Fiscal Accountability and Government Relations Committee - Regular Meeting

Thank you, Board Chair, for leading us through that recognition of all of our state legislators and the amazing work they do for us. So welcome to the Fiscal Accountability and Government Relations Committee meeting for Wednesday, August 5th. I'm now calling the meeting to order. Can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Board Member Blanco? Thank you.

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.

If we can please stay standing for a moment of silence. In line with our moment of silence that we just had, I wanted to recognize Board Member Espino who wanted to share some news and take a moment of personal privilege. So you're recognized, Board Member Espino.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Everyone, I want to just share some tragic news that affected one of our schools. Earlier this morning, I was called to be advised that the school resource officer, which is a city of Doral police officer for one of our district-managed schools, which happens to be my kid's school, downtown Rural Charter, lost his life suddenly, tragically this morning. So we can have a moment.

That school has been the school that's been rocked by the two children that died in a car accident, the murder-suicide that was done earlier.

And so that community was reeling at the end of the school year, recovering in the summer, and now to have this tragedy, and the officer's kids actually even go to that school. We just have a moment of silence for him, please. Officer Erwin Fernandez. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. We'll remember Spino, and we'll keep his family and your community in our prayers. Before we get started, I'd like to state that... Bring it all down, John.

What the hell? That is crazy. Do you want me to check your mics? I don't know why that happened. Okay. Do you want me to check if one of our mics is on?

We will pause for a minute because it seems like there's some static coming in from the back. Okay, I think we sound better now. All right, so as we get started with the committee, I'll state the committee's membership. You have myself, Roberto Alonso, as chair. You have Board Member Espino as vice chair, Ms. Luisa Santos as a member, Mr. Joseph Geller as a member, Dr. Dorothy Bendos Mendigo as an alternate member, and Board Member Blanco as an alternate member. Our first order of business is to approve the minutes of Wednesday, July 15th, 2026, Fiscal Accountability and Government Relations Committee meeting. Are there any questions or concerns from my fellow board members?

Move it.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

The next order of business is to move the e-items to the floor. May I get a motion to move them? All in favor?

Aye.

Okay. Looks like we're going to have a quick one this week, so. Mr. Goodman, you're up first and you're the only one up with E86 through E89.

Good morning. E86 through E89 were discussed at the July 28th ABAC meeting extensively. E86 is the district's audit plan for this current fiscal year.

Any questions or comments? Next.

E87 is 65 school audits.

Questions or comments? Seeing none, next.

E88 are 210 property audits. Seeing no questions or comments, next one. And finally, E89 is the planning communication for our new external auditors, which that audit is currently in process.

Any questions or comments, fellow board members? Okay, seeing none, all E items have now been discussed. We thank you, Mr. Goodman, for your quick review of them. We will now take a motion to recommend all the E items to the board meeting of August 11th. All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, the next order of business to move the H items to the floor. Can I get a motion? Move it.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Okay, our only H item is H10, and that's by board member Espino. Sir, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Colleagues, we've talked about marketing our schools. extensively in order to not only showcase what each one of them is doing, but also to be part of our recruitment plan for teachers and students alike. We've been looking at, and we have policies on the books that establishes a number of practices that are tailored to their schools, such as brochures, automated communications, open houses. We're looking at holistically social media policies and schools, century school planning, as Board Member Santos' item proffered recently. But this item looks to build on that by working to examine whether principals should have a little bit greater flexibility and resources to support the communication. Our districts are very different. The communities within our districts are very different. The school offerings in each one of those are very different. I can tell you that, for example, with the new 612 preparatory that we're launching next week, actually, for the first time, the academies within that school have become very popular, going to the point where sort of highlighting the robotics classes or the medical classes that are doing there have really been a driving force for some of those middle school kids. So seeing the success of that, I wondered whether or not there is room within our policies to potentially afford principals a little bit greater flexibility in being able to communicate with their communities, the communities that they know as the community leaders that they are, We think they're uniquely positioned to understand their schools and their communities and distinguish their campuses and the merit that they advance. So this item is just an exploratory item, which directs the superintendent to review the authority, flexibility, tools, data, training, staffing, funding, communication, support, and other resources currently available to principals to market and promote their schools. Obviously, there's a lot of recommended actions, but they're really just items against which this policy could be reviewed, especially in light of some of the things that we're doing. So just an exploratory item to see what we can do as we all work to advance our schools as a district, but also individually. Any questions, I'll have an answer.

Thank you so much, Board Member Espino. I see that Board Chair Rojas has a question or comment.

No, just a comment. Thank you, and thank you for the item, Board Member Espino. I think it's a very good item, and we'll wait to see what the outcome is after the exploratory process has been completed. So at the proper time, I'd like to co-sponsor. Thank you.

Thank you. Vice Chair Colucci, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Board Member Espino. I really like this item a lot. I'm in support of it. I think it's critical at this time where we are facing enrollment decline and that the principals have that autonomy to be able to go out and, since they understand their communities, to be able to market and brand their schools. So I'm in full support and I would like to co-sponsor at the appropriate time.

Board Member Blanco.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the maker of the item, Board Member Espino. Not only is it timely, we're living in a time where most people get their news, get all of their information from social media. And some of our schools excel at it, and some of our schools maybe just don't have the skill set. So including not just the autonomy, but giving them the support. to ensure that every school has the ability to use this as a tool to highlight their things was something that I really appreciated in the item. So appropriate time to co-sponsor, thank you.

Thank you so much, and thank you Board Member Espino as well for bringing this item. We all know that marketing and the social media world is where everybody gets their news nowadays. I actually want to compliment a lot of our schools that I've actually been seeing on my feed coming up as they're coming back with administrators sharing the news, that they're excited to see our students that come back. But as it was said by Board Member Blanco, not every school has the resources or the talent needed to be able to run these exercises. I mean, there's a lot of tools out there nowadays that are available to us, thanks to the strength of AI and other feature sets that are out there. that can even build those campaigns. I think it's something the district can look at as we start to build this out through our communications teams to give each school then the ability to build out their own little marketing plan and social media campaigns because it's important. That's really what sells in today's world. People don't watch the news like we used to, so I think this is a great item, and I really look forward to hearing staff come back with what their vision is and how we can incorporate this. So without any further comments from the board, do we have any co-sponsors?

Move it.

Okay, all in favor?

Aye.

Okay, now to approve the item as amended to go to our board meeting.

Move it.

Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay, that now concludes all of our H items. We'll now take a motion to move our H items to the board meeting of August 11th.

Move it. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, we now have contract extension report. I know that Ms. Mumford sends that out monthly to everybody on the board. Does anybody have any questions or comments needed of this?

No.

None?

Sir, it looks like you're going to win today.

I'm trying. Legislative update. We just had an incredible morning. I know right now we're off session. Any questions or comments for Mr. Uli Weyer? Yes, you're recognized.

Thank you. Not a question at this point. First and foremost, just congratulations for the outstanding job that you have done. I know this was your, you know, not your area of expertise. You hit the ground running, and you and your team, because it's all of you working together collaboratively to make it happen, but you truly have done a wonderful job. Mr. Superintendent, thank you for your choice. in putting Mr. Uyivari on the job. So he's proven to be very productive and very successful. And so congratulations to you and your entire team. And it was evident this morning when we had the delegation here how pleased they have been with Miami-Dade County Public Schools. So thank you very much.

Thank you. All right, thank you. And I echo those same sentiments. Everything I heard from every state representative, every senator, is the great work that you've done out there, Mr. Olivari. So keep up the good work. That was the past. Now we move on to the present. So we have a session coming up pretty soon. So thank you. With no other update coming from staff, now we'll open up a new board business item from any board members. Yes, board member Spina. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is for the administration, if I may. I don't know where we are with the insurance contract, but I wondered whether or not the issues, not necessarily the calculation error, that was just the tabulation error, but there were issues brought up in the finalist review if those issues were going to be addressed before the contract was signed. Mr. Superintendent, you're recognized.

Thank you. Mr. Espino, I'll have to follow up with you on that. Okay. Okay, so I'll speak to Ron and we'll give you a follow-up, sir. Perfect. Thanks.

Any further questions or comments? So with that, I think I hold the record for today. This exhausts today's agenda. If there's no further discussion, I move to adjourn today's committee meeting. All those in favor?