Fiscal Accountability and Government Relations Committee - Regular Meeting

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next order of business is to move the e-items to the floor. May I get a motion to move them? All in favor? Okay. Looks like we're going to have a quick one this week, so. Mr. Goodman, you're up first and you're the only one up with E86 through E89.

Questions or comments? Seeing none, next.

Any questions or comments, fellow board members? Okay, seeing none, all E items have now been discussed. We thank you, Mr. Goodman, for your quick review of them. We will now take a motion to recommend all the E items to the board meeting of August 11th. All in favor? Okay, the next order of business to move the H items to the floor. Can I get a motion? Move it. All in favor? Aye. Okay, our only H item is H10, and that's by board member Espino. Sir, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Colleagues, we've talked about marketing our schools. extensively in order to not only showcase what each one of them is doing, but also to be part of our recruitment plan for teachers and students alike. We've been looking at, and we have policies on the books that establishes a number of practices that are tailored to their schools, such as brochures, automated communications, open houses. We're looking at holistically social media policies and schools, century school planning, as Board Member Santos' item proffered recently. But this item looks to build on that by working to examine whether

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

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

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

Thank you so much, and thank you Board Member Espino as well for bringing this item. We all know that marketing and the social media world is where everybody gets their news nowadays. I actually want to compliment a lot of our schools that I've actually been seeing on my feed coming up as they're coming back with administrators sharing the news, that they're excited to see our students that come back. But as it was said by Board Member Blanco, not every school has the resources or the talent needed to be able to run these exercises. I mean, there's a lot of tools out there nowadays that are av

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

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

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

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

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

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

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