hey hey hey yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah heat heat heat heat hey hey hey hey
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey heat heat down down down my hey that's Welcome to today's special school board meeting we are happy to have you join us
and we are thankful for your time and dedication to our district this special schoolboard meeting of the school board of Broward County 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 all please rise for the pledge of
allegiance to the flag of the United States of America i pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all as we begin today I invite everyone to join me in a moment of silence to honor the lives lost and affected by the devastating and tragic shooting at Florida State University our hearts are with the FSU community the families and
all those impacted by this senseless act of violence as a school district that profoundly understands the deep pain of such tragedies we stand in solidarity with them and reaffirm our heartfelt commitment to fostering safe supportive
environments for all students and staff thank you board member Rupert has requested a moment of silence mrs rupert thank you Madam Chair i'm requesting a moment of silence for Dominic Frost a fourth grade student from Margate Elementary who recently passed away
dominic's principal Thomas Schroeder described him as one of the sweetest fourth graders he has had the privilege of knowing dominic had a light that spread love and kindness everywhere he went he started at Margate Elementary this year and quickly became part of the
Margate family he lifted his classmates with his positive spirit and love of learning please keep Dominic's family in your thoughts and prayers today thank you as we prepare to begin our special school board meeting we are reminded
that our vision is 100% 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 our theme this year is believe empower achieve one Broward
today's special schoolboard meeting will operate in accordance with schoolboard policy 1020 and the board will review the items as advertised and presented by the superintendent the superintendent released a revised agenda with certain changes for this meeting and published
it on the school district's website the chair finds pursuant to section 120.525 Florida statute that good cause exists for such changes and accepts the revised agenda may I have a motion and a second to close the agenda it's been moved by Dr zean seconded by
Mrs leonardi all in favor of closing the agenda let it be known by saying I i any opposed say no the agenda is now closed the first item of business on the agenda is item one a motion to approve the fourth amendment to the agreement between the school board of Broward
County Florida and AECOM Technical Services may I have a motion and a second on the item to move been moved by Dr zean seconded by Mrs leonardi it is moved and seconded to approve item one let's see is there are there any public
comments on item number one no ma'am okay any board discussion uh Dr holes thank you Madam Chair um just out of uh um when when did this
item appear on the agenda for today dr heepern Mr sullivan uh Thursday afternoon okay would that be like late afternoon John yes sir okay is there a reason this
could not wait until the May 13th uh school board meeting uh the reason I'm asking because everyone knows that this is a an Easter weekend we have Good Friday we have uh Easter Sunday and so on um so it's just out of my curiosity
why this uh appeared Thursday late why it didn't appear before Thursday when the workshop was advertised and and why it could not wait for the next regular school board meeting what's the urgency if I may Mr sullivan uh staff is
prepared to um move this to uh right before the May 6 uh workshop to to a special if a board member makes that motion understand but um could my questions also be answered
john uh we were trying to get it uh in a timely manner and we weren't aware that there would be a another opportunity before the next board meeting uh but now we're prepared to do another special on May 6 if there's a motion to uh table this item to that special school board meeting okay well thank you John but I
did I did review the item i was just curious as to why it would appear over Good Friday Easter weekend um when it could have waited so okay so I have some questions um do we have any estimate from ACOM
peor leadership on how many projects are anticipated to remain active as of January 17 2026 dr heer Miss Paul I will defer to Mr
mcintyre hold on just right now good morning mike McIntyre AECOM uh through the chair right now we are projecting projecting 100 plus at various levels of construction uh many of them in in late
meaning 95 plus percent uh that number is slightly fluid because we have a number of projects in legal and um the contractors have slowed down due to litigation okay so that's what you have now correct that's what we're projecting
right now yes okay so for this extension which goes to January 17 2026 on January 17 2026 how many projects do you anticipate will remain or do you suppose you'll get
them all done in 6 months we anticipate 100 will remain right now we have roughly 156 projects that are active in in various levels of construction or design and we have 56 54 projects that
are in what we call formal closeout which means they've achieved substantial completion the 110b but they have not achieved the 209 which is the final completion certificate so we have 54 projects in in that world and we have
156 in what we call active construction okay design thank you so if I hear you correctly approximately 54 projects will be completed up to January 17 2026 and you'll have approximately 100 remaining to be completed correct that that that's
what we're projecting at this time that number is slightly fluid we could close more or we could close slightly less depending on the litigation activities okay so 100 projects being incomplete anticipated for January 2026
uh seems like a substantial amount wouldn't you say it it's a reasonable amount of projects um many of them will be in the 90% but it's a reasonable number of projects okay so during the early March workshop um I and I believe many others
emphasized our desire to not make any unnecessary uh change in the final stretch of smart um I had subsequently asked whether the district could provide for a contract extension provided a year
for completion of the what you mentioned now to be a 100 plus projects right um as far as I can recall uh Miss Paul and uh Mr cooney suggested that it it could not be done
um is there any legal basis um saying this cannot be done that there cannot be uh because I am concerned that January 2026 we're going to have 100 incomplete projects we're going to bring
on new folks that have to get up to speed and we're trying to expedite this process to get this thing over with um so I think that if the district can
uh extend ACOM since they are familiar with the projects then then that would probably be the best route but I was told and many of us when we were here that it cannot be done so I want to know what is the legal basis that the that an
additional 6 months to July could not take place is there a legal basis miss Batista thank you Madam Chair good morning um so the contract the initial contract with ACOM is for a certain
amount of time and it has it has a certain um provision that states that it can only be extended for a certain period of time which is the six months that we're extending it to now and it
cannot go beyond that period of time so that that is the reason okay so in the contract there were renewal options right uh for the contract what's the maximum length of period that that contract can be valid if we exercise all
of the renewal option to its extent Batista right so the um the extension that is being done right now is the is as I understand it is the final extension of this contract
okay So I understand that but my question is based upon our right to renew uh that's based on the contract whether we've done it or not I know we have a three-year contract we
had a one-year uh option and another one year which is five years the question that I have is based on what we are allowed to do what's the maximum renewal time period um that would be
legal within the contract without considering an extension at this time miss Batista I'm sorry without considering an extension well there would not be Well there's a difference between extension and renewal correct
right so we did the contract require allowed us to do renewals we had a we had a one-year option then another one-year option so there was a fiveyear yes so let me rephrase the question is fiveyear the maximum allowed
time in that contract or without considering extension or or could we have continued longer based on the legal language of the contract and what right yes so based on the on the
all all the extensions and um potential you know whatever you want to call it but there you know call extensions under the contract that the maximum would be five years so it cannot go beyond the time frame that is prescribed right now you would
have to go back out um to uh bid this again okay so would you say Miss Batista that Florida law based on what you are saying would limit the district from extending
for one year instead of 6 months this contract so it's based on the language of the contract we are bound to um we can only extend for that period of time for 6 months yes so there's no
legal legally you cannot go beyond that is that what you're saying correct okay all right thank you Mrs miss Thompson thank you Chair i share the same concerns as Dr hoess i feel like this
item was brought to us and it's a considerable amount of money and there's also several different components that we need to be considering before I would be comfortable voting on it um I did want to ask a few questions and I want to give my colleagues an opportunity to
also talk if there's other people but I am prepared to make a motion um but my first question is what is the alternative if we don't pass this today dr have we will um reschedule it based on a
motion for the May 6th meeting sorry to clarify what if this doesn't pass like not that it's tabled that it just doesn't pass if it doesn't pass um I'll ask Miss Paul to weigh in
so uh we would continue operations uh the January 17th date is the original end date of the original contract the board previously voted to
uh take that out the January date out of the contract to move it six months earlier the now we're bringing it back to the original date of the five-year contract uh which is January 17th of uh
this year if this motion does not pass then we'll you know go back to the July date uh and end the contract so that basically is the you
know that the result of not extending this the additional six months to the original contract terms could you expand on what the ramifications of that would be like who would be in charge of the
projects and building and so they would revert back to in-house staff um and as you know we do not have adequate staff to support uh this this program and so
uh we would we already are adjusting and adding additional staff and we're preparing our RFQ uh anyway uh to go out in the near future so uh we do have steps uh in
place uh to mitigate the the uh change of uh peors okay and also I would like some more clarification on why we can't change the
contract to amend it longer i get that it's not state statute it's within our contract we so we can't negotiate more that's Batista that's that's correct when you have a a
contract that came about as a result of a process which is the the RFP process or RFQ process um you are bound by the amount of time of the of the contract you cannot extend it beyond that without
going out again for uh competitive bidding okay um I'm going to hold my motion until other people are able to talk thank you Mrs leonardi thank you um and I still looking for some of the same
clarity that I think my colleagues were um where in our current contract does it say that we cannot extend beyond the the six months or where in you know procurement law or state statute um I
think I we're just I think for me I'm hearing my colleagues and I have the same questions like we're having a hard time pinpointing where it says that we cannot um extend the contract beyond January 2026 miss Batista so and and I may need some help
from uh Mrs paul regarding the original RFP that was um or RFQ um that was the basis for this contract but so when the first bid or when the bid went out for
this project um the amount of time would have been negotiated or would have been stated as part of the terms of the contract of the terms of the uh of the request for um for uh proposals so you can't go beyond that at
this point um that is the you know the the the ultimate amount of time that you would be able to extend this contract for otherwise you would have to go back out to do um to bid the item again
okay on uh moving like looking forward uh based on the conversation at the workshop a couple weeks ago we the board um had expressed the desire for an RFQ or you know whatever the the item is going out um
for program management of some sort when can we expect that to go out dr hipper miss Paul we are currently working on an RFQ um we would like to have it on the
streets within the next 3 to four months okay um I'm wondering if someone can speak to that timeline so if the RFQ goes out if there is a protest um what
is that timeline like dr heer Miss Paul I have Miss Andreu coming uh she's in transit so she'll be here shortly but uh the gist of it is that uh part of the
reason for extending AOC's or moving ACOM's contract back to the original contract terms uh was to give us time to put the RFQ on the streets uh and it just depends on the
the protest and the nature of the protest uh but Miss Andreu she'll be here shortly she can speak to specifics on that but um again you know our intent was to have overlap u uh between
uh the current PMO and if there uh is a another company that is uh successful in the RFQ uh other than our current PMO to have that overlap in there okay i I have some very serious concerns about the
timeline um because that gives you know we're we're so if we need to have a program manager on in January that's you know about nine months and we've had and if we're talking about the
RFQ going out in three to four months and we've had projects in Aona Islands for well over a year now um so what would you know I I have a lot of questions about what would be the board's um option
if you know if we're in a situation where uh you know the the AECOM contract is expiring in January we don't have um the contract to approve and we can't extend it beyond January where does that leave the board
dr he miss Paul so as I stated before um the intent is to have overlap uh between the two contractors or between the two or three
or four however uh uh many uh uh pumors we have um that that's the intent uh I think that we have sufficient time even if there is a a protest to move uh the
transition uh to another peour in addition there are various reasons why items are in cones of silence so it's not uh or not cone of silence but of protest uh and so
again you know I I believe we have sufficient overlap to or will have sufficient overlap to move continue to move uh the program forward uh keep in mind too that in many cases our subs will still be our subs so uh the only
difference is u uh changing who's at the head uh as I stated before our intent is to to continue to use local businesses as we've had as we have in the past to move the program forward uh it may mean that we enter into uh additional
contracts with the subs or a different model but again you know this is not unusual in project management to change PORS uh our intent is to to learn from what's
not happened correctly in the past and and to improve the program so again this contract extension to January 17 2026 with ACOM gives us that opportunity to have that overlap
okay i mean I I would very much like to hear um um from procurement about this timeline i am not confident that there will be overlap i understand that that's the intent um but you know this is a very lucrative lucrative contract for
for anyone who wants to bid on it and the idea that we're going to hope that there is not a bid protest or hope that the bid protest doesn't uh cause extended delays is in my opinion wishful thinking and I think a lot of times we
need to be planning and expecting the worst and um it doesn't feel like we're doing that right now and I don't want to be sitting at this table in January of 2026 with no options because our hands are tied and this has happened over and
over and over again for the last five years in my experience um so I'd really be interested in hearing from procurement about this timeline but I have some very serious concerns um so as
you can recall if I may superintendent uh you know I I did bring options uh to the board one was a piggyback of an existing contract uh and I I definitely understand your concern because of the
past history with this program um ACOM uh uh is working collaboratively now to close out as many projects as we can um and uh as evidenced by uh the number of projects we're bringing to the board for
close out and retainage and and and all of that um I understand the concern u with uh the timeline but this is where we are um the intent is to again extend
this item extends it to January 20 January 17 2026 uh back to the original terms of the AECOM contract uh and we are uh bringing that RFQ as soon as we can to the board
uh for approval uh and so um as I said before Miss Andrew Dreu can speak to cone of silence and reasons of of the cone of silence and and protest um she is in route she should be here I would suspect within the next 20 minutes i
didn't foresee her needing to be at this meeting but she is in route thank you um I'm not sure let me I'll ask uh Dr zean thanks Chair um we've had a lot of uh really great
discussions about how to manage construction in Ber County Schools and landing on a six-month extension to me uh makes great sense under two uh broad assumptions one as Miss Leon alreadyard pointed out we got to giddy
up on the uh next solicitation uh hoping there are not protests but at least planning uh for that to be the case i'm a little bit more comforted maybe than other members of this board because I know we can do short-term contracts for Peor services um in the event of a
protest uh in order to provide you know the kind of bridge support uh that we're getting today from our pe uh chair if I remember correctly every year we approve the org charter of Broward County Public Schools is that correct Dr heburn
that's correct thank you um to me that's the bigger risk here that's the second assumption which is that we're going to get organized inside the office of the chief financial officer so that we can oversee the contractors because if we have a handful of people working for Miss Paul at the end of the day and
contractors supporting her staff and then contractors trying to oversee supervis uh over oversee the work of other contractors we're getting into very very risky territory because there's no one that works for the government that's saying this is how government money ought to be spent and we're tiptoeing very very close to the
edge of something that this board is very very inappropriately concerned about which is we don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past and so we take the management of the construction projects and of the construction system very seriously uh I'm fine with this
extension to January um but I'd like to consider uh another motion which makes it subject to us getting the solicitation by the next school board meeting to kind of answer some of the concerns of my colleagues about you know how fast can we get that done and in
addition to that subject to getting the uh preview of the org chart uh that would represent government employees that work within Broward County Public Schools i've uh shouted from Mountaintops for over a year now that we are dramatically understaffed inside the
government we don't have a planner we don't have one managing construction risks we have three program managers we have zero construction managers uh we're underst staffed on our building department uh to kind of keep up with the pace and I I feel a little bit alone
so I'm just going to continue shouting until I find some friends because you have to have a great government team and you have to have a great contractor team to really be successful um so I'd be interested in u in moving this forward i'm interested in passing it subject to
two conditions one is that we get uh the solicitation the formal RFQ to us at the next formal schoolboard meeting not at the special meeting but the next uh regular schoolboard meeting and we also get a preview of the ORC chart uh inside the government for how we do that
because we can't really rationally assess the size of the next POR contract or even this extension unless we know how many people are working in the government that can supervise uh all the people that are working uh on this team so I have less concerns about extending
this i recognize there's a legal limit uh we are right up to the bleeding edge of that going to January 17th that's what the that's what the contract allows aecom is comfortable with that uh we are comfortable with that from our legal perspective so I don't view any conversation about that as being
productive because it's just not feasible but what is feasible is to make sure that we get this RFQ back to us quickly and then second is to make sure sure that before June 30th and I would suggest at the next regular schoolboard meeting we get a preview of what the
government organization is going to look like so we can think about it before we get together in a relatively rapid fashion toward the end of June and look at the entire organization this is an area of great great risk to this board if we don't have government people we can grab and say how is this program
doing um the contractors can all walk away and say hey we're done we don't want to do this anymore uh government people don't have that you know they're bound by civil service rules um and they're bound to make sure that uh we pull this u this project off uh completely so those are my thoughts but
um I'm comfortable uh doing this till January now knowing that the solicitation's coming out knowing we can do short-term contracts for peores after this one is gone uh those are not cheap to Miss Leonard's point you know if you think the rates on this contract are bad
uh wait till you say "Oh I just need someone for six more months while we wait out this protest uh it's today's rates plus 40 or 50%." And that would be irresponsible to this board as well so I I understand that we can only go to January 17th those are the realities of the world uh but we can control how fast
the RFQ comes out and we can control the bigger risk that I see which is what is our government team going to look like um and if we don't know that now because it's going to take six months to hire those people um those people will start showing up around January 17th and that's a huge risk and and we're all
aware of it but we're staring at this and we're not doing anything about it so my conditions would be uh solicitation of the next regular school board meeting chair what's the date of our next meeting of May and a preview of the government org chart also on the 13th so
we can see how the system is going to be staffed um so we could feel more confident about going forward with this uh with this contract today thank you chair thank you i believe Miss Andreu is on the phone so we can go back to um
board member Leonard's questions you just want me to re Okay yeah so I was um I have some concerns about the timeline for this RFQ to go out um if the
AECOM contract is over in January and we've been told that the RFQ will go out in about 3 to four months um I've expressed some concern about the timeline if there is a bid protest given
um you know some of the the projects or or contracts that have been sitting in Cone of Silence for over a year so I'm wondering um if if we could hear something about the timeline of an RFQ going out a bid protest and the the the time that it takes to resolve all of
that dr heer go ahead Miss Andrea good morning Jennifer Andre executive director operations so board member Leonardi our plan is to get this
solicitation advertised in June and hopefully be able to bring a um award to the board in approximately August um again to your point if there is a bid protest which we
would not be able to foresee and that's why we're taking the time and working closely with Mr cooney and general counsel's office so that to avoid a protest and make sure all of the language is um you know very tight
around this solicitation to avoid a big protest in the event we were to have one um there's really no way I can depict a timeline for when that would get resolved it depends you know on what that entity would be claiming for a
protest as to how long it would take to resolve it but that is why this item is before you because it will give us the additional 90 days in the event that we have a protest or we need more time for negotiations and we would have hopefully
still some transition period at least one to two months um if there were to be a new firm awarded they would be able to transition with ACOM in the event Acom is awarded um we obviously wouldn't need that transition and then be able to uh
have that take place in hopefully November at the latest so that uh again we can either have a transition or continue to to move through the program in a smooth orderly way uh I think it
will work out i understand your hesitation and those of your colleagues but um I believe that we have a plan in place and it will work out um could you just repeat the last piece about the 90 days again um I was having
a hard time hearing so the the board had approved uh an award right now until October the item before you today extends a comment till January so giving us that additional 90
days that will allow for um hopefully any contingencies as you stated up protest uh transition time this is giving us a little padding if you will um so that we can have a smooth uh
transition period for this particular solicitation okay thank you and thank you for being on the phone to be able to answer my questions thank you uh board member Bowman thank you Chair
um so just to confirm when the RFQ is drafted it comes back to the board for approval is that correct we ultimately approve that dr heer Miss Miss Andreo you question that is
correct okay so I guess I'm concerned if we bring the RFQ to the board meeting instead of a workshop if we're able to get the work done if we have any changes or questions about that like what the most
expeditious way to get to a point where we've approved the RFQ would be dr he Miss Andrea you hear the question the concern is if we bring it to a board meeting in June and not a previous
workshop does that um um interfere with the timeline if feedback is given during the board meeting that could cause some delay in in pushing it out on the street well um as you all know we wouldn't be
able to take any action at a workshop it would just be a discussion so if we bring this item to the June board meeting and you all make a motion to approve as is amend any of the you know
information contained there we can immediately do that and then get it published in June so that was the the mindset that we wanted to bring it to an actual board meeting where action can be
taken you can vote on it and then we will adhere to whatever the board recommends and proposes and then immediately be able to put the solicitation out i have if the board would prefer a workshop we are amable to doing that too
well because uh board members even had suggested that we bring this to the May board meeting i'm wondering if we could bring it to the May workshop so that we can talk about it and then I don't know if we if we can turn it around to get it
to the May board meeting it seem I think the the overarching theme here is that everyone's very concerned about the timeline and the feasibility of actually getting this done um so we need to have as many uh procedures in place right now
to make sure that we can get this approved by the board as soon as possible if I may super yes go ahead Miss P so I think June is realistic uh we can um uh I said within the 3 to four months but
we can do June uh we could amend at at the table or do it in a workshop in June and come back and vote on it in a meet special meeting the RFQ so bring it to a workshop in June and
then vote on it on the next June yes the next meeting board meeting okay and then I also share if I may also I'm sorry uh uh board member Bulman but also we have been in transition meetings uh
uh to transition originally uh away from ACOM uh when that uh from the uh original July date uh where the contract was amended to end so uh the transition will
not be as bumpy as it was in the past because we have a lot of the data uh that we didn't have access or didn't have district didn't have before uh we have uh databases that we have built
over time uh to help with that transition so it's not starting from scratch on day one as previously the transition I believe from Harry to AON was so the startup or the the movement
uh will continue as that transition happens from one pour to the next but we'll have to identify the next pour though so that's what we're doing with the Absolutely okay you know but this is part of the construction business moving
from one to the other so uh it's not like we start from uh uh zero okay um and and I share the same concern I guess I or the question and I'd love to see
something concrete uh because I guess my colleagues have all asked the same question about the um ability to extend the AECOM contract if we had to just for continuity while we're doing this in the event that there's any hiccups in the
process um I know that we had about we had a 5 and 1/2 year total term in the contract um but I'm just wondering legally what prohibits us and I I just haven't seen
it in the cont i haven't seen a copy of the contract to um to understand fully what prohibits us from extending if we needed to by agreement um the contract while we're doing the
RFQ if both the board and AECOM would agree to that miss Batista in essence the original RFP that was uh that was issued uh the for that was the formal solicitation that represented to
the public what the terms would be of the contract and that included the term the beginning of the term and the conclusion of the term and so because that was part of the solicitation they cannot be changed at this point it would only you know you
would only be able to go back out uh and do another formal solicitation um board member Zean had mentioned shortterm contracts as gap so what's the distinction between a short-term contract and extending
i mean or so a could presumably have the same terms and extend it but make it a short-term contract i I guess it's confusing so right so I think short-term contract uh within our district has a
different connotation than um you know than than I think what Dr zean um wanted to say um I mean we have short-term contracts pursuant to policies and and is really for leases
and that type of thing u only um but if we were going to do um a like a stop gap you know short-term contract type of uh process it would have to be part of the new solicitation that is being drafted
right now so that would have to say that there would you know that there is the option to do like a short-term contract um or you know if you want to call it a sixmonth contract but how how would that work i mean
that's so we're getting the bids or we're getting the qualifications they would also been on a small six-month contract but wouldn't we be going through the process i mean I guess I'm confused about timeline i just don't
want to see any gaps in our if we don't if the if there's any hiccups in the RFQ process and our contract ends i you know I think I I know that this has kind of been answered but I Where are we if that happens
what's our protection and how do we make sure that our projects are going forward during that time because there's a lot of um variables and we know in the construction industry and just in general that the potential for delay and things to happen
are not unreasonable to expect dr heer Miss F so the reality is that we have all types of projects here we have small projects that need to be complete in that hundred
that uh Mike alluded to uh previously we have different levels of projects we also have existing contracts with vendors uh so if ACOM leaves today we will move projects
forward you know uh so the work just does not stop we also have as I mentioned before the option of of doing piggybacks where the contracts have already been negotiated with other school districts and we would just piggyback off those contracts with those
existing terms uh so we do have options is it's not you know no disrespect to acom but if they said I want to end the contract today we will move projects forward so um the the reasonable
timeline is bringing the RFQ in June uh if the workshop is needed we can or is desired by the board we can do a workshop and then bring the contract back for approval uh that gives us a a a
a much better runway um uh to to continue the work uh and uh to get different variations of PORS we just don't have to have just one main one uh
one thing that the board may not see is we have uh um we have construction services minor projects so those are projects that are below $4 million that we've been doing all along so if a come decides tomorrow that they want to leave
we will continue the work are you finished okay thank you okay Mrs ala thank you um so first to my colleague Dr holes there was another holiday that you missed that was Passover so I do support the the six-month
extension A4 i do have a couple questions my first question is how much work are the current subcontractors doing right now like what percentage of the work are they doing dr
he turn my mic on mike Mike McIntyre AECOM through the chair uh right now contractually they're doing 45% aecom's subcontractors are doing 45% that's the MBE subcontractors totally our
subcontractors are doing 78% of the work under this extension uh that number goes up u goes up to 80% of the work for this extension period so our MBE numbers are
presently uh at 45 goes up to 48 um and the overall sub cut becomes 80% thank you so the 80% of the subcontractors if we need to do a uh add
additional contract with them if there's an overlap or any type of bid protests or is that possible then we can just work specifically with the 80% of the subcontractors dr
heer Paul yes perfect um great so I move to do a workshop on this in May and also to have the RFQ be brought forward in June
second okay it's been moved by Mrs alv seconded by Dr zean is there any public comment on the motion board discussion on the motion Dr zean uh I love this this is good i'm glad um talking about doing it
in May shook some things off here and we can do it in June which is much better than August um to the maker of the motion though we were silent about the org chart coming early um was that intentional or or or um was that just
something you didn't talk about well I would ask to Dr heburn in regards to the feasibility of bringing the or chart forward and if it is then I would would request that he would bring it forward dr hepper yes so we we do have a
run a show with the org chart um to go over it um one-on-one with board members the whole entire team so there's coherence and clarity about each section of the org chart um and then we have a workshop in m 6 to go over the work the
org chart so um and then uh just to make sure there's clarity and and um the individual discussions can provide some feedback so we can have a a very fruitful discussion at the workshop um for next steps and then after that um the what um Mr azaro you can go over the
run show just for the workshop and then then actual regular school board meeting vote yes sir through the chair uh David Azrito chief people officer so we're set up for the workshop on May 6 and then bring it back for a final vote on the May 13th regular school board meeting
yes so I think it provides ample time to go over um for that specific concern on the on the capital or facility side of the house um that'll kind of provide some information and inform next steps for the discussion about the AECOM contract because I want to say we have a
workshop day on May 20th also uh which could be the workshop day for the AECOM discussion and then bringing the uh RFQ to the June meeting for a vote thank you and chair just to continue the it and the superintendent uh thing what does it
refer to that is coming to the workshop on the 6th and for a vote on the 13th is that the whole org chart or the org chart for the construction the whole the entire org chart well then let me just publicly thank you for breaking precedent with Broward County and bringing it early um that's a that's a
good month and a half before it needs to be approved which is great it'll be great for this board to have it and uh to be able to um deliberate and ask questions about it and get to a good consensus by the end of June um I have no more comments but I I love the motion thank you so much thank you Mrs leonardi
um I I do have some questions uh just for clarity on the motion but I do know also we have students waiting in the audience and so I'm wondering um if we have any mechanism and if there is the you know the willingness from the board
to either table or recess this so we can hear from our so our students aren't waiting anybody my preference is to we might be close to being finished Yeah I wouldn't hope okay then I'll just ask my questions um so just to understand because I I
think we have two separate items that we're talking about the RFQ and the extension so is the the plan to workshop the extension or the RFQ on May 6th or both mrs
i would leave it up to Dr heep based on the opinions of you know the board and and what they feel they need workshop Dr heer so based on the feedback and um from the
board and just listening sounds like we would probably address both the RFQ and also um questions about the extension i I know um many of the board members have probably sent some follow-up questions also about extensions that our staff can research and bring back that information
um to the workshop i also email the um responses also okay um I guess I'm wondering if we could get a legal perspective on like whether or not it's appropriate for board members to be workshopping those
things miss Batista there is no there is no prohibition from for the board members to do a workshop excuse me my question is um so am I to understand that the motion is to
instead of approve the fourth amendment to the pe um at this meeting to have a workshop prior to approval of this item or are we approving this item today and then workshopping the um the RFQ
this is I would like to approve this item today with the six-month extension and then do the workshop and then vote in June on the RFQ okay i just needed that clarification yes there is no prohibition for the board to do that
okay um I'll come back to that but it was my understanding that staff was wanting to postpone this item today so um could someone or maybe I I had misunderstood could someone speak to that dr heer so I think some of the the initial
questions were the from the board were the concern if we need to postpone this item to um a May 6 special meeting on May 6 so if that's um the wish of the board we can we can u move in that direction if we're going to make vote on
it today we can move in that direction also okay good all right so I'm a little confused because before this meeting I was told that there were some some changes that needed to be made or amendments that needed to be made to this item before approval is that correct or incorrect i have Miss Paul if
there's um if you can speak to any changes that need to be made so in the uh uh document it has uh unless further extended by future board action that is mistake and as Miss
Batista stated previously the contract ends uh January 17th 2026 so uh there is no extension that language should have been deleted it should not have been in the document
so is that the only change that needs to be made that that was the only change uh did not want to give the impression that it could be extended beyond uh January 17 2026 okay and then I just I once again w want
to hear from legal like per the roles and responsibility of the board because I just want to be very clear before because we've had many conversations with different boards um or versions of this board about the appropriate role of
board members it is it is appropriate for us to workshop an RFQ and a contract extension um that would be or I guess we wouldn't be workshopping the extension we would just be workshopping the RFQ so it is appropriate for board members to
workshop an RFQ before it goes out miss Batista right so there is no uh prohibition that you um that you workshop the the uh the terms of the RFQ and that they're explained to the board at a at a
workshop um or you know that you know you may ask questions you you know I mean I there is no prohibition to do that okay um All right thank you
oh sorry Miss Thompson Miss Thompson I would just feel more comfortable tableabling this item until the May 6th to discuss it at the workshop and then vote on it on the 13th okay well we have a motion on the floor about one thing it's about bringing the
RFQ to Well but she said she'd rather vote so that's why I'm speaking for the motion come back to that part her motion is specific about having the RFQ come to a workshop
no let me clarify my Okay so my motion is to approve the recommended action on the item which is to approve the fourth amendment to the agreement between the school board of brow county and ACOM for program manager owner representative services
etc and to do a workshop May 6 and on June 17th in the school board meeting to vote on the RFQ point of order okay don't we have to make an amendment to this item before we approve it per Miss what Miss Paul said yeah sounded like we
did i was going to Yeah we have to cross out the language that she Okay point of order this is uh some words on a description it is not the words in the what the board is going to vote on it's in the contract um
Miss Paul correct the wording that you suggested need to be changes in the actual contract is that correct this is I believe in the executive summary okay right it it has no bearing and and it actually allows us if Dr holus somehow is correct and this
contract in some legal way could be extended allows us to do that and that has no conflict with giving a six-month extension i just wanted to make sure the board understood that the contract ended uh January 17th okay so we're on on Mrs aladev's motion
dr zean seconded it we're having board discussion does anyone have any more discussion because we'll vote on the motion okay well wouldn't the motion be approving the item with the additional pieces to it okay so because she had a motion that added
other pieces to the original so all those in favor of Mrs alidf's motion say I i all those opposed say no no no roll call school board members aladeaf yes bowman
yes fam hixon no holiness no leonardi no rupert no thompson Zean no fails 25 i'm sorry 26 okay so
we're back to the original motion or Miss Thompson did you want to make a motion yes I'm not going to say it as eloquently but I would like to table this item until the May 6 workshop to discuss and then bring back to vote the
following school board meeting which I believe is May 13 may 13th may 13 second okay it's been moved and seconded any public comment board member comment okay all those in favor of the motion say I i
i any oppose say no no motion passes seven to one with Miss Aladf yeah with Mrs alv descending vote okay the next item of business on
the agenda is item two a motion to approve the 2025 graduation use license agreement with Nova Southeastern University may I have a motion so moved second so moved by Dr zean seconded by Miss Thompson um is there any public
discussion on item two no ma'am board member discussion okay um thank you chair how much money in total are we spending on graduations doc Dr um no
good morning um we are at or about somewhere near uh just north of 700,000 I believe that's the number because we have um leases with the
Broward Center for the Performing Arts Nova Southeastern um one is coming at the next board meeting for um Hard Rock where we have three ceremonies and then we also have some ceremonies at Lauder Hill perform performing arts center and then the rest of the ceremonies are held
um in some of the schools cafeterias or auditoriums whatever is the venue in the school but the majority of them are held in one of the four least venues that I just mentioned thank you and then I guess my question
or something I would like to be brought back to a workshop is how we could possibly move these ceremonies more in-house like is there capacity at our high schools to have more ceremonies it just seems like at a time where we're trying to cut funds or cut spending this
is one area that should be relatively easy to do yes um thanks Miss Thompson for the question we're actually having the same discussion um as a team because it is getting very costly the costs are going up year after year and we can accommodate uh many of our high schools
in um one or two of our high schools and so we can save some money that way so that's part of our discussion as well we'll be happy to provide a followup to the board um in the near future um and also adding that as a cost savings for us as we plan for to reduce cost u for
the future also any other board discussion all those in favor of the item say I i any oppose say no item passes unanimously the schedule order of business for this special schoolboard meeting of the school board of Broward County Florida has been
completed seeing no obligation I now adjourn the meeting i feel hey w yeah yeah heat heat heat heat heat n heat heat
heat heat hey hey hey down hey hey i don't know y down hey Hey hey hey hey two welcome to today's schoolboard workshop
we are happy to have you join us and we are thankful for your time and dedication to our district this workshop 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 and these wonderful students that are going to do something for us today uh once the boardroom has reached it 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 Rupert will now introduce her school to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag mrs rupert I I stand for the pledge of allegiance thank you i pledge of algiance to the flag of
the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please be seated thank you awesome that was Crest Haven yay
good job as we prepare to begin this schoolboard workshop we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all of our students as an A-rated school district we begin the vital task of sustaining this achievement we will continue educating all students to reach
their highest potential our theme this year is believe empower achieve one Broward today's workshop will operate in accordance with the school board's policy 1020 and the board will review the items as advertised and presented by the superintendent our first item for
discussion is engaging Broward County Public School students with extended reality or XR and artificial intelligence AI i now turn it over to staff for a presentation thank you Madam Chair and board and
public we are so happy to bring the classroom to the boardroom today at this time we're going to turn it over to Dr fulton and her team thank you good morning board members Dr heburn to our esteemed colleagues and of course to our amazing members of the
community we are standing on the edge of a new frontier in education a moment where innovation meets imagination and where possibility meets purpose today board workshop invites us to explore the world of artificial
intelligence and virtual reality not as distant concepts but as powerful tools we are beginning to harness right here in our district imagine students stepping into a virtual lab to conduct science experience in realworld time or
a history class where learners explore ancient civilizations by walking through a virtual city picture a powered tutor adapting lessons to meet the needs of every child on demand at their own pace
this isn't a dream this is happening right here in our classrooms as a district committed to innovation and excellence we have the responsibility to lead boldly to embrace the innovations that will shape our future our students
are inheriting ai extended reality are not just about technology they're about opportunity they're about expiring curiosity building confidence and opening doors for all of our students
regardless of the zip code they live in today's presentation and demonstration will highlight how we are leveraging these tools with care creativity and a deep sense of purpose you'll see not what's possible but what's already
happening across our schools you will hear from our amazing students and our teachers as we bring the classroom to the boardroom nelson Mandela once said "Education is the most powerful weapon
you can use to change the world." Because when we equipped our students with the tools of tomorrow we empower them to be the leaders of today today we are expanding that power making it more accessible more engaging and
more aligned with the future our students will inherit the future isn't coming the future is here and it starts in our schools whether the concept of AR virtual reality is new to you or if you're familiar with these technologies
our goal today is to deepen your understanding ignite your imagination and inspire you to continue to provide support for these amazing innovations that are happening every day across our classrooms with that said you're not
here to hear me speak you're here to see our students in action so I'm going to turn it over to our chief academic officer Simone Holland who's going to kick off this presentation provide you with an overview and to show you how these innovations align with our
district's instructional priorities and our strategic goals thank you good morning this agenda today outlines our journey from hands-on examples and working definitions to real classroom applications we'll walk through how
Broward County Public Schools is using immersive technology and artificial intelligence to personalize learning increase student engagement and transform instructional practice so the exciting part we're going to begin in a few minutes with a
20inut excursion showcasing actual student and teacher interactions with virtual reality and artificial intelligence tools these examples from math and art to special education illustrate how students across grade levels are engaging with extended
reality environments to enhance understanding and motivation you have been assigned to one of these STEM stations in the pre-unction room and in the boardroom for your excursion you will also be provided with an essential question to guide your learning and engagement however before we enjoy that
practice and play we want to provide some working knowledge let's clarify our terms extended reality XR is the umbrella encompassing virtual reality artificial re augmented reality and mixed reality each offers different
levels of immersion interaction ai artificial intelligence meanwhile is embedded in many of these tools and serves as the backbone for personalized datainformed instruction to provide some context to the experience that you're about to have
this slide outlines examples of extended reality here you can see how virtual reality fully immerses students and/or teachers and adults in new worlds augmented reality overlays digital content in their real environments and mixed reality blends both to enable
interaction between real and virtual objects these are powerful tools for education so now let's head to this experience for yourself so you can have this wonderful experience our student escorts are going to be here because you all have been assigned for your
excursion thank you hey hey hey down hey ah hey hey hey hey yeah yeah w yeah heat heat everybody hey
Heat heat get everything heat heat hey hey doing hey hey hey hey hey Hey hey hey
hey down down hey hey heat heat n heat heat n heat heat heat heat i had a feel i had a Heat heat n yeah yeah
welcome back to the schoolboard workshop and thank you so much for that amazing experience and I will turn it back over to staff to continue their presentation well I hope you enjoyed uh first of all Dr fabian Con executive director of
academics i hope you enjoyed our little excursion from the boardroom to the classrooms uh we're not done yet we have uh plenty of student speakers and teacher speakers as part of our presentation to share some additional best practices uh if we can go back to
slide so slide eight uh we're going to talk a little bit about personalized standardsbased instruction you saw a little bit of that in the presentation uh AI in VR certainly helps us uh really tailor instruction by analyzing student data uh recommending that XR platforms
are aligned to the Florida best standards ensuring that while experience feels futuristics the learning remains grounded in academic rigor and teachers now receive real-time data from AI platforms we're starting to see
the evolution of using data uh to be data smart and data rich and data driven it allows them to pivot instruction instantly our XR tools bring science labs historical events and abstract math to life creating an engaging standards aligned experience
and what we've seen uh through the data and data is just uh the technology tools is just one variable we've seen uh that ex XR and AI works to increase not only equity but it immersive learning bridges gaps for students who may lack access uh
to field trips hands-on learning ai also supports multilingual learners through translation tools and visual aids it ensures students engage in content and ultimately we want to look at the return on investment uh with these tools uh during the March 4th PM2 board workshop
initiatives such as these uh have shown an increase in student achievement data from PM2 to PM2 uh our student achievement data is showing gains across our four strategic goals we're excited to uh take a a deeper dive of all of these particular tools that we're
investing in whether they're through a prototype or a pilot model to really identify which ones are at the core of helping increase student achievement and so now I'd like to introduce uh um one of our uh uh teacher speakers uh
Gabrielle McCulla who's from Apollo Middle School who will give the perspective of how these tools are implementing and having success with students that in her classroom good morning everyone my name is Gabriella McCaulay i'm an SVE teacher at
Apollo Middle School been teaching for 18 years um I started in the UDL for CS computer science inclusion cohort in June 2022 and that is a research practice partnership between Dr maya Israel the
University of Florida and uh Dr lisa Milenovic from the STEM and CS programs in the applied learning department since then I've had the opportunity given to me by Dr kushner our wonderful principal at Apollo to incorporate to incorporate
uh CS instructions and robotics not only for my students but also all the uh SV classes in the school then this year I took on the challenge of uh coaching a VEXQ robotics challenge team as well as
a drone team comprised only of students with disabilities now the controller came about because um at the beginning uh when we first got the uh robot our kids were all excited about
um driving the robot this is Musab he's a seventh grader in one of the SVE classrooms uh he like my other students was very excited to participate in the competition and but he struggled using this remote this controller
uh holding it and pressing the buttons so we reached out to the developer of the robot the uh VEX uh robotics who we had already been working with uh giving them feedback
about accessibility to the different robots that they have we let them know we needed help modifying the controller so Musaf could participate and they immediately agreed and assigned engineers to develop an app that would
allow accessibility to the controller to connect the IQ robot here's Musab demonstrating how they use how he uses the controller that's been modified go ahead Madab turn the Good job
take your time go forward Ma you can do it turn around the other way you can do it you got it woohoo good job thank you thank you participating in
robotics has positively impacted Musab because he's being included now he can participate like everyone else he will be on the team next year mainstream and participating alongside his peers musab what is your favorite part of the
robot what do you What do you like about the robot you like the robot yes you like making baskets yes all right teaching computer science has been a huge positive impact on all of my students i've used robotic and computer science
to motivate and engage my students in meeting content standards for example my students have met math standards in measurement and fractions through building and coding robots they have improved and expanded their vocabulary and communication skills by
collaborating with his with their peers on programming challenges it has helped to improve their skills in problem solving communication collaboration and persistence which are not only IEP goals but skills that they will use not only
in high school but throughout life the development of the VEX accessibility app will help students like Musab participate in activities alongside their peers benefiting students all over the world you will get to see other adaptive
technologies today that Andrea and her team at the ESC department has helped us de develop and implement in the classroom i would also like to invite you uh to attend our computer science inclusion showcase on May
11th I'm sorry May 17th at Pines Middle School you will get to see Musab and other students demonstrating what they have learned this event is held concurrently with the congressional app challenge hackathon we'll have Dr maya Israel our research partner at UF
representative Debbie Wasserman Schulz and the VEX accessibility app develop developer uh Dr jimmy Lynn all attending as special guests and speakers for these events and I look forward to seeing all of you there
thank you thank you the second part of our our presentation is on what motivates and we've heard a lot of that today and these tools are highly engaging students receive instant feedback feel a sense uh through personalized learning paths how it
connects to the classroom concepts to future careers and so what we we'd like to do is we'd not like now like to hear from Jaylen Jean Jax an 11th grade student at Plantation High School's Achieving Career Equity for Students Design Academy and he will share
firsthand experiencing through 3D digital designs madam Chair Dr homeless i just want to say thank you to Miss Macaulay we we actually Great job miss McCauley and I worked
together at Apollo and she's an amazing woman and and I think we need to give Musab a round of applause that was awesome thank you thank you Miss McCauley thank you thank you Miss Macaulay appreciate you
hello my name is Sadia Spinosa from Plantation High um I'm here to talk about their 3D animation program 3d animation allows students to express their artistic hobbies without relying on traditional handdrawn art for students like me who may not be confident in drawing 3D modeling offers
a creative way to bring ideas to life while a rough sketch for a storyboard or character design might be needed it's not the main focus of the course which many students find appealing with just a general idea students can use programs like WM 3ds Max or Blender to design
characters and scenes i personally enjoy using W because its open workspace gives me the freedom to experiment and build various parts for my character hi I'm Jalen and when it comes to 3D animation like Sadi said when you when
you're making your character or or your model using basic shapes it can help you process the the it helps you with processing whether it's making a model or it's whether understanding a spatial discrimination where you have to see a model from 3D from a 3D aspect it really
helps to it really helps to visualize what you're working with especially if you plan to go into other careers understanding how to work in a 3D environment helps you to navigate those spaces better like with Wamp you can make different shapes where you would have to see it from different
angles thank you thank you um and so when we look at um the different kinds of technology we certainly want to make sure we meet the unique needs of all of our students and so if we go back to
slide targeted interventions and struggling learners so our adaptive technology is not only enriching but also intervening on the spot and so AI also pinpoints exactly where students needs are it supports it also makes adjustments to instruction real time xr
can reinforce these concepts through visual and hands-on experience as we've seen today and key for learners who benefit from multiensory uh strategies and enrichment really does uh meet the students needs and expectations uh and
they don't just keep them waiting uh when you have multiple students with multiple different kinds of areas and needs uh it is able to adjust and adapt and so it helps identifies them suggests advanced concepts or simulation XR and it also takes them further with virtual
field trips which sometimes students and teachers don't have that access opportunity and so bringing the technology into the classroom allows for equity but it also allows for students to explore things that may not that be will be costneutral to them as
well and then the table here breaks down whether We are supporting struggling learners challenging advanced students or simply keeping them engaged ai and XR play critical and complimentary roles and so when we look at the video we want
to talk about one particular contract we have currently with JA World um and we want to play the video and talk about the connections that JR is having within the classroom across multiple grade levels i think we can cue the video while we're waiting on that video um Dr
con if I can get Jellen and I think it was Satie if I'm saying it correct if you can let them know what you want to pursue after high school cuz the conversation we had is directly aligned to the skills and the knowledge that you're learning about in your in your current program at your school
well I would personally like to pursue a dental lab or orthodontics and using 3D animation allows me to view the certain aspects needed when creating retainers molds for teeth and
um sorry what else was that what else did you want that was it that was it yeah and then Jalen if you can if you can tell tell us also what you want to pursue after high school cuz it's directly aligned to what you're engaged in now so
after high school I want to be a biomedical engineer so learning so having a 3D space to work in helps you understand how to make prosthetics or making making a fake leg or arm and things like that so you can understand how it works how it should move and
things of that nature all right we're having a little technical issues so we'll bypass the video we'll share it a little bit later all right we're going to move into our next uh part of and share uh our secondary VR learning experience with
our teacher Zarya Howard Diller from high school uh Dillard High School on Prisms good morning um my name is Zarya Howard i'm from Dillard High i'm an algebra 1 teacher there and I had the opportunity
of piloting v um pri prisms VR this year with my algebra 1 students um so far it's been a great learning experience for both of us me learning how to actually use the VR because this is my first time actually putting on a headset
myself and the students actually diving in and going through the modules and just loving to learn math um so VR is well Prism's VR in itself is a real
world real life um experience where they actually dive into the real world um problems that we can solve using math right um so a lot of students like to ask me in my algebra class and um any math class any math teacher can tell you
this they always ask me why do we need to do this what is the purpose of math I'm not going to need to use this in the real world but Prisms VR is actually showing them exactly how it can be used so it takes the the trouble off of me of
explaining time and time again oh you can become a math teacher you can become an engineer and stuff like that because they can actually see these um opportunities in place while they're doing and learning math right can we get the next slide if possible
okay um okay okay um there we go yeah next slide okay thank you um so here is an example of an actual module that we have in prisms um this is the exponential
functions modu mod module um where they're actually going in and seeing um a viral growth rate um in a food hall and we can all relate to this um because during co 19 we saw a virus grow rapidly and rapidly one person gets infected and
now 10 other people get infected and it's gradually exponentially growing and it's becoming a problem right but problems need to be solved right now nobody's wearing a mask anymore because we've solved the problem right so that's the whole purpose of this module in its
sense um they first see the why and it's very interactive it gets the students involved and actually excited to learn the module right and then once we um see the why they go into the lab and they
try and fix the problem using math so it goes step by step they actually get to touch and move um physical objects to see how it's actually growing um each time something is being touched five other objects get infected and then once they see that module or that part of the
module they go into the lab and they actually um graph the data and chart it and see that it's going up by five by five by five by five and so on uh next slide please okay um here is the same module
just part two of it where it's actually diving more and more deeper into the math itself um because VR yes it is fun but this is still the classroom and we still need to learn something um so they're actually hands-on as you can see
the the hand they're actually grabbing the objects themselves it's not just a video that they're seeing but they're actually doing all of the steps themselves and they have helpful um tools given and provided using their
watch on the side if they are getting stuck um there's a part that says a help tool where they can um go through and start the problem for them or assist them with the problem there's also a button where they can um click say I
need help and I'm alerted on the teacher's dashboard oh this student needs help and I can just go straight to them and see oh where are you in this module and I've already done the training myself i've already gone through the module myself before in planning the the day before we actually
implement it into the classroom so I know exactly if if they say "Oh I'm at the graphing part um it's not really working for me." I can go step by step with them and help fix the problem right because everybody not necessarily
techsavvy and we're all learning together right next slide please okay um here you can see all the different um algebra 1 um modules that they have so far there are 10 and they're all coinciding with the curriculum that we've already have they
have um absolute value functions systems of equations everything that aligns to the Broward County um curriculum for algebra 1 um next okay um here's an example of what it looks like to actually implement it
um as you can see in the center it's kind of small but um that's me looking at the teacher's dashboard so I can actually monitor the classroom and see exactly if I click on a student that asks for help um where exactly in the module they are at and I can guide them
through there as well as um when I see multiple pe multiple students um going through the same module and they're getting stuck at the same problem what I usually like to do is pause them and with the teacher dashboard they allow us to just click pause and it'll set up a
screen for them in the headset that says Okay guys take off the headset and everybody takes off their headset and we go into whole group instruction and I teach them okay where are we getting stuck on and we fix that problem right there and then right so that way
everybody's learning everybody's not getting frustrated because honestly if you've done the headset some parts of this can be frustrating um especially if you're just not techsavvy and you're you're just not into it that day it's it's totally fine it's a learning curve
um and yeah uh next slide please okay so this is the part where we actually take off the headset after the module is finished and they transfer what they learned because it's not just a video game yes it's fun but we
actually need to see did you learn anything from this module did you learn anything from this concept and a lot of the time um we have two parts for the modules part one is more um just the introductory part two is really getting
into the math part of it and um both parts have a synthesis paper where usually I like to put them in groups so that they can discuss exactly what they went through in the module and it opens math discourse for the whole class and we discuss exactly what we're seeing
exactly how um the situation is turning into math and not just oh this is a fun game oh this is um some experiment that we're doing but how is math actually inputed into it right
how is what I taught you last week coming into this VR headset right um and then after the discussion and pencil and paper we have a check for understanding so that we can actually see did you understand this module and they get
grades for it um and I can see exactly who are the students that need that extra help who are the students that totally mastered it and can move on to the next one right okay next slide
please um right and now I'm going to introduce my student Tyrese Thompson for a student testimonial thank you good morning i am Tyrese Thompson i am a nth grade student at Dillard High and I
will be sharing my experience with uh Prisms VR in Miss Howard's class prisms VR uh helped me understand algebra 1 when I first walked in to the to the classroom I was like "Wow this is a big step from
what I learned back in middle school." And a couple months into high school I seen the cart for the VR headsets and when we hopped on it was easy for me because I have a VR headset at home so I
was able to get used to it very quickly but doing math in it was new figuring it out was easy because they have coaches that are in there who direct you and give you instructions on what to do and where to go um not only that like she
said um they give you real world experiences where they show you how you would use math in the real world i always wondered that um how would I use math in the real world besides just like learning it on a uh learning it in the classroom for like
a test or using it to graduate instead how would I use this to make a career or um like actually use this to help somebody prisms VR helps that uh with the modules it's not just a game the
games are fun and it's very interactive especially for me as a hands-on learner and doing it helps me realize okay I remember doing this in this module so when I see
it in the real world it's like it automatically snaps um it's uh helps me gra grasp algebra 1 especially the lesson that we just did
factoring quadratics when I first saw the lesson that Miss Howard taught on the board uh for factoring quadratics I was a little confused because I get confused when I graph sometimes so when we did this module which is now one of
my favorite modules where we had to move the vertex and find the exact drop trajectory of the package um yeah it helped a lot because
basically it's not only like on a graph you can get you could get lost on a graph so when you move the uh vertex point on inside the VR headset it shows you exactly where you are or if you don't know how to start or if you're
confused on where you are currently at in the module you can flip your wrist and ask the uh other AI coach how to start or where do I go from here so it's very
helpful and I would like to continue using it uh as I go on like 10th grade 11th grade when I'm in geometry it would be amazing to deal with shapes inside of VR and yeah
that's why I personally really like uh Prism VR thank you great job that level of confidence in all those words that you're using that nobody up here actually knows just to demonstrate that level of
understanding definitely worth the resource that you're engaging in great job and we have one other student Kira Brown that would like to share her testimony hi I'm Kira Brown um I want to start off with saying using VR is whole
different from what I'm used to cuz I'm not originated from here i'm Jamaican we are used to pens and papers we never use computers either so using VR is a big step and I feel like me as and us
students as new like millennials I know you're trying yeah um y'all are finally kind of understanding that how important technology is and by using VR y'all are
to me it's like you're finally on our level and understanding we're catching up why why we um why technology is so important to us and also before VR my grades was not okay
but it was not but since I I'm a virtual learner so I do bet they're Oh my god you're doing great um I'm a visual learner so I like to be in there
so VR helps me a lot i'm sorry you're doing just fine honey keep it going is doing awesome also for me I think virtual reality is a lot it helps us a lot
especially if I don't understand a certain topic as I as Tyrese said we can use the watch to ask question and also if we don't understand we can use the um help me button which alerts Miss Howard that we don't understand and where we
are and as Miss Howard has also said that I am one of her students that asks a lot why do we need algebra in the real world and I've realized through VR why we actually need
it cuz I was like why do we need letters in math what are we going to use letters for in real life now I realize you're going to need to know the vertex the y-coordinates how structure like if you're going to build
some a place a restaurant of anything you're going to actually need the coordinates and a landscape and all of that so for me VR has helped a lot and for us teenagers I think this is
what helps us this is our like how should I say this this is how we see work the things because as I said earlier I'm at home and yes I'm on my phone 247 because I'm a teenager what
else do we do i use Tik Tok for help me with homeworks cuz they got STEM and that's what I use to like it's like a virtual same thing as a prism we got teachers online i I'm one of the students who use FOVs online teaching i like visual i like anything that has to
do with my phone computers so VR is one of my favorite stuff and I never really liked algebra before when I just got here because I was like it's hard it's too much why not letters all these letters numbers ever since I started
using VR I started like algebra i'm not going to lie one of my favorite topics is um absolute val values right now and my grades have improved a lot since I've started using VRs so yeah
thank you great job all right I think we can cue the video back up um Typically the middle schoolers might know about two or three different careers and really that revolves around what the people in their family do for a
living and they don't understand that there really are endless opportunities junior Achievement believes that every student has the ability to be successful so I want the middle schoolers to understand when they leave here that their career pathway impacts their income which changes the kind of
lifestyle they're able to have as an adult what excites me is I like seeing the magic happen when they start to understand that oh my interests and my abilities they affect what kind of career that I should have as an adult they learn a lot of soft skills about how to work as a team how to communicate
how to speak to each other one of the things about Junior Achievement that we hear all the time from our students is that they start to build their confidence and their self-esteem and their self-worth that is how our children are learning in one of our
storefrs we utilize virtual reality so instead of us having to physically take them to an automotive shop they're able to stay right here in our building we're trying to help the students realize that technology is not here to replace anyone it's not here to replace jobs it's not
here to replace humans these young people will use technologies like AI and VR we have a responsibility to make sure that we keep JA World and the simulations that happen here relevant
for these children really we're trying to teach them that technology can enhance what you're doing in your career so we're trying to teach them that connection of understanding how to utilize technology to really help you achieve your own goals all right I'm pass the mic over to Susie
Kendrick director of applied learning good morning everyone if we could move to slide 25 please great thank you so we you uh have seen how XR is in is being embedded into elective courses as well as across core
content areas these immersive experiences enable students to collaborate create and problem solve in real time blending creativity with academic content applied learning is not only working with individual schools but we're also working through the College
Football Playoff Foundation grant as well as the Congressionally Funded Community Project grant to provide immersive standardsbased experiences for students next slide social studies comes alive with XR
students explore time periods through virtual tours that uh virtual tours and create immersive timelines students walk with the dinosaurs as some of you did in this room and walk through geography geography is now interactive with 3D
maps and environments where students can manipulate and engage in a meaningful way these experiences are not just standalone but embedded in project-based learning that provides an entirely new vantage point for
students next slide i'm sorry next slide there we go uh math concepts are visualized through 3D design and manipulation from geometry to data science xr tools help students build spatial reasoning connect abstract
formulas to real world applications and gain deeper conceptual understanding as you've heard from Tyrese and Cira when students ask why do I need to know algebra these experiences through reframe XR and Prisms extend reality
helps them to apply concepts in the real world and help them to answer this question why do I need to know algebra next slide science benefits immensely from virtual labs dissections and 3D modeling
students explore biology chemistry and space in ways that are not only engaging but also safe cost-effective and deeply illustrative of complex concepts these opportunities take a student from their microcosm to the realities of the world
and beyond beyond core content XR supports learning in the arts CTE and interdisciplinary challenges students simulate global issues explore sustainable development goals and apply knowledge across domains in
collaborative problem-based projects bcps is not only providing awareness but involving student voice and action in solving the problems of our global that our global community faces teachers are seeing firsthand how
XR and AI elevate instruction these testimonials reflect the ease of use increased student access and transformation in how teachers deliver and students experience learning across disciplines cte programs are leveraging
XR to allow students to explore career pathways while developing industry specific skills automotive tech aviation engineering and media production are now more accessible and immersive and and immersive uh than ever
before as you saw with our ACES grant um the students from Plantation they are participating in experiences that help them to not only extend their interests in art and technology but move into careers that combine those two that are
supported by the district and uh the magnet schools of America uh grant uh students can simulate real world job scenarios such as automotive repair and acquire hands-on skills in virtual in a virtual setting for
example VR and XR simulations can provide training for technical skills in areas like welding or electrical work xr can also be used for interview and public speaking practice with an AI digital presence coach research by Mill
Miller and Taylor found that VRbased CTE programs significantly enhance students technical skills and job readiness furthermore the adaptability of XR technology means it can be customized for diverse learning styles and needs it
holds the potential to make education more inclusive providing equal opportunities for all our students to interact with content in meaningful ways next you will hear from Kadine Thomas kadine is a teacher at Millennium
612 she was the first uh teacher um to help us to start with the College Football Playoff Foundation grant her students have been exposed to a myriad of uh XR technology um programs which
many of you here today saw and uh she and her students as I said have been on the on the forefront of this work and uh she's been successful embedding it into core content through her elective programming
good morning everyone good morning as an educator my mission has always been to ignite curiosity and bridge classroom learning with real world relevance today that bridge is powered by extended reality and more
specifically by MetaQuest 3 VR goggles which have transformed how we deliver experience and retain content let's reframe what learning looks like literally and figuratively in my classroom
experiential stations are redefining instruction these realtime collaborative hubs empower middle schoolers to become problem solvers innovators and critical thinkers imagine a sixth grader
exploring the statue of Rammeses 2 from Egypt's 19th dynasty stepping virtually into the Mit Rahina Museum and examining its massive limestone construction up close through XR students aren't just
reading about history they're walking through it analyzing the scale symbols and cultural relevance from a historian's perspective this type of immersive learning takes abstract historical content and transforms it into tangible
memorable experiences perfectly aligned with middle school social studies standards around Asian civilizations and cultural heritage when it comes to student motivation XAR offers what no textbook ever could a
student who once struggled in math now confidently manipulates 3D shapes to understand volume and spatial reasoning through ancient architecture a student who once avoided science class is now asking critical questions during a
virtual heart dissection teams collaborate in real time to explain blood circulation building communication confidence and cross-d disciplinary connections students are lining up before class starts not for a
game but for a guided virtual experience where learning feels like discovery this isn't the future it's now and the research supports its power a PWC study found that a students retain
up to four times more information in XR environments compared to traditional settings a Stanford University study linked immersive tech with improved empathy academic performance and long-term memory skills and outcomes critical to middle school development
most importantly XR is scalable and equitable metaquest 3 integrates seamlessly with devices schools already use iPads Chromebooks and tablets making it practical for classrooms of all sizes and budgets this is particularly
important in Taiwan schools where impactful solutions must be accessible this isn't about technology for novelty it's about meeting academic outcomes through innovative immersive practice xr enables students to visualize simulate
and create with purpose while mastering rigorous content it supports content acquisition enhances digital fluency and builds confidence in learners who may not otherwise see themselves as capable
of academic excellence so yes XR is futuristic but in my classroom it's also functional equitable and essential we're not just preparing students for tomorrow we're empowering them to shape it and just to sum it up when students touch
the intangible see the unseen and walk through the pages of history or science they don't just learn they transform xr doesn't replace great teaching it unlocks the greatness within it thank you i'd like I now like to transition uh to
AI um and uh welcome Dr sher Wilson director of innovative learning good afternoon everyone we're going to shift our focus to artificial intelligence we're using AI to enhance personalization of instruction
streamline also instruction and expand access it's changing not just what we teach but how students interact with knowledge with tools such as machine learning that's embedded within AI tools
neural networks natural language processing and of course what we've seen demonstrated earlier robotics next slide ai and BCPS students and teachers and parents all have a perspective and these
tools benefit all stakeholders students receive adaptive support teachers gain realtime data and planning tools and parents can monitor progress and access resources supporting a full learning
ecosystem k12 as you see demon uh demonstrated on this slide we have various benefits as it relates to uh students such as personalized learning access to resources real-time feedback benefits for teachers uh enhanced
instruction data-driven insights focus on teaching and of course the parental benefits of conventional access real time updates and enhanced collaborations next slide please
we are focusing on building capacity districtwide equipping teachers with certifications and students with micro credentials so they can enhance their skills to become more globally competitive in a 21st century
marketplace parents are supported through events like parent universities to ensure inclusive digital learning is taking place we have been fortunate enough to partner with Google and Apple who have been partners with us to host
events for our parents not only virt virtually in a podcast format but also in person so that our teach our students and teachers and as well as our parents have real time interactive uh classes
with these partners in a classroom format such as what we've experienced today next slide here are some examples of tools we are using ai enhanced PL platforms like
Nearpod Adobe Apple products and discovery education tools are seamlessly embedded into our curriculum promoting creativity personalization and innovation next
slide for students these tools provide personalized content boost engagement and develop future ready skills they're learning through AI every day whether editing a video exploring an interactive
map or collaborating with their peers in real time next slide yep so at this point in time as we highlight the teacher use of AI tools for lesson planning real- time assessment
differentiation and utilizing the platforms for instruction making dynamic repositories for students to interact and learn i will call forth Alana Barrero a senior at Hollywood Hills High School to give her perspective on
artificial intelligence and its use thus far in her journey hello everyone a lot of you know me as alternate student adviser to school board but today I'm going to be speaking from a perspective that many of you may have not heard before uh my name is Alana Barrero aside from what I do I'm a
senior just like many other students at Hollywood Hills High School um as well as uh doing my role here i'm the student government president over at Hollywood Hills High School and constantly daytoday we use AI to amplify student
voice and bridge a connection between um AI administration and students um as AI evolves uh it is so important that students teachers and faculty move as it does um a prime
example many students and I use AI for is either chat GBT or um some people like to call it meta but chat GBT or co-pilot for example I will say give me three ways to increase student um engagement in my school through service
projects the three projects it gave me was community partnerships student led initiatives and student reflection and recognition these three amazing ideas give students different ways to be innovative sometimes it's hard to you know think outside of the box and to
stop reusing ideas that we've done before um but it's very important to understand that innovation is out there and it's more so how do we allow students to use that innovation to their benefits as I said previously technology is moving fast and I believe that if we don't keep up with it innovation can
crash not only for our students but for our teachers and faculty as well ai is one of the many ways we can support our students staff and faculty um I highly encourage if you haven't used AI already I do encourage that you give it a try
and honestly see what technology brings to students this is something that benefits students and overall can have a lasting impact on amazing ideas and innovation for the future thank you thank you so much our next student will be Patrick
go PMPO Beach High School i know his parents hello my name is Patrick Gold i am many things i am a member of the district AI task force for um advising on policy surrounding AI i am editor-inchief of my
school's newspaper i am a tutor and volunteer and I am a junior at Pomp Beach High School um I and in each of those roles I use AI in a multitude of ways and it can augment the experience of students and teachers in every one of
them as editor of the newspaper it often falls on me to come up with lesson plans to help newer journalism students learn skills of interviewing and writing and coming up with stories it's often difficult to manage that on top of my course load and having to
write for the newspaper and AI has been a big help in you know being able to manage all that and making the whole operation run more smoothly as a tutor I have been able to use it both to help relate to my the people I'm tutoring
better and to a a tool to point people towards when I'm not able to help them i've heard people as young as fourth grade and used it to help come up with scenarios that relate to things they like be it Star Wars or football or people my age I use it to kind of say
okay you know if this um physics problem right your textbook will have the answer but it may not explain it well you can put that into Microsoft C-Pilot and it will give you a response and uh as a member of the AI task force and someone who had the uh privilege and opportunity
to speak at one of those parent university virtual meetings with Apple and Google uh there I've been able to share the reality of what it looks like in the classroom of how oftentimes teachers will point students towards it as a resource uh and how oftentimes
uh sheer rejection of it can kind of skip over a lot of the benefits that it often has for students um I think that one thing that's remarkably important in every context I've seen it is that people be it
teachers or students learn to use it and see it as a tool to be used uh and something to be engaged with in both the pros and the cons because the concern inevitably comes up of oh aren't people aren't students going to use it to cheat and I think the answer to that is it
might make the answers marginally more accessible but the reality is millions of resources are out there for students seeking answers ai makes the why of the problem the explanation behind it significantly more accessible to
students regardless of access to tutors um you know access to other resources it brings the why to the student and it is a tool to be used in any one of those scenarios thank you thank you so much and our last
student uh Andrew Lew Lewis senior from Cypress Bay High School good morning everyone morning my name is Andrew Lewis i'm a senior at Cypress Bay High School as you guys already learned from the entire presentation artificial
intelligence is everywhere right and it's certainly in our school systems for example in my business class we're learning how to market and even create brand new products using artificial intelligence the step by step on what to do how to market it efficiently and all the backbone behind it and then in my
global perspectives class we're instructed to do a 5,000word research paper on a specific question on a global standpoint and using artificial intelligence to not actually write the essay but instead to give an outline and to further your research to enhance your
paper overall i had the pleasure of Dr wilson coming into our school and speaking to not just me as a student but multiple other students to grab another um viewpoint as well as some of our teachers and faculty and it was really cool to see how everyone had the same
viewpoint of it um whether it was a student enhancing their learning a teacher talking about how it helps them with lesson plans or a faculty just cleaning up and organizing putting something as simple as a list of names into alphabetical order it's helped everyone and the one thing that I can
always say is that we need to learn how to use AI before AI learns how to use us thank you all right so parents have greater visibility into their child's progress in learning ai powered um platforms like Near Pod and
News ZLA help parents stay involved and informed while supporting their child's education outside of plat outside of the classroom and the tools that you see displayed right now are all Broward County approved tools that our students have access to throughout our entire
ecosystem additionally something that's near and dear to the Department of Innovative Learning our media centers we uh actually have changed into policy our uh in policy
4120 our media center spaces spaces are known as innovative learning commons these uh areas are now flexible spaces where students can engage with emerging technologies not just checking out books
but also checking into the future with certain activities that are projectbased learning activities also your steam and your STEM activities as well so this particular space should be a hub for the school not only to increase literacy but
also for active engagement uh with all students uh in this particular space again something that we have uh worked on uh very hard this year is making sure that we are bringing accessibility in relationship to AI to
all of our stakeholders by various events that we have offered throughout this year we have launched our ties event technology innovation ethics and support at Fort Lauderdale High School this past October this initiative was to
ensure our approach to AI and XR is inclusive ethical and student centered it includes ongoing calibration task force input and student voice as we design our digital future we will be hosting our second annual ties event
this October at Cypress Bay High School for our teachers next slide we have a video for you just capturing some of the work that we've done this year boots on the ground as it relates to artificial intelligence
this brief video shows our students and teachers engaging ing in the conversation around artificial intelligence while we craft guidelines for the ethical and responsible implementation in our K12 ecosystem
teen Ties is an is an initiative that we've sponsored this year where we actually hosted a virtual opportunity with deputy superintendent excuse me uh Angela Fulton and members from uh Apple and Google to talk with our teens about
artificial intelligence and the tools that are at their disposal to enhance their learning we are learning about these tools actively and using them to shape our uh conversation around guidelines with the student at the
center our AI task force is also leading the way and is composed of educators students and community partners who are collaboratively designing how AI is integrated into our district with intention and integrity this next video
is showing a clip from our teen ties experience so today we are at SA Cypress Bay High School talking to uh students and teacher leaders around the ethical implementation of artificial
intelligence specifically from the standpoint of creating an academic integrity statement that would be a universal statement for the students in Broward County to follow and for the teachers to use as guard rails around this work you want to make sure you have
a command of the ethical and responsible use implementation of how you use AI on a daily basis as you're walking through your educational journey so by using AI in modern day rather than the past we show how we are able to adapt along with AI throughout the years and rather than
using AI as something to cheat or something that's looked upon in a negative way it's more of a resource and a commodity the main difference between old technology and new technology is minimal effort to use between old technology was used like as a brick phone or the record
players how we'd have to use everything so physical and manual while our new technology we have open AI where we could just type in stuff and it would be there for us the students really enjoyed and appreciated that their voice was captured in a real way where there was a
non-threatening um environment that was established in the room so they could talk about their journey their creativity and their needs in a safe space and that's just something that sometimes as educators where we say we want to be student
centered and we want to grasp their voice but we may not go the extra step to really say what is it that you're trying to convey in this moment as it relates to your learning and I feel that today was a very deliberate attempt in as in us as the adult seeing what our
students are saying about artificial intelligence and its impact on their life and on their learning everyone automatically thinks artificial intelligence is always used in a negative manner but like I said in business competitions we're influenced to use it to our advantage to generate ideas and to gain data it's honestly a
really helpful tool for students awesome thank you so much and congratulations on your journey thank you all right bye-bye at this time we're going to bring up uh a wonderful student also from Cypress Bay uh high school Chan Wo so today we
are Hello my name is Channer i'm freshman at Cypress Bear High School it is truly an honor to deliver the closing speech for today's Broward County Public School meeting i'm here to speak with speak with you today about a topic that shapes
the future for students like me education and emerging technology throughout the meeting we've been discussing about the two technologies extended reality or XR and artificial artificial intelligence or AI
as a student I'm excited about what these tools can do for our learning experiences let's start with XR one of the biggest advantages of XR in education is how interactive it is when we learn about dinosaurs the textbook
often shows the comparison between the size of dinosaurs and human however there are limitations to how effectively effectively size and scale can be conveyed on a page vr set will allow students to see the real size of the
dinosaurs not only this way of learning makes lessons more exciting but it helps students understand and remember what they are learning it connects information to experiences which makes it so powerful now let's talk about AI one of
the biggest challenges in school today is that teachers don't always have time or resources to give every students one-on-one attention ai has the potential to change that it can act like a personal tutor it can understand how each student learns the
best review concept that each student struggles and provide instant feedback for students can get better faster for teachers AI can help with planning lessons tracking progress and supporting students more
effectively but I believe these technologies have far more potential than just a tool to improve the quality of education i believe that in the close future and most most of the jobs in the world humans and AI will work side by side like
partners therefore students should learn how to effectively apply AI to increase efficiency and quality of their work if we want to prepare students in Broward County public schools for long-term success we need to go beyond just bring AI into the classrooms we need to teach
students to work with AI and creatively and confidently the future of education is not just about technology it's about people and potential and when we give students access to right tools and knowledge to use them all we unlock that
potential thank you for your time and this was Cheree from Cypress State High School so uh this concludes our presentation um thank you for the opportunity to share this important body of work with you today what you've seen is not just a showcase of emerging technologies it is
a reflection of our student voices our teachers courage to innovate and our administrator's commitment to reimagining what learning can look like we know we still have a way to go scaling the scaling the meaningful integration of AI VR XR and
project-based learning will take time thoughtful planning and continued collaboration and in a world where technology is evolving faster than ever so too must we evolve while always staying rooted in instructional excellence and equity for all students
but today's presentation makes one thing clear we are on our way and we're building new learning ecosystems where students are not just consumers of knowledge but creators coders critical thinkers and collaborators ready to thrive in a future none of us can fully
predict the students uh to the students and teachers who boldly open their classrooms to the boardroom thank you your passion your brilliance and your willingness to lead from the front continue to inspire us to our board thank you for your trust and your vision
together we are not just responding to change we're leading it thank you thank you and thank you so much for bringing the classroom to the boardroom today and all of the students and staff that came today to share this exciting
um topic with us we do have one public speaker so Kaylee Brown no public speaker okay um next we uh Mrs alhida thank you thank you to Dr hapan and and staff this has been an amazing workshop
i honestly one of our best ones that we've had yet thank you so much uh so I do have a couple questions in regards to are we applying for any specific AI grants dr heer staff yes continuously as a matter of fact we
were awarded one by Career Source uh through CTASE and we're uh actually I think it was about a hundred or so thousand dollars so we are actively recruiting uh grants we're also looking at repurposing some existing federal grants um to ensure that we are cutting
edge and meeting uh our our needs for our students so yes absolutely wonderful so yes so we just need to continue to do that my next question is in regards to is this technology is it available for all students in all schools and um are
we able to appropriately fund that dr heer Dr co yes so many of the um programs that you've seen today are funded through our contract with all schools there are some programs such as prisms and so forth we we we got through a
grant we're actually looking at return on investment in some of those and looking at the impact to look at from a prototype to a pilot uh during our budget season so we're absolutely looking at expanding some of the programs so not right now but I think it would be important for us to have a more
deeper dive into exactly what that looks like at each school if we could get followup on that dr heer yes that's noted okay thank you and I love that you know this this is something that helps all students and
and and really with for the visual learner to be able to really um work with the with the material and to to be taught in this way is amazing thank you to Junior Achievement i know that you're implementing this hands-on so that's
awesome and our students are going to Junior Achievement as far as the um one thing one of the students spoke about and concerns related to AI in schools and cheating do we have a policy on AI currently right
now or if not are we working on it Dr con so there is no policy uh currently um which is the purpose of why we had the districtwide AI task force to inform us through students through teachers through the community uh what is the
position we want to move in um and we are trying to shift and understand the complexity of having a policy that restrict us because of the evolving use of AI and what the policy wouldn't prevent us from doing moving forward uh so through the task force we are going
to be bringing back to the board what we consider either a policy or a process or a practice uh that you can weigh in on okay so you know I'd like to understand if any other school districts already have a policy also are the company that
we have hired to create our policies what are they working on to implement this you know looking at a national at a national level what are those policies look like i think we do need to have a a policy because you know there there's so much complexity to this and for the the
ethical part of it the safety and also to to make sure that if people if students are being disciplined you know that it is done with u equity and and um followed with fidelity across the district and not just in some schools
than others and then in regards to different ways um are are we giving uh professional development for our teachers like to for students to do oral exams or actually write down something
in cursive on a piece of paper go ahead Dr con yes we are we're we're doing a lot of professional learning uh miss all aladdaf on cursive writing and also we're putting together through the AI task force and through the department of innovative learning some AI specific micro credentiing for teachers and
administrators on June 9th and 10th for our leadership day there'll be two specific courses on AI uh for our leaders uh in prompting our next iteration of uh credentiing for teachers so we're doing a lot of that stuff and we're excited about what uh the future
holds okay great and I look just I look forward to that AI policy coming forward to protect fairness and integrity and and then also shout out to our last speaker and one of the things that he said is work with AI creatively and
confidently for the students and I think that is so important that we embrace this which we are and and we continue to uh make sure we give access to all of our students and all of our schools thank you thank you next is uh board member
Leonardi thank you and thank you to all of the students and staff um who made this workshop possible and sat through our riveting conversation on the AECOM contract extension i appreciate you doing that
um I know it's a heavy lift and um I think as board members we learn best from our students and it was really incredible for me to uh experience that you know our students teaching me how to use um VR that was really cool so thank you for that
um I uh I agree with board member Alhadaf in that we we do need to address like the academic integrity piece um with AI um I don't you know I I don't want that to be the whole part of the conversation because the students um
really eliminated the the uses of it um I I thought we did do something in policy regarding like deep fakes in the last year or so no Dr heer yes um I
think you're referring to the student code of conduct okay yep yeah um so I think with that that might be an appropriate place as well to address like I think what some of us don't want to happen is you know I type something in a chat GPT like write me an essay on
XYZ and then I copy and paste right like I think we can all agree that that's not a useful uh way to use AI um so I am curious though if you could expand on the AI task force um like what's the makeup like what are what exact like
what's the cadence of the meetings what are they looking at right now specifically dr cole so I'll refer to Dr wilson who's tasked to lead this but all exciting work um I'll tell you hi how are you
mike sorry about that so the AI task force has been meeting on a monthly basis uh since November and we've been in a hybrid format for the past several weeks because we're going over the ethical and responsible implementation
guidelines and blueprint for Broward County Public Schools in its draft iteration uh we were a uh successful in getting um teachers students also faculty uh principles uh all uh
different categories of individuals that represent the BCPS ecosystem at the table um some of the video that you saw we've actually gone to the SGAA meetings we've gone to different high schools to actually get more uh boots on the ground
data uh from our students so that their voice was actually a part of the process we've also done this same work um virtually and in person with students and our parents so as we have been going through and uh pulling together and
studying about 25 different policies and guidelines from across the country uh we've been pulling together a comprehensive toolkit that our teachers would be able to uh utilize at their schools and also the principal would be
able to from this document set the culture and tone around academic integrity and with and the use of artificial intelligence at their schools we have had the conversation uh about would we um in indeed have some type of
a academic integrity statement that can be also included in the student code of conduct but that becomes a very um cumbersome document so we don't want to overload but we are discussing now what would be the best method of disseminating uh this information once
we present the draft of this ethical and responsible uh guidelines and toolkit uh to the board to get feedback before we have a final roll out uh to the district as a whole so we've been working on this diligently for the past several months
we meet the first week in May uh to go over the draft collectively um again all uh departments from academics and schools have been represented along with that student voice and we have had the parental weighin uh with the work and we look forward to bringing the document to
you for additional um feedback andor redirection so that we can have something in place for the beginning of the school year and that is the goal awesome thank you um and then I I did want to speak
to you know this is such a revolutionary technology AI um we're seeing like you you all said things rapidly change and it's you know it's changing our whole society it's going to eliminate jobs like there's a lot to to wrap our heads
around one concern I do have is um I grapple with the loss of critical thinking skills and so you know we heard from one of our students that it can actually you know it helps students access the why to a lot of a lot of
answers and that is incredible right um so I hope that moving forward and I think it's going to take everyone and it's this very cumbersome thing to do but moving forward um trying to make sure that with the integration of this
technology we are still providing students with many many opportunities to think critically and and produce you know I think of you know I'm an English teacher so I think about what it takes to write an essay or or respond to a
prompt and analyze and syn synthesize information um so you know again I'm not at all opposed to the use of AI and I think you know anyone who is is really in denial of our reality um but making
sure that um we are still giving pushing our students to be able to to think critically and I'm I'm not I don't have the answers to that i hope you do um but yeah that that was one piece that
I I did want to address um I saw one of you so I I I just it interesting because um and I'll go back to Miss Aladd's point about policy so we we have done a whirlwind tour across the nation uh we've also attended the council of great
city schools who had a topic on AI um in no district is at a place where they really want to subscribe yet to a policy because as we know every week something changes in AI and having a policy sometimes restricts restricts ourselves
to whatever the potential innovation that happens the next week or the following week or the next month so as we come back to a policy we certainly want to think about how it could be general broad enough but restrictive enough that gives us what we need and so
our best foot forward in bringing something back to the board is to give you the options but also giving us access and opportunity when innovation starts to happen that we're not tying ourselves to that innovation because most vendors now that we have contracts
with have already included involve integrated AI and as they start to change uh and integrate it we want to make sure our policy certainly can build itself around that piece uh and then the second thing to your your point um I had the opportunity to attend a school
called the Ohana Institute and students were debating the use of AI uh for and against and so there was a teacher there I happened to be in the room and her question was well I'm not really sure if I'm embracing AI to that extent uh where
the teachers uh were shy to release the responsibility back to the students uh but when concepts are mastered to your point critical thinking skills AI then becomes the next level of how do you then take it to the next level how do you use it to build into critical
content areas and problem solving in project-based learning and so I think we need to help teachers understand how to use the technology in a way that still allows critical thinking and problem solving and innovation thank you so much
um and and to that point you know I I just have to be on the record saying that to the extent that we can improve access to this technology the the technologies that we learned about today to teachers who want to use it um I think is very important that we do that
so count me as as someone who wants to support the expansion of this um and and one last point I as I was using the VR this the students were teaching me um I kept thinking like and we saw a
demonstration of it today too how great this technology can be for our stu our ESC students our English language learners um so specifically looking to target uh those technologies to those te teachers um would be great thank you
thank you thank you Dr wholeness thank you Madam Chair so um Dr cohen I did hear you and thank you so much for the presentation and your team uh Dr wilson and um we appreciate all of you thank you so much um so I did hear you
mention that we have ways to go um and uh and that um we are on our way um so I guess the question I have is um I I do appreciate all of what I've seen
today and I certainly like board member Leonardi would like to see uh the expansion of these technologies in BR County Schools uh so how fast can we go because he said we're on our way and we have ways to go so could you comment on
how we can uh uh expedite the the process of expansion um to ensure that we are on we are ahead of cutting edge technology as a district because I think all of our goal here is to be not only the number one district in the state of
Florida but the number one district in the nation and I think this is an opportunity we're at a junction where we can expand these technologies to be at the forefront of these innovative um initiatives dr heer Dr conan team sure so uh the first thing is awareness um we
need to make sure that all teachers are aware of the resources that exist currently and so we've done a forensic audit of all of our resources our core materials as well as our supplemental materials we've also um calibrated with all of our vendors to see who actually
has all of these resources and so we now have that information we've now started to redesign and redevelop our professional learning uh to include all of those embedded uh uh software and technology applications any new vendors that are coming such as you just
approved discovery science it has AI in it and so our goal is to start to crossrain all of our teachers uh in the applications through the adopted core as well as through the supplement materials pushing out uh these resources uh
through our pivot memo to make them aware of what's happening we're starting with the leader in mind on June 9th and 10th letting them know here are all these resources available as the leader of the school and how you can integrate it um and making sure that they get integrated into it in their learning
pathway as well and then so through professional learning through identification of resources and making sure that teachers through our formal and informal meetings our support meetings our monthly coaches meetings we're integrating all of that thing all of all of that in a seamless way so that
they are aware okay and I do have a few questions so uh through the superintendent uh Dr cone and maybe the superintendent may be the one to respond to this but how do we compare to other districts that are um emphasizing the
use of these technologies that have goals to be at the forefront of this how where are we in comparison to those districts dr heer yes great question uh we're all on the same journey as you know this AI technology has grown
exponentially over the past year or two and many of the edte companies that um that we purchase software from for uh whatever for core content instruction or supplemental instruction are now embedded a lot of AI technology so we're
on the same journey as many other large school districts across the country uh most of the conferences um that you go to people are trying to leverage uh their opportunities to introduce you to um their services or or their goods that
has that has a AI embedded into it or any of the services that we do have many of those vendors are actually coming back to us to present the new technology that they have embedded into the current suites that we already use so uh we're on the same journey as as many of the other large school districts across the
country okay so um Dr heburn how would you describe uh because I am really excited about what I've seen today so how would you describe the current state of Broward County schools in the
implementation of these technologies and and where are we going and and how how fast can we go the the current state is good um as you can see from the presentation today with from Dr fulton Dr con Dr wilson and and the rest of the
team um we are fully embracing um innovation uh we're not trying to stay stagnant they hear they hear from me all the time about we have to do things differently we can't operate like the industrial plant of a school district of of of school districts of the past in order um we heard it from our students
too hey you guys finally are like catching up with us right so um we're we're implementing as fast as we can um but doing it in a methodical way where it's going to be sustainable and have the intended impacts that we're looking for um we're um having discussions with
vendors i've met with a couple as of last week too so we're constantly meeting with vendors to figure out what type of instructional tools um that they have embedded with AI in it um that we can leverage moving forward and so we're kind of like shark tanking um vendors out there just to see what they have
available that supports our current needs and help us um excel in the future also okay and I appreciate that dr heburn I I would also love to hear comments in the near future that that they're trying to catch up with us uh that we're ahead of it and I think that's that's the direction we need to
go um so basically what measure is in place uh because we've seen some piloted programs like like prisms uh using VR so what has been done to determine uh the success of these piloted programs are
there any datadriven um information that shows that a technology like that um and I had the the the privilege of seeing Dillard um 6 through 12 students with using um Prism so is there any datadriven um information that shows how
successful it is and and if it is successful what is the action plan in place to to make sure this is districtwide yep so I give the the 30,000 foot view and Dr con and team can get a little bit more granular of um our
student performance data right um as we look at um how students who are engaged in AI or XR um tools or resources versus those who aren't readily who don't have that readily available to them yet um to see
to compare their performance versus the other students that are that don't have those resources and then I know Dr con this team they're evaluating other granular aspects of data as well as potential white papers that we send to the board to kind of give a narrative view of what we've discovered of how it
impacts kids go ahead Dr yeah and uh Dr holess we've engaged in a number of researchbased institutions such as handover and wested uh to help our external partners really evaluate the return on investment so right now we're currently working with one in particular
uh that was a prototype because we do need to know uh what is it what is the direct correlation of the impact of the technology to student achievement whether it's engagement whether it's motivation whether it's achievement data and so right now they're formalizing that process now through our own
internal research department we're doing a correlational study to take a look at specifically student types gender er subgroups and all those and looking at the impact acts across school systems grade levels to determine the impact because with declining enrollment we
also have to look at which programs are having the highest return on investment in terms of student outcomes so we can limit the portfolio of our services to those specific things and so when we start to think about how we roll these things out uh maybe not on a full scale
basis because of cost but maybe we start as a prototype so like for example with prisms we started as a prototype with 13 to 14 schools almost in an incubation model and we are looking at how impactful that is with specific types of schools specific types of students and
now prisms is helping us to look at the data around how do we think about a prototype to a pilot model so we're looking at all these kind of research models before we roll it out to the board and say hey we know this really really works and here's the data behind it uh and so we're everything has to be
with some kind of student achievement data tied to it and so we're really thoughtfully looking at all of this and we're making sure vendors understand that they have skin in the game that they have to produce the results as well and so it's a shared responsibility between the district and the vendor okay
so Dr coned through the superintendent when do you anticipate bringing back to us based upon um the uh data uh driven research that is taking place uh to bring back some substantive concrete um
results to us to show that programs like Prism um is actually working and then what's the action plan beyond that uh to to um expand this uh beyond 14 schools if indeed it shows significant positive
results sure so I think typically we do a board workshop on PM3 data to show how well we did i think we can make connections between the PM3 data and this workshop um bringing in the data around these specific programs so we'll happy to do that when we bring the PM3
data okay great so I'll I'll wrap this up i am very impressed um I think we we ought to be at the forefront Dr heburn of uh cutting edge technologies i don't want us to to to say we're catching up i want everyone else to try to catch up
with us so I think um in order for us to prepare students to succeed in the future I think we're at a junction where this is where the future is going and um and I think we we cannot be business as usual we're at a critical junction uh where we have to get on to a new train
or or risk being left behind um and or playing catch-up and I I don't want us you know to be in that position so Dr heburn I would um strongly recommend uh that um there is some kind of action
plan in place whether it's uh for a year a couple of years or so on how we can be at the forefront of these cutting edge technologies and be ahead that we are a role model for other districts to follow i think if we ought to become the number
one district in the nation this is an opportunity that we can jump on and and be ahead of everyone else so if you could um uh look into um some sort of a plan of action uh over multiple years uh
however long it takes for us to be ahead of this game and um for others to see us as a model to follow noted i know the academic team and also Mr davis are smiling in the back because we're we're kind of way ahead of uh the
ass so that definitely know that we'll provide something soon thank you appreciate it thank you can I also add something yes i don't want you to think we're not in the forefront because we are in many cases we just didn't we didn't pat ourselves on the back enough um so with XR we're leading the way in
designing the curriculum districts are leaning on us to be because we are the leaders but we're happy to uh bring you the multi-year uh phase uh approach as you requested i would love that because I I I want if if if they ask about a a technologydriven district in in in the
nation I want to hear Broward being as one of those received thank you thank you board member Thompson i'll be extremely brief um I do think we are leading in a lot of ways in our AI and innovative technologies um so I want to
give a huge shout out to staff and also Trey Davis for bringing this to fruition i also just wanted to clear up some concerns because I hear that the policy it's AI is changing every day my husband works in this field his job last month is rapidly different than it was the
than it is right now so I think creating a policy I get extremely nervous that we are going to shut down opportunities without meaning to and so for clarification I know that we have a plagiarism policy within our student code of conduct would that cover
students using AI dr heer Dr wilson yes um so in relationship to um policies the advice that we've been given from the state AI task force and the work around this is we need to embed
language in existing policies so we're not recreating the wheel because academic integrity whether AI is present or not is academic integrity so we need to make sure that we are properly noting within current policy the proper and um
ethical use of these tools so we're not to your point being locked into one policy that then next month may be irrelevant so the fluidity of the document that we're creating right now as a guideline for my apologies
it's okay you've been talking a lot yeah excuse me so um in relationship to the guidelines that we are creating that will be the fluid document that is as trends uh continue we can update and do
what we need to as trends allow uh so that we at least have a framework but specifically dealing with because my my department specifically because we manage the turn it in um tool and we know that our um Cambridge schools are required thank you
so much uh for our students in order to get their eligibility they have to utilize and prove that they've written papers so um having tools in place and language around that to specifically discuss the use of the tool what tools
you can use around writing documents and things of that nature when you have um a high similarity ratio uh that is the piece that from professional development around artificial intelligence that we really have to dig into because the human agency around this can never be
lost from our teachers so that when they're executing that to our students we are um making sure we're covering that on all bases but to your point that would be in our toolkit thank you so much that's it thank you Dr zean
thanks chair uh the idea for today was brought up uh so that we would have this demonstration and and have this conversation and I appreciate uh people's concerns about risks and
policies and things like that i just went out to San Diego last week and attended the AI and K12 conference uh Broward County is um in the mix but um there are a lot of other counties that are making
substantial investments uh in AI and we need to think hard about that as a quick mental exercise and I'm glad Dan is here because uh Dan I'm wondering in your day in my day when I was a young kid running around here did we have a policy on calculators did we have a policy on
microchips we have to be very careful about policies because you know this technology is not just rapidly advancing but it's changing everything our students know that many
of our parents know that i hope we know it too i'm curious about what our students think about our kind of work on artificial intelligence and on technology that helps edtech in general but like Dr for wholeness i think we
need to become Broward County Public Schools powered by AI that's the mandate that every district in the United States has it's not do some of our vendors who we already bought stuff from add AI after we bought it that's cute but I don't
want to pat ourselves on the back for something that our vendors did on their own and I think we have to not just think about grants but we have to think about um a number of other things so that we can become Broward County Public Schools powered by AI this is a huge
competitive advantage for large districts because many of the things you buy with AI are one-time costs we can go get co-pilot for 26,000 employees in Broward County schools we can get co-pilot for almost 200,000 students and we can afford that and it would
fundamentally change our school system in fact if we did that imagine if people called Broward County Schools hotline and got were answered by an autonomous AI powered bot that could answer any question they had and that bot could not tell a lie and that bot was available
24/7 365 and you could call and say "I'm Alan Zean i live at this address what's my school who's my principal when do they take tours what specialties do they have at that school what are my alternatives ai is going to change everything we do
i'm incredibly disappointed we don't have any measurable results right now i forgot who asked the question maybe several of us asked the question but it's not okay to run a pilot and not have data we run pilots to measure results and if you get paid to do a pilot in Broward County you should have
a plan to gather data and come back and tell this board exactly what the ROI is not give us a paragraph about what you thought we might do later broward County also has 2,000 current members using AI every day they use a free software package it would be
interesting to think about creating a community of practice so maybe they could talk to each other and say "Hey I'm a teacher i'm I'm a an ELA teacher and I'm using it for these seven things but the greatest change for AI is really for our almost 200,000
students technology however is only part of the solution and I wish we had gotten into that today uh the technology that we saw today is actually representing a brand new way of learning it's driven by individual curiosity it's driven by where you want to go it's individuated
can you imagine a teacher with 500 students in front of them with VR glasses if you can't imagine it it's coming there are some big questions about this measuring ROI funding are big
ones uh but we really need to become to the extent we can Broward County Public Schools powered by AI another big issue that you are going to have to deal with Dr heburn is that a lot of our learning is going to go 3D but our assessment tools are all
2D so either we're going to have to go spend some money and get 3D assessment tools because they're learning in 3D and moving through space and grabbing the globe and doing things and then we make them sit down with paper and pencil or online and answer objective answers ABC D it's um it's something that we're
going to have to figure out but I am absolutely committed to this i don't think we need to uh I mean there's certainly some dangers about a AI um but because we're a large urban school district and our budget is significant we have an outsiz advantage far greater
than any public charter in Broward far greater than any private school in Broward County we can invest in AI and it although we don't have really great data about why people choose where they go to school I suspect very strongly that one of those things is technology and AI and if we could get ahead of
other schools we would have a huge competitive advantage as uh as people think about it so I'm looking forward to this uh future stuff i would propose to my colleagues that we think a little bit about future workshops where we ask explicitly how do we become Broward
County Public Schools powered by AI it's not it's not a a individual technology that can help an individual thing it helps mental health it helps with equity it helps with academic achievement it helps with attendance i mean one of the fascinating things I learned in San Diego is schools that have high-tech
have significantly higher attendance why Dr holes why would students come to school when you have high-tech they love it they get to use it and they're engaged in it they get to learn at the pace with which they have curiosity in ways in which they're curious and so uh I hope that in the
future we think hard about more workshops on this general topic but it really ought to be how do we get to Broward County Public School powered by AI uh as a way to make sure that our future generates that last speaker that talked from Cypress Bay and I didn't catch his name uh Patrick talking about
it from his perspective i want to make sure that those are our customers that we're thinking about and how do we build a a system that impresses you and if we do that we'll be doing our job very very well i suspect you know more about it than most adults in Broward County um
but you are uh the people that we need to be thinking about when we pass budgets uh when we think about how we spend our workshop time and how we move toward becoming the nation's leader again uh in the next wave of education reform which is clearly about AI so Broward County Public School powered by
AI i hope we get that topic to come back maybe every other workshop uh for the next several years because that is the kind of movement our community wants and that's the kind of vision that will allow us uh to win back students to this amazing school district that we're representing
thank you board member Bowman all right I'll keep it brief um thank you very much to the leadership um I really enjoyed the presentation i thought it was awesome um I'm always a little skeptical about technology and kind of a
paper book kind of person but um I thought it was amazing i had um Andrew and Patrick and Alana giving me a presentation and to have your student become your teacher is an amazing thing i think you can't overestimate the value
of that and um and really just the passion and the enthusiasm that they're bringing to this how engaged they are i think it's just such a cool component of education and it when you're looking at
you know analytical skills and being concerned which I have been also but I think like when you're looking at the students and what they were doing just in the brief presentations the creativity the way that you have to think about using the tools the way that
you're selling the tools Patrick did a excellent job on that um so I think that those things are just really expanding our students capabilities and way of looking at the world and I um am happy that they're doing it and hopefully they'll continue to help me do it
because I don't really understand it um but it's good to know that we have an entire group of people that will be able to put presentations together for me and other things of that nature so thank you very much i really enjoyed today thank you board member Rupert thank you so um
I will also be as brief as my colleague Mora um firstly today was the first time I could actually be immersed into history and um it just blew my mind especially you read about how big a
triceratops is but not until you're able to be kind of underneath and holding up the uh the rib cage as you go through it was pretty incredible um my first question is the expansion with teacher PD um I mean I don't need to note now
because we have we're way behind on our training and we have a lot of things we're waiting to happen um so I you can give it in the follow-up so the expansion for PD for connections and partnerships i had the opportunity yesterday to go NSU uh and tour their AI
and VR i didn't go to San Diego i'm sorry but I went to NSU and one point that Dr um I'm sorry Dr zean um had a pos possibility
about talking how many people a teacher could actually reach they had a 360 um degree room so as a teacher you can go in there and um it was absolutely stunning you had you had screens that
were representative of teachers so you can be reaching people all over the world and it was uh awesomely amazing so I think if we don't have a partnership with NSU we should look into that and any other um PD that's possible for our our employees to to actually get that
combination it's an amazing opportunity right here in town um of course just like my colleagues I want to make sure that this is for all students and all schools and um one more thing is what was the actual
criteria for the 14 schools it'll be interesting to know what uh what knowledge that what criteria actually was um looked at in what areas and for what reasons and going back to my colleagues before um little
disappointing that we don't have the results from those but we will and I know it's going to be great and um I think that board directive is that we want to be all in on this and we certainly don't want to be behind the
curve and um I'm very very excited about this so thank you so much it was a wonderful opportunity thank you and I'll close us out with just saying you know I think it's important for us as a board us as a school district to always be looking 10
years out right our elementary school students what kind of jobs what skills do they need when they leave us so it's exciting to to see what's happening now when we know it's changing so much but important that we do research to also
see what it looks like 10 years from now although may be difficult to do there's jobs and things we can't even envision um but I think it's important that that plan isn't just about what skills students need today but what they'll
need 10 years from now because we'll have to we want to stay ahead of it we don't want to be catching up so I think we're on the road to that i again appreciate bringing the classroom to the boardroom today it was very exciting thank you to all the students that came out today i know waiting around and
listening to all these old people talk is not the most exciting thing but we appreciate your insight um and and the fact that you were sharing your time with us today to learn some of these new skills and thank you to staff for bringing this to us again and I think
that wraps us up so thank you very very much we're going to take a short five minute recess before we move on to our next item which is our board training thank you heat heat hey hey hey
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah heat heat 5 4 3 2 1 Welcome Back to the school board workshop the next item is the school board member training FSBA master
board i will now turn it over to the superintendent to introduce our trainer superintendent i have something for if I may go ahead Mr sullivan thank you as you all may have recalled on the December 10th board uh workshop the
board approved our participation with the FSBA U master board training uh we believe this training will be valuable for our board and governance it is now my pleasure to welcome and introduce our facilitator for today's discussion Miss Carol Cook uh she's uh the leadership
development consultant for the FSBA she brings a wealth of knowledge to the position and has been recognized for her work uh throughout her tenure in uh Penllis as a school board member she has over 24 years of experience and has been actively involved in FSBA this is her
14th year as the leadership development consultant let's see what else um also during her time as a board member Miss Cook earned both the certified board member designation and the advanced boardmanship uh
certification an achievement held only by nine school board members statewide at this time her dedication to public education students success has been recognized throughout numerous uh children advocacy awards and she was honored as a finalist uh during the
prestigious Green Gardener award from the uh the council of great city schools so please help me welcome Miss Cook uh to today's workshop it's on it's on yep they just had to set it up in the back i've been told I need to speak to you through the microphone
today so if I forget and put it down somewhere somebody hollered to me because I'm I'm a little absent i will tell you the thing that the presentation that I just saw is it's amazing it's overwhelming and it's also very exciting
so I think you are on the way to being one of the leaders and today I'm going to bring you back to old school with paper and pencil so for that I apologize um I'm wondering if we could be a little more informal during this time and would it be all right if I called you by your
first names instead and you may call me okay that way we can have a little um little less um formal discussion and interaction with each other we're going to um get partially through normally this is done in a one-day deal full day
and um we're going to break it up into two so today is sort of like getting a baseline of where are we what are we doing and how do we want to move forward and then I will come back and we'll do the next part and we'll talk about communication and we'll talk about uh and do some team building and and those
types of things so it may be the full four hours today it may be three and a half we'll just see how your conversation goes and and where we go so I am thrilled to be here and very pleased i actually grew up in Fort
Lauderdale and went to schools here um my I went to McNab Elementary i went to Sunrise Junior High when we were busing people around um my sister graduated from PMPO Beach High School and other one graduated from Northeast so we have
some roots in the area i ended up in private school for high school so um anyway um I am pleased to to be here and you hold a special place in my heart so we're going to go ahead and get started
um with the presentation i think they're going to bring it up okay this is all geared around growth and growing and it is we are going to be cultivating educational excellence so you're going to see a lot of things about plants and stuff as we
go through all of this our agenda today is only going to be to get through Tuckman planting the seeds of success roles and responsibilities that's the root of governance and as long as we know our roles and our responsibilities we can be a more effective and a more efficient team now when I talk about a
team I'm talking about the school board members and the superintendent that is the leadership team of the district and that you are the most important people as far as moving the district forward um and setting your goals and setting your strategic plan and moving in that
direction and then you have the the workers that do you know all of your staff the presentations that they did the students the teachers everybody that's here they're the ones that are the boots on the ground but you're the ones who are saying this is where we're going and this is how fast we're going
and this is the direction so it's important that we have those roles and responsibilities and we know exactly what we're doing so that we're not wasting time getting in each other's way we are in the sunshine as you know so um if we get to a point where we
might be discussing something on which you're going to vote usually I'm a pretty good judge but you know best so if we if we go there just say nope we're getting ready to vote on that we'll use another example okay
ultimately why does Broward County Schools exist who can tell me to educate our students okay to educate students okay why else yep
to prepare the upcoming generation for the future okay of the society yep educate them and in that process we're going to have to prepare them for the future there anything else Nora
okay okay so it's not just enough to educate them it's to educate each and every child and to prepare each and every child okay lori provide them with a safe environment for them to be able to learn and grow right in order for them to
learn you have to have the safe environment yes okay anything you don't have to answer especially when you're you're eating so okay so basically you're here to make sure that you are preparing each and every student giving them the education they need to be
prepared for their future and to do that in a safe environment well you may have seen on the bottom of my tagline okay this is not working there we go student um I think we're too students ahead well anyway
I'll ask you the question anyway are you happy with the results that you are getting right now have you reached that goal no or you wouldn't be talking about how can we make things different how can we
move forward you saw this on my tagline underneath that students outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change now part of that can tie right into what your last workshop was that is a change in adult behaviors those
students are ready and they're going and they're moving forward but we have to get out of our own heads and out of our own way in order to do that for them but I'm talking right now to each and every one of you until your behaviors change
you may not see outcomes change okay now how do you change part of it is saying "All right let's embrace AI." The other is let's make sure that we're working together as a team let's make sure that we are putting everything
forward in our strategic plan and that we keep that first and foremost in our heads um oh okay i thought something had just taken over um so you know we need to just
um kind of analyze where are we what are we doing are we in our roles are we um wasting time on things that uh are not really ours to to be involved in we sometimes can get so deep into what
staff is doing that they are hesitant to move forward until they get board approval as opposed to here are your goals here's what the expectation is come back and tell us how you're
doing now it's not giving people just the ability to just go do whatever they want it is with um checking checkins and and that type of thing so we're going to look at are there behaviors that we need to change as individuals are there behaviors we need to change as a
leadership team and um how do we move forward to make Broward County Schools even stronger and better is there a Okay there we go i have a seed for each of you and I would like you on this seed
to write two things what what is an essential or are the essential elements it can be more than just one what are the essential elements that you need in order to function as a
team okay on your seed write the essential elements that you believe are needed to be an effective team an effective governance team okay what are some of those things that
you've listed and we're writing here um spelling and handwriting don't count because I do abbreviations sometimes that are really kind of crazy but what are some of them just anyway okay Lori student centered and unified
purpose okay student centered and unified purpose okay who else earn trust all righty trust who else reliable and timely information
okay okay what else communication and compromise all right compromise what else integrity integrity okay what else
uh action driven good listeners understanding and making decisions based on data okay I'll do listen data driven okay you had two other things action driven action
driven okay and the other I have um listening understanding okay anybody else have anything yes all right equitable participation among team
members okay oops all right what else Lori clear governor since staying out of operations uhhuh okay okay uh I'll just put versus
operations if that's okay all right what else anybody yes um adherence to set policies okay or
procedures okay now there's a difference there so now if you're talking about governance are you talking about adhering adherence to procedures are you also talking about adherence to policy if you're in a governance role correct
yes okay all right anybody else okay now let's go through and look at how many of these may have overlapped or how many of you are looking at
um for example how many of you would think that trust is an important piece in a government in a governance role okay one two three four five you don't have to because the whole
group is okay i'm going to circle it because the majority of you do okay what else reliability is that important yeah that's important okay and timely information for governance these are
things that will help you come up with the way to govern you know in order to do that so I'm going to put a check mark over here communication is that important and absolutely it's important in a governance role because if you're not talking with each other and having
the conversations that need to happen how do you know where you're going to move and where you're going to go okay compromise is that important that's actually necessary too you can compromise with ever without ever having
to change your values and we'll talk about that a little bit and we'll also talk about in one of the sessions how you can have um different perspectives and you can understand perspectives without changing your values as well because that's important so we we do have to have
compromise integrity if you don't have integrity as a leadership team how is anybody in this community going to trust the Broward County Schools was doing the best thing that they can for their students and how are they going to trust the decisions you're making so
this one I'm actually going to put a star by it as well as circle that's huge and hopefully it's part of your core values for your district okay and listening that's all part of communication so are there any of these that you think aren't particularly important as we go through we're
circling and circling and circling are there any of these that aren't i'm going to highlight this one understanding your governance role versus operations that is huge if you are not doing that a
lot of time gets wasted a lot of staff gets nervous because they don't know who they're supposed to be listening to when board members start getting into management and start telling how things are to happen it gets very dangerous and
when board members don't agree on how things are supposed to happen and they're in that realm it creates a lot of problems so we're going to go through and talk about how do you how do you figure it out we have a lot of roles that the superintendent has and a lot of
roles that board members have and these are at the very basis of how we do our work and what we need in order to be a strong team but we also have to know what is governance and what is operations or governance versus
management okay so what I'm gonna ask you to do now okay the rolls okay we're talking about this i don't know if this responds slowly or what okay just as strong roots provide the
foundation for a plant to grow to be tall and healthy a clear understanding of your roles versus management or the the roles that are provided for you you need to understand that in order to be effective in achieving your goals you
need that strong basis you need the basics to to be in place now what are some of those things that you need a strategic plan so that you know what is this district doing what is important
to this district what are you focusing on and as you're reviewing your strategic plan you might want to look do you have a goal in there for AI you spend a lot of time talking about it but do you have something in there that says AI is important
because if you don't and you're tying your budget to your strategic plan I heard questions about where's the budget what's the budget are we looking for grants in order to cover that you're the recommendations are always here's your
strategic plan here are your goals now your budget supports that strategic goal so we're looking at a budget that would also um encompass and support the AI that you're bringing in as well now it
may be under a student achievement goal you may not need a separate AI goal but you need to have um something in there if this is going to be important to the to the governance team and then management will also note that this is important as you move
forward and as a leadership team that's discussion that you have where is that going to be what other kinds of things need to be in there after you get your data you may find out that some of the things that you concentrated on this year can float off doesn't mean that
you're going to quit paying attention to them but it's not going to get the same emphasis maybe that some of the others do so this is all part of creating that structure underneath that's strong in order for it to be an effective governance all right um in front of you
you have several post-its i want you to on each one on a separate postit what is the role what are some of the jobs that a schoolboard member does and what are some of the jobs that the superintendent
does and that and I'm not talking about um visiting schools necessarily but what are um what are the things that a school board member is supposed to be doing and when you do that I want you to come up
here and put it either under the board as a board's responsibility or the superintendent's responsibility or the superintendent's job versus a schoolboard member's job okay so you get to get up and walk around a little bit too while you're doing that and put
those up there as many as you can think of yes one for postit oh one per posted okay no I want them to put them up
there walk around a little bit she has 87 and they're off for the superintendent there you go that's it okay set policy set policy set policy the board okay okay put this up with budget
question okay all right okay all right is that all of them all right so what we have up here is basically the board uh we have legislates but we have hires
evaluates and can fire the superintendent the auditor and the attorney okay so there are several of those that is your job and your job alone okay and approve the budget or adopting the budget
setting policy or making policy um and creating policy is all part of it and then um approves the org charts the budgets and the policies so that one I kind of left alone even though it covers a lot of it and then communicates with
the public all right now we're going to look at the superintendent um he provides clear procedures for policies he hires staff which is written in a couple places oversees the day-to-day operations
um creates the org chart uh directs staff and holds them accountable and he leads and manages staff as well as communicates with the public okay so now we have the school
board communicating with the public and we have the superintendent creat uh communicating with the public that's kind of an overlap all right we also have creating policy there's a little bit of an overlap in
here in that how does this how does this function when you're creating policy i said there's an overlap why did I say there's an overlap what happens with policy okay the board says we need a
policy on this or the superintendent and staff find that they need a policy on something we have discussion about it the superintendent then creates a policy with staff recommends it to the board
and you have discussion and then the board will approve it or modify it change it whatever okay if you try to write policy have you ever tried to words smmith have you ever tried to write anything in a group of 10 it will take
you six years to figure out whether it's going to go into effect today or tomorrow yes brings us one to a senior okay i go to the CEO of a company that's director of operations
teaching staff said this question i don't bring one answer but everything we review is a single policy or a single recommendation rather than one that says "Look there's two or three different options here here's the pros and cons." Are there any school boards that do
options with pros and cons instead of single point solutions there are maybe with a single topic not um not with every policy it may be in a particular subject area now they say you know we
want to know whether this would work or this will work and they may have some discussion most times the discussion happens ahead of time as to kind of what you're looking for in policy and then staff brings that forward and that's where you get the one recommendation you
don't have to take the one recommendation changes can be made you know you don't rubber stamp nobody's rubber stamping anything and the superintendent and staff knows that but um I don't know of any school board
where they consistently bring multiple solutions as a policy now if you wanted I wouldn't ask staff to do it every single time no no but if if there was one about taking advantage of stat depth so lots of times there'll be a
critical issue um on a topic and I don't want to go into any specific examples but there'll be an item and there's kind of a a low cost medium class high cost or low risk medium risk high risk um and the staff knows those options mhm um but
instead they're all like arguing with each other about what is the one that they're going to push and what we miss is the pros and cons or the alternatives ourselves and and we're not good at that right like we can't see uh all the options that are going on in today's
operations but the staff that works for the superintendent has like a thousand times more knowledge than a school member has right and we lose that that depth of knowledge when all we get is a single solution and I agree with you it wouldn't be appropriate for all items i
don't need a change order that says yes no maybe kind of double that you know that's not appropriate right but for policy issues in particular it'd be nice to know the options about key policies or key elements within policies and sometimes for big decisions we spend a
lot of time talking about what is feasible as opposed as alternatives to what's been recommended um and then the staff seems surprised that we ask them about other solutions and then they haven't researched them so they're kind of koi about saying good bad or
otherwise right but uh any case just something to for us to think about maybe yeah yeah and here's the other piece to that staff is very likely bringing three or four different options and thoughts to the superintendent and the superintendent in
the conversation says this is the policy that I'm bringing forward you know or in the you know in their conversation they're talking about high level low-level risks what is it going to cost what's going to be what's the best way to move it forward and then you're getting what they believe is their best
option to discuss and that's when you then look at it and say "Okay now how does this play out five years from now how does this play out 10 years from now are you solving a problem that's happening right now by trying to make a policy or are you creating um what they
call guard rails to say we want things to move forward within these boundaries and how you do it is important um to make sure that we're constantly changing and we're not being encumbered by policies that say
thou shalt not one of the things is that our policies have a lot of procedures embedded in them right so most we will have a policy that's 10 pages long and you have other school districts with the same policy that's at
the max two because it keeps it broad so there's there's not a lot of uh procedures that are baked in procedures are usually on the operational side of how to actually execute and get the work done according to the policy there um many districts will have policies that
purely are just policy and then we'll talk about some terminology and I'll come back to this comment uh I mean back to your your statement but then they have a procedures manual um there was a district that had into
their policy that football players got I don't know one pair of pants I think it was they actually had to make a policy change in order to give their football players two pairs of pants and that's where you're on the board and that's because they had their procedures in their policies by taking it out board
members could review the policy manual so that they know what's going on every time there are ma big changes or once a year but it wasn't keeping people from being able to move forward and do their job you know and and we'll go back and
bring it back up if I forget to tie it in so there are some things here where it overlaps and we need to know what our responsibility is the superintendent recommends policy and we look at it and determine whether this is the best policy what changes might need to be in
it or do we move forward with this um I know that um many of us use Niola and they bring forward their best thoughts staff I'm sure looks at that before they even bring it to you rather than just saying "Well this is what Niola said so
this is what we're going to bring." Now there also are cases nowadays where we are having to implement policy or put policy in and I keep saying we I'm sorry that board members I'm no longer one um
that um have to implement it almost verbatim based on what the legislature has passed and so that's something where the superintendent and the attorney make sure that they are adding all of the key points from the legislation and then we
move forward with it the other is um that you have that overlaps is communicating with the public do you have protocols as to um you know is it something you're just talking about in a grocery store or with people or do you
have individuals sending out newsletters do you have people holding you know press conferences on their own all of those kinds of things are there procedures because if the same story is not going out with the same details people start to lose faith in
the leadership team when the press calls do you have a process for what you do with that or do you have a way of handling it um oftentimes uh board members will let the
um press go straight to I mean the the um phone call goes straight to the answering machine how's that for old school um you know they go to voicemail and then he the hopefully the um reporter will say
I'm calling on this particular topic that you're going to be discussing at the at the next board meeting okay then you can get the most current information if you pick it up and you're talking to a reporter you want to say "Let me get the best information i know what was
going on yesterday i know what was going on this morning but let me check and see if anything has changed." It doesn't minimize your ability to do your job or for them to think that you're not able or don't know what's going on you just want to have the most current
information stuff changes like that and so it's very difficult even with the budget there are things that overlap and it's hard to know where does it overlap and and where do I go and how deep am I going and we're going to talk a little
bit about where we go with those kinds of things and we found a very easy way some of you in do new board member training have seen this but we're going to go a little deeper into it if we can get it to move all right there we
go we're going to break this down into four words what if we are saying what needs to happen that is the board's role if we are saying what should this policy
address that's the board's role what do we want to fund with the budget that's the board's role what do we want to see as far as student achievement that's the board's role anytime you're asking what that is
the board's role we're the ones that are telling the superintendent what we want to see as a school district and and move forward if we get into the how the how is the superintendent when we're looking at management versus governance the
governance is the what the management is the how it's okay to ask the superintendent how are they going to how how are you going to move this forward but if we start telling the superintendent how to do something or get so far into the hows
that we're forgetting that our role is the what um then we start to lose um a little bit of the balance that needs to happen there was a board that they had so many board members that were
trying to um let the superintendent know how to do things that staff actually kind of decided I'm just going to keep my head low i'm going to do as little as possible because I don't want to get caught in the crossfire because this board member was saying it had to
be this way another board member saying it has to be done another way another board member saying something else has to happen and staff didn't know who they were supposed to listen to because even though we know that the superintendent is the one who evaluates them they still
have you in their minds as their bosses and they don't want to cross the board so they start trying to make everybody happy and they spend more time trying to make everybody happy than they do addressing the needs of the students you can paralyze a district by not staying
in your role you can also create problems because if you don't have people in the governance role that are staying there and you don't have people in the management role or you have too many people in the management role then that creates problems as well
now how far is too far i heard some questions today about um how are we going to fund it how are we going to be u moving forward with that okay those questions are okay but
if you start saying "This is how I think we should do it." That's a conversation that you can have one-on-one with the superintendent and just you know toss ideas around or whatever and that's okay but in a management role and when you're
in a board meeting to start telling staff or the superintendent how to do things you're stepping out of your role do you understand and see the difference okay yes sir i've seen another
problem which is board members corporate or board members for a government organization don't put their time and effort into the things they can change so instead of worrying about the strategic goals instead of working about um you know reviewing the data that
comes in toward those strategic goals thinking about policies and long-term budgets and the implications of that that part which is there mandate um it's kind of sexy to get into that how to go do things and who's the principal of one school and you know what what happened
you know the detailed what questions which are also inappropriate exactly um so I view that as kind of the biggest problem is that if we only have so much time to put into this job and we should really focus there's only nine of us on setting those things that only we can
vote on and approve and do and execute um and when we spend time doing other things we're really not fulfilling kind of the special thing that we could do only you're exactly right and part of um the
difficulty when you have someone who has worked in the school district to become a schoolboard member they're geared to how do we make this happen how do we make this happen how do we make this happen that's where their mind goes and so they forget that they're not in the how do we make this happen role anymore
it is what are we wanting to see happen and it's it's hard and it takes us a while um to get up to that level of paying attention to what our role is and what the superintendent's role is yes Deborah
students to understand what the what is right for example AI we had a conversation about AI a year or so ago where it was we don't want AI you know we don't want AI in our schools but as
you start to have you go into the schools that's that's really the why right there's the what and the how but we're here because of the why and if you don't get into schools and you don't have those conversations with the people
who are doing the work it's not necessarily us to say how it gets done but we'll never know what needs to be done if we don't actually go and see what needs what they need mhm i think it's important to remember that as well yep yeah don't hear me say that you
shouldn't be going in the schools and you shouldn't be having conversations um if you're in a school and you're talking with a superintendent or I mean with a principal or you're talking to the teachers to be excited about where we could go with AI and to talk about the
presentation you saw and to talk about those kinds of things that's absolutely right and absolutely part of us being cheerleaders to to move things forward but when you start saying "How come you haven't done or when are you going to or
how is this going to happen?" Then we're overstepping our bondage we're not telling this the um staff what to do we're talking about kind of um getting them excited about the things that are on the horizon you see the difference
there but definitely going into the school seeing what's happening seeing you know and and you go into a school and they may say you know we're having a problem with XYZ that you bring back to the superintendent and you share that with him and you have that conversation
so that the superintendent is aware one of the problems that many many districts run into is they start talking okay there's a u somebody shares something about ESSE so a board member goes to the director of ESSE and starts talking about the problem
there thinking that it will help fix it well it doesn't necessarily because the superintendent may know that this is happening in five different places and we're working on what the solution is going to be and so they need to um you
need to share it with the superintendent if it's happening in one place that's a different thing but it may be happening in several so going to um and when we talk about communication we'll talk about what are the levels of communication we encourage you to take
things to the superintendent some superintendents will say okay you can take it to the next um you know whether it's area superintendents chiefs of staff or whatever they can answer those questions also but when you start going below that now you start meddling and
now you're into the how because when you say this isn't happening they're going to say "Okay this is how I'm going to fix it." The superintendent that is the one that oversees that you see the
difference okay here it is now here's a word that all of us look at not just the superintendent but the entire governance team did it happen that's where you're looking at the data you're looking at things that
are happening with um your strategic plan and looking at those goals did the policy that you asked did it come forward and um you know then even um you know did we look at again
how does policy play out too often we put policy in place because we're trying to solve a problem that maybe a procedure is best not everything needs to be solved with policy and I'll say it again
policies that are thou shalt not do not um result in the same kind of student achievement as those that are saying here are our expectations here are the parameters now go forth and make it
happen so we're asking for uh oh there we go we're asking did it happen then the next question for the governance team to ask is why why did it happen because we need to do more of
this why didn't it happen well it didn't happen because you didn't come back after Easter break with COVID so you didn't see the same kind of um student achievement that particular year that you thought maybe you might okay what do we need to do differently
and what do we need to continue to do and those are conversations that you as a leadership team have we don't need to get into the whole nitty-gritty of every single thing but where are we where are we going what are we doing how do we get there and how do we move
forward those are the things that we're looking for on a regular basis okay so if you're finding yourself saying how this is how I think it should be done you need to take a step back if you are talking to staff this is how I think that problem could be solved you need to
take a step back you can have that how conversation with the superintendent on a one-on-one not from the DAS not you know that's not a place where we brainstorm ideas you brainstorm ideas in workshops or in um
conversations that you have your board meeting is to conduct the business of the board but it's held in the public so your agenda you look at it and you you move forward okay so with all of everybody
staying where they need to those puzzle pieces all come together and now you have a strong leader governance team but when somebody starts to blend into the next one or you forget to do one of
them if you forget to do the did it happen you've got a break in that if the what starts melding into the how you've got a problem and if you never look at why you can't solve any of the issues and the governance team is not as strong as it
could be okay I'm going to just show you something you have seen before with all the lines that are here don't cross those lines but the school board decides what and the superintendent decides
how it's just that simple any questions on that nope okay there we go do we need to say anything if people aren't staying in their lane and they're not driving on the right on their side of the road you
can end up with some pretty big problems so we're just going to leave it at that people get tired of saying stay in your lane stay in your lane stay in your lane we wouldn't have to say it if people stayed in their lane okay it's just that simple okay
so does that help clear up what and how the district is supposed to run okay very good all righty we're going to talk about the stages of team development this is a um an important piece with um Tuckman's
stage back in 1967 Bruce Tuckman started talking about um you know there seem to be some similarities with businesses when they're making decisions there seems to be some um interesting similarities with people that are working on committees oh my goodness
they're also on projects and he started really really looking and evaluating how did those teams that are working successfully and really accomplishing a lot how were they functioning what did they need to go through or what what caused them to do
that so he started looking at all of the phases that they go through and um a little bit later he had it added an extra one but they were forming he he talked about forming storming norming and performing and then later added
adjourning and he couldn't come up with a catchy title that managed it but adjourning was the last one so let's talk about each one of those every group that he worked with every group that he saw that that functioned well went
through these stages the forming that's when you first and and I'm going to put it in terms of a school board that's when you first get your new school board members or um you are coming together you might get a new superintendent you are forming you're
going to be very polite you're kind of eager to get working and uh you may not have all the experience that you need but um you also have very usually have pretty high expectations whether it's high expectations because I'm going to come in here and change everything or
whether it's high expectations because I want to be part of this group that is working so well together so they have sign some some positive feelings at the same time they may also be um a little anxious or a little nervous um do I know
everything that I'm supposed to i don't really know all of the rules i'm trying to figure out even where the restroom is you know you don't know all of the stuff and so um they they are very polite
everybody's very polite very welcoming everything is going very smoothly not accomplishing a whole lot but everybody's very smooth then they get into there we go then as people start to
feel a little more comfortable and they start to get to know each other a little bit more they get into the storming stage now storming doesn't mean it has to be a big blow up but storming is everybody kind of starting to feel their oats and um you maybe start having a
little bit of conflict because where a new person might have kept their opinions to themselves when it was a a heated conversation not really knowing enough to feel like they could come out with their comments they started to they're starting to feel a little more comfortable and they're starting to
share their opinions uh you may have some personality clashes because we don't get to pick who we work with we are given who we work with and so um sometimes there are personality clashes and um then um people start to realize
oh you mean we can disagree everything doesn't have to be a nine zero vote and we can disagree and still walk away and still be friends well when they first start to disagree that doesn't necessarily mean that everybody feels
comfortable with that disagreement they might you know disagree over big things and they might disagree over little things um we had somebody talk about um responsibilities one of the biggest problems that board members have is I don't think that person came prepared
for the meeting and I don't think they're handling their responsibilities this person doesn't get here on time it's the little stuff that makes the biggest um rub with board members when you ask them what and get get down to really what is the problem why can't you get
out of storming and um without asking them the things that come up to the surface are the little irritations and that happens during storming occasionally there are subjects that will throw you into storming it may be
um um with a policy that there will be some consequences attached to a policy and people don't believe this is an appropriate consequence and this isn't what should happen and other
people feel very strongly it should that may create some storming and it can be about an item the trick is and the concern is how long do you stay there you can storm over a
particular topic but then you come out of it with the next one it can be a 15minute storming or it can be a sixmonth storming you need to come out of it as
soon as possible lori I think one of the issues that we tend to run into is that board members are not listening to the staff response and then they'll ask the same question that was already asked and then it just becomes so drawn out
and they're not listening but they're asking the same question it was already answered that is frustrating yeah it's frustrating on the part of everyone else who has already heard the answer and it's even more frustrating on the part of staff because they start to
think didn't I not make myself clear the first time what did they not understand what am I supposed to say this time that they didn't get um and we will talk about communication but listening is one of the biggest barriers
to communication and you've heard it over and over again because people are thinking about what they're going to say next rather than listening to what the answers are they're they're talking about or thinking about how they're going to respond they'll ask staff something and
they're off either writing down what my next questions are and so they're not listening or they might be looking at their phone and so they're not listening if that's a concern or a problem that you have here then that's
the conversation that you need to have and a um and a fix needs to happen a commitment a commitment that you're going to start listening and that you're not going to be you know writing things down or paying attention or looking at who else is in the room or trying to
make eye contact with someone if it happens regularly you're going to be in that storming phase for a long time and you can't get to high performing if you're stuck in storming now is Lori the only one that
thinks that happens yeah it's all Lori it's all Lori no it and it even happens when um not just when staff is speaking but when the public is talking too it's rare that um we we have a a whole
board you know listening to them or even the students and the teachers that came in today you know um you know we're not always hearing them uh and it's just something for us to think about yeah there are some techniques even for
people that um have a hard time paying attention for that long um as someone is speaking you know that you know ADD throws around that it's constantly thrown around as a thing but there are people who tend to daydream and you'll be listening to
someone and have you ever been sitting in a in an audience listening somebody and the person next to you goes what did they just say and you have been listening and you can't even tell them you go I have no idea Even though you were quiet you were looking you were paying attention and you thought you were listening but you
couldn't tell them one of the the tricks with that is that literally as they're speaking you are saying the words right behind them because our brains can work faster than anybody's mouth can move and so you can be saying those words and still hearing it but it helps you focus
in if you're having that problem and you're having a hard time focusing maybe that's what you need to to try doing um when you are listening to staff or when you are listening to each other
that's an important part of your role you're decision makers how can you make decisions if you're not listening and if you're not listening to the public who is coming to bring their perspective or their thoughts on it even if it's that same person we had a person and I will I
will say now that it was from Penllis County he came to every meeting from January 2001 to my last board meeting the only time he didn't is when we were in um
when we were doing things online during co says the same thing talks about the same thing every single meeting everybody knows what he's going to say but occasionally he's got another little
twist of something and occasionally that little twist is important may not have anything to do with the topic that he's constantly talking to us about but if we aren't listening to him we would have missed that key piece so even if that person is
coming over and over and over again and you know this is what they're going to say and this is how they're going to talk you still need to listen for two reasons one they may say something that's very important that is going to help you in your decision-making the second is it's the polite thing to do
there was a board member years and years ago that was called out by a um a member of the community because as they were talking she was ferously written just taking copious notes of everything that was being said and she was called out
and she realized that that person thought she was just writing stuff down and not paying attention and she apologized and she said "I was writing down the key points." And she learned at that point not to do that anymore and
after they finish as they're calling the next person down she would hit the highlights and write those down but while the person was talking she was looking them in the eye and listening she realized afterwards how much she missed even though she was taking copious notes to make sure she
didn't get you know she got everything she realized there were a lot of things that I didn't hear people say so we need to think about how are we listening to the public but how are we listening to each other it should be the same way one of the things that um a a board that
we were working with did was as they spoke and and they said the public may have thought it was a little crazy but as they spoke before the next person could could talk they had to count to three and then the chairman would call
on the next person so that they couldn't be thinking about how they're going to respond you thought about how you were going to respond during that time not while the person was talking so there are some techniques that you can incorporate if you agree to them you can't just say this is what I'm going to
do and it'll solve the whole problem it'll solve what you're doing if if you're making the the effort but if the whole board makes um the agreement and makes that effort then then it helps a little bit but that is a huge problem and that will keep you
in storming because even if you end up making a good decision you're aggravated with each other because I had to listen to the same answer four times when it could have been once okay the next stage and okay as it says storming is normal but how long do
you stay there that's the key get in there get out then the next phase is norming there we go and during this stage people are used to each other they know what buttons are going to be pushed
um that will make each other go crazy and so they kind of avoid them unless it's a last resort and then they pull it out but um they they avoid those kinds of things or they understand where they're coming from so that they even listen a little differently and so they're they're moving along things are
going well it seems as if everything is happening the groove the you know you've kind of settled into a groove and you're moving along and everybody's happy the problem with that is people become complacent
and here we are this is good we're doing well you know we don't we don't go into storming very often because we know what's going to happen you know if I say this and it's not going to change a person's mind so I'm not going to say it if we're going to change person and we're going to have a conversation we'll
go back and forth we're very respectful all of the things that that you think need to happen you're doing in norming problem is that's not enough you're not at high performing and so
everybody thinks that you know here we are we've made it okay there's a different um piece in the performing in the performing stage you're very very confident um that everybody is here for
the right reasons you're no longer judging oh that person just wants to change this or this one just wants to change that you're all here and you know you're all here for the same reason you're going to provide the best education possible you can for every single child that you have in this district in a safe environment and
you're preparing them for what they may be facing as they're moving forward that's the ultimate goal and you all know it the how you do it that's still some discussion that you have with the superintendent and how the superintendent is doing with that is
part of the evaluation and then you know are there things that we need to do to improve those are all parts of the conversation but it is an exciting kind of conversation even when it's a heavy decision because you know that this governance team is going to come up with
the best possible solution everyone's on the same page you know what that final goal is going to be but the biggest thing is trust has been established you trust that nobody's going to say anything to try to make you look bad you trust that nobody's trying
to be the best person on the board you trust each other that they're really looking at this for through the eyes of what's best for students as opposed to a personal agenda that they have all of that trust is the big piece that pushes it to the next level
okay question yes sir so it would appear then that performing and I could be wrong seems to be sort of like a refined sophisticated stage of moving between norming and storming uh
that's pretty much what it is it's sort of um perfecting uh storming and norming uh to where you're alternating back and forth in a very refined manner yes that's what it is yes and you're mostly in in performing um the performing and norming are so close that you might not
even be able to tell the difference other than that piece of trust do you trust every board member every um every person on the governance team do you trust that the superintendent is doing and making decisions in the best interest of the students that you have
in your district that's that's correct and it's it's obviously important for for any team to go through that storming stage and then that norming stage and to normalize it later on in the performing stage where where norming and storming
sort of just function smoothly together exactly okay however you can go from performing and it's not uncommon and it's not dangerous to go from performing to storming on a a topic a situation you may be very
impassioned different people impassioned on different sides of a an issue and you storm as you're making that decision and it may be a 15minute storming it may be something that you start the storm here and then you're going to come back at the board meeting and now you have to make the decision you don't rehash
everything that you have done at a workshop at the um board meeting you've already had that conversation and we think that we're going to be educating people while we're up there because everybody watches the board
meetings you know when you really think about the population in Broward County and how many people are in Broward County and how many people watch the board meeting and then how many people watch the board meeting that are not part of the school district you'd be
surprised you can educate people in a different way different formats not during a board meeting board meeting is to conduct the business you know it's okay to celebrate something great that happened and on a
consent agenda um there may be you know a school that's going to be going to march in the Macy's Day parade okay you don't pull that item and then say "Isn't it wonderful that they're going to be doing this and then I'm going to vote in favor of it." You do that during board comments you know we just passed
something in the consent agenda that I want to highlight and we're so proud of this group for going 30 seconds it's done lori u Thank you so I know you brought up the word trust and you know I think it is
challenging when board members speak a certain way to an item and then vote a completely different way so it's difficult for me to trust what they're any you know when they speak because I might be on board with them and then
they they quickly change and vote a different way so it's difficult for me to trust them okay that's interesting because usually when they when you speak in public and you're um you know stating your
position unless they have heard something now you come into a board meeting I will guess 98% sure how you're going to vote on every item because you are prepared you've read the agenda you've talked with the superintendent you've had your answers to any questions that you might have and you've done your
homework during that week at least the week that you have for your agenda but there is always a possibility and the reason why you listen to the public and why you listen to each other there is always a possibility that something that is said is a piece you
never considered and that changes the way you think or or you might vote a certain way for a procedural reason okay you're not always exposing how you feel about an item sometimes you're doing it so that you can bring it back so that you can bring it back yeah okay all
right so um and give me an not a subject necessarily but or one that you've already voted on that's not coming back you may um do a lot of things that are not just disclosing your feelings even seconding things you know sometimes you
second something not because you agree with it because you just don't know if you do or you want to hear right and sometimes you might vote on something because procedurally you may want to have the authority to bring it back and so if you're voting on one side or the other that gives you the authority to bring it back later you may actually be
voting off it they do this in the Senate all the time you know Mitch McConnell votes in favor of something and he just because he wants to later whenever you know that item wants to come back he can bring it back because he voted on the prevailing side so there's there's reasons why people might vote for things
that is different than where that they actually agree with the items i don't think the public understands that i think if you vote for something usually they think "Oh you really don't like that." Um and you'll be held accountable for that you know as an elected person uh but there are reasons why you do things here that are not revealing of how you feel about an item and that
should happen very rarely if you're talking about Absolutely if you're asking for something because you want to bring it back if you're doing that on a regular basis nobody's going to believe that any decision you make is valid and they're just going to continue to do whatever you know it only takes a few times to
lose someone's trust yeah but that um what is being observed is not actually what is being perceived okay yes i would just um say it kind of depends on where you start off in the
conversation a lot of times a lot of us come in believing one thing or thinking it or staff will give us information or a another board member will give a perspective and you're like "Oh I didn't I didn't think of it that way." And
honestly there are times where Debbie Hixon personally believes one thing but I don't know that it's always the right thing for the district and I'm trying to make sure that what I'm voting for is in good faith and effort for the whole
district not just because I think it's a good idea or not and it's sometimes hard to you know when you're talking and being passionate in a conversation it it's you but then when you start to hear about other people so especially if you
start discussions early on and then other people have chimed in you may have had a different perspective to say "Oh maybe that isn't such a great idea for the whole for the whole county." And that's you know although we're here for districts we are really here for the
whole county so it's always important to keep in mind that although it might work for one little area it may not work as a big hole and you don't really see that until you start to really engage in the discussion with your colleagues right you are elected from a geographic
area once you are elected and you assume that office you are now responsible for the entire county and so what may work where you think in your little neighborhood or your geographic district that's not enough it's what's going to be best for the entire county now in
order to address the concern that Lori has very easily if someone is speaking one way and changes their mind you can very easily say I've heard some um you know very valid points and as a result
you know I'm I'm going to vote this way if you especially if you said I'm going to vote in favor of this and blah blah blah blah blah blah and then you end up voting against it yeah why would somebody trust you you said one thing and did another that's kind of the basis of not trusting people but to be able to say I've heard a
number of things that have caused me to change my mind and then vote that would help i would think um you know straighten that out sarah I think it's also you know just because someone doesn't vote
with me it doesn't mean that I can't trust them right like you know I think I've been on opposite sides of votes of everyone on this day but that doesn't mean that I can't trust their intentions or or you know trust them as human beings i think like we're all going to
disagree about something at some point um our votes aren't necessarily dependent on trust yeah and I don't think that's what Lori was saying and she'll correct me if I'm wrong but um if everybody had to agree all the time you would need one board
member but the fact that there are nine of you that means we need to see things from various perspectives it doesn't mean that everybody has to share their entire thought process for every single
vote your vote says what you believe i think what Lori is saying is people give this impassioned plea and they say this is where I'm going and this is what I'm talking about and this is this is so important and then vote no that's different you know even to say
I understand where you're coming from and I understand that that's important to you and this is what I think you know you can vote against it i don't think and am I hearing you correctly not that people vote no or vote differently it's that they vote differently than what
they said correct okay yeah i will also say sometimes we don't have the opportunity like for the sake of time or you know we've used up our our opportunities to speak to caveat our vote before we vote you know what I mean so I think that's another thing for
everyone to consider well and you can also talk to your attorney sometimes it's um many attorneys will say it's okay after the vote to say to another board member this is why I changed my mind because the vote's over but Unique
they will not okay that's why I said talk to your attorney no but after the meeting after the meeting if you know if you want to explain why you changed your mind is what I was saying but if if she says no then the answer's no
because I say act your attorney okay anything else with that all right we are going to spend a moment to find out where you think you are in the Oh let me do one more i'll do the adjourning as
well there we go so in 1977 um Bruce started looking at it and he says "You know what there's another piece to this that um I had not considered before and he starts seeing it as a normal piece of the process too and that's the adjouring once the
project was over or in our case once a board member chooses to um retire and not run again for office or if they lose their um election you have a board member and if you've been performing a
that person that that you trust and part of this group that has built um a team a governance team that is really really working well and now somebody's going to be gone you're sad you're sad that they're going to be leaving there are also part
of the adjourning process is the board member themselves are saying I'm not going to be in this position anymore i need to keep working right until the end but I'm going to be sad you know so there are those kinds of things too so
the adjouring is you're you're feeling that loss and yet it takes you a little bit to convince yourself to be excited about the new day that's coming and the new board members that are coming in that's why we always say welcome brand new board members it's not their fault
that somebody chose not to run and they're the new person so you welcome them and you help them through one of the other things that we um try to make sure that people understand is what are your protocols um you know a new board member comes on and the best way for
them to find out they did something wrong was to do something they thought was right and find out that's not the way we do things here so when a new board member comes in the way to help them get into that forming norming and start the process is to do that but the
adjourning is sad on several people there's a little bit of grieving that goes on superintendent leaves and unless you fired them a superintendent leaves and a new one comes in you may be excited about the new one but you also may be
missing the old one you know so it's a a combination but that was the other one that he realized is definitely part of the conversation it's the adjourney that goes along with it what we're going to do is we're going to find out where you think you are in all of
this and um I'm going to ask uh I'm only going to give you one piece at a time because people they jump ahead and do things wrong then okay on here there are questions on two sides and I want you to
answer that the way you believe things are working here and you will do one to no I'm going to do one to four because five everybody goes three three three so one to four so you got to pick a side on each one of them for
example we try to set procedures or protocols to ensure that things are orderly and run smoothly to minimize uh interruption and get everyone the opportunity to say what they have to say would you say that rarely happens so
that's a one or we do that most of the time that's a four and we still need to work on that a little bit but we're pretty good at it that would be a three okay so you're going to fill that out all the way down and when that's done we'll um we'll fill
out the answer sheet okay any questions on that can I explain it any better until you see it oh hold on here you go were you all listening that's the question one is part of the other
pardon most of the time usually we got away from saying always because everybody said "Well never anybody always." So so most of the time yeah you're pretty much consistently there that's a four three is you're
there and then fall off the wagon every once in a while two is we're trying but we're just not there yet one is nobody seems to care your names don't go on these or anything okay has everyone finished okay that looks like this and you're
going to put the numbers in each page here's here's the kicker they're not in order if you look it'll say number one number two number four number with the numbers that you have answered
any questions we'll give you a harder one next time and then when you finish total up each column and write the totals down just for each column we're adding one to four i think we can
do this okay what what I'm going to do is I'm going to average these all up while you watch this next video and um then we'll see where we are we'll see where we are as
as a group what What area you fall into okay so go ahead and start that please there we go not that one there how many of you garden how many of
you have a garden yeah what do you grow tomatoes flowers what else vegetables but you grow things don't you well my family and I we embarked on a cleaner healthier journey of eating a few years ago which involved lots of organic foods
well as you know organic vegetables and foods are very very expensive that's a special section in the market isn't it it's off to the side so we decided we're going to start growing our own vegetables but we knew nothing about growing things we just figured you get some soil and seeds and you put them
together and things might grow shockingly things grew we got tomatoes and basil and the kale had holes in it it was didn't look very pretty so we started getting more serious started learning about the potassium and phosphorus and the soil acidity and about seed depth and plant spacing and
which plants need full sun versus moderate sun versus it's a thing isn't it it gives me a deep appreciation for farmers who have to do this for a living every single day so we started growing tomatoes and kale and basil and carrots all in our little backyard so I learned
a few things about gardening which impacts leadership it impacts accountability it impacts a lot of these things number one we never have to try to make weeds grow you don't have to do anything to make weeds grow they just grow don't
they but watch this weeds never start big they always start like this then they poke their head up like this just to see if anybody's gonna do anything and then if nobody does anything what
happens it does this then it does this then it gets big and strong and hairy and starts dropping seeds to make more weeds now before you start thinking that the weeds are your bad employees no no no no no and you're a weed and you're a weed and you're a weed no no no
no we don't call your staff weeds weeds are the undesirable behaviors you don't want on your team so think about coming in late every day think about saying that's not my department think about it's a bad attitude those are the weeds now weeds
are a sign of neglect i'll say it again weeds are a sign of what yes whenever you see a weed that means it was allowed to grow so I'll give you an example let's How many of you have a policy in
your company in your spa around cell phone usage like no cell phones yeah or something around like no cell phones all right so here's how it usually starts let's say I have a cell phone i went through orientation i sign my name i put my name and blood in the
handbook no cell phone usage silicone wristbands no cell phone usage koozie cups no cell phone usage it's in every single urinal no cell phone usage you have t-shirts made no cell phone usage here's what happens now somebody
come to work cell phone is right here on the podium mind you here's here's how the weed starts good morning good morning if nothing happens they pick the phone up if nothing happens if nothing
happens now they're having Facebook Live all up in your spa now whenever you see a weed who do you blame when you drive by someone's house and you see a bunch of weeds do you say "Those are such inconsiderate weeds." Who do you blame the weeds who do you
blame the owner the gardener by now you realize who's the gardener it's you boo yes now instead of looking at everyone else's weeds because we can be experts at saying "Let me see whose weeds over
there and let me look at that garden over there and I see some nice gu weeds over." No no no no instead of looking at everybody else's weeds the question now is what are your weeds what are our own weeds what are the things that's getting in the way of us being as exceptional as
we were born to be okay all right so what' you think any of it uh any of it resonate yes
what parts and I'm almost finished here okay what else how many of you Okay what else okay okay where do you think or what do you
think might be the weeds that you're dealing with what are the things that could get in your way of going weeds are storming and unless you address that
you're going to stay here so what are the things that might be that are going on here that are weeds that need to be addressed or things that just might be not supposed to have this not necessarily
um right here but what could be the weeds that would keep you in storming change constant change okay what else lack of trust lack of
trust what else we already talked about some of them lack okay all right lack of complete information what about the listening that we were talking about earlier that that could be a weed that um would stay there and keep
you in storming what else Lori trying to please a small population uhhuh yep forgetting that the a small group doesn't necessarily represent the entire
um and and yet still being able to balance that that small group has some needs that need to be considered as well you know how do you find that balance you know we have oftentimes board meetings where I'm you know there have been as many as 150 people at some board
meetings and yet when you stop and think about the size of the county in which those people were living that 150 seemed so overwhelming at the board meeting but yet when you put it in perspective of the entire county you realize there are
a lot of other people and that's actually a small portion but you still have to listen to what's being said and take those into consideration no matter whether it's a large group or whether it's an individual that comes yes that's a very good one being stuck in
your opinion of somebody and so stuck that you're not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt you know that person's getting ready to speak okay I know this is going to be bad i'm not even going to bother to listen or I'm already figuring out what I'm going to say to counteract what they're going to say because I know what's coming you know all of that kind
of stuff yes Lori when Robert's rules of order are changed from meeting to meeting and uh different sets of Robert's rules of order are spoken at one meeting a certain way and then changes to the next meeting okay all
right that can create some problems because you don't know what are the rules okay diffult to talk about single district preferences uh yeah you know the state law is very clear um but we have had thousands of hours of of
this board where the discussion is about my district my school and and it's great to represent that but at the end of the day we have to make decisions all of us have to make decisions good for the district that's one of the powers we have is is because we're so large there's a lot
of cool things we could do that only large districts can do um but we we um you know that's something that prevents us from finding great answers for the whole district and that may be something that's pretty ingrained in and and I'm going to just call you out on it pretty
ingrained here because remember when um AJ Crrael came and was working and he made a board member very angry by saying those are not your only children and they would come back those are not
your only children and the comment would come back those are not your only children and it it frustrated the person and actually did make them very angry but the truth is those are not your only children you and as I said earlier once
you are elected you now represent and make decisions for what is best for every single child and young adult in your district period you may share your thoughts you
may say "This is not going to work for these schools or um a a particular group of children." But guess what that group of children may be in your district it may be in this district it may be in this district may be in this district
you know so you do have to look for each it's not my schools my children my kids every single one of the schools in your district i was in one district where um board members had to actually let another board member know if they
were going into a school that was in their district i mean it was that that embedded in that district so if there's one thing you need to change is the mindset of not mine
ours okay yeah are you all right okay he's okay he's still not turning red or blue so we're good all right so what I would like you to do is we've mentioned some of these put those on a
postit the things that you think are the weeds and we are going to come back and address these during our training but what are the weeds that are keeping you from getting to forming norming and performing is this all internal or
for it can be there can be um let's put the things over which you have control because you can't change you know things over which you have no authority or control so let's look at the things you can change and you can put more than one
on a postit if you'd like yes um it can be what you think is keeping the board in the weeds does that answer it okay one of the just write down that we
discussed that keeps us in You can spell it phonetically there you go so many times okay and then just stick them up under the storming you race to the
work myself oh Laura rece available actually Mrs mrs no she still Okay everybody have theirs up there all right so rather than making it look
like all you have is issues what are some of the things that you're doing um in Well let me share this first when I looked at the scores that you wrote and we averaged them out each one of you did the columns and then we
averaged them out the reality is y'all are all over the board you're not in any one area at any time so you are flexing from place to place to place you are still in the forming stage in some
areas you are definitely in the storming stage in some areas and then you're also in norming and performing and because all of the numbers are so close storming is the
um oh second highest forming is the highest storming is a second and then performing and norming are um very close to each other the reality is is you're stuck in storming you're doing things that are
norming and performing which shows you have the ability to get out of it you're just not there yet okay yeah yeah so let's talk about what are some of the things that you are doing that you think are um forming
okay you're you're still well that's kind of a weed though really you know when when we're talking about listening in there forming you're still polite you still call each other by board member so and so and you're polite and I haven't seen anybody get snotty with each other while we've been talking so you know so
you are doing some things that you come to the meeting and you're ready and you're going to do your job okay that's a forming tell me some of the things that you think are in norming what are you doing well okay all right all right yay
we're using we're using data more than ever okay using data more than ever y Yep that helps him be an excellent superintendent also and the fact that he's bringing it to you shows that he's excellent so good all right what else i think that even
though our meetings are still long um we're like putting in more measures to make our meetings more efficient one of these days we're going to talk about why your meetings are so long i think you hold the record you know and let can AI help you with
your meetings that's the next question so all right going to be long they're just going to be long okay can you disagree and still walk out happy or polite with not maybe happy
necessarily but polite and and okay with each other you don't hold a grudge just because somebody voted in a different way most of you okay all right and because it's only most of you it might get you from here
eventually when all of you are to get you up here you know okay so what are the things that you think might be getting you into performing the um looking at data and seeing the achievement getting better and better in
in various categories aligning to our strategic goals aligning things to your strategic goals that is key if you can do that that will be one thing that will get you into performing faster than anything else i know that trust me we're working on that but
there's nine of us and I think that we have really good discussions because we we are very diverse some of us are are educators some of us are business people some of us you know lawyers so everybody brings a different
perspective and I think it's important to hear all of those um because then it helps you to form a policy you know that's more comprehensive so I think it falls under that compromising part of being able to
be performing because we're putting out a policy that is a good solid policy for the superintendent to be able to make procedures so sometimes they're long because there's nine of us and everybody gets 10 minutes so that's
okay you might want to change that right off the bat trust me we've tried so that's what we landed on anyway I I think that you know the conversations I don't think that they're combative or or that
I think most of the time the conversations are bringing different perspectives that allow us to to be more holistic in the way that we make our calls okay and that would fall into either one of these categories norming or performing those kinds of
things having the conversations if you uh and and I'm going to go on to your meetings just for a second we're not going to dwell on that today but if you have the sense that you're going to vote for it
and you're talking a little bit do you only get one time to speak and it's one time for 10 minutes or is it somebody can say something and maybe they speak for a minute and a half and then somebody else may and then it could come back later to another person it's 10
minutes cumulative okay we sometimes do a round two but we haven't really recently okay that would help well if you have the sense that the
board is in the same place you are with yeah we're probably going to vote for this it looks like a good good policy why are you using and I'll just say using your whole 10 minutes because if you think everybody's pretty much on that same page who are
you trying to convince and the public doesn't get a vote the public gets input but Sometimes depending on how it impacts the district
or actually doing so I think it's important the public watches important they understand why okay okay and earlier I said how many people
really watch your board meetings and is this the place to educate them that's going to be a biggie i think yes or no well exactly exactly just as going into storming can
be you know one issue that will bring you there and back that may be the one issue or there may be an issue that you need to share but not every issue has to be shared with everybody it would be interesting at some point to um get the
um have it look at on they I forget what it's called but they can get the al not algorithms but they can get the numbers of how many people watch your board analytics analytics okay of how many people are watching the board how many are within the school district or
district members and then how many are in the public and that may be important for you to see and determine whether you know with zoning and redefining school lines and things going out into the
public having listening sessions may be a better way of having them understand where you're coming from why it's being done what's happening educating the public there as opposed to a board meeting because again it's to conduct the business of the meeting and it's
held in the public which is different than a public meeting yes so when I went to the chairmanship we had this discussion and I brought back some of the things that you mentioned just said so workshops are
where we should be really educating and making those those declarations of how we feel and what we believe in but by the time it gets to the school board meeting we shouldn't be all of those
questions should have been answered right and if there are questions when you see the board item the way I understood our discussion to be in that is really the board members either should be contacting the superintendent
or sending a board question on there the answers are public record they have to share them on our agenda and that would cut down on a lot of the extra discussion that we have not that it's not good discussion but as you mentioned
we should have already been beyond that by the time it gets to a board meeting but how how do we how are we able to do that collectively and and agree on it because we've tried to make some changes
and um it hasn't been overly successful in some areas and really just based on what you just said and what I heard were some of the things that I brought back to us to try to make our meetings more efficient um and we've we've moved forward i mean we were doing a great job
before I got here and then you know brought back some of the things that you suggested but how when everyone's not on board and everyone they'll say yes but they they just in intrinsically want to make sure everyone understands how
they're feeling and that's not necessarily a bad thing but it is in terms of being able to really get to what the business of the board is so how do we collectively as a board do that moving forward when we say yes but then
because we have a policy that says that there if they have questions they're supposed to send it in but not everyone's doing that to fidelity so how do we can move forward with what we've said we're going to do but yet it still
doesn't happen in terms of trying to make our board meetings more efficient okay let me ask you a different question when an employee violates PL policy or a student violates policy what
happens there are consequences there are consequences the biggest problem is there aren't consequences with the board meetings board members however are you setting an example of it's okay to ignore policy if it doesn't
suit your needs if you're going to have policy should the governance team honor policy should they follow policy or should they do away with it and create something else that will work for them
yeah Sarah yeah i mean I I because this has come up um when we've tried to make policy around like censuring board members and things like that like you're not going to censure a board member for asking a question on the day that they should have asked beforehand but there
are really like limited ways to have consequences for board members so I'm curious about like that tension and I'm saying there aren't consequences for board members what kind of example do you want to set for the students and
the staff in your county that it's okay to pick and choose which policies you follow or you follow the policy and if it's not a good one you change it that's the conversation you should be having you're going to follow this policy and
if it's not a good one change it i I really just don't agree with you um it is a good policy it's a really great practice okay um then follow it i'm not finished okay i'm sorry I interrupted you me finishing um everybody on this
board is an elected leader and their accountability is from the public electing them or hating them or sending them nasty grams or people that supported them calling them and saying what what's your problem i have seen other boards though do funny things like they will have the staff count how many
questions were asked per member that should have been asked way before the meeting and whoever asked the most questions that should have been asked before the meeting gets a not too nice award at the end of the meeting like you asked six questions that totally could have been asked and should have been
asked before the meeting why is it a joke because sometimes those people are going through stuff in their lives where they just couldn't get to the agenda two weeks ahead of time or a week ahead of time and sometimes the most important items we have come three days before a schoolboard meeting and we have a weekend and so there's a lot of
subjectivity in that but it's actually a very good policy largely because it's something we want people to do but you cannot tell a school board member to give a brilliant speech you cannot tell them to to turn in homeworks on time you can't tell them to always be on topic
it's even difficult maybe even against Roberts to cut them off when they are getting no longer relevant they're elected leaders and they have a chance to speak uh regardless of all those things so but it is a good policy and and and the reason it should stay in
policy is because we want people to do that and it needs to be written that way whether or not there are consequences beyond you know electoral consequences or lack of public trust uh with what you're doing um the the other consequence is if you're a school board member that does that a lot and you come
up with a new idea you don't get a lot of attention true and so you know there there are consequences to that but I don't think that you should get rid of a policy simply because board members don't follow it 100% of the time or in somebody's opinion they don't follow it
because should more have asked that before the question well I think so but Sarah doesn't she thinks it's perfectly good to happen and those things are I think very difficult to sus out but I actually think you have policy because it's the right thing to do not always because you enforce it
okay so you have a policy that at some point a a group of board members approved it did this group agree to it
you made the policy okay but again like what you said subjective just about the questions in general like sometimes you sometimes get three agendas at once or two agendas atce and you are processing
as fast as you can and you bring questions sometimes your followup questions responses are not and so you're going to ask it again because maybe there was misunderstanding with staff and
what to not meet i'm not saying that and I don't believe I heard anybody else that's what I'm hearing from you that we can't talk about what we're we can't educate our community
especially on issues about changing their lives and where they go to school we can't ask questions because we should have submitted that ahead of time like sometimes questions come up sometimes Mara or Dr will say something and that prompts the question in my head it's not
that we're ineffective board members we're not asking questions ahead of time things come up and I agree with Debbie saying we have really good conversations we have very diverse board and yes our meetings are long and it's annoying sometimes and we get angry towards the
end of the meeting we are doing good governance because we are having good meetings because of the discussions that we're having and to like I get that FSBA jokes about how long our meetings are we joke about how long
are good work you watch a tape of a meeting two years ago and you watch what we're doing today it's significantly different it's it's about doing the work of the students in the schools and to Dr heeper's credit a majority of the work we now do in workshops is about students
and learning and it's not about all the adult issues we try and handle those quicker and in other ways and uh to me this board needs to stop and think a little bit about how much better it was than when I joined it's a it's a different group and it's much more productive and it might take us a long
time but we're working toward really really good things okay let me let me speak to a couple of your comments i said at one point you come in about 98% sure how you're going to vote and you listen to each other to find out either from the public or each other if
there's a piece that's missing that's part of the conversation that needs to go on now when I talk about the board meeting is not the place to educate there are other places that suit that purpose better than doing it solely from
the board table and um thinking that because we did it the day everything's going to be fine getting out into the community doing listening tours or um question and answers where you're listening to the public and you have a presentation as to
why are you reszoning why are you doing whatever the topic is where more people may be able to come and hear it and actually realize oh this is a topic they're going to be talking about yeah so I'm looking at where's the best place to do the education is what I have been
saying not saying don't do it from here okay and if you do it do it in less than 10 minutes okay yes yeah i have to say too that you know um it was kind of surprising to me
that that we have because you mentioned that we have um based on the the data that you've collected that we have uh some storming issues and um that was surprising because I think I think the board uh in in 2024 2025 we we've been
really uh functioning uh far better than I believe when I first got here in 2022 um so I was very surprised to see that we um score high in the storming area um I thought we would most likely uh be in
a greater uh percentage in the in the performing area i I know that um we have to refine the process between storming and Norman uh but I think I thought we came a long way so I was very surprised to see that that we were in the storming and I also just would like to mention too that we did take measures to improve
our our time in the meeting because we had a a motion to where we we um approve our meetings to be eight hours and if we want to go further then we have to by majority vote um vote to continue the meeting and um so we've had a lot of great discussions and majority of the
time we vote to continue the meeting so I I I think we're in a much better place than we were even with the the meeting times uh with the storming issue I was kind of surprised at that well you're storming may have been higher had we
done it two years ago okay and so your numbers are lower but you're still storming got it and and you can tell that you're storming but by comments that have been made that it's not everybody is on the same page with everything right and that's part of the
storming storming doesn't mean you have big blowups it doesn't mean that you're fighting right it can turn into that if if people are stubborn but I'm not seeing any of that um you know so you should hang around for a while but isn't it normal to have some
storming and some Norman to be performing yes it is normal to go into storming occasionally if I said here is a topic right and you need and you need to get to performing right you may go through
storming then norming and then performing on that topic okay and I'm I'm not going to ask for any input but if you're going through AI as you were just talking about there go there's going to be a lot of discussion and there may be some storming that happens
before you become that district that's leading the state and then that leading the country okay in AI so there can be some storming that gets you to performing because you've had the opportunity to have some very difficult conversations understand okay Lori and
then Deb I have a question based on a regular school board meeting what do you think would be the average number of item polls that one board member would pull okay do you have an a consent agenda and
then um non-consent the average number from a consent agenda should be zero then it shouldn't be on a consent agenda um a consent agenda is definitely where you get your questions answered ahead of time that's the the routine
stuff that's on there approving the budget expenditures for the month approving you know this crazy law of the superintendent has to bring you the appointees that they're putting in place and by law you have to vote on them and and agree you know those kinds of everyday
um operational types of things contracts for um construction and that type of thing those are what I would assume are on your consent agenda no okay we we have a really weird thing i've been on a lot of boards and this is the weirdest
consent I've ever seen in my life because it's defined by not having financial impact and that's not what consent should be consent is all the things you just listed should be the you know no one even reads them kind of things and then the open items would be things that are
significant which used to be identified by financial cost or impact um but there's a lot of things that have significant financial impact that are really one we're not allowed to make a judgment on it like hiring people um and some things um you know that might have
money but they're just kind of must pay bills like change of budget amendments and things like that every month uh so we could do much better if consent was actually built around um some definition of what you describe which is these are things that almost no one would ever
pull because there's no uh reason to really spend any time on it they're the routine things that you just have to as a board member just check to make sure it's happening appropriately right but that's what consent's supposed to be exactly and we have this I think pretty squirly definition of what consent versus open is and so then you read it
and it's definitely something you want to talk about but it's on the consent agenda and you wonder why okay there were a number of items which are board member items which were to give direction to the superintendent but they
were they were discussion right there was a lot of a lot of discussion around it come up especially because that's the only place we can as a board discuss it unless it had come to us at a
workshop which the items didn't come to us at a workshop so um I agree with Dr cut off here right what what should be consent because sometimes it's not a big deal but I think if I'm not mistaken
last meeting there were as many consent items pulled as as open items pulled which was frustrating as a chair because consent should be um you know where but but in that instance there were important B items that there was no
other way for us to get to a consensus without having those discussions so and I think there was five right five B items y that were all board member items you need to be careful with
board member items being brought and voted on at the same meeting um if your agenda is out a week ahead of time then it does let the board members know or you know that type of thing but um having things that haven't been
vetted through the superintendent and staff and um and then brought forward can cause some problems let's put it that way board members can have some wonderful ideas and then then find out you know so
um oftentimes boards will have um a portion of time during their workshops where those what I'm understanding the B items to be would come at workshop and it would be discussed at the workshop and the board in general I mean in um
unison would decide whether that through consensus is this an item that we want to pursue or is this something that um can be referred to staff can the superintendent handle it because not everything has to be um a a board
verdict so there are some things you may want to look at your agenda and how that is is handled um because otherwise I have no idea how many items should be pulled okay norma double letter items
okay your double letter items those are what I would understand to be non-consent items where it's brought forward and maybe there is discussion about it um and then you move forward and those each item would be addressed not necessarily I'll pull this one and
pull this one you know um I know there's one district that everything is an action item and then they pull the ones they want to talk about and they also have very very long meetings um but okay and so that's a lot there's you
know if that's the business that needs to happen in the next two weeks then I understand that but um you know the consent should be those standard ongoing every every couple of months every week every other week every board meeting
whatever that are just routine items and so they very rarely would need to be pulled Um there may be something and I made the comment about somebody going to the Macy's parade that might be a consent agenda item because it's just getting approval to rent the bus to take
the kids or you know giving them approval to take that as a field trip or whatever um and that may be something that afterwards you might want to just say we just passed something in an agenda item that I want to highlight because we have a tremendous group that's going to be going to the Macy's
parade because they were chosen out of the country you know that type of thing so you you can highlight some items without pulling them but the consent should be those items that they're pretty much going to be passed unless there's a question about a contract you've read the contract everything
looks good it's a standard contract for maintenance that needs to happen or supplies that need to be you know at the beginning of the year or actually it's toward the end of the year where you do all of the the art supplies and everything else to get the warehouse items in those are pretty standard you
know yes it involves money but are you going to say "No we're not going to pay $15 for this pack that says it's $15." You know so you may want to look at some of that yes um just to throw in a little context
of why there's the ying and the yang when it comes to speaking up and how much is too too much um the grand jury's questions were watching board meetings and seeing quote unquote board members
doing their job and board members not doing their job so when you have an overarching um event like that and it's multiple times that it kind of sets the bar up as board members to me if I was even in
other districts I would be like uhoh how am I how am I holding myself accountable how am I you know meeting with the superintendent and um you know seeing what he's doing etc whatever it is but um I think that's that's a piece
that's important to me okay um but if it's something simple and I want to pull it because it's the Macy's parade then I'll I'll I'll say uh in my poll I'm just having a comment or I'm supporting the item and that's you know
I'm just letting you know I'm going to pull it but I just want to tell you I'm going to do this um and and that's really I guess it for that but I I did want to put out that you know basically it's the grand jury's report came and went and still hasn't really gone away
makes sense makes a lot of sense and one of the ways that you can cover that is um where groups will send their questions in to the superintendent ahead of time and then all of the questions gets get answered
and everybody's questions get sent out to the entire board so they can get answers if those answers aren't adequate then you call the superintendent and say "That's not what I was asking or they they went off on a different tangent
than what I was wanting to focus in on." So you still have some time to do that i had an original com I think part of being in storming and warming is because we have had a lot of change constant change the board has
changed superintendent has changed and we have a a good board now but we've really only been together since December right we really we're still forming those um normal relationships with each
other so I think and now we'll go into that again yeah um so uh you know I think we just haven't had the board before us um was pretty stable for a long time and just in the the five years
that I've been here I've we've been through a lot of versions of the board and different superintendents so I think that's kind of would probably explain why we're in that little triangle there but um two other thing I have a question but just to to answer on on our consent
item what we've done now is items that aren't pulled um if someone has a comment we've given two minutes for each board member at the end to kind of just say whatever they wanted to say to kind of address that but I have a question so
let's say a board member would like to direct the superintendent to collect data on something is that something that everyone on the board has to agree with and we've had back and forth on whether it's a vote a consensus i honestly think they're the
same thing but I I semantics are important in places but I as chair have gotten called out on that a number of times so I just would really like your opinion on what what should that look like okay no individual has the
authority to direct the superintendent it is the board so the answer that we give is the majority of the board has to agree that this is important data to receive there are also questions that you can ask as an individual and get
answers so um many districts will have like a a time limit if it's going to take staff more than a half hour to put this together you ask questions through the superintendent if it's going to take staff more than a half hour then you bring it to the board or if it's going to take them more than an hour you bring it back to the board so that we're not
if you think you've got nine schoolboard members and everybody wants to take one hour worth of gathering data and information you have taken a staff member one full day and then you bring them to a board meeting that's another day that they've lost then you bring them into a workshop that's another day
that they've lost by the time you're done you can be cutting the amount of time that they have to actually do their job in half okay so you might want to look at you know some protocols or um procedures
as to how much staff time but you're allowed to get any question answered to go back to your original a board member can get any question answered um but it's how much time
should it take and how do you go about doing it okay and let's say that's in a workshop where you can't take action per you can't take action but that's where consensus comes in okay can so can you explain and someone else said to me that
consensus means 100% nope i I did not agree with that absence of dissent um so what is the difference is there a technical difference between voting majority at a board meeting and giving consensus at a workshop it's just semantics in terms of it's the
legalities okay okay you vote at a at a board meeting if somebody brings something up and they would like some information some data whatever as chairman you can say do we have one person has already said it you
need five to be the majority so do we have four other people that um think that this is important data to get so is it appropriate to say Dr ho do you agree no it's not Dr it's not it's not it's not Carol the consent is the absence of
disagreement if someone comes up with an idea and says you know we really would like to hear more about AI at the next workshop if there's no disagreement if no one says anything that is consent you're not allowed to ask around a room and according to Robert no and I was
agreeing with you on that one that you don't go around and ask but you can say are there four other um are there others you know it's not about five though Carol it's about the absence of disscent that's what consent is defined by in Roberts and so as long as no one says anything against it it is consent
silence means consent that's where that conversation came but it's not for more no but what we're saying and as good practice in a board is to just make sure the majority of the board is directing the
superintendent i'm sorry but you know I've spent so many decades working on these things okay and this is really important because that is not what Robert says and we live by Roberts and Robert says consent is the absence of dissent just like if you're trying to
figure out where to go to dinner and someone throws out hey let's go to poor boys and no one says anything against it that's consent because nobody said anything against it and that's that's what it is in the Roberts rules as well there's no counting of votes to get to consent so what happened when someone says something against right i'm just
this is important because we get stuck on this a lot so one person says no does that mean the superintendent that doesn't do it then you got to have a discussion and you and you have to find out whether they're and that is up to the subjective decision of the chair of the group they hear two that want it but
three do and they go okay well then that's consent that's my view of consent and that's one of the powers of the chair then I would suggest that you all decide how you're going to operate with consent we say that if the majority of the board directs a superintendent to do it then
that's what the superintendent would do now whether we call it consent or not is is a different issue yes yes so I just wanted to make the point though the difference between consent and an agenda item is when you're getting consent at
the end of a board meeting you're not allowing the public the opportunity to speak on the item or to speak on the topic to say because they don't they don't know that someone randomly is going to bring something up and then
randomly get consent of the group so that is a key difference yeah if an item is being just brought up randomly it should be put on a different agenda item and I also just want to say I think it's very disappointing that Miss Batista is not here
okay she's not part of the governance team which is probably why yes um so a few things to the Miss Batista being here point um she is we you know part of her evaluation was to get
parliamentarian training so she is supposed to be like advising us on uh parliamentarian stuff right um I mean to give everyone some grace I don't know that she knew that like we were going to have this Robert's rules conversation um
I actually So I had a lot of uh questions about the conversation that has ensued though are we are we talking about consensus or consent agenda like I think we we talk about both things okay um but like right now were we talking
about gain what gaining consensus means because we were throwing around somebody d asked to give the the superintendent a directive and how do we decide whether he's moving to give him say yes we have consent and he's going
to do it or consensus consensus okay um okay so historically like we've we've gone around the room like are you good with with directing the superintendent to do this and if five board members said yes we're good that's how we moved forward am I now hearing that we we
cannot go around we should not be going around the room is that what I'm hearing correct yes okay um so that would to Miss Aladd's point like it would be nice if Miss Batista was in the room to uh to hear about this because
that's what we've been doing for five years um so there's that uh my concern I guess is and I maybe if we you know one of us can submit a question for followup um like if we need every single person
to agree or or what Dr zean is saying like an absence of dissent to gain consensus um that means like almost nothing moves forward um so that's that's a concern for
me you said something earlier though um about you know business of the that would be we're when we were talking about the consent agenda that would be the business of the board for the next two weeks are there some school districts that you work with that have two regular schoolboard meetings a month
oh yes yeah so that's how we used to do it i think when Debbie and I joined like at first and then it was like right after we joined that we did away with that correct so I don't have like a strong opinion either way but I think that may be something that we could talk
about given that like we have agendas that are over a hundred items long is maybe doing two regular schoolboard meetings a month and then two workshops is how how it was done like a long time ago um
um and then I had another question now I forget but yeah if you think of it we'll come back okay and they might be willing to do two a month if you're not doing eight hours in each of them but that also may may shorten the meeting a little bit somebody over here
had a question no okay alan I just want to thank my colleagues for asking great questions um I get great joy when I see a question and an answer come across that I didn't think of and uh that happens all the time but I learn a ton
from your wisdom of asking the questions you ask um and I love getting them i want to ask for one kind of general good governance rule that we don't hear about very much but I think it gets us much faster to performing than any of these other each we're talking about
which is just to assume good intent from your colleagues like you may see something you don't understand you may not understand why they're taking so long to talk you might get frustrated because Zean's going on and on about AI and coming up with another tagline for something um but a
lot gets done when you just assume good intent of your colleagues um and I think that's easy on this board and that is something that we it means a lot yeah that's something we do get to like in the next half of this because it talks about I'll set you up yeah all right
because not today but our next one because you talk we talk about some personality um traits and then we get into how do you get around all of this and basically assuming that everybody is here with good intent there's a there's a huge
difference between a team of experts and an expert team but the big leap to becoming an expert team is to assume other people on team are trying to help absolutely achieve a goal and and my observation is I I haven't seen anything on board where people overwhelmingly
aren't trying to build a great school system good good so if you start with that you can get a lot of stuff done and that's one of the things that will put you right here faster than anything else and that's where the trust is built and when you assume that there is good intent and you continue to see that good
intent eventually you begin to trust each other lori yes i have a question in regards maybe to the superintendent with the board member question and then followup because I've always asked if that followup can be attached to the
item because I think what tends I don't know if if it's happening because um I think it should happen but then also maybe then the public would be aware that that board member asked that question because they see it in the item if they were reading it and then also
then maybe that board member wouldn't have to ask the same question at the meeting because it was already answered okay and that that could be handled a couple of ways it could be Do you want to speak to it no I was going to say it is um we attached the board I the response to the question for that item
to the actual item and also send out a an entire packet of all the questions and the items one thing I've just uh probably the last meeting I've told staff to do is to as they receive them and answer them to send them out so because one thing I noticed and I didn't
notice till I start asking the question it's like okay uh I see let's say Dr holdness asked a question we responded to it I sign off my assumption that it was sent to the board members um but for board items they were holding on to it to attach it to the item and send it as
a bolt but then Miss Rupert would ask the same question too say gosh u she asked the same question Dr holdness you must not seen it say "Oh no we send I say no you guys start sending them at out as you receive them and answer them." So that way that if if Dr holdness answer question we respond to
it um Miss Rupert would see that and wouldn't have to ask the question so now it's a faster response for um board item questions um so that we don't get duplicate questions from board members so I understand that part but like let's
say it's O2 is my question that I asked on O2 actually attached to O2 in the item in before the board meeting yes yes okay so then the board member wouldn't have to ask the same question because it's already there it's already there
thank you yeah the only time it would not be attached is if the board if the board meets on Tuesday and we get the question on Monday since it's um at last minute and that's why we have a policy that says when it should be turned in so that we can make
sure it's uploaded and everything okay Sarah you had a question yeah I remember what I was going to ask about before um or maybe this isn't necessarily a question but more of a concern um you know one one thing that
you mentioned was like being mindful of staff's time when we're asking for data and asking questions um I think that like something I hear a lot from the community and sometimes I feel this as a board member it it sometimes feels like
the district staff is operating in spite of us like that we are like a hurdle that they have to get past um and really it's like us who we are the people who are supposed to be directing
policy and so I think there's just like I I feel attention there you know and from the community's perspective you know we hear or at least I hear like you guys are the ones who should be doing doing this and they are like staff is then supposed to be um operating at at
the direction that you you give in terms of policy um but it sometimes feels like we're just like a burden to staff so I don't know if you have any advice on like how we navigate that um well one by
um having a communication um agreement we'll call it as to with the superintendent to whom are you to speak when you have questions or whatever and if you're going below that let's say it is the um what do you call
cabinet okay um the cabinet you can Are they allowed to talk to all the cabinet members at any time they need to yes so um I've actually sent out a um a one sheeter that lists all the divisions that the cabinet members are over so they know exactly who they can talk to
as far as the chief to know what type of issue if it's operations you can free you're feel free to call Miss Paul you don't have to call me right okay and and vice versa okay so when you're doing that and maintaining that level then that's part of the process when you
start going below that and start going to the people that they oversee now they start wondering what am I supposed to be doing am I supposed to be doing what this board member says am I supposed to be doing what this one says um I I'm I'm just going to try and make sure I'm
going to make everybody happy as best I can and it causes confusion for them and so uh that's where some of the the problem comes in the other part is of of your question is the community doesn't quite understand how school boards work
and how school districts work it's not like any other business um you know a a board of directors usually gets to speak to each other outside a meeting or within the meeting they get to talk to each other we don't um board of directors also can
give um direction and they they move forward and they may check a little more often and um and delve a little deeper than um a school board can other board of directors are here we've given the
chairman their uh I mean we've given the CEO their direction go off and do it and report to us in three months so this isn't like any other business so people don't really understand that when they will stop questioning all of it is when they start seeing progress
being made with their students the best way for the public to believe you is to start seeing that your students are achieving and that they're making progress and that they're seeing that you're all working together to do that so I have a question uhhuh okay so you you mentioned that the community doesn't
quite understand how the school board operates right but isn't it the district's um obligation to educate the community because uh I I've seen those concerns sometimes where you're you're being inquiries are being made without
the understanding of what a schoolboard member does and so on and so forth and what the the district operations responsibilities are so So whose responsibility would it be to educate the public so they can better understand how governance work versus operations
okay and that can be the schoolboard member when they call you and they say my child was um disciplined by a teacher and I don't agree with it your question is have you spoken to the teacher yes I talked to the teacher
and she didn't want to hear anything about have you spoken to the principal by constantly reminding them and directing them to the proper people you are educating them as to what your role is when they call and they say "I have a concern about blah blah blah blah blah blah." Well let me put you in touch with
the person that oversees that and here's the phone number they're the ones that can handle the the you know answer your questions or or handle the issue and another thing that so that they don't feel like you're just saying you know I don't want to deal with you you can also say and if you don't hear back from them
in a few days give me a call right but if if you know we have a very large district greatest sixth largest in the nation um wouldn't it be a a better approach if there is some sort of a formal way of uh whether it's through
awareness or uh because we to educate families parents guardians as to the role of different entities and and and how they can get their issues resolved um as opposed to because you'll have hundreds of individual cases that that's
brought forth to a board member um that had they been aware of the procedural aspect of operations and what the board does in advance then we would not be inundated with those type of inquiries there is an argument to be made for that
but the reality is most community members who have children in schools parents guardians all those world revolves pretty much around the school some of them don't even know schoolboard members exist okay and they
don't until there's a problem and then they work their way up and that's that's where with compassion and understanding and direction you can put them in touch with the same with the the people and that's what ends up being the way that they learn how it works again the
biggest thing to gain confidence from your community is for them to see that the students in your district are making progress and that they're learning and they're excited about going to school and um and you can sell through PR and
press releases and everything else the wonderful things that are going on that we sometimes forget to to share and um and then the public finds out about that yes i just wanted to um talk about the run of show today chair um I know we
started very late and this is incredibly helpful thank you uh and I and I don't want to um insinuate my preferences but if we wanted to finish by say like four o'clock could we go another 15 minutes and find a good breaking point and then go to the next critical item that we have while everybody can still stay here
or what would you like to do we were just I'm not sure how much longer you have yeah we're close to where I could wrap it up okay perfect do we need to gain consent consent i know it was is there anybody that doesn't want to leave earlier would
you like me to address and consent now that I'm here well just consensus so consensus doesn't really that concept doesn't really exist under the similar
thing when you have unanimous consent so that would that's a little bit different right than consensus is and I think you know Dr zimman explained it well when he said is when
no one objects so if someone objects then you have to discuss it and then you have to figure out where you're at and that happens right right okay so you have one go ahead and ask a question one of the questions
that already asked that I feel like I is it appropriate to say Dr we weren't supposed to be doing it anymore so it's just confusing so technically no so that's the only reason why you would not be able to do that but I know
it's hard sometimes when you're trying to figure out whether or not everyone has spoken so maybe one way to address that would just be for the meeting to
say no objection forward doing whatever it is that you think and then someone does not have to say nocity of the people that wanted
something and staff is confused so they Yeah what you know what the direction is well and that that was where I was coming from when I said u I I guess I was the one who started the whole conversation about consensus i the way we suggest they operate is in
this situation are there four other board members that are interested and people go "Yep yep yep yep yep." I was told "No that's not what Robert's ruled." Now with the um the uh what did what was the other one that you called the unanimous
consent those were the kinds of things yes in Robert's rules but that's when you say if there is no objection this meeting is adjourned correct that's where we use the unanimous consent that I gave Okay i talked about an example if no one can
so that was the exact example so yes all right then how are you as a board going to agree if somebody asks for data for example one person says I think we need this data or I think we need to put this on as an agenda item how would you
suggest that the superintendent find out that it's more than one person asking for this okay I have a I have a question on that since no one can vote with that example and I know that it the chair has a difficult um position in determining
uh consensus can the chair instead of asking for a vote can the chair said says does anyone want to give an input on on on uh the superintendent providing data does anyone want to give their feedback and then the chair can
determine if she believes that everyone or majority agrees without taking a vote so she's simply in uh trying to get feedback as to what is what is your input on on data being provided that
could work i'm I'm just suggesting you come to an agreement on how you're going to handle that and I'm I'm going to leave this up to the attorney i think it would be easier if I said does anybody object to the superintendent bringing this or if no one doesn't
object if it's something you just think is a pretty obvious thing and you go as the chair not hearing any objection let's try that but if there is and then you can raise your hand you could raise your hand and say object and then it's done one so if there is one objection it's dead you don't have unanimous
consent there's no consent item I I guess I would like some clar clarity because I feel like we've been doing this for 5 years under multiple chairs and then it's news to me today that uh that now we're not allowed to do this um
okay clarify what what you have been doing the way that we've been gaining consensus is going around the room and asking each person like are you good like this has been going on for my entire time under like a million
different chairs uh on the board so I'm a little um disturbed that like now we're finding out today that we should not have been doing that um and then I would like some clarity about so if we are to move forward yeah like to to Dr
holiness's point like if there is one objection is something dead or is it like a five member majority and then it can move forward because I mean that's how we get like how a lot of times people will talk about you know can we bring this item to
a workshop and it takes five people to say yes to move forward um so is that um I would really like some clarity on that moving forward so we're using Okay i didn't know this were working okay
so I think the issue when you have when you're um in a in a workshop setting and then you go to each one of the board members is that it looks like a like a vote right but there is nothing prohibiting you from like after someone
spoke if it's not clear which way they're leaning to say you know are you are you for it are you against it you know I think you can ask those questions as as the chair um when there is um if there is no clear consensus or dissent
for that matter um and you would like to have some clarity you can say something along the lines you know hearing no objection the superended And then we'll gather information regarding this item and bring it you know to the board
whenever you know to at at the next you know board meeting or the next workshop or whatever or have a followup or whatnot um if someone says I object then there has to be some discussion right and if there is there cannot be
consensus there then it then it has to come in in some sort of an item for the to the board at a board meeting uh to direct the superintendent to do X Y or Z and then you would have to take a vote at that point so what is consensus though five people agreeing or unanimous
no it's it's a majority so it's five people agreeing no one person can direct the superintendent to do something and no one person can stop the board from doing and I don't want to
belver the point but so if someone says I don't agree and we can have a discussion about it and only that one person doesn't agree then I would say as the chair it seems as if the consensus
is to direct the superintendent correct Because what I heard earlier is it's only a consensus if no one disagrees no so that's where I'm still stuck because I've heard two different things no the definition of consensus is that there is
no objection but it doesn't mean that if there is one person objecting that there is no consensus we're talking about two different things consensus and unanimous consent okay mr zean was talking about unanimous
consent and if somebody said no then it's not unanimous consent anymore and consensus is getting the feel that the majority of the board is in favor of something i just want because I've had a number of people say something different right so
consensus is generally general agreement right no one no one objects general agreement but there could be somebody that objects so if they if someone objects and it just needs to be general consensus why would we have to have a
continued discussion with that person if they objected if everyone else agreed well if it's clear that everyone else agrees but sometimes people are silent and someone objects and then it sounds like maybe that gives the rest of the
people like okay well there's company so I'm going to say no too you know because that happens okay so I'm sorry i just have a quick question so if someone objects and the chair asks for feedback not a vote a feedback and is it up to
the chair's discretion to determine that based on the feedback that she um can assume consensus and direct the superintendent yes she summarizes whatever she thinks she's heard so the issue then is this cannot appear as if it's a vote by asking individual board
members to raise their hand but she can ask what is your feedback on this issue and if she determines that she's um h we have consensus then she can direct the superintendent even if there is an objection correct
okay Lori but to be clear if there's objection you would need five board members to object yes yes you have to have the majority you would have a major right a majority would have to object otherwise if some
if everyone is silent and only one person says I don't agree you're going to in that scenario only for workshops not like in a board meeting in a board meeting you vote majority rules right the major right so the majority will
have to say an actual vote of yes i think we should play one scenario out i hear the discussion and I want folks to leave here and come back to a workshop and right you're having a discussion about the discussion again about consensus let's play it out somebody can Okay so let's do it i I
think we should have cell phones during lunch before Before we do that um I I think that what was also an issue that came up recently was we were at the end of a board meeting and we asked does anybody have anything to come up and an
and an issue came up and we we had consensus not everybody agreed wasn't nec would you call that a vote because it's at a board meeting but it wasn't an item on the agenda it was a topic that someone brought forth to want to discuss
with the to direct the superintendent to do something and we Yeah so it was about it was about a boundary change and so someone directed the superintendent we as a board took consent well I I went around
and asked everybody and it was two people did not agree seven did and so the item moved forward so we kind of got stuck there because it wasn't really an agenda item it was brought up when we asked for that but we were still in a board meeting not a workshop and it
hadn't closed so we could still vote at that time so does that then be considered an item even though because we did vote consensus that's why to me it seems like it's the same thing but semantics are important so were we
taking a vote then or a consensus was there a motion made he directed the superintendent and then we took consensus as to whether we agreed for that directive to to move forward okay then technically it was not a vote there
needs to be a motion in a second in order for it to be a vote and at a schoolboard meeting and then have that at that time it's very dangerous to do so but technically yes um because um if it's if it's boundary changing and
it's your example okay we want to change the boundaries and it's the final vote the public has not had a chance to weigh in on the change it was just it was just a direct to to bring us back right so that would be very different than
um directing the superintendent to move it and it's still coming for a final vote they're two different things right it's just not real good practice to bring up something and vote on it when the public hasn't had an opportunity to
to buy in fair the discussion and the topic came up during the workshop based on an item that was before us i mean at the meeting and based on some public comment I think is where the directive came from so it wasn't out of the blue
um but it was not something that was on the agenda yeah and and you know sometimes the rules are cumbersome for government um there is people always say well it's a violation of sunshine well it's not a violation of sunshine right because the reason you have an agenda
that comes out seven days in advance is not because of sunshine it's because of the administrative procedures act chapter 120 right that says that you have to publish an agenda seven days in advance uh unless you have a special board meeting that then it's only you know you have you have less time you can
you can publish the items uh with lesser time special call in now that doesn't mean you cannot bring an item late and accept it for good cost so there are many ways to get around that m you know main uh rule there's a process for that too it's a process for that too right
but it's just a good idea number one you know because you do have the ability to have the opportunity for the public to speak about it there is there is notice um so that that this you know the other other board members also can prepare for
that so um unless it's something that is you know of an emergency nature um you know there is no reason to really do it that way when you really think about it right um most of the time even though it may seem at the moment like it there is
but yeah just be very very very careful with that and it's better to move it to another agenda or to you know go ahead and have the discussion because that's in the But then as far as a vote give the
public the opportunity to speak to it you know now let me give you an example it's oh man we forgot to um elect our representative for FSBA that doesn't impact the you know the community that's who's going to represent your board that
could be something if was forgotten to be put on the agenda that a board member could bring up and you can vote on that that's different than something that affects the students and the community and again and it's not that it's prohibited you still can do it it's just not good practice not good practice
that's what I'm saying and be very careful and if I may say one more thing um when I was coming down I I was sort of like do I get in the elevator because they're saying something I want to hear or do I get in the elevator but I did hear uh
something that Mrs ruper said and there is a lot of the practices um as it as Yeah it uh pertains to the agenda that are embedded in the the past grand jury investigations that the the district has
gone through so you know there were um reports that came out that had criticism against uh board members at the time or how the board in general did certain things and so as a result of that there were policies that were put in place to
try and and address those issues and one of them was you know what is a consent item versus a non you know an open item um and um you know I think that there was like the 2011 um grand jury report does talk about the
fact that you know accuses the board members of trying to hide things in the consent agenda etc and so after that I think the policy came out that anything that has any uh financial component will be in the open agenda that came out of
the grand jury correct but I think it went a little you know I think the policy goes a little too far because I don't think that that's necessary but that was the response to that grand jury report well then that's how you got that agenda the way it is okay thank you very
much when's our next session there we go i believe it's May 6th is that where we are may 6th so then that I will we'll pick up on um going from here and how communication
will help solve some of these issues so we were pretty much at a stopping point anyway so it's good for you to have made it your fault instead of mine okay so before we close I just have one question and maybe I'm opening myself up to a very long conversation
as a result of the conversation today what are you gonna do you just spent a long time with us and it doesn't have to be as a board what are you as an individual what did you take away from the conversation or
the time together today and I'm not letting you out until somebody says something okay Lori okay you're okay i'm gonna ask more written questions but still be prudent to not waste staff time
okay very good very good Lori i'm going to be more of an active listener to my colleagues okay good i'm going to do a better job of figuring out consensus as we move forward and I appreciate the discussion in the
direction so thank you okay good anyone else laura and Nora i'm sorry if I've tied you up now but that's good practice very good practice yep that also lets him know what's the temperature of the board so that he's making good decisions rather than
bringing something up not even knowing that you all wouldn't go along with that you know so that helps okay anyone else all right thank you i appreciate your time and I will see you in May
thank you we're going to take a short no more than five minute recess we have one more item and then we have a closed door hey do about you clear out turn the mic off
where are you behind hey hey hey hey hey hey yeah yeah w yeah heat heat
heat heat heat heat heat heat heat heat down heat heat heat heat n number eight 2 Hey hey hey
again again feel down heat heat n down down down hey down hey down hey down hey down hey down hey down hey down hey down hey down hey down hey Heat heat welcome back to our schoolboard workshop
our last item is the Office of Safe Schools quarterly report i will now turn it over to staff for a very very very brief presentation good afternoon my name is Morgan Nikil i am one of our compliance coordinators in
the safety and security uh compliance section i have some information here for you today with our presentation i don't know if we have that up on the screen but I believe you were provided that in advance from our quarterly report fantastic
so our next slide is going to be just of course our information regarding our requirements move to the next slide please and this is also the quarterly report that we received from the state of Florida regarding our quarter 3 compliance visits there are a total of
46 schools that were inspected this quarter which is just under 15% of our total schools within the district of those schools that were visited there were 21 that had no compliance deficiencies or were completely uh compliant and that's just under or just
over 45% excuse me of the visits that were completed next slide so we did break this down again for our traditional schools those site visits totaled 37 and 20 of those site visits resulted in uh
full compliance so they did have that perfect uh score from their site visit from the state which brought us up to about 55% or 55 or 54.05% of those visits that were completed at traditional schools we also included here the superintendent
objective of the 18 requirements within our compliance report and you can see how that has progressed over the year with quarter 3 now being at 95% compliance with our year-to- date total being just under that 95%
uh benchmark there next slide for our charter schools we also have that information with nine of the schools visited being charters and one of those schools had uh full compliance within
the site visits so that brings us to with that same metric for that superintendent objective but in our charter schools to our year to date for quarter including our quarter three being at 87.8% and our last slide just to give you an
overall picture of how we have changed and progressed so of course for the entire district we have increased significantly since the first quarter uh up to now being at 46.775% compliance which of course we are still working to address every day
and our areas for continued improvement still seem to be those same areas of our documentation some of our doors and gates and some of those safer space markings as well and giving you some of our information here of the actions that we've been taking with outreach to our
schools individually and ensuring we're meeting those timelines with the state for addressing any deficiencies if you have any questions that's it from us thank you so much for that Mrs alhuda yes thank you on page
five bullet point number two it speaks to a compliance department uh can you speak to if we have compliance department specifically or is it just people erin Loausano task assign chief safety
security officer that is a small but mighty team of a few people who work on compliance okay and then are they working directly I guess with the ASM
you want to talk about uh yes so myself my counterpart other compliance coordinator that are part of our compliance team uh do work directly with ASM on a daily basis communicating with them regarding the visits that they're conducting at schools working directly with their supervision director Lar Roa
and assistant director Ashley Voinkl they will reach out when there are challenges that are being faced at a school and looking for some assistance to support those schools every day i've talked to probably four ASMs today as it has gone so and how many ASMs do we have
total 14 okay and just to be clear we don't have a compliance department we just have a compliance team that is correct we report um myself my counterpart and the two clerks that are underneath us report directly to Chief Lozano to be able to support that role of the school safety specialist and I do
apologize for that oversight in that uh language in the presentation no that's okay i just wanted to be clear thank you thank you thanks so much chair um last time we saw this there was a change in the ruler the rules about u what was checked for in
schools and Q1 changed from Q1 by the time we got to Q2 these numbers here are all from the exact same standards uh so Q1 two two three are completely comparable so they they have not been these are the the data that we've been given by the state of Florida so that's what we were trying to keep consistency
there because they didn't make any adjustments with how they changed our percentages and they have not made any changes since the last conversation that we had in Q2 so we just used the data that was provided us to us by the state
and broke that down because that will be what is finally reported by them so there has been no adjustments made to this data let me say this back a different way then these numbers do not form a trend because there are different
measures of safety and security so what we're telling the public is here's three numbers from Q1 two and three which are not a trend and that's based upon the data that has come from the state yes sir i'm perfectly down with that i would have recommended that you did you reported it both ways and I would have
footnoted this and said this is not comparable data these three because when you put data like this on a piece of paper 99.8% of Broward County thinks that these are with the same measuring stick and it is not so just just that's uh for you to consider of course we will
make an adjustment i thought that we had I thought we had got an agreement to do that last time but I'll look for it next quarter when it comes in uh second um am I right that Broward County's traditional public schools are improving in their compliance with safety and sec
security inspections dr heer Dr lozano that is correct um you could see on quarter 3 report we're over 50 50% of our schools are getting perfect scores thank you very quarter three am I also right that um district charter
schools public charter schools are declining in their compliance with safety and security standards based on the schools that were assessed in quarter 3 those chosen schools um the data did um reflect lower but again it's
a different set of schools each quarter um does this office of safe schools select schools randomly ye yes sir so they they have three years to assess every traditional and charter school terrific but random with a random sample
the uh safety and security scores for public charter schools in Broward County is declining am I also right that public charter schools in Broward County that were selected for this inspection failed at least one thing 89% of the time that is correct
thank you thank you Mrs rupert my actually my questions were just asked by Dr zean so that works out thank you okay thank you um thank you so much for the report and for answering the
questions it was good to see that we were doing better in that i would really also like to safety so if there's something that needs to be done to help them to get support
thanking for us at this time do any of my colleagues have any Oh sorry i'm sorry Mrs leonard no I have something I wanted to share oh okay to bring to the board um or student successes successes to share mrs leonardi yeah so I had the pleasure of attending Lion King Jr last
week um from Coral Cove Elementary um now a K8 uh and it was an absolutely incredible experience i brought my daughter she as Dr heperin said did not blink the entire time um the talent of
those students is just amazing and the staff and the work that they put in um it was it was really an incredible experience nice think speaks to the importance of the arts in our schools so um I just want to thank uh the staff for
inviting me and um thank you for for putting on such a beautiful show thank you anybody else i have a couple of things so Dr zean I'm sorry Chair um is this the time we wanted to talk about future workshops uh if you'd like to now
is the time to do that okay um I'm uh just want to kind of reflect the seriousness with which we had this discussion today about AI and to the extent that we can continue to receive more and more information about Broward County schools uh powered by AI um uh on
as a campaign and as um uh I think there was a lot of discussion by the board today that wasn't just about you know um AI as a add-on to some software we'd already bought but AI is a real principle as a way to prepare our students for the future um and to me
there's tremendous value in thinking about bringing back um uh AI in workshops every couple months more important than anything though on workshops is going to be the budget you know we've had some shocks from the legislature that if we end up where the
House and the Senate both are right now uh it's going to be very very dire times and um to the extent that the board is made aware of those options earlier and can think about them and provide guidance about where we might want to see some reductions so that we do have money left over for educator adjustments
i think that's going to be very very important so my proposal is that we keep getting budget workshops at every workshop until we wrap that up at the end of June and adopt our um original budget uh but after that I would like to see this AI kind of theme play out every
couple months where we get a big dose of AI in terms of how we're doing in different aspects of Ber County thank you is there anyone who disagrees with Dr zemen's mrs leonardi i guess I I just have some questions um about both of
those things like what um I'd like to hear from staff about about those proposals and you know if they would have new things to offer um for the budget every every workshop
before we get that sorted out um as well as the the AI piece dr hipper so I talk about the AI piece um as you know the academic team they um frequently do workshops probably one every two or three months just to give the board
updates about strategies practices and definitely performance um so we can definitely wrap instructional strategies practices and resources which is what the AI um components would be into those workshops so we can um give a holistic
view um of the impact of all the things that we're doing academically um as far as the the budget is concerned the team and I we are working on cost savings to first provide that in a memo to the board so you have that in a timely
fashion um real soon and then we will workshop uh those cost savings for board feedback as we move as we move forward to the upcoming school year for things that'll impact us for the upcoming school year and then things that will create a runway for um the 26 27 school
year which would involve having discussions with impacted staff principles leadership teams um and the like uh because they have to be a part of this journey if we're going to make changes and sustainable changes that are going to be embedded in the culture of
Broward County Public Schools um so I don't know if we can have for every workshop if we can have a a a a budget discussion i know uh Miss Johnson does her thing with the budget reports and things like that um I also know Mr sullivan is going to uh once the session
wraps up he's going to provide a workshop on all things um that came out of the session including um legislative um new legislation around um funding for public schools and the like so that's a component too that we can add to that um that'll be very helpful for the board
but we're we're going to be giving you uh a memo talking about cost savings real soon anyway so okay so um what I'm hearing around AI is that it can be embedded in the academic workshops um is that correct um that's fine with me i'm
not quite sure that that's what Dr zean was talking about but I'm not going to speak for him um and in terms of the doing a budget workshop every workshop from now until we we adopt the budget um
I'm hearing that that's somewhat that's somewhat in the plan already or that is somewhat in the plans to talk about cost savings and also uh Miss Johnson's team in their usual cadence of of required workshops for
budget adoption anyway got it okay thank you Mrs alhuda yes so I would just say that I'd like to see our strategic plan come back first and us revise and look at that if we're going to incorporate the the AI into it
into the strategic plan and then I could see uh cadence after that to do more AI dr hepper yes so we can have the um sim team um present the strategic plan and how AI
would fold into it i know we have overarching goals um and also guard rails and so um many of the so I I I want to kind of provide clarity we do a lot of things we do a lot of instructional practices a lot of strategies that utilize technology that
don't utilize technology so those are part of the components that help us get to our overarching goals for the strategic plan so we can bring that um discuss those goals and really talk about some of the work that's involved that funnels up to equate to student
performance everybody has a clear understanding um about what's inside the strategic plan and how the work that the team does every day at the schools and above actually support that and what does the timing look like um I have to talk to the team and um we'll bring that up in our next cabinet meeting on Monday
and and I'll look at what appropriate workshop our workshops are pretty jam-packed for the month of May um I think they're already over eight hours long with the schedule so there we're looking at the schedule to see what we can actually cut out or shrink so we're not here for 12 hours um but we'll look
at the um the workshop schedule and also u when the sim team can actually um present that information okay because I just think the strategic plan is is you know our golden light that you know we need to connect the budget to so that is
should be a priority item and is everybody okay with having the strategic plan come back to us anybody disagree i'm going to be difficult today i'm sorry i'm just wondering when did we It feels like we've adopted the strategic plan like multiple times over i'm just
wondering when did we last do the strategic plan the strategic plan sunsets 2027 correct yes and it's a five it's a fiveyear plan correct or no um four or
five years i have to check but so we're like in the middle of it yes we're in the middle of it okay i mean I don't disagree with the concept of this being in our strategic plan i do I do have concerns about like altering the strategic plan midstream and changing
like goals and guard rails so I mean it's not like a deal breaker for me but I don't know that that's the best way to address no and and what I want to do with the strategic plan is inform the board uh because there's no instructional practice baked into the strategic we're not saying in a strate
we're saying in the strategic plan hypothetically speaking algebra one will increase by six percentage points we're not saying algebra 1 is going to increase by doing a b c d because that work would change um as we as we progress there's new tools and resources
that come out every couple of years um and so that's why we will we can bring it back to present it so we can the board can understand the work that is involved to support the strategic plan and all the priorities that we have that we discuss every Monday morning um so that we're well informed about the
things that we are doing right now but um you know strategies and practices change every couple of years today is AI today it's AI on st tomorrow it's AI on steroids or something else so um so we'll we'll bring it just so we can have that discussion Dr mr zean did you have
something to add okay yes Mrs and just to end that point and we have two new board members and we have another new school board member that will be coming on board so I think that is even more important that we bring the strategic plan back
and just as a note to that in the discussion today with our trainer she did mention that our strategic plan points out what's important to us and our budget should align with it so even if it's a sub in parentheses on the
strategic plan it should be somewhere in there so we're all aware that we want to put resources towards that mrs rupert um thank you on that on that um topic right there um I noticed on I think it might have been the AI um thing but it talked
about our strategic plan and then I noticed it didn't have an update as to what we already know about i think it was referred to 2024 and or 2022 I think it did and then it just said what we're expecting in 2027 um I think when we're having anything handed out like that it should
be the most recent information i don't think it would would absolutely be uh you know to kill us that much to put the the information that we know there at the time or at least within a year because if we've gone up the public will it'll be easier for them to see it on
the on the powerpoints which are out there every meeting and uh that connection you know what I'm saying I don't know if my colleagues uh agree with that yes I I understand what you're saying okay everybody is there anyone
who disagrees agrees with what Mrs rupert is suggesting okay great um okay that's at the will of the board we're happy to print nothing what we can do is just print it for the
chair and vice chair and Okay we'll keep printing can it can it just be emailed and you could have it on computer that way if you want to follow along i don't know if you have consensus for that but do we have consensus not to use extra paper that we don't need to do
we have anybody that objects does anyone Does anybody object yeah Dr zean has his hand up are you okay with it being on an email yes okay so we we could always make you
an extra copy if you need one okay anybody or you can share you can share yes we can share i'll take a picture i'm really good at pictures i'll have a QR code okay um I have a couple of student things so bear with me sorry
first I'd like to congratulate Justin Deberry from Coral Glades High School Le Belleris from Myiramar High School and Scott Miller from Marjgery Stoneman Douglas High School they all qualified for the 2025 Incubate Debate National Championship that's going to be held at
New College um of Florida and Sarasota so congratulations to them also would like to congratulate the eight students from the college academy at Broward College in partnership with Broward County Public Schools they have been named National QuestBridge Scholars and
they're earning full scholarships to top universities they include Tyler Scott he's going to Rice University bianca Cadet Boston University davyy Alicia sorry if I mess up the name um Swartorth
College diana Delverus Boston University um Shila Rose Washington and Lee University Isaiah Pod Podestra Rios Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT Sebastian Garcia
Gutierrez um Pomona College and Amelia Bartley Boston University so congratulations to all of them and on this 55th Earth Day I would like to congratulate
um the three top schools that won the How Low Can You Go so first place was Central Park Elementary they reduced their electrical consumption by 35% second place was Forest Hills Elementary they reduced their electrical
consumption by 14% and third place was Cooper City High School they reduced their electrical consumption by 12% and the greatest water reduction was Coconut Creek Elementary School that reduced their water usage by 63% so happy
Earth anybody else the scheduled order of business for this schoolboard workshop of the school board of Broward County Florida has been completed seeing no obligation I now adjourn the meeting have a great afternoon