed the numbering oh Valerie Wan a chief strategy and Innovation officer um so if you go over a 20year period to your question Dr Zan we know that in at or about school year um 2013 we made some decisions as it related solely to the academic performance because of State accountability measures so the schools that I'm going to name for you those schools were not under enrolled they were um actually at capacity or Beyond capacity and Mr Beck if I misquoted that please correct me but we know that at that time the district made some decisions around what was then Arthur Ash Middle School um we know that at that time the district made some decisions around what was then lauderale manners Elementary School um and those two schools um ceased to exist as loto Manor a traditional K5 elementary school as well as um Arthur Ash a traditional um 6 through eight Middle School we know that we did some great reconfiguration if you will around Lauder Hill Middle School because at the time it was a 6 through eight traditional middle school and that's where um lot Hill 6 through 12 um High School um came to be and then Dillard High School expanded its grades down to um incorporate the middle school grades we know that um not through anything dealing with enrollment at all we uh the district made some decisions around Sunset school which was the school for um our it was EBD at the EBD Center at the time in the centrally um located centrally um situated part of the district and that school is now the high school campus of Sheridan Technical High School we know that um because the district did make some decisions to try and um create some K8 we um expanded the grades of Annabelle C Perry Elementary school to become a uh K through 8 and it did have an impact on HD Perry Middle School so that campus was transitioned to what is now HD Perry um HD Perry education center which really and truly was we moved hendell adult and Community Center um in Hallandale over to the HD Perry building and then what we did was we combined um really a longtime request of the city to create a K8 and Hallandale so we combined golfstream middle school with Hallandale Elementary School to create the current golf stream um K to8 in the what was then the replacement school for Hallendale Elementary School and the original campus for hendell adult and Community Center which then left the original helle element building which became G stream Middle School into what is now um G stream Early Learning Center um we made some changes if you will to Solem park at the Solem Park Elementary School at the time because Solem Park was a traditional K5 and we um transitioned that school into its current what it is now I think it's a prek to3 school so that's um just to summarize if you will some of the change the majority I may miss one or two but but that's the majority of them but I can tell you that as it relates to solely enrollment um HD Perry is probably the school because of enrollment that we made um the strict decision because we had created the school right across the street we grew the grades to e8th grade thank you so much and we've even done things like closing pompo middle uh pompo high school and then reopening it uh we closed Gulf Stream Middle School when we did the reconfigurations out in Hallandale but we didn't actually close the facility now at skull stream Early Learning Center so there's been a lot of changes over 23 years but what we haven't done consistently is to think about how uh we're going to operate as a system how we're going to operate for the 197,000 students that today show up given the choices that have been introduced to us given the inefficiency of running small schools that are underc capacity uh we have chosen for those past 23 years during that declined enrollment to Kick the Can to do very little to not offend people or parents uh or communities even though that offense would create a better system so that gets us to our choices today we can keep our current facilities accept the superintendent recommendations not close uh Broward Estates and sell it and let a private operator run An Early Learning Center but to do what we did at Gulf Stream and again Gulf Stream is an amazing facility I so glad to go down there and spend some time uh at a town hall with all the people that work and do the amazing things they do but what they do at Gulf Stream Early Learning Center and what's proposed to be done at Broward Estates Mr superintendent are not part of our mission we'd love for children to show up at kindergart and be ready to be educated we'd love to offer Early Learning where we have facilities anyway we get lots of Federal grant money to do it but chair how many FTE are there at gstream Early Learning Center Dr heer Dr canning I'm sorry oh engagement our FTE funding comes from the prekese classes that we have there we have specialized in intensive classes and and that and that's terrific and we have them there because we had the facility there is a need and and wherever we have that we're going to get those funds but in terms of K through2 FTE we don't have any at Gulf Stream ear Learning Center we won't have any uh end of the current plan at Broward uh Estates and we just have to be clear about what that does to the system so we have two choices we can kick the can keep the facilities not make the courageous Choice go back on our commitment to the community that we said dozens of times last year we're going to close five schools but five schools isn't enough for barard County uh I have been on the record multiple times talking about bigger numbers uh I spent some time with with uh asking questions of the senior staff and the superintendent and it turns out that if we want to get to 90% capacity on the current trend line of enrollment we have to close 33 schools 23 of them would be elementary schools eight of them would be Middle School I'm not done yet and two high schools and I'm going to talk to you about what that would look like when we're done again a Broward County education system that is the biggest contributor to our community and we want it to be the best that it can be what happens if we continue to Kick the Can we're going to continue to pay for the overhead to manage 27 schools 239 campuses many of which do not contribute to our mission in a way that is incredibly inefficient low in uh capacity low academic achievement and what just is so frustrating from an operational perspective is the schools with the lowest enrollment they're using the least capacity are costing the most per student we have schools that cost 14 15 $116,000 per student we only get nine per student why is it that Charter Schools will not operate a 300 person elementary school because they want to have the best academic outcomes and that means you move that money and and limit your overhead so that you can get the greatest amount of money spent on instructional needs not based on buildings and again buildings don't educate a soul teachers do and what I'm talking about today as an alternative would move $90 million every year to being able to pay for greater instructional capital and greater instructional quantity if we don't do this every year when it comes time to give educator raises we're going to look at what the state gives us which is nothing very little percent percent and a half and we're going to have to reduce the funding for other pieces so that we can give reasonable raises if on the other hand academic success and efficiency drove us to make decisions about 33 schools we would create a district that operates at Charter School levels of 90% capacity or more which one is best I think is a really really good policy question should we remain a district where fewer students every year are spread to current campuses and Facilities some of which now are going to be expanded by 13 different new grades that are often so instead of reducing the offerings we have at Broward County Schools we're actually increasing them under this proposal we'll continue to have some super small schools where the cost per student exceeds $166,000 per student and we'll use our marketing program and repurposing and hoping for a magical infusion of money from philanthropists and nonprofits and volunteers to reverse a 23-year enrollment decline an enrollment decline that existed when we were an a district it existed when we were a b district and this year it accelerated we lost 3,400 students this year the alternative is to do the hard thing to look people in the eye and say we need your students to go to a different school why so we can spend more money on instruction so we can have all the programs in those schools that you want in your schools so you can have a librarian again in elementary schools we can win back enrollment by using our current strengths what are those we have the best location in Broward County we have alumni parents that are dying to send their kids to school where they went we have more certified teachers and more teachers teaching what they're qualified to do than any other providers any other providers in Brer County private public charter or other we have scope that we don't yet take advantage of and I hope we do we have the greatest Athletics in Broward County maybe the greatest Athletics in the state but we need to spend our money to continue to improve and not Kick the Can I want to finish by talking about trust because I've heard a lot about whether or not Broward County trusts Broward County Public Schools and there is no doubt that there is more trust than there was when I joined the board two years ago but I need us to consider the two components of trust trust is I do what I said I was going to do and the second is I'm decent at doing it we don't trust people just because they say they they do what they say they're going to do we trust them because they do that and because they're good at their job and I think the good at the job is where we're failing in trust I think sometimes we don't say what we we do what we said but that's uh that's not a common thing but I think if we don't have the trust of our community it's because they don't know that we're competent at our job and what does competence mean as a board when we're thinking about the system it's spending money on the things that we know that works and not spending money on things that we know don't contribute to a successful education system so uh there are uh one school that's on uh the recommendations to be closed and I would suggest that instead of making an Early Learning Center that we run a district one it would be wise to turn that over to the city uh or to turn it over to a a nonprofit organization or turn it over to the county whose job it is is to provide community services that isn't what we get paid to do so uh on Gulfstream Early Learning Center you might think I'm heartless and I think I'm actually heartful because I want that to continue to do what it's doing but I don't think Broward County Schools is the right owner for that facility there are three other schools that our investigation and they were on our list and we went out and had town halls with them where if we rebound those children and in one of these three cases they are doing that but not open a new school at that facility we'd be doing what is best for Brower County schools and that's Silver Shores Silver Shores students are going to go to two other schools it's proposed according to the superintendent to become a K8 I think that's not a good idea I don't think it's a good idea for maximizing the impact of K through2 education on the county the two other schools in addition to Silver Shores that if they get reboundary if those students go to other schools they will go to a school of higher academic performance and I want to look at every every parent in the audience here and say if in fact we have to move your student we're going to send them to a better school which is what parents want for their kids by and large the second two are Pine Lakes and north side all three of those can be rebounded those kids can be sent to other schools in adjacent areas and the schools that they go to are better schools and we would be moving toward the goal of getting to a a school district that is at 90% capacity that does require some courageous decisions it requires to look parents in the eye and saywe are doing what's right for Broward County even if you don't like going to a different school it is a better school we're increasing efficiency so that we can spend the money where you want us to which is in instruction and and all the things that we do for kids so I apologize to those of you that thought um you know we were just going to roll through this list and and uh rubber stamp these recommendations I apologize to staff no M no doubt about it I think we said for a long time we wanted to close five and then we came back and said we're not sure we want to close any I still want to close five this year uh I still think we need to get on a path over the next five or six years to closing 33 schools are getting to the point we we're at 90% capacity uh I regret the fact that this may not work today it may not work ever I'll be the Lone Wolf up here possibly uh arguing about the strategy of of actually spending the most amount of money I'd love to have that $90 million a year to pay Educators to do things related to instruction I'd love to have the $500 million that we could get for Capital Improvements if we in fact close 33 schools over the next five or six years um and I regret that there will be many times in the future if this system isn't thought about and considered and adopted where we trying to find a million dollars or we try and find $11 million or we try and put a coat of paint on a school or we try and pay for security we really need or we try and really solve mental health problems all of which that $90 million every year uh could go so far and put it together it turns out that every educator in Broward County would make a 6% raise if we decided to just be efficient in the way that we do business thank you very much chair so Dr Seaman did you want to make a motion I do not thank you very much okay U Mrs ala thank you and thank you Dr Zeman for your comments um I think that you know there's a time and a place as to bring recommendations and solutions forward and when we Workshop these things that's a great time and I'm sure there's could be some great Solutions and ideas that the board can discuss but before us today we have recommendations from the superintendent and and this is phase one and I think that the superintendent is going about this in the proper Cadence because when we talk about trust with the community it's about knowing what is before us and and not bringing something in a fast Manner and and changing things quickly so I do support the superintendent recommendations I do want to say for the Middle School's K through 8 the one thing I really want to make sure is that we properly fund the Middle School part of this I've seen in my district where that wasn't done and and then we had to close the Middle School part of it so I just want to be very clear about that that we're properly funding the Middle School part of the K through also I I appreciate the community coming and and speaking today you know one thing that I did hear and and it made me sad that I felt that there was a feeling that we didn't communicate properly with you I know that we did robust conversations with the community but there is still some unknowns and and that makes me that makes me sad because I want you to have all the information so I'm going to make some recommendations that if this was to pass for Broward Estates Elementary School that Dr Hein that we provide like a concierge service to the families that we meet individually with every single family and we discuss what the options are because there's more than one option than to go to Dr Martin Luther King jior montauri Academy there's other options within Broward County Public Schools so I want to make sure that we're meeting the needs of every single family based on the students needs the other thing that I think is that so if we make this change to Broward estate there's going to be a a cost savings on an annual basis of a little bit over a million dollars so I would like to make a motion to the recommended action I'm going to keep the recommended action the way it is and then I move to amend the allocation of $1 million from the cost Savings of Broward estate's Elementary School and instead allocate a one onetime amount of $1 million to D Dr Martin Luther King Jr montau Academy second any public comments on the motion go ahead Beacon Mike there we go okay thank you um to the motion um Mike thank you [Music] um I want to say chair I have to get used to a Schoolboard member my I had um my only concern with this motion is the fact that there that means that there's funds that's there and to your point specifically the community you're correct because when they had the community meetings they were not in the city of Luder Hill every single community meeting was in the city of Fort Lauderdale so that's why this community was not aware the only meeting that was in the city of Luder Hill for this school was the last one that was in November all the other meetings was in Dillard and Fort Lao and a lot of these parents don't walk and don't have I mean they walk they don't have cars so you're right they didn't know and I think was strategic and it is back in gentrification so thank you okay thank you Ju Just a reminder to speakers you're speaking to the motion specifically um so please make sure you're speaking directly to the motion thank you next speaker Anna Fusco Brower teachers union president Brower County resident educator parent of a child that graduated from Brower County Public Schools so clearly there's money you have a $6 billion doll budget I've been saying it for years work collaboratively and directly with the group that is tasked to understand the budget to make you understand the budget to find out where the money is in the budget we come to this situation all the time where we feel there's a problem with money sorry Dr Zeman don't agree with you saying we're going to close schools when you haven't made a plan you have a new superintendent you have a new CFO you have new elected Schoolboard members and you don't have a plan and to hear that you didn't talk to the parents ahead of time and now we're going to talk to them after after we take you out of the school is not acceptable don't agree with any Amendment vote it down put some money into that school find it elsewhere and let that school shine like all of our schools do thank you yes next speaker yes uh Zack Davis Walker city of Lauder Hill Administration specific to the amendment proferred by board member alad we would like to see that or we believe that million dollars should be allocated toward the Early Learning Center within the BR State's community so a lot of the discussion today was specific to what happens to Bara States and those newer buildings that are going to house that Early Learning Center why don't we put those funds directly into that to ensure that these buildings are up to-date and as Innovative and as mod modernized as those facilities that are being discussed in other parts of the county thank you thank you mine noell L Hill resident um again um in regards to the amendment this is really buying the community or trying to buy the community funding is available and as previous members has mentioned why isn't that funding being placed into brow States uplift the school beautify the school when you want something when you want to take care of it when you have a passion for it you invest in it we have members of the community such as Mr Robert that does beautification in schools make that school welcome me and as you've just stated there's funding available and so we're asking that you invest that funding into brow Estates thank you next public speaker hello Nicole Morris corl Springs I would say also why can't you invest the million dollars into Broward States uh I believe there are hundred students that uh live in the boundary that go elsewhere there were parents at the community meeting last night that said that if there was a VPK that they would send their students to pror estate so why can't you put the money in there to start the VPK to start the Early Learning Center to uh grow that school I spent time out there this week the principal knows the names of the students knows where they lives knows their mom's cell phone numbers tells them Jimmy you don't live down there you live there go that way I think this is a really great school they just need a chance to grow and there are a hundred kids that aren't going there maybe put a VPK in so that you could bring them back thank you thank you before the next public speaker I just want to clarify what what I think the motion is saying is that there's a cost Savings of a million dollar if you closed Broward Estates so take that money and make sure it's going with the students to Martin Luther King so I just it wasn't that we found some money she the the motion is coming from what the cost savings would be uh not not running brow Estates next public speaker um good afternoon please no speaking from the audience thank you public speaker good afternoon Robert Crum um I do appreciate the amendment because one of our my question was now that we're saving this money what is the where is the money going to since our community is the ones that's going to directly be impacted by this so I do appreciate the amendment I would like the amendment to extend further than one year because this our school would be Clos longer than one year so my question would be could it be a little longer that MLK can receive some extra boost so that we can make sure our school gets to the level that it's um ideally supposed to be to and if this saving doesn't if it's going to go to District Five if the million dollars is going to stay within District Five or is it going to go over across the whole entire School Board because again our community is going to one who's going to directly feel this impact not everyone else and we would like this savings benefit could help our community how specifically can it help our community and we would love that help thank you any other public speakers okay board member discussion board member Thompson um I just had a question because it's there's a possibility that all the students that were at barard Estates won't go to Dr Martin Luther King on aor Academy is there a way we can tie the cost saving in support of alad's Miss alida's motion to the students so that if they go to Plantation Elementary or they go somewhere else like that Community is still reaping the benefits no matter where they go Dr heurn yes I think we can support um MLK implantation but if kids go other places because you have about 100 kids coming from all over the the the district U as um Dr wda educated us on Monday coming from the the seagrass all the way to the Saw Grass um and everything in between so you have is coming from schools that have updated facilities and and don't need additional funds at um at that school but for the schools in that Community um absolutely um we can support that to make sure those schools and the kids get what they need um can I make a subsequent motion then to include Plantation Elementary with MLK academy uh you want to make so you're making a substitute motion yes so your substitute Mo motion would be the same except it would say um to Martin Luther King Jr and montau Academy and Plantation Elementary yes and keeping everything else okay is there a second okay so we're back to the original motion uh Dr holes thank you madam chair so um Dr hebr when kids that are inbound in the boundary of broad Estates transfer and I believe we have 116 students that live within the boundary the others are there based upon the attraction to the STEM Magnet program which is about 106 students so what we're discussing is those 116 students living within the boundaries of brow Estates correct correct okay so when those kids move to MLK or Plantation Elementary primarily um the FTE follows those students wherever they go correct that is cor that is correct okay so those students will be funded by the state like we normally do wherever they go um so when we look at Broad Estates because we are looking at uh transferring the students to either one of these two schools and then we're also looking at enhancing uh the newer buildings of broad Estates to provide a robust um education based Early Learning Center for Families within the community and maybe within a 5 mile radius is that correct correct okay so based on that uh I am sort of concerned with the motion because we are we are saving money uh which is over a million dollars but we are transferring that money out to MLK only um that is concerning because we're we we still have a need if we're going to if the intent there's two parts to this right we are transferring students out to ensure that they maximize their FTE dollar the enrollment at at MLK will increase to 88.4% which would make that school uh allocation of money from the state um uh increase that will provide adequate resources for the students that are transferring but then we still have to focus on the second part which is ensuring that our Early Learning Center is well funded that it's going to provide the the resources we need for our early learning children coming in there you did mention that there is a 30% uh students not being kindergarten ready so that was sort of one of the rational that we use to have that Early Learning Center so we can't if if we're going to neglect The Early Learning Center we're neglecting that Community as well so I believe that part of your in initial suggestion for the savings was to use part of that money to enhance the Early Learning Center and if there is a need part of that money would proportionally follow the students to Plantation Elementary or MLK was that the in the original intent Dr heer yes correct okay so I believe that's a better plan because if you're just moving money to MLK some of these students that are inbound will also go to Plantation Elementary now we also have to have some kind of a rational for doing it right so it would have to be proportional to the number of students that are being moved the amount of money that we're going to use from the Savings in addition to that we have to determine how much money from that savings do we need to ensure that we have a robust Educational Learning Center that will benefit brow Estates so there are many pieces to this and because of that I can't support that motion because that motion seems to be sort of one-sided and there many sides to this that we have to look at thank you Mrs Leonardi thank you um to Dr hess's Point um is there anything in wrri well is there anything in writing that would tie the cost the cost savings that we will experience um to us investing that money into the ear Learning Center Dr heer no there's nothing um in writing okay so that cuz that would I was planning to make a motion to do something similar but directing the the cost savings to funding The Early Learning Center um and then I I hear you telling Dr holess that um there is the intent to use that that cost savings to you know establish the Early Learning Center and and and I also heard you talking about Community Partnerships and things like that um what I I guess my concern is what I don't want to see happen is that we say at this meeting yes we're going to invest this cost savings money um and then we never Doh um so help me help me feel good about what we're doing like I I'm trying to figure out where we're going here um Dr heer yep um great question and great concern so what we're doing is of course establishing this Early Learning Center um working with Lori and all her amazing knowledge with with GF stream and what we need as far as capital um to invest to get this started um and start enrolling kids and also utilizing grants most of the savings would be to ensure that the facilities are up to par to address the needs of our early learning students you know they're um zero to four years old right they're not your typical kindergarten um and upkids so we need to make sure we have the right equipment the the the right furniture and and and things like that and the right curriculum resources um but we we certainly know we're going to get support from other partners to to pay for that so um and so that's the initial use of some of the cough savings just to make sure we can outfit and Implement that program as needed okay so I'm I'm just going to think out loud here because this is happen happening very quickly I would like something um you know in this item forcing us to financially commit some of this cost savings that we're going to experience if we repurpose prior to states to establishing this this Early Learning Center my concern is that like as a board member I am am not qualified to do a facilities conditions assessment um I am not qualified to speak to financially like what that would require um there are obviously professionals uh like Dr canning who who can do some of that work in our our building department and all of that so I don't want to just start like throwing numbers out there that are not informed with um with with facts and and data to back that up um so I think what I would like to do is make a substitute motion to allocate to for to direct the superintendent and staff to come up with a plan by June 1st of 2025 to allocate the appropriate amount of the annual cost savings that we will experience from repurposing Broward Estates to uh establishing the Early Learning Center does that make sense no I was actually going to say can I help but you actually said what I was going to say we're we're we've already um kind of preempted ourselves and started having whiteboard sessions with specific teams to understand the the stream of work for each division and each department so as we codify all of that and go back out to the community really close a deal with the community on specific needs we can see what we need to allocate funds to to make this work um and then we can uh finalize that in the plan and send that to the board so you understand how much money is being dedicated and and why um and what the rest of the money could potentially be used for to support students that are at uh MLK or or Plantation now so I think we're kind of on the same page okay so Madam chair is that that's a substitute motion does it need to be second oh sorry I sec I seconded okay I did in the middle of Dr heern saying something so I apologize uh public comment on the motion that we just wanted to figure out this say cost saving is going to be on an annual basis correct yes yes and so we're actually asking for for a one time um okay please clarify Mrs Leonard yeah one time was not in my motion okay so we're talking about continuous monies then will be uh of course towards the learn Early Learning Center that's what we're looking at but at this particular time we don't have the figure because we have to do an analysis that's correct okay and so uh to Dr hess's point I do believe that the monies should stay and of course uh the city of La Hill I understand that children will also be going to Plantation but nevertheless children are also in other schools Charter Schools elsewhere as well um and we are not supporting that of course because we cannot I believe that the money should stay in the city of La Hill and I'm also of the notion that we can utilize half of the the savings to brow it Estates and the other half to MLK thank you so much next public speaker it's Anna Fuso but can you just repeat the motion again since there was I I heard it her way too just want to hear the clarity so I can give my comment yes I was in the process of rewriting it down um so I moved to direct the superintendent and staff to come up with a plan to uh allocate the annual cost savings uh that we will experience from repurposing Broward Estates to establishing the Early Learning Center by June 1st of 2025 okay Anna Fus gar Union president um with that motion in a second obviously it hasn't been voted on yet and if it were to go through it's a clear understanding that this particular school has not been spoken about in full detail when you want to display students I don't care if it's one 10 100 a you have to look at the big picture here you all are discussing at a board meeting when you've had Community conversations you've had workshops and you're still not quite sure what is going to happen You' talked it out to the public saying you don't know what's going to happen I am again asking you to vote this down revisit it it's not going to harm Brower County Public Schools if you lengthen the process to get a better understanding of what you really want to do I am speaking to the motion if that motion were to pass it would give it a different direction still displacing students so I'm asking to vote everything down bring it back to more conversations and workshops and come out a better plan so when you have a vote you know exactly what you're doing public speaker hey Nicole Morris corl Springs um I I feel like this money the savings that's going into the Early Learning Center doesn't really serve this community if there aren't enough students um in the boundary to go to the school where are the 4,000 kids coming from so you're asking to take the money from displacing these students from the school and put it back into a school that may not even be serving their community so I I disagree with the whole thing thank you very much next public speaker good even good afternoon Robert Crum um I'm still a bit confused I would like to say that clearly for one instance I remember superintendent bringing young lady up saying the funding for the Early Learning Coalition would come from not from Schoolboard funds but from another source so if it's coming from another source then why using the money that we're saving going to Martin Luther King would not make sense um absolutely add a question and reference to that so that's why I'm trying to figure out more clarification in reference to if the Early Learning cent center is being paid for by brow County public schools or if it's being play paid for by another resource and if it's paid for by another resource then it's going back to if we are the one who are going to be disenfranchised because of this decision then we should be the one who is benefiting from this decision thank you and I just want to point out the motion is just directing the superintendent to actually maybe answer some of those questions that you have because we didn't um board member Leonard already didn't want us making a decision based on something we didn't have data for if I'm not mistaken so it's just directing the superintendent to devise the plan based on all of the pieces that you've all just mentioned so thank you any other public speakers board member comment Dr holes thank you madam chair so um Dr Hein um understanding the motion uh regarding the cost savings and it being directed to um The Early Learning Center at Broad Estates um can you tell us um that even though the transfering students will have their FTE dollars move with them do you anticipate any further um Financial need for those students outside of the allocated FTE per student Dr Dr heer that there may be a possibility as we continue these conversations with both principes both schools as we ready the campuses for the additional students to come okay so there possibility there could be a possibility that um we will need additional funding for the transfering students living within the boundary of broad Estates correct okay and where were you thinking of getting that funding from from the cost savings um as stated in the motion by Miss Leon nardy just to look at as we build this complete this plan figure out how much we need at BR States figure out how much we need need as as students are going over to Martin Luther King and and um Plantation to ready those Camp those two campuses for transfer students and then we can bring that information back just to let the board know hey we have to allocate this much to these schools and this much to Broward state so uh and also um as Mr Crome stated too we have Partners who are willing to assist us too with the um with Brower state so that cost may not be as great as we probably anticipate okay so from my understanding of the motion it appears that the motion is directly addressing the cost savings going to the Early Learning Center only and maybe board member um Leonardi could um clarify that but from what you're saying Dr heurn there's a possibility uh that some of that cost savings could benefit the transfering students so I think it's a fine balance that we have to have um and board member Leonardi could you clarify if the motion is is definitive in terms of the cost savings going directly towards the Early Learning Center or does the superintendent have a discretion in determining if a part of that cost savings is needed for the transferring of those students to ensure that they have the right educational support and resources if if that's also included in your motion thank you so my concerns are twofold um so one issue that that you brought up Dr holess was that the FTE will follow the students to their respective schools um so I I took that in um as I as I made my motion um the other piece is something that we heard repeatedly from the public today which are the facilities concerns um at Broward Estates so my intent was for that money to go to establishing the Early Learning Center to help you know start the programming but also to address some of those facilities needs um again I'm not an expert in doing a a facilities need assessment um so it it was really just trying to come up with a a commitment from the school district that there will be um you know that that the cost savings that we will experience from this uh will be going to the Early Learning Center that was my intent I'm I'm open to understand so Dr hebburn I would imagine that the first year is when you would actually need uh trans for funding or funding to support the transfer subsequent years it may not be needed correct um that is correct um and and just to Simply state that the funds will stay within that ecosystem right the current ecosystem is Broward States U MLK and Plantation l so the current fund the current savings would stay in that ecosystem it just depends on how much do we need at each school that we can bring back to the board once we finalize our plan to continue to inform the board and continue to inform the public about how those funds are being used understand so the the I guess um the question that I have at hand then is during during the first year of this transfer taking place with kids going to Plantation and MLK would that be the only time period that you would need cost saving support for those students uh because the cost savings will be ongoing which will then continue to maintain not only establish but maintain the Early Learning Center so you mentioned part of that cost savings you there's a possibility you might need that to the transfer financially for the students within the boundaries going to those two schools so will do you anticipate that going Beyond one year for the cost savings being used for the transfer students or do you just need that sort of latitude for that one year um I anticipate the first year um the initial year that we would need some funding um as you stated the subsequent years you may not need so board member uh Leonardi um if you would mind me making a friendly amendment to your motion that we uh for the first year um give the superintendent uh discretion in determining if some part of that cost savings fund would be needed to ensure the transfer of these students uh that they would be supported financially yeah I I accept the friendly Amendment so remember there's no friendly amendments or I need to make a subtitute her her um I know and be we're I haven't gone yet so I I let everybody else go so I'm going to go after Dr right no problem and Madam chair I'd be finished quickly but uh board member Leonardi would you mind updating your motion to include um the giving the superintendent latitude for the first year to provide funding uh if needed for the transfer students so they can do so uh comfortably yes do I have to do I have to say it alone you can just say very long when you say it again when you can add it in okay Madame chair I just have one more Point um and board member Leonardi you mentioned that in your motion establishing um I would like to add the term establishing and maintaining because um I think it's ongoing okay all right thank you thank you I have a couple of questions that kind of cross over a lot of these things but first of all do um Dr heern are the cost savings from general fund or do they come from different buckets um initially from general fund from savings uh for certain Personnel that you may that you don't need when you when you transfer over kids because the teachers go with the kids right or the allocation for the teacher goes with the kids but you may not need the additional allocations for assistant principal principal uh custodian things like that so that's where a majority of those cost savings come from and then in addition I don't see Miss Johnson but I know Dr wanza can can speak to some of the additional cost savings so good afternoon again and some of the cost savings may be categorical I'll give you an example um the A literacy coach for our schools are funded through State categorical dollars Plantation Elementary School already has a literacy coach they may even fund additional reading support out of their current Title One allocation same thing with Dr Martin Luther King so um not to speak for the superintendent but if if the board passes this motion that's relates to a plan I think the plan would include where um statutorily and categorically we can allocate dollars to the appropriate places that they would need to go and then one of the things that we also have to look at is in those categoricals that money may not be able to be used for Capital needs but it may be able to use for the instructional parts of the Early Learning Center so I would just say that I'm sure the superintendent already has a lot of things racing in his mind around that and it would around where statutorily and categorically we can allocate the funds thank you and that's really what my concerns are because we just said a dollar amount but there's buckets and you can use it here and there and so I think that's why it's really important not to just say we're doing something but to have a plan um and I'd also like to ask the superintendent theoretically speaking if there so we're doing A needs assessment um which I think is important before before we do anything to look at that space and you did say that the five six schools on here would be first if we were to look at that needs assessment and they indicated that at Broward Estates a new building would need to be built um that would change the conversation immensely um and the idea possibly of changing what we're doing in phase three or four which would be to maybe bring them all back to Bar States from MLK and put them in a new building which has been a discussion in some of the um committees that we've had so just throwing out there there's there's a lot of pieces to this and we are not the experts as we've said so I think it's really important to to direct the superintendent to bring a plan but I wouldn't want to wait until June so I don't know where we are on the needs assessment and if we could direct to have the Broward Estates done sooner rather than later and come back to us maybe in the March or April time frame to give us a better picture so that the community understands before anything even happens what might be we we might be looking at down the road where if we built a new facility we could have the Early Learning Center we could have all of the students there and you know maybe that's what we would be looking at a few years years down the the the road which we can't figure out until we get A needs assessment and what kind of money we're looking at so I think it's important to give a directive not to make just a flat motion um but I would also ask the maker of the motion to maybe look at the time frame and speed it up so that we can have better answers for the community and for ourselves um to make sure that we are providing what's best in that space for the 15 20 years down the road as Dr Dr heern indicated earlier um next is Dr Zeman [Music] um again I I feel like I showed up at the wrong meeting I think we were here to try and create a great School District Browder States cost $14,500 per kid to educate why because there's so few kids that go there you got an overhead you got to have it at every school and you have so few kids that by the time you add up all the money it costs a lot of money to do it there and do they get a well-rounded education there do they have a librarian instead of a librarian uh clerk no they don't have a well-rounded education in prior to states can they get one at at Dr Martin Luther King absolutely it has 470 kids so it's going to have 670 kids maybe 570 depending on where the 100 go and it's going to cost less to do it I can't believe we're not thinking about the unfunded requirements that we have in Broward County I had a colleague one time that created a poster and I'll never do that but there is a chart that is worth thinking about which is the 23-year slope in enrollment of Broward County because we made decisions like this there's no free lunch chair do we have a million dollars of unmet requirements in bar County Schools Dr heurn if you can be specific with the question Dr zma do you have any ideas where you where you might spend a million dollars to create a better school district in Brower County I have tons of ideas for how we can use a million well that's why we're here in the one school in which we say we're going to close it and reap benefits now we want to take that benefit and give it away but we're not going through the normal budget process to figure out where our greatest needs are that's what outstanding organizations do they are constantly thinking about all this stuff we're not funding Librarians nobody in Brower County understands why our schools don't have Librarians anymore they're fundamental to education almost half of our schools don't have them anymore I could go on and on and on where we have unmet needs and we need this money so if in fact we have the guts to do one school and go from a school that's very expensive and put them in a larger school that costs a lot less per student to do it we have to take that money and go back and figure out where to spend that if we want to compete I want to compete but we can't keep doing what we're doing and have the money to be excellent Excellence doesn't come from marketing Excellence comes from spending money where you know it matters and having processes to allocate that money in a way that the community sees it and says wow they really do want to compete with with other schools look how they're spending their money and by the way all of that money all of that money should be spent on K through2 that is why we exist so I don't think these motions either one of them are consistent with becoming a great school district and they're not consistent with the way the community wants us to allocate the money that was their money that they gave us they gave us $6 billion and they said spend it educating our kids and you do that by having fewer schools that are bigger that are more efficient so you can spend more money on instruction and the this these motions are taking us in the wrong direction and they're feel-good motions they're Mo motions of the moment they're not intentional thoughtful careful deliberate motions about how we ought to be spending our money in Brower County and I'd like us to get into that discussion how are we going to create a great School District how are we going to compete you don't compete by saying you're going to compete you compete by changing the way you've done things and for 23 years the way we've done things has led to a 1% decline enrollment every year public charter schools are now 20% of the public school system of Broward County I want to compete I want to really compete I want to compete by making better decisions and by putting our money where we know that it matters and by having a capital structure that has some sense to it thank you chair thank you than you board member Thompson I would like to call the question on this motion please okay um oh we have to take a vote all those in favor of calling the question say I I any opposed no uh roll call roll call on the question alidev Bowman fam oh fam's not here Hixon yes Hess yes Leonardi yes rert Thompson Zan no motion pass 62 right okay point of order Madam chair um board member Alla before we vote I would like to specifically know what the motion is okay yes Mrs Leonardi if you could rad your that was my plan um with with the uh suggest updates uh from my colleagues I move to direct the superintendent and staff to come up with a plan to allocate the annual cost savings we will experience from repurposing Broward Estates to establishing and maintaining the Early Learning Center with the understanding that the first year the superintendent has the discretion to use that funding um to assist with the transfer of students from Broward Estates to other schools this plan will be developed by March 1st 2025 thank you all those in favor of the motion say I I all those oppos say no no no okay uh roll call roll call on the motion Hixon yes Hess yes Leonardi yes rert yes Thompson Zan nope alad no Bullman yes motion pass 62 thank you okay back to the original motion um yes oh yeah I have we're still on the first round so Mrs alad and I have not gone yet so Mrs we were on Mrs alad I think when she made the motion so you can continue if you have anything else Mrs ala thank you um so I mean that motion just passed but what my one question is I would like to know specifically uh Dr Hein with the partners with the Early Learning Center how much money they are contributing I think it was important piece of the to have to have that knowledge part of the equation so we don't have that specific amount because we're still in conversations with many of these potential partners and so we can provide that at a later date okay and then my next question is out of the6 students how many are going to Plantation Elementary and to MLK do we know or is that up we don't know that exact number yet um Dr wanza and team will be going out and having discussions with parents um to see what opportunities they're going to leverage how we're going to help their students transition and and um all the additional information just to make sure we're meeting the students needs and the parents needs okay and then I will just go back to my original point is that I really want to make sure that we're meeting me individually with the families to make sure that the students needs are being met thank you thank you um and I would Echo that I think it's a great idea the concierge service I appreciate that because we do they have options for choice and although the window for Choice May close before they get there I think we should allow them the opportunity to um to do that and I just realized I was supposed to let somebody clear the record Dr wanza about the meetings before I went so go ahead and then also I know you're going to talk about the choice window so I'll I'll start with the choice and that and then I'll go back to the other one of the things that we already have planned um depending on whatever happens today first and foremost is to meet with all of the principles to discuss what the outcome is today right the principles the region staff so that they um can move forward with whatever they're planning for next school year so that's the first thing as it relates specifically to Broward Estates we've been in conversation with the principal I spoke with her with her on the drive home yesterday asking her does she have any night meetings planned for next week because we would attach on to that instead of asking parents to come she does not so I did tell her to work with her community let us know which night next week is the best night for them and um we would start to work individually with all the families um because it's more than just the in Who currently live in the boundary it's the 106 from outside of the boundary it's every child who's currently enrolled in the school that's the first thing the um the the second part of the conversation and I think it's the the part that gets lost in is that we also have employees that we have to speak to them and make certain that we um work with their collecting collective bargaining um Representatives so that we take care of them in a um profession dignified and Humane um way as well and then the other part that we have the ability to do one of the things that we're going to do and I I'll I'll say it publicly is yes even though the choice window may have closed yesterday these families will be taken care of whatever their decisions are within what the policy says they they'll be taken care of so I don't want um people to worry that the choice window closed yesterday so that's that part and just as it relates to just that that the the listening public as well as the attending public one of the things that I just want to put out there is that this has probably been the most Community involved process um as it relates to redefining schools that we've had in in decades and one of the things that we did do we know that we came to the board in August with a with um groupings of schools there were eight groupings and then we went out and we had eight meetings in um the high schools so that is why the first meeting for this community was at Dillard because it was more than Broward Estates that was being discussed but then on October 8th when the board gave us more specific direction of which proposals to focus on then that is when we went out on November 18th and had the very specific meeting in the brow Estates community um because that was the only School in the central region that we um was a proposal and we had three other meetings at different obviously different parts where we had the regional meetings so I just wanted to draw some distinction there so that people understand why the September meeting was at Dillard and then the November meeting was specifically at brow Estates in the school cafeteria thank you so much and thank you for including all of the students at BR States I was going to bring that up it's they not just the coner sures services for the in boundary but for all the students that are there um have a couple other questions Dr heern someone mentioned um $6 million that um wasn't provided to Broward Estates can you speak to that please well um go ahead Miss Paul yes we still have money it's not six million uh but we still have a little bit over five5 million that still sits with Broward Estates and so we have you know the things that we know they need uh obviously a new they need a new rout Pro and uh but the FCA will flush out all of that uh new AC those kind of things but there's still money that was part of the smart Bond yes ma'am okay thank you so there is a plan to use that money at Broward Estates or we're working on based on the uh decision of the board um that will direct how we move forward okay and if there was an a decision or a want to build a new building that money would go could go into that a replacement building let me call it if if the decision was made that would be a small part of that all right yes I know it wouldn't come close to covering the cost thank you um you know I also want to um so the other question I'm going to try to keep them in the same thing so if we use if we if we move to An Early Learning Center where would the money come to support that um various um sources um and I know Dr can and she can kind of speak towards what we're doing at Gulfstream right now which would give the public and the board an idea of where the money would come from to sustain uh such a program thank you very much Dr heer and Lori canning executive director for family and Community engagement we currently have a variety of programs that fund child care services at Gulfstream including the Federal grant Head Start the state allocation with VPK prekes programs that's funded through the Ida Grant and we also have Early Head Start that is also funded through our federal program other programs on site complete the community support and Community School model and those are provided through our partners we have multiple partner organizations several of them lease space on our camp campus and we were able through Partnerships with our leasing department complete those leasing agreements they then paid additional funds not just the operational fees but additional funds to help to provide um funds for additional facilities or custodial staff on our campus thank you and what is the what's the process of of selecting students to participate in that Early Learning Center with our federal Head Start Grant we follow the federal guidelines and that is based on socio economic status other factors including incarcerated parents foster children and any exceptional needs that we have now I also want to share that transportation is not provided so we would have an application event right there at Broward Estates and encourage anyone from the community that is in need of high quality child care services to come they would be able to complete the application process and we would support them through that process so that everyone that has a young child would be able to apply and we will be able to then put the seats into the best places while following our federal guidelines thank you cuz I was going to ask about Transportation next um so I appreciate your answers and and to the idea of Transportation it came up before for um people that are less than that 2 Mile is it a possibility that the district could work with the city commission um or even Broward County to help provide some kind of transportation resources that would help them get the students to Martin Luther King yes we we can work with um the city of L Hill to see what we can come up with okay to work with their kids thank you um also I'd just like to say in terms of the montauri we have two phenomenal montauri program we we have a lot of phenomenal ones but we have two that have a long wait list Beachside montauri and Virginia schum young so I would really like to ask staff to maybe have people from those two communities parents the teachers the administrators go into that brard at Estates community and speak with them about what is montauri h how is it beneficial because those schools are high performing and they're very um they're sought out in many different communities and so if there's one right there in the community if we could let them understand what's the value of that because I think some of it comes from they don't really know what the montauri is or what the advantages of having that are and that we have some models that are National models and that you know we could work together to make sure that the mon the Martin Luther King looks like the other two where we're seeing great success um also so on that's on on um Broward Estates on the other ones i' just like to say thank you so much to all of the communities for coming out for all of the meetings that you've gone to and I would say the majority of these recommendations came from the community the community asked for the k8s they asked for the six through 12s and we spend a lot of time listening we we had a plan we scrapped it because the community made it very clear that they weren't ready for all of that um I'd like to Echo some of my other board members this is a phased in process so we're in phase one I I hear what Dr Zeman is saying loud and clear and I don't disagree with him on some of that but to do as we said in the past rip the bandid off isn't really the right way to go about this to build Community Trust so we're doing it in a process and I appreciate that because when we tried to just do it in one big swoop we saw that it was not um not something the community was willing to accept um I was at Hollywood Central Elementary yesterday and I'll just say that principle is ready to go she's and which we've heard other principles also the principles are excited about these changes because they know that they can draw more people in and specifically Hollywood Central I won't mention names but some of the residing um Charter Schools nine families from those charter schools have visits set up because of our showcase and that they've heard that they may come to a K8 to tour Hollywood Central Elementary so what we're doing is is working and it's what the communities want and I think that's really important we have a plan let's see how that rolls out and then we'll continue to see what schools can be consolidated I like to call them partial closures I really like the idea of what Olsen brought to us about having the community or someone in the community use half the school where we don't have seats and allow the students to stay in the school because then it reduces our footprint that way so these are innovative ways to look at how we can reduce our footprint which we clearly need to do in a way that works for the community and um I guess that was just the last thing that I had to say so um thank you for bringing all the recommendations to us and this will be round two and we're we're working on two hours and I know this is really important but in please make sure board members whatever you're saying is in addition not repeating what you've already said because I think we want to be really respectful of people's time so um board member holess thank you madam chair so um I appreciate everyone's input and um just a few things that I have and um this will be my last round of um speaking to the item um I'd like to make sure Dr heurn uh since if this should pass that we are um uh changing from Broad estate's Elementary to An Early Learning Center primarily and I'd like to uh as we move forward to keep the name brow Estates within any naming of the grounds um so I am hoping that that will remain secondly um um I kids within brow Estates um those parents those families should be first priority for the Early Learning Center uh we're asking a lot from them and therefore I think that um it would be important for us to prioritize the families within broad Estates that they get first priority for their kids that are prek kids uh thirdly um as you mentioned Transportation provided to Plantation Elementary and the concern with the uh some of the uh families over there grandparents are taking some of the kids uh that um on a um individual basis that we um allow an opportunity for those who are struggling with Transportation uh at least during the first year to to have some accommodations made for them so I'd like to make a couple of um motions because I think it is important uh the first motion is that the name brow Estates remain within any renaming of this school second any public comment on the motion okay are you referring to the name if it gets put as this Early Childhood Center or anything that's done to it I just need no I don't think it was clear I believe the intent was whatever happens Broward to States will the name Broward to States will still be in whatever name of the facility sitting there it will remain okay all right so on that motion keeping the name is a good start keeping it as a brow County public school and keeping it stay on the motion up fifth grade still on the motion Early Learning Center is the is the project you want I believe there should be a way to find it to add it to it not just make it its own because I don't think they know the process of what does it take to get into an early child center it's not so simple you don't just sign up and get put in thank you next public speaker thank you very much mayor Grant of laa Hill and we are in agreement with keeping that name as brow States elementary school thank you thank you I'm in support of making sure Bri States remain there uh the name in and whatever it is thank you thank you okay board member discussion Dr Zan I'm sorry apologize I appreciate the motion thank you Dr Holmes okay Mrs Al can you just clarify is your intent to say Broward EST State's Early Learning Center no that is not my intent the intent is the words brow Estates remain in whatever renaming takes place for the school because currently it's bro Estates Elementary so if we're looking to An Early Learning Center I don't want to be specific to the superintendent and the staff um so broad States is an important part of naming that Community it's broad States Community broad States HOA uh um my you know I'm familiar with the community my sister graduated from Parkway Middle School as well so the broad estate's name is really important to the residents of that community so in in respect for that whatever direction we go that brow Estates is in that name so are you comfortable with it saying Broward is State's Early Learning Center I am I am not uh I don't want to expound on the possibilities that the superintendent the staff would have in mind what's important I believe to the community is that brow Estates remain in any renaming of the school or the campus so I my motion is simply whatever the naming of it is Broward Estates is in that name okay so if the superintendent wanted to make an Early Learning Center and he said Broward at State's Early Learning Center you would be comfortable with that well if the superintendent intends to rename the school I am sure that is going to come to us for a vote and we can make that decision then but whatever name he's going to present to us it has brow Estates in it any renaming of the school uh board member alhad I am sure that's going to come to us as a vote I don't think the superintendant can by himself decide to rename a school but whatever he presents to us that it includes brow Estates and then we can subsequently vote on any naming he has beyond that but he should never he the motion is asking that he doesn't present a name to us that does not have broad Estates in that name okay all right all those in favor of the motion say I I I any opposed motion carries unanimously Madame chair I have another motion go ahead okay so since we are asking this community uh to uh have their children transfer to other neighboring schools I think it's important that they have first priority uh in the Early Learning Center and um I I would like to make a motion that kids living families living in the boundaries of broad Estates have first priority for the Early Learning Center um and that's my motion second okay it's been moved and second it before I give it to public comment I just would like Dr heern to speak to the motion repeat the motion lost my train of thought there with the Dr he the boundaries of broad Estates as it is now PR I remember now yes and the motion is that those families living within the boundaries of broad Estates are given first priority for the Early Learning Center because I am assuming the Early Learning Center will attract families all across the district but we are asking the families in Broad Estates to transfer their students their kids over to other schools so they should have first priority for the Early Learning Center so the motion is to provide those families first priority in um in terms of being accepted into the Early Learning Program yeah we can accommodate that if that's the will will motion yes it was it was seconded already but I um Miss uh Dr canning as far as priority just to make make sure um we're accurate in our answer thank you very much I will share that it depends on which program it is when we're implementing the Head Start program we must follow the federal guidelines otherwise we would be in Jeopardy of losing our grant so we would follow the federal guidelines but as I shared I really look forward to working with the community in that application process to make sure that we atise the program make sure that we hold that event so everybody does have the chance to apply but if we are able to offer additional programs which would be part of our work to explore what other programs what other funding we could bring in then we would be able to prioritize it based on home address and that neighborhood thank you public speak public speakers on the motion good afternoon my name is DOA Johnson I I am May proud owner of a Child Care Center EOC and Department of Education is going to have to be involved in this um phase of the U of this plan it's not just easy it's not just opening up to a ELC school you got to have people who are really trained you guys aren't telling them everything and and know about it so Community don't be fooled it's not going to be something that you can do right away I I owner daycare since 1997 and I know bpk and all of that I know about so it's not going to be an easy trip thank you next public speaker Anna Fusco brow teacher Jor president I believe I heard the motion to be that the people get first priority which I also which I was getting up to say Lori Canon needed to speak on this because as I said I've been around a long time there's a process and I think I heard her say that if it's start or we don't know which program's going to be in there so again you guys are moving forward without knowing a full plan I hear you on the concept and the need but again it's not going to make a break Brower County Public Schools if this goes forward right now you're telling the community we're going to get you in there I'm telling you you're not I know and you need to know and you need to tell them and if you don't know which I'm gathering some of you don't you need to get people up here that know every answer and stop cherry-picking little tidbits of it I'm telling you guys now you don't have all the information don't move forward on this vote it down for now and come back with a better plan thank you next public speaker hey Nicole Morris corl Springs um so what I'm hearing is there cannot be a guarantee that it's not up to us uh there's been a lot of roundabout answers today I was told in a meeting last week that there would not be any Renovations done the buildings now we're saying maybe there are I just say that we give 100% transparency full answers a yes A solid yes a solid no or pause until you can give people a solid yes or a solid no and not maybe because once you vote it's done thank you thank you next public speaker good afternoon again Robert Crum I 100% agree as you guys been hearing from me before we've been moving forward without conversation of what is really going to look like at the end what is our endgame and it's frustrating to say that we've been pushed into this without you guys our Representatives truly going through the due diligence to educate the community of what's going to be the next steps so being clearly seen that the research and the endgame from the Professionals in here is not really clear I'm not I'm not really sure how you're believing that us as residents could be acceptable of this the only logical thing is it's for us to put the breaks on and move forward with some real conversations and with some real answers so that we as a community can be acceptable as we're talking about trust and reference to the community this is one way you break our trust forever thank you next public speaker so I um am asking that it gets voted down and everything goes to a Hal so that the answers could be answered properly when you speak about Federal you can't go against it um you can't do motions against Federal um and so I ask for transparency to continue and let's have the conversation we're not going to go broke um please Madam chair let's try to put a hold on it thank you so much thank you bottom line we are in this state because because this is what you all can you doing to our community years and years and years have to say your name my name I'm Delia Kegler thank you this is what you all told me in the 80s I've been before you since for years and years and this is what you do to our community everybody else can get what they want but when you come to our community it's always well we going to give you the hammer we we going to cut you off we're going to say this this is what we have been dealing with for years when are we going to be get something when are you going to say well we're going to spend some money on Cinderella thank you mine Noel L Hill resident our community don't want to be blindsided and based on the conversation that we're hearing you're having upfront you don't have a clear plan doesn't even seem as if there is a plan we're just being thrown something that's just being thrown at the community and it's expected that we accept it without no clarification this Early Learning Center that we're talking about what explanation has you given to the community in regards to how their students how their kids their babies are going to be accepted whether they're going to be accepted or not we do not know we're speaking about prow States as if it's you know why should we invest in that Community we should invest in the community because we have kids that are qualified we have kids that are intelligent we have kids that are brilliant we have families that are working but still they want their kids to be afforded a wellth thought education and so let's thought this put a pause on your vote thank you hi my name is Cheryl Lewis I was just in question you know I worked at brow state I was a part of the chairperson the F you know with the advisory and the pych and I understand where that FTE money comes and how is allotted and if the school doesn't produce that money I think we're disserving our kids they're giving us the opportunity just on the motion yeah okay I agree I just think that they should give our kids the opportunity with this program to become aom or Michelle so we need to think about that and embrace this program it's a free opportunity for us you know they can be spending money somewhere else parents have paid money for this type of education and we have it free let's think about this thing thanks thank you board board member discussion Mrs rert oh I'm sorry were you coming up to speak I'm sorry Hi I wasn't actually going to speak in the beginning but I've been sitting here for three hours I think there have been five or six substitute motions on this one item of Broward Estates I'm wondering if it would uh and and there does not seem to be much conversation on the rest of your plan so I'm wondering if it would be best to separate this out to fur this one thing and bring it for forward at the next meeting when some of these can be answered I myself am very confused because the backup talks about moving the students to Martin Luther King everything I say I'm reading says that the map shows that and then there's conversation about Plantation Elementary I obviously do not have children in this school but I can see where there would be confusion so I would say when you have six substitute motions maybe it's time to bring this as a separate issue and dispose dispose of the rest thank you thank you okay Mrs rert I make a motion that we separate can we're on Dr H misses I'm gonna I'm going to do that I don't think we have to have a I I already spoke before I won't waste any more time thank you Miss uh board member Thompson I'm good Dr Seaman I just want to get straight what we're talking about today we have no idea how much money we're going to save just on the motion um just the motion of Dr hess's motion to prior to make the the yeah students at prow toate I'll get there and I'm going to talk till and I'm going to end there we don't know what savings we're going to get out of it so it's difficult to think about the prioritization of people we run a District School System we don't run a city-based school system we don't we won't have Broward to State boundaries if this item passes right because this isn't An Early Learning Center for the old Broward Estates Elementary School this is an Early Learning Center for something but there won't be a boundary because there won't be an elementary school it's difficult to think think through the prioritization of kids going to An Early Learning Center um because it's not our mission to run Early Learning Centers so we don't have policies that cover it it's difficult to think about the prioritization of of who gets to go to An Early Learning Center um when it's just not part of our mission and when I hear that we're going to spend $5 million renovating something that doesn't deliver for our mission I hear the community saying what on Earth are you thinking we have huge needs in the schools that are Central to why we exist we have billions of dollars in need not millions billions so I would uh suggest that we uh instead of moving forward with these motions which I'm sure we'll do for a while uh table this until we can get specifics about this plan um and answer some other questions um that will allow us to understand more about whether or not it makes sense uh to have people in a former School boundary have priority to go to An Early Learning Center that is not within the mission of a countywide school district thank you any other that's it it has to be something additional you can't repeat something it is okay okay so um um I understand that well I will say the impacted families even though those boundaries Dr Zeman may not exist after if this is voted on the impacted families are within those boundaries so the the since we are impacting those families it's it's not difficult to determine the families that lived within the existing boundaries even even if the boundaries are gone so the the motion is simply since we are significantly impacting these families that they are priority living within those boundaries uh for the Early Learning Center after we dot our eyes and cross our tees regarding the requirements that needed to be in the Learning Center that those families are priority consideration that ex that live within the boundaries as it existed now even though those boundaries will be gone when the change is made because we impacting these folks so why not give them priority uh and and that's simply what it's saying so it's not difficult to identify families that Liv in the existing boundaries even if boundaries are gone the motion is simply to say give them priority if they dot all the eyes and cross all the tease for the requirements that their priority consideration that's the only that's the only intent of the motion which I think uh is reasonable for us to do considering what we're asking this community to do thank you I'll I'll speak and then Mrs Al so my concern with the motion is that we can't there are some programs that don't allow us to prioritize anything it's just the it's if it's a Federal Grant and it's a head start or Early Head Start which is what we're talking about starting with there are guidelines and we must follow them so it's it's an assumption that they'll get priority because no transportation is provided and so people who live in the community are going to be more likely to be the applicants but I don't think we can I don't know if I want to say legally but conscientiously say we give priority when we know that there are guidelines that won't allow us to do that on the program we're going to offer so I appreciate what you're saying I think we will make all the the intent is to to make them a priority where we can but I don't think I would want to put it in writing that they're a priority when we can't do that through federal law so that's my concern okay so Madam chair can I change it to a directive to the superintendent instead of a motion to uh prioritize the families within the boundaries when it can when they can be prioritized it's your motion so you can change it but I think it would make more sense okay so I am going to um uh withdraw the motion and have this as a directive to the superintendent to prioritize the families within that community uh in if they fulfill the uh requirements uh that is existing um for aspects of the Early Learning Center thank you that I appreciate that Mrs Al thank you and I was going to ask a question to our general counsel um she's not here I would appreciate though in the future that General Council has someone to take her place to be able to answer these legal questions um my my question is to the motion if that is allowable legally Miss Batista thank you madam chair uh the motion as rephrased um is allowable okay so I think he he withdrew his motion and was just making a directive to the superintendent so I think the motion is off the floor if I'm not mistaken the motion is based upon the different motion right it is now a directive to the superintendent to prioritize the families within the existing boundaries uh of uh brow Estates um uh in in terms of consideration for the Early Learning Center should those families fulfill all guidelines for whichever program exists at at your Learning Center Miss Batista yes so so basically the motion is to allow the prioritization as permitted by law so I think that that's thetion to be in motion so that's now the motion since because my my I guess my understanding was that I could not make a motion the legal council is now saying I could make a motion as long as it's within the guidelines of the law is that correct so now the motion is back on the floor within the guidelines of the law is that correct Miss Batista I I didn't hear a second but yes well it had been seconded before I think he's just tweaking his motion okay Dr Zan it is my understanding that uh after a motion is made and seconded it is on the floor and the person who proferred that cannot just withdraw it if it wants to be withdrawn it has to be voted on by the body uh to withdraw it is that correct so he he's not withdrawing it though he's just he's making amendments to it B based on on the conversation um I'm just going to quote him specifically okay Dr hus said I'm withdrawing my motion and then when we asked him again he clarified Dr Zan the motion was withdrawn on the premise that I could not have made that motion legal councel just verified that I can within the if I include within the premise of the law so the motion I would like to be back on the floor because it was withdrawn for that reason okay and it was seconded so um okay um any other board discussion on the motion okay all those Dr holness can you just read the motion one time so everyone understands what they're voting on okay so the motion is to prioritize families living within the existing boundaries of bro Estates uh to be given priority consideration within the guidelines of the law uh for the um proposed Early Learning Center programs thank you all those in favor say I I any opposed say no no motion carries thank you so back to oh do you have any others or Dr holness it uh those are all my responses thank you madam chair we have two more people that wanted to speak on the the whole item and then we need to as we've said before land the plane here so Mrs Leonardi um I wanted to go back to something that chair Hixon was asking about the $6 million of smart funding um Can someone walk me through how because you know it was said that you know as long as the board directs us to spend that money in a certain way or for to to fund The Early Learning Center if we want to build a new building which would be much more than $6 million but um how would would that happen because my fear is again that we can say that in the meeting and then it's never brought up again um and the $6 million goes somewhere else Dr Hepper um and I have Miss Paul plug in but I think that money would be allocated within dfp and then um as we do at U board meetings to go over what that plan looks like for the future as far as facilities needs for certain schools then we would codify then at at the DS as far as board direction of how to spend that money on whatever particular school got it thank you that was my understanding um just two very quick points um you know we've heard from parents community members Educators today that all said that the people at Broward estate's Elementary deliver a quality education to their students and no matter what is set up on this day is no one can take that away from the Educators and people working at Broward Estates and I will always argue that early childhood education is a part of our core Mission it has a direct impact on the POS on posit POS student outcomes and that is our core Mission we run successful Early Learning Centers now and it is the right thing to do to provide that need to a community that needs it and just one last point at the beginning of this process I said that our under enrolled schools are under enrolled because we have underinvested in them and I appreciate the perspective that we are running a business but that is a misunderstanding of what public education is we cannot look at our students as dollar signs we have to look at them as human beings whose needs we are obligated to meet that is why I made the motion that I made and I'm grateful that the my colleagues share that objective of investing in this Early Learning Center and I know that if we invest in our schools if we invest in this Early Learning Center it will produce positive outcomes for our students which again is our primary responsibility as a school system and I will I believe it will also have the added benefit of increasing enrollment but we have to come back to producing positive student outcomes thank you thank you and we will um Dr Zeman and then I'll and thank you very much when we go in a few weeks to Tallahassee we're going to ask for more money for Brower County Public Schools we might even ask for more money for all uh Public Schools across Florida and legislators who I know uh on both sides of the aisle are going to ask us are you spending all the money we give you on the reason we give it to you for yes Early Learning Centers improve our community they include educational outcomes so does nutrition programs so does affordable housing there are thousands of things that improve our outcomes once they show up at our mission but you don't call the EPA when your taxes are late you call the IRS and when Early Learning doesn't work in Broward County we'd love to have it where we have space but what we're talking about doing today is keeping an entire second facility open in order to do something that is outside our mission and it it destroys our ability to go and ask for more money it's that simple if you're doing something with the money they give you for K through2 education that isn't just using up excess space why would they give you more money and and hello uh Broward County Schools we're in a competitive environment we talk about it all the time we must use business principles but no kid is a dollar sign but if we're not spending the dollars on what makes them better people then I'd say fine like how could you argue against that we know what makes kids learned we know what makes them pass academic standards we know what makes them healthy people and our job picks up from K through 12 and we should be spending all our money on that and we should be very thoughtful and intentional about it and we should stand before our community and say that no matter whether we're standing in front of people who are in affected schools or we're fing standing up in front of the Broward Workshop or we're standing up in front of a high school that's not being closed that we're making decisions that are are thoughtful intentional and will lead to better outcomes for what we are charged for and so yes it is our mission K through2 that's written in state law that's why we get money for every kid we lose we lose money right we've told you all that a thousand times we have programs and ideas and thoughts about how to get more kids to come back and that's great but uh I I'm I'm confused about this item I don't think uh chair has anyone a motion to sever this from other items yet we're going to take each one of them so we just brought them together to discuss them but we're going to vote on each item separately terrific let me finish my thoughts on this one we don't know what the savings for this is we've had statements about things we're going to buy back so we don't know what the savings are originally it was a million dollars who knows what it is now it does not do K through 12 education if someone brought this item and said oh let's do prek through third grade I'd say wow there's thousands of research papers that have said that the the the flow from early learning to Early Education is fundamental and that wins back enrollment right because you get to stay in one school I've heard today that we're going to use $5 million at Capital dollars on on a building that is not part of Brower County Public Schools Mission what I haven't heard by the way is that if these students go from Boward Estates Elementary School to Dr Martin Luther King Elementary School are they going chair to a school that has high higher academic performance or lower Dr heurn higher performance um I just want to make sure that we're all dealing with the same data the data that I have for Dr Martin Luther King shows that they have 48% at grade level and Broward States say 49% am I wrong I have uh [Music] one team members verify we're verifying but it's about a one point difference okay so they're very close to each other yeah I'm going to make a motion to table this uh I don't think uh this is actually uh a completed item I don't know what we're doing with the savings there's been conversations about this that are um looser than I would like it to be and I think we need a little bit more time to bring it back at the next Schoolboard meeting when is that chair I'm sorry I didn't have my dates with me February 19 19 no yes February 19th thanks so much uh I'd like to move that we table this until February 19th and ask that the item be brought back with uh specifics on where the savings aren't fully a million dollars because we have to do some things there how much Capital money is going to be spent uh on Broward Estates the facility that we have uh thank you that's my motion is the motion to just um table mm1 please no clapping in the audience um um the motion is to table mm1 only okay thank you um is there a second uh Public public speakers on the motion well hello Anna scar teacher president well I appreciate the motion to table it I wish the motion was to that till next meeting is to squash it until further notice when you have a direct conversation in some more workshops from your leaders and others that can bring a more understanding of what the real plan is I think you heard from many of us in the audience that are in tune and we're confused if I'm confused and Mary's confused come on I think that should take some type of understanding your part that there is not a clear understanding of what is really going to happen and there's really not a clear understanding of why it's happening or the real need we do know that there's Financial situations and enrollment is low we get that but really understanding that this has to happen now with Broward States or we're going to just crumble is not an acceptable understanding because it's not it's not there thank you next public speaker Nicole Morris Coral Springs I agree um I think that there are a lot of questions that need to be answered again there are 222 students in the school right now we were told today there are 200ish usable seats so the school's at capacity so if you're going to um do Renovations maybe you can bring in more more kids if not you're just going to switch the kids that are there for new kids it's not going to maximize usage there are a lot of questions to be answered the community deserves full transparency thank you Dr Zeman for the motion um thank you oh one last thing I the montauri um I don't know a lot about montor and a vsy loved it um but I I think if I had a third grade student that was in a gifted program to look at me and say well he has to go to a monu would be unfair because I understand it's it's a different way of learning and that may derail his um progress thank you thank you next public speaker good afternoon Robert Crum boom Dr Zeman you're the man today my brother so thank you very much I totally agree with the motion I also would like to say that I would um like to ask our school board member Dr holes to I've heard that other cities has had Town Hall meetings with their city as well too to go over this plan to make it come together I really don't understand why that haven't happened with our community but I would like for our city officials and the School Board member for us to have more open workshops so that we can work through this and that us as a community at least that we can understand and be able to support you guys on your decision so thank you so much for your time next public speaker I want to start by saying that this process that you've had since last May maybe has been really great and soliciting Community engagement and you can see that with the recommendations today and the and and and yet this one and even your your substitute motions which I know I brought up you had a lot of really good ideas in there so before you pass something that could be even better I would just ask that you take a month get all the questions answered communicate with the community and bring something back that everybody can support and I think that's possible but it's not going to be possible by having this uh this uh conversation by committee up here just everybody kind of throwing something in and hoping that you come out with a good product it's possible to do that and you can see that by what else is on the agenda thank you thank you next public speaker Cheryl Lewis Terry Lopez pro career educ no she's next oh she she can go no go ahead I'm in question I have way agree with uh Mr Zan I think that we're fortunately to to come up with the program for to help us out you know he's talking about closing it so he's giving us an opportunity they're giving us the opportunity to do something you know our kids get their most learning from zero to five so with this program it will enhance their learning and we're complaining we're you know I can understand that they're not they're questionable on some things but give them the opportunity to do their jobs you put them in there to make decisions for our kids but yet and still you're question their ability come on think about this thing we can have a little Obama a little Michelle or better yet a caran give them that opportunity a free education thank you so much thank you next public speaker Terry Lopez PR Broward citizen career educator and vice president of the brow teachers union i' just like to say that I've been sitting there and finally I heard for this to be tabled after so many multiple motions um these kinds of things have happened in many many states Chicago it happened Detroit it's happening because they want to close schools Community Schools you clearly have heard the community say they want their Community School this is about billionaires trying to infiltrate to take money out of our schools to start charter schools which they already have some things you can fight some things you cannot fight but to keep a community school open is what you need to do so I really appreciate that you're at least tabling it and maybe you can think about what this kind of conversation does to a community when you're telling them you're going to close their school on their kids a school which is in a community of lower income people not okay thank you next public speaker thank you Mrs Zan I support tbling it thank you okay uh board discussion Mrs alh thank you so I do agree with the public speaker as far as having a town hall going back from this period of time if we table this to the next school board meeting again there seems to be some uh miscommunication with the community the needs to be in the community the conversation not not somewhere else um also you know I just I wanted to for me I support the superintendent's recommendation I support the Early Learning Center I think that the Early Learning Center will help to lay a strong foundation for lifelong Learning and Development making it a valuable investment in a child's future however I do feel that there needs to be greater conversation on where the students will be going what that looks like and what their options are so for me Dr he I hope that there can be greater conversation within this period of time until the next school board meeting thank you um board member Thompson thank you um I'm not in favor of tbling this we our staff has worked incredibly hard to put this plan together we know that that area needs child care we know that early childhood learning excuse me we know that early childhood learning has the potential to greatly impact every child's life and if we can supply that that is our role Brower County school board's mission is to provide a quality education to every student whether that student is in Sease whether that students taking AP classes whether they are doing Early Childhood learning and bpk we have done the work I know that there's a lot the School Board needs to do to rebuild trust with our community and we are asking for you to put trust in our staff and that is hard however I am a firm believer that this is the right step for our school district this is the right step for Bri Estates and I will be voting for it and I will be voting against tbling it thank you thank you before I go to Dr holness Dr heurn can you just address if we if this was to be t abled and brought back to the next school board meeting would we be able to move forward with the plan for this school year or would it move it to a a later school year th this thank you um Madam chair for the question this definitely delays our efforts um in implementation and going back out to the community um and really finalizing what this plan looks like unfortunately um we have to go through a process of the board voting for something and then we go out to the community and really finalize what everything will ultimately look like by by conversing with the community the parents um the the faculty and staff of of that school we haven't brought anything forward that hasn't been proven in concept already everything that's on the table right now has been proven it works we haven't brought anything new we haven't brought anything that we just threw up in the air and developed we looked across our district we found Concepts that are proven that are effective that work for our kids we understand the needs in this in this specific specific area of of our of our school district and in the county and we have to make a decision today for the sake of of of the kids that are going to be impacted so we can do this in a timely manner so we don't delay this process a week or two or three definitely delays the process to make sure we can execute this and implement this uh appropriately um so that we can get started um in the beginning of the school year with the transition of students and also this Early Learning Center at um uh Browder States thank you Dr holess thank you madam chair so Dr heurn um can you speak to the efforts we've had um proceeding this motion here today in terms of engaging the community can you speak extensively to what have been done so far and can you also speak to what will be done should this motion pass Dr heer yes I have Dr Wan um talk about what's been done in the past including um intimate conversations at at meetings at the school with staff and and in certain um stakeholders and also how we're moving forward and engaging those stakeholders Valerie wanza Chief strategy and Innovation officer so um just as we recall we started back in August well actually back in May but then we came to August of this school year where we um had a couple of Schoolboard workshops in August and then from that we had the first community meeting September 17th 18th mon I'm sorry it was it was in that week Dillard High School where we had the grouping of schools that did include bra EST States Dr Martin Luther King L Hill Paul Turner Castle Hill there were a number of schools then we um came in a board Workshop October 8th where the board then narrowed down the proposals that they wanted the superintendent and staff to go back out and meet with communities and that is when we had the meeting at November 18th at brow estate's Elementary School where we spefic specifically talk the the only proposal we talked about that night was this conversation um that we had with the community but following that I and my staff went to a SAC meeting at the school and we had extensive one-on-one conversation right there at the sack meeting we followed that up I believe it was the next morning or shortly after a meeting with um the staff at brow Estates and some of their um Professional Organization was represented there at the meeting as well and then we had um the board Workshop I think it was back in September I'm I'm sorry now at December it was December 10th we had board Workshop where the superintendent talked about and explained to the board and the community um that he will be making formal recommendations and then on SE uh December 11th my birthday the next day the actual formal memo came out from the superintendent about his what he would be bringing forth to the meeting today but I think one of the things um if I may Dr heern depending on whatever the board decides obviously um any decision you make may or may not impact boundaries for other schools so as the board um contemplates what it's going to do just know that this um all of the boundaries are similarly related so delaying one item May subsequently delay another okay so Dr W through Dr Hein um at the Dillard meeting I believe that was in September of 2024 that is correct um how was the community made aware of that meeting and at that meeting what what did we uh what was the takeaway from that meeting for brow Estates so we did um we had the schools send out you know because one thing that we know is when that there are some families when they hear this generic message that it is not received well messages seem to seem tend to be received received um better when it's the school principal actually on the robo call inviting parents coming to a meeting so all of the schools that were going to be discussed in the different um groupings of schools we had those direct messages going out by School principles um Mr Sullivan you got to tell me because you got to remember remind me if your team that did a global one from the district just advising the community they were also advertised on all of our social media feeds they were advertised on the district website um about the meetings that we were having when we had the meeting at um Dillard High School that meeting wasn't necessarily to dictate anything it was to hear from Community from the community about options things that they would like to see Early Learning um centers or the need or an option to provide was definitely one of the options that came up and that was discussed and that we heard from the community that night okay so the to make the Community aware of the Dillard meeting to which we were going to capture uh the community's input uh that was done through various mediums including the principls of the schools that were affected uh would have sent that information out is that correct that is correct as well as we use the district platforms too right so we have social media um so that's Facebook Instagram uh X understand so would you say that you have you would have exhausted all available options that you could think think of to make the community aware of the Dillard High School initial meeting to capture their input yes everything besides a direct mailer okay and from that meeting which it was um uh extensively advertised the community members who showed up for that meeting the priority from that meeting was uh based on their input was to establish An Early Learning Center at Broad Estates that was one of the priorities that was that was um voiced was that one of the top priorities I would say it was one of the top yes okay so and then there were subsequent meetings one was at Broad Estates um as well correct yes then after in um on November 18th I believe is that was that Monday that we had the meeting at brow EST States okay so there has been comments that meetings were not held in laud Hill so there we had meeting at Broad Estates which is in laud Hill correct yes we had that community meeting and then I also went to the school sack meeting okay and Dr wza um was I at those meetings as well you were at the meeting at Dillard you were at the meeting um the community meeting at bres at brow Estates but of course it was a staff meeting when we met with the the St the staff yes understand so um with that being said um you know the fact of the matter is which Dr heurn stated 30% of our children in that area are not kindergarten ready approximately is that correct Dr I mean 30% of our children are kindergarten ready correct yeah I'm just about to 70% are not kindergarden ready yes that's an alarming number 70% of kids in this in Broad States and surrounding communities are not kindergarten ready is that correct Dr he that is a correct statement okay so about when you look at that fact and we know that if our kids get to kindergarten and they're not function at a kindergarten level the chance of repeating during the third grade year is significantly higher is that correct Dr hurn that is correct um graduation rates uh tend to suffer so I've done tons of research on this on this topic and on this issue uh first they're playing catchup because they're coming to kindergarten behind right um some they're young no fault at their own and just not getting get didn't get the best learning opportunity then in third grade the retention rate is super high so over 50% when a kid gets retained in in third grade the graduation rate for that cohort reduces to about 65 70% they get retained again it reduces to about 50 to 60% so like I said I'm we forgive me and I want to be disrespectful I know we're doing a lot of adulting and I'm not thinking about the adults I'm thinking about the kids that's my bottom line I'm Student Center my team knows this every qu everything that we do has to directly tell me how it's going to impact our students right and I'm thinking about our kids okay so so Dr heurn we also voted as a board to prioritize kids in that community so now we're given an exceptional opportunity to our kids which we just mentioned there's a 70% 70% of our kids from that Community are not kindergarten ready we voted here to prioritize those kids for the Early Learning Center that we're trying to create and we will now have a generational impact for those children where they will now be kindergarten ready or have a much higher chance of being kindergarten ready and being able to succeed Beyond third grade without repetition in addition to that the students that are transferring those students are going to maximize the FTE dollar because now they will be in a school with higher fund allocation to provide adequate resources for them is that correct that that is Absol absolutely correct everything that you just said is correct right and whatever the cost savings is even if we don't know it Dr Zan whatever the cost savings is there was a motion that those cost savings whatever it is if it's a million 500,000 I don't know whatever it is we we voted that those cost savings will go towards the Early Learning Center and prioritize the transfer kids within the first year is that correct correct okay so on that basis because the motion is saying to table this item based on not knowing what the cost savings is and also looking at everything that we've discussed today for the last two and a half hours I think it's important that we move ahead with this item for the benefit of our kids in that Community thank you okay let's take oh did you want to speak okay let's take a vote all those in favor of tabling item mm1 say I I all those opposed say no no no do yeah two descending votes so the item fails okay so we're gonna vote on each of the items separately so the first item is for vote is mm1 all those in favor of mm1 say I I all those opposed say no no two descending votes so mm1 passes the next item is mm2 all those in favor of mm2 say I I all those oh I all those oppos say no mm2 passes item mm3 all those in in favor say I I I all those opposed say no item mm3 passes item mm4 all those chair I'm sorry I can't keep up with your pace I'm sorry sorry I'm on mm4 thank you very much I'm ready okay all those in favor of mm4 say I I I all those opposed say no M mm4 passes I item mm5 all those in favor say I I any oos say no no passes with one descending vote uh the last item on the floor is mm6 all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no item mm6 passes unanimously thank you so much the next item to come to the floor is mm7 can I have a motion in a second to bring mm7 to the floor been moved by Mrs Leonardi seconded by Mrs alhada um any public comment on mm7 no registered comments great any um let's see board member U Mrs Bulman mm7 um I don't have any comments on this okay uh Dr Zeman I don't either thank you very much okay great all those in favor of mm7 say I I all those opposed say no mm7 passes unanimously okay so we're going to go back to where we left off yes oh oh okay yes we're going to take a brief recess everybody can have a chance to catch their breath thanks for the debate [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] three two all right we are reconvening our regular school board meeting uh could I have a motion and second on jj6 please second moveed by Dr Zan seconded by Miss rert uh I have Dr holess Who has briefly left the deis does anyone else have any comments on jj6 chair I do I'm just getting it organized I apologize thank you and I also have Miss fam on the list I don't know if Miss fam is on the [Music] phone no okay um I'm ready whenever you are all right Dr Zan thanks so much chair and I apologize uh coming back together after the break a little slow um this is u a bid uh that is going out uh to do some significant work at Margate um I am struck in an incredibly positive way with the way that we have increased the number of biders to do the work in brard County uh I know doc Mrs Paul will not like any attention on this because it's her and her whole team but I do hear from the people who are consistently build schools in South Florida and they have viewed uh the shift in time impact statements the speed with which change orders are done the inspections that are done that are reasonable and and safe for our kids and because of that this bid is significantly lower uh than what we would have gotten just uh just two years ago uh and we have sufficient numbers of people who are driving the price down again in Broward County uh to build the schools whenever we get that we get to build more schools and so uh I just want to take a break and acknowledge when things are going better um with uh AECOM and Atkins help change orders have gone from 12 months to two weeks uh change orders are less often and when they are they're adjudicated quickly and and and uh decided quicker um and the net result as I ask one time every meeting what the impact of pick a JJ item and the and the answer always comes back and says well students don't have the facilities that we've already asked the community to pay for um and those cases are going down I know the Sun Sentinel wrote a long article about whether or not we can execute the rest of the smart Bond and all the other monies we put in on top of the money from the uh Bond uh itself and the answer is maybe not but we're building a lot more than we've ever built and we're building it faster and I just wanted to take a break and and tell you from the from the general contractor's perspective uh Brower county has gone from an okay partner to a damn good partner and I want to thank uh everybody that's uh moved that in the forward direction thank you very much thank you for those comments um all in favor of jj6 say I I I any opposed all right jj6 passes unanimously can I have a motion and second on jj10 please so moved second moved by Dr Zeman seconded by Miss rert uh Dr Zeman thank you very much um I'm curious chair uh why are we putting $150,000 of HVAC improvements at Forest Glenn Middle School Dr fton thank you Miss Leonardi U Miss Paul so basically we had a problem with the air duct um as part of the HVAC design um uh they were too small and so we need to make that modification to it thank you very much chair all right all in favor of jj1 say I I any opposed jj10 passes unanimously I have a motion and second on jj1 so moved moved by Dr Zeman second by Miss Rupert uh Dr Zeman thank you very much um same question as last uh chair uh do you know why this is the highest priority for aluminum covered walkways in brard County Dr fton direct that again to Mrs Paul yes uh you know we have quite a few schools where we don't have cover for our kids and when the weather changes uh hopefully it won't snow in Florida but uh when it rains in Florida our kids get wet so we are really trying to be aggressive about uh putting uh covered uh walkways as part of our operation so we have a lot of work to do on that thank you very much and one it is snowing in Florida I had some great pictures last tonight from the north Florida yeah the the part I don't want to live in by the way because it snows every once in a while uh um I'm curious chair whether or not we have a a complete inventory of schools that need uh covered walkways uh to keep kids and and faculty uh and staff out of the rain Dr oh sorry Dr so we as uh I've said it uh stated several times we're currently in the process of doing a a facility condition assessment we have internally identified areas that need covered walkways but the assessment will give us a uh complete picture of the district terrific chair um at some point in the absence of having that data we're still going to be asked to fund things um and I wonder if there isn't something that's an interim step between now and the FCA so that we can make sure we're putting these things in places and where we get kind of the greatest r Y for the dollars we want to spend is there something chair that you're aware of that is less than an FCA but better than nothing that will allow us to make good decisions about how we spend our dollars Dr Fon Miss Paul so we have identified several um uh opportunities to put covered walkways we get a lot of uh feedback from our principles as well as some of our board members um as well as the community so we do have a plan uh not only to install new ones but maintenance of the existing ones I'm very uh satisfied and gratified that you get feedback from principles or anybody that observes you know a requirement um I appreciate that I can't wait to get the FCA results back and I know you're working hard on it thanks chair thank you Mrs ala thank you I was just wondering um in the past I brought up uh solar panels on roofs and I was told that we could put solar panels on covered walkways has this ever been a part of the conversation not in the seven months I've been here but it's definitely something we can look at okay so again I'll bring it up again I think it's a good opportunity to use solar panels and I would um if the board is on board with it to have the superintendent look to how we can implement solar panels at our schools thank you thank you I'm always for solar panels and less plastic so thank you uh any other board members so um M would you mind just if the board members can weigh in on my comment sure is um I guess by a show of hands all of those in favor of looking into solar panels on the walkways raise your hand looks like that's no just to do you agree to look have him look into I just had a caveat for that um if we could have maybe like a deadline a date attached because I sometimes you know we say we want these things and then it just kind of gets forgotten so if we could have a date attached to maybe like some sort of followup or plan we can follow up in abort response if that is sufficient I think we want yeah through the to the superintendent is there um a recommendation you can make in what the staff can bring back in a timely fashion to the board to implement solar panels in our schools so I made a notation of it but I would um ask Miss Paul just what's the reasonable timeline that we can bring that information back to the board I'm sure there's been some research already on it so I I think probably within two weeks is reasonable yeah thank you I've been asking for seven years so two weeks is great awesome thank you okay all those in favor of jj1 say I I any opposed say no motion carries unanimously uh next item jj4 can I have a motion in a second so I move been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs rert is there any public comment on jj4 no register speakers okay thank you and I pulled this item so I always like to give an update I have to say this month was was very good there was only one consultant error so I don't know if we're reporting it better or if they're doing it better but um one consultant Omission no consultant errors at all in these change orders and it's only 12,000 a little over $112,000 as opposed to the couple of $100,000 that we see um every single month so I hope that means we're moving in the right direction I'm just not sure if we are categorizing them differently or if there's really a difference but happy to see that that has gone down so thank you so much all those in favor of jj4 say I I any opposed say no jj4 passes unanimously next item up is jj2 can I have a motion in a second move been moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs Leonardi any public comment on jj4 no public comment jj2 I'm sorry not jj4 jj2 also no public comment okay uh board member discussion Dr Zeman thanks so much my question got answered ahead of time appreciate the chair okay all those in favor of jj2 say I I any opposed say no jj4 passes unanimously the next I'm sorry I'm stuck on jj4 I don't know I'm sorry jj2 sorry then the next item up is jj9 moved so it's been moved by Mrs rert seconded by Dr Zan no comments board member comment Dr Zan I'm sorry is this jj1 19 yes sir thanks so much chair um is there any is this use of the Lauder Hill Performing Art Center different than the use that we used it last year Dr Fon um I know we host a graduations there last year and so we extended the contract again to host graduations for this school year as well too um and thank you and I'm I'm trying to be a little bit more specific did we do six graduations at Lauder Hill Performing Art Center last year uh Dr W is saying yes yes we did wonderful thank you very much that's all I wanted to know okay thank you um all those in favor of jj1 19 say I I I any opposed say no motion passes unanimously the next item is jj2 can I have a motion in a second so move moved by Dr Zan seconded by Mrs RUP no public comment okay uh board member Thompson um I just pulled this item because I think it's exciting about this partnership between Fort Lauderdale and Broward County um I think it just is a symbol of what kind of Partnerships we can have um and I also wanted to see if there's any such Partnerships throughout anywhere else in the county and if not are we pursuing that Dr fton so say yes and yes but I'm going to turn it over to John uh to be able to address that question I'm sorry part I have to look at the item but I believe the answer to that is yes we um I'm looking to miss Paul she might have a better understanding of the exact uh project yes we definitely uh have uh many Partnerships with our cities uh they've been very gracious in working with us and we continue to pursue uh other opportunities with them so yes could we get a followup of what Partnerships please thank you absolutely great thank you any other board members Dr Zeman yeah just just one on that particular City and and may predated miss Paul but um the city of Fort Lauderdale had a general obligation bomb of $200 million to rebuild Parks um they made a commitment to build $12 million worth of parks on school property the schools in turn Miss Thompson um just so you know agreed to allow for their athletic facilities to be open to the community and so 27 schools in Fort Lauderdale all agreed as and and they got $12 million worth of enhanced facilities um at the same time so basketball courts tennis courts swimming pools pickle ball courts U jogging uh tracks that had been closed uh for covid and other reasons were then reopened so if you live in Fort Lauderdale or you could live near a Fort Lauderdale School wherever possible those gates are open after the students are done with them uh so that they can get out and do it that $12 million by the way just just so you know the full story has not been built yet so we're we're slow on what we were going to do in smart bonds although accelerated lately um they're slow on their acceleration and their implementation of these 12 million and our students really want this stuff done we've given them free use now for five years of tennis courts and basketball courts and the like we're still waiting for the city so it's a wonderful thing they did and we'd like it to get it done thank you any other comments on jj2 all those in favor say I I any opposed say no motion carries unanimously the next item is 07 can I have a motion in a second a six o6 I believe no we passed 06 in the because Mrs fam wasn't here I move 07 I think we had um I think Mrs rert Mo made the motion and Mrs Al had def made it the second um any public comment on7 no ma'am board member comment Mrs rert yes thank you um I brought this up a teeny bit before because it was a later adum that we'd be voting on uh and really the questions I since I put them in writing I'm sure that staff will follow up with them which is uh really just for the record when is a good time to start these conversations for um the IB Program uh when do what do Standalone IB Middle Schools whole school like Deerfield Beach Middle School do I hope that they're going to be um connection with each other and have that conversation and when can we expect this program to be started is it included in cost assessment F follow up and let's good afternoon Simone Hollingsworth Chief academic officer and we can certainly do a followup so all the board members can have that as well in writing but certainly the conversations as you had kind of alluded to earlier and that'll be that second phase these are the current programs that are in existence and in um utilizing the IB so certainly it's never too soon and that's something that um we are constantly in communication with in conversation with the Regionals as well as academics and the school to make sure that we're putting together sound programs so they'll be starting next you and and to to give a nod to my former colleague Robin ban that would be called a puddle jump thank you anybody else have comments on O7 okay all those in favor of O7 say I I I any opposed say no motion carries unanimously the next item is o10 can I have a motion in a second to move been moved by Dr Zeman seconded by Mrs alhad any public comment yes Madam chair we have four speakers and I apologize on the names Daniel R Ramirez Ben hack ra cuff and Armando Hassan okay um you can come up in that order there's two microphones so if the next person can get ready at the second microphone and we'll go that way good afternoon Dr hurn Madam chair and all board members my name is RA cuff I am a senior vice president at herf Jones and I've sat in this room for six months at all your board meetings hopefully waiting for an opportunity to have approval to move forward today I represent herf Jones and our CEO Ron stopa who planned to attend today's meeting but unfortunately he was required at our own board meeting with our owners was not able to attend I also want to apologize for reading notes but I wanted to make sure I covered all my points in a clear and concise manner before I get started I would like to introduce Ben hack Felix Figaroa and Danny Ramirez all who are on my sales leadership team both Felix and Dany live and have their children registered in the Broward County School System Ben hack is a regional manager and a Florida resident as well it's important to note that HF Jones has had a local presence in Broward County for over 50 years and we continue that tradition of local and personal service today the last time I addressed this board was over a year ago and herf Jones as a company was not held in a high regard My Hope Is that over the last 24 months Brower county has seen the significant changes that we have made to ensure the highest degree of ethics and professionalism when it comes to how we serve the students schools administrators faculty staff and community of Brower County the local herf Jones office is a corporate-owned office and will continue to be managed by my sales leadership team as this was was a request previously made by Brower County I want to thank Brower County for the changes you have also made to your procurement office as the interactions between them and our RFP team over the last six plus months have been professional and thorough we've been treated with respect and reive prompt responses to our questions I truly believe that everyone in this room whether you're a board member Brower County staff parents commun Community member or students understand the importance of taking care of today's students and our combined responsibility to do that in a fair and ethical way we at herf Jones are 100% aligned as well I want to thank Dr heurn Madame chair and all the board members to their commitment to Brower County but especially to the board members that have supported herf Jones throughout this entire process and believed in our commitment to do what was right by your students thank you in closing we still believe strongly in the tradition of class rings and our CEO Ron stopa previously committed that we would donate $20,000 to brow County schools in order to uphold the tradition of a ring ceremony for school year 2026 we look forward to the opportunity to be back in the schools for class meetings ring ceremonies championship ring celebrations and most importantly watching students walk across a graduation stage we are hopeful for our board approval today so we can get back to what is important focusing on the Milestone moments of today's seniors because every student has a story and that story should be celebrated on behalf of Ron stopa herf Jones Ben Danny Felix and myself I want to say thank you thank you next public speaker hi thank you so much I had like to uh happily report that my sled dog team is resting and I will be taking them back up to Orlando this afternoon where I reside I've been a member a resident of Florida off and on since 2011 born and raised in Kentucky but found my home in Florida but more ly found my home uh directly overseeing 17 sales Partners in um offices across Florida Louisiana Alabama Puerto Rico and Mississippi but because Florida is my home I spent a lot of time in Broward with Danny and Felix who have helped oversee the schools that we so uh cherished and we serve with such a cherished U memory and a tradition I'm bringing this up because I've been here taking either the Amtrak or the bright line for the last year and a half to service the schools uh that still work with us uh I take that very seriously because I as I mentioned Florida is my home but more importantly the kids are the community that we are the most concerned about we want to make sure that our kids are taken care of uh as as our clients as the the ones that we serve the families feel heard and recognized when they are purchasing items for graduation but most importantly I came from pretty much nothing as far as after school activities during school activities I finally found a community of nerds that accepted me later on uh and then eventually started playing soccer later on too that was my freshman in sophomore year I didn't have a community but then as I got further along in my schooling I had somebody remind me that when I was on a team we were all wearing a jersey together so we were one and that's why I talk about that versus graduation because on graduation night there are hundreds if not thousands of marginalized kids at a graduation Center that get to wear a jersey together on graduation night and we take that very very seriously I take that seriously because herf Jones gave me a Lifeline in 2016 to a career path that I didn't think I was going to have and it brought me home to Florida where I you know brought my wife here I brought my family here I brought my dogs here and it became a huge deal to be able to support Florida locally as an employee but also because I get to see these kids in my backyard graduate knowing that we put something on their back and they became a team together so that's important for me that's why I just want to talk about it from a very high level we want you guys to make the best decision for us and for your community members and for your parents and families and for everybody that has a student that walks across the graduation stage but most importantly want we want you to see that we're still here we love what we do we love serving this community we're local uh we we take calls we field issues when they have issues or concerns but most importantly we want every kid to have a cap a gown a tassel and to make sure they feel like they can feel those Friday Night Lights on their backs on graduation stage I'll yield my 25 seconds to Danny and I appreciate you all so much for having us here today thank you Dr hebburn the board Madam chair thank you all so much I appreciate you thank you next B public speaker good afternoon Dr heer Madam chair board members my name is Dan mirez and I am a uh Plantation resident uh product of Brower County I went to Elementary School here in Brower County Flamingo Elementary I went to tester Trace Western High School and I've lived here for over 35 years I've been with the Herve Jones company for over 13 years um prior to uh working for Herve Jones I was a c uh campus monitor at JP terella high school and I was also also a social studies teacher at Coral Springs High School and jpt as well I'm also a proud parent of a third grader uh with who attends uh Central Park Elementary shout out to principal Turner over there doing great things and I'm also a proud sibling uh my older brother is in the Brower County Hall of Fame Michael J Ramirez very proud of him for that accomplishment as well I'm not going to sit here and bore you with any better product talk of one company versus the other but the one difference that you're going to receive with Earth Jones is you are clearly going to get people who care about your students we don't look at students as just another number and our senior program uh consists of a class ring uh I'm sorry a senior assembly where we bring the class together we build school spirit we go over all the um all the intricatus day what to expect the ordering process and whatnot we have fun with them but my favorite part of the assembly is the final uh five minutes of it where I sit down and I just kind of share my heart with the students and encourage them because as we know some of them get distracted there's a lot of distractions out there in the real world and I tell them um the most important thing is I want everyone that's seated in this auditorium today to walk that stage come graduation day so whatever it is that they need to do whether it be extra credits volunteer hours make sure you go ahead and do it because graduation is a very important day for your school your families and it should be a very important day for you as well I've after this I've had students come up to me and it's probably the most rewarding part of my job where they say uh Danny thank you for saying what you just said because uh prior to coming in here I really forgot and I was a little bit lost as to what I was doing here but hearing you say that you kind of rerouted me and I'm and just that touches me in in a in a special way and honestly it's it's the why as as to what I do uh for a living so um other than that we will be present at graduation on graduation day we know that that is a Super Bowl for uh principles and us as well we bring extra items we're there on site we bring tassels we bring caps we help the faculty get dressed put on those funky looking hoods that all of you kind of don't know how to wear but we're there and we're happy to be there for you guys as well um like I said uh we we love what we do and we truly care it's one of the things that I I Bank on and I and I hope you can feel that through my words today and and it's just so encouraging to have students say that as well and come up to you after a presentation and say thank you for what you did it meant a lot and lastly I I kind of live by the by the saying people always forget what you said but they're never going to forget the way you made them feel thank you so much have a great day thank you next public speaker good afternoon my name is Armando hassoon I'm here as Council on behalf of J's they couldn't be personally in attendance because they're at their annual national business meeting J's Inc is honored that our company has been selected to provide Broward County public schools with products and services under items 06 class rings and item and o10 gowns announcements and diplomas this opportunity reinforces our long-standing commitment to delivering exceptional products and services to the Broward County School District we are pleased that our company can report that we have consistently undergone forensic audits each year with no major findings underscoring our dedication to compliance transparency and the highest standards of Integrity since our introduction into Broward County public schools in February of 2022 we have not only successfully served over 56,000 students but did so in compliance with the directions mandated to BCPS procurement it is important to emphasize that to our knowledge J is the only cap and gown vendor before the board without any outstanding audit issues J's consistently demonstrates full compliance and financial Integrity we are confident that our track record speaks for itself and sets us apart as we understand the importance of our services and products to students and their families we are excited about the opportunity to be a part of these students Journeys and are confident that together with the school board of Broward County we can further strengthen and streamline this process setting a positive example of what it means to be a trusted partner thank you thank you any other public comment that concludes our register speakers okay board member discussion Dr Zeman thanks so much chair um this is a straightforward procurement item there's nothing uh tremendously different about this than other things that we uh and vote on what's good for our students though is that they're going to have choices and that's really important so now uh we're back in the business of more than one company and I have no preferences or involvement in which ones they are but more than one means that our high school students predominately who who buy these things and who want these things now have choices and we're going to get the beneficiary of the competition between more than one company who go in and make pitches to these schools for two years we have not had that uh there were a lot of reasons that went into that one of the speakers might have even referenced it to indirectly but um it's great to be back uh like in many ways that we are and um uh uh I'm looking forward to moving through this item and uh and wrapping up thank you chair thank you um Mrs Al thank you I have a couple questions so do the students really have a a choice or does the high school pick the Dr Fon Mr Strauss Alan Strauss south regional superintendent so there is a process where uh as Dr Zeman was just saying with multiple companies that we have each school has a committee which does involve student voice on that committee and through that committee they select which vendor that the school will utilize okay so there's probably one student on that committee that no there's multiple students okay so there'll be the one company that the students will event you know all the students will pick from um the audit committee at the audit committee meeting this month they brought up that HF Jones owns owes the school district $116,000 is that true where are we at with that Dr Fon Mr Rose yeah there was um a followup of a pending item that had been uh negotiated by Dr Joe Phillips before he left and the communication that went back and forth was kept in uh the file and at the time that the audit was reviewed it was discussed um a motion was made to pass that along with the actual transmitted audit so there's some background information that will be coming to the next uh board meeting regular board meeting with that audit so is would it uh through the superintendent or general counsel are we allowed to make a motion to connect uh the $116,000 with herf Jones paying that $16,000 by us approving this contract so it's contingent like they have to pay their $166,000 and we're approving them to be a part of this contract Dr Fon I would defer that to Mr Batista thank you Madam share um so the answer the short answer is is no um that's uh a separate item um I have not looked at whatever is coming forth from the audit committee um have not had an opportunity to um you know see it or or review it um but what I do know is that what we have what the board has before it is uh the result of competitive bid and these are the these are the vendors that are um you know they're all equal and therefore U they need to be moved and approved um as an item okay I I hear you but I have difficulty with agreeing if someone owes us money because now we're going to allow them to continue to owe us money but now we're approving more work for them to be had so I I would just hope that herf Jones pays the $16,000 and life goes on my next question is is I just want Clarity is HF Jones still subcontracting with Chuck po Dr Folton so the answer to that is no thank you and my next question is the pricing between the two companies is it equal is it the same Dr Fon Mrs Andre you could you come up and speak to the contract please good afternoon Jennifer Andreu executive director operations the pricing is in the attached agreement that you have in your backup document um it varies a little bit but you see it's for several dozen items listed I don't know if you have a specific line item you're concerned about which one are you looking at the financial analysis no no no the description because it's diplomas it's you know there are several items and different covers and so the prices vary a little bit per vendor per item per vendor item okay I'm just trying to what document are you referencing for me if your pages are numbered in the same order page 20 for instance of 21 which show you there's additional attachments that break up each item each line item you can have a double fold a triple fold so there are several different types of items that can you just give me an example like cap and gown um one company costs this amount and the other company is that amount for instance a mat cap can be or a map gown rather a matte gown can be $20 a shiny one might be 21 and that is with one vendor um there's not there's not a big discrepancy but they're not exactly the same well what is the other vendor J's and her no I know I'm saying you're saying the one company is what is $21 the other company is 25 30 50 the other company is $30 even for the same mat gwn okay so one company significantly more than another I mean it's retrospective how you look at it correct I need to see if the Gown is included in it is the cap and the Gown so yes one is 20 and one is 30 okay thank you okay um Mrs leonardy yeah I am also a little concerned about the the money that is owed um I guess I'm wondering like why that hasn't happened yet um why it's the audit committee flagging that Dr fton I'm going to also defer that to Mrs Batista so I'm not sure why that's being flagged right now by the audit committee I think maybe Mr Rose will be in a better position to respond to that question yeah um back uh last year on March 19th um Dr Joe sent an email to uh joris and our assistant director of it Jennifer harpal and CC me and in it Dr Joe was letting um Mr jban know that there was a um let me there was a um what was being characterized as a ink kind negotiated amount of approximately $20,000 that the district would be reimbursed in this in-kind manner I think the reason that uh it had taken this long for anything like that to happen was because at the time that this was being negotiated and I could be wrong because Dr Joe only knows what it is that he was negotiating with them but I think in order to do an in kind uh or a Goodwill um donation of some sort there would have to be a contract in place and they didn't have a contract in place at the time so I think that they were working in good in a good faith effort to uh return the over Billings but it was uh halted at the time that Dr Joe left and was re resumed uh at the time that this audit was completed and that that item was readdressed so I guess I'm wondering like who on staff or what department is responsible for recouping those funds whether they're in kind or whatever Dr F Mr roads I would defer that question to Dr heurn or Dr Fulton because I'm not certain who inherited that role at the time that Dr Joe left Dr heer I heard question where does the buck stop um okay catch me up negotiations about the cap and gown oh with herf Jones um that is a a a good question um from my under from what I gather I know the audit committee flagged it and um I've heard the story about Dr Joe communicating with uh uh Mr jaban um but other than that I haven't heard anything after that as far as actionable steps that need to to take place um for Recovery of money or or in kind Services okay Dr Z thanks so I'm sorry for interrupting here jump in the queue uh chair I heard uh somebody stand up today and say they are offering $20,000 worth of in-kind services I suspect that that was as a result of the negotiations with Dr Joe um and with his departure it probably maybe didn't get a perfect handoff but they've come back and said uh something about $20,000 it would have been great to have that all kind of put together on a single item and and brought forth so that we would have known that um but um I just want to make sure that we're uh cognizant of what the speakers said in terms of if in fact it sounds to me like if in fact Dr Joe negotiated and again it's a little strange because the 16,000 was never uh the The Firm didn't admit to overcharging and there was this huge debate about medals and medallions there was huge amounts of potential culpability with our solicitation process and we went around and around on that for a long time if the net result was which it sounds like it might have been that the vendor agreed to do 20,000 in kind and not admit any anything was overcharged um they've come back after being selected through a competitive solicitation and offer $20,000 of in kind uh to kind of close the circle so that that might be a a potential explanation for how we landed here thank you okay did you have anything else Dr Zan oh no okay Mrs Thompson uh thank you Dr Zan for that explainer because if there's nothing in contract that we owe that money I don't know why audit committee would have flagged that and I appreciate the 20,000 in kind offer so but there's no contract that they owe us is what I'm hearing that there might have been an email or might have been some conversation but there's nothing in writing so we can't go after someone if there's nothing in writing to go after so Dr heurn Mr rhods to address that yep uh Mr rhs or even miss Batista if either party knows about um if there's anything in contract about owing us any money my my understanding is that there is not anything in this contract about it but that that was an ongoing agreement that was uh back at March 19th of 2024 that that was what was being worked on and what was reduced to writing in this email so what I think is because it was identified as an in kind and there wasn't a contract at the time I I think that the intent may have been for when the contract was renewed if they were selected as a part of it they would firm up at that time that's just what I'm gathering from this little bit and some other information that was provided to me by staff that were involved in this contemporaneously thank you Mrs alh alh my question is to the superintendent are you aware of any type of conversations with $166,000 in in kind donations I'm not aware okay so that I have I have issues with that that the superintendent is not aware of of this and so it's very difficult for me to approve this when there is some something that is going on and and listen there was a scathing audit that previously happened so I have concerns that our superintendent is not up to date with this conversation if I if I may add I I'm I know about the the skating audit and the I guess the what you would call the representative or the agent um for H herf Jones from this area but I don't know about $166,000 part I know about the audit of of overpayment um and um some other issues but not about a specific amount that they owe us because I remember uh when Mr Jabo was here he presented this information um to the board when when I was Deputy SU Dr heer Mr roads wants to yes Mr rhs okay so um on the day of the audit committee uh this item that is on this agenda today it was not placed on the agenda at the time um for that reason the audit was transmitted and it was there was a motion made to provide the backup documentation to make everybody aware of this at the time that our item was going to be brought forward because when we spoke with with uh Miss Andreu at the audit committee meeting she said it would either be brought today or sometime in February but it was not placed on the agenda at the time so the backup information that we had was intended to come to the board at the time that our audit was transmitted um there I I didn't have any reason to believe that there was no institutional knowledge of this throughout the the district because there were others that were involved from what I recall joris talking about whether it was um a regional or some regionals that were involved with this because it was generally school-based but again I wasn't that deep in the weeds where that was concerned I just knew that at the time that we were asked to provide the information that was contained in the um existing audit um the original and the first follow-up audit we identified those summary documents and and included those as backup to the audit that was transmitted that includes everything that we have about the original amount that was identified the amended amount that was identified and then this uh negotiated amount that was being worked on at the time that this email came to us I have a question um Dr heern so is there something in writing that says perf Jones owes us money there is uh in the audit documents it shows that there was a initial overbilling that was somewhere in the range just over $60,000 it was amended after there was some discussion with the Auditors and herf Jones amended down to somewhere in the range of like $ 6,325 and then after the first followup came out and they were getting ready to do the second followup that's when Dr Joe contacted us and said here's the current status on that negotiation with herf Jones that is where the uh information stopped until this second followup was completed at which point those questions resurf and the documentation was gathered But to answer your question there is information showing what the original amount was supposed to have been and that it was amended down from 60,000 and changed to 16, 325 um uh listed as U um an overbilling that remained through the process and there's um you said there's an email or something from Dr Joe Phillips that indicates there was a conversation so I think we all are looking for something in writing that says they were going to satisfy that through an in kind and that appears to be what they're ready to do the email the email that I have from Dr Joe right now from U March 19 says uh we are close to a settlement with herf Jones where they will do a 20K in kind I am working with the regional superintendent to map out what that can look like okay U thank you Mrs alad I'd like to make a motion to table this item to later in the meeting to give the superintendent an opportunity to speak with herf Jones second public comment on the motion board member discussion um Miss leard I was I was going to ask um if there was any comment from legal like if there are any legal issues with that Batista thank you I was going to jump in so um as I mentioned before this was a separate solicitation from the prior agreement um there as a result of the audit uh there was a process that was you know there was a lot of discussion and uh a process that was followed uh at no point was you know herf Jones uh debar under our our policy they you know they were not given an opportunity to you know file any type of um administrative uh process or anything like that to challenge anything that the district did as a final uh order or anything of that sort so that was a separate process it it ended or you know it may be still continuing as as you know we have heard from from Mr rhs um it sounds like perhaps there was a um some sort of a you know settlement or or a resolution um but what is before you right now is a separate solicitation there were you know there were uh bids there were uh now awardees that are before you for consideration and so um you really must vote on that as a whole um and uh you know there is no reason to for example reject all the proposals as the only thing that you could do but it would have to be for a reason for a legitimate business reason that would apply you know to all the proposers uh and there is nothing like that that I have heard um so I just wanted to just you know put that caveat out there for the board that these are two separate items even though they may share one vendor thank you anybody else have any okay all those in favor of the motion say I all those opposed say no no no okay go back to the item so all those in well I I'll just say this I'll um I would like to direct the superintendent to find out all of the details of what what was agreed upon what's in writing and come give us a followup on what is the plan for them for the in-kind paying the money back as a a separate item um because that was a different that was a different thing and you know just so that we have Clarity of what was agreed upon because it's it seems like no one really knows what the actual agreement was Madam I'm sorry are you going to make that as a motion um I don't know if I sure I make a motion second okay um any public comment thank you ra cuff her Jones um just wanted to clarify a couple of things first of all everything that was said by Dr Zan I appreciate that is what happened when we went through the audit we completed everything I can't change the past of what happened but what I've been in control of is making sure that everything that we've done along the way has been exactly what Brower county has asked for including the RFP process we were under a cone of silence for a long time I was not able to ask any questions I was not able to reach out to anybody and so I didn't no one has ever told me that we were still being held for a 16,000 debt it was my understanding because we were not going to admit that we were guilty because the audit showed we did not do anything wrong so that $16,000 even though it doesn't sound like a lot it meant a lot to us because of our credibility so yes we said we would do two $20,000 in kind towards the students of Brower County because we were not willing to accept or take responsibility for something that was not ours I would would appreciate the time to talk to the superintendent to clear that up because the RFP process again cap gown tassel Medallion make sure you understand the full story of that of what that is versus the 21 and the $30 thank you very much um so Dr heurn sounds like they're willing to speak with you so if this passes I hope that you'll reach out to them uh any board member comment on the motion okay all those in favor say I I I any opposed no oh the motion was to direct the superintendent to give a followup to us on what that what the plan is for them repaying in kind the money that they negotiated with Dr Joe Madame chair are we going back to the original motion or this is a a substitute motion we voted on the motion that was on the floor and it pass so I'm making a a new motion okay so the motion on the item to um that we have in front of us cuz you haven't got we haven't gotten to that yet okay so we haven't we haven't voted on the item no okay this Miss Batista I heard you say that basically this is we have to vote on this item period we can't I don't know how we can make a motion to do something different to direct the superintendent and this is why I want to table this we just table it where we're not making any type of motion we're not connected and then we vote on we then we could come back and vote on it after the superintendent has the conversation but I don't understand how we vote on directing the superintendent on this item I I'll just clarify it's not on this item because that M that has nothing to do with this item that's what Miss Batista was saying this item is separate from the the misunderstanding of what's happening with the past money that um is being negotiated so the motion is just to direct him to work with them and come back to us with what the plan is but that's separate from this item they're not connected this batia can you clarify so I'm I'm not um I'm not sure if I understand um Mrs alad what um what you're trying to say but I think what you're saying is that the motion is not gerine to the item before the board yes and okay so I I I think that's the point of order that um is being raised is that the the motion not being um gerine to the item before the board since is regarding a prior contract and that's why I want to table it well that's why I wasn't going to make it a motion and just direct him but um so can I make the motion or not it's kind of up to you Miss batia well so you know it's again regarding the same um vendor but it's not regarding the same issue so I would say it's not really gerain to this item okay and one more point of order is the chair empowered to direct the superintendent to do anything no the board would have to vote on that yeah that's not it's not an option okay all righty well we'll just vote on the item then Madam chair yes I didn't get to comment on the item oh you weren't list go ahead okay but it was on the floor um so I know the concern is with herf Jones and just for clarification um are we able to vote on these two vendors separately or we have to vote together okay got it okay great all those in favor of item 010 say I I all those opposed say no no okay roll call roll call on the motion school board members Honus yes leonardy no rert no Thompson yes Zan yes AA yes Bowman yes M's not present Hixon yes 62 passes thank you I have a question then to to miss Batista when would it be appropriate to bring the motion that I had um is it appropriate to bring it now ma'am okay thank you I would like to make a motion to direct the superintendent to work with staff and herf Jones to bring to the board what the plan is for the in-kind payment of what what was being negotiated with um Dr Joe Phillips second okay any public comment board member comment sounds like a great idea thank you all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no motion carries thank you okay the last item on the agenda is um double P1 so can I have a motion in a second so so it's moved by Mrs Rupert seconded by Mrs Leonardi any public comment on double P1 no ma'am okay board member comment Dr holes I'm sorry madam chair pp1 okay um can you can you uh go to others I'm so sorry oh there's not very okay um board member Thompson um okay what is the current status of the groups that were renting our facilities but then it was too astronomical for them to continue renting for this year Dr heer I'm going to repeat the question just to make sure I'm clear what's the percentage of of of folks that status status just like so the people who were priced out of renting who have been renting our facilities for years what's happening to them right now while we're figuring out the policy um some have paid the fee um and some have not and and we've lost um services for students especially uh this past summer um many of them are very small businesses um and couldn't afford um some of the some of the the facility cost and who sets the facilities costs um uh Miss Paul correct me from wrong there's a committee of of of people um that includes different stakeholders District um stakeholders and I think some outside stakeholders too and principles and principles um that come to together look at pass um um fees and come up with a decision what they think the fees should should be and how is facilitron related to our fee scheduling facilitron is the um company that manages uh the fee and they get a cut and and and the schools get uh the remainder so it's it's a a a facility management uh uh program that uh provides automation where this uh people that want to rent can put their information in um and uh based on information and what category they fall in under the policy uh that determines how much uh how much uh they are charged and so who sets the fees then that committee or well the committee there's research done to uh determine where we fit across South Broward um or across Florida uh in terms of how how they charge and so we are within uh definitely within those parameters and we could provide that backup information to you so that you can see how other school districts Miami dat uh Palm Beach and so forth what they charge for for the rental of facilities and what percentage does facilitron get for managing these services um I I can't recall right now I don't think Chris is here but I can get that to you thank you and then have we done a cost benefits not just looking at the amount of money but we've Dr H you just saw said we lost programs that are students were using I've gone to schools that used to have soccer clubs and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts that now our students no longer have access to so have we really done a thorough analysis not just about the costs we might be making but the potential damage that we're doing to our students because they no longer access these Services no we haven't done U something that thorough most of the things that we've done has been anecdotal um from our interactions with past vendors um and hence the the need for the change I think one of the issues with us um in our policy versus some of the other school districts they update their facility rental fees very very frequently probably every year every every other year and we had a large gap um and um I think the committee tried to make a decision to catch up to the other um to the other uh school districts and so we didn't do a gradual means of of increase over time and so I think that's what came to the Forefront that's causing some of the issues with us and some of our vendors versus other school districts where you have this incremental frequent um increase in the fee so you know just like gas prices right so keeps going up and up and up and up you but you don't notice it until it's like super high but nonetheless you've been prepared over time because you see an incremental increase so what was the thought process to making it such a drastic jump and not doing it incremental um I can't speak for the committee but I think the committee was trying to be comparable to the other other systems in the state and um I yeah yes I understand that was the angle but why did we drop this bomb on people when we could would have done it incremental so so uh there was notice sent out to all of the groups that have rent it from us that's number one number two the the impact uh that uh Dr heurn is talking about is that the policy hadn't been updated for 10 years uh and so that was a obviously a factor uh we had uh organizations that were in our schools that were not paying anything so uh we tried to do a level set in addition um we did not do uh from one day to the next jump we had a year where we phased in uh the cost uh and that was this past year um and the committee felt uh based on input that they received too that we needed to make a change um and so it is very difficult anytime you make a change on facility uh uh non-use of school facilities but what we did do is the con committee convened a second time based on the uh input that we received from the groups as well as from board members uh to create additional categories so that we can include more of our uh uh uh groups uh in in covering some of that cost so we did make that adjustment could we continue looking into kind of the impact that this is having to the services that our students have access to because I think even with making those kind of changes it's still hurting the smaller groups that might be just renting a track for an hour and they're paying hundreds of dollars or a Girl Scout Troop that now has to pass on that dollar amount to families that might not be able to afford it Dr heer yes we we can continue to look at that and collect that data thank you um board member wholeness are you ready to go Madam chair I am good on that item thank you okay thank you and Dr Zan thanks chair my questions have all been answered I appreciate the call Great anybody else on item PP double P1 okay um thank you all right all those in favor of double P1 say I I all those opposed say no no um it passes with two descending votes great okay Madam chair yes I the only item that we're not showing that was was 06 just to be safe can you pass that please sure can I have a motion in a second on item 06 move um any public comment on 06 any board member comment on 06 all those in favor of 06 say I I those opposed say no no no motion passes with two descending votes okay uh next this is the time of the agenda when the Schoolboard members will hear from our evening speakers we have one speaker that's Mr Shan Greenfield come on down good morning School Board I'm Sean Greenfield I'm a senior at Western High School and relative to what I want to talk about today the president of my rock Tre Club model Rock Tre is one of the main pillars of stem education teaches students you know how to build and construct rockets and launch them and for a long while brow County was actually quite a leader in model rocketry um the American rocketry challenge schools from Western Plantation Piper would routinely Place top 50 top 25 even top 10 in the country out of over a thousand schools and even some schools like Plantation uh for 17 straight years attended the NASA student launch which is a very prestigious program that even college teams participate in but unfortunately if you look at the present state of rock tree right now in the county it's it's kind of in turmoil um Plantation no longer participates in the American rocket challenge uh Piper High School no longer has a rock tree program um as far as I'm aware Western High School is the only school that still has any team that participates in the state or national level competition and we're kind of on the tight ropes I mean we haven't qualified in the last two years and the issue where this whole stems from is quite obvious we don't have a launch site in Broward County um since Co hit in 2020 uh we lost permission to fly at Vista View which mandates that we now have to drive up to West Palm Beach D Park which is over an hour and a half drive and most students simply don't have the time or the resources to make that commitment which is why you've seen these School programs closed in the last few years and it's a little aggravating because you know uh brow County used to be renowned for its rocketry and now we're nothing more than a blimp on the radar uh Aerospace the Aerospace industry is up and coming I mean in the next 10 years the outlook for aerospace engineers is hovering around 21% and I expect that only to exponentially increase in the coming years as our nation gets more involved in the space industry and we need to get students involved in in Aerospace at a young age and right now they don't really have much opportunities I mean uh as far as I'm aware uh Mirror Lake Elementary Plantation Middle these schools have Aerospace programs they have electives so the demand clearly is there for students who want to participate in this activity unfortunately there just is no Supply and it would just be a tremendous help if the school board could lend a helping hand in securing a launch site either from The Parks and Recreation Department of brow County or perhaps the city government that have as a plot of land uh we're not asking for too much um the dimensions I was told were roughly in size of, ft in either direction which there are a few spots in brow that have those requirements so it would be really grateful uh I thank the school board for the time and that's it thank you thank you I believe Dr heurn would like to address um some of your concerns yes um repeat your name for me young man Sean Greenfield thanks for coming out Mr Greenfield for advocating um for programs and for other students um absolutely U somebody will followup with you um but we definitely could leverage our relationships with the county and other cities to find some park or property um but we'll need the specifics from you and your group and then U figure out how we can scale that out of other schools too than I can actually put you in contact with uh people that know much more than me absolutely I appreciate it thank you great thank you so much at this time do any of my colleagues have any discussions or student successes to bring fourth to the superintendent for consideration Dr holus Madam Madam chair thank you so much I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of Bard Anderson High School students and staff according to the recently released 2324 High School graduation rate memorandum Bard Anderson High School has achieved a remarkable increase in its graduation rate uh rising from 51% points compared to 2223 Academic Year I'd also like to acknowledge that L Hill 6 through 12 achieve the 100% graduation rate thank you great Mrs alhad thank you I wanted to make a suggestion during our Schoolboard meetings and I don't know if we're going to go and do the committee um when the committee speak on their report in our Workshop if we're going to end up doing that but one thought is if staff can see who is actually here from the committee and then we call just the people that are here and then maybe just say at the end if anybody else has a committee report because I think it looks really bad when we're calling names and then nobody's here and then my next comment is I really would like to con um thank the superintendent and staff for doing such a fabulous job with the BCPS showcase it was so outstanding and amazing and um it's one of the best events in my seven years of being on the school board that I've seen the school district put on and and one thing you know I thank Miss fam and Miss Hixon you guys went to to the Showcase and I think it it is Miss Bulman you were there yeah we I didn't see you guys okay perfect well it was very very crowded there was like over 6,000 people so I I just think that it's an amazing opportunity for us as school board members to you know see all the amazing things that our our schools are doing thank you thank you and on that note oh go ahead I just wanted to add to that Miss alev thanks for bringing that up um the Showcase was amazing it made me very proud to be part of the organization and I think that your staff also had just a great um sense of pride of being a part of it and I think very accomplished and I really appreciate how we're moving forward in a positive direction sure on that point and just a recommendation next year maybe if we could do it by District because I think it will it would help parents uh better identify where they need to be at based on maybe where they live yeah or area quadrant yes whatever and um on that note I would like to ask for a followup I won't ask for a directive um if you could give us those numbers like how many people attended what the cost was just so as we're going out and speaking to people we can say that you know what the effort was and what the return was and as I mentioned when I um went to Hollywood Central the principal said she had nine people from a very close Charter School sign up to do tours at Hollywood Central um because they're they're now we can say it going to be a K8 so that was really exciting I I just want to know chair whether or not um our uh John Sullivan's going to take credit for the enrollment that comes out of that as part of the 150 uh that he owes us for the marketing money so I'll be dying to see the book on that yes and I one of the suggestions was also to do it by area maybe maybe not District because everybody doesn't know what district they're in but by City possibly or so that they can also see what's close to them like if they live um that was a suggestion from a number of people so thank you for that I forgot to mention um Good Luck to principal Port porina from Northside she had to move unfortunately um for us but she moved to Jacksonville and um just wanted to wish her good luck I forgot to do that in H1 um I also want to give a a shout out and a thank you to the students who participated in the Fort Lauderdale MLK um Day Parade the Martin Luther King Day parade that included West Broward Nova Dillard Martin Luther King Elementary Boyd Anderson High School Fort Lauderdale High School oral Elementary Northeast High School South Plantation High School Lauderdale 6 through2 Fairway Elementary Walker Elementary and our title one bus and if I missed someone I'm sorry those were the ones I could see well Dr holess and I were watching them all come down um and Dr holus and I had a suggestion um that I hope the superintendent and and Mr Sullivan actually will take up can you Poss can the district make signs so that when board members are participating in community events it says choose the best choose BCPS CU we could have held that sign while we were walking ni um but we didn't have it so as we move forward if you could make at least nine of them so that we can all have one when we go out to things that would be great in addition we're going to get you some magnetic bumper stickers everything we're going to choose CPS all over your car along with the budget amendment for our request but yeah absolutely we could make that happen thank you anybody else great the scheduled order of business for this regular school board meeting of the school board of brow County Florida has been completed seeing no obligation I now adjourn the meeting [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] friend