Attendence Boundary Committee - Regular Meeting

good morning it's 9 30 so we have quorum so we're gonna start the meeting so please take your seats and i want to number one say good morning to all of you thank you for for coming thank you to the board members for being here and also for attending as many community meetings as all of you attended want to thank you also the members of the community that are present to be able to speak today for your involvement as parents in and in this process that is so important for the well-being of our community and our school system with that i would like to be able to pass the meeting to miss tracy abner for some instructions thank you

Good morning everyone, and I would definitely like to echo Mr but as sentiments and thank you all for your attendance at the Community meetings last month. We had a record number of meetings as this process has evolved we've included all of the advice schools, as well in our Community meetings and all of the schools that are impacted by the moves. and we had amazing attendance and amazing participation and I really can't thank you enough for your support. We will begin with introductions and then I will defer back to Mr. Barea to continue with the process. So Tracy Abner, Assistant Superintendent, the Office of School Leadership and Performance and I oversee this process. And we'll start on this end and just kind of work our way around and what we're going to ask is that district staff and ABC members only are a part of the introductions. And when you come to the microphone, if you are going to speak for your two minutes at the end, that you state your name just so that we'll have everything on the record. So we're asking for ABC members and district staff to be introduced as part of our records. So we'll start on that end.

Good morning. John I. Felice, Associate General Counsel.

Good morning, Carla Sejas, Associate General Counsel.

Good morning, Eddie Varela, representing Maritere Rojas and your chair for this moment.

Good morning, everyone. Dr. Michael Lewis, Deputy Superintendent, School Leadership and Performance.

Good morning, Yesenia Ponte, North Region Superintendent.

Good morning, I'm Brenda Swain, Central Region Office Superintendent. Good morning, Rafael Villalobos, South Region Superintendent.

Good morning, Betty Pereira, representing Mary Blanco, Board Member.

Good morning, George Garcia, representing the Superintendent. Thank you.

Good morning, Alfred Billings, representing the Superintendent. Hello, Jeffrey Cudayo, representing the Superintendent.

Good morning. My name is Beverly Heller and I represent superintendents panel for children with exceptionalities.

Good morning. Rhonda Smith representing the superintendent.

Good morning. My name is Nina Hosseini and I am representing district nine Louisa Santos.

Good morning. Krista Dotson Dean representing the superintendent. Good morning.

Carolyn Nelson Goedert, representing Miami-Dade County Council Parent Teacher Association.

Good morning. Beverly Nixon, alternate, representing Dorothy Vendross Mendingall.

Good morning. Amor Reyes, representing the superintendent. Crystal Coffey, representing the superintendent.

Good morning. Angelica Ballestas, representing school board member Danny Spino.

Good morning. Regina Davis represent Dorothy, Dr. Dorothy Ben draw some Indigo.

Good morning. Jade Pita, teleprado representing school board member, Louisa Santos.

Good morning, Dr. Hernandez representing.

Good morning. Better than a Cabrera enterprise development.

Good morning, Tiffany Pauling, Strategy Office.

Good morning, Robin Atkins, Administrative Director, South Region Office.

Good morning, Leonard Torres, Administrative Director, North Region Office. Good morning, Manny Garcia, Administrative Director, Central Region Office.

Good morning, Dorona Phillips, Central Region Office.

Good morning, all. This is Beth Gonzalez, North Region Office.

Good morning, everyone. Tracy Cruz, Enrollment Officer.

Good morning, everyone.

Daniel Oladipo, District Demographer.

Any other district staff in the room?

Good morning, Denise Castillo with Facilities.

Good morning, Alex Ramirez with Strategic Planning.

Erlene Funes, School Leadership Performance, Administrative Assistant.

Thank you, everyone. Mr. Barea.

Thank you. Well, we'll start with the presentations of superintendents, but let me just... I hope that you brought a piece of paper and a pen. The presentation is a little long. So, in order for us to be able to move this meeting as efficiently as possible, i would like all of you if you have any questions to please write them down and before we um go ahead and and start uh asking questions to staff. And we'll do that at the end of the presentations and the public will speak later. Now, I would like to be able to move the approval of the minutes of our last meeting, please. Can I hear someone? Do I hear a second? Very good. All in favor say aye. Aye. The minutes have been approved.

Okay.

And so no region to the bullpen.

Good morning. Through the chair, Mr. Arriba Herrera, it is my pleasure to be here this morning representing the North Region Office. I would like to thank the Attendance Boundary Committee members for your dedication and commitment throughout the ABC process, and most importantly, for your support during our January community meetings. I also want to extend my appreciation to my amazing team, Mr. Leonard Torres, administrative director, and Ms. Liz Gonzalez, who have assisted me throughout this process. The North Region Office held five community meetings throughout the month of January, two for targeted schools and three for advised schools. During each of these meetings, we had meaningful dialogue and addressed many valid concerns. I would like to present the North Region recommendations at this time. The North Region held a community meeting for Parkway Elementary and Norland Elementary on January 7, 2026. It was well attended with about 65 attendees. It's important to note that Parkway Elementary was advised status school during the 24-25 school year. Last school year, we held a community meeting for their school on January 8th, 2025, which had about 36 attendings. During that meeting, the community was notified of their advised status and the importance to increase student enrollment. This slide highlights the Parkway Elementary attendance boundary, and the little dots are the elementary age students living in the boundary. As of December, 2025, Parkway Elementary's boundary consists of 321 elementary age students. However, only 129 students, which equals about 40% of students living within the boundary attend Parkway Elementary. And about 9%, which is 28 students, attend Norlin Elementary. So where are these students that live within this boundary attending? An analysis of the Parkway Elementary School boundary reveals that a majority of the students opt to attend other public schools within the district. This trend is given largely by Miami-Dade County Public Schools being a choice district, which empowers families to select programs that best align with their individual preferences outside of their home zone schools. This slide highlights the Norland Elementary boundary. As of December, 2025, Norland Elementary's boundary consists of 892 elementary age students. 352 students attend Norland Elementary School and only five students from Norland choose to attend Parkway Elementary. This data serves as a primary catalyst for the North region recommendation. Furthermore, it highlights a clear trend. Families within the Norlin boundary show little interest in selecting Parkway as their school of choice. Over the past five years, Parkway Elementary has seen a steady decline in enrollment, dropping from 258 students in the 2019-2020 school year to 142 students as of August 26, 2025. This trend is underscored by the data in the right-hand side of the chart, which highlights a significant gap between the incoming and exiting cohorts. While the school saw 26 fifth graders move on, it enrolled only 15 new kindergarten students, falling short of the annual goal to match or exceed the size of exiting class. Furthermore, with the current pre-K class consisting of only 11 students, the data suggests that the kindergarten enrollment for the upcoming school year may remain low. It is essential to recognize and commend the school for its proactive efforts to boost enrollment and respond to community feedback. Following the input gathered during last year's community meeting, the school successfully established a gifted program with a dedicated teacher and expanded gifted testings and opportunities. To further strengthen the school-home connection, the administration worked with the parents to reinstate the PTSA and hosted popular events such as Father in Education Day, Muffins for Moms, and various student performances. Additionally, the school has enriched the student experiences by introducing new clubs, sports, and dances, while maintaining its commitment to providing reliable aftercare programming for all families. Yet, despite their efforts, student enrollment trends continue to reflect a decline. Therefore, due to the ability to conduct a viable educational program, the following recommendations are proposed. to dissolve the current boundary for Parkway Elementary School, combine the boundaries of Norland Elementary School and Parkway Elementary School, and establish new boundaries for Norland Elementary School. Norland Elementary School is about 1.1 miles away from Parkway Elementary School building, but the entire Parkway boundary is within two miles from Norland Elementary. This map is a map of both boundaries, Parkway Elementary and Norlin. Area A represents the current boundary for Parkway Elementary. Area B represents the current boundary for Norlin Elementary. AB represents the proposed new boundary for Norlin Elementary. Current boundaries. These are the assigned directions for the current boundary for Parkway Elementary. This is the recommended boundaries, proposed boundaries now for Norlin Elementary School. The effects, beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, new boundaries will be established for Norland Elementary School to include the Parkway Elementary School boundary A. All K through five students residing in area A will be assigned to Norland Elementary. Approximately 106 rising 1st through 5th grade students currently attending Parkway Elementary and residing at Area A will be assigned to Northern Elementary School. Nine residing 1st through 5th grade students attending Parkway Elementary but residing outside of the school boundary will have the option to attend Northern Elementary School or previously assigned elementary schools based on their home residence. Norlin Elementary will have new boundaries. Middle school boundaries will remain the same. High school boundaries will remain the same. This concludes the North Region recommendations for Parkway Elementary.

We will now have Ms. Sharon Kerr presenting the community recommendation.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Sharon Kerr, and I am proudly and I say proudly served at Parkway Elementary since 1993. Prior to that, I worked as a substitute teacher there, and I was also a para. Parkway is just not my workplace. It has been my professional home for over three decades. Over the years, I have witnessed many changes, including adjustments to our attendance boundaries due to increased enrollment and population growth. Today, we are here, I'm here, we are here to present thoughtful recommendations to expand our current boundaries in order to increase our student enrollment. Okay. Start from the slides. Okay. Community recommendations. Okay, I'm gonna start from mine. Can I? Okay. Start there. Okay. Community recommendations. Due to the declining enrollment at Parkway Elementary School, the following recommendations is proposed to expand the current boundaries of Parkway Elementary School to adjust the current boundaries of Norland Elementary School to combine a proportion of Parkway Elementary boundary and the Norland Elementary boundary to establish new boundaries for Parkway Elementary and Norland Elementary. So here we have our proposed boundaries for Parkway. Don't, okay. All right, don't read that. So the next slide is talking about the community recommendation effects. New boundaries will be established for both Parkway and Norlin Elementary. And an additional 42 rising first through fifth grade students will be transferred to Parkway Elementary from Norlin. The impact to these students will be less with the new proposed boundaries. 42 students in comparison of 142 students. There will be no impact of transportation. Thank you for this opportunity for us to present our proposal.

Moving on, thank you, Ms. Kerr. The North Region Office held community meetings for Rainbow Park Elementary, Bunch Park Elementary, and Dr. Robert Ingram Elementary on January 13th, 2026. It was well attended with about 54 attendees. It is important to note that Rainbow Park Elementary was also an advised status school during the 24-25 school year. Last school year, we held two community meetings for the school on August 7th and July 9th. During those meetings, the community was notified of the school's advised status and the importance to increase student enrollment. This slide highlights the Rainbow Park Elementary attendance boundary. As of December 2025, Rainbow Park Elementary's boundary consists of 298 elementary age students. However, only 105 students, which equals to 35% of the students living within the boundary attend Rainbow Park Elementary. An analysis of the Rainbow Park Elementary attendance boundary reveals that the majority of local students opt for other public schools within the district. As previously noted, this is a trend largely driven by Miami-Dade County Public Schools being a choice district, which allows families to select programs outside of their home school zone. Specifically, the data shows that a portion of the student population has shifted to neighboring schools. 19 students, which is about 6%, currently attend Dr. Robert Ingram, while 14, 5% are enrolled at Bunch Park Elementary. These are the primary influence behind forthcoming region recommendations. Over the past five years, Rainbow Park Elementary has experienced a consistent downward trend in enrollment, decreasing from 254 students in the 2019-2020 school year to 138 students as of August 26. As illustrated in the slide, this decline is driven by a significant cohort gap where incoming classes are not large enough to replace the graduating students. For example, while 26 fifth graders exited the school, only 19 new kindergarten students were enrolled, failing to meet the annual goal of matching or exceeding the size of departing classes. This challenge is expected to persist as current pre-K enrollment of only 13 students forecasts another potentially low enrollment kindergarten class for the upcoming school year. It is essential to commend the school for its proactive efforts to boost enrollment and its responsiveness to community feedback. Following the input gathered during last year's community meetings, the school significantly expanded its branding and marketing initiatives. This included high visibility wraps for magnet and specific areas, a refreshed cafeteria stage, a new step and repeat banner, and an updated school website. Furthermore, recruitment and engagements have been strengthened through the introduction of an approved free after-school program, an increased social media presence, and enhanced parent outreach via ClassDojo and Student of the Week recognition. Parental involvement has also seen marked increase through monthly meetings, regular PTSA meetings, and daily Title I outreach. However, despite these extensive efforts, student enrollment trends continue to show a steady decline. consequently due to this ongoing trend and the challenges of maintaining a viable educational program at current levels the following recommendations are proposed Dissolve the current boundary for Rainbow Park Elementary. Divide the Rainbow Park Elementary School boundary between Bunch Park Elementary and Dr. Robert B. Ingram Elementary using Northwest 27th Avenue as a dividing line. Establish new boundaries for Bunch Park and Dr. Robert B. Ingram Elementary. Bunch Park Elementary is less than one mile away. Sorry, Rainbow Park Elementary is less than one mile away from Bunch Park Elementary School Building and 1.5 miles from Dr. Robert Ingram Elementary School Building. The entire Rainbow Park Elementary boundary is less than two miles from both schools. This map highlights the boundaries of all three schools. A and B represent the current boundary for Rainbow Park Elementary. C represents the current boundary from Bunch Park Elementary. D represents Dr. Robert B. Ingram. Areas A and D represent the proposed new boundary for Dr. Robert Ingram Elementary. B and C areas represent the proposed new boundary for Bunch Park Elementary. These are the current boundaries for rainbow park. These are the current boundaries for bunch park elementary. These are the current boundaries for Robert B Ingram. And these are the recommended boundaries for bunch park elementary. And these are the recommended boundaries for Robert B. Ingram Elementary. The North Region has confirmed with the City of Miami Gardens that crossing guards are stationed along Northwest 22nd Avenue. These guards facilitate the safe commute of the 54 students which currently attend Barnes Park Elementary with specific placements at the intersections of Northwest 22nd Avenue and 158th Street and Northwest 22nd Avenue and 162 Terrace. The effects, beginning with the 26-27 school year, new boundaries will be established for Dr. Robert B. Ingram Elementary to include the west portion of the Rainbow Park Elementary School boundary. All K-5 students residing in area A will be assigned to Dr. Robert B. Ingram Elementary. Approximately 28 rising first through fifth grade students currently attending Rainbow Park Elementary and residing in area A will be assigned to Dr. Robert B. Ingram Elementary School. The Dance Magnet Program will be moved to Dr. Robert B. Ingram Elementary School. Approximately 18 rising first through fifth grade students participating in the dance magnet. 11 from inside the Rainbow Park boundary and seven from outside of the boundary will continue in the program. Beginning with the 26-27 school year, new boundaries would also be established for Bunch Park Elementary to include the east portion of Rainbow Park Elementary boundary. All K through five students residing in area B will be assigned to Bunch Park Elementary. Approximately 63 rising first through fifth grade students currently attending Rainbow Park Elementary and residing in area B will be assigned to Bunch Park Elementary. 16 rising first through fifth grade students attending Rainbow Park Elementary but residing outside of the school boundary will have the choice option to attend Bunch Park, Dr. Robert B. Ingram, or the previously assigned elementary school based on their home residence. Middle school and high school boundaries will remain the same. This concludes the North Region's recommendation for Rainbow Park Elementary.

We will now have a presentation by Ms. Crystal Walker.

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to be here. My name is Crystal Walker and I'm standing here as a parent of a child who is at Rainbow Park Elementary and an alumni myself of Rainbow Park Elementary. So I just wanted to read. Dear Attendance Boundary Committee members, we are writing as families and caregivers from the Rainbow Park Elementary community following the Regent ABC presentation to formally share our response to the proposed repurposing of our school and to outline the conditions that families believe must be met as this process moves forward. Mr. Ponte, thank you for the expansion of the details on what would happen for the magnet program and different things as far as crossing guards and as that nature. We understand the district has cited low enrollment and an inability to provide what is described as a viable program as the basis for the proposal. Families acknowledge these concerns while also asking that a full context of Rainbow Park Elementary be considered, including recent academic improvement, renewed staffing stability, and the school's role as a community anchor. Over the past several years, Rainbow Park has experienced significant leadership turnover, including three principals in a five to six year period. Despite these challenges, the school is now fully staffed for the first time in years. Student performance has improved from PM1 to PM2 assessments, and data trends suggest the school is on track toward a B designation. Family engagement through the PTA is growing and interest in the school's magnet programming has increased, including enrollment from more than 30 students who reside outside of the school's boundary. Rainbow Park Elementary is also home to the only dance and fine arts focused elementary program in the North region. Families are concerned that the proposal does not explain why, and I'm sorry, this was written before it was known that this will go to Robert B. Ingram, but families are concerned that proposal does not explain why opportunities to expand or strengthen these programs were not pursued prior to recommending repurposing, nor what barriers prevented that growth. Families have identified clear goals and priorities for this process. And the best case scenario, including keeping the school open and allowing additional time to improve, supported by shared measurable goals, developed collaboratively with Miami-Dade County Public Schools and leadership and families. If repurposed, the families believe that there is baseline conditions that should be met to protect students, educators, and the community. Student safety must be guaranteed. Although Rainbow Park is just 1.1 miles from Bunch Park, and I think 1.7 miles was stated from Robert B. Ingram, the most eastern point of Rainbow Park's boundary is a 22-minute walk for an elementary age student. That is simply unsafe for an elementary age student. We're asking that possible shuttle buses be provided for the students meeting at Rainbow Park to either be shuttled, I'm not sure, either to Robert B. Ingram or Bunch Park. Educators and staff must be treated with transparency and care to let us know what is going on with the educators because I was able to do a survey of the parents and they love the educators that are at Rainbow Park. The educators are like family and we communicate well with the parents. as we stated before, we want to make sure that there is facilities for the magnet program. Rainbow park has a beautiful dance room. They have a beautiful mute,

Please stick to the slides.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Sorry. Well, I just wanted to let you guys know the background history as to why and what we want to also have you guys think about before you dissolve the boundaries and leave it up to the parents to figure out a way for their kids to get to school. Sorry. Community recommendation, bring awareness to the magnet program. There was videos made. They have not been approved by the school board yet. They have not been able to be released to social media. Possibly transitioning Rainbow Park to a K-8 to increase the number of eligible students to enroll at Rainbow Park. Discussion of SMART goals to increase enrollment. Measurable goals that we can can measure to see if this has helped for the next school year. You said I don't have to read that part, right? Or do I have to? Oh, adjust all boundaries. The east side of 22nd Avenue goes to, oh, this is the boundary part. So yes. So we were talking about the east side of 22nd Avenue going to Rainbow Park Elementary School. So nobody, if anybody knows about that area in Miami Gardens, 22nd Avenue and 27th Avenue is one of the most busiest avenues in the morning and in the afternoon. None of the kids would have to actually cross 22nd Avenue to get to Bunch Park or Robert B. Ingram. The kids that reside in the middle of 22nd Avenue and 27th Avenue would go to Bunch Park Elementary, neither having to cross either of the big avenues. And the kids on the west side of 27th Avenue would stay at Bunch Park Elementary. I mean, Robert Ingram Elementary, excuse me. So we believe that this will increase the amount of eligible families within the Rainbow Park Elementary School boundary, decreases risk factors associated with children crossing main avenues to get to school, the time change, unsupervised recent dog attacks in the area, and weather. Well, like I said, thank you. My contact information is there if you guys would like to contact me. Thank you for this time and opportunity.

Thank you, Ms. Walker. Okay, now we move to the presentation of central region.

Through the chair. Good morning, everyone. Again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire ABC boundary committee for your dedication to the process. I'd also like to say thank you. It was great looking out at the community meetings and seeing you all there and for your constant support. I'd like to thank Mr. Manny Garcia, who is our CRO administrative director and Mr. Ronia Phillips, our CRO support staff for their assistance with this entire ABC process. The first part of the presentation for the Central Region Office will be for Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School and Lenora B. Smith Elementary School. Due to the declining enrollment over the past five years and underutilization of both Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School and Lenora B. Smith Elementary School, the following recommendation is proposed. Combine Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School and Lenora B. Smith Elementary as a K-8 center. These are the current boundaries for Lenora B. Smith Elementary. These are the current boundaries for Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School. This is the recommended boundaries. As you can see, Lenora B. Smith in the dark gray area, as you can see, Lenora B. Smith sits directly in the middle in the portion of Georgia Jones Ayers boundary. Lenora B. Smith and Georgia Jones Ayers current boundary is area A. For the traditional middle schools that will be associated with this proposed recommendation, Brownsville Middle is in area B and Jose de Diego is area C. That information is important if families decide to choose a traditional middle school option. The effects, beginning the 26-27 school year, we are recommending that we combine Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School and Lenora B. Smith as a K-8 center. All schools residing in both boundaries will be assigned to Georgia Jones Ayers slash Lenora B. Smith K-8 center. A recommendation to preserve both names was a result of the community feedback. All current fifth grade through seventh grade students residing in the combined boundaries of Lenora B. Smith and Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School, if they choose to attend Brownsville Middle School and Jose de Diego, those will be the middle school options, traditional middle school options. While there were no community recommendations for changes made to the boundary, we feel it is important that we share that the amazing feedback that we received from the community was an emphasis to keep both names of the two schools and combine it as a K-8 center. the second presentation for the central region office will focus on phyllis wheatley elementary frederick douglass elementary and paul dunbar k-8 center our recommendation due to the declining enrollment and the inability to conduct and the ability to conduct a viable education program the following recommendations are made Our recommendation is to combine the current Phyllis Wheatley Elementary boundary with the current Frederick Douglas boundary, which you will see in areas A and D on the next slide. We would also recommend that we combine a current portion of Phyllis Wheatley Elementary School's boundary with Paul Lawrence Dunbar K-8 Center's boundary. Here are the current boundaries for Phyllis Wheatley Elementary. Here are the current boundaries for Frederick Douglas Elementary. The current boundaries for Paul Lawrence Dunbar K-8 Center. And here are the recommended boundaries. The current Phillis Wheatley Elementary boundary is in the dark gray area, a combination of B and D. The current Dunbar K-8 boundary is in area A. Area B is the proposed extension boundary for Dunbar K-8. The current Frederick Douglass boundary is area C. And area D is the proposed extension boundary for Frederick Douglass Elementary. Here are the proposed boundaries for Frederick Douglass Elementary. Here are the recommended boundaries for Paul Dunbar K-8 Center. And here are the effects. Beginning the 26-27 school year, new boundaries will be established for Frederick Douglass and Paul Dunbar K-8. In area B that we spoke about earlier from the previous slide, 11 kindergarten through fourth grade students living within the current Phyllis Wheatley boundary will be assigned to Paul Dunbar K-8 Center. In area D from the previous slide, 102 kindergarten through fourth grade students residing in the Phyllis Wheatley boundary will be assigned to Frederick Douglas Elementary. All students residing in the combined boundaries of Phyllis Wheatley Elementary, Frederick Douglas Elementary, and Paul Dunbar K-8 will attend Jose de Diego as their traditional middle school. The Central Region Office final presentation for this morning's ABC will address Miami Springs Middle and Miami Springs Senior High School. Due to the decline in enrollment of Miami Springs Middle School and Miami Springs Senior High over the past six years, both schools have a building utilization of under 55%. Thus, the following recommendation is proposed. Combine Miami Springs Middle School and Miami Springs Senior High School as the MSSH Preparatory Academy 6-12 configuration. Here are the current boundaries for Miami Springs Middle School. Here are the current boundaries for Brownsville Middle School. Brownsville Middle School is shown here as a result if parents decide to have the traditional six through eight middle school option. Brownsville will be one of those options. Here's the boundary for Kinloch Middle School. Once again, if parents decide for a traditional six through eight option, it's there. And here is Henry Filer Middle School, which is a part of the North region that there are some kids from Miami Springs Middle attend this school. So if they would like for this particular six through eight option, this is another traditional option for them. Here are the recommended boundaries. Area A is the current boundary for Brownsville Middle School. Area B is the proposed extension boundary for Brownsville Middle. Here you'll see area C is the current boundary for Kinloch Park Middle School. Area D is the proposed extension boundary for Kinloch Middle School. Area E is the current boundary for Filer Middle School. Area F is the proposed extension boundary for Filer Middle School. Here's the recommended boundary for Brownsville Middle. Recommended boundaries for Kinloch Park Middle. Then the recommendations, recommended boundaries for Henry Fowler Middle School. The effects, beginning the 26-27 school year, combined Miami Springs Middle School with Miami Springs Senior High School as the first six through 12 academy in District 5. The research highlights that it's a smoother transition for students to high school, building strong and positive relationships, earlier access to career and college readiness pathways, Extended opportunities in the areas of, of course, academics and athletics. All upcoming six through eight students residing in the Miami Springs Middle School boundaries may attend Brownsville Middle School, Kinloch Park Middle School, or Henry Filer Middle School as their traditional middle school options. This concludes the presentations for the Central Region Office.

Thank you, Ms. Wing.

Now, health region. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank first the attendance boundary committee members that are here. Also the parents for all the community meetings that we have held and your participation and support and being here as well. A large thank you to Robin Atkins, my administrative director as well, who is with me through this endeavor. First and foremost, we'd like to cover Air Base K-8 Center and Mandarin Lakes K-8 Center. We want to go over the impacts. First and foremost, increased enrollment to access to Air Base K-8 Center. We leave over 700 applications on the table of students that do not get accepted into Air Base because we do not have the space at the current location. Additional student seats to accommodate the community demand for the academic programs offered at Air Base K-8. Reverse the sustained decrease in student population in the facility currently housing Mandarin Lakes K-8, which has had a steady decline over the years. provide more extracurricular and academic opportunities for students at Mandarin Lakes K-8 if this proposal is approved, and efficient use of existing physical infrastructure at Mandarin Lakes K-8 as well because it is currently underutilized. If you look at the current boundaries in Section A is the current boundary of Leisure City K-8, which is proposed for a change of boundary. And B, current boundary for IB Pesco K-8 that is proposed for change. And then C, current boundary for Mandarin Lakes K-8 that is proposed for change. If you look at Mandarin Lakes K-8 Center boundary analysis, it's very telling. A total of 2,891 students in grades K through eight live within the Mandarin K-8 boundary. But when you look at these numbers, only 478 students of all of those students attend Mandarin Lakes, only 16.53%. 198 attend Air Base K-8 Center. 120 attend Leisure City K-8 Center and 94 already attend Irving and Beatriz Pesco K-8. As you can see, there are other schools in the vicinity as well that have students, but those are the largest chunks. The current boundaries for Air Base K8 Center are as follows, as you can see. The current boundary for Mandarin Lakes are there as well. And then the current boundaries for Irving Beatrice Pesco K8 Center is here for your review. And if you look at the recommended boundary in A, D and E, proposed new boundary for Leisure City K-8 incorporating area D reassigned from Mandarin Lakes to Leisure City K-8 and reassigned E or IB Pesco K-8 to Leisure City K-8. If you look at the proposed new boundary in B and C, boundary for IB PESCO K-8 combines its remaining boundary with the area currently assigned to Mandarin Lakes. So that big chunk of BNC from Mandarin Lakes would go to IB PESCO. And here you have the recommended changes in boundary areas by address for the impacted schools, Leisure City K-8, IB PESCO, and Mandarin Lakes. And it continues on this slide. And then the effects. Strengthen school resources, expanding enrollment at Leisure City K-8 and Irving Beatrice Pesco K-8 will allow for enhanced academic programs and more student resources. Initial transition phase, starting the 26-27 school year, current 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students from Mandarin Lakes will transition to either Leisure City K-8 or IB PESCO, according to the proposed boundary changes as reviewed previously. Phased integration, remaining grade levels at Mandarin Lakes will be gradually transitioned to these campuses over several years to ensure a smooth integration. effects current effects at air base would be fifth sixth and seventh grade students will relocate to the designated building at mandarin lakes k8 that will exclusively service the air base upper academy students and current staff beginning the 26 27 school year Air Base faculty for grades 6 through 8 will transition alongside their students to Air Base upper academy. So you would have a lower academy at the current Air Base elementary school and you would have an upper academy at Mandarin Lakes K-8. Effects, K-5 students will be housed in the current Air Base as discussed. K-8 campus beginning in the 26-27 lower academy and the 6-8 students will be housed at the new Air Base K-8 Upper Academy Campus beginning in 26-27. And then year after year, increased available seats for prospective Air Base K-8 students will grow starting the 26-27. Now we have time slated at the end of the South region presentation for those parents that are here and any other Community members that have chosen to speak you'll have two minutes each will go to the next schools and then we'll give you time at the end. The next school for the South Region is Robert Rusa Moton Elementary. And we have had conversations with Robert Rusa and the community for the past three years and their continued declining enrollment and the ability to conduct a viable educational program. And these are the following recommendations and proposal after we've done a slew of different marketing campaigns and adding after school and before school programs to try to increase the enrollment there. Dissolve the current boundary for Robert Russo Elementary School. Combine the boundaries of Robert Russo Elementary School and Pine Lake Elementary School. Establish new boundaries for Robert Russo Elementary School. And if you look at the current boundaries, A, assigned boundary for Pine Lake Elementary School, if you see the screen here, the A boundary. B, assigned boundary for Dr. Henry Perrine Elementary School. C, assigned boundary for Pine Lake Elementary School. D, assigned boundary for Robert R. Moten Elementary School. E, assigned boundary for Dr. Henry Perrine Elementary School. And F, assigned boundary for Robert Rusa Moten Elementary School. Those are the current boundaries. In this slide, you can see that Robert Russo Monarch Elementary has in its boundary 316 students in grades K through five that live in the Robert Russo Elementary area. Of those 316 students, and that community has aged out, you only have 103 students that attend Robert Russo Elementary. That's 32.59%. Of those, 31 students attend Henry Perrine. 28 students already attend Pine Lake Elementary. 16 attend Johnny M. Parris Colonial Drive. 13 attend Frank C. Martin. and 13 attend Gulfstream Elementary, nine attend Gloria Floyd Elementary, and then eight attend Academir Charter, eight attend Bel Air Elementary, and seven Whispering Pines Elementary. So you can see that there's a great majority, although the school is small, of students dispersed among other schools. And these are the current boundaries of Pine Lake Elementary via address. And the current boundaries for Henry Perrine via address. And the current boundaries of Robert Russo Moten elementary via addresses. If you look at what the recommendations are. In A, C, D, E, and F, you can see the map. Proposed boundary for R. Moulton's boundary areas D and F would be reassigned to Pine Lake Elementary. Furthermore, area E, currently assigned to Dr. Henry Perrine, would be reassigned to Pine Lake Elementary. This would create one unified boundary on the west side of U.S. 1. Dr. Henry Perrine Elementary's boundary would remain completely east of US 1 area of the area would be reassigned to Pine Lake Elementary. And here are the recommended boundaries for Pine Lake Elementary via addresses. The recommended boundaries for Dr. Henry Perrine Elementary. And as we look at the effects, beginning with the 26-27 school year, is to dissolve the current boundary for RR Moulton Elementary, combine boundaries of Pine Lake Elementary and RR Moulton Elementary, establish new boundaries for Henry Perrine and Pine Lake Elementary schools. By repurposing RR Moulton and dissolving its boundaries, students will have increased access to academic programs and resources, Pine Lake Elementary would become a new home for students that live in the current boundaries for R.R. Moten Elementary. An existing portion of Dr. Henry Perrine Elementary's boundary west of US 1 that splits R.R. Moten Elementary's current boundary would be dissolved and future students would attend Pine Lake Elementary instead of R.R. Moten. Current Perrine students would be grandfathered and eligible to continue attending Perrine Elementary. Questions or comments?

We will now have Miss Maggie Gross Gardner. Good morning. Good morning.

My name is Maggie gross Gardner and I am an alumni of our remote in elementary school, I attend that school there. Oh, with my family members. I lived across the street from our own elementary school. I think we think that the resigning of the students going to Pine Lake School will be us really safe on a safety problem for our kids. And we would like to keep our own school there and also increase it with having the magnet program brought back to them back to the school. And we're willing to work with the PTSD TSA so that we can do more things for the school because that school is very historic and we will hate for it to be divided into something different. And to reassign the kids from there to Pine Lake Elementary School is not a very good idea. Because the transitioning of the school to that will be a very, you know, like I said, will be a very... a hazard to our kids. We can make that school like it used to be a long time ago. I attended that school from first grade, and I graduated and went to Mays Junior and Senior High School. My family, my siblings, my cousins, all of us attended that school. So in order to bring it to where it needs to be, the capacity of the school is 715. It's 715. we can bring that enrollment back up to 715 plus more. We're willing to work with the current PTSA, marketing our school, and fundraising for our children, volunteering, and bringing back the Magnum program. That's what we would like to do for our school, and we would appreciate it if we can get that done. That will help us out a lot, and it will also help the kids that live in the neighborhoods so they don't have to go from this school to that school because that school has a very, very, very, it's a very phenomenal school and it will be great for our kids. We also would like to We also like to repurpose a expansion. I'm sorry, thank you. Repurpose a expansion for the autism center also. I think that that would be a great idea for the kids. Whatever we can do to help our kids to be better kids and so that we can get them from the phones, the the um the other things that they're doing we can if we can do that and put them into the education mode then i think that would be great because being in that education mode will be better for our kids than they what they're doing right now and being there with them and doing these things will be more than as parents and as a parent and as an alumni of our elementary school we'll do whatever we can to make sure that this matter is resolved The boundaries, I think, will be bad for the kids. I think that if we just, take our time and really focus on the kids. That's our main purpose, focusing on the kids, the safety of our kids, making sure they're getting a very good education. They will get, and bidding from Pine Lakes to our abode in school will be a difference in the distance. When all of the, we have a lot of kids that live in that area. I was born and raised in Perrine. I know the area very well. So there is a lot of people that live there, a lot of people that goes to school there that would like their kids to go to our elementary school. I want my great-grands to go there. My grandkids have gone there. My kids have gone there. My husband went there. And it's just a great school. And to take it away from us will be detrimental.

Thank you for your presentation, Ms. Gardner. Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Gardner.

You're quite welcome.

The next school that we will be discussing is Arthur and Polly Mays Conservatory of the Arts along with Pine Villa Elementary and the consolidation of both schools and addressing a possible K-12 school due to the declining student enrollment at Pine Villa Elementary. which we have been meeting with the community for over three years about this concern, and also putting in a variety of steps and plans in place to try to increase the enrollment, but to no avail at this point. Arthur and Polly Mays Conservatory of the Arts and Pineville Elementary School would merge to create a K-12 experience for students and families. That was the impact, the current boundaries. are here on the screen of Arthur and poly may 612 because it does not have a boundary because Arthur and poly maze is a district wide magnet school. Current boundary for pine villa elementary is there, as you can see by address. And then on this screen, you can actually see the pine villa boundary in yellow. Current boundary. And then the Pineville Elementary School boundary analysis. Currently 390 students in grades K through five live within the Pineville Elementary boundary. And then you can see how of those 390 students, how they are dispersed across other schools. Only 93 of those 390 students attend currently Pineville Elementary. That's 23.85%. They attend Somerset. At 61, Coral Reef Montessori, 24. Goulds Elementary, 23. Somerset Academy, Silver Palms, 19. Academier Charter School Prep, 17. Gulfstream Elementary, 15. Somerville Advantage Academy, 12. Caribbean K-8 Center, 10. South Point Scholars, 10. And Matter Academy Bay, 9. That is the distribution. This is another boundary where students and boundary students are being aged out the recommended boundaries the merge of arthur and poly may 612 and pineville elementary school will not result in any boundary changes it's the merger of the two schools into one The effects, beginning with the 26-27 school year, Arthur and Polly Mays and Pineville Elementary will merge to become a K-12 school. Students will explore the various areas of the arts before declaring their interest at the secondary level, where they will be able to then apply for the magnet and then audition for the magnet, given additional opportunities before they even get to that point, which would be very helpful and useful to children at Pineville. lower academy and then that would be the arthur and polly mays upper academy questions or comments okay the next schools in question is also a merger richmond heights middle and biotech 9 through 12. The impact here, again, due to declining student enrollment at Richmond Heights Middle School, Biotech and Richmond Heights Middle would merge to create a 6-12 experience for students. And as you can see here, these are the current boundaries of Richmond Heights. There are no boundaries for Biotech because they are a district-wide magnet school. And when you look at how many students currently live in the Richmond Heights boundary, that's 1,265 students, grades six through eight. And these are their top destinations of where these students attend. Richmond Heights Middle, of those 1,265, only 203 attend, 16%. 116 attend Herbert Ammons Middle. 105 attend Arvida Middle School. 100 attend Somerset Academy Middle. 74 attend Southwood Middle. 69 attend Jorge Macanosa Middle, 66 attend Bridge Prep Academy Village, 65 attend Devon Air K8, 51 attend Frank C. Martin, and 41 attend Palmetto Middle. The current boundaries for Biotech 612, as I discussed, they have no boundary because they are a district-wide magnet school. And then the current boundary for Richmond Heights Middle by address is on the slide for your review. And then this continues on this slide. and then obviously the merger of biotech and richmond heights middle will not result in any boundary changes this will still keep in effect the boundary of richmond heights but will give those students additional opportunities through new programs at richmond heights middle to then apply to the magnet at biotech and be accepted. So that would give them another wealth of academic programs and support that would allow them to stay there and be a part of that whole 612 concept. And that would also allow the attraction of other students that are currently leaving that boundary to remain at that school and be a part of that process. effects beginning with the 26-27 school year. Merging Richmond Heights Middle and Biotech will strengthen school resources and enhance academic programs, convert the school to grades 6 through 12, provide students access to hands-on field experiences as well as environmental partners that Biotech currently has. Middle school students will have the opportunity to experience the various areas of conservation in biology and so many other programs as well. That is the Richmond Heights and biotech. The other school is Miami Southridge Senior High School and South Dade Senior High School boundary proposal. The impact would help to decrease the overcrowding occurring at South Dade Senior High School. They are well over 100% utilization at the school and growing. as you can see the current boundaries of south dade and south ridge are here for miami southridge senior apologize and then you can see miami southridge senior high boundary analysis they currently have 6367 students grades 9 through 12 that live within the miami south ridge senior boundary If you look at those top schools where they attend, of those 6,367, 1639, 25% currently attend Miami-Southridge Senior. 985 attend Coral Reef Senior. 560 attend Robert Morgan Educational Center. 447 attend Miami-Palmetto Senior. 339 attend Cutler Bay Senior. 253 attend Matter Academy Bay High School. 250 attend Somerset College Prep Academy, 242 attend John A. Ferguson Senior High School, 213 Somerset Academy Charter High, and 176 attend Felix Varela Senior High School. These are the current boundaries by address for your review. and then the current recommended boundaries so if you look at the south aid boundary you see the delineation of a red rectangle so to speak there what we've done is that line has actually intersected on 168th street all the way west to attract more students into the south ridge feeder pattern south ridge boundary so that we can actually help decrease the overcrowding at south dade and help increase you know the enrollment at south ridge senior high school this would be the recommended boundary changes by address And then the effects beginning with a 2627 school year decrease overcrowding occurring at South Dade Senior High School. That would be the main emphasis. And that completes the South region presentations.

Thank you, Mr. Real levels. Now, I would like to be able to ask the committee, if you guys are patient, we want to be able to listen first to the community members that they have come here, so to give them time to speak. I would like to give the opportunity to our attorney to be able to just give the proper guide to the core of the meeting.

So if you can please go ahead. Sure. Good morning again, everybody. As previously stated, my name is John I. Felice from the Office of the General Counsel. In a few minutes, the chair is going to allow speakers to come up. And in order to maintain decorum during the public comment section, the school board has established decorum policies, which will be utilized here. The intent of these policies is not to regulate free speech or the content thereof, but to provide for the efficient and orderly functioning of business of this committee, to protect the rights of individuals, to protect the rights of the majority to decide, and to protect the rights of the minority to be heard and preserve the spirit of harmony within this meeting. The policies and procedures governing today's public comment are as follows. Pursuant to school board policy, the purpose of this hearing or this portion of the hearing is to allow the public to address matters before ABC's jurisdiction and not for resolving individual grievances or disputes. Although the purpose of the public hearing is solely to receive public comment and participation, the purpose is not served when citizens become disorderly disruptive. Accordingly, speaker's remarks should be directed to the chair or the committee as a whole. In accordance with policy, speakers are permitted from discussing any pending court cases they may have, legal claims, complaints, anything filed against the district or district personnel. While clapping and applauding may be appropriate in other circumstances, they are not appropriate here as it disrupts and delays the presentation of this meeting. Speakers may not use any form of profanity, loud, abusive comments, intentionally disruptive noises, heckling, or verbal outbursts or presentations in their remarks. Speakers whose comments are not related to the business of the ABC or who make personal attacks may be asked, may be ruled out of order and asked to yield the microphone at this time. If you persist in violating any of the decorum policies, we may again ask you to yield the floor. Your microphone may be turned off and you may not be permitted to continue. Finally, I would like to remind public speakers that pursuant to board policy will be given a limited two minutes time to speak during this hearing. um attorney cejas and i will try and and uh chart that for you and i will make an announcement with 30 seconds to go so that you understand you have 30 seconds before wrapping up uh we'll time each oh i'm sorry 15 second warning i apologize we'll give you a 15 second warning speakers may not yield the podium to other individuals at any time if you elect to speak the two minutes are yours thank you very much we appreciate it thank you for your guidance so

Yeah, if you guys want to just slowly come to the microphone and if you want, you can remain seated with one person that approaches and then we'll continue to give the opportunity for the rest. Okay, thank you. Please, just for the record, can you please say your name and your school so we can then take note. Thank you.

Floor Landor La Tortue, School Air Base K28. Today I will address the chair and the board and the community at large in three aspects. Number one, as it relates to air base, the first aspect is loyalty. Airbase for over 50 years has been loyal to its parents, his students, and had defined quality education and had never experienced attendance issues, boundary issues, as Airbase remains an image of excellence and international magnets. today not only as a former parent i stand before you welcoming changes welcoming merger but alerting you on the process of communication because as we want the merger with mandarin take into consideration we the parents former parents who became community partners advocating on that loyalty for Air Base quality education and the reputation. As an international magnet, Air Base has brought inclusion to French, Creole, English and Spanish, and we want the same to happen through the merger. and the changes, we want you to see that former parents advocated for over 50 years for our base to be transformational, for our base to go from elementary to K to eight. And we want to thank you for that. Please. do not proceed without taking into consideration communication and also the top notch professors and their benefits as well and the transfer. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Juanita Olvera, and I'm here for two schools, actually, R.R. Morton and Air Base K-8. For Air Base, I am a parent of Air Base students, two that will be affected in this change. With all of the schools that were mentioned, they all had an issue, either overcrowding or underutilization of the school. Air Base has none of those issues. We have strived to be excellent parents, students, faculty, and staff, and has maintained and been an A school for 50 years or 28 years. From the time that I've been there, it has always, always been an A school. Never any problems with discipline, Why the change? Why are we affecting parents and students and the family as a whole? Air Base is a family. We have VPK kids that go to the school that are siblings to the elementary kids that are siblings to the middle school kids why are we affecting those families why the change if we want a program that works like airbase does then let's duplicate that program and apply that to other schools that are underutilized let's give them magnet programs that work but don't affect our students and our families when we've done nothing wrong to deserve this thank you

Good morning. I want to thank everybody from the ABC committee for allowing us to be here. Ms. Atkins has been very communicative with me. She's done an excellent job. So with the person that did the PowerPoint for Robert Russell Mullen, she left her glasses, and I waited too late to step in to read for her. That's why she didn't go through the slideshow. But I'm going to do it real quick.

Can you state your name, please? Michelle Mosley.

And I'm alumni of Robert Russell Moten. My children is. She did the magnet dance there. My sons attended. So I am a true alumni. Reassign students to Moten. That was one of the proposals to bring Pine Lake over to Robert Russell Moten because It has the infrastructure. It has the space. Now, I was aware now last week that it's been 10 years since the magnet program that my daughter attended was moved out of Robert Russell Moten. And I think that's a problem. And the reason why it's a problem is because we have to stay competitive and we don't have anything to offer the community. They're not going to bring their children there. So over the years, it's declined because they don't have any extra activity. So one of the proposals was bringing the arts academy back. It doesn't have to be dance or music. It could be sports. It could be drama. It could be something. But to remain competitive with the other elementary schools, we need magnet programs back. And we're going to increase that by creating alumni, work with the PTSA to help bring fundraising back up, memberships back up, and do everything possible we can. We're also asking for an extension. I know it says this school year, that's what you're looking to do. Give us another year because a lot of us alumni, we weren't aware. We missed the meetings because we didn't see it because no one posted it. No one told us. 15 seconds. 15 seconds. Okay. All right. K-8. Let's make it a K-8 with magnet programs. Everything that's on the proposal that you have on the slide, if you bring us something back to be competitive, we can make it work. I promise you myself, I'm going to volunteer. I'm going to be a strong alumni there, and we're going to help get the road back up. Thank you for your comments. All right? Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Michael Sosa, and I am a seventh grader at Air Base K-8 Center for International Education. Since I joined Air Base in the second grade, I've come to value the sense of community and consistency. Throughout my years, I've grown to have a strong relationship with the administration of the school. Without their consistent investment in developing who I am as a Falcon, I wouldn't be the person I am today or have the opportunities to grow as a confident individual. I have also grown to have a strong bond with the elementary students due to my years in the safety patrol team. The interactions help us feel more empathy for one another, and we encourage the younger students on their big days and presentations like Tour de France or the Japanese presentations. How would the elementary kids feel without an example of leadership? What would the elementary kids feel if I'm not there in the cafeteria, my safety patrol belt, ready to give them a high five? In the center of our school, there's a promise tree that represents generations of commitments whose roots run deep. Our schools like this tree. To cut this tree in half and replant it away from where it's been for decades would be a detriment to our beloved program. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Andrea George and I'm a parent, a new parent at Rainbow Park Elementary. I'm a parent of a five-year-old kindergartner that she has a speech delay. So when she entered the beginning of school year, she was she was excited but nervous and whatever she wasn't talking is um like is is strong or whatever but now she's so excited to go to school she talks so great she said she pronounced her words so great and the school is just like rainbow park is amazing rainbow park is a pillar of the community it's really helping her building her confidence and i see the other school the students also and students that were there when i was um growing up there I was raised in Texas, so I didn't go to Rainbow Park, but my friends did. And they were just they are still so smart and very successful now as we speak today. So also, we live next door to... a teacher what was two teachers one of them passed away um late last year and um next door is miss green and everybody in the community knows miss green and they call her mean miss green because she did not play with none of those those kids and students in the community So like to hear that rainbow park is really gonna like be diminished or whatever, or whatever with the boundaries is heartbreaking. However, is there a way that, um, they can like in like put interject or put something to kind of like to, to wake up the, um, the magnet program. Cause they have a great magnet program. They have potential. And, um, I'm here for it. OK, just remember, my name's Andrea George. I don't want to let Rainbow Park go. So please don't let it go. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Romero Molina, and I'm representing Air Base K8. As a grandparent, I've been part of the community for 30 years versus a parent. As an ESAC member, I've been there for 25 years, still am a business partner now, and now a grandparent. And I am opposed to the current proposal And I have five quick bullet points, and I'm going to tell you why. Maintaining student cohesion to preserve the current student enrollment and ensure continuity of learning at Air Base K-8 is essential to that all the students remain together. Disrupting the student body risk compromising academic progress. school culture and family engagement. Number two, longstanding record of excellence for more than 30 years. Air Base K eight constantly earned recognition as a school of excellence. It has maintained an a rating since the inception of the school grading system of the state's grading system. Sorry, This sustained success is both rare and highly valuable to our community. Number three, strength and stability of school culture. And this is the main point I want to drive home. While leadership has played an important role The school success primarily is rooted in the dedication of the expertise of the teachers, staff, and the teachers and staff.

That's your time.

Thank you.

Good morning, my name is Emma rose i'm a teacher i'm a fifth grade gifted teacher at air base K eight and to simply add to the facts that are fabulous Eric eight families have already expressed. I'd like to begin by saying Air Base K-8 Center is not simply another school in the South. It's a high-performing, revenue-generating, enrollment-stabilizing anchor institution that strengthens an entire South Dade ecosystem. Your current proposal separates us into two separate schools, severing our very structure and jeopardizing our long-lasting success. as district leaders it is imperative that you understand that airbase k8 together is a high value district asset by separating our school into two separate schools you will be dismantling a pillar in the south destabilizing a school of its size you will see immediate revenue loss increased per pupil operating cost and you will see families migrating to the competition Consider the strategic advantages to maintaining a K8 unified. Maintaining a unified K8 structure means that we would move to Mandarin together. We would be able to retain families during this peak charter recruitment years. We will be able to do that during this district-wide population shifts period. This will allow us to maintain and sustain academic infrastructures. We can move to Mandarin Lakes, increasing enrollment by 30%. Continuing to grow this successful academic program and maintaining our magnet, curriculum, rigor, excellence, 30% more of your community will be able to benefit from our program by moving us all to Mandarin Lakes. This district cannot afford to voluntarily weaken a high-performing anchor in this competitive market our proposal is that we move together that we maintain the continuity of our curriculum please we ask that you reconsider your current proposal of splitting us up move us to mandarin together airbase k8 rip that's your airbase k8 represents what the district should be replicating not risking

Good morning. And thank you for taking the opportunity to let all of us speak today. My name is Farah Jacobson. I am an Air Base K-8 parent. And not only that, I'm a mother of three beautiful children that attend there. I'm also a military wife of a husband who served this country for over 23 years. And I currently have my children spanning both elementary and middle school grades. I'm here because I strongly believe that the initial proposal to separate Air Base students and staff across the campuses should not be considered. Air Base works because it's a unified pre-K eight school. It's continuity, culture, and long-term relationships are not extras. They're the foundation of why families choose this school and why the students succeed. When you separate a school like Air Base, you don't just change logistics, you dismantle a proven system that depends on stability. That concern becomes even more serious when you consider that Air Base is a military affiliated school community and one of the few in Homestead area that directly serve the military connected families. Military families already live with constant change, deployments, relocations, long hours, and long separations. For families like mine, school stability is essential, not an option. When one parent is deployed, the other parent manages everything alone, school routines, transportation, communication, and emotional support. A unified campus allows families to handle those realities. Separating children across multiple campuses would add an unnecessary logistical and emotional strain to families who are already sacrificing so much for this country. And this is not a lack of solutions or an issue. If the concern is space for long-term planning, there are strong alternatives that do not involve separating students. Creating a district innovation or magnet training hub, developing supervised virtual learnings and Wi-Fi access hubs, and also expanding into a high school. Creating a high school, since you guys are talking about that South Data is overindated with students.

That's your time. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Dr Cowan and I'm a resident of Homestead, a parent at Air Base K through eight and a veteran with 22 years of service for more than 50 years. Air Base K through eight is operated as a stable, high performing magnet program in the heart of an underserved area, providing structure, continuity and opportunity for generations of families. Separating grades six through eight is not a minor operational adjustment. It is a major structural change to an established program. The upper and lower academies are not discreet. They have significant connective tissue between students of the upper and lower academies and the faculty to students between the upper and lower academies. Decisions of this magnitude carry academic, operational, and reputational implications for the district. Therefore, they require careful, transparent process. From a governance and process perspective, Florida Sunshine Law requires reasonable notice and meaningful public participation. Florida courts have emphasized public must have opportunity to observe and participate in the deliberative phase of these processes. For decision involving major restructuring of this program, families must be able to clearly see when the issue was first identified. how the options were developed, and how community input shaped the recommendation. As leadership of this institution, you carry responsibility, not only for outcomes, but for the integrity of process. Transparent documentation and structured impact analysis strengthen credibility and trust. With that in mind, I respectfully request three actions. First, a temporary pause until a full procedural record is clear and accessible. Second, public release of timeline and materials. And third, a formal impact assessment stating how this change will affect the students and the community. Thank you for your time.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Mary Castellano. I am very privileged to represent the Upper Academy at Air Base K-8. I was also one of a small team that actually wrote the original magnet under the guidance of Mr. Nickerson back in the 1990s. We transitioned then. We went from a school that had a solid demographic of Air Force families and neighborhood schools to being decimated by Hurricane Andrew to reinventing ourselves to be the magnet K through five that we were originally. And now we've extended to K through eight. The importance of keeping our school together as a solid K through eight, while logistically might seem imposing at first, could be done in one school year and we could all take that shift and that move together. And in our country right now, our middle school students are facing an epidemic of anxiety, depression, and disconnectedness. And the one thing that I know for sure that our K through eight does is fight that day to day by their interconnectedness across the grade levels, across the disciplines, the continuity, the consistency, and the support they get on a developmental level through all ages and the mentoring and leadership that they not only are provided by through our teachers, but also other students. Last week, we were going to have a seventh and eighth grade fentanyl program for our students. and our outstanding counselor at our faculty meeting looked at us as a K through eight and said, I know today is gonna be rough for some of our seventh and eighth graders. So please remember, you might see one or two of your former students faces in your doorway They might need that extra hug. They may need that extra smile. And that's what's being at a facility where we're all encompassed together. It's the proximity and the closeness of those bonds that keeps them intact. And it will increase matriculation and graduation rates throughout. We want to open our arms to everyone. And by using that facility at Mandarin Lakes, we can expand, but expand as a consistent K-12. Thank you.

Can you wrap up? Thank you.

good morning my name is tanya lannan i am a former public school teacher and currently i'm a nurse educator for hca florida i have six children who have gone through the public school system and i have a daughter who's currently a freshman at killian high school i'm also the ptsa vice president My eldest daughter graduated from there in 2020 and she received a very different education because there's a very different administration. I'm very well aware of the fact that the current plan to increase the population there is for college bound students. Not every student plans to do that. and so i have offered a proposal that would also offer students a program that is not currently centrally located which would be like lpns and emts additionally it could work cohesively with the plan that is in place and would provide students with an opportunity to gain realistic jobs right out of high school and be able to actually live in this community. I have children who are college graduates who are struggling to find jobs that will make enough money to live in South Florida. I hope that you can look at my proposal. I am happy to discuss at length what i believe i have a unique perspective in the fact that i've been a teacher a nurse a parent and i also have worked in different capacities in the community thank you for your time

Good morning. My name is Dr. Remiel Lockwood. I am here advocating on behalf of RR Moten Elementary School. I serve as a senior pastor of the Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, not far from RR Moten, and I have the pleasure of having in my congregation members as old as 90 and as young as current elementary students that have either attended Moden or are currently attending Moden. And it's a school that has been a staple of our community for nearly a century, if not more. And so I would ask that the historical significance of the school be taken into consideration. But not only the historical significance of the school, we ask that you also take into consideration the fact that, as previously mentioned, the school once had various programs that allowed it to be competitive. And we ask for consideration that those magnet programs be brought back to Moden in order to make it a viable solution to parental concerns as it relates to students. We ask that the school be expanded to a K through eight school as well as we've seen that consideration for other schools and that the students that may be at Pine Lake considering it's a smaller school, be brought over to Moden in order to help increase population. We know that currently there's a charter situation at Moden, and we ask that the consideration be to establish a specialized autism center at Moden that will help to increase that as well. And so we appreciate your consideration and your time. Thank you so much.

Good morning. My name is Dr. Santiago Guia. I'm a licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience working with children and families. I'm also a mother of a fourth grader at Air Base K-8. I'm speaking today not only as a parent, but as a professional grounded in developmental, child developmental science. airbase is successful and it is successful in large part because upper and lower academy function as one developmental ecosystem not two isolated institutions younger and older students learn in proximity they observe each other they mentor they model they internalize expectations and the administration collaborates across developmental stages to ensure continuity of care sorry, continuity of culture, academic standards, and behavioral expectations. This is not an opinion. It is supported by research. Vygotsky's well-established developmental framework repeatedly validated in educational research demonstrates that children learn best in social contexts where more advanced peers scaffold learning with what he termed the zone of proximal development. Mixed-age educational environments naturally create these scaffolding opportunities. The American Academy of Pediatrics also emphasized that peer modeling and structured cross age interaction promote social competence, academic engagement and social and school connectedness, all predictors of long term academic success, which is ultimately what we want. When you separate upper and lower academy, you disrupt a functional developmental system. You fragment culture. You weaken mentorship pathways. You remove natural peer modeling. And research tells us when developmental continuity is disrupted, academic and social outcomes decline. If the goal is to strengthen our campus, there are solutions that do not dismantle a successful one. Invest in resources in Mandarin Lakes, create programmatic enhancements, or relocate Airbase in its entirety to a larger campus if growth is needy. But splitting a thriving K-through-A developmental model apart contradicts decades of psychological and educational science. Thank you for your consideration.

Hello, it's me Crystal again from Rainbow Park Elementary and respectfully I just wanted to use the public time to just drive home a couple of points that I did not get to mention. I just wanted to say that funding the magnet program will also increase enrollment in Rainbow Park from my understanding there has been funding removed from the magnet program. But if you do move it to Robert Ingram, please consider funding the program there because if it's not funded, then these students do not get the opportunity to experience the excellence of a magnet program or dance arts. also um if this goes through if the school board proposal goes through providing a uniform stipend to the parents um i'm here as a parent today and we have one other parent here from rainbow park and i appreciate her but we're from a working class community these meetings and the information as it is passed out by the school board is they're not um where a lot of parents are not able to make these. I had to take a PTO day to even be here today. So I want you all to consider the times and the places that you all have these meetings and how you disseminate the information and providing a uniform stipend. A lot of the parents in my community use uniforms from the previous years to be able to clothe their children for the next year. Rainbow Park also has a closet that provides uniforms for kids that come to school. So to ease the transition to a new school, I'm asking that you guys think about providing four or five uniformed shirts as a stipend for those parents that transition. Transportation from the easternmost point of the boundary, as I stated before, is a 22-minute walk. 15 seconds. and continuity of leadership. That is very important in order to strengthen programs, strengthen school programs, and anything. You have to be consistent in your leadership so that they can make viable changes. Thank you.

Good morning. I am an R.R. Moten alumni. I actually attended R.R. Moten first through the fifth grade.

Can you please state your name?

Sorry, Ronald Tice. I actually attended Moulton first through fifth grade. For my sixth grade year, they opened Richmond Elementary, which has since been closed. They opened Pine Lake, and the students that would have went to Richmond ended up going there. Moulton is the last major state in Paran. I think closing Moulton would be detrimental just to disseminate it that way. And I just want you to know that Moulton It needs to survive. Whatever we need to do, we need to do it. And also, the boundaries for Moten is less than any other schools you have listed here. I mean, why do we have such a small boundary there? Expand the boundary, expand the different classes that will actually attract other students. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Alberta Wells Godfrey. I'm a retired Dade County Elementary School principal, 36 years of experience, and I'm 30 years retired. I would like to thank you for preserving the legacy of Lenora B. Smith. She was an outstanding citizen and outstanding member of the Dade County school system. She was named Florida's Teacher of the Year. And thank you so much for the recommendation. I'm with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. We partner with Lenora B. Smith, and we'll always stand by that school. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you. Do we have any other person that would like to speak?

Okay.

let's try now before I open questions to our board members I just want to ask something to dr. Lewis for your guidance I was one of the persons that really tried to go to every single meeting that the presentations were made by the regional superintendents in each of the communities And I do recall that it was a specific slide that said that if a community wanted to be able to make a presentation or recommendation to this board, please go ahead and do it before February 6th. and you provided slides of personnel of the district that will help to coordinate those efforts. I see that Parkway took advantage of that, Rainbow Park took advantage of that, and I see that Robert Roos and Martin took advantage of that. I really would like to be able to understand what is the procedure because I see a lot of parents from Air Base that they are here. But then at the same time, I don't see that they actually got together as a community to be able to put a presentation for us to be able to see what is the recommendation. I can make notes of what are some of their comments, but I would like to be able to have a little bit of guidance from staff as us, as a board, how we need to be able to direct ourselves in the process. Thank you.

Through the chair, Mr. Chair, first of all, Thank you for your inquiry, and that's a very good question. Let me start off by simply saying I want to first thank the ABC Committee. Like no other year and years past that we've had so many different activities taking place when it comes down to our community meetings and so forth. And like you, myself, I made it a priority to go to not only the South, the North, and of course the Central. um in addition to that i i personally want to thank the um the families that are here today um miss kerr miss walker miss gross gardner and all of the individuals that spoke during the public hearing i i truly want you to know that i hear your voices um but even beyond that let me continue to say and i'm gonna answer your question but let me continue to say that just about every decision that we make our north star continue to be what's best for our students Let me also say that Dade County Public Schools, the state of Florida, is really experiencing some very challenging times. And as you know, the superintendent has been very vocal in reference to the challenges that we have with the declining enrollment. And there are several factors that contributes to that. But some of the most impactful factors has more so to do with the declining birth rate. The mere fact that the South Florida area is extremely expensive to live. And I know you guys know it firsthand because you're experiencing it as well. But in addition to that, no longer are we the only competition in town. Competition is real. But I continue to say that Dade County Public School is your best choice because not only do we offer the world, we educate all. But going back to your specific question, Mr. Chair, let me also acknowledge the mere fact that I attended The community meeting at air base, and even beyond that, they have been very vocal to the point that we received over 438 chart forms. With recommendations, and to be honest with you, the. Overall, I would say 99.9%. of the recommendation that came from the air base family was very consistent in reference to what was said today what they would like to see they were like an opportunity if we are going to make any changes their recommendation was to move the whole entire air base faculty staff student body over into mandarin so that was the recommendation honestly there were 438, and once again, those that are here today, the message was very consistent. And let me also say, I said it before and I'll say it again, us going into the community, these were recommendations that we're proposing. i said to you guys that you also have a voice and and let me just reassure you that people on this board people that's on the floor you know we are listening so to answer your specific question yes there were recommendations that were made and their recommendation was to see the whole entire airbase family move over into mandarin that was the recommendation sir thank you it's just since there were slight based on the other school setting to be able to ask that question

Yes, Dr. Hernandez.

Is it possible that we take a break?

Dr. Hernandez, I will very happy give a 10 minutes break for pee pee bathroom. So it is 1119. Let's ring convene at 1130. Thank you. I would like to request the board, if I can have one of you to bring a motion that we have three additional speakers that arrived late. We can, if you, someone of mine. So do we have a second? Yes? Very good. So the speakers that they arrived late, if they would like to be able to approach the podium so we can give you your two minutes before we continue with the meeting. is everybody i'm sorry i parliamentary procedure i actually asked for the move all in favor okay thank you just remember to stay your name please thank you okay

do i have to press something or no okay sorry this is my first time and i'm very very nervous um hello everybody my name is natalie morales and i am representing robert russa motum elementary in paris um okay so we the families residents and stakeholders of the west prime community unequivocally reject the closure of our elementary school as it is a traditional public school its proposed conversion is into a district managed charter school however our m1 elementary is more than just a school building it's the heart of providing um it's a living part of our community our history when our modem first opened it was a segregated school and it represented generations of struggle resilience and ongoing fight for fair and equal access to the public education um closing this neighborhood public school and repurposing it as a charter school just basically erases that history and it further marginalizes a community that has already endured systemic disinventment Miami-Dade County Public School has cited that low enrollment as a justification for this closure. However, this decline honestly didn't happen organically. The enrollment began to drop after the district removed Moden's successful art magnet program, which was a decision that was made not consulted with the community prior to the program's removal. Basically, my proposal is to make it a K-8 school, because I feel like at this point I've studied, I was not familiar with the magnet program and how it works. 15 seconds. Oh, sorry. We just want to, our proposal is to make this a K-8 school at this point.

Thank you for your presentation, and you did very well, you see.

I tried. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Do we have someone else or that's it. Okay, so let's now move to the meeting a board out the way that I will suggest for us to go to move now is, if we can start either asking questions if there is a need or voting school by school. So I would like to be able to start with Parkway. Is there any member of the board that wish to be able to ask any questions to the staff? Yes, Dr. Hernandez.

I have general comments and questions. General comments is that the takeaway from this meeting that was very interesting for me is that charter schools are not really the evil. They're not really taking away our kids, the numbers. And I wanted to thank you for that eye opening by providing data. Kids are not leaving us in drones for charters. They're leaving us in drones for other public schools that are offering what the parents want. So may I just say thank you for the information and please spread the news, make changes that are giving parents what they want maybe parents did not want mandarin in south dave but we fed that to them so what happened i mean i don't know so that's number one charter schools taking our kids is fake news number two number two um i heard a lot about merging displacing this that and the other i'd like to know what's happening to those buildings to the schools that are remaining open. I mean, closed. I didn't hear it. Maybe we don't know yet, but I'd like for that to be addressed one by one. So it's a general comment. What else?

Thank you, Dr. Hernandez. In reference to the North region office, we currently are working with what we call the educational enterprise asset committee. We're at that committee every biweekly, we meet with that committee and we discuss the different assets, rainbow park, um will be a discussion and so with parkway at this time there is no definite decision made of what's going to be done to those buildings the committee is still exploring what options we have available but at this time we do not have a definite answer what's going to occur with those two buildings

I appreciate that, but I had the same question when we started in August, and I get the same answer. So the committee has made no progress.

The committee has made progress in other projects that we're working on. We look at a variety of assets throughout the county, but in reference to ABC, as we go through the ABC process, once we know what is the outcome of this process, then the committee will take it back to the committee for final decision of what's going to happen to those buildings. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, so do we have any question regarding Parkway? No, so can we, go ahead.

Greetings through the chair. I also have a process question before we get to the piece around voting. I think it would be helpful for ABC to understand because in historical years, we have been told what the use of the facility will be within the plan structure itself. And so if that has changed, my request would be that we understand the purview and what is under our guidance in terms of what happens with the facilities That that are technically no longer being housed or operating school. programming. A follow up question is, I really appreciate just piggybacking off any your comments with respect to. Will we receive a copy of all of the recommendations that were shared via the QR codes? And what was the process in deciding which schools presented? Because there was a community member who presented on Miami Killian, and I'm aware that she provided a proposal around what to do with that particular programming. And so I'd like to just be very clear about the process because it seems... My goal would be is that we figure out a way to streamline and understand what the other recommendations were.

Through the Chair, I guess I'll start backwards, and thank you for your question, Ms. Olseni. The Killian factor, the parent that came and presented, let me just quickly say that Miami Killian was not part of ABC, period, okay? That was not on Advise, nor was it targeted. I'm sorry, it's Advise, so I apologize. It's on the Advise list, so it was not targeted. All it simply means, as you well aware, that Advise is something that we're actually looking at. We're looking at the boundary and seeing the activity that exists in the boundary. But there's no proposed action that's going to take place this school year or potentially next year as relate to Killian. In reference to your previous question and in reference to some of the sites, I think the comment that was made merged and so forth. Let me just say that when it comes down to Richmond, Hyde and biotech, the school itself sit on the same plot of land. OK, so it's real simple in the sense that we're creating a six through 12 change in the grade configuration. And also, I know I had the ladies here from Zeta 5 Beta, and they were very thankful in the sense that the name Lenore B. Smith and, of course, Georgia Jones, which, humbly speaking, I was there for the name change because I spent about nine years working at formerly Allapattah Middle, and Allapattah Elementary was right next door. Both schools sit on the same plot of land as well. And when we make, and I continue to say, our... North Star will continue to be what's best for our students. And when we make such decisions, knowing the current landscape that exists, the challenges that exist, we try to do what's best for kids. And when it comes to Lenore B. Smith being merged into Georgia Jones, there's no separation. There's no division. They're right next to each other. And as it relate to the land itself that currently house Lenore B. Smith, The comments that were made, not only by Dr. Aponte, they're very factual. We do have an educational enterprise asset development team. And that particular team, rather, they look at all of the asset that exists or we owned. And based on the different interests that are out there, we try to make the best decision. Those decisions are transmitted to the board. I know that I have Tiffany Pauline that's here as well. We normally do a presentation to the board. But once again, that the real challenge that exists is the mere fact that what may have existed 50, 60, or 70 years ago is no longer our new reality that we're dealing with right now. And as a result of that, certain decisions have to be made. Thank you.

Okay, one last comment through the chair. I want to understand what I'm voting on. Is it the either or, or is there some merger of what was provided by the community that's included? If you could just state that, that would be helpful.

That's why I open for discussion regarding Parkway Elementary. We have basically a community proposal that was presented to us, and it was a proposal made by the staff. That is the one that we all attended and was presented in the community meetings. For me, as a process right now, for you as the board is to give the opportunity that if any of you want to make any comments or suggestions based on the two recommendations that we have in front of us, for us to be able to think if we can merge or not. I believe that the proposal that we have in front of us regarding Parkway Elementary, it is not one that really gives based on my opinion. Of course, I defer to all of you. It is basically to vote either in the community recommendation or to vote in the staff recommendation. So that's why I want to go school by school. So then we can either ask and work here for a merge of information or decide if we're going to do one or not. So I go back to you, Mr. Cini. You have two presentations. You have parkway elementary Community presentation and you have the presentation of the staff is there a possibility to do a merge of those or we just need to be able to vote in one or the other, I don't think I think they're very spread.

Okay. Is it my turn?

No. So then, can I hear from the board, anyone has a motion? Yes, go ahead, Ms. Beverly.

That's what I was going to say. I actually listened to both, and I liked the community's presentation. I didn't see that it was so far off from what the board suggested. I support that you should have community support. And my question had to do with that as well. Do I make a motion that we vote on the community's suggestion? That was the same as she said, and I feel the same, and I think you feel the same. So I don't know how to do it, but I make a motion if that's what you want for the community's suggestion.

I would like to ask the staff for guidance, please.

Thank you. Through the chair, let me just make sure that I clarify in reference to Parkway. Just once again, the region presented their recommendation. The recommendation that was proffered by the community was to make some modification to the existing boundary. There was no conversation pertaining to eMERGE as either the recommendation that was proffered by the region or the recommendation that was proffered by the community. and please be mindful the recommendation that was proffered by the community has to do with changing boundaries of parkway by doing that just be mindful that you also negatively impact the norland elementary and several elementary schools and but yet that doesn't necessarily solve the problem so just be mindful of that when it comes to the enrollment i agree with you yes dr hernandez

We need the microphone, please.

May I, through the chair, ask Dr. Aponte to very briefly summarize the two recommendations here on our mind as we vote?

I'd be happy to ask Dr. Aponte.

Through the chair, Dr. Hernandez, of course. So Dr. Lewis says there are two separate and distinct recommendations. The North region is recommending to dissolve the Parkway boundary and combine that boundary with Norland's boundary in establishing a new boundary for Norland. The community recommendation is not to dissolve the Parkway boundary, but yet take a small portion of the Norlin boundary and incorporate it into Parkway. By doing that is only 42 students that they've identified, which doesn't solve our problem of under enrollment at Parkway. So I just wanna be clear, there's two distinctive ways and by merging them, we're not solving either one is to dissolve or one is not.

Thank you, Dr. Upland.

Thank you, Dr. Upland.

Yes, sir. Yes, Michael Horn, Representative Dr. Steve Gatlin, the alternate. Mr. Larry Williams isn't here today. I'm going to make a statement, and I'm going to make the motion. My student, my daughter, my kids have gone to Scott Lake. This school is supposed to be Miami Gardens Elementary. Um, from the presentation that we saw at Parkway, I spoke to some of the parents, the services that they are not able to receive. I know my child is receiving a mile away from their school. I sympathize for those students at the school. I did hear a lot of emotional things of I'm going to that school and those things. But we understand I want to make this recommendation for those students, not for anything else. I'm going to make this motion that we accept that recommendation that Dr. Aponte has given to dissolve Parkway.

Thank you. So, Dr. Hernandez, go ahead.

Through the chair, may I ask a procedural question? There was a motion from Beverly that was not seconded. Did it die there? Can we make a new motion?

Correct, it died. We have one pending motion on the floor right now, which was Mr. Horan's motion.

Mr. Who's?

Mr. Horan in the back.

Okay. oh okay so then i second it we we already have from mr horn a motion to dissolve parkway right to go with the recommendation of the account of of the procedure i didn't know if there was another one pending so if that's the case then i second the second motion okay so that motion has now been moved and seconded properly before the committee very good so

all so we're ready to vote on parkway all in favor say aye any opposed if someone opposed i'm gonna do a roll call just for the record if everybody is tell me if i'm correct on that one correct and again just uh be mindful if you are the appointee or the alternate able to vote you must vote in the affirmative or in the negative you cannot abstain

And only one can vote. So if there's the appointee is only the appointee. If it's a supplement, then the other person will do it. Correct. Thank you.

Just a point of information. I did not make a motion. I asked if so, please. Understood, ma'am.

I apologize. And there was a question on a motion made. Right.

So please fix that.

Yes. Then there was no pending motion for Miss Heller. It was it was in question. Thank you, Miss Heller.

okay i would like now to open for discussion a rainbow park do i have someone on the floor that would like to be able to speak regarding rainbow park miss lewis

Hi, I'm Regina Davis, the appointee for Dr. Bendros-Mendigal. The concern about the, I understand the ABCs, the committee's recommendation, but only one concern that I have that the parents are concerned about is transportation for, at the school, the safety of the kids coming, being crossed over 22nd and 27th Avenue.

Through the Chair, Ms. Davis, we confirmed with the City of Miami Gardens, we do have currently 54 students that live on the other side of 22nd Avenue that attend Bunch Park. We have a crossing guard, two crossing guards stationed, one on 22nd Avenue and 158th Street. Give me a minute. And we have, We have Northwest 22nd Avenue and 158th Street. We have crossing guards there. We also have crossing guards on Northwest 22nd Avenue and 162nd Terrace. So we do have crossing guards already available on the 22nd Avenue area because we do have students that are assigned to Bunch Park that do live on that other side as well. So they currently do cross the, and we have crossing guards and that's been there for some time. In reference to the other location, We did confirm our crossing guards as well for Ingram. We have crossing guards on Northwest 30th Avenue and 135th Street, as well as in Sesame Street and 135th Street, as well as in Armand Street and Shazard Boulevard, Opelika Boulevard and Sinbad Avenue and Alibaba Avenue and Cadated Street. If we do need additional crossing guards, we will work with the City of Miami Gardens. They're the ones that provided for the Bunch Park area and then the City of Opa-locka, we'll work with them as well.

Through the chair, I'm concerned now even more, you know why? Because the names of the streets that you mentioned, Opelika, I would suggest that in the safety of the children, do a crime rate in that area. Those kids, those are not middle school or high schools who will be walking to school. Those are elementary school kids. So again, I'm saying to you at the concern of the parents, Is it possible that those little kids can get a bus from Parkway to those schools until we can do a rate of the incidents that take place in those neighborhoods? I frequent those areas often.

Through the chair, that would be something we would definitely work with the transportation office. We will explore that like we've done in the past. We did that when we first transitioned Myrtle Grove to Carroll City Middle. We provided that for a time span until the students and the families were able to accommodate. So we would definitely work with the Department of Transportation to accommodate that.

I would be comfortable with that. I'm sure the parents would as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Zeta. So Ms. Baez.

Thank you. Here we see that there are some students that will be able to choose between Bunch Park and Ingram Elementary. Will those families, considering there's so many unique needs for our students, will they be given time to review the programming and the differences in the demographics before making a choice?

Through the chair, um, we did have the opportunity and we will do it again. We did invite the principles of both. Both of those schools to the community meetings, and they will also open their doors to conduct tours for those families as we've done in the past through ABC. But those two principles, the ones from bunch park and the one from rainbow, I mean, from Dr. Robert Ingram attended the community meetings and we're there also to answer any questions.

Okay.

For the purposes of Rainbow Park, there were recommendations that were made by the community that I think should be embedded within the actual region's proposal. An example was this question around families who are working families and have had a historical community hub of, as an example, uniforms. There are costs that, as a result of these transitions, make it difficult for the ordinary person to absorb. i appreciate that we're going to look into transportation i think i would like a concrete answer and so i will just name that i won't be able to support the region unless there's um confirmation that the recommendations that were provided around transition are actually integrated into the region proposal just want to remind the the

The ABC committee, we are not responsible for clothing or any of that aspect. We are only responsible for what it is on boundaries. And that's all we are able to really talk here. Those comments of that parent, they're valid, but at the end, it is not the prerogative of this committee. Okay, with that, Dr. Hernandez, go ahead. Do we here have a second?

Second.

We have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? So do I need to do the roll call or it's not necessary?

No, it's not necessary as long as we identify Ms. Hussaini as the opposing vote.

Okay, thank you. Now I would like to move to central region. and uh let's uh talk about uh georgia jones ice and the merch of leonard b smith elementary and since we did not have any uh community uh recommendation uh just about the name that i believe that was uh mentioned uh do i have uh someone from any questions from uh from the floor if not can i hear a motion i just have yes beverly

Okay, I just have the question. I just want to be sure that I understood you are going to keep both names for this school. Jones, Ayers and Smith. Are you keeping both names? And this is yes or no.

Through the chair. Yes.

And how is what are the name? How is it going to be?

It will start off with Georgia Jones heirs slash Lenore B. Smith K eight center.

So you're going to use their first names as well as, in other words, instead of Jones as Smith?

Just as it is now. Yes, ma'am.

Okay, because we have, I come from Miami Beach where we have Feinberg Fisher. We took off the first names to make it easier to remember the name Feinberg Fisher. And I'm okay if you want to use the first names, but I just think it would be easier one way or the other. Thank you.

Okay. Love it. Thank you. Yes, go ahead. Go ahead. accept the proposal from the south region office do i have a second go ahead call in a second i have hands uh before i can call for the vote uh mr garcia george garcia central region yes okay go ahead

I move that we accept the central regent's office.

And I second it. Okay. That's what we're voting on, correct? So we have already a motion on the floor. Do we have a second? Okay, we have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Move. So now we go to Phyllis Whitley. and then of course it's frederick douglas but the reality the school that gets impacted at this moment and is it the boundary you know you know if not i won't make it very complicated can i choose okay phyllis whitley any questions regarding phyllis whitley board yes dr hernandez what um what is phyllis will be going to be

Through the chair, Dr. Hernandez, you mean with the remaining building after we, as Dr. Aponte stated, all three of us actually sit on the Educational Enterprise Asset Development Team, and they look at all of our schools. And as we move through the process, we've already submitted the names of possible recommendations. But of course, we can't move forward with anything until the actual recommendations are voted on. So at this particular time, we lend ourselves to the educational enterprise asset development team that will be making that decision.

Through the chair. Thank you, Ms. Swain. Dr. Hernandez, let me also say that there's a board item that was represented for Phyllis Wheatley. And so there is a redevelopment that's actually taking place to include workforce housing and so forth and so on. So that's what's actually going to happen to that property and potentially looking to create something creative in the Phyllis Wheatley area. So that's the plan for that.

Thank you so much because it's really, I don't know if the other members of the committee feel the same way, but I feel that if I'm sitting here making decisions about the change that the school is no longer going to be a school, I really would like to know what are the plans. I understand that nothing can be set until we decide that that's what's going to happen to the school. But at least the plans, I don't know how the rest of the committee feels, but I feel it would be very, very appropriate for us to know what are in the plans.

Through the chair.

Hold on, I have someone in the back and then I'll recognize you.

Yes. So I just want to revisit a conversation that we had on the end of last year, ABC committee, where Dr. Dotris came in and said that these properties we do not own and that he would put together a strategic team to assess. And then also, once we get before we make a decision on the properties, that he will also include the community recommendations on what to do with the properties, properties, because the taxpayers are the ones that are truly on the business. I just want to remind us, yes, the members, that's what's been communicated to us. Thank you. Go ahead with the question.

Through the chair, piggyback off of that, I believe that the asset management falls outside of our purview as a committee. And while it is nice, I think it does put a burden within the administration to come back to us with those plans. However, if possible, yes, very nice, but it does fall very well outside of our purview.

Yes, miss miss yes just for the distribution between the two schools. Paul dunbar and Frederick Douglas are the Faculty members also joining the students in the new schools or how is that going to work and how's like the consistency going to be maintained.

Yes, through the chair. Any faculty member that wants to join either team and that we have the availability there, of course, they will be welcome there. As you can see, Frederick Douglass has the majority of the students that will be attending. In November of 2024, they did receive 144 additional seats. uh that were there so we that's why when we looked at the boundaries the majority of the kids went there so it is our hope that the the families that and and more so the faculty and staff members will want to go to be able to go over to uh Frederick Douglass and of course we will welcome them and any other school that's in our area that they'd like to attend we'll feel free to help them to do that and that's what the region does help them to be able to move over to the schools

Through you, Chair, just the Central Region does an excellent job in making sure that the staff, either one of us will transition to the schools with the children. We have no complaints. I'm indebted to the community a lot, and the staff and the children, and we've had no complaints about any closure where the staff was affected in a negative way.

Thank you. Can I have a motion to ask a question or do I have another question?

Motion to ask the question.

Thank you.

Motion to vote on.

Thank you. Do I have a second? All in favor say aye. I want to clarify that the motion that was on the floor right now was regarding central region, the school being impacted fairly swiftly with the changes of those boundaries. You're welcome. We'll continue with central region.

That was not opposition votes.

It was some favor. Um now we're gonna move to the impact school in this case is Miami Springs Middle. But we're voting on the proposal of central region to a close Miami Springs Middle and actually Miami Springs senior high to be converted into a nine

It's 12.

I'm 612.

Thank you for the correction.

Going blind memory. And any comments regarding the recommendation of the region?

I move that we pass it.

May I call on a second, please? I barely I can hear you.

I moved to pass it.

Okay, I feel that I have someone first that has a question. Go ahead.

yes go ahead through the chair um i just wanted to to provide some comment some commentary to my fellow board members um so the school school board member danny's been hosted at town hall uh for this specific merger and it was very successful there was over 300 attendees and community output was highly present the majority of the community is in favor and actually the few negative thoughts were kind of doubt of the district being able to make it happen because they wanted to make it happen throughout the years. So I just wanted to make sure that you guys knew that we were present out in the community and that the community was active and that their recommendations were heard from community school board member, Dania Espino.

I corroborate that that meeting was probably one of the best attending as long as airbase as well. Go ahead. Now, Beverly, please.

I made a motion and I motion again and who seconded I think so we have a motion and Dr. Hernandez.

Same question. I'd like to know what are the plans for Miami Springs? Middle

through the chair um thank you again dr hernandez i'm going back to that asset development team right now there's some solicitation that are taking place and i also know that there's also been communications with the city of miami springs police department so we're in the process of trying to iron something out as related to the use of that facility and i think we can both agree the city of miami springs is doing this it's actually growing and there's a need as well

Very good. Thank you so much.

So since we have a motion and I want to be very clear that the motion is regarding the closure of Miami Springs Middle and as a facility and the fusion of the boundaries for Miami Spring Senior High to be six to 12. the motion is being by beverly and second by mr dr mr garcia george garcia all in favor say aye any opposed so then it's unanimous okay let's go to um the south region and let's start with airbase okay so Number one, I wanna honestly thank you again, the participation of all the parents. I was really happy to hear that there were more than 400 points of entry to the committee. Basically what I have heard from the community from that day and from the speakers is for us to open for discussion right now, even though we do not have a physical presentation that was made into slides. I think that what I hear, and I want for you to corroborate that to me, and of course to listen to your input, what I hear that the community wants is that they do not want to be divided. What they want is to all of them to transition into the Mandarin building. At least that is my perception of what the community is expressing. With that, I would like to be able to open the discussion among all of us and to hear from the board the recommendations. Thank you. Dr. Hernandez.

for the region superintendent, if I may.

Please.

Dr. Villalobos, what is the reason why the, what is the reason for the region's, recommendation why what is there a reason why uh you thought it was best to divide the group by in the lower academy yes uh through the chair uh your microphone please

It's on. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yes. Through the chair. So when we looked at Mandarin Lakes and the declining enrollment and fifteen hundred available student stations there, and then we looked at Air Base with eleven hundred student stations, yet every year we leave over seven hundred student applications on the table that cannot transfer. to the Air Base School because we just don't have the availability and the seats. So in one hand, you're looking at the community and parents that want Air Base and they have a phenomenal product as discussed today and we've heard. you know, other parents want an opportunity to be a part of that as well. So in order for us to offer them that opportunity, we needed to really expand, right, and give them that choice. So in doing so, the plan was to then have the current fifth, sixth, and seventh graders that next year will be sixth, seventh, and eighth to actually go to Mandarin Lakes K-8, have a separate wing a separate building that would be completely theirs, and that would be the upper academy for Air Base, which then now leaves open seats at the lower academy at Air Base so that we can continue to accept applications of over 700 parents that apply along with their children. So that was the rationale and the reasoning for that. I hope that answers your question.

It does. And through the chair, I have a clarification. May I? Question.

Yes, go ahead, please.

In that case, what happens with air base? It stays as a proposal is for it to stay as an elementary school.

So through the chair, yes. So air base would be the lower academy and they would accept more applications and have a larger impact. And then at the Mandarin Lakes, which would now be the air base upper academy, we would do the same and we will continue to grow them both simultaneously so we can fill both of those capacities at each side.

Does Mandarin currently have elementary age students?

They do. So Mandarin Lakes, the proposal also is that those sixth and seventh and eighth graders next year would then go either to IB PESCO or would go to Leisure City. And that's where the boundary changes that we discussed would go, which would then leave open room for the current middle school students that are at Air Base K-8. Remaining would be the elementary K-5, right? But then they would transition one year at a time out of the current Mandarin boundary and into the new IB PESCO and Leisure City boundary. So it would be a slow transition. That is the current proposal.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Yes, Ms. Bice.

Through the chair, I have a question. Is the idea to keep Air Base as an elementary magnet, or is it to eventually start as they move over from lower academy to upper academy to start transitioning them into the new space through the chair?

So through the chair, Air Base K-8 would continue to be a district-wide magnet. whether it's the lower academy or the upper academy, it would still be a district-wide magnet that would not change. The boundaries that we're discussing would be the boundaries for the current Mandarin Lakes K-8 students that would transition into either IB Pesco or Leisure City K-8.

But through the chair. Right now, my question is, there's a lower academy in one building and an upper academy in the other. Are those lower academy students, when they have to go to 6th, 7th, and 8th, are they going to move over to the new building?

At this point, yes.

Great.

That is a proposal, I guess. That is a proposal.

Okay. So there is an idea that eventually they will all be going over to Mandarin Lakes.

No.

No, no, not right now. I mean, eventually. Okay.

No, so the bifurcation here is that you would still grow the elementary and have an upper academy and a lower academy that we would fill and then upper academy that we would fill. Right, got it.

But through the chair, then eventually you said that those in the lower academy currently will move when they go to 6th, 7th, 8th to the upper.

The Mandarin students that are in the elementary would actually move into the IB Pesco or the Leisure City because of the boundary changes.

What about the Air Base students in the lower academy?

The lower academy would remain at Air Base.

And where do they go when they go to the upper academy?

They would go to Mandarin Lake.

Correct. So we're on the same page. So moving... All of the K through eight to Mandarin does that since you're moving the current Mandarin students and moving the full air base K through eight to Mandarin doesn't that still even allow for room in the new in the Mandarin building through the chair right.

Through the chair, Ms. Beyes-Geller, the answer is yes. Okay, the answer is yes. And basically what the region was proposing, creating the upper academy, lower academy, once again, the overall majority of the voices from the parents basically would like what you just described, moving the whole entire faculty over. And once again, when we talk about air base, air base, the total capacity is about 1,100. Whereas when it comes to Mandarin, the capacity is at 1500. And so going back to your initial question, yes, it does solve that problem as well.

Okay. So.

Okay. Can I, can I, I will miss best. I would like, hold on a second. I would like to be able to recognize Dr. Cabrera that she has some information to provide, and then I will go back, please.

Yes, I wanted to point out, because we're discussing seat capacity, both Airbase and Mandarin have a specific seat capacity. And I'm just going to utilize the numbers that were given right now. Airbase has 1,100 seats available, which means that all of the students that are applying in a K-3 model are going into a 1,000 seat capacity. The idea of using Mandarin is this is another facility that has about 1,500 seats. When you combine the two, now we're talking about 2,600 seats that will be available for the air base wall-to-wall magnet program, except that the elementary will be housed in the lower academy and the six through eight house in the upper academy so the question is when they go through the elementary will they eventually articulate to the middle school upper academy if they choose to do so yes the seats will be available mr villalobos pointed out that at the beginning of the year every year we have to turn away over 700 plus applications i also want to highlight that during your presentation he pointed out the distribution of the mandarin students where they go now and if you look at it there's 333 and another 202 that are attending charter schools they live in the mandarin boundary, but they are not going to Mandarin. They're going to charter. Some of those students are part of those 700 that we did not accept into the air base. So by increasing those capacity, we are now going to be bringing in additional students. And this is a competitive game. We are being asked to offer programs that parents desire. They desire the air base program. Therefore, we have to increase the seats. I just wanted to make that point.

Thank you, everybody. It is not a time for discussion. I need order from the audience. All of you had the opportunity to be able to speak. We could really hear you well. And now is the time for the board to be able to listen and to have conversation among all us. So please, the same way that we respect you when you were on the podium, we would like for you to be able to allow this meeting to be correct to be conducted correctly. Thank you. Go ahead, Mr Garcia.

Um, quick question in reference to sea capacity. Um, at Air Base. Currently we have 1100 seats. So but it's a K eight. When we remove the upper academy, how many seats does that open up for elementary?

You're looking at approximately 400 seats.

So we would be able to increase the number of students we capture at the elementary level about 400 increase? Yes, sir. At Mandarin, we have 1,500? Yes. So how many... how many right now 400 would occupy that building that you're um designing for airbase academy or the upper academy what will be the capacity that we will be offering to airbase upper academy in its totality when we phase this all in so at at this point what we have a mandarin lakes

555 students so with that 500 students roughly that still leaves us a thousand seats that we have available so depending on how the breakdown is of those applications we could very well if they meet the criteria right accept as many students as possible so the proposal is ultimately to phase mandarin out and make it all airbase correct

Correct. Is that correct? That is correct. So that would capture, as Dr. Cabrera just said, it would really make it 2,600 students for air race.

Eventually, every building, the lower academy and the upper academy would be air base. The difference here is that there would be a separation between the lower academy and the upper academy. Thank you.

Dr Hernandez.

The Chair, I have a question dealing with the curriculum and the program programmatic question um. yeah. One question has to do with the direct articulation and the other one has to do with the students who are in the elementary program at Air Base. That's a special program is the international program. Are those students required to apply then for the middle school or would it be an automatic thing? No.

Through the chair.

They're already automatically accepted. They would be automatically accepted. Now, let's look at the ones in Mandarin. The elementary students, they're not in the program.

No.

How could they move into the program without having had the program in the lower grades?

through the chair the mandarin students that are currently there would be phased out one year at a time either to ib pesco or to leisure city k8 so that's that's the plan eventually that building would be all your air base k8

Oh, yes.

If I may, through the chair to Mr. Villalobos, is there a scenario in which air base can transition in its entirety and maybe swap out the other students into the air base location so that the program could transition in its entirety and not have the two separate locations for the time being? the situation with doing that at this point would that now you leave an entire building open right and available for seats are you talking about right transitioning the students at mandarin transitioning them to that other building so that the air base program can transition both the lower and upper academy simultaneously to the mandarin location

that that was not what was on the proposal we have heard from the community that that's also uh was a recommendation that was made um but that could be something that could be considered

Logistically, would that be would that be plausible? I defer to you because I'm not sure on the logistics.

Logistically, it would be a little difficult to do all at once, only because now you've got to make sure that there is room at both schools immediately and that we have to, you know, make sure that teachers and so on and so forth transition with those students into either IB PESCO or Leisure City K-8.

Or into Air Base.

That's what you're saying, to the Air Base building.

Right. If the students that are currently at the Mandarin building, if they could transition to Air Base, just swapping.

Oh, you mean swapping the buildings?

Correct. Since there's more seats available at Mandarin, is it feasible? Would it be feasible?

Well, that was one of the recommendations. That's something that obviously with the numbers that we currently have at Air Base Elementary, 1100 would easily fit into the 1500 student stations that Mandarin has and vice versa. That would be something that When you look at the numbers. Yes, it can happen, but that still doesn't resolve the issue of student seats and acquiring more students seats, you know, for air base K eight because it's a product that other individuals really enjoy and other parents enjoying would love to have

Correct. I guess to appease the concerns of the parents, and I do understand, I was part of a community where there was a school where both the elementary and the middle components worked simultaneously. And it does develop a community feeling that can be breached if there is a separation. So to appease that at this moment, I was just deferring to you to see if there could be a world in which we could have the best of everything.

Agreed. Operationally, just to answer your question, yes. Thank you so much.

Through the chair, now being that that option has been explored and is a feasibility, do we have to vote on this today or could we have the administration come back to us with that proposal?

I will defer to Ligo.

Through the chair, you have you have one proposal, you can vote that proposal up, you can vote that proposal down, you can make a secondary motion that staff explore this with the understanding that it will substantially affect the timelines and I'll let staff speak to that, but it's at the will of the committee.

Through the chair, may I make a motion to explore the secondary option that the administration may present to us at a later date?

the chair i'm sorry i think that's the first motion we have pending that's been seconded by ms heller so it's now open for discussion through the chair since we have a motion that is on the floor because it has uh it is open for discussion right now yeah yeah we had a second so it is open for discussion okay i i have a point of clarification if i made through the chair please go ahead the motion that was made and seconded

by nature of that motion, then what we're actually voting on is a no vote to the proposal from the region. Is that correct?

i believe that the motion and if you want to repeat the motion but i believe the way that i understood the motion is for us in this moment to be able to uh refer to the region correct i believe that the motion has made and could please as the maker of the motion correct me if i'm wrong would be to send the

newly discussed proposal back to staff to analyze um so effectively it would be a no vote on the and the district's recommendation at this time correct through the chair question and it's a procedural one is it feasible to vote on the region recommendation and the recommendation from the parents Procedurally, as we stand, unfortunately, all we have is the single motion, and that's all we can entertain at one time. So we have one motion pending right now, seconded by Ms. Heller, and that is ostensibly, which would be a denial of the district's proposal and for the district to come back at a later date to present to this committee.

Duly noted.

could it be procedurally correct to change the language to table the voting on the region's proposal?

So it gets more complicated. So because it's been motioned and seconded, the motion now belongs to the committee. So the committee can vote to alter and the committee can vote to table. You can also continue on discussion, but those are kind of the options as the motion now belongs to the committee since it's been made and seconded.

Thank you.

miss heller procedurally if you if you are voting for if you are voting for staff to research a secondary option and then come back i guess technically whether it would be a technical no vote for the district's proposal now or if it would be a later vote in as affirmatively poised by the new proposal we would have to come back for a secondary meeting no matter so Joseph Baeta, Supt of Schools, He, Him, ostensibly what the motion is and, again, if we can if we can remake the motion would be for a district to go back and research the proposal, wherein you would see a swap of the air base children to the Mandarin lakes and the Mandarin lakes to air base.

Joseph Baeta, Supt of Schools, He, Him, Go ahead, George.

Joseph Baeta, Supt of Schools, He, Him, Again, as a point of clarification, I got the first part. Joseph Baeta, Supt of Schools, He, Him, What type timeframe, would we be looking at. that the district would need in order to bring that proposal back to us? And how soon would it be? And would there need to be new community meetings?

Legally speaking, you can have no public meetings for a posted seven days. So it would be at a minimum seven days, and then I would defer to staff on the community meetings and the timeframe needed to draft up a new proposal.

Okay, I just want to say something go ahead, please i'm off the call for the question.

If there's other individuals who is to speak a call to the question now requires a two thirds vote as the Chair was pending speaking so.

yeah I want to I just want to remind the committee. Right now, another situation that we have within the school system that and likeness cover up maybe to be able to speak on this, that is. There are some people that can apply for those space and those seats this call co location. That also some of the actions that the staff are looking. Not only to give the opportunity, the way that I understand this to 700 more applicants that they would like to be able to get the service from they kind of public schools that we are not able to service them because of lack of space as they are presenting to us. but also we have a situation that if we delay these decisions, and I'm talking to all of you as a proposed, someone that really likes public education, if we delay this decision, we can open ourselves and be vulnerable. and i would like to be able to ask that to dr cabrera for your guidance regarding if those facilities if we delay the decision or that we have been presented by the region we we can uh because of the level of population that the students that they live in that area that will create a threat regarding the coexist the coalition

I mean, in terms of the programs, we have two schools. We have Mandarin KA, and we have Air Base KA. What was brought to this committee was the proposal to expand the seats of Air Base. That was done through the lens of an academic program, which means that OIT, the Office of Academic and Transformation, office of choice looked at this and said hey we have a product here that is in demand and parents want we want to expand the seats available we have looked at the area we know how many students are opting in or opting out we understand the numbers and uh the option here is that Moving airbase to Mandarin, is that possible? Yes. You're talking 1,100 and 1,500. Obviously, they do fit. The increase in the seats will then be, you know, about 400 versus an increase of 1,500. There are many aspects to look at, but... It is this committee that will need to vote today in terms of the students are being housed and we're going to do whatever it takes, whether they're air based or Mandarin students, they're going to have a school and we're going to make sure they have the best programs. I'm not quite sure what question I'm being asked to answer, but if the vision is that air base all of the students there and the teachers there need to move over to mandarin and that is something the committee wants to contemplate then that is a possibility but um it's just a matter of seats and um there is funding associated with all of this and every every child is an fde child and there are funds so ideally what we want to do is we want to meet the demands of our communities and our parents and not just a particular group of parents that are there now because there are other parents who apply and don't get in.

through the chair. Due to timeline constraints, Mr. Attorney, is it possible for us to vote this as it currently stands down, take a brief break so that Mr. Villalobos and the team can have a conversation and then possibly come back with a new, more acceptable proposal?

Yeah, absolutely. If the motion maker, again, and I keep paraphrasing, but the request would be to have staff review it. If this gets voted through and staff can review and then report back immediately, fantastic. There was no second on the call to question. And a second on a call to question, any motion which obviates conversation requires a two-thirds majority vote.

The questions we did was ask, it was, yeah, hold on a second. Let me, Dr. Hernandez, I'm going to grab control a minute and I'm going to ask legal staff and I'm going to do the will of the board. You instructed that the question could not be called because I had something to say, but a question was called. So my question to you now is I do feel that parliamentarily I need to be able to call the question.

At this point, if conversation's exhausted... Is the conversation exhausted, correct?

so or if i just want to be very clear to the maker of the proposed can you please state very clearly to the committee what at this moment what is what you are proposing so the person who seconded as well understand exactly what second because i believe that she has second thoughts about that based on how the conversation has gone And I want to make very clear that the person that seconded also is aware of what was seconded. Go ahead.

The motion as it stands now would be for the administration to come back with the with provides possibilities of the of the second option of the proposal that was the initial motion. I guess the confusion was between if that automatically meant it was an it was a no vote or not I guess legal counsel said if the purple if the staff a demonstration can come back with a proposal within the boundaries of time that we are currently in it would not automatically need that so the proposal would be for administration to take a break and explore the second option and come back to us within this meeting within this meeting correct this meeting do you agree to second that okay

Go ahead. I have a question now.

All right. I have discussion on that on that motion that's now been seconded.

Absolutely. Go ahead.

Yes. Yes. The the idea is not to create vacant seats at air base. And I understand the concern where we don't want to then leave empty seats that could potentially expose that location. So is there, since you're going to be doing some exploring, and my intention was not to cause a lot of commotion, but to explore something different, is there a possibility that those now empty seats at Air Base can be utilized for maybe perhaps the younger students that are coming into the program In an effort to not separate those that are already there, but still have those seats available for those 700 plus applicants that do not get accepted every year and have those seats at airbase so that they can be utilized and not stay empty. I don't know if I made myself clear. Maybe I'm just talking in circles.

You did through the chair will explore that.

Okay, they'll take that in consideration. Now, before I go ahead and call for the question, staff, you hear the motion. How much time do you need a break for me to be able to let know? Also, because we need to be able to meaningful for the time of everybody that is here. I just need to ask you, how much time do you need for that break? 15 minutes? Wow, that's a very good brainstorming. I would like to give them 20 minutes. Is that OK with you guys? OK. Let's call all of us the questions so we break for 20 minutes, and then we'll come back. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? You opposed? Why did we vote? You're opposed. You're opposed to the break. You're opposed to the break. All in a second. Now, I think that we need to be able to do a roll call now. Okay. All I'm going to do a roll call, please. And Mr. Goliath, you oppose for the break. Mr. Garcia.

Okay.

through the chair we we have a point of clarification there have been motions that have been made and seconded then there were adjustments to the motion that were made and seconded and so it's been difficult to keep track what are we what actually we clarified i'm sorry miss hosini we clarified before we were going to go on the boat that the motion that is right now is to allow the staff to come back to us with a new proposal for us to take in consideration within 20 minutes, combining the different things that we have actually talk during this meeting from the community input from the community of this board that's what was being voted right now and and that's exactly very clear i don't think that there's a doubt of that i'm letting you know that i'm having struggle i'm struggling with following which is why i just want to make clear that we we asked for a clarification or the question before we call the question

So I think the rumbling that we're hearing is, are they opposing because of the amount of time of the break, or are they opposing because of the break?

I have not opened that discussion, and I cannot assume what the people say yes or no. The only thing that I can do is go by the will of the board. And at this moment, I believe that the yes have it. so we will break for 20 minutes and we'll come back in 20 minutes to hear the recommendation of the board of the staff thank you let's start the meeting again once again i want to thank everybody for for their patience and uh Let's listen to the staff recommendation and then we'll continue with the meeting. Thank you.

Absolutely. Through the chair. Through the chair, first and foremost, thank you to the attendance boundary committee members as well for giving us this time to actually come back and rethink the current proposal. After careful consideration, listening to the community, listening to so many parents and staff members as well, over 400, taking those things into consideration, we've made a decision to dissolve the mandarin boundary all together that's number one in dissolving the mandarin boundary all together and then taking those students that are currently at air base k-8 and moving them in its entirety to the Mandarin Lakes K-8 current building, renaming that school Air Base K-8 will allow us to add another 400 seats. So we will give other parents the opportunity to select Air Base K-8 to a greater degree. That will also maintain and sustain the great culture and the academic programs that are currently at Air Base K-8. That is our recommendation.

I move to support the recommendation.

OK. Dr. Hernandez, go ahead.

through the chair what happens to the students who are currently in mandarin it's a great question dr hernandez so in dissolving the boundary of mandarin lakes k8 remember that we already had established boundaries for ib pesco and also leisure city k8 so those students that are currently living in those areas right now that are currently at mandarin lakes would then go to ib pesco or Leisure City K-8, according to those boundaries that have already been established. That is the proposal.

So that proposal satisfies the parents of Air Base. Does it satisfy the parents of Mandarin who are being moved elsewhere?

Through the chair, Dr. Hernandez, that's a very good question. In reference to the question itself, the answer is definitely yes, because at the end of the day, when you talk about Leisure City and you talk about PESCO, those are also two of our premier schools. So now those families and those students from Mandarin, they also get an opportunity to get a world-class education in two of our most premier schools.

How do we know that? Those parents have not been

given the opportunity to to know of what the plan is have they through the chair through the chair respectfully dr hernandez we did go and have a abc community meeting um at mandarin so they were advised that once again as far as the boundary itself is concerned they were aware that pesco and of course leisure city were the two schools that they were going to feed into

So they know it. So those parents that are those students that are now in Mandarin know that they were going to go to Pesco?

Through the chair, Dr. Hernandez, yes.

Okay, okay, okay. Thank you.

Question. Do you have any other question? No, I just want to go ahead, Ms. Hussini.

Yes, I just want to make sure. With respect to, I've heard this before, there's another committee with respect to the school buildings, but Air Base K-8 will not service any students within the current named building. Is that right?

Through the chair, that is correct. At this time, then we would have to see what it is that we can do with Air Base, and that would go back to the Enterprise Committee management team and review that.

Okay, just wanna say thank you so much for listening to the community and to my peers on the committee for the work we're doing today.

through the chair if i may and just just a point of clarification obviously that what's happening today is a recommendation that recommendation as you know is taken to the board and the board votes on it so there would be no movement on any of the buildings until that point and even then there are a number of factors that are far beyond the control of not just this committee but but even staff members up here about what is happening with potentially vacant buildings what could be happening anything like that so just to make everybody aware i know that that's been a very large point of concern for this committee and i know it's probably unsatisfying for us to continue to say hey we don't know where it's beyond the scope but we don't know because it's beyond the scope at this point thank you so i hear there was some motion

And then it was the second, correct? Okay. Who was the maker of the motion to accept it? Beverly. And then George seconded. Okay. Do we have more discussion? If not for us to call the question. Okay. I'll call the question. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any oppose? Okay. So unanimously. So parents of her base, you were heard and you can go home. before the traffic hits you hard. Well, we'll continue with our meeting. So let's do Richmond and biotech. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. Okay, I'm sorry. I'll get there. Okay, so let's do biotech enrichment. Okay. Any recommended? I think that there's the recommendation only from biotech and enrichment from from staff. No, do I hear any? Any? Any comments? Yes, go ahead. Miss Cassini.

Okay. So I grew up in that area. there was uh i did support community members who were not able to make it today they did not have a counter proposal but there were recommendations that were shared with respect to the naming of the school building with respect to honoring the legacy of richmond middle and perhaps honoring a wing to talk about the the legacy of the historical black neighborhood and To ensure that matriculation for students who are in the feeder pattern at the middle school level would have priority to be able to matriculate into the magnet program in the ninth grade level and i'm just wondering if if those maybe the district could speak to those recommendations and requests.

Through the chair, Ms. Hosseini. Yes, that's a good recommendation. No different how when we spoke earlier in the central region with Georgia Jones and Lenora B. Smith, I think it's a good recommendation for community identity. So I'm not opposed to it. I'm open to it. And I'm quite sure the region is as well. In reference to the transportation aspect, that is something that we will continue to explore. And as always, I continue to say the safety and security of our kids is our paramount responsibility, and we'll continue to do exactly what's right by our kids.

And through the chair also important at the programmatic impact as well, those are the things that we're going to add to Richmond Heights so that way they have an opportunity, as I discussed earlier, to apply to biotech and be a part of that school in the future as well.

Okay, do I have any other question. Can I have a someone from the floor to be able to bring a motion to accept the recommendation of the. Of the staff, George Garcia, thank you. Who seconds it, please? Me. Very good. All in favor, say aye. Okay, motion approved. Now we have Robert Rosamottam. We have two proposals from the staff and the proposal from the community. Someone would like to speak to this or I bring one proposal first and then the other proposal and we vote. I'm gonna bring the proposal from the staff Any discussion to it? Yes, Dr. Hernandez. Through the chair, I could not hear what the question was. Yes, go ahead.

Through the chair, if you don't mind.

The same question I always have. What are the plans for the school?

don't know dr hernandez i think i i disagree i i think that that school already has still has base because i went to that meeting and i think at that school dr hernandez still has a school in that school that is uh for uh autism so that that facility will continue to serve the autism school

so that will i hope that that answers your question but i will let staff to answer through the chair yes you're absolutely correct we currently have the south florida autism center that's there uh and uh they're looking to continue to grow that program so when you look at the building itself the building is still going to be there operable the name of the building would still be there as well And then there may be future operational needs for that building. We are looking to to build a new school further down at Arthur and Polly Maze. And that is a building that has been considered at some point to Actually, maybe how some of the students there, so there are considerations for that building in the future as those things and projects are taking place, but through the enterprise asset committee meeting, we can actually have those conversations as well.

To the chair, if I may just add on a tidbit to that because I know that we have Community representation that's actually here as well and came and actually spoke. Hopefully, they're hearing us correctly when it comes down to RR Moten. Once again, the school is not closing. The school is going to continue to be in the community where it's at. Right now, it's servicing a special need group of kids. It gives us an opportunity to continue to expand that. But at the end of the day, I want you to make sure when you walk away from here, you know that the school does exist and it's still serving the intended purpose of the community, which are kids.

Thank you.

Do I hear a motion to vote?

I move that we vote on the region's superintendent's, on the region's proposal.

Do I have a second? Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Since we have a unanimous, we don't need to go to the next proposal. Thank you. Now we need to move to... through the chair uh arthur and paulie mays and pineville through the chair um congratulations by the way on the promotion thank you mr commissioner by now i feel it okay so pine villa which is Basically, the fusion, correct, of Pine Builder and Arthur? Yes. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I need to clarify now.

Okay, thank you.

Um, fine bill.

Can we anyone wants to be able to talk about the proposal of Pamela, please? We have a second all in favor say aye. Any opposed? we did prime builder so now south reach open for discussion hearing none do i have a second having a second all in favor say aye any opposed they're hearing a pose that is pass I think we got all the schools instead. So now on the next point of the agenda, I requested for me to have a little bit of talk to all of you. and i would like to be able to request a staff and first you the board if i can have a motion from the floor i think that this process needs to meet needs to move to start early in the year i think that it will be very important for us and for the staff to have more time and for us to be able to have more time to be able to talk to the community if the advice schools or the target schools are announced in the month of May and actually do the things earlier. So we are done by the month of December. And then any parents that they have magnet choices or questions and all that, they have more time to really think about make their own decisions and we do not encounter things that we encountered with the airbase and others so my question to the staff is and also to legal if is this something that we can do as a preview and to bring that recommendation for that change of timeline on the abc And if that is possible, then I would like to be able to open it to the committee to then open it for discussion and then for the approval or denial, all that.

Through the chair, yes. You could make a recommendation that staff does a review of the timeline and come back and... ostensibly present if this would be something they would be able to do if this is something they would not be able to do hopefully not in 20 minutes in the back but um but but that that is a proper motion for staff to review okay um i would like to go to really open this uh for discussion if you want to discuss it if not just i need a motion from florida so i cannot do it myself so yes dr hernandez

I don't know if the chairs can make motion so that's why parliamentarily I feel that.

Through the Chair generally know, but in sorry Dr and as but yes, you can. Just generally I can generally in most parliamentary bodies you're not allowed to, but we make a special exception of school board bodies that you are able to make a motion.

Okay, so I just want to make sure that I don't break any parliamentary decisions well my motion is that. Our job for this committee will have to be able to start if a staff agrees with this and they said that they can do it okay in the month of May, where we will have to meet will have to elect a new chair, we have to start the note the whole process, but instead of doing it. in the month of february like you know we actually do it in may and we give more time for all the community meetings and for all the things that they need to to happen that is my motion and i need i want to open it for discussion and if i have a second there is no discussion we have a second yes dr hernandez

PB, Lupita D Montoya- Would you accept a friendly amendment to word it to the wording to say that staff explores the possibility of that data.

Yeah, same thing. Same thing. Through the chair. Through the chair. Let me just kind of quickly, if it's okay.

I accept the motion. I accept the friendly. I really accept the friendly motion.

Through the chair, if I could just add a little tad bit of context to what has been said. requested or recommended, let me also say that board member Espino and also board member Santos have also expressed a desire to potentially bring a board item to do exactly what you're saying as well. So it will be in line with what we all perceive we need to make adjustments to. Okay, thank you.

So then, since we had a second, if someone wants to be able to talk about it or not, yes, go ahead in the back.

Okay, I said I agree that we should start earlier. However, I just want to take into account that we use the information from the beginning of the school year to predict future behavior. So just let's keep that in mind as we make our decision for the timeline. Thank you.

Okay, so all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? No. So then the motion passes. Yes, Dr. Beverly.

I would like to make a motion and it's, can we have a water or something at every meeting? I don't know if I need a motion, but you know, we sit here so long and it's just, it would be nice.

on behalf of this on behalf of the staff on behalf of the staff i want to i want to be on behalf of the staff i want to say that because this meeting was on the auditorium and i agree with you we need water and something i totally agree with you i just and they brought it to us late but they did brought it so i want to thank you and if you just need if this is not often normally they always take care of good off they normally have water and things for us when we when we meet in in smaller rooms this is just an exception and i feel that uh they reacted quick and they were able to i think that if we say that it should be it should be not right that that not some days yes sometimes Take a note and it's on the minutes, by the way.

You want to take them out?

Seriously, I'm making... Well, if you're making a motion... Yes. Okay, we have a motion and we have a second. So all in favor say aye.

Aye. Okay. i i would like through the chair i don't believe we'll be able to mandate that but staff will do their best to accommodate it thank you right there yes yeah uh for the mix yeah and um i would like to be able to give the warhead of mrs hussein

Thank you so much. I really appreciated the motion earlier about revisiting the timeline. I just, I was curious because when we took the break, there were parents that approached and shared that their initial recommendation was the one that we actually voted on and passed. And I do wonder when we think about the timeline in order to give the district a I think one of the pieces that I wanna just highlight or underscore is the time between the community meeting and the time between this meeting so that the district has enough time to revisit that. So we don't have to do that in this public forum.

Thank you for your comments, and I think staff will take that in consideration as well. Thank you. Well, go ahead, Dr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Commissioner. Through the chair.

Through the chair, you can thank me for that.

Through the chair, I just want to humbly thank each and every one of you not only for your service, but also for your thoughtful recommendations. I also want to thank you for your patience I said it earlier, right now we're dealing with unprecedented times and it requires all of us to really get together and make informed decision that's going to benefit our students. I continue to say our moral compass is our students and we want to offer them the world and I feel as if that Dade County Public Schools does exactly that. We are their best choice and we want to continue to demonstrate that. I also want to beg you for your patience because I know as we venture into next school year, we will have even more difficult decisions that we need to make. However, I personally feel as if that as long as we know what our North Stars are or is, And we say that is what's best for our kids. I personally feel as if that the decisions and the recommendations that are being brought forward is for the betterment of our students betterment for the viable continuation of that day county public schools. So, at the end of the day, once again, thank you for your service and for the parents that were here. I hopefully they believe that democracy does exist by voicing their concerns. It forces us to listen. And at the end of the day, I would like to think that the decisions that were made were made for what's best for those communities. And once again, thank you for your time.

Okay. Do I hear a motion to finish the meeting motion to adjourn? Very good. A second. All in favor. So meeting adjourned at 1.33. Thank you.