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Good morning. 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 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 this 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 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 Thompson will now introduce her school to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. Miss Thompson. Thank you. Um, I'm very excited to introduce Myar's Myiar High School's JOTC to present colors and recite the pledge of allegiance under the leg
leadership of Sergeant Foyer and of course with the support of their principal, Mr. Porter. Arone after. I pledge allegiance 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. Arthur. Lord, arch. [Applause]
Thank you for that. As we prepare to begin this school board workshop, we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all our students. As an A-rated school district, we begin the vital task of sustaining this achievement. We will continue educating all students to the reach to reach their
highest potential. Our theme this year is believe, empower, achieve. one Broward. Today's workshop will operate in accordance with schoolboard policy 1020 and the board will review the items as advertised and presented by the superintendent. Please note that our
last item of the agenda, policy 1000, will not be presented today and will be presented at a later workshop. Our first item for discussion is student and schoolboard quarterly feedback session. Um just a quick note to my colleagues, I
respectfully request you keep your questions to the end so that um Landon and our students can get through the whole program. Um so as questions come up, please write them down and we will reserve those for the end. I will now turn it over to our student adviserss uh
for a presentation and discussion. Thank you. Before Landon starts, I think Dr. Wans is going to say a couple words. Good morning um school board members, superintendent Dr. Heburn to all of our um colleagues across the organization
watching to our community members both here um in the boardroom as well as everyone watching online. Good morning. I'm Valerie Wanza. I am the chief strategy and innovation officer. Um it gives me great pleasure to support the work of our student advisors and they
have assembled um a representative group of their peers representing multiple high schools, middle schools and non-traditional schools to have this conversation um with the schoolboard members today. We certainly want to thank Miss Brown, the director of
athletics and student activities, as well as Miss Santiago, who works very closely with the group. And um we look forward to the conversation. Before I begin, the students did ask so they um know the cabinet members for the cabinet members to introduce themselves so that
they can put names with faces as well. And then um obviously they are looking forward to their conversation with um the school board members today. So Miss John M. Uh Dr. Fton, you want to start? Good morning everyone and so so happy to
see our wonderful students here today and we are uh so ecstatic to hear from you and um good morning again. My name is Angela Fulton. I'm the deputy superintendent. Good morning everybody. Simone Hollingsworth, chief student services officer. Thank you for being here.
Good morning. I'm the chief financial officer of Burman Johnson. Good morning. I'm Wanda Paul, chief operating officer. Good morning. I'm Dave Rhodess, chief auditor. Good morning. Trey Davis, chief information officer. Welcome.
Welcome. Good morning, Ernie Lozano, chief human resources officer. Good morning, Michael Gregory, chief safety and security officer. So with that, um, and one the Oh, I'm sorry. The youngest, you look like Exactly. You look like the
students, John Sullivan, chief communications and chief of staff. With that, we will turn it over um to Landon and Jere, but we do want to thank the parents for um being with us today. I don't want to take the thunder from the board members and the
superintendent, but um we certainly want to thank the parents for being making sure the students got here and for supporting them today and every day. Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Wanza. And good morning. I'm Landon Spelberg, student adviser to the school board. Uh, and I have the distinct honor of
representing our 250,000 BCPS students, uh, which include the students who are joining us here today. Uh, I want to briefly go over how our discussion will run today before we go into the presentation. Uh, and if that could be loaded up, that would be much appreciated. Today our discussion will
focus uh in a couple of different areas that board members requested as well as topics that students requested. Board members and cabinet members do have those questions uh at your seats and you'll be able to follow along with the discussion. We estimate that the student portion of this discussion will take
about an hour and 20 minutes. Um so that is where we'll be discussing the various topics uh that you all have requested before we go into more of a open discussion and open forum. With that being said, if we could load the presentation.
Thank you. All right. So, we'll start by introducing the students in attendance before talking about the board requested discussion topics and open forum. As I said, these are the program or sorry, these are the discussion topics that we will be uh having today. Innovative
programs and choice, school safety initiatives, student services and support and campus environment and resources. And that is going to take the record for the fastest presentation ever. Um, and we're going to start with introducing our students. We'll be going
around the table. Uh, students, please take a moment to share your name and what school you go to. And we will start with you. Hi, my name is Mason Marmmore. I'm from Beachside Montasuri Village and I'm in seventh grade. Good morning. I'm Chanel Si and I'm from
Miramar High School. Good morning. I'm Angie and I'm from Silvershore Steam Academy. Good morning. I'm Bryce Azim and I'm from Stranahan High School. Good morning. I'm Janelle Tunes from
Sunrise Middle School. Good morning. I'm Haley Swickle and I'm from Coral Glades High School. I'm Abigail Poss from Coral Springs Middle School. Hi, I'm Aaron Jones and Oh, Hi, I'm Aaron Jones and I'm from Billet High
School. Hi, I'm Jier representing South Bride High School. Good morning. My name is Nathan Asani. I'm from Cypress Bay. I'm a senior. Good morning. My Good morning. My name is Houston and I am from Seminal Middle
School. Good morning. My name is Julian Pierre and I'm representing Blunt High School and I'm in 12th grade. Good morning. My name is Douglas and I'm representing Henry D. Perry Education Center. Good morning. Uh my name is Ethan
Rodriguez and I'm a senior at the College Academy at Broward College. Thank you. And I realized that we didn't have the board members introduce themselves so the students know uh who who represents them. So we'll start with Miss Bulman. Hi, I'm Laura Bulman. I represent
district 1. Um, so I have Mason and Douglas in my district. So, welcome guys and welcome everyone. Terrific. Alan Zean, um, countywide. So, some of you will represent some single member districts, but all of you represent me. So, thank you very much. And I'm really glad uh that you're here
today and you've taken some time out to give us a little education on how your education is going. Thank you. Good morning. I'm Sarah Leonardi. Um, so I represent district three, so Zanel and Bryce. Um, I am your representative.
Good morning. I met some of you earlier this morning. Um, thanks for being here and sharing your lived experience. Uh, Howard Heburn, superintendent, Broward County Public Schools. Good morning. I'm Marilyn Batista. I serve as the general counsel to the school board. Welcome.
Good morning. My name is Rebecca Thompson. I represent district 2. So, Chanel and Angie, I am so excited to hear what you guys have to say. Good morning, Adam SA from District 6. Uh, Nathan and Allora, welcome guys. Thank you for coming and thank you for
all the parents for participating this morning. Good morning. I'm Jeff Holes. I represent district 5 and welcome Erin Jones and uh uh London Lies is not here, right? Correct. So, welcome Erin Jones. uh
Dillard 6 through 12 and I was a graduate of Dillard High School as well. So, welcome. Thank you very much. All right, we are going to get started now that everyone knows each other. Oh, Lorie Alf district 4. Welcome.
Thank you, Miss and we also have Miss Rupert who represents district 7 and Mrs. Hixon who's the board chair and represents countywide at large seat nine. All right, we're going to get started with our discussion. Our first topic is innovative programs and choice. And
we're going to start with a raise your hand question. We're gonna get ourselves moving this morning. Raise your hand if you feel your school currently offers enough unique programs, electives, andor co-curricular activities. Interesting. All right. We're going to
go in the opposite direction by talking first about what are the programs, courses, or extracurriculars that make you excited to come to school. And we'll start with Ethan. Hello everybody. So for those of you who don't know, the College Academy at
Broward College is a full-time dual enrollment high school. So the the only classes that they offer are dual enrollment. So as far as AP and ACE classes go, it is pretty limited. But as Lannon mentioned, the question also regards programs and co-curriculars.
We have access to uh professors at the college who will assist us in conducting and publishing research in junior high school journals. We also have access to the clubs at the college academy and the clubs at the collegiate level at Broward College. So for example, I am the
president of the future business leaders of America club at Broward College. So there is more than enough opportunities at this school despite the fact that it is only two years and that not all of the resources um are similar to most
other schools. Um good morning. So I feel that we do have a lot of programs to help the students but when it comes to our extracurricular activities we are kind of lacking in that subject. We have I
think about three and that might be it and only two of them people actually go to. Um they actually ended up cutting a lot of them and I feel like if they brought some of them back that would attract more students and Douglas just did that perfectly.
We're going to actually combine the questions so you can talk when you when it's your time talk about the things that are going well and the things that also uh you would want to bring to your school. So thank you for doing that. Go ahead Julian. All right. So, I feel like there's a lot
of programs that's at my school. We have engineering, firefighter, and medical. Uh we are very popular for our medical programs. We have 100% passing rate, and there's plenty and plenty of uh co-curricular activities after school.
We have uh band football team. It's a lot of sports, and we have great elective um courses such as PE, personal finance, stuff that'll help you um get on get on track to graduate. We have um multiple uh courses and
extracurriculars that make students want to come back to school. But I feel like that there could there could be more but to pass because in middle school you should be able to have the chance to explore what you want to do when you grow up. So, I feel like we should have
some more extracurriculars and courses. So, I go to Cypress Bay and like one of the largest schools in Broward County and like despite that we do have a lot of extracurricular activities and clubs. Uh, one of the clubs that stands out in like courses is
at our school we have medical academy and it's a program that like allows students interested in the medical field to um leave school a bit earlier and go and shadow doctors and dentists and medical professionals and I think it's one of the programs that like sets us apart from other schools. The only thing
is um it's a highly selective program because like we do have a lot of students. So we have about maybe 40 to 80 kids who are allowed to do the program each year. So it is a bit competitive and like we have like 1,000 kids in my grade. I think 4,800 overall.
So like to get to that program right you're 80 students out of like the entire senior class. So it's a bit difficult. And then we have a lot of technical programs such as like DECA and um uh Skills USA and like business classes and whatnot and those are like
pretty helpful and we do have a lot of extra activities and clubs. Um hello. So, my school um I think we have well to me I think our classes are very good where it's at right now but I do think that we should
have more inclusive electives and what I mean by that is coding um just different classes in general like that kids actually like like beauty classes um entrepreneurship and etc. And that's it for me.
Good morning. And at Coral Springs Middle School, we offer abroad. We offer a broad unique programs and electives like speech and debate, robotics, and drama. And I wish that
some eighth grade classes were offered to sixth graders cuz because when I was in sixth grade, I wish I could do a little bit more. Thank you. Hi. So, at Coral Glades, we offer a ton
of CTE programs, which I know students in our school really enjoy. And we made it a requirement, I want to say a year ago, that you have to pick a program to go into, which I think sets you up for your future for sure because I definitely want to do the medical field.
And I'm going to be graduating with both an EKG certification and my CMA certification, which means I can get a job right out of high school, which is amazing. And then our school also offers a ton of clubs. If you name a club, we most likely have it. Or if we don't have
it, a student is more than welcome to start it. And I know that there's not much push back on that, which is amazing because we want everyone to have a program that they enjoy going to. I definitely think something that we can implement in our school um would be a
firefighter program or cosmetology. I know there's a ton of kids in my school who love doing nails or hair and having like a cosmetology program within our school. I definitely think will be another CTE program that could work very well. And also for clubs this year, um
something happened to our FCCLA club program, whatever. That's one. And I know that a couple of kids were a little disheartened by that. So yeah, I definitely think that's a good club that kids love to be in. Yeah, I was about to say spell that
there. It's future. It's something with I know it's business and something with culinary. I've I've never I'm not personally in it, but in my student government class, kids have expressed that they wished it was a club again this year.
Hello, I'm from Center Middle School and first off, I would like to say thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to speak out. Um, I think my school has a lot of great courses, very broad. For example, like a leadership class, a
debate class and club, so it's accessible to more people. A Christian club and a pride club, tech and theater, very broad, and of course, a lot of sports, and I'm very grateful for that. Good morning. I'm from Shanahan High
School and I believe at my school we do offer a wide array of different programs and co-curricular activities for the students to take part in. There's different magnets at my school like UTAP for people who want to go into education
when they're older, culinary, premed, there's engineering, business, art, etc. Um there's also different magnet specific activities that the students can partake in. Like for example, I'm part of the medical debate club at my school and at during that club, we do a
lot of community outreach program. We do a lot of community outreach activities and we also do different certifications like CPR or like Haley said, CTE, sorry, C. Um,
and there's also different tutoring programs such as Mu Alphatheta that's specifically for math and there's ones for social studies, English, and yeah, that's pretty much it. Good morning. My school provides many
programs and courses. They provide music, art, robotics, ego research, PE and etc. I really wish they would put more effort into PE because since we have just became a K through 8th and
we're only being sixth grade right now, um a lot of our equipment isn't standard. So, I really hope that we can bring it up to standard. And um eco research really excites me the most because we get to learn about how to um
help the Florida Panthers um bring them back like um help them before they go extinct. Thank you. um at Myar High School. I think um our school definitely provides a variety of programs and um also electives that set our students up for success. We have the
IB program, international balor program, which I think is a great program. I'm in that program and it definitely sets us up for um when we graduate. It gives us opportunities. It um gives us education about global issues and just expands our knowledge beyond just the school setting and also just um the national setting.
we learn about international affairs and things like that. We also have aviation and dual enrollment which I think is great. You get credits before you graduate. It's um a great source for students. And then we also have other classes like health science, criminal justice, um engineering and culinary. I think those classes are also good too
because it gives um the students like hands-on opportunities to kind of understand it beyond just um just the educational setting but also the physical setting. And you can also get opportunities to get like certifications. For example, in health science, CPR certification is offered for students as they take the classes,
they can get that. Um, and then also the clubs. I don't have any complaints about the clubs. I think we have a good amount of um club opportunities. And if students would like to form their own club, like other students said, they can definitely do that. We have clubs for high and low demand. Like for example, we have knitting, gaming, um, chess
clubs, just anything you can think of, it's most likely at my school. Uh so at our school we have a great reli variety of clubs and electives. The thing I would the thing that I believe would bring more students to our
school is to give more variety of clubs to younger students because we're K through 8th and I feel like K through fifth grade doesn't have many options for clubs. So that would make a lot more students come back. Awesome.
Thank you. Our next question is what new opportunities and you may have already touched on this and when we were talking about the things that you want to see. Um, but think of your friends that maybe chose to go to other schools that didn't follow into your middle school or high school feeder pattern. Maybe they went
to charter school. Maybe they went to private school. Maybe they're at home now. What new opportunities would attract those students back that have left for those other programs? We'll start with you, Mason. And if if anyone doesn't have an answer, that's totally fine.
Well, I don't really have an answer because we have good ways to get into clubs even if you don't get accepted. Like we have a debate elective and if you don't get into that, there is a debate club. So like you're not allowed to join the club if you're already in the elective. So I don't think there's
really much else we can do. um my school still um I believe that sports would bring more students because um a lot of our students at my school are athletes out of school. So if there were more like in school sports it would
probably bring more students in. Thank you. I believe if there were a few more certification opportunities throughout every magnet at my school, um, more students would be more inclined to come to Strahan.
I don't have an answer for that. Um for me, one thing I could say um is that um that the pride that we have at Diller High School, I feel like that's very unmatched when you come to Diller High School. Um not only the staff is very
welcoming um teachers are the um the teachers are very welcoming and that Yeah. So, um, at my school, I think it's a bit difficult to like make newer clubs. You need about 25 members like for your
club, and that's like 0.5% of the student population, and you need to find a sponsor and like 25 other kids. So, I think one of the things that would like attract students back is if we're a bit easier to make clubs cuz there are niche interests and it's a bit difficult to
like start a club for that niche interest. if feel like you wanted to. I do not have an answer. All right. So, um there are new opportunities uh at our school that attracts people. Um so, we have this new
league club. We have a wrestling club. Uh so, if anybody's interesting in um wrestling, you know, you can go, you can, you know, and also we have a new dance team. So um there's a lot of people so there's this um thing it's a
ban obviously uh you have auxiliary so it's um certain um dates where you have to uh try out and many people don't make those dates so they have to wait until another time and you know people are very eager to um dance. So we created a dance club where people can come out and
just dance. Uh and also we have uh a bowling we have a bowling club. So, if anybody's interested in bowling, uh, that's something new. But, yeah, that's it. Um, I'm trying to think about where to start. So, I feel that my school is kind
of lacking in extracurricular activities, and that might have to do with the fact that they don't really have the budget to have anymore. They I've been going to my school for three years now and I've seen a lot of them go, but nothing really be added. Right now, we only have a digital arts, which
I feel like it's a pretty good class and well done, but some of the equipment is damaged and they can't really get it replaced. Um, and then for our like gym and everything, we don't have too much
equipment for that. And we've actually had a like weight room and everything, but stuff was broken or like rusted and not really usable. And we don't really go outside at all when we were supposed to like the very
first year that I went there, we were told we were going to be able to go outside, but I still have not seen any progress on that. Um, and I feel like it brought back uh the music program that they have cut that would attract a lot of students because I know a lot of people really enjoyed it. The people
that were actually coming to school to do work um really enjoyed that program and it felt like a way to express themselves. And one of the things I noticed was that we try to teach a lot of the like foreign students or students that are moving in from other places how
to speak English, but we don't really have any classes where we try to learn to speak their language or any other languages as well, which is kind of like something that takes away a chance from us because if we could learn to speak other languages, that's something that
is very useful and helpful like in everyday life. That's all I have to say. Could you please repeat the question? Yes. What new opportunities would attract students back who may have left
for other schools or programs? Well, I I am that student. So, I I would say the the main a good perspective to share. Yeah. I would say the main thing for me was especially since I went to Western High School, which is one of the bigger schools in this county, the the lack of
personal um guidance in terms of it was very difficult for me to track down my counselor and I actually didn't go to the counselor that corresponded to me. I went to someone else because she was more welcoming to me. And uh just guidance guidance really uh more
personal looking out sending programs sharing opportunities with children with students is the biggest thing for me. Thank you everyone. All right, our last question is and we're going to do this with a scale of one to five. How much do
your school's programs prepare you for your future goals? You can put up a hand if it's a five, a four, a three. All right. All right. Interesting. Okay. Awesome. All right. Was there anything on the topic of innovative programs and choice that we
missed that anyone want to share? Going once, going twice, going three times. Awesome. All right. We're going to move on to school safety initiatives. And before we do, I want to just remind uh the students and also let the board members know that all of the students um were given a sheet of paper where they
can write down specific issues to their campus. We did ask that uh to avoid revealing any potential safety or security vulnerabilities that students uh should not discuss campus specific security concerns publicly. Um and they have this paper to be able to write that
down and uh we'll be sure to follow up with any of those specific campus topics. So just want everyone to know that we it's like an echo. Um raise your hand if you feel safe at school most of the
time. Okay. All right. Where did we start last time? We started with you, right, Mason? Yeah, I think we'll start with you, Ethan. This time, what can the district do to Our first question is, what can the district do to cut down vaping and drug
use on campus? All ideas are welcome. I I think that's pretty difficult to do at my school considering that it's an open campus. So, for now, I would say no comment. Um they do have a lot of presentations whenever especially whenever they catch
someone that has had a vape. They usually give out a presentation to like mention the dangers of it. One of the things I realized, and I'm not sure if like they don't do it because it might not be school appropriate, is to show how the people end up medically wise
after vaping for such a long time, like how they can't breathe properly or even speak or like some of them don't even get to keep living anymore because of it. Um, and then I feel like they could probably cut down on it more because I
know that a lot of students like think they could get away with it because security will sometimes just not really notice because they kind of just sit in different posts. They don't really walk around the campus that much. And so I feel like if maybe they surveyed the
areas a little bit more that would cut down on it. All right. So, I would just like to say the education on vaping, it is very uh it's presented uh to many students. I just feel like students really don't
really take it as serious until anything bad happens to them. But I feel like if there is a possible way we can have mental u not mental um metal detectors that actually detect the vapes, I don't know if that's possible, but if that's
um possible, then I think that can help. I feel like um the district I've been to two middle schools so far um for safety reasons. Um the uh they've been pretty well. They suspend students who have been caught and they do presentations.
They show the effects and stuff, but that's about it. Also, at my school, I don't think there's much they can do to cut down on vaping. They have like routine um meetings sort of where they explain the dangers of vaping, what it is, and the
effects. I think one thing though is they start these presentations in high school like freshman year, but vaping often starts in middle school, like sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade. And I remember I went to Falcon Go at Falcon. there was a larger vaping
issue there and there weren't that many presentations on it or like there were no explanation of the danger and that stuff. So by the time you get to high school, if you've been vaping all of middle school, like that's a habit now. So I think if those presentations started earlier on middle school, maybe
elementary, like fifth grade, I think it would be better. Um so at my school we do we have a lot of presentations about cutting down on vaping and um drug uses drug usage on
campus and I feel like our staff does a really great job with that and staff too. So, to be quite honest, maybe Broward County can use AI to our advantage since it's
growing in popular and stuff, but that's it. Um, at my school, I know that there's defin there's posters put all over the school and I believe they do have assemblies. me. I'm a senior this year
and as a junior last year I haven't had a study hall the last two years because of um Broward College study hall and this year senior privilege and in those periods are when they make those assemblies and presentations and me not going one of those the last two years means that I haven't been quote unquote
like educated on that since sophomore year. So, I definitely think if there's a way to educate your upper classmen who might not have traditional study halls where they're getting informed in like assemblies and then I think student made PSAs definitely help cuz hearing a
public service announcement from sorry like an adult is not going to do much for you. Like you're just going to look at it and be like okay it's another grown-up talking to me telling me that it's a bad thing to do. But if you have student made ones through your um TV production class, something like that,
it also gets students involved. And if my friend goes and says, "Oh, I made this. Go watch it." I'm more inclined to watch that. So, definitely think that that will help. I think that my school can be a little bit more
helpful with the stop of like vaping because my school has an assembly every um once in a while, but I don't think like Haley said, hearing it from another adult is going to be like maybe I don't
know how to put this, maybe a little boring. And I feel like um we should dive a little bit deeper and like really think on why the students are doing that. For example, like mental health issues, educational issues. And I
feel like it should get a little bit more personal with the student. I believe well at my school like most of the other schools um we have presentations multiple times a year about the dangers of vaping and drug usage and I know last year a few times
uh security they would come to like different classrooms and do random bag checks. Um but I believe it would be beneficial if they had professionals like if they had professionals like specializing in drug usage and addiction uh come and talk to the students about
not just the legal repercussions but the health consequences of vaping and using drugs as well as giving them sources that may help them like add like addiction centers to help the students overcome their problems. At my school, um we have many posters
along the hallways and we also have a club that is against drug use and um vaping and bullying. So, we do have a club that is run by students. So, it's more entertaining and we also they create videos that we watch on morning
news. So, it's more entertaining when it's by students and not by adults. Thank you. Um to be honest, um I don't think assemblies or posters are going to do much. Yes, it does bring awareness to the students, but the students are already aware of what they're doing and
the dangers of it. So, I think um to cut down on the usage of the drugs and the vaping on campus, I would say to monitor areas where students go to use the vapes and things like that. um like restrooms. I'm not saying go inside the restrooms and you know make sure the students are not using vapes, but definitely monitor
those areas and those locations on campus where cameras don't have access to to make sure students are doing what they're supposed to. So at my school, we have the assembly saying like no do drugs and stuff. We have some posters and I don't think
drugs and vaping have really been an issue at my school. I've no yet to see anyone doing it. So, all right. Thank you. We'll start with you, Mason. And our next question is, how can students be more engaged in creating a culture of safety? So, we
already talked a little bit about the studentmade PSAs, but what are the the things that students can do to make sure that their schools are more safe? I don't really have an answer for that. Well, when students see something, they can definitely say something. The school
does provide um resources and they let us know that there's resources to report anything that we see on campus that you know might affect the students. So, we have access to those things that we can definitely report anything we see. Um we do use like apps and we do have
counselors that tell us to report anything if we see anything. And um we do have students that are in a club that patrol the hallways in the morning and in the afternoon just to make sure nobody's doing anything wrong or doing
something that they're not supposed to. Thank you. My school really pushes the see something, say something initiative. And I also believe that students should be more watchful, especially on social media, of anything that might possibly
be considered a threat. And Like at my school, well at every school, there are resources where they can report these threats anonymously so they don't have to put themselves in danger. I feel as if the see something say something is very important, but at the
same time, if someone finds out you quote unquote snitched, you're going to get um not bullied, but you're going to get some feedback from that. And from personal experience and I really do
think it is important also with the patrolling hallways that's also something very good and the apps are very helpful and I feel like as a student should also watch their behavior to make the environment more safe for
other people because like sometimes people say very outrageous things and I feel like if we watch ourselves we make the environment better for others. Well, for the question, it's about a culture of safety. I'm very big on believing that the school's culture
starts with you individually. You can't expect everyone around you to change your school's culture if you're not going to put a good forth of effort into it. So, I definitely think um the see see something, say something is good, but like Janelle just said, um you don't
want to be the one that gets caught saying something. So, I definitely think making anonymous reporting more of a prevalent thing. I know it it's there in every school, but like me personally, I don't know where I would anonymously report something. I know I'd have to like walk up to someone face to face and
tell them what happened. So definitely think that making that more of a known thing would help the word spread faster about specific safety concerns. And then also, this is like a bad example, but elementary school like they have safety patrol. So maybe think making obviously
more of a grownup vision of this, but like a safety council in school just so that these are people that are well trusted amongst many of their peers and that they know that if they go to them that when that person goes to the administrator, they're not going to say, "Oh, just said that." Like they're just
going to say, "We got this concern. We can help." and then they can be involved in the fixing of that concern process because maybe these are people that want to go into counseling in the future or want to go into some type of safety safety conflict. So, it's also kind of tying back to a future career and
preparedness for that. I do agree with you Haley but also we should implement that and if students realized the consequences
for safety and security like in the future maybe they would act upon it instead of getting badmouthed. Um, just to add on what to Chanel said, um, our staff, they're very loving and
you can always come to them and tell them about what you saw. And also, um, the security at our school are very like aware and they're and they know where to check or problems like that. Um, so I think regarding like school
safety, the school does as much as they can to educate students, but at the end of the day, you spend like 8 hours at max at school. You don't like take in that much school information. So I think a lot of the safety issues start in the
household. I don't think the school district or like schools do enough to like educate parents on the consequence of certain actions or like con like things you do like vaping. Um, I don't think my parents would know, like, and no offense to them obviously, but I
think they would know anything about like the consequences like schoolwise or like um like punishment wise regarding if you were caught vaping and that stuff. And I think at our school, we had like the Brow County Sheriff come to our school and they held like presentations
and they told us, you know, if you vape or if you do a threat, you know, you get this punishment, that punishment. But at the end of the day, that's uh um that's like a meeting with like a hundred kids in the auditorium and just one guy standing up there. And I think a student
would take it like in better if it was like their parent talking to them. Hey, I got an email from the school saying if you do this action or that action, like you're the consequences. Um, my school really stresses the fact that take all threats seriously because
if say a student gets a text about a threat and they think it's just a joke, but then it actually happens, it's not necessarily the student's fault, but the student could have done something sooner to um prevent the threat from happening.
I feel like security at my school is pretty amazing. uh students at our school also do not play about safety. So I feel like yeah there's not really much to say about this. Um I feel that speaking from like personal experience
and what I've seen and heard um sometimes it has to do with the fact that students just do not respect staff. they kind of forgot how to be like at least somewhat respectful in the slightest. And so they don't really go
to seek staff for help because they don't even like think about staff at all to begin with. Um, and a lot of the times they tell their friends first if they hear or say anything
and sometimes then people will just not say anything about it or kind of just brush it off. Um, a lot of the times that people don't mention it is because either they don't really see the person as making those kind of threats like
they don't see them as that. they see them as their friend and they don't kind of get into like this delusion of that they're a good person. Um, and also like the snitcher gets stitchers kind of thing as well. That's the very
prominent. Um, and then sometimes staff, like from personal experience, I've had friends reach out to me when they've heard something and then I go to staff to deal with it because staff will sometimes see those people as not really
untrustworthy, but they kind of can be a bit rambunctious, I guess, would be the word to use. And so they don't really take them as seriously. Um, one of the biggest things I'd say is having a personal relationship with the people in the office. So, at my old
school, I don't ever remember meeting anyone in the office outside of the office. And I know that meeting people, guidance counselors, the principal, and having them come to your classroom or having them present at the assembly and learning their name makes a huge difference when you know who you
can come to. Thank you. Our last question on school safety, and this is a quick around the table question uh to share one example. If a new student walked in tomorrow, what would make them feel like your school was a safe and welcoming space?
We'll start with Ethan. Knowing that everyone there has a goal for the future is going to make you by accident even succeed. So, I know when I first came to my school, I wasn't the best or most hardworking student, but that definitely changed when everyone
around me was that student. I I became that student. And having something to lose is going to make you much more risk adverse if you have a lot of hope and goals for your future. It's going to keep you from doing a lot of bad things. So definitely giving kids something to
work towards or giving them something to lose even which is I think is works very well with senior privilege for example just giving rewards that can be taken away if certain actions aren't met. Um I feel like maybe just staff
reassuring students like that's a safe place. Like a lot of times when students first come to the schools um they don't really know where to go or who to see and then they're just kind of walking around or at a loss. I know that whenever I see a new student I always reach out to like make sure that they
know where they're going. If there's anything I can do to help them out with um that if they need anything they just come talk to me or like I could direct them to like who they need to speak to. So, I feel like maybe not just staff trying to like make sure they're a bit more attentive, but also students making
sure to like give out a helping hand as well would help. All right, so I actually like this question. Uh, this we have a club. It's called student orientation leaders. I don't know if um any high school have that, but at Benley High School, we have student orientation leaders that help
out with students that are new at the school. Um, we give tours. Um, we just make them feel welcome. And I feel like if you have school pride, uh, that'll make anybody like feel safe to be at school and they'll be like, "Oh, I love this school." Because like everybody just, you know, has that school pride.
You wouldn't want to be at a school where nobody likes the school. If a new student uh walked in tomorrow, I feel like if a teacher would tell the student that they can go to them, I feel like that would make the student feel
safe and welcome and accepted into the school. Um, I think if you walked into Cypress Bay tomorrow, the first thing you would see are like the huge metal detectors on like the side of the entryway. And then you'd see our principal standing right
there every morning at like 7:00 a.m. And I think like that's a big part in like feeling safe at our school. Like our principal, assistant principles every morning stand right there at like 7:00 a.m. on the dot. And I think it makes you feel like pretty welcomed and safe.
Um well for me I feel like our school let alone is already welcoming. Um, like when you first get there, our principal is there smiling and I think that like brings the energy for our school and also like just the pride like I just
feel like Dillard we have a lot of pride and a lot of the students are very welcoming also and yeah so we should implement like buddy systems like walk in a class like the teacher says hey do to have blah blah blah
class. So just another idea. Um similarly similarly to Julian student ambassadors that give a quick tour, offer them a seat at their lunch table, whatever it is to make you feel a little bit more welcome. And then also
definitely taking a stop with your principal and your guidance counselors as and your AP would definitely help because just them knowing your name and can put a face to the name definitely starts to establish that original connection.
I feel like one way that my school can be shown as very safe is students seeing um a lot of security at my school. I feel like that makes a difference and also the staff and everyone like teachers and everyone being very
welcoming towards the students. The staff at my school is genuinely very welcoming. Like in the mornings our principal is always there with a smile on her face. She's greeting everybody saying good morning. How I hope you have a great day along with other teachers and administrators all throughout the
school. They genuinely want to be a safe space for those students and they want them to succeed. As well as at my school we have the say hello initiative where well sorry start with hello initiative. Um and that includes different activities to make sure everyone has someone like no one eats alone day at
lunch. Um you go up to someone who's sitting alone and try to spark up conversation with them. Um heyday everybody wears a name tag so you could skip that awkward introduction. And yeah, um at my school, my principal um has a speaker and is always outside greeting
everybody and making them try to dance and sing with them. And um a lot of our staff um that works in the office is always by the door greeting everyone and sometimes even teachers. And we also have a buddy system like say hello to and greet new
students and include new students and sit with them at lunch. And my school generally um includes a lot of students. So I don't think anyone ever feels like by themselves or not included in my school. Um my principal and the
staff, they're um the main reason why the school feels so safe and welcoming. My principal, he's always involved with the students, always saying good morning. He's always communicating with us. It's never really awkward. He feels like he's like one of us basically, but just in like a higher position. And then also the staff, they're also um they're
very friendly. They will always greet you. Um but they'll also make sure that you're supposed to be where you're supposed to be. They check for IDs. They just um generally they're welcoming, but they also make sure that you're doing what you're supposed to do. So I like that about my school. Well, at my school, everyone's really
nice. The kids, the staff, principal, teachers. Like once you get to school, there's some staff members right as you come out. They're all nice. And then right at the front entrance, there's always someone there who's
saying like hi and stuff. And then for any new kids that come, I I've seen a lot of new kids come. Any time they do, they usually get like a friend by like the first week. So, all right. Thank you everyone. That's our last question on safety and
security. Is there anything else that someone wanted to bring up on this topic? Good. Awesome. All right. Our next topic is student services and support. And we'll start with a raise your hand question. Raise your hand if you know where to go for mental health or
counseling support when you need it. All right. Much better than than last year, right? Make an improvement. All right. We will start with Mason. Are there specific services, tutoring,
counseling, and mentorship you wish were expanded or offered differently? In my opinion, I think my school is doing pretty well on that. Um, I agree with Mason. I think my school is definitely doing really good with the um student services and
support. We have um individual therapy, family therapy, and then also if we have any like losses in within the school, they also provide emotional support. Like they'll bring in emotional support animals, which they started doing last year, and I really like that. It's a good um um there's lots of tutoring at my
school. Um they'll pull you out of class and there's lots of mentorship for um fourth through six. But I really wish there was more mentorship for K through third because I know some kids um have issues at home or in school and they
just um want to feel um heard and I wish there was um more than one counselor at my school cuz um I love her very much but I wish there was more for multiple students to see her at a time. I believe my school does very well when
it comes to tutoring and mentoring. Um, we have programs like MTL, mentoring tomorrow's leaders, where you're paired up with multiple students and you'll help them not just academically but socially, extracurricularly. Um, however, I do believe that my school could do better when it comes to
counseling and therapeutic services for their students. I feel as if my school does a great job with mentorship like counseling and everything because we have I think we have a few counselors per grade level
and we also have the same club MTL mentoring tomorrow's leaders and I think that helps a lot like Bryce said um our my school's tutoring and mentorship is amazing. our tutoring. We just put out a list. We literally they literally offer tutoring
in every single subject you can imagine for the rest of the school year. So, it's amazing. It's like a hu anyway, it's a huge list. But for counseling, I definitely think that it could be better. It is there and it is provided, but it's if you can get an appointment
in your guidance counselor's office. And they deal with a lot more than just counseling. Like, they deal with scheduling. and they deal with kids going in there for their future plans. So, yes, that's all very important and necessary in a high school setting. But if there's a kid sitting there waiting
in the um like waiting room and they're considering harmful ideas or there's just something going on at home and they're having to wait an hour or even a couple of days because they can't get an appointment that's just not needed. Like you can go
to someone else for scheduling. Your counselors are there to help counsel you. I feel like my school does this really well. Like the others said, we have mentoring tomorrow's leaders, 5,000 role
models, and their door is always open for students to come in and say whatever they're feeling. Um, well, for me, I think my school is really good. I don't really have anything bad like our our tutoring we
have really good um tutoring and counseling and mentorship so it's nothing for me um so I believe the tutoring at my school is really good we have MA which is like math tutoring we have SNHS which is science tutoring and overall our
tutoring programs are really great we have um faculty which like tries to reach out and help student like athletes who are struggling maybe academically. Uh, one thing is though, our school has a bit more than 4,800 kids, I think. And
so, as a result, counseling is like a bit of an issue. We have, I want to say, seven regular counselors and about two college and career counselors. And so, that's like for college, right? We have about 1,000 something seniors in my grade. And if you all want help from the
like college counselors, it's nearly I don't want to say it's impossible cuz they try their best, but it's extremely hard to like set up a date with them, set up a meeting, and go there and get help. Uh with regular counselors, you don't feel like you actually know them cuz they have probably like hundreds of
other kids that they're also like that are under their u counseling group. So, I think I I mean I don't know how you would improve that. It's easy to say uh get more counselors, but maybe that's not like plausible. But uh yeah, the
counseling is a bit of an issue. Um we have many opportunities for tutoring. Um we have this after school program called Firewall. I it offers homework help. Um we also have uh a lot of opportunities for counseling and mentorship. We also have mentoring
tomorrow's leaders aka MTL. But one thing I would like to change for counseling is if we had sort of like a school like a sorry a student counseling program where other students could listen and provide their ideas to others
because I feel like younger um younger students would be more understood by older students who might have gone through the same experience that are they that they are going through. Thank you. All right. So we have uh very great tutoring. Uh we have a after school
program YMCA. Uh you have teachers there that can um tutor with anything you need about like math, science, um English. And also uh there's some student um teachers that's actually um open for SAT prep, ACT prep. Um like if you want to
go on a personal level, you can um ask a teacher. All you have to do is just ask ask your teacher if you get get tutored in a specific subject. And um counseling counseling is uh also great also. Um there's a lot of uh guidance um yeah you
have um student um guidance for every uh grade level. Um the only problem is what Haley said the wait time schedule like you have to schedule um with your guidance counselor. So it's a big wait time. It's like every time I pass my um
where the office you see a lot of uh students just waiting there and well Haley said if you have stuff on your mind and stuff you you have to wait maybe like an hour just to talk to somebody. Um and mentorship uh we have MTL but I feel like uh MTL could be a little bit more active. Um I think
that'll help uh the school better. Um, I feel like when it comes to helping students with their lessons and everything, the teachers do a pretty great job. If they do not understand a lesson, students always can go up to the teacher and the teacher will try to make sure that they can explain it in a way
that they will understand. Um, I know that we have I can't remember the exact like acronym. I think it's called ESB. um which it's like a separate class for students to not only catch up on any work that they're having trouble
completing, but also to where they can go if they're having trouble understanding a lesson. And like a lot of students that don't speak English and stuff go to those classes. I haven't heard anything about it recently, so I'm not sure if they still have it or not. And one of the problems with uh guidance
is I noticed that a lot of times like Julian mentioned that you have to set meetings and so some of them times like you're going to be waiting for a very long long time till you can actually get
seen and a lot of times that I've gone in there uh sometimes the guidance counselor just not in at all and so maybe if they have like a second guidance counselor like could like work in the same with the same grades and everything as kind of a backup almost
for if the other one isn't in. That'd be very helpful. Oh, I'd say our tutoring services are pretty good. We have peer-to-peer tutoring through the NHS chapter at our school and we also have um from teachers at the academic success center for the
college. Um mentoring is also pretty good. We have peer mentoring program at our school. It allows you to have a very personal relationship with the first year students at our school. The only thing I would say is for for counseling. I understand that there are probably
certain certifications or degrees that um a employee of the county must have before they're allowed to have that with the students. And definitely pushing that so that we have as many qualified people to speak with students as possible.
Thank you. Our last question is for this topic is if you could make a perfect support system in school, what would that look like? We'll start with you, Ethan. I think we already have it at my school. Um I guess I would work on like as I mentioned before, maybe having more
guidance counselors or just making sure I prominent. Another thing is that um a lot of times students don't even know who their guidance counselor is. So making that like students more aware of who they need to see if they need anything like academic
wise or even for other things like to help maybe get a job like plan for futures and stuff like that. A lot of students don't take advantage of those resources mostly because they just do not know where to find them or that they're even there to begin with. So, I
feel like if we improve on making it more prominent, that would help. Um, to piggyback on Ethan, uh, my school does have a great support system. Um, overall, my school has a really well structured support system, so I do not
have a comment. Um, as I mentioned earlier, our school does have a lot of students. So, I think more counselors would be like the ideal way to solve that. But I think you know that's might not be probable. But one thing that like might help would be um
like an old like upper classman underassman type of system. So in a lot of clubs like what there is is like there's a buddy system where you they match you up with like a junior or senior and they match like a junior senior up with a freshman or sophomore. And I think that helps you like feel
like you're connected a bit because you have like an older person to like help mentor you, tell you what classes you should take to get to a certain point because I think with so many students, it's hard to know like if I take that class, I'm limited to take that class in the future. So like for example, if you
don't take chemistry honors in freshman year, you're limited in like the amount of AP sciences you can take the rest of high school. And I think like if you had an upper classman to help you out at freshman year, you'd know, okay, I'm like like that's the decision I'm making
and then the effect of that decision. Um, my school has a really good support system. So, I don't have a comment. I don't have a comment either. I would say my school is a very good support system, especially administration. They do have an open
door policy so you can easily walk into any of their offices if you wish. I do just think that it also comes from the students that they need to be more willing to find their even their one person in school, their one teacher, one admin, one guidance counselor they're
comfortable with because me like I can very easily walk into my principal's office and just say like oh how's it going? But not every student is like that. So, I definitely think trying to find a way to push that every student should have at least one adult that they're com comfortable with on campus.
I think my school's support system is pretty good. I also wanted to add on to the question before like how will a student be more welcomed? A lot of adults at my school have like badges that say that they are a safe person to
talk to, and I feel like that's also very helpful. But like Haley said before, most of the students don't feel comfortable with telling an adult their issues. And I feel like that's something we need to improve. I don't know how yet, but I do think
students should feel more comfortable. Um, like Haley said, I believe each student should have like their one person, their one teacher or administrator that they should be able to go to and talk to anything about. um someone that they should feel comfortable with. Also, uh I believe it
would be beneficial if there was some type of like student support group where if the students are comfortable, they can talk openly about their problems and maybe find someone else who could be going what who be who could be going through what they're going through and maybe even if their problem isn't fully solved, they could at least find a
friend who could support them. My school generally has a good support system, but I really wish like during testing week, which is like the most stressful, that we had like support stations or um a support group for like students that just need like to calm
like cool down because it's very stressful like um positive notes or stress balls, anything that you know calms someone down. Um, in my opinion, my school has a really great support system. Um, that system isn't limited to only counselors,
like some of the other students said. Um, if you find an adult that you're more comfortable with, they're also really welcoming and open to counseling you and just listening to you if you have any issues. So, at my school, we have two counselors, so you can go to either one, whatever one
you feel more comfortable with. And if you're not comfortable with either one of them, all the staff is pretty welcoming and opening until the teachers. So, thank you. That was our last question for student services and support. So, is
there anybody that has something on mental health and student services that they wanted to share that we didn't cover? Okay. Our last topic is campus environment and resources. We're going to start with a rating question. How would you rate your school's resources,
which includes facilities, textbooks, and technology, on a scale of one to five? I should have said this earlier, but I guess five would be the best and one would be not good. Okay, we're going to start with Mason. If you could fix one thing on campus, food
options, Wi-Fi, bathrooms, sports field, etc. Something physical, what would it be? And it could be multiple things, actually. I would just say a little more varieties for lunch and there's not really that many
options. So really that's it. Um I don't really have any complaints about any of the um resources at my school. We have a lot of food options. We have a lot of textbooks and educational resources. Um maybe the one complaint I would have is the access to maybe the library. Sometimes it's hard
to get into the library and we need the um printers and other resources to get our assignments done. So that's the only complaint I could have. But otherwise, the school's really good with it resources. Um like Chanel said, I don't really have any complaints, but I would like if they
fixed the sports fields, like the basketball court, like the rims are kind of falling off, which is a concern, but um yeah. And also the Wi-Fi has like lately like right now it's been like
going off and on which is like and we only have an hour and 30 minutes to do all of our work each period. So I really wished they could fix the Wi-Fi so that we have time to do everything we need to do and we don't have to get another computer to finish all of our work.
Thank you. Um I would probably fix the AC the air conditioning. Um like in was it last Friday I think it was um the AC was down in a couple of the buildings and the teachers had to change classrooms and it
was all very hectic. As well as the football field and the track it's kind of run down and the bleachers they're very small. We can't have home games there. It's not that good. One thing or actually a couple things I
would want to improve at our school is the technology shortage. Most of our classrooms don't have enough of laptops and my classroom is lucky enough to have those laptops. And in my class, we have 50 kids because it's two classes
combined. And that just like leaves almost little to maybe 13 laptops for other classrooms. And that's why I bring my own laptop to school to give other kids the opportunity to use those
laptops. Also, like um I forgot who someone said, I would like to improve the lunches at school, the varieties and Wi-Fi. It like sometimes it cuts out and goes back in and it's kind of hard
to do work. Um my campus is amazing. The one thing like Bryce is the air conditioning. Um it's like every other day one of the units is out. So me think knowing that like I get hot easily, I'm like, "Oh, I can't wear sweatpants this day cuz
there's not going to be AC." But and then there's not enough CL like open classrooms in my school to be able to take all those teachers and relocate them to classes that do have AC. So they kind of just have to sit there until it gets fixed, which obviously is bad for them. I'm only there for an hour and a half. They're there for eight hours. So
yeah, I have no complaints other than the Wi-Fi. It is very buggy. So you have to take up 15 minutes of an hour just to get the right computer to load to the
home screen. Um um I will only say that we need a new scoreboard for our football um field. It's like really bad and it's like really old and um
um I think we need a better um technology when it comes to technology cuz our computers are not good. Um like with the keyboard sometimes like the keys fall off like it's really bad. So I would say we would need updated more
technology and um a new scoreboard. I'm sorry I have to jump in here because I think Mr. Davis is going to is going to jump up and down. I just want to say some good news that we could that we could share is that new devices are coming. They're on their way. So, that's
a good thing that I should have said at the beginning to kind of preempt it because it's great feedback and that's why there are new devices coming. Um, I think one of the things I would improve about our school is the textbook supply and like making them more up to-date. We have like a lot of textbooks
and they're accessible. All you have to do is like go to a teacher or office staff and tell them like you want a textbook for this class. The only issue is for some of our more advanced courses or some of our more popular courses, there's not enough textbooks for it or
the textbooks are like out of date and they're not up to like AP curriculum or standards or ACE curriculum. And then one issue would be like um technology regarding the recordex. It's like a huge TV type of thing. And uh for a lot of teachers like it's really helpful. It
helps them like display the lesson on a huge screen. But for some of the teachers like the recordex is broken so they use like a projector and it's not like you can't see it that well. It's kind of translucent. But regarding like our computers and all that uh we have up-to-date computers, brand new and
every class has a computer cart. Um very similar to what Nathan said, we don't have that many textbooks. We can't take them home, which is very unfortunate because some students do not have access to electronics or computers
at home and they won't be able to finish their work on time leading to not failing, just not the best grades that they could be getting. All right, I'm going to go based on my notes, but um we do need better uh bathrooms because it's very low quality.
Uh it's just like janitors can't do as much. Um, the food options could be uh a little better. Uh, I feel like, you know, you could have a great meal, but also um low in calories. Uh, the Wi-Fi connections, it could be a lot better.
Uh, there's u many places in our my school where the Wi-Fi is poor depending on where you are at. So, I feel like the Wi-Fi could be better. Also, uh, our football field. Uh, so we don't have turf yet, but yeah, it's it's it's
coming next year, you know, when I'm graduating. But anyways, uh, but, um, yeah, it could be a little better. Um, there's a lot of holes on the field. Uh, I have a friend, he got injured because of that, but I think that, uh, being improved and also our school um, our
scoring board on the football field, uh, it it literally glitches. Um, like it literally glitch. you you don't even know what the score looks like. But yeah, that's it. Um, so part of the problem that I find with the like utilities around the
school and everything is that they are not really taken care of by students. Um, like the bathroom situation, I haven't really heard complaints from like other girls and stuff about the girls rushing, but I know that like the males restrooms. It's mostly just to do
with the fact that a lot of the students are just super disrespectful or don't even think about others. And so they'll like rip doors off the hinges and like flood bathrooms. So, a lot of times the bathrooms are constantly breaking down and so it can be kind of a pain. And
then a lot of students don't really take the school like supplies seriously. So pencils get like broken or stolen and stuff. Textbooks are constantly written in and like ripped apart. Um computers
have been breaking down. And on top of that, a lot of the computers are also kind of out of date. So, they're like very slow and it's hard to keep up and be able to finish any work in class because you sit for like 10 to 15 minutes waiting for it to just load a single page.
Um, so I feel like not only having like a bit more budget to be able to fix these problems, but also maybe making sure that the students are a bit more respectful would help with these situations. Before the only thing was one of the
rooms was really diffic uh hot so it was difficult to focus in there but now it's cold enough to store ice cream so no complaints. All right our last question is what part of your school makes you proud? So is
there a room where a program is held or a type of technology that your school has or a place in your school that makes you proud to attend there? Start with you Ethan. Other than the ice cream cooler, to be honest, I don't think we have enough time in this meeting to cover
everything that I'm proud of my school for. But just I the biggest thing for me is the personal relationships and the access to opportunity at my school. I think the difference that you chose to apply and be there already filters out a lot of the bad energy of I don't want to be here. I'm just going to try to waste
time or skip class or um we have lots and lots of programs. I know our principal has worked very hard to have us um to give us access to programs like junior achievement to start an NHS chapter at our school to have us have all the benefits of the
college and and I I feel like I'm I'm a college student and I and I feel like and it shows a difference and just being prepared makes such a difference. the second two years of high school or the latter years of high school being more of a
transitionary phase at this school definitely prepares students much more for college in the future. So I think the proudest thing at my school is feeling ready for going to college. Um the proudest thing about my school I
would probably say is the relationship with the staff and the students. Um, like because I've been going there for so long, I've gotten like pretty well known among staff and so they'll like come like look for me if they need me to help someone or like help a new student.
And then also they've recommended me for like other things as well. Like that's actually how I got here is because of my assistant principal because I'm so close. And so I feel like I'm very proud about the fact that the staff, if you treat them with respect, they'll show
you respect as well. and they'll also show you the same amount of kindness and everything. Everything is very um reciprocated. All right, I'm gonna start this off. Um obviously I think uh me I don't know your name, but you go to Dillard High School. I'm so sorry. I don't know your
name, but I think we're going to say the same. I think we're going to say the same thing, but the pride uh the pride is there. Uh everybody loves the school. Everybody shows great pride of the school. Um different opportunities at my school. Um I think we have this new um
dual enrollment we have with ATC B um BC and also newly um FAMU. So um also I love the band. I'm also in the band also. So uh the band is very great. Uh everybody's welcoming and you also have to challenge yourself to be you know
better. Um and I love my principal. My principal he gives us uh a lot of opportunity. He's very open. You can go you can go to him and give him ideas. Um yeah, I have many things uh that at my school that make me proud to be there. Um one
thing is definitely the students because at my old school the students weren't the best. Um that's part of the reason why I transferred schools. Um but at the school but at Seminal Middle School, the students will show kindness. They will
be very welcoming and they show respect towards teachers which I have I don't really see now at school but it's very it's very yeah the students make me proud of my school.
Um I would say the number one thing that makes me proud of my school would be the teachers. Our teachers are like amazing at what they do. Our pass rates for AP exams, ACE exams are like in the high 90s every single year. And you know, they make sure you're prepared for like
every exam you take, um, any test that they're going to give. And it's like a really like warm environment. I had a teacher freshman year and to this day, every time I pass by that room, he likes always saying like my name, saying hi, and I think it's just like a great
environment. Um, so if I it's a lot that I could say about Dillard, but like I just love like the pride that we have. Like I just feel like that's like different from like every other high school. And I'm really like proud of the accomplish
accomplishments that we made cuz there's like a lot of people think bad things about Dillard, but they really don't know like the actual pride that we have. And I'm really proud of my like the band since I'm in the band and I'm like
really proud of all of the scholars and everybody. So yeah, I am very proud to be a Stallion and it's very reassuring to know that our district and school are a an A-rated
school and district. And I'd like to take the moment to thank each and every one of you in this room and outside this room that make our education better for our futures. Thank you.
I can't follow that one up. Um, I would say one thing that makes me proud is definitely like Nathan said, um, the staff and the teachers especially and then the students. Um, me and a lot of kids are very, um, sorry
word. Oh my god, I just went blank after hearing that. Oh my god. We spend Okay, here. We spend more time at school than we do with our families sometimes. So definitely feeling like the teachers and your coaches or your adviserss for your clubs are like your home away from home. That definitely makes me proud and it
makes me more willing and not not willing but like more enticed to stay and not be like, "Oh, I have to be at school for three more hours after 2:40." Like no, I get to be at school for three more hours after 2:40. So I definitely think that the teachers giving the
students like the drive and the initiative to take charge of their future and make it the best it can be is definitely what makes me most proud. Some things that make me proud of my school are axes of opportunity, friendships, sports programs, and connections. I feel like that's very
important in an environment where you stay there most of your day and almost 12 years of your life. I feel like that's very essential. And I'm also very proud of my pride at my school. Pride is like an acronym for my school.
Positivity, respect, integrity, determination, and excellence. I feel like that's very motivating for students, and I love that about my school. There are many reasons as to why I'm proud to be a Dragon. Um, but a few of them I'm going to talk about are one,
the teachers there are very passionate about what they do. um they don't just like think of it as just a regular job like they just have to uh okay let's just get the day over with. No, they genuinely want to teach the students. They want the students to be engaged in what they're learning. Along with the
fact that many of the students, especially seniors at my school, they want to better the school. They want to see it grow. um along with PE with people like me and many of my friends, they just really want to take this year to show how much of a hidden gem our
school is. Um my school is also A-rated by the district, which shows that teachers are actually doing their jobs and they actually want to be there for the students. And I think the students really love our teachers because more
teachers get called mom than their actual names. So I think that the students really um appreciate the staff and um everybody that works there and um my school promotes a lot of saving like
saving the planet and steam very well. Bullying is also something my school is very against and there's a lot of activities for students to feel included. And um we also have a lot of pride like students love to chant in the
hallways. So that's really good. Um I have a lot that I can say about my school that I really like. Um the first thing I can definitely say is the staff, the principal. I really really love them. um our staff, they're always involved with the students and they always like inform us of any
opportunities we have beyond school like um in the community if there's um opportunities to like um for community service hours, internships, and um scholarship opportunities. Um sometimes we'll see security guards handing out flyers for stuff like that. And it just it makes me proud that they they're that
involved with this. um beyond just the security, the staff. Um the security guards, I mean, they they're there to watch over the campus, but they keep they keep watching over the students and their education as well. And then like I said about my principal, he's very very cool. You can talk to him about anything. Um whenever you see him, it's
like always just a natural conversation like he's your friend. And then also the clubs, the sports that we have, I feel like we have so many that students, they have a place in the school. Um there's anything you need. If there's anywhere you want to go, you can go there. Um there's like a safe space for every student. And then also um our patriot
pride and our patriot drip. As miss um our principal says um drip stands for discipline, respect, integrity, and pride. And we show that every day, which is something that I love about my school. So at our school, we have a lot of pride. Like when I mean a lot, I mean a
lot. Once in a while, we'll have this little cart that's at the beginning of the school and you can buy beachside merch. Really? So that's good. So that's cool. Thank you to PSA for that. PTSA for
that. Well, thank you so much to all of the students who came today. Um, this was again a representative group across our entire district and really all I can say is wow. Uh, that was a really great Did you have something?
[Applause] Go ahead, Mason. So, going back to if we can fix one thing on the campus, what would it be? I would say to fix to give a to get a gym really. We don't have a gym especi like to we can use it to like practice
and especially for games because we have soccer games but because of the weather lately they are regularly cancelled. So awesome. That would be very good. Thank you. So I want to thank the students who came today as well as the school administrators who were integral in getting the students here. The
parents and family members. I think Aby's sister has been sitting here the entire time. We'll be we'll be selecting you for the next one. Um, and you know, this was a a team effort to make sure that a representative group came. So, thank you to all the students, parents, and school
administrators who supported this process. I want to assure the board members that uh we've been taking notes and we'll go back to the recording and note down all the things that students said to create an afteraction uh report for uh the superintendent and cabinet to
have access to. So know that the concerns and feedback that were shared have been recorded. Um and I want to take a moment to thank our staff and superintendent and cabinet members um for after the last joint discussion. I want the board members to know this that
everyone so quickly jumped into action um to remedy the issues that students brought to the table. Uh we heard we did feedback uh a feedback summary after the students came last time and the number one thing that the students partic the student participants said after was
thank you for making me feel like my voice was acted upon. They didn't feel like they just came here and were listened to for an hour and a half and nothing was done. Um, and I heard from students after that discussion that they went back to school, had productive conversations with their administrators, and all the issues that they were facing
were resolved. So, I want to take a moment to to share that that gratitude. With that being said, I will turn it back over to Vice Chair Leonardi and board members uh for discussion. Thank you. Yeah, Dr. Heburn. Yes, if I may. Before discussion, um, thanks Tom Landon and just here for
facilitating this process. Um, this reminds us of our why and and you know the staff and I we don't get a lot of good news. Um, and especially from the media, we don't hear a lot of good news uh about public education period. Um, we
love they uh the media loves to highlight the 00001% of issues that happen in our school district when there's 99 plus% of great things that are happening in our in our school district. And I am so happy just
to hear about your experiences with your teachers, with your administrators, with your peers. You know, it's the people that keep this business running, right? To keep us progressing and addressing the needs of our students day in and day out. Um, I don't get emotional, but I got a little emotional listening to you
guys. I'm being honest. And then Abby, uh, my daughter, who I just dropped off to college a couple of weeks ago, is is her name is Abby also. Uh, so I got a little emotional listening to you and and reminded me about my own kids. um as as well as the rest of rest of the students in here. So, thanks for for um
being brave and coming here today and providing, you know, some some accolades, but also some feedback, too. Uh feedback is a gift for us to help to help us get better quicker. Um I know Landon and here is going to communicate with you guys a little bit more just to understand if there's additional gaps that we need to close, but your voices,
your experiences are so important to us. We pride ourselves of being a student centered administration uh because everything that we do is for the betterment of your experiences in your school and also your education for whatever path you want to take after high school. So, thanks for being here. Thanks for providing the feedback. It's
much appreciated. Thank you. Um we don't have any registered public speakers, so I'll go straight to board discussion. Mrs. Alhadaf, thank you all for being here today. especially special shout out to Haley and Abby. Great job.
So, some of my takeaways from the conversation was that we need to improve our our Wi-Fi and our computers. I know Dr. Hepern is working on that, that our security team needs to be not so predictable and walking around to be
more randomized. to have a PSA from students on vaping would be really helpful to to push out. And that was a good idea, Haley. And then just so you know, we do have the safer watch app in Fortify Florida
that is on your computer where you could report something anonymously when you see something, say something. So I know that was kind of like I don't know where to report. So that is there on your computer. And also parents can download the safer watch app and can report
something on the safer watch app and their concerns and you can report as yourself or anonymously. And then one really important thing big takeaway for me and and I'm sure our our uh
teachers and administration is working on it but knowing students names. I think that's so vitally important to build that relationship and connection with our students, but also and this made me think of it today too, the students knowing the teachers names. So,
I don't know if we can make little like magnet badges, but to have that name on there, it really helps to build that relationship and that connection with the students and with the staff and, you know, vice versa and with parents. Um, and I know so many times when I go
into a situation, somebody might know my name and I don't know their name and I'm like, "Oh, I wish they had a name tag." Uh, the buddy system, the mentoring program, I thought was great. And when we talked about school safety, one of the things that I do through my
nonprofit organization, Make Our School Safe, we have Moss Clubs, and that's actually what the Moss Clubs Foundation is, where students help to build a culture of safety within the school. And we have a lot of moss clubs here in Broward County Public Schools. We have
one at Coral Glaze High School and Coral Springs High School and and many more schools. So there's more information at make ourschoolsafe.org if you want to start a moss club at your high school or middle school. And then um
I I did think that it was a great um someone brought up about parents being informed about the consequences with if they're vaping, but I think it needs to just be a more um robust conversation or casual conversation with parents. I know
as parents we we sign off on the parent student the student code of conduct which has those consequences in there but it's probably like a 400page document. So not sure how much everybody's reading that. So I would think to have maybe a more informal
conversation or roundt with our parents to just have those open conversations, you know, and also there's things that parents might find that in their school is a safety concern and they're um hesitant to say something. So it might
bring out a better um conversation how we can fix that. And lastly, I would just say um having Oh, guidance counselors. That was a big takeaway. Need more guidance counselors. So, I know when we do budget, that could
be a priority of ours. And and then to have some space within the school. I thought this was a great idea someone brought up, but to have like a a zen type of space where there's stress balls or um a calming notes or some type of
calming type of area where students can go to de-stress, you know, when they're testing and and or have to deal with problems. And then Dr. Hurn, one one of the students said that, you know, they go to the guidance counselor and that
nobody would be there. I think though we need to have a some type of sign to say like like say I'm in like high trauma level and then I see nobody's there. That could be a real problem for me. But maybe there could be some type of
science to say that, you know, if you're in this high trauma state, you need to go see principal blah blah blah something. So there is so we don't let the kids down. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Aladaf. Dr. Hoes.
Thank you, Chair um Leonardi. Um so, I just want to say uh thank you all so much for coming today. I certainly appreciate your presence. Thank you parents as well and siblings um for being here. Um, so I wanted to also
thank um uh you know all of the students who commented, but I I know that um I believe it was Julian uh that made reference to the pride and being proud, right? And I and I I know Elie is very
proud proud students. Uh and also I know Erin mentioned pride first, right? So I would uh say yes. Um I I would agree that both of those schools um have a lot of pride and Julian yes Elie has a great
band and great football team. They're almost as good as Diller now. So um just wanted to comment on a few things. Um I think it resonate among all of the students that there are concerns with um
number of counselors and accessibility. So, Dr. Hepper, I know that uh we've had this conversation many times. Um, and I did hear one of the students mention I think it might have been Haley that says uh uh uh that some of the counselors um
if I didn't maybe I I heard incorrectly, but I think you mentioned something about some of the counselors uh doing other things like scheduling and uh and maybe not as readily available for counseling. So, Dr. He I know that we had changed the job description and we
had initiatives in place to make sure that our counselors are counseling and they're not engaged in other things that are outside of the scope of the job responsibility. So um I is how are we
ensuring that our schools understand that our counselors will need to be there 100% uh for the students and they are not being pulled in any other direction and that the leadership the school-based leadership is conforming to our job
description that we've recently changed. Thanks for the question Dr. Honess uh what what you're describing is actually part of their job description. We took out the other duties as assigned so they won't be out and about on like lunch duty, car duty, things like that. So
academic counseling as well as providing uh support for mental health counseling is part of their actual job duty. I think what I'm hearing, what I've gathered from the students the most is that our ratio of counselors to students um the number of students per counselor
is too high. Um, and so I know that's something that the team is trying to tackle as we move forward in developing a budget for the D2627 school year where we can address some of that and also staff staffing allocation models that we're currently looking at. Um, you know, across the nation is it is super
high. It's not a Broward County issue, but certainly we can u make a dent in that to um, you know, be the model for what we're trying to create for our students. Wonderful. So, Dr. Heburn looking at the ratio of counselors and and thinking about addressing that issue. Is there
any other structure that we could put in place where it's not necessarily it could be an assistant to the counselors that would handle uh lower level concerns um because I know financially there's also uh concerns in how many
counselors we are able to um properly fund. Uh but could there be um consideration in terms of assistance to the counselors that would handle lower level concerns? So counselors are readily available for students with more um moderate or higher level concerns.
So uh give us some time to research as we try to tackle this issue for the upcoming school year. Dan Shapiro and his team is looking at all options that are possible. um we know we have certain constraints with certifications and and um uh diplomas or whatever from from
college level be it if it's a masters or or a bachelor. So if the board gives us some time we will come back with some good strategies as we talk about how do we fund these strategies when we come back for budget workshops in the future. Wonderful. Um, yeah, because I do I I I think I've heard it all across the room
that counseling is a concern and I I think as we move forward as a board, um, we may want to look into how we can provide even more funding possible for for this particular area because it it certainly uh permeated the room from what I've been listening. Now, in terms
of vaping, I I did hear the concerns with vaping. Um and um I also heard students mention that sometimes they don't necessarily want to hear a lecture from adults, right, to say um stop vaping. These are the impact. They more
want to hear from their peers. Uh they want to hear from uh younger folks uh within their age group who might have been impacted by by vaping. So I guess and they also one student mentioned uh videos um that that would probably help.
Um so I I know probably our normal mode of of uh addressing this issue is to have the adults at the school, the school leadership and so on encourage students not to do so. But then it seems to be the least effective approach because the students are telling us that uh that that's kind of one student said
it's boring, it's not entertaining. Uh so there might be ways in which we can reach our students by having their peers and and other um uh uh students at their level who have been impacted by vaping
um to to sort of in um help them to understand the effect of vaping and negative effect of it. So Dr. Dr. Heepern, they mentioned um that one of the solutions could be to have speakers who are younger that would come in and speak to the students uh regarding the
the the significant negative impact of vaping. So, is this something we're doing? And if we're not, then how can we get this done? So, I know um Jodie Washington and her team, they do a lot of outreach. I don't know the the age group of the individuals that they have participate
with them in the outreach. Um some of the things that we're working on right now, we we met um courtesy of uh Landon kind of helping to facilitate this with all of the TV production um or media production um uh programs, high schools
that have those programs. We met with them was about two weeks ago. Um and one of the asks from them was to help us out um creating studentled content, PSAs and things like that. So, not just for vaping, but also for other concerns that we may have to have students create PSA
videos that we can push out at different schools so they can roll it through their announcements or however they they see fit, put it on social media, things like that. So, we already got some things in work in the works um uh working with schools that already have these programs that are eager to assist us and leverage Beacon to help us do that. Understand? So, Dr. Herman, let me ask
this question because I know vaping is is a major issue not only in high school but in middle school. Correct. So um what I heard from the students is having younger speakers come on campus and speak to them. I don't know if this would be in an auditorium or um that
that would be very helpful especially if these are young speakers who have been impacted. So, um, is is this something that's that's doable that can uh be across the district and and would this create a a financial sort of concern to
be able to do this? Um, because um I'm hearing from the students that that seem would have possibly been an effective way or could be an effective way to really reach the students um when we have speakers that come on on the school grounds. So, uh, can this can this be
something that's implemented district-wide on a yearly basis? Um, and I I'm assuming more a lot more funding would be needed to to do so. Yep. So, we we're already making notes. I know the team is behind me making notes, too. We're going to have a discussion and pass this information on
to student services. Um, I think this is more spearheaded through Dr. Washington's um, department, and then she can give us the feasibility of what can be done versus what's already being being done. I appreciate it. So what I what I can say and then I'm going to move on to the next thing. Um they they clearly state
they they don't necessarily want to hear a lecture from adults. So we have to reach them where they are and we have to change how we do it. Right. So in terms of um I I also heard um one student mention that they were able to shadow um
uh um those in the medical programs were able to shadow doctors and it was about 40 to 80 students um that were able to do so. I think this was at Cypress Bay, but they didn't have near enough um majority of the students who would have
interest in the medical programs were not able to go through this process. So, is this something the district can consider not only for medical programs, but for other programs where students are able to um I know we're doing some of this, but where we we're able to to
sort of expand on this and provide access to through um partnerships and so on where students in different fields uh medical field, law field and so on can shadow these professionals while they are in school. Yes. Uh we do a lot of that right now.
Um, I want to say most if not all of our medical programs have clinical experiences. Um, right now like Blanch's um, kids or in their medical program can have clinical experiences right there on campus with the with the new um, uh, family um, uh, medical um, program that
we just opened up that the community can take advantage of too. Um, but we we do that. We have great relationships with Broward Health, Memorial Health um to help us facilitate those opportunities for our kids. As far as Cypress Creeks, not Cypress Creek, but Cypress Bay situation. We'll have to do some more
research. Um these these programs are school specific with applications to get in things like that. Um and so it's probably more of a competitive um environment to get into their programs is why it's probably so limited. Uh so we'll just have to do some research on school specific programs to see what
their limitations are and help them expand if if if um if it's feasible to do at those schools. Okay, great. And Dr. Heburn, c can we somehow have like for example our regional superintendents explore uh areas where we can actually expand on
this or improve to bring accessibility to students um across the district to different programs of interest. It doesn't have to be medical, it could be law, it could be other fields. We're doing that through redefining right now. Okay. Great. All right. A few more things and thank you um madame chair for
allowing me. Um there was mention of um uh equipment uh not being up to standard as far as um you know um equipment pertaining to physical education and so on. So I know that in the smart projects um part of
the smart was to upgrade all these equipments and I believe it was student Angie Angie mentioned about equipment. Um so Dr. Dr. Heburn, I I is this an issue across the district where there are concerns with um physical education
equipments uh um that was mentioned by a couple of the students because I was under the impression that the smart program and what we did um address most of what would be considered priority needs through the needs assessments that we've done. So, we'll have to assess. I did write
down Angie's and also Douglas's um concerns about some of the athletic equipment and some other equipment at both of those schools that they mentioned. I don't know the the early scope around SMART um when it first started. I'm I'm aware, you know, of the past few years. So, we'll have to do an
assessment and also just a um to remind the board that the FCA uh will catch all of those needs as well too to help us identify those needs moving forward. But as far as for right now, um Angie Douglas, we got we got the information and and I know Miss Paul and her team
will go out and assess it and and um make those updates as necessary. Got it. And the last couple of things, um Dr. Hern is uh I heard multiple students mention concerns with the Wi-Fi and uh that is concerning if if that's
really accurate. Um we do need to uh ensure that the Wi-Fi um is up to speed, up to par. um because this seems to be impacting overall their ability to get their work done and and and to um you
know to be able to accomplish their academic goals. I also heard mention of the restrooms a and um I do notice when I visit different schools sometimes uh we you know the smart projects and other projects that we've engaged in uh we've done a great job but some of the
restrooms do need to be up upgraded and I hope as we move forward uh I know funding is always a concern but as we move forward that this can be part of our plan to get our restrooms up to date um in addition to what we've already done as a district And lastly, Dr.
Heepern, I I heard of the aviation program mentioned by Chanel at Miramar. I think that's a great program. I actually went there and visit myself and I'm hoping that the district can can expand this program across the district so it's more readily accessible to
students in the north area as well. I know we have some other programs, but they're not necessarily comparable to that of Miimar. So I'm hoping in the north area and central area we can have a comparable aviation program as we do at Miramar High School for the south. Thank you.
Thank you Dr. Holes. Mr. Ca thank you vice chair. Um first and foremost big kudos to all the parents uh in attendance today. Thank you for coming and um obviously the students as well. I thought this was very informative,
very insightful, and dare I say, with all due respect to my colleagues, way more fun than our regular schoolboard meetings. So, uh I'm glad you all were able to came and and participate uh in today's panel. Um just a couple
comments from me. Uh Bryce, the say hello initiative, I think that's fantastic. Um, no one eats a lone day. Uh, over at Stranahan. Uh, small acts of kindness like that can really go a long way. Uh, especially in the in the high school settings. You know, there are I'm
sure students that um, unfortunately may not feel welcome, especially maybe some newer students when they come into big settings like high school. And a a simple smile and a simple hello and a simple good morning can really really go a long way. So, uh, thank you for sharing that with us. Um that uh that
did bring a smile when when I when I heard that and um kudos to to the folks at Stranahan for uh for doing that. That was that was really fantastic. Um Aaron Dillard High School, there's a problem with the scoreboard
on that beautiful beautiful new field that you guys have. That's that we got to Dr. Holless. We got to do something. We got to we got to get something done. That that's too beautiful of a facility. I had the pleasure of attending some high uh some football games there recently. Uh and you guys are very blessed to have that
field. That is awesome. So, I'm I'm I'm sorry to hear that. And and uh we're going to have to work to get that fixed cuz we can't have a great field like that and and have a malfunctioning scoreboard. Yeah. Mr. Se, if I may, you already you and the board already did something about it. So, see that? I'm I'm I'm way ahead of
myself. Look at that. So, that's that's coming. But thank you for bringing that attention and that is a beautiful beautiful facility and thank you for being in in in the band and um keep up the good work with that. Um Dr. Heburn
Julian fantastic point about the low calorie meals. You know a lot of times we get complaints about this doesn't taste good or I don't like the way this looks. But I I I don't think I've ever heard anybody complain for a lack of low
calorie meals. Dr. Heep, we got to do something about that. Uh, obesity in this in this country is is a big problem and uh I can speak from personal experience. I think I've put on about 10 pounds since I've been on this board. So, I got to start getting in Julian's uh mindset and and getting some lowc
calorie meals myself. But in all serious in all seriousness, Dr. He what can we do here to I know we make some great changes this year with the food uh but what can we do here to get the focus to maybe shift over to um you know getting some lowc calorie options for the kids
who are willing to partake. No, good question. Um and great comments um Julian also. So we'll pass the information on to to Miss Moulder um our executive director uh for food and nutrition. I know they already have low calorie options, so it's probably uh
more of a strategy of making sure we're expanding those options across the board at more schools. Um, and uh finding out how you're presently educated about those options and making sure we're doubling down on that also to make students aware of those options, but I know we have them. So, it's probably
just not at every school every day. So, we just need to make sure that that's happening every day. Go ahead. Um, Landon, look, I guess. Thank you, Dr. Hein. I think Julian signed himself up for some more work. We have a student that sits on the wellness committee and I think you just got yourself a spot there. So, uh that would
be the perfect opportunity for for a student to share input. Um so, I'll get in touch. Thank you for that. And, uh a couple last things. Um Ethan, I I apologize. I I didn't I wasn't looking at the paper
closely enough and I must have missed your introduction. College Academy, fantastic job. Good for you. your mindset and mentality on how to approach school is mind-blowing to me. It it it really is. The way you uh approach this,
how you're thinking about your future, uh the the plans you have. Uh it's very very impressive young man and I wish you um wish you all the best and uh kudos to you for for having that mindset because listen, I I get it. Sometimes it's hard, right? Especially I mean I was in high
school too. It was a very very long time ago, but I was there too. And um you know my my mind was I was not in the same headsp space as you. So kudos to you and thank you for sharing everything that you were willing to share with us today. And and last but not least,
Nathan, I'm going to do it. I'm going to put you on the spot, bud. I'm going to put you on the spot. Um colleagues and those in attendance, I am very proud to advise everybody that Nathan is a National Merit Scholarship semi
finalist. Yeah, that is a huge, huge deal, my friend. Uh, I'm very proud of you. I know this entire board is very proud of you. I know Cypress Bay is very proud of you. So, keep up the good work. Nathan has um aspirations to hopefully we're going to
put the positive energy in the in the air, my friend. Positive energy has aspirations to go to Duke University for uh for college. So, um I wish you all the best, my friend. And uh good luck to you. Okay. Thank you.
[Applause] Sorry. And good morning. Sorry I'm late. Just flew back into town. Uh, next is Becca. Um, sorry, Miss Thompson. Neither were. Um, I just want to say thank you guys so much for coming out. I
have a couple comments and then I actually have a few questions for like two or three of you. Just being mindful of the time. Um, I really appreciate the comments about clubs being in younger grades. As a mom of three elementary students, my kids are really bummed that
they can't do clubs until third grade. And I do think when you start young, you really get acclimated to schools better. So, if that's something staff can look into. Um, and then also I hear you guys on the counselors. I think that's been a big topic of
discussion on the school board. Um, and I know staff has been working on it. Um I just want to I think not only are our counselors over burden I think one of the ways we can look into this situation is by increasing the number of social workers that we have throughout the
district because they are also mental health professionals and I won't say more qualif they're equally qualified to handle mental health crisises and since they are now throughout one social worker has two to three to four schools they're not even able to be utilized as
a resource and that might be something that's more financially doable than expanding counselors. So, I just want to say that we do have team of mental health professionals that aren't just your counselors. They're your social workers, your school psychologists, and your family therapists. Um, so we still need to work
to expand that. So, you guys know that, but I do think uh to Superintendent Hepern looking at making it so there is one social worker per school is really a I think a lowerc cost way to address this issue. Um, and then
Julian, I love your shout outs because I think truly the district can promote our schools, but you guys are the best marketers. And the fact that you're like, "If anyone wants wrestling, we have it." Like, that's what I'm asking all of you to go and when you're in your
uh churches or synagogues or religious organizations or soccer fields or whatever you're doing, just talking up your school is really the way that we're going to bring more kids back into the system. and you guys get new friends so that works out as well. Um, okay. So, I
have two questions. We get a lot of feedback particularly from teachers about testing and I just want to feel hear some of your feedback on if you think if you feel that we're you're overested, if it's the right amount of
testing, if there's anything you think we could do to improve or not touch that situation. Can I call people Douglas? Um, one of the things that I realize is
that I feel like there is a decent amount of testing. It's not too much, but some students aren't aware that they need to take these tests or who they need to go see to ask whether or not they need to take the test, where to check for it and everything. And they
don't allow too they don't give out too many chances for retakes. They give a decent amount, but it could definitely be a little bit better cuz some students might not be able to make it in on a certain day and then they might miss the chance to even be able to take that test and that could even hold them from like
graduating as well. Thank you. Anybody else? Nathan? Um, so with tests like AP test and ACE test, you guys can't change the dates obviously, but I think one thing that's really helped me is like at towards the
end of every year, you guys have county reviews like for certain AP and ACE classes. The only issue is those are like limited spots and I think it's maybe one weekend and if like those were maybe held more often at the end of the year or like throughout the year like
when midterm exams are coming up because those are mandatory for AP and AC classes. If there could be like a review maybe before that and then multiple for like the end of the year, I think that would be helpful. Haley, just picking back piggybacking off of
what Nathan said, um those sessions are also they cost $10 and they're only at one school. I went to it this past year and I remember I don't remember what school it was but it was like a 45minut drive for me cuz like depending on where you are. So, not all making them
multiple times a year, but also maybe putting them at like three different schools, one in the north, central, and south, just so that it's accessible because for me, like I drive, I'm a senior, but some of these kids are taking AC and AP classes freshman year, their parent has to get them there and pick them up. And then I don't know if
there's a way to maybe sponsor some kids because they are $10. And if you go multiple times and there's three sessions in one day, that can add up very quickly. Thank you. Anybody else? Can a middle schooler give a shout out
about testing? Go ahead. Mhm. I think my school has a good amount of testing. It's very scheduled out. We have a lesson, we have a test, next lesson, next test. And I think that
gives us very much of like a point to see where we're at, to see where we need to improve during the year. So I think that's very helpful. Thank you. I appreciate that feedback. I think we hear that there's a lot of testing and we don't want to we want to
make sure that parents are that teachers don't feel overburdened, but I also feel like students were you guys are pretty used to it, not we? You guys are pretty used to it. So, it's it's good to hear your authentic feedback. And I also really like the idea of the more support
during the testing time. So, like the therapy puppies because everyone loves puppies and uh some maybe Lavender, you know, stuff that's we can help schools incorporate so that your mental health won't be as impacted. And then my last
question, I hate to jump in there, Miss Thompson. I just want to I'm recording the notes. If I can get um I think it was Haley and um Nathan, what was it? ACT or SAT prep you were discussing about spreading out. That's AP and ACE. AP and AC. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you.
That's okay. Um so the other I just wanted to hear your thoughts because as a district we're going through a period of redefining where we're talking about changing programs and grade configurations. And one of the ideas that we did last year, which is why Silver Shorts is now a K through eight,
is creating K through8s. And there's talk of increasing the number of K through8s throughout the district. I just wanted to hear is that something that you guys feel that your pair peers or your parents or friends like that kind of model? Do people prefer
traditional middle school in your experience or what are any general thoughts either as a high schooler or someone who's in a K through eight right now to people? Go ahead. Um for me it's really beneficial also
for my parents because I'm in sixth grade and my brother just started kindergarten. So my parents don't have to go for my brother and then pick me up in a different school. they can just pick us up at the same time. And I also get to see my brother and make sure like he's good during the
school days and then he says hi to me so it's fun. So I get to see him every day. Awesome. Mason just the same reason as her and go ahead. I think being um at a separate school
than like for example my little sister, she goes through a K through five school and um a six through eight school. I feel like it's better because the age differences are different and people's opin are opinions are different and I feel like there
would be a little bit more bullying in a way from kids and I also like how the timing of the schools are different. Her school starts at 8. My school starts at 9:00, so it's convenient for my parents. Thank you, Nathan.
Uh, I'm kind of against K8 just cuz I think like a lot of siblings, right? Um, I think having a traditional middle school, traditional elementary school, it like allows for siblings to like create their own identity. I think with me and my sisters um like we do a lot of the same extracurriculars outside of
school but having like different schools allows us to like um like create our own self, join our own clubs cuz I think when you're in the same school often times you're kind of urged to like join the same clubs cuz it's like oh if you go to that club your parents can pick you up from that club at the same time
like you don't have like the option to like choose different things. Even I'm also pretty much against K through eight. I think one of the beautiful things about elementary school is that it's sheltered and exposing kids to
certain things at such a young age is not something that I am for. So I think I don't think Kate is a good idea. Haley, sorry. I know you wanted to keep this short. No, please. I love this. But um I know it's the opposite side of
the spectrum, but I guess it would apply down. So, my sister goes to a 6 through 12 and she is considering it's a charter school. She's considering pushing back into public school for high school. Bring her back. I know. I'm trying. Um because when you
make a friend group in sixth grade, this applies for younger. And then you lose that friend group. You're now trying to jump into a new friend group. And eventually you run out of kids because normally those schools since there's more grades there, the class size is
smaller. So it's very hard to lose your footing if you make one wrong if you make one wrong move with your friends. So I definitely think that can happen in a K through eight just because let's say third grade something happens and now you're dealing with those kids
that hurt you the next six years. Anybody else? Go ahead. Um, to add on to like what Ethan said, I kind of agree about the K through eight thing because at my school we have I
believe it's 6th through 12th and sure they're a little bit more mature like sixth graders compared to like elementary school and all, but at the same time there's some stuff that they shouldn't be exposed to that they are at my school. And so I feel like the only way that kind of system would work is if
they had like a way more um like attentive monitoring system to like keep a closer eye on like what the students are being exposed to and how they're interacting. That would be the only way I can see that working. Thank you guys so much. This was super
helpful. Thank you chair. Thank you Dr. Zean. Thanks chair. I thought um Landon I want to uh you and Jere thank you uh for putting this together. Sometimes we forget uh the the very countless hours that goes into putting this together.
This is not uh something uh that was put together with a minimum amount of effort. It really wasn't. And Landon, I thought you were going to end by asking the board what we thought of these students here on a one through five. And so we would definitely give these guys a five. Um much appreciate the time and energy and thought uh you put into your
comments. uh for you it's not trivial to be here as well. Parents, could you raise your hand? All the parents that are here, look at you guys. Thank you. Uh I appreciate that. A couple things I
want to share. Um I wonder if um the students here who kind of insinuated something as a potential solution to what you talked about for programs and things. Of the 14 15 students here, Landon and Jir, please vote on this as well. How many of you would prefer at
the end of a school year for you to have some kind of input into what kind of clubs and programs would be at your school next year? Yeah, might be a nice process improvement. You know, we can't always um meet the needs. You know, there's
sometimes two kids in a school of 4,800 at Cypress Bay or something that want, you know, left-handed fencing club or something and it's like, well, we can't do that. Um, but there's actually like this really easy process that some districts use where they at least survey the students that are there that plan to
come back and say, "Look, these are the 10 that we have and here's 10 other programs or clubs that are feasible that we can afford to do that we have the space and the and all the equipment to do it. Um, and other schools offer it as well. Would you be interested in these?" And sometimes that causes some of the
existing clubs to be disestablished and new clubs to started. But I'm always fascinated at how rich the data is for student input and then we don't ask for it. And so uh I'm fascinated by that. Later today we're going to talk about the school calendar and we went out and
got 26,000 mostly parents uh some staff to vote on different options with the calendar. Um, but I feel like the students, uh, whether it's through peer service announcements rather than public service announcements or whether you want to give feedback, uh, at the end of your
middle school and high school year about what might be a really exciting thing, might be an interesting idea. Ethan, is there a club at Broward College for all the college academy students? All the clubs at the college are open to the students, but is there a club for college academy
kids at Broward College? Yes. NHS. Yeah. Oh, terrific. That's that's that's good to know. Um, I heard too many comments about food and u I'm a little bit of a data guy and and I heard about another district that
measured something recently that blew my mind. Uh, it's under the the mantra of feed the kids, don't feed the trash cans. And what it measures is if you have 1,200 kids at Sunrise Middle School, how many of them eat the food?
and how many of them get the food, but they feed the trash can instead of feeding it. So, what this district did is they weighed the trash cans and they were trying to find food that kids wanted to eat because if kids eat, they learn, right? They're more alert, they're healthier, all these great
things happen. Um it's a nice way to twist some data gathering so that what you're gathering is actually directly related to what you want which is you want good nutrition going into kids so that they can stay alert all afternoon or after breakfast uh uh get good things. So the idea is to feed the students don't feed the trash cans and
you can measure that. Um the last uh thing I wanted to ask uh Dr. Heppern uh when we voted this is now our second year for metal detectors in all of our uh high schools. Um, there was talk about it being good enough to detect
vape pens and now I keep hearing from students and principles and teachers that there's this expanding vaping going on in schools. Uh, I understand, you know, kind of the physiological addiction that happens with it. It's a terribly damaging thing for high school
students or middle school students to start or to continue vaping. Um, you know, you could put it in in in a class of of things that just are not good for any human being to engage in. But is there a setting in our current metal detectors that would detect vaping
pants? Dr. Hepper. So, I'm going to be very careful with my answer because I don't want to um expose any vulnerabilities as it comes to safety and security with our use of our metal detectors. But I can um give you this data. Since we've implemented metal detectors, we've seen the assessor data
for vaping decrease at the high school level. Um, when we have the appropriate venue, I'd love to talk more about that. Yes. Um, you know, I will just put two pieces together without disclosing anything about security, but there's a real
problem with vaping pens inside schools. And if we have a technology that can eliminate that or dramatically reduce it, uh I'm going to continue to advocate for using whatever uh technology can. We do have some new technologies that are coming that will help. And so uh I'm looking forward to those being
installed. I think those are kind of planned for next year. Um and and uh we'll learn more about those. But thank you all for your frank honest I I will tell you that there's a lot of students that get very intimidated just talking to adults or to schoolboard members or
superintendents and the like. Um and when you put them in a room like this with parents and staff and schoolboard people uh all listening to you, it's it's hard sometimes to share. And you guys did great. So if you guys have been in Broward County Public Schools for a long time, I'm really proud of what we
did to help you get to that point. But I'm incredibly proud for you just to be able to to speak up for yourself, to share your opinions. Some warmed up a little bit, but you did warm up. Uh and uh you you guys uh have really impressed me quite a bit with your thoughts and it
will influence this board. Last time we heard the opposite story about mental health access and this board took action and will continue to take action. This time we hear that more of you know where to go and where to where to end up. our ratio of of licensed clinical
therapists, which is what we need. We need licensed clinical therapists to help our kids. Our ratio is not consistent with the national norm or with the national standard, and I'm very confident that this board will do what we can to uh to rectify it. Broward
County, the government of Broward County gave us $4 million last week uh to continue the fight against mental health. Um, I'm looking forward to seeing what we do with that those funds to kind of help make sure that uh the people that are there to actually help you with therapy, not get you into
college. Uh, there's plenty of wonderful people that do uh general counseling and do a lot of help on test prep and college prep and life prep and all that. And then there are licensed certified therapists who can actually help you, who can actually uh get into the root
causes of what's going on and can actually help. And I look forward to that discussion uh on this board. But thank you all for coming today. Thank you, Mrs. Bowman. Thanks, chair. Um, I'm not going to go through and repeat everything that my colleagues have said. So, just a few
takeaways. First of all, thank you to Landon and Jir for organizing this. And thank you all for coming. Like Dr. Zema just said, it's very impressive that you're all here and so engaged and willing to talk in this forum. I mean, is a great experience for moving
forward, but not everyone is um willing to come out here, put yourselves out and talk and be in this kind of public facing setting. So, you should all be very proud of yourselves. Very impressive. I would not have done this when I was in high school or middle
school. So, I'm impressed. Um and I I think that you know from the session that we had the at the end of last year it is so cheering and to Dr. He's point from before um to hear such positive
feedback. Um obviously the uh the district has taken some steps to improve things and the fact that you're all here saying such positive things is very um heartwarming for us because there you know there are negative uh commentaries
and narratives out there. And to have the people that are actually in the schools, going to schools, you guys as leaders coming back with such positive thing to say about your school and having such pride in your schools is um very wonderful to hear. Honestly, it's
um it's very motivating for us moving forward. And I think um one of the takeaways that I had from listening to all of you and I think it's very important as leaders and just people in society moving forward is your um the fact that you all value your
relationships um with your with your peers, with your teachers, your administrators, your club leaders, your coaches. And that's like a very basic fundamental um thing to having a good school experience. And the
fact that you all recognize that you're out there making those relationships, valuing those relationships, reaching out to other students that may not have that right now, I think that really speaks volumes, and that's really what's going to connect everybody and allow you
to um have an impact on other people having good school experiences. So, I really appreciate that you're all here doing that. Um, and I also really appreciate the school pride. There's a there's something to be
said and I think, you know, never forget we have a very rich history here in Brower County and I the fact that you are all plugged in to that pride in your schools and that history, the bands, the teams, the clubs, the academic success.
Um, I I think that just really speaks volumes and to have you all as our ambassadors for Broward Public Schools is going to make um things better for all of us. So, get the word out and keep up the good work and thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you, Mrs. Leonardi. Thank you. Um, Haley, I noticed at the end of the the conversation when Mason was adding something that you had like you seemed like you wanted to say something about something to improve at your school. Was there something you wanted to add? Sorry
to put you on the spot. Um, cuz you said the gym and I was just going to say like our auditorium. I'm pretty sure it's coming if what I heard in the past. It's just when it's coming, you know. But it's okay. I'm I have this is my last year so doesn't really affect
me anymore. Do we have a status update on the Coral Glades Auditorium? Go ahead, Miss Paul if you back there. Yes, she is. Yes, we're working on it. I believe we're still in design, but I would have to look at that uh to give a more
detailed followup. But yes, uh there will be auditorium at Coral Glades. So, and it will be spectacular. Do we have like an estimated date for completion or do we need to get that? Um, I would have to do a followup. Yeah,
we're we're well into design and so forth. It's moving along based on the um timeline I provided earlier, but I don't have it right at the tip of my tongue. If you give me a minute, I could look it up. Okay, cool. Thanks. Um, and Landon and Jier, um, could either one of you share
how these students were chosen to be here today? Yes. Uh this was a mix of students who applied for the session last school year. I believe there's 10 students that applied. Um and then for there were some schools uh some
districts because we selected one middle and one high from each district where there weren't any other students. Um so we reached out to PR uh principles for recommendations but the majority of the students um self-applied. Got it. And are these um like
exclusively SGAA students or it's just So we have a very there's only one requirement uh to participate is that you had not been externally suspended last school year. I'm sorry at the uh spring semester of last school year. There's no GPA requirement, no
leadership requirement, no club requirement. And we did that very purposefully um because we want to make sure that the group that's in here um is very representative of the entire district. Got it. Thank you. And I asked that question because um I think it really demonstrates the kind of feedback that
we got today, how it is authentic um and unique to the different kinds of feedback we get as a school district um in these workshops. Um so like my colleagues, thank you all so much for being here. Uh to the parents here, I hope you're so proud and are getting to
see another side of your child um that you might not otherwise see. And I I hope um that that we can all recognize like the excellent communication style of everyone at this table. Um Abby, it's
not often that we hear thank you from anyone in this room. So, and that's not why we're here today. You know, we we're here to serve. Um but I've been thinking a lot about and I think there's a lot out there about how uh we communicate with each other in government. Um, and
the the way you all communicated your needs and your experiences in a way that was productive and uh respectful is really incredible and it's not something we see often. Um, so thank you and I hope that you all are all really
impressed with yourselves today. Um, some I I kind of wanted to identify some common themes that I heard today. School pride. um the visibility of school leadership, the connections with students, um having
a sense of purpose in our schools, and knowing that there are adults that you can lean on. So, I think first and foremost, what what I heard was the importance of hearing things from your peers and like how that's so much more meaningful. As a teacher, like I
understand that, too. Um, but even beyond those student connections, knowing that there is like a safe a safety net of adults that you can lean on, um, is really important. And I think that's kind of those themes are going to drive a little bit of my comments today.
So, in the innovative programs piece, what I really took away from your feedback was wanting a sense of purpose from these programs, knowing that they can drive your career. Um, knowing that they can provide you opportunities after school. Um, so we heard like medical,
business, fire, cosmetology. What I did not hear um was how excited everyone was for testing. Um, so I I hope that we all can take that away and uh today and and push that in our schools that it's not testing that drive student engagement.
It is um giving them a sense of purpose through their academics. Um the community was also another piece that I heard throughout um but especially in the innovative programs piece and the safety piece. Um I think
in the world that we're living in right now, we're we're seeing that institutions that historically gave us community um institutions of faith uh community spaces and things like that are uh disintegrating a little bit and
our schools can be homes and places of community for students. And so like Aaron um talking about and also Julian talking about the school pride at Dillard and Blanch Elie, it really is unparalleled. Um and that gets people to
school every single day and it it it creates a a sense of community and a sense of purpose in their schools. Um Ethan talking about going to a different counselor because that individual was more welcoming. Um, I think I go back to, you know, having trusted adults who
are a safety net. Um, and then we've just heard generally like when kids come into school and they see the principal or staff smiling at them, welcoming them at the school day. I've been on like the receiving end of that and sometimes kids would just like ignore me, but I would still say hello, welcome to class. Um,
so I think that's such a valuable uh piece to this and I'm so grateful that we have so many school staff members who are providing that sense of welcome and community and safety in our schools. Um,
to the vaping piece, I'll just reiterate something some things that that I heard um Haley talking about studentmade PSAs. I hope we can take that and run with it as a district. Um Janelle talking about like getting to the root root issue of
like why kids are vaping and the mental health issues that are are driving that but also in the student led PSA is talking about how vaping exacerbates your mental health issues that you're struggling with. Um Bryce talking about having professionals
who specialize in addiction and medical professionals coming to speak about that again like not hearing from the same people um and seeing the same faces but hearing from like trusted authentic sources on these issues I think is really important. Um
Janelle, I'm going to put you on the spot. You talked about like the fear of snitching being real and as a teacher I saw that too. And I'm wondering if you or anyone else at the table has any suggestions to addressing that.
Um, I think the apps that aren't clever to report something are very useful for that, but in person there are reports like anonymous reports, but it's not very anonymous in a way.
For example, like if a person sees you walking into the office, they're gonna put some pieces together and oh, she just towed on me for something. And I think just online is very safe to
do. Thank you for that. And I think and I think Mrs. Alf addressed this too. It's a little bit troubling that we don't um there's not a lot of awareness about some of these apps even though they they're like the first thing that pop up pop pop pop up on your computer. Um but sometimes like that overcommunication
kind of drowns out. Yes, I'm so sorry to interrupt but I also think that most of the times teachers warn us to use those apps only in emergencies and sometimes we can't identify what exactly is an emergency. So that's why
Yeah. So I I see Mrs. Alv shaking her head, right? So it's not just for an emergency. It could be for bullying. It could be um there. So if you click on the the SE watch app, there's a whole list of things and it's not just an
emergency. So um I would I would say look at look at the list, you know, and something that you might see, it's going to be on there. If you have a concern about something, you can report it on there. So feel free to report like don't be afraid to do that
and I think maybe on our end we need to do a better job communicating that those are you that can be used for anything. Um so thank you for highlighting that. Um you want to say something? Oh Mason, sorry. I just wanted to say we had these boxes
at our school where it's like you can put like pieces of paper saying like someone's doing this to me or something. Got it. Okay. So, that's another thing that we could could try to implement. Um, I really loved Haley's idea of the safety council. So, like, uh, you know,
updating it for middle school and high school as opposed to like an elementary safety patrol. Um, I think that's really cool. Um, Ethan talked about like shared goals and high expectations making people feel safe in school and I think that's
something that as a district and our schools we can really take seriously when we talk about our school culture and how much school culture creates a sense of safety. And then I heard Julian talk about school pride and again the visibility of leadership and staff. Um I
also wanted to highlight for the mental health piece the difference in the positive feedback from the responses last year. Now it wasn't perfect right so we still have work to do but again like I and I know my colleagues have said this but I just have to emphasize
um at the last student uh feedback workshop I saw Dr. Heburn and I still see him like he has a whole page of notes and and we have pages of notes too and then we heard Landon and Jir talk about like the afteraction report. Um so I just cannot emphasize enough how much
your feedback is so helpful and productive and how we really really take it to heart. Um so thank you and just as my colleague said is it appears that there is a supply and demand issue with counseling. As a side note, um we we did
hear that, you know, counselors are bogged down with scheduling sometimes and I hope that AI can help us with scheduling uh in the future to save time for our counselors. Um again, Allora talking about peer counseling with the student connections so important. Um,
and finally, uh, for the campus environment, I know some of my colleagues mentioned this, but the the food piece, I am Italian, so, uh, food is central to my identity and soul. Um, but I think it goes back to also creating community and like food is is
so much a part of making people feel comfortable and at home. Um, so whatever we can do to try to improve or expand um the the variety of food that we offer in our schools and make students feel really um like a sense of ownership in
the food that we serve is important. Um Chanel's talking talking about access to the library at school is very troubling to me. Um I worked at a school uh where the library was closed except for testing. This is not in Broward schools.
Um, but you know, having students be able to access the the the resources in the library is so important. So, thank you for identifying that, Janelle. Um, Bryce highlighting the physical conditions of Strainahan High School is something that I will continue to advocate for. Um, my colleagues talked
about uh the AC and Wi-Fi issues. The AC issues are particularly concerning because we as a district have invested a lot of money in improving the AC. So I I hope that we can go back and do do some research on like why these systems that
we've invested so much money in are uh not performing well. Um so thank you all again for coming and speaking today. Um I these are my favorite workshops. I think they're the most useful uh that that we have. Um and just thank you so
much. And also you can reach us reach out to all of us. We are all here to serve you. Our contact information is on the schoolboard website. So, please use us um to help implement change in your schools. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Rupert. Thank you. Um thank you to my colleagues
who's already who already spoken. Um but I want to thank the parents and guardians and you guys for coming here today and being so open and honest and um you know really joyous about your school. Um I I kind of got a a big grin
when um Julian was talking about school pride and um Aaron also and all I could think of in my head was soul bowl baby soul bowl we're there. Um and I think that's a great tradition and uh I look
forward to that. Um moving back to um Julian again. Sorry I'm not picking on you. Um, you made me laugh a little bit because you reminded me of my brother because when you asked about low calorie food and you did mention the W word,
wrestling, right? My brother was little. I mean, he was tiny. He was always thin, but we had to, you know, make sure that we had special food for him when he was trying to go up a weight or down a weight for his uh for his wrestling match that week. And I thought that was
really interesting. So you sharing about the wrestling before you asked about uh the low calorie stuff just made me uh made me feel like I was 10 years old again and going to my brother's wrestling. So wrestling is awesome and um I look forward to coming to a game.
Um when we talk about vaping, I have a a pretty pretty good mind of of what that would be like. Um what it looks like. I've never smoked anything in my life. And last year I was hospitalized for
pneumonia. And my doctor when I was in the hospital had asked me a couple questions. One, do you smoke? No. Two, do you vape? I said, nope. Didn't do that. And then he said, "Do you have COPD?" I don't even know what that was.
I said, "I don't think so." Right. And then he put up my X-ray and showed me my X-ray and it was a hot mess. But he said, "What do you do for a living? I heard you talking about schools and kids." And I said, "I'm on I'm on the school board." and he said, "Vaping is
an epidemic of, you know, major proportions and we have to stop it now because the kids don't understand how very serious and longlasting and of your lungs will look like." He came back into the room, put it up on the put up on the
screen thing so you can see the X-rays, and he put it next to mine. What I thought mine was a hot mess. The other one looked like cottage cheese. Absolutely like cottage cheese. And I said, "Good Lord, what is that?" A
14-year-old kid's X-ray. And I said, "Whoa, that's terrible. He has pneumonia. He has a lot more than pneumonia." And he'd only been vaping for eight months. So, it happens. It happens fast. And I
totally agree with you guys that you have to hear it from yourself. You have to make it real. And looking at those X-rays for me really made it real. Um, and most of us are visual learners. So
when you see something like that, it stops your cold and and that's part of you all being ambassadors really for Broward County Schools and to make sure that you you're getting the information that you need to be able to share with
your friends. And I know that um we as a board have certainly uh reached out to parents and I think the student aspect of um PSAs is going to be that connection. Um so didn't want to scare anybody but it's you're it's for real.
Um let me see. Oh, one thing I was really happy to hear about was how welcoming our staff is to you guys. That's great. We've been working on customer service. And that sounds so Disney like like we
all have to be this way. It's not that way. It's being kind to each other making a difference every day. And you all know that it's sometimes just that hello. Sometimes
it's um you know or just a smile, you know, all those things really help. and um thank you for sharing them today and I really look forward to um hearing more from you all and and like Miss Lean already said go on the website reach out to us I would love to talk to you all so
thank you again thanks so much thanks thank you and we will end with Mrs. Salad. Yeah. So, real quick, I just wanted to mention the different categories on the Sea for Watch app. Some of them are animal abuse, arson, assault, battery bullying,
child abuse, claiming false identity, corruption, cyber crime, hacking, cyber bullying, dating violence, depression, drug addiction, drugs, eating disorder, fraud, guns, hate speech, hazing,
hit and run, identity theft, kidnapping, LGBTQ harassment, mental health concern. So these are and then they have an other category just to name a few.
Okay, thank you. And I'm a I apologize. I was out of town. Just flew back in. Um, and I'm sorry I missed the conversation, but thank you all so much for coming today um and and sharing your thoughts and some of your concerns and answering the different questions that
were here and just opening yourselves up to to being here. As it was mentioned, sometimes public speaking in front of the school board um can be a little I don't want to say scary, but sometimes people tell us that. So, I appreciate you coming and and you know, sharing
what happens in our schools because you are our customers. You are who we want to make sure we're we're meeting all the needs that you have. So, thank you so much for coming today and sharing that with us. And with that, um, we end this part of our workshop. So, thank you so
much. And if we could have a moment to take a brief picture with the students. We're gonna take a short recess. [Music]
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Yeah. [Music] Thank you and welcome back to the schoolboard workshop. Our next item is the 2026 state and federal legislative priorities. I now turn it over to staff
for a brief presentation. S, did you have anything? Yes. I'm turn it over to uh Mr. Sullivan. Thank you. Um so the board does have a copy of our proposed legislative platform for the uh 26 uh state
legislative session. Uh pre-committees start uh early October and with the session starting in September. So our goal is to capture feedback from the board uh to present this for our final board vote on October 17th. Um let me introduce our new director of
legislative affairs uh Miss Nolles. We're excited uh to have her on. Thank you. We won't hazer too bad in her first workshop. We want her to stick around. I do want to take an opportunity to also thank Mr. Hill for providing uh leadership during his task assignment
over uh legislative affairs. He did great work for us. I know he will continue to do great work. So, I just wanted to thank him publicly for that. And of course, everyone knows our coordinator of local government, Armando. He's here with us as well. Um, and with that, I think the board does
have the our presentation and draft. Chair, did you want us to brief briefly go over it or uh go into feedback? I think you also have public comment as well. Um, I think you have uh two folks signed up
for that. Let me ask the board, did you want to them to give a brief presentation? Okay. So, we'll go to public comment. Um, as we I know, uh, Miss Lumpsum is here. Uh, we had a conversation prior to
today, so I think she's going to bring this up in her, uh, public comments. I think she stepped out um about, uh, the uh, language as it relates to cameras in our classrooms. Um I agree with her assessment of u mirroring it to
what the language was during the pilot program and not what we have in our platform which would be an opt out. I have a comment on that when it's my turn to talk. Anna Corjo Kuho Kuho sorry
welcome. Hi thank you. My name is Anna Kuruho um Broward school parent and also the vice chair of the ESC advisory board. Um, so a lot of what I'm going to say does echo what Jackie was talking about. Um, the
HB 149, which governed the three-year pilot, never provided an opt out. And so the language as it reads right now, which basically goes straight into in uh supporting legislation that includes an opt out should be rewritten to read
something along the lines of support legislation to permit audiovisisual recording in self-contained ESSE classrooms as a routine safety enhancement. Um right now what we're seeing is the the
program has rolled out and uh a lot of the issues that they're having is with a failure to reply rather than people uh explicitly opting out of having a camera in the classroom. And um we just see that there's students in self-contained
classrooms in all types of living arrangements and uh many different backgrounds. Some people do not return the forms because of language barriers or simply students that are not placed with their parents. Um, so they have no one that's really looking at these forms
and we can't really mitigate for every different scenario, but that doesn't mean that we should compromise on safety. HB49 was very uh explicit in the sense that it was a safety and security measure. We
don't currently offer people the right to opt out of any other safety and security measure, whether it's a metal detector or C cameras on buses or even walking in and out of these buildings. So, I just don't see where there's any upside to having that language in there
if we can advocate um or or uh have it on on the legislative platform to remove any obstacles to just having the cameras rolling. Um maybe having a
some sort of a visual that says recording is in progress in these classrooms. That should be the goal. I I definitely would advise on taking anything that allows people to opt out completely out of the language. Um
that's it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Is Miss Mrs. Luskum close? She has left the building. Okay, I guess that is it for public comment. I
know she had an interview to do today. So, um, any of my colleagues? Mrs. Alhad? Thank you. So, my first comment is on the federal legislation
regarding um the federal legislation priorities for Alyssa's act. And staff added the word Alyssa. It just it's Alyssa's with S. And then I'm gonna hand out we I have
draft bill language for Alyssa's act. And and kind of just to sum it up, it helps to create standards around emergency response. So if you remember years ago, they created standards around
fire alarm pole stations, you know. So now we have sprinklers and we have fire alarms in all of our schools. So this will help to create standards around emergency response with panic buttons and a mapping systems. So this is this is draft bill language that will be
filed by Congressman Burgess Owens probably by the end of next month in October. And then my second request to the board is in regards to adding on the the state
platform the the funding that was left over from taking down the 1200 building and building the new building. If that money can be requested by the state to be to go to the off-campus memorial for
the 17, it will be seven ha 7 and 1 half eight years in this February since the tragedy and and we need to get that off-campus memorial up and going and running. And even though a million dollars was allocated
with the Marjorie Stoman Douglas Act, this money that we have left over from taking down the building and building the new building will help tremendously with the off-campus memorial. So my request is that we add that to the state
federal the state legislative platform. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Zean. Thanks. And uh Miss Aldiff, what what are the funds that are left over from that so we can be specific in our if I may. Um so originally I believe the allocated amount from the state uh was
about $25 million. Uh we've drawn down uh the majority of that for the uh 1,500 uh replacement building. So there's a little over 1.6 million and and and that's left over from the state allocation for the demolition and rebuild. Right. Correct. That's housed in the state. we
haven't drawn down because we hadn't had a need. We don't have a need for it anymore cuz we've we've already replaced the the 1,200 building with the 1500 building and and tell me why we need to ask permission for that. Is that something we can do as a school board? No, you need the legislature to change the language in this in the statute
because the language now is uh for the replacement of the 1200 building. So that would exclude uh the off-campus memorial. Terrific. Second question also, Miss Aldep. Um the act uh is already in this. So what you're doing passing out the act is just
to give us that to read what's already in there or do we need to do something? Yes. So it just it says Alyssa and it it needs to say Alyssa's like Alyssa apostrophe s. Other than that though we don't need to do anything with this to No, I just wanted to you for information. Uh I appreciate that very much. On a
bigger issue, chair, uh uh I I want to suggest to my colleagues um what I suggested last year to no avail, I guess, which is that we get real with what we ask people for. Um my view is we have uh a party that is
um in a supermajority in Florida. We have a party that has today a very slim majority in the House. It's getting smaller by the by the month, by the way. But they have a slim majority in the House. They have a slim majority in the Senate, and they have the White House. My sense is is that we haven't adjusted
to the reality of that in the way that we've talked about these things. And even in in terms of what we've asked for um just as an example asking for an increase in federal per pupil funding for title one IDA impact aid and other formulas which either those many of
those have been either reduced or have been uh reallocated to things like civics's instruction and the like. Um I think maybe we could ask for the same funds to be provided in block grants to states. Uh we could do a lot of things,
but I think um if we don't have a sense of of who we're asking this stuff of uh and we just go blindly to Tallahassee and blindly to DC, we're going to get a pretty predictable response in terms of what we're asking for. So, in my view,
uh I'd love this list to be rewritten and gets a lot smaller and ask for things that are reflecting uh what's already gone on uh and what the most likely things are and try and tilt those things back to where um you know, we
have some very clear small number of priorities. I would think of you know, something like five would be kind of a maximum number of things. We could rally the troops around those things, but I would like them all to be smart goals. And I don't view these as smart goals in the pneummonic sense because they're not
realistic. You know, we're going to go and ask for things that the party that's in control this year of the funding uh has campaigned against some of these things explicitly. Um so I forgot my first uh thought, chair, by the way, which is I got a call from Senator
Commissioner Geller and he was very upset that we stole their lobbyists from Broward County. Uh, so I always know it's a great hire when someone calls u where they used to work and said, "Boy, well you guys, I tell you, I'm I'm so disappointed in you." And so I I gave him the reaction you would have expect,
but I'm so glad to have you on the team having watched you do uh lobbying in Tallahassee for Broward County. And now I know you're on an even better team with Broward County Public Schools. So that welcome to the team. But my view is that I'd love to see this reduced to something like five specific things that are realistic, that are measurable, that
are achievable. Um, but that's I'm one of nine, but I just wanted to make sure I got that out. I said that last year. I didn't win enough support to change it. Uh, but it's still my opinion today. Thank you, Mrs. Leonardi.
Thank you for that. and um I appreciate uh the very concise um documents that we were given. Um and I'm very excited to have you on board, Miss Nolles. Um I I did want to just flag two things. One,
uh issue that I think would be useful and one issue that we had on our platform last year was funding for paid family leave. I would like to add that to the platform. I don't know if my colleagues um would like to as well and I think it would fit under retaining a
high quality instructional workforce. Um and then there was an issue that we talked about a few months ago that um I believe my colleague Mr. Ca pointed out when we were voting on um an item dealing with the collection of student
data. Um, and I would really like to see uh these issues added to our our platform both state and federal when it comes to commitment to school safety, security, and wellness. So, one um advocating for the development and
enforcement of clear age appropriate regulations governing the use of AI um accessible to minors. So obviously we we talk about how we're, you know, leading the world in AI as a district. I do have
real concerns about um the access that minors have to AI as it relates to what we give them access to. Um but just in general um so this could be requirements around content filtering, age
verification, ethical design um and transparency around data usage and AI generated content. Um and then to more specifically supporting legislation that regulates the collection, storage, use and sharing of
student data by technology companies. um and requiring vendors and platforms used in K12 education to clearly disclo disclose data practices. I'm so sorry I lost my voice this weekend. Um
and I've got a lozage in my back. Give me a second. Toddlers, am I right? Um and obtain affirmative consent from districts for any data usage. Um, I don't know if I got that my point across. Yes, we captured it.
I think Thank you, Mrs. Bulman. Thanks, Chair. Thank you. Welcome, Miss Null. Um, so, you know, I agree with Dr. Zean, uh, in terms of the current, um,
climate and being realistic about, uh, you know, what our legislative uh agenda should be and really drilling down to things that we think that that we find to be the most important and that we
think that we can reasonably have an opportunity to advocate for and actually make some um progress with. So, I I don't not agree with everything that's listed, but just being realistic. I think putting our energy into things that we can actually potentially achieve
is a good strategy, particularly right now. Um, I appreciate this handoff handout from the Sarasota County Schools. Um, and and one of the because I think that they did a really
good job of uh, you know, just having four priorities. And uh priority number two I particularly agree with. I think, you know, with the way that the the funding is going right now,
I think it would behoove us to really advocate for accountability for all schools that are receiving taxpayer funding because right now um we're the only ones that are really accountable and we play by a different
set of rules than everybody else. So if we're if we have these different options for um you know for people the for school choice I think that it would be in the best interest of all the students in the
state really and for the parents to know um to have some data associated with their schools and to make that um requirement for anyone that's receiving taxpayer dollars regardless of what the makeup of that school is. So, I that
would be my number one priority for this year. Um because I think it helps every single parent, every student, and all of the taxpayers know where their money is going and how it's being used and whether or not a school is successful or
not so that people can make uh informed choices about that. So, um that is my comment. Thank you, chair. Yes, if I may. Go ahead. Um, just to give some perspective of what
the legislative um priority documentation, how it's utilized and how we use it as either uh district staff or contract lobbyists. So unless it's on the historically speaking, unless it's on this platform, then
that gives us the ability to advocate for the board in Tallahassee because we're representing the board. So if it's not on here, it makes it difficult for us to advocate. Now, to Dr. Zean's point, you didn't fail completely last year. Last year was two pages. We're down to one.
And then we we use this depending on what is moving or not moving in Tallahassee. And then if it's outside of of this platform, then we really don't have the authority to advocate on any position outside of what the board has approved here unless we consult with the
superintendent and the chair um during session because it's you know it's 60 days so it's fast moving. So there there's issues that we won't be able to come to the board to ask permission to advocate. So unless it's on here, um it does make it difficult for staff to to
advocate. So that's why it's at least that's how we've historically done it because we are representing the board in Tallahassee and DC. Um and for the most part, if you have more than one page, it is difficult because you guys are elected officials. You know how it is.
You don't have time to read pages of pages of documentation. So we did try to keep it as concise as possible, but that's how we've used the platforms historically. So I just wanted to give that perspective. Madam chair, thank you. Um, Miss Thompson, thank you chair. And that actually was
my first question. So thank you for addressing that. Just what's the rationale between having 11 state priorities versus three to four. And while I recognize that, I also want to echo um Miss Bowman and Dr. Zeman's comments that I think narrowing it would
be better because that's helps us have a stronger message. And I just kind of want to give a overview to my colleagues about kind of what's coming down the pipeline because there is so much news lately. It's hard to always keep track. So, President Trump is actually
proposing a $12 billion cut to public education, which would eliminate funding for many of the school district operated programs, including services for students learning English, migrant students, mental health services, arts and technology classes, afterchool
programs, programs to improve teacher effectiveness, um summer programs, etc. On the state level, the state is also projecting um to go into a fiscally I wouldn't I don't know if they'd call it
a crisis, but a period where there are going to be about in a $6.5 billion hole in the 2028 2029 fiscal year. I think when we think about advocating, it's really important to have the context of
what is happening and understanding that while we might want funding for certain programs, the likelihood of that is not happening. So why would we spend our time and energy and our money for our outside consultants to advocate for
something that's not ever going to pass in this current environment? Um, I also spent some time looking at counties districts throughout Florida's priorities, which is why I asked staff to pass around Sarasota County schools.
I think this is a really, not that our our brochures are beautiful. I looked through I zoomed in. Beautiful. I do think having four priorities, which I think encompasses what the board general feelings for is easier. It's
also more digestible and they're all very catchy titles. And I think when you are a legislator in either Tallahassee or DC, to be able to have a paper that's like, oh, adequate, accurate funding,
that makes sense. Um is is helpful. Um, I think it's also important that we're looking and I know FSBA does a really good job at trying to consolidate all this in the greater city schools consortium. Those guys also do a great
job of trying to collectively advocate for the whole the whole group. However, if we could also echo what other districts are saying because I think we're all know that there needs to be funding. We all know there's transportation issues. we all know that special needs programs need to be
funded, etc. Um, and so I would like to get make some recommendations at least on the state priorities um and get my colleagues opinions on potentially cutting some areas um in particular.
One, two, three, four, five. The last bullet, strategic right sizing and enrollment enhancement. This is something that we're already doing and in like as a board as a board we are making decisions to rightsize the district right now to spend time in
Tallahassee asking for help with by the time they pass anything we have already made these decisions to me seems counterproductive. Would it be amazing for legislation to come and and give us kind of a fall back
or some more support? Of course. However, by this time it's we're hopefully done. Um, staff is not opposed to that change for what it's worth. I have a quick question on that though
because it says preserving the local school board's authority to oversee these processes. So, was that put in here because they've taken away I know that there's some issues with local authority and things of that nature. So, was it just
to ask them to help us resize or was it specifically about the authority to oversee the process? It was really both. But to uh Miss Miss Thompson's point, um there's really no limitation currently now for you to do that. Um the biggest
challenge going forward is um as it relates to this is probably the first bullet in the first bucket which is when um some entities can come in and use our underutilized space and how that would cost and whatnot. But that that would be
taken care of with the first item. Put up an issue that you don't want to bring to their attention with the last bullet, right? Um, I appreciate that comment and I also really like the first bullet. I think that's something that's um very in tune
with what's happening. Uh, and and in fact, Sarasota specifically calls out School of Hope, but I like that ours is a little bit more general to manage. Um, and then I had a a question.
So, how is the item five, the commitment to school safety, security, and wellness different than us advocating for increasing the base student allocation, safe schools, mental health assistance
allocation? Is that I don't want to offend anyone like is that virtue signaling? I think you guys know that as a school board, we want all these things. since we're advocating for more funding. I guess what is the
difference? I see what you're saying. It it it could be perceived a little bit repetitive. Um usually we've always called it out. Um but we don't have to. It's already it's part of the safe school allocation and the um and the final point above it and
invest in public schools finance and FFP priorities. And I'm I'm not saying to remove it or not remove it, but I again I do think if you are we can combine it with the other section to to streamline it further. I just I know we're asking I personally
don't want to combine school safety and security anywhere else. I think it needs to be called out by itself. So I could we could rep Isn't there hand signs now? I know. No, we didn't. Oh,
yeah. And that's that's fine. That's kind of why I wanted in the interest of if people wanted to narrow it down, I I understand the the calling it out and the importance of that. I just wanted to
point that out. Um, and then my other um, comment is I think there needs to be a prioritization of how we're listing these items because for me investing in public education, budget, finance is
absolutely number one. Um, and when as a legislator I would be looking at a document. I think there should be some prioritization of how we are ordering these and I can give my suggestion or we can go from there
at the we'll order it however uh the board would like. Well, I mean you said that the public funding is for I think safety is first. I mean I would say safety first and then public funding. So my my argument would be if we don't
have money we can't invest in any of these. I would say it's in the top two. Yeah. Well, I mean, we're if if our students and staff aren't safe, we won't need any money, but I'm okay. I don't want to have a
back and forth. And I obviously feel safety and security is very important. I'm just thinking there should and in fact in this list, it's at the bottom. So, if we do feel like that's the most important thing, I think there should be prioritization of the
item list. And that's it. I'll go next since I don't see anyone else. Um, I don't mind prioritizing it. I I I to Miss Thompson's point, it probably makes sense. I think this is way shorter than what we've ever had.
So, I don't I like all the things that are on there. Um, and as you mentioned, if it's not on this list, you don't have our authority if it comes up in conversation. So, doesn't mean you're going to talk about all these per se, but this is what we're saying are things
that we would like to have um support from the legislation behind. So, um yes, Mr. Hill, I I just wanted to say this, Mr. Sullivan, that um this is a comprehensive list as Mr. Sullivan stated. Uh I think the third last slide of the presentation
does mention campaigning advocacy campaigning tools that we're going to create such as the the um trifold um brochures, the different flyers. So we will tailor and pick different ones, you know, depending on the audience that we're going to be speaking to. So we're not going to talk about all of these
topics. Um but we just wanted to have the comprehensive list that will then open up all conversations with all parties that we need to. But again, we will shorten it depending on the different rooms that we're in and the different stakeholders that we are speaking to with the different tools that we're going to be creating.
Okay. Thank you for that. Um I have uh something I'd like to add on the federal legislative priority which is the Eagles Act. And the Eagles Act is um a proposed federal legislation designed to expand the US Secret Service National Threat
Assessment Center to prevent targeted violence in schools and other places. So, so it's already there chair called the Eagles. Oh, it's on the list. It's the in the last um bucket second bullet. I was focused on state. So, I'm sorry. No worries. And I don't then we already have it.
Thank you. Um statewide um to to the point of a couple of things. So on our state one where the second bullet in academic excellence for students says support legislation that includes an opt out option for audiovisisual recording
and self-contained ESD classrooms ensuring that parents and guardians have the flexibility to decline participation thereby streamlining the process. We had this discussion before um although um I don't necessarily agree about the parent uh the parental rights it's in
our policy. I did have the opportunity to speak with the commissioner of education. He agreed with me that that didn't make sense to have an optin that there it should just be a waiver. So I
think two things I think that that part should be in safety and security because it's about video um video for safety purposes. But in the parental rights in the section 1014.04 04
I little I um it's all the waiverss like the reason. And so it says, "The right to consent in writing before the state or any of its political subdivisions makes a video or voice recording of his or her minor minor child unless such
recording is made during or as part of a court proceeding or is made as part of a forensic interview in a crimical criminal or department of children and families investigation or is to be used solely for the following purposes and it lists five of them. a safety demonstration, purpose related to
legitimate academic or extracurricular activity, purpose related to regular classrooms, security or surveillance of buildings or grounds. Um, number five is a photo identification. So, I would say we should be um advocating to add a
number six and just say um video audio video audio video recording in self-contained ESSE classrooms. So, if it's just a waiver, it's the same as we don't have to opt in or opt out. It's
just like having video cameras in schools. We're fine with that. And I I believe that's the discussion that's being had. I'm not sure. Did they? Yeah. So, um and Miss Batista can weigh in because I believe that um the
state did reach out to to you, right, to talk about what we wanted to do only a few hours ago. Oh, awesome. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, yes, I um I what you just proposed is what the discussion was at the last workshop that
um that the board was going to uh try to place that on the um legislative table, you know, to uh the legislative agenda from the school board was to add one more um exception to that particular section of the statute. And yes, I did
speak with the general counsel from the department of education. Um he um tended to agree with my reading of the of the statute as it as it's as it is now. Um but you know he said that you know
that obviously the the board was um you know able to move forward and um try to implement that change um legislatively. Chair, can we talk about that just for a sec? like you just stay on that one topic. Sure. And I if I'll just ask because
originally to Miss Batista and then you can add into there. Um the conversation that I had with the commissioner said he thought that he could just do a rule that we wouldn't have to wait for legislation. So was that any part of
your conversation? Uh no. The general counsel did not mention anything about a rule. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Z. I just want to and I'm I'm trying to think about how we can get this done in a reasonable amount of time which might be to go topic by topic and make sure we have u I mean this is an
interesting issue because I'm not sure we need unanimous consent you know we have we have to decide today I think what our legislative priorities are is that correct uh based on today's discussion we will uh make the uh changes based on the feedback and then presented uh during
the October meeting uh for final adoption so the lobby can get to work so you're basically looking for what whatever you take away from our conversation. You're going to write a draft and then we're going to bring it to a schoolboard meeting and actually hash it out. Yes. I just want to understand though the waiver and I I think I understand the
law gives you don't need to give permission if there's any of those um conditions met in the current law that are waved, right? So, uh that waves the need for you to give permission for your child. I want to understand as a board what
we're doing then if we give this a waiver. What we're saying is parents don't get the right to um opt in. There's just going to be an automatic waiver to uh these ESSE classrooms to
record kids. Could a parent opt out under that if it's a waved condition? Not no. Um and if if you want to go to that but we had a pilot program that Yes. I was just going to I'm familiar with what we did. Well, so for the pilot program, just to give the history, what happened there is
once a parent made the request, then we would install it. Upon installment, we would notify the parents in the classroom, but there was no optin or out, just a notification. So, under the pilot, which was directed
by the the state, right? Uh did they also direct those conditions like that that if someone asked for it, we turn it on and there is no opt out under the pilot. There was no opt out and um I will do some thinking about that. I'm
just not necessarily thinking that that is something that um uh the community would support. There are certainly some parents of students who might believe that they deserve the right to opt out of being recorded. And so I just I'm just laying it out there that I'm not convinced that that's the best thing for
us to ask for. Um I understand the way to to get that done if that is the will of the board is through a waiver process and I get that. Um but I'm not I'm just as one member here not convinced that we want uh not to have the ability for a parent of an ESC student in a contained
classroom to say no. Um I just need to learn more and think about that. Okay. And just to to go to that, they're not being continuously necessarily recorded. Like no one is going to be viewing that unless there's an incident. I mean, we've written that out in the
policy and someone asks to see it. It's not that's the only time somebody would be viewing the video is if there was an incident in the classroom. And and again, I'm just um I I think that there's another side to this about a parent who does not want their child to
be recorded in a self-contained ESC class. And I need to go through the thinking of that to make sure that I'm comfortable that we want to tell them you have no rights to say my child will not be recorded. Even though this is only what what we what we have fenced off in our policy is what you described.
Um I'm I'm there's a balance here between parent rights and safety and security and I want to make sure we land in the right place. Mrs. Leonardi. Um, I just had a quick question about timing. Um, so we will be voting to
approve this on October 14th. When are the committees meeting? October 6th. October 6 is the first week of committee 6 and then the 13th. Those are the two in October. So is this being done in a timely
manner? It could have been done a little quicker. Is there a way to get this approved earlier? We could bring it to the October uh special school board meeting if that's the will of the board. I would. Okay. Okay. As long as there's will the board the
superintendent doesn't let me add things to specials anymore. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Thank you so much. Oh, I'm sorry. I had some other comments. I didn't get a chance to like go through these things. I just Okay. Share some ideas.
Thank you, ma'am. Where we might trim a little bit of these things. Uh, one is um state increase, I'm sorry, support. This is legislative number one on money. Uh, third bullet support increase state
funding to provide free. Is that a smart goal? Like is there any chance that the state is going to pay for uh the tens of millions of dollars just for Broward County that they would go into that if
if they passed it? No. I I would just ask you to think about that or to flag it when we bring it back at the special school board meeting. I also think the last um clause on the academic uh category, second bullet,
thereby streamlining the process and enhancing inclusivity would probably not be something we want to write down on a piece of paper if we wanted to actually get it done. We'll reward that. Just something to think about. I'm a thousand% uh in favor of my colleague
Miss Leonardi about fam paid family leave. This is an area where we can really lead and I hope that we can get some financial support for that. I love what um Sarasota has done on leveling the playing field. This is a
really great way to talk to people about it. Um I'm I recognize there is going to be choice in Florida for education. I just want it to be a level playing field. I'll continue to remind people that $4 billion dollar was spent this year to give to kids to parents of kids
who are already attending private schools. So, there is an opportunity to balance the budget in education by making some changes to that. I wouldn't recommend we add it to our legislative priorities, but um I think that uh Mr. Sullivan, not only does this limit what
your lobbyists and staff can talk to legislators about, this limits schoolboard members in terms of what they can talk about. Am I correct? I defer to general counsel, Miss Batista. Well, there's always been limitations on
certain things um that can be discussed at a you know schoolboard meeting or or within the bounds of um of the district. Um I don't think that this particular um this particularly would have any impact
on school member speech. So, if a schoolboard member of Broward County took government money to go to Tallahassee and attend a conference, they're okay to use their first amendment rights and talk about anything they'd like.
I mean, the answer the answer is yes. Um, however, if you are going and I think we've may have had this discussion before where if we uh if you are taking if you are going in representation of the district, you should be representing
what the district has approved and nothing outside the bounds of that. I just want to be very clear then because in my own view of when are you representing the district is when the govern when the people of Broward County pay you to go somewhere, you are representing Broward County. And if
Broward County's list is this, it seems to me like anyone that accepts government money to go to Tallahassee to attend Broward Days or any other part of the legislative session would be restricted to advocating for things that Broward County had approved. Right? So, if you are if you are
representing yourself and you're there to represent the district, um then you should be also um advocating for the items that are on that list. Terrific. So, if you're at dinner with an old friend uh from years ago that's
also in the same place at the same time, you can you can say whatever you want. If you're talking to a a committee, you're talking to a rep or a senator, or if you're talking at a public forum that is for you as a schoolboard member, you are restricted to advocating for these things. Last question, then I'll get to
you Mr. Sever. Sorry. Um, could we talk about the $4 billion as a way to pay for these things as a schoolboard member, even if the four billion isn't part of the agenda? Can you give me a little bit more? So, we're going to, I think, have a high
priority on funding. we're going to go look, you know, a lot of things can get better. If we're not, I mean, lots of times we're 50th depending on who the the group is counting the money, but in all groups we're either 45th to 50th in terms of funding for education in Florida. So, if we go to Tallahassee and say, "Hey, we
just want to remind you we don't get enough money. This is hard." Um, could we also say, even though it's not part of the agenda, that a way to help pay for public education would be to do something different like means test the voucher system in Florida, which would take a billion dollars out of that and you can put a billion dollars into
traditional public education. Could we say that even if it's not on the agenda? Um, that's a good question. If you could let us know later. Yep, that'd be fine. I appreciate that. Um on the federal one, um does the federal
government currently invest in transportation services for disabilities for students with disabilities, rural access and after school programs? Mr. Sullivan, I would have to check specifically what um IDA uh funds. Our chief financial officer is is here. I wonder if she
could tell us whether the federal government pays for transportation for special needs kids. Yes, they do. I mean, not federal government, but the state. No. All right. So, if we can just tighten up the language here, maybe if they're not paying for it, we're not going to ask
for them to continue to invest. We just maybe say invest the first time. I'd also uh um Thank you. That's all I have. Madam Chair, if if I may just some
clarification on the capacity uh in which one is acting if if they choose to go to Tallahassee during this um this uh upcoming session next year or or whether when these comm you start meeting uh in October. Um,
is is the threshold solely whether or not the district or the county is paying for your flight and hotel as to whether or not you are an advocate representing in an individual capacity or on behalf of the district? Miss Batista,
that's not the only um that's certainly one of the factors that that uh would be um important to take into consideration. However, if the board member is there in representation of the district, then uh
the idea is that that person would be advocating for the what the district um is advancing. Okay. But but I guess my my question is who gets to determine what hat I'm wearing, right? If if I want to go up to
Tallahassee and I want to take a a meeting or meetings with legislators and um advocate for a position that let's say maybe uh is not on this list or is contrary to this list, I'm not suggesting that's the case, but if if I
wanted to do that and I wanted to pay for my own flight and my own hotel, am I permitted to do that? So the answer um again um deals more with you know are you there in
representation of the district? Are you taking on those meetings because you are a school board member of the Broward school board or you are there in your own personal individual capacity? But I I I guess what I'm having difficulty um understanding
regardless of who pays for it. Understood. But I guess what I'm I'm having difficulty uh u understanding is uh let's say a crazy example. Um I want to put five school boards or five uh scoreboards at Dillard because I really
really like their field and I think it's great what they've done with it. And I know that's not the district's position to put five scoreboards on Dillard. And if I wanted to go up and I wanted to speak to legislators that I had relationships with or people that were willing to listen to me up in Tallahassee to pitch for my five
scoreboards, could I do that in an individual capacity? And how would where where is the line as to whether or not Adam Cera, schoolboard member, is asking as opposed to Adam Cera, Broward County resident, is asking? I mean, I I I I think in
fairness with the with the upcoming session and in light of some things that maybe happened the last time the legislature was in session, we need some some clear guidance as to what we can and can't do when we choose to venture up to Tallahassee. Okay. We um we could definitely um try
to put something together. What I would say is that you know a lot of it is also on the um honor system in the sense that you know if you are representing yourself when you're speaking as a school board member from you know
Broward then you should be aligned with the um the priorities of the district. If you on the other hand, you know, are when you speak who whoever in whatever capacity you're speaking, you're saying I am not representing the district. I'm
here as a as a citizen. Then I think under those circumstances, you could say whatever it is that you choose to say. So a sheer pronouncement before you address any committee or subcommittee will do the trick. Well, I think that that and the fact that if you're, you
know, paying for your own way, yes. Then I think that would go a long way in separating, you know, which hat the person is wearing at the time that they're speaking. Okay, understood. And for the record, I I don't want five scoreboards. I just wanted a bombastic example. Thank you.
But we can also um you know research further and if there is any difference from what I have said um you know I'll be happy to put something together. Thank you, Mrs. Ala. Thank you. So, I just wanted to say that I agree with Miss Leonardi on adding the
paid family leave and then I'd also uh really like my colleagues to weigh in in regards to taking the the funding that is uh that's left over from taking down the 1200 building and building the new building and to put that funding to the
off-campus memorial. Okay. So, let's look at that. Anybody opposed to adding the paid family leave to the legislate? Was that statewide or federal? Both. Both. I'm just curious how how does that play
out if we're rebuilding a building and we come in under budget? I add at budget. I understand we'll have 1.6 million left, right? We already built it. We The building's up already up. I'm sorry. I thought this was an additional building. No, no. So, the 1500 building, so we're done. Cole thing.
We have no more left. I just want to get the story. Yeah, the district has no more need for those those funds. And just as a caveat to that, the the the district was initially holding that money to do an onampus memorial. Um
they've decided to do a less extravagant one so that the money could go towards the community one that's going to be um at a different spot. Love it. Everybody's okay with that. So that takes care of that. Um, oh, and the paid family leave. Everybody was okay with
that? Okay, good. Do you have any other questions? Oh, the last thing I have uh to add to Miss Thompson's uh lengthy legislative update. Uh, one of the things as well is taking place uh conversationally in
Tallahassee is property tax, some kind of reform. So, at the will the board would would like to add something as they have those conversations. uh the impact of district uh educational funding has minimized. I I have um two quick questions also
before we go. Did you did you jot down putting the ESC and safety and security as opposed to AC? Okay. Then the other question is you know there was a big a big debate in Tallahassee about changing the way schools were graded in
terms of making that a 90 87. Do you foresee that coming up again in conversation? I don't foresee it coming to fruition. A lot of the members don't want their schools to be okay. Just because it's not on here and we actually the students did a fantastic
job, by the way, last year of explaining to the the committee why they didn't think that that was a good idea. Um Alana actually did a fantastic job. So I if if you thought it was going to be an issue, I was going to request we add that, but Okay. Well, thank you again.
And then January is the start of the legislate session. I think I said September. Sorry. Oh, I I'm not really done. Mrs. Mrs. Bowman, sorry. Um, so I would like to get the opinion of the colleagues as well for the um the
level the playing field. Does anybody else agree with that? because I think it's basically kind of at the core of what we're going to need to be doing moving forward. Sarasota priority number two. Are there any objections to adding that?
We were going to re um we're talking about priorization of the items, correct? No, this is a new because this is is really not on the items right now. It's definitely not a concise um Oh, for priority number three in the Sarasota one.
Priority number two, we'll come up with some language. Uh we had something um similar in last year's platform in terms that um any uh taxpayer funded educational system should all have the same accountability. So, we'll we'll mirror that one.
We should really be hitting that one. We'll add that back then because that unless there's opposition. I think it could fit under academic excellence for all students, but also I think just catchier titles.
Level the playing field. We could steal their title. Yeah, that's fine, too. They stole it from us. We'll cite them in the footnotes. Maybe they did steal it from us. Well, you're pretty smart, so probably. They haven't stole me yet, so I'm here yet. Sorry, Mrs. Leonard.
Yeah, sorry. Um, and I I didn't know if my colleagues agreed uh with the um a advocating for the development and enforcement of age appropriate regulations governing the use of AI as well as um regulating the collection, storage use, and sharing of student data
by tech companies. Unless anyone opposed, we took Yeah, that's that's the way I was looking at. Somebody didn't say no. Thank you. Okay. And then when we bring this back to the board October 7th, the board's um they have the ability to modify via
motions. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, thank you very much. Madam Chair, you going to recess until 1:00? We have It's not 1:00. Before you recess, chair, can I just make a quick statement about when you bring this back to my colleagues? This
is going to be one of those cases where if you want to change something, it would be really valuable to bring a written change. Uh this is an item, Mr. Sullivan, that could take three or four hours if we just go through open debate about it and like. Um so I would just ask if people want to change something, if they can bring in a written change,
we could kind of get through it in a reasonable amount of time. If we bring these two sheets back on uh special score, yeah, that's that's the point of doing it now. No, we're not a substantial change. No, no, this is a it's a legislative platform, so we'll take the feedback as
we understand it. we will present it as a a normal board item for the October 7th meeting. And as with any item, the board can make motions to change the item. And and what I'm recommending is if you are somebody that doesn't like the way it came out that you might consider writing it down or working with your
staff to write it down so we can all consider it real quick and get it done as Miss Leon, as Miss Alf would have told me to do and I would have followed her advice. Well, and I'll just say though before we close this item, if you have big things that you think you like
now would be a better time than threehour long schoolboard meeting, which I won't be at, by the way, because I'll be good. somewhere else. Um, but now would really be the time to so that there's less changes that need to be made when it comes to us. U Mrs.
Bulman. Um, I guess the one other thing that I think is and I don't know if it's worded kind of open-ended purposely, but the first one in the first topic, you know, just our property
asset management, our ability to do that. Do you have a suggestion of what you want them to Well, I would like to have more power over it rather than less. Um, we we try to leave it leave it as open-ended as possible because again that gives us the the runway to to
advocate, but if there's different language that the board wants, we can definitely modify. No, I just I think um well, I I'll look at it and I can get with you, but I definitely think that that is a priority that we need to be um having as much
control over our facilities as possible. Yes, we do have um we agree. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? All right. We So, chair, you have 14 minutes for the closed door or you can go into the the the calendars.
Let's start with the calendar and see what we can get done. So, the next item, thank you very much. The next item um we will be discussing is the proposed 2026 27 and 202728 school calendar
options. I now turn it over to staff um for a brief presentation, but I think that'll take a minute or microphone on I'm sure All righty. We're ready whenever you Oh, well, doc
Dr. Lozano and team. Thank you, Ernie Lozano, Chief Human Resources Officer. I'd like to start this conversation by thanking the 26 members of the calendar committee. The committee is made up of advisory
committee members. There's a representative from each employee group and district staff. So, it's a diverse group of individuals that have the hard task of looking at a big county like Broward and coming up with one concise
calendar that's student centered and meets the needs of of our district. The committee had held five meetings from April through September. We were directed by the superintendent to work on two school years of calendars. So
today we're having conversations around 2026, 2027, and school year calendar 2027, 2028. And without further ado, I'll have the team introduce themselves, and Mr. Azero
will take over the presentation. All right. Thank you, Dr. Lozano. I'm David Azero, executive director of labor relations and professional practices. And I probably don't need a microphone, but Jose Perez, executive director of marketing and broadcasting. So, good afternoon. Again, if they could
pull up the um the presentation, the presentation will be actually be pretty quick, then we can go into questions because this has been on there for a couple of days. Um starting with I'll go to slide four. So, what we did this year is looking at the guidelines that the board has given us in the past and that was um and also direction from
Dr. Heepburn. So, we wanted to develop two years of options. We wanted to make sure that we ended the first semester before the winter break uh the full week off at Thanksgiving and then on the even when November is in an even year 26 28 that that uh election
day is a teacher work day for the presidential and governor elections but on the odd years we may not need it because we might need that 84th day to fit in. So you'll see that on both of these. Uh and then the there's the other days off that we have throughout the
year that are going to be an operational uh that might interfere with the operation of the school district. And so those are planted throughout the school year. So based on all of that, the uh the two options for 26 and 27 starting both options had to start on
Monday, August 10th. They have the the full week of Thanksgiving off. The first semester basically is the same for both options. The difference is in the second semester was spring break. So in option one having spring break March 22nd through 26 that also included Good
Friday and therefore that saved us a day. So that ends the year on Friday May 28th before Memorial Day. Option two moves spring break up a notch up a week and that for that reason we have to add uh March 26 as an extra day off. that
puts the last day of school on that Monday after Memorial Day weekend. That's the only difference from those two options. And then for the 27 28 the opt the differences are at the beginning of the year where August 10th is the earliest we can start
and actually there's a misprint here. So on option one, Monday, August 10th, sorry, on option one for 2728, it's um starting Tuesday, August 10th, and option two, it's starting a day later on Wednesday, August 11th. So just
two different start dates that um dictates how we end the first semester, whether it's Friday, December 17th, or going into that week of um right before the Christmas break, and that would be Wednesday, December 22nd. Then it also determines what day we come back from the break, either January 4th or January
6th. But then spring break and the last day of the school year are the same. So we sent out that information in a survey. We had 26,000 responses and for 2627, this was added
yesterday to um to the item. So for the 2627 school year, it was about 80 to 20 that chose option one. 80% chose option one. About 20% voted for option two. For the 2728 school year, it was 6040. 60%
for option one and about 40% for option two. And then it that sheet also kind of breaks it down, but um that's really our presentation. So we're open for questions. Okay, we have public comment. U Miss Felicia Schuman.
Good afternoon, Madame Chair and esteemed board leaders. My name is Felicia Schuman, Coconut Creek, Florida. I'm here today to speak on behalf of our students, educators, and families regarding the proposed calendar options
for the 2026 through 2027 and 2027 and 2028 school years listed as topic three on today's workshop agenda. After reviewing both set of options, I
strongly support option two for 2026 through 2027. It offers a more balanced semester configuration. 95 days in the first semester and 85 in the second compared to option one. While
neither is perfect perfectly equal, option two minimize the instructional gap and better supports pacing for core subjects, testing schedules, and curriculum delivery. For the 2027
through 2028 school year, I recommend option two. Again, it provides an 86 day first semester and a 94day second semester, which is more balanced than option one.
This configuration reduces the strain on our teachers trying to compress content in a shorter semester and ensures and it ensures students receive more consistent instruction across the year.
Instructional time is a function foundation of academic equity. When semesters are uneven, it affects everything from lesson plannings to exam preparations. These calendar choices should reflect a commitment to fairness,
academic continuity, and well-being of our education and students. Thank you for your time and dedication to our district. I'm out of breath. I just got back in here. But thank you all. Have a good day. Thank you.
Uh board member discussion. Dr. Hus. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Mr. Azerido, so I make sure I don't miss anything, can you tell me again the in in a concise way the difference with uh the 2026 calendar for option one and two?
And I know that you mentioned the public is 80% supportive based on your survey for option one. So what is the basic difference? The basic difference is spring break. Spring break. So okay. So that's the only difference. Correct. And can you reiterate that difference so
I can make sure I understand it for you? Yes. So in option one y spring break is March 22nd through 26. That's the Monday through Friday. Okay. In option two it would be a week earlier. March 15th through the 19th. So by having it option one, the 22nd
through the 26th, that Friday the 26 includes Good Friday, which is normally a day off for us, right? So it's two birds with one stone. If we moved spring break up to the 15th through 19th, the kids would have that week off and then Friday the 26th is another day. So that pushes the last day
of school past Memorial Day weekend to that Tuesday right after. Got it. Okay. I have another question for you. I know that we've had um each year um made an attempt to make sure that uh based upon advocacy from
different groups that we have um um days off that coincide with specific uh groups. Um so just wanted to know uh if these options included those days off uh that would coincide with with the
specific group advocacy groups that are here. I believe were here before for the October, November period and also the March period. Yes sir, they do unless it unless it occurs on a weekend. Those were those are the days off. Okay. So so though I believe um the the
particular group for October November that occurred on a Sunday in 2620 correct um for so that wasn't included as a day off. Correct. That would be November 8th. Correct. Correct. For Okay. And then for the March day
off, um, uh, when would that be? March 10th. March 10th, 2027. And that's considered for all of these three years that we have here. Two years. Two years. Yeah. Yeah. I believe in the 2728 it's on the March day off is on a weekend. Okay. It's on a Sunday, so it's not on here.
Got it. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Rupert. Thank you. Just uh one quick question. Uh, when do we have graduation scheduled? Dr. Fton, Dr. Lozano.
So, I know Dr. Wes and her team work on the graduation schedule. So, I don't know that that's formalized yet, but I'm sure they're working to get that out as soon as possible to provide community enough time to prepare, right? because we're actually voting
we'll be voting on it at probably the next board meeting. So, um part of my vote really for the timing of the ending is um important. Hi, Dr. Wanza. Um I was asking about the graduations and um
versus option one and option two. Um, I wanted to see if it made um if it changed anything um for the graduation time. You know, sometimes they start at the end of May, sometimes it's June. So, um
this Okay. Um Valerie Wanza, chief strategy and innovation officer. So, the graduation schedule we don't build until we get what is the final school schedule, right? So whenever the whatever is the um district schedule for the year, graduation is usually um we
start from like the last day of school and back it up about four or five days and and and it's in that window because we have to complete graduations by the last day of school because obviously um we want the teachers on calendar so that they can attend and be a part of that
culminating activity. So, um, just to reiterate, the graduation schedule isn't built until we know what the annual schedule for the school year is. What the calendar for the school year is. Okay. So, basically after our vote. Yes. Well, no. Okay. I just know for it's
important teachers are asking already. Thanks for allowing. Thank you. Clarification. Thank you. We're going to recess um the board workshop so to go into a closed door and then we'll come back and Dr. Zean will have Thank you, Chair.
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[Music] [Music] [Music] right there. Thank you and welcome back to the school board meeting. We will continue with our proposed 2026 27 and 202728
school calendar options and I believe we stopped um we are starting with Dr. Zean. Thanks chair so much. Um I'm curious why you think uh the vote shifted uh uh between the first and the second
year in the data. It went from 8020 to uh in favor of option one to 6040. Can you just give us a short summary about why you think the vote changed in the second year? What what are the different characteristics that you think made it such a close vote in the second
year? Thank you for the question. I I believe in the second year it might be because the op you the start date was either in year in the 2728 the options were a Tuesday or a Wednesday start and so more people may have chosen the Wednesday start
but the only real difference between besides that is the end date of the first semester between Friday the 17th or Wednesday the 22nd of December. Sure. And the and the gap there for the total time off during the winter break is different as well. And so um the 60%
might have been persuaded by having a couple more days between the 17th of December and 4th of January instead of the 22nd of December and 6th of January. Correct. It makes the winter holiday three days longer by my luck. Yeah. Um and so uh I totally understand that
these um calendars are also still subject to any kind of collective bargaining agreement that we have uh still to negotiate. Dr. Yeah, but staff. So,
not not the start dates and stop dates. I mean, there's the the planning days in between, the early release days are parts of it that are negotiable, right? But those parts that are subject to the collective bargaining agreement are included into the current version of the collective bargaining agreement, but should there be changes in the collective bargaining agreement, the
calendar also would change. Correct. Terrific. Okay. look forward to um uh going through that when we get in closed door for negotiations in the future. Um but I I think in some sense this board is well advised to listen to 26,000
people uh who both said uh these two feasible options all legal starting on the right date clearly laid out for them. You know in one year a gross majority of people favoring one and in the second people thinking three days extra at that winter break's kind of
nice. Um and then uh same uh same end date just one day different in terms of starting. So uh I feel like that this calendar process this year has been so much more efficient and that the uh the folks that vote are the ones that care the most about it and uh I feel like
those two choices option one for both years make a lot of sense. Thank you. Thank you. I don't see anybody else. I I actually have a question I'm going to ask you, but maybe if the student advisors are can hear me wherever they
are if they pop in to answer the question. Um I I'm just wondering for the 20 27 28 school year if you know why the students um
seem to be overwhelmingly not in favor of that. So students were at 47.8 for option one and 52.2 for option two. So do you have any
inkling why it was students were more in favor of option two for that year? Especially to Dr. Zean's point, everybody was very clear on the first year that they wanted option one, but the students um was kind of half and
half. The 27 28 were the students over um it was almost half and half for option one and option two. Sorry, I stepped out for a moment. Um, option two and this is for 2728,
right? In the first in the first year 26, sorry, 26 27 overwhelmingly the students were for option one, right? But on the second, the 27 28 it's kind of half and half which is a big difference than
being 80% a little over 80 almost 85%. And if maybe Mr. Azerito can help me out here I believe the only difference is the week of spring break. No in 2728 the difference is the start date winter break. So the start date would be August 11th instead of the 10th. So it's a Wednesday
start date instead of a a Tuesday. The first semester would actually end December 22nd, which is a Wednesday, as opposed to the 17th, which is a Friday, and then the second semester would start January 6 and option two, January 4th and option one.
Got it. Thank you. Um, Mrs. Sixon, I'd need to follow up on this um and and see, you know, it's difficult for me to generalize, you know, what a large percentage of students were were saying in their response. Uh, so I don't want to misspeak, but uh, I'd be happy to to
follow up with you uh, to get some more information. My my only guess from very honestly quickly looking at this um, is that the the perception may have been that it's a longer um, break uh, for um,
option one. Um, but I I'd need to do I'd need to do some option two. Yeah, I I I'd need to do some more research and follow up with you because I I mean, personally, since everyone seemed to be in the middle on op on this year between the two of them,
I'd really like to get a better understanding of students in particular because they have to live the calendar um why they have. So, I don't have a issue giving you an opinion on the first one, but I'm not sure where I might land
on this without having the information as to, you know, why they might have. And maybe that's something going further in the survey. We could give them the option to tell us why so that when we're having these conversations, we can have
the anecdotal information as opposed to just the raw data. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? What's the uh what's the path forward today? Are we okay with doing two years or we're gonna Oh, okay.
Well, you can answer Dr. Zen since he asked and then I'll go to Dr. Holus. So, that's what we're asking for. So, this is the direction. So, going with option one on both ears. Is that the will of the board? Okay. Dr. Holes. Yeah, Madam Chair, just a couple of
things. Um, and by the way, Mr. Azerido and um, Dr. Lozano and um, Jose, thank you so much because I I see the the the surveys were all over the place. I mean, I I get them on my phone, on social media, everything. So, did a Jose did a great job. Great job. I mean, I saw it
everywhere. So, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Um so um um board member Hixon I think traditionally what I've observed since I've been here is that um the calendar normally goes into at least the first week of January, right? So, um
it appears to or it could be that students are so used to getting that first week in January and having to go back at the beginning of January might be a factor because the option one for the 27 school year um starts a few days
before actually um Christmas Eve. And um in the past it it usually starts closer to Christmas Eve and then it extends way a few days quite a few days beyond um New Year's Day. So maybe it's their family dynamics and how they take
holidays or whatever it is that the students find it more appealing to to extend into January as opposed to start earlier in December. That that would be my take on it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So everybody um
just I want to clarify the chair's question. How many students voted? It's not that many. Sorry. Uh Jose Perez through the chair answer. Uh we had uh
let's see students I mean parents were 70% of the survey group. A thou 1,116. Okay. So 500 voted one way and 500 vote the other out of 180 split. Yeah. We have 1,000 out of 180,000
of 180,000 students that Yes, sir. Yes. Right. Okay. And they were 50/50 roughly. They were about 50/50. Okay. And the 70% which is the parents parents are 6238 roughly. Correct. Okay. What's the next step in this chair? What do what are we going to do?
When do we approve calendars? We'll give them a consensus and then I believe it comes back for school board to vote. Okay. Do we have a consensus for both years or just one? We had I was getting to that. I apologize.
Um Landon, if I can just uh provide additional context, thank you Dr. Wanza for your support and and quickly looking at this with me. Um I think the reason that we would have seen more for option two is because of the 3 days going into the
first week of January of winter break. um that would be that's very appealing to a lot of students because you still have a little bit of time after the holidays um before going back to to school. Uh so that's one part and then also you know just the perception of I
get one more day of summer uh to start on Wednesday rather than Tuesday may have been the the rationale behind students. Um you know I I I do share Dr. Zean's concern and the very small amount of students that that were surveyed and um I'll you know definitely be sure to
to talk with Mr. Perez and the team um to see how we can raise that response rate in future years because um this is definitely an issue that like Mrs. Sixon said impacts uh students tremendously. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so we'll we'll start
with the first calendar since there's two different ones. Um, is everybody okay with option one for the 26 27? Everybody's good. Okay. Um, for the 2728 option one.
No. Come on. Go with the steel. Yeah. Come on. Go. Yeah. 54. Well, Sarah's not here. So, it's only eight total. 53.
Okay. So, you good? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So, the next item is proposed revisions to schoolboard policy 8020. I now turn it over to staff for a brief presentation. look at the um students.
Thank you, chair. Um as um the teams transition, I'll turn it over to Miss Paul and Mr. Takabuso for 8020. They're outside. Let me go get them real quick.
Superintendent U Pepper uh Miss Hixon and board. Uh we're having a presentation this we have facilitron here to provide a brief presentation of what the uh software actually looks like. Mr. Chris Akabuso will lead the
presentation. Good afternoon board members. Chris Akabusu, director of fiscal plan real estate. Uh to my right is Mr. Chisum. Um who's the director partners and then um can you guys introduce yourself please?
I'm Jeff Ben. Press that button right there. Jeff Benjamin, CEO facilitron. I'm Trent Allen, uh, chief marketing officer, Facilitron. Jen Ford, head of accounts at Facilitron. Okay. Um, I guess they're going to
upload a presentation. What we try to do is to summarize the presentation. We kind of frontloaded the um, issues so we don't have to go line by line in terms of what was added, what was stricken. Um, what we wanted to
start. Okay, you can click for me please. What we wanted to start off with in as you know we have the introduction and what was revised was to provide additional clarity in terms of the rationale to further clarify the rules that's
pertaining to the school ally groups partners in education one and two and then you know further clarify certain provisions and then revise exhibit two which is the the matrix that shows who's paying and who's not paying. Um and
again the goal is for the school board to give us direction hopefully so we can bring the policy for adoption later on in this month. Um slide number three pretty much um gives you like a brief table of
contents. So I'm not going to go over it. And then slide number four was specifically to this is the category of charges matrix which is in the policy. It pretty much gives you a summary of the different uh users, category of
users and you know who pays what. And as you can see just to summarize for the areas that we've been having some concerns. So the school ally group the goal again is to oh I'm sorry um in
terms of it's pretty small. So I'll read it. The goal is for any user for us to know that they're in our facility. So in this particular case for the school ally group they have to fill in an application and facilitron is here to show us how easy that is. It's just to
establish presence. Um the school group during school days they don't have to provide a certificate of insurance because you know they're having the meeting. No rental costs no utilities no costal um no personnel no consumables during
school days after school hours non-school days. Again, they have to, you know, fill out an application, provide a certificate of insurance, no rental cost, no utility. However, custodial may be due as in court. The same thing with personnel and then no
consumables for PI one during school days. Again, they have to fill an application both um school days, provide a COI, also pay reduced fee, no utilities, no custodial, personalizing court, no consumables.
Um after school hours, non-school days, file an application, provide a COI, pay reduce rent, pay utilities, um and then no. um
and that's by two and then pray pay um custodial as needed and and in court. So those are your key components in terms of the concerns from the board. If you go to slide number five, what we did were just to show you some of the definitions that were revised some of
the areas and then on slide number six I'm going to specifically now talk about SAG, right? We already showed what they're paying, what they're not paying. So this rules as depicted in slide number six is exactly as is written into the policy or summarized in a way. So
rule number one um rules number one, two and three minor revisions to provide additional clarity. Rules number five and 5A school alli group to specify the following upon consensus meaning they're going to go to the principal they want to use the facility. Then SAG must
document their usage in the system. They shall then sign an application but shall not pay rental utility cost total personnel consumable and provide a COI again during the school's operational hours and nonoperational hours when
conducting their business. The following rules shall also apply when they conducting fundraiser. They shall send an application pay rent not pay rental not pay utility not pay consumable however pay custodial personnel and security as needed and then provide a
COI so again they're not paying the cost they may be paying the they're not paying the fees but they paying like the custodial personnel and those are costs that may be you know needed and then
security because we know security is very important Um also um there's this rule that we all understand SAG is here to benefit our schools. So that's why you're giving them this break. On slide number eight
for PI1 actually for PI PI one and PI 2 shall submit a certificate of um certificate issued by um the you know by public schools. Um
they must again document their their presence, pay reduced rent, provide a COI, reduced rent is $300 a year. They qualify for the one time if that inind must provide an inind that
provides at least 50% such as membership, tutoring or programs that benefit the student who's going to participate. Pay cost to cost the only way required by school principal. pay uh for personnel as in court and then pay for security then shall not pay for utilities and shall not pay for
consumables. PI 2 which is on slide number 10 when it conducts its business it shall again send an application paid reduced which is 50% and then 50% based on the value
of what the product you're giving to the district and then they qualify for the 50% again if the initial cost equates to 50% of the value they're providing. They pay utility only after normal operational hours and are non-school
days, consumables, custodial uh fees, personnel as in court and then security. And that's PI two. And PI two is mainly the nonprofits, organization, civil groups. And then on slide 11, based on the meeting we had, we listened and we
struck out the 501c3. Doc um schoolboard members Zim and you had suggested that. So we listened, we took it out. So now the nonprofit and the uh 501c3 it kind of joined together but again the definition and the policy kind of
accounts for the differencing between both and then we deleted again 501 I mean um you know rule 5e and then made some minor revisions the rest of the policy. So slide number 12 we just wanted to
give you a very brief summary on the different groups that currently utilize facilitron. As you know, facilitron is the software or instrument that we're using to pretty much enable the rental of our facility. So, all the um 25
entities that are listed including the big six, big seven school districts are listed that use utilize facilitron. Um Palm Beach County is actually transitioning. Marian County is transitioning to facilitron. And then there's approximately 399 entities you
know um utilizing facility United States pretty much that's the presentation um in the appendix we just have the the actual structure on the line. So where we are right now on slide number 13 um facilitron is going to give us a
quick demo. Um before they do that real quick I just want to go to slide number 14. In actuality for data those are the percentages of users um that are utilizing our facility. So if as you can see in both 202425
the majority of category of users is nonprofit. Um as you see in 2025 so far you don't have the SAG. Now depends on what happens with the policy
then that may further diminish. Okay. So, I just wanted to point out this data. So, these are data that we pulled off from the system. So, I'm going to go um to um turn it over to Facilitron. They're going to give us a quick demo on how you can utilize the facility.
Thank you. Um just a real quick background about who we are. Technology company started uh 11 and a half years ago really uh tackling community use of facilities. I have three kids all pretty active um and we were going to different
sporting activities. My daughter's a dancer so we'd go to theaters and found the process was pretty broken a lot of times paper uh applications andor antiquated software. So the idea was hey can we fix this for admins as well as
improve the renter experience. Uh since then we've expanded uh across the country. We do work orders. We do uh building automation. We uh do inspection profiles. Um even collect property taxes in a couple states uh on behalf of uh
different school districts and counties. Um so what we're going to show you right now is what we call our scheduling and reservation system. Um, obviously we build a what we do is we build a district site. Part of this is what we're going to see today is you're going to see pictures of the rentable facilities, but keep in mind on the back
end we list all of your facilities. So it can be managed from an internal purpose so you know who's on campus at what time, how your buildings are being utilized. So if you do need a bond measure or a parcel tax or justification for another gym, you can actually compare and contrast what's happening at
your different sites. Um, so we build a district site. We also build individual school sites. So if you are the Girl Scout at an elementary school, you don't have to go searching uh through a district website. You can go directly to the school site, have a link, and search for the classroom or cafeteria right
then and there. Jen's going to search for a gym here or a facility. Yeah, you can go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Um, thank you so much, Jeff. So, as Jeff mentioned, we um come out our implementation team as part of the onboarding process. Um we build out each
of your school sites. So, if you have a renter organization that knows which school they want to rent at, they can select that school directly from our site. Um I should also mention that our website does link directly from your Broward County school um public schools
facility page. Um, and so if they know which school they want to go to, they can select it. Or if they're just interested in renting um, a gym, for example, in the district, they can search for a gym, and that's going to bring up all of the gyms that are available for rent um, within your
school district. Um, so once they find which gym they want to rent, they can go ahead and pull it up. Um, so we take 360 photos of some of your interior spaces. Um and then um this is a 360 photo of the high school gym. And then we also
take several other photos. So this is really to reduce that back and forth questions from the renter organizations to your school admins asking what does the facility look like? What amenities come along with it? What is the capacity? So we collect all of those details as we walk through your campus.
And you'll notice here to the right is an availability calendar. Um so it shows the first date that is available is October 8th and so this really shows that um the gradeout uh dates obviously are not available and the ones that are
lighter shades of green have more availability. So keep in mind as Jeff mentioned this is after school hours when your um school groups are not using um their different facilities for internal use also to block off
availability. Facilitron really encourages as a best practice to put in all of your internal schedules so that when a renter is looking to rent a facility, they just see the dates and times that are actually available. So here I'll just go ahead and select um
Friday um and the dates that I'm interested in using. I will continue and add that one date to my cart. At this time the system prompts you so you can add additional facilities for rent. So, if you're a church organization, for example, and you want to rent multiple
facilities out of campus, um you can go ahead and do that or you can just continue with the dates that you requested for that one facility and check out. At this time, this is the application page. Um so, it represents which organization I am with um and what
type of event it is. So, we'll say basketball. And that's really important because what you guys just went through with all of the different rate categories is something we can accommodate. So, if you're not supposed to get charged during the week, um, or maybe not charged at all, but on the weekend, you
have to pay for utilities and custodial, that's all customizable and by rate group and rate categories, and those are unlimited. So, we can accommodate literally every special case uh as possible. Uh, same thing with the COI, certificate of insurance.
So, all of these questions um were requested that we add to our website. Um, and these can always be modified and we can ask different questions on a per facility basis. So if you would like to ask different questions for your gyms, for your fields, for your classrooms,
um, Facilitron is very easily accommodate those requests. Um, so I'm just going here through the checkout process. I'll go ahead and continue. Um, the next page is um, the insurance page. So um, your renters can view your
district insurance requirements. Keep in mind, Facilitron does do all of the um verification of insurance. So, we have AI technology that initially scans the document um and kicks it back to the renter if there's anything wrong with it. So, if they have a typo in the
district name, if they forget the additional insured page, if their limits aren't accurate, um then we will kick that back to them asking them to update or upload um a new certificate of insurance. We also link directly to an example of what that insurance needs to
look like. This is very important because oftentimes renters don't know what the insurance um document needs to have um according to your district policy. Every district is a little bit different in terms of their requirements. So that's really important for them to be able to view that. Um and
then also um on this page you'll notice um the dates and times that are confirmed um for rental to the right here we have the capability of adding mandatory services as Chris mentioned or optional services. So for your district
for renting the gym um on this date there is an energy cost that goes along with that. So, we automatically add those prices to the checkout process so that when the renter does submit the request, it's as accurate as possible. Again, all according to your board
policy. Facilitron does not set the rates. Um, we just update according um to the direction of your um district and board. So, here's where I have to agree to your district terms and conditions prior to checking out. And then finally,
the last page is uh the payment page. So, Facilitron does all of the collection of payments. Um, your renters have the opportunity to pay with a credit card, with an echek just to really make it as easy as possible. Um, we can also take direct deposits um
upfront and then once I um go ahead and submit the request, it'll go through a routing process where um the district will have to approve the reservation and the renter gets an email confirmation that the request has been submitted, but
it's still awaiting approval from the district. So, this is the community-f facing side. This is how your endusers submit a request through the system. Anything else to add? I think let's go to questions. Okay.
Uh yeah, at this point we can take any questions. Can I um let just to add something in the presentation? Um there's ongoingly weekly tutorials for our internal staff from facilitron. So the goal is to create a
video on our website for external users again to continually help the public understand the system. So, I just want to point it out and we noted it in the um on the slide number 11. Thank you. Any board members have questions on
the presentation or on the policy itself? Are we We're solely talking about the policy today, not the contract. Right. This is just about the policy. I want to say thank you for the demo though. It's nice. Yes. Thank you.
Thanks for that. I mean it's clearly more of a it has far more functionalities than we were aware of before and u you know that's a good thing to know. Thank you Mrs. Bulman. Number five.
So when we did the banner policy, which I can't remember what the number is right off the top of my head, 1930 1930, we re um we revised the partner and education definition.
So I think that it should be mirrored here because this is a little bit odd like B doesn't make any sense. So if you if you go back and look at what that says, I think that would be the more acceptable definition for that since we already approved it in the other one.
Through the superintendent uh chair, go ahead. Absolutely. And we are finalizing policy 1930 again with legal. So we have updated that language and it's timely that we'll be able to incorporate it in there. Okay, cool.
And then just in my overarching comments for this, I don't I don't know that it's ever really been the program. It's just to make sure that the policy is doing what it's supposed to do so that we're not alienating our
sex and other community members. I I've said this at every um every workshop and meeting we've had, but as long as we're finally accomplishing that, and I mean, I guess we could bring it back if we had to if we find that that's not the case, but um that's the goal.
Thank you. Thank you. Any other board members with questions on the policy? Landon, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, one part on the technology side, just a recommendation or actually more of a
question because it may be something that's already in place. Is there the ability for Facilitron to integrate with an internal school calendar? Because a lot of the feedback I'm hearing from uh school level administrators, you know, they run a very complex uh at the high
school level internal calendar that may be done on Office 365 or through SharePoint and they're having to manually cross reference. So is there the ability for that integration to be created and if there is I think that's something our administrators would love.
Yeah, we have that capability. So we can um best practice is to put it in facilitron and we can push out to Google Microsoft Ical feeds. We also have an open API so we can pull the information. Typically our reservations uh or schedules have a lot more details because we're assigning services or
utilities or whatever that may be. Um so that's kind of the best practice. Okay. But we can accommodate that with trainings and however we need to do it. Thank you. But if I may, the idea is for Facilitron to become the district calendar and be
the school calendar too. And that way that from the district level or from any level, they can see what's going on at the different schools right now. That visibility is is is is not the district doesn't have the that v visibility. And
so yeah, if if you are uh an individual school, you can only see your stuff, but if you're uh the district, you can see every school. And I think that's a that would be something that the district would want. That just to uh piggyback on what he's saying, that that's exactly correct. In
other school districts I've worked in, that the visibility of the calendar was facilit. But um uh your team and um Mr. Davis's team can figure out how we make that an easy process for our school leaders to get that information into Facilitron.
Correct. And and and and the pushing of of the calendar is kind of a convenience. So it's like if you're not a big you don't have a real reason to use Facilitron, but you still are using a calendar to see what's going on, you can, you know, subscribe to the calendar and you can see everything from Facilitron.
Thank you. And then my my last question is just from more feedback I've heard a concern about and there could totally be a a reason behind this. So um it's more of a question of if there is a reason for school advisory councils mainly
being under the definition of a school allied group. Um you know in my mind and I could be wrong for this but in my mind a school advisory council is a function of the school. It's no different than a club of the school is kind of what I, you know, equated it to. Yes, under the
definition of it exists because of the school, but you know, a school advisory council and a PLC are kind of the same thing, you know, and you don't use SIL trying to book a PLC. Um, so I guess is there a reason that a school advisory
council would be subject to the same requirements that another school allied group like a PTO would be? Um, I'm looking at the structure on the Oh, I'm sorry. No, I was about to say go ahead, Mr. I'm sorry. Um, I'm looking at structure. I
think we may have taken it out because it's an internal function of the school. Not in the red line. I'm Yes. Yeah, I know. I know. So, maybe that was just an oversight. So, definitely because I remember we talked about it and it's an an internal part of the school. So, it doesn't belong. So,
we're going to strike it out. Thank you so much. And the staff too. Correct. Same thing. Correct. And thank you for for all the uh work. I want to say as someone who's been part of the public input process that you've done on this. Um it's been really great
to see and I see Miss Dailyy in the back. It's been really great to see the collaboration that's been done. Lots of hours talked about this, but big compliments to Mr. Aabuso, Mr. Chism and Miss Dailyaly for um really being open
to hearing all the feedback about this. Before I go to Dr. Zean, to Landon's first point, I asked about this when Facilitron came to us the other day because I was hearing from principles the issue about their calendar and if
their students were having play practice or something that they wanted to know if there was a way to um approve or disapprove. And the superintendent said that that happens at the area. So we got a kind of a different answer today that something could go through facilitron.
So can you merge those two answers for me? No, I think Landon's questions was about the calendar specific of activities, not about approval or or correct. So once an activity is approved, albeit that may include the region office. Um then once that's
approved then the typically the person the clerk that's assigned to the activities office would enter that into the school's internal calendar. Yeah. So what Landon the question that Landon asked and the answer that they gave is that our calendars our school
calendars are not public facing. Um any nobody in this room has access to a school calendar right now. Right. you have to pick up the phone or email the principal say, "Hey, what's going on this week on your calendar?" You have and so to create more visibility for the public and everybody else to know what's going on and what's available is to
upload their calendars into facilitron. But for your question is more about the approval process and the principles being involved. Not necess not necessarily them approving it, but the idea that there's a way that those two things are seeing each other so that
correct the principal and that the I guess the approval part is because the principal is going to know he would override an outside source using the the auditorium if he knew that it was play
practice on his. But Facilitron may or may not know that like I guess that's what I'm we're saying the same thing. Yes. So um Mr. Davis and Facilitron team can get together to talk all that stuff around technology. So so that information in there
that illustrates sort of the importance of the internal calendar or the internal schedules. If it's in facilitron then the request can't even be made by the public because the availability would be reduced. It would be you know taken away. there's less opport less instances
of somebody even notifying the principal because it's already in there. Because that was the concern that I heard as well that you know they they felt as if they lost the ability to make sure that the students were getting the use of that facility over somebody that
was going to co pay for it. And and the added benefit is that you end up knowing how many hours of play practice there are or how many that's kind of the goal of the internal stuff is to have utilization data on all the buildings. You've got turf fields or gym floors that you're trying to track how many
hours are on them to see if you're going to, you know, be out of warranty or whatever when knowing when to replace the resurface the gym floor that sort of thing. So the internal stuff can has the potential it's very powerful to give the whole district you know number of hours
on all of the uh after school use. So when what I'm getting out of this is that's something that can be done are we question number one are we going to do it and question number two when would that like what needs to happen for that to occur?
The first the answer to the first question is yes the answer to the second question I'll let uh Mr. Davis and the facilitator team figure that part out. Yeah, we can we can do it fairly fast. And just to put some context on it, the internal schedules um the public can't
see them. They they can see that the facility is blocked, but they can't see actually who's using it. So, um that's number one. And then number two, we also have the capabilities to turn on air or turn on lights when those facilities are being used, which then that's a really
best practice because then you have everything, not maybe during the school day, but everything outside so you know how your buildings are being used. You have the opportunity to save significant energy, um, all of that good stuff. So my question to either Dr. Heburn or Mr. Davis, what what's the next step?
How do we move that into action? We're we're here to help. So we get access I mean it is a process. It is a process to try to get people to move towards putting their internal schedules in like Jeff's saying if you
can have the air if if if the way you get air for your for your event is you got to put it in facilitron suddenly everybody's willing to put it in into facilitron. So there are ways also if there's a schedule you know it's not it can be easier than you think if it's football practices every day from 3:30
to 5:30 until you know December or something that's literally 90 seconds of of putting it in facilitron or if you have your game schedules that kind of thing it is part of what we do the the the schedule can be sent to us and we'll we'll help put it in. So I think that's
what my question is. What what do we need to do? Is that something the school does on its own? What what as a district do you need us to do to get that in motion so that we're So Miss Hixon, they'll they'll they'll get it done. Yeah. Superintendent. Sure. We all understand.
They'll get what needs to be done. Superintendent. Go ahead, Miss Paul. So part of the process is making sure that we u have a solid uh policy and and that's kind of what we're doing the back and forth that
we've gone through so that you know and we'll work with them uh with facilitron to make sure that we have a gradual approach because we have to train people along the way. This is a a culture shift in terms of how we manage our facilities. Uh so
everything is possible. Uh the first step is obviously getting the policy approved. So I'll end with this not to keep pushing the point but I know it can be done but I mean Mr. Agabus um true superintendent just to a memo
went out um from Mrs. P the superintendent to the principles regarding the calendar for them to start putting stuff in facilitron and we also said if they can do it they can send it to us meaning facility plan real estate and then we'll do it. So that process has already started.
Thank you uh Dr. Z. Thanks. And I to to I don't want to keep going too far with the chair's questions, but I think they're really good like in the sense that, you know, we're supposed to represent the community. Community can hear this discussion. We're setting new
expectations for them that they can have this clean, crisp data system that allows them to have access possibly to more and allows us to collect more revenue if in fact we get this right. I think to Miss Hixon's like big point though is that this is a big shift. You
know, having um school schedules has always been an internal school function and now to give that up and to kind of work with the administrators to make sure that they're using good kind of policy rules about, you know, when do you say something's available, when do you say it's not, and not to, you know,
um kind of play games with the data and not to to do things and also just to get this system up and running. And so I think it's totally legitimate for the board to set some expectations and say we want this up by the end of the year or we want it up by January so that like everything's really hum and all the
schedules are in without getting into the details of how it gets done. Uh I still think it's fair to represent the community and say we need this by a certain date and I would encourage us to do that um either on this or other things. I'm curious uh uh maybe Mr.
Aabuso, if a student wants to stay after school while the school uh say this is a a park area that is going to turn over to the community use at 6:00, but they're going to stay after school and and go out to their own that um that amenity is available and
not available, right? So if it's availated to if I pay for an airline seat right when I go book this is open this is not open. So if it's not open then it can't be rented. So if we know in advance meaning the school through the internal
communication that the students because students come first want to use tennis which is one of the wonderful work Mrs. employment is doing, then it's going to be blocked off. Then the student um has the ability to use that facility without
having to bother. So that's the real thing to making sure that date is available or it's not available. So if a student coordinates with the administrator of the school to use their own recreation facilities before it gets turned over for public use,
the principal then could block that off to allow the student uh to use those facilities. Correct. In the same way that a team, you know, a soccer team is practicing every day from 4 to 6, they block the field. Um a
baseball team blocks the baseball field. the basketball or volleyball team blocks the gym, it just shows up in Facilitron is not available and there's no charge to that student. Is that correct? Correct. Because one of the core of this policy say when there's an extracurricular activity then that date
is not available. So it's in policy already and then and again right to the student and Dr. He uh you're committed to that same student first policy that if a student wants to use um a court, wants to use a field, wants to use uh any one
of the traditional kind of recreation facilities, their priority comes first during the day time that it's assigned to students first. Thank you very much. Any other board members? Okay, I think we got it right this time.
Thank you so much. Just want to say thank you to the board and um I I think it's a great collaboration and um always wanting to do do our best, you know, for our wonderful students and community. So, thank you so much. Thank you. And thank you to for um Facilitron for coming out and giving us
that demonstration. I think it it's helpful when we see all the pieces to it so we know all of what it does. So, thank you so much Okay. So, I believe that that was our
last item for today. So, at this time, do any of my colleagues have anything to bring to the board or student success to share? I know that Dr. Holes, I'm not sure if he's on the line. He said he had something he wanted to Do. You know, if Dr.
homelessness. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Go ahead. Um, I just had a question regarding a first aid CPR followup that I had and and it speaks to training that our
students will do online. And I was just wondering because from anytime I was trained with CPR and first aid, it was hands-on in person using mannequins. Are we going to try to use that method possibly, you know, working with our
police or EMS to help do this training to our students or our students? Uh, thanks for the question, uh, Miss Alf. I think uh I think the the followup that I saw was speaking to more of the training for the teachers and the
students are doing it hands-on in a health or a PE class. I've read it quickly, so I may have misread, but that's what I thought I got out of it is that the teachers get the training um on our platform online and
then they're training the kids um hands-on in in health or PE. Okay. I guess if you can just double check that um because there's a lot of training through that link
and then yeah I just I would like to see our experts in the medical field do the training and then you know it seems like a big lift for our teachers to have to do this unless they're trained to do it.
Yeah. I think uh I can't quote me on this but I think majority of them are trained to do this. I know as a kid I got trained CPR from my PE teacher and um I've uh observed classes where PE teachers or health teachers are training kids on CPR either um in the gym in a
large area or even in the classroom setting. Um and I know we have we partner with um forgot the organization actually gives us the physical um um mannequins. Yeah. Mannequin type devices to train the students in the classrooms also. Right. Because I was just wondering too
like do we even have the the mannequins? Do we have the equipment to even do this? Yes. Thank you. Yes. American Heart Association. That's what thanks Dr. Wanza. Thank Yes. And they always are here to help us to if we need more they will supply us with more because we had a meeting with them a few weeks ago.
Dr. Zean. Thanks real quick. Uh chair uh really excited next week. uh our investment in um virtual reality with AI baked in where's two teacher institutes next week. They're going to train hundreds of our teachers on how to take full
advantage of this technology. Uh when we get done with that teacher institute, uh I'd love for the board to think a little bit about what our expectations are for that program for this year so that we set expectations with the superintendent for uh that investment, the speed with which we'd like it implemented, and the
outcomes that we're looking for. I just don't want any surprises at the end of the year uh to make such an investment. We're the first district in the United States to buy more than 50,000 students worth of headsets. And so this spatial learning with AI baked in is going to be
exciting. Uh but I just think as a board we should be very clear about what we're looking at, what we're trying to measure uh to make sure that we implement it uh in the right way for next year. Thanks so much, Chair. Thank you, Dr. Holes. Mr. Can you hear me? Okay.
Yes. Go ahead, Dr. Holmes. Okay. Thank you. Um I just want to uh Madam Chair, you can still hear me, correct? Yes, sir. Okay. So, just want to say um uh a big shout out to Mirror Lake Elementary
School. I'm actually I was wearing Mirror Lake Elementary t-shirt today, spirit shirt. Um it is with great joy, pride, and heartfelt appreciation that I extend my sincere congratulations to Principal Biz on her welldeserved retirement.
After an incredible 27 years of dedicated service to Bor County Public Schools, including 11 impactful years as the beloved leader of Mirror Lake Elementary, Principal Belise is closing this chapter with a legacy that will be remembered for years to come. Under her
leadership, Mirror Lake Elementary has thrived as a place where children are not only educated but truly nurtured. So, I want to thank uh Principal Biz for her leadership and her dedication. And I want to also give a big shout out to the wonderful AP, Miss Havz. Uh, thank you
for um Thank you, Ch. Appreciate it. Thank you. And I think we all would concur and congratulate her on her retirement. Mrs. Rubert. Yes. I'm sorry. Uh, I didn't get a chance to ask um how come the item was withdrawn today. Item six.
Mrs. Bati, Miss Batista. Um I believe there will there will be additional information provided for that item at the next time when it when it comes to the board. So it needed to be have it needed to have more information. Well, I think it's it's a pretty dense
policy um because it follows the statute. It's very technical in nature. Um so we're preparing a flowchart to help um understand better the time the time frames that are spelled out in the policy when it's supposed to be
advertised and so on and so forth. Okay. So where when can we expect it? Um I believe um next month but I think Andre will be better. I just want to get you the right dates,
October 21st. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And I have one last thing. I got an email from a student says his name is Julian. I'm a senior at Monarch High School and I was prompted I was prompted a project by my government
teacher to take a civic civic civil action. Uh me and my group decided to take an action on the Broward County school uniform policy policy 5309 and they're advocating to make um uniforms countywide. So I just I told them that I
would bring it to my colleagues. So, I'm bringing it to you to see would you be um willing to have this policy come back so we could have a discussion on it. So, is that okay with everybody? Yeah. Do a survey first.
Survey from the district. Okay. How about if we do a direct the superintendent to do a survey of the parents? So, um last time. Yes. So just to clarify the survey last time and the reason I I I didn't want to
bring that forth is there was no disqualifier in the survey. So it didn't um ask the parents uh about I can't remember the specifics but it was no disqualifier in the survey. So the survey data was pretty moot um and it
wouldn't um support any decision- making for the board when we um did that survey. Um I think that was about a year and a half ago. So can we bring a workshop and have that data correct? So we can develop a survey u with the sim team. Make sure there's a disqualifier in there for so you get
accurate information that can drive some board decision. Okay. Thank you. Okay, chair. Yes. Do we know what we're covering in workshops the next couple months? Uh I don't know if we got an updated I know you got one for September and
October um that we sent out. I think that was about two weeks ago. Mr. the Hill. I don't know if you have that in front of you. Yes, superintendent. That is correct. October was already provided to the board at the last workshop. Yeah. And how about the one after for November? We can provide that um
ASAP. And going forward, can we just make this part of the routine and wrapping up workshops? I mean, we've said that we're going to talk about the next two months of workshops in concurrence. I know it was included inside of 1020. So when we bring 1020 back inside of um
for at the October 14 board meeting that will be written in that that would then be the practice of the board. Yeah. And then just a question for the board. How do how would you want that? Would you want us just uh print that out because normally I think so. No email I would
and I would say just in the script that because we do in our policy it does say that we would go over it maybe end the script with the upcoming workshops will include for the next month or just the next workshop itself. It said policy says the next two workshops.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That way we'll get so you can add it and then we don't have to print it. We can just say it out loud and then they can email it to us. Yeah. Totally. is I mean just my point is are we talking about the budget in the next two workshops? Is it on the schedule?
October 7th. Yep. October 7th. Yeah. Okay. Anybody else? Great. And I didn't have to ask to extend the scheduled order of business for this schoolboard workshop of the school board of Brower County, Florida
has been completed. Seeing no obligation, I now adjourn the meeting. And remember, next week we don't have a meeting. So, the next one will be October 7th. Enjoy the week off. [Music]
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