Fiscal Accountability and Government Relations Committee - Regular Meeting

11 o'clock, sorry. Welcome to the Fiscal Accountability Government Relations Committee meeting for Wednesday, July 15th, 2026. I'm now calling the meeting to order. Can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Board Member Espino. and justice for all. We can remain silent for a moment of silence. Okay, before we get started, I'd like to state the committee membership for this committee. You have myself, Roberto Alonso as chair, Mr. Danny Espino as vice chair, Ms. Luisa Santos as a member, Mr. Joseph Geller as a member, and Dr. Dorothy Bengios-Mendigo as an alternate member, together with Ms. Mary Blanco as an alternate member. Our first order of business is to approve the minutes of the Wednesday, June 10th, 2026 Fiscal Accountability and Government Relations Committee meeting. Are there any questions for my fellow board members?

No, move it. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Okay. Our next order of business is to move to our E items to the floor. Can I get a motion to move our E items to the floor?

Move it.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, our first item is E1 being presented by Mr. Ron Steiger. E1 is the monthly financials for the period ending May 2026. Okay. Do we have any questions or answers from any of the board members? Okay, with no questions, we move to E2.

E2 is the approval of school board member travel for out of state and in state over $500. And just as a reminder, if any of you have any trips that you even think you could take at any point this year but they're not reflected, please let my office know and we will add them before the board meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Steiger.

Any questions for any board members? E3. E3 is the annual accounts receivable write-off request. Questions or comments? Seeing none, E14. E14 is authorization to advertise the proposed millage levies for 26-27. And again, as a reminder, we don't even have our final millage yet. The state will provide it to us next week. And this is simply approval to advertise not to approve the millage. That we will be doing on the first public hearing on July 29th.

Okay, thank you. Our next one is now E106, Mr. Bueno.

E106, request for approval for the tentative board meeting scheduled for 2027.

Any questions or comments on board meetings? Seeing none, E141, Mr. Steiger.

E141 is the approval and authorization to publish the solicitation for the unsolicited proposal on a vacant lot near Ernest Graham.

Any questions or comments?

Seeing none, next. E142 is similar to E141, but this time for two vacant lots right across from Morningside K8. Questions or comments? Seeing none, E143. E143 is request approval of a supplemental award for window and wall air conditioning.

I do have a question. How many remaining windows ACs do we have throughout our district? Through the chair.

You don't want to ask that question, do you?

I think it'd be interesting for us to just kind of have an evaluation and if there's any plan on what the future looks like as we continue our renovations and look at the consolidation of what we're going to do with all these window units, at least the window units, if they think it's important. Dr. Dorch, we excuse him because he's fixing the clock. Oh, the minister picks it up. And we appreciate that. That's a true maintenance leader that he actually gets up and takes care of the watch. So thank you so much for that.

To the chair, thank you for the question, sir, and we will follow up with additional information. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, next item. E144 is award of an ITB for generator, replace, repair, and maintenance. Questions or comments? Okay, E145. E145 is award of an ITN for our mainline food and distribution services going to U.S. Foods.

Any questions or comments?

Seeing none, E146. E146 is award of an ITB for auction services. Seeing no questions from board members, E147. E147 is award of an ITB for audio-visual equipment, supplies, and installation services. Seeing no questions, 148. 148 and 149 are supplementals. The first is a supplemental for intercom, master clock, and PA sound systems.

You recognize board member Blanco?

Thank you. I'm just going to put on the record, and I'll do it obviously at the board meeting, and together with Mr. Harvey's office, I'll be abstaining from E148.

Any questions or comments on E148?

E149? E149 is a supplemental for maintenance inspections, deficiencies, repairs, and renovations. Okay, seeing no questions, E201? E201 is our monthly grants and donations. Like I've said briefing, this is actually in July. It's a pretty heftier item because all of our entitlements, or at least most of our entitlements, come to us now. So this is a bigger item than usual on E201.

Thank you so much, Mr. Steiger. Chairwoman Rojas, you're recognized.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm very happy to see this item this time around. We have a lot that have gone up and very significant, especially when I look at the early childhood, the Head Start program. SO IMPORTANT FOR THOSE CHILDREN AT THOSE EARLY AGES WHERE THE FOUNDATION IS REALLY BUILT. AND EITHER THEY'VE GONE UP OR MOST OF THEM, THE ALLOCATION IS THE SAME AS IT WAS LAST YEAR OR THE LAST TIME WE RECEIVED IT. AND I DID SEE THAT WE HAD TITLE I, PART C EDUCATION OF MIGRATORY CHILDREN, THAT ONE DID GO DOWN BY 14.92%, but most of the others did go up. So I'm very, very pleased. This is an item that I look at very closely all the time. We also did have another one that did go down is the one for student support and academic enrichment grants. And there was a decrease. It wasn't an outrageous amount, but there was a little bit of a decrease there. So in all, it's a very positive outcome this time. And the one that I looked at also was the skills for academic vocational and English studies saves the adult refugee project. And it's to provide English language instruction and job training to eligible adult refugees. I would like to, through the chair, just ask a question. Do we know the amount, how many people would we be able to provide this instruction to, if someone could respond?

Through the chair.

Mr. Mantilla, you're recognized.

I know those chairs, I know.

Through the chair. That grant is allocated based on the number of participants and it went up. We increased the number of students that participate and accessed that grant for language acquisition as well as career and technical education.

So do you have an approximate number that this would be able to be applied to through the chair?

So, Madam Chair, I actually have Mr. Monti actually submitted his notes before, so he might not have his notes in front of him, but I have his notes, so maybe I'll help him. Go ahead, go ahead.

Mr. Steiger, good. I'm glad you're saving the day.

Mr. Steiger, you saved the day.

You're recognized, sir. So there are 15,510 eligible refugees and asylees in the past three years, yeah.

Okay. Through the Chair, thank you very much. That's what I wanted to say. Thank you, sir. Absolutely.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair, and I think it's important that we recognize that, right? I think just a few months ago, many in our community were asking us to create noise, right? And to maybe overreact at times when there was rumors about cuts to federal programs and this board, Stayed focused, right? Stayed focused on our mission, which is educating students and not getting involved in the outside noise. And in turn, we see the results. Programs are not being cut. There have actually been increases to programs, specifically, as you stated earlier, on Title III, when we talk about English language acquisition. And then we see also this additional funding that's coming for SAVES. So there's definitely support from our federal government as well as from our state for all these incredible programs that have helped our community so much. And it's also, you know, kudos to our staff that has been working together and showing the results. Right. Because I think all these programs, it's important that we show the state and that we show the federal government the impact that they have. And as Mr. Steiger just mentioned, the numbers, those are real true stories. And I was just just to recognize Mr. Monti, I was just at American Senior High School earlier this week. at a graduation for our adult ed program. And you see so many individuals that were able to help beyond the K-12. Individuals who maybe had never dreamed of having a GED or being able to go out and get a job and retool themselves in our communities or acquire the English language. So it's pretty amazing to see the work that we do and where these dollars go, and they're truly being used effectively and useful to improve our community. So thank you to our staff, and thank you to our state and federal government for supporting these programs here. Any other questions?

Yes, no, thank you.

All right. So with no further questions, all of our items have now been discussed. Mr.

Chair, I'm so sorry.

Yes, ma'am.

If I could just go back to E106. It's just for a comment. A very brief one, if I may, sir.

You're welcome.

Thank you. It's just on on the dates, the tentative dates that are pending. Please make sure that religious holidays are looked at very closely as well so that we don't have any conflict there. I know that. We've had conversations about this in the past. I just want to make sure that none of the dates that are here are also conflicting with any religious holidays.

Through the chair, we'll do so. We have, but we will continue to do so.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. So we'll now take a motion to recommend the E items to the board meeting of July 22nd. Move it. Second. All in favor?

Aye.

The next order of business is to move our H items to the floor. Can I get a motion?

Move it. Second.

All in favor? Our first item is H4, presented by Mr. Danny Espino.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Colleagues, this is something we've discussed over an extended period of time as a result of the health care procurement. I think that none of us questioned that the policies were followed. We just questioned the merit of some of the policies where we can't fully understand how this election committee had voted upon them. And as the ultimate decision makers up here, I think that that's something that we should have as decision makers, but also for the sake of transparency. I've done a lot of procurement law in my career, and it's not uncommon to have a metric against which items are individually scored to make it into selection and oral presentations. And there's a separate metric. Sometimes it's different. It's a different criteria once you get to that point that then are evaluated concretely, scored, and then that you can understand as the decision maker, then commissions, council members, whatever. how they voted upon it. So this requests that the administration evaluate not just the health care insurance one, but all procurements to see whether or not we have other gaps in the chain of information that comes from the beginning of the process through to the end, just so that we have a complete picture when it gets to us so we can understand how they got to a conclusion and we're not left guessing, particularly with a voice vote at a selection committee. That's basically the item. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Okay, I see that Board Chair Rojas has a question. You're recognized.

Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Board Member Espino. Anytime that we can enhance any of our policies, review them, and make changes as deemed necessary, I'm always going to be supportive, 150%. And it's also important to recognize that no matter how many times we continue to do it, sometimes issues are going to arise that are new to us. And so it's basically a living document, if you may, that you have to continue revising and updating. And so I'm glad to see that we're doing that. I do have one recommendation, a friendly one that I like to make, and that's only to make the item stronger, and that would be, I didn't see in the recommend, which is the part that counts, the policy numbers that you have. So, for example, policy 6320, purchasing, and policy 6332 would be professional services contract for insurance or risk management programs. I think that if you do that, it's going to be clear as to specifically which ones you are identifying in this item. I did not see it in the recommend. And again, that's what counts. So just a friendly amendment to the item. That's all. Thank you. Thank you.

Board Member Kulich, do you recognize?

Thank you, and I'm so glad that Board Member Espino brought this item forward because last month we were in a predicament. There were some questions within our community, and I'm all for always, as an elected official, increasing transparency. I do wholeheartedly support our decision that we went through because we did follow policy, but I do think that there is always the opportunity to improve upon, increase transparency. The only thing I would like to, and maybe discuss as a board or to the maker of the item, and maybe staff can come back with that, when it is a large procurement of so much money to make the policy a little more, how can I say the word? A little more, scrutinize it more so that there is more transparency. Because I don't want to overdo it with every single procurement that it slows down the process. So maybe that's something that you would take into consideration, or staff can come back with a recommendation of when it is a large procurement of a certain amount of dollars. I'm not going to set amount of dollars, but something that makes it more transparent, even more transparent for

community and and those that are trying to um understand how with a procurement of such a large magnitude we reach that decision so that's my recommendation thank you thank you any further questions or comments okay i i too um thank the maker the item board member spino i think it's important that we always review these processes um i think there's a lot of other procurement processes that we also need to continue reviewing um we are in the 21st century, and I think a lot of things just kind of stay stagnant, right, over the years, and then questions come up when we go there, so I welcome this. And you recommend one, though, Board Member Spino, my only thing would be is, I just, and maybe I'll ask staff for their clarification, because we mentioned health insurance, I just wanna make sure that it goes beyond that, and it's just focused on health insurance, because we probably won't be procuring health insurance for another three to five years, and there's gonna be a lot of other procurements, so is that gonna hamper, and as a discussion for our board, and any further research, And does it then create like an optic that we're doing this because of health insurance? So that was just my question for a discussion amongst ourselves here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

So this is for all procurement recommendations that fit the box of where we have this selection criteria that travels to a presentation. I highlight it. I mean, we discussed it pretty significantly last one where the health care one was the impetus behind it. It hadn't been an issue for us before that because we've been able to track and understand. especially when it becomes based on both quantitative and qualitative issues. When it's quantitative in its values and its ITBs and RFPs that are very clear, we follow the numbers, right? Even like on food, when we did the food approvals, we saw to the fraction of a penny where the monies were going on each milk that we bought. It's a little bit more complicated on something like this. So to remember Colucci's point, it's intended to be encompassing. We're not trying to... You know, it's not going to be uniform across the board because our procurements are so different. But, yeah, absolutely, it's intended to be expansive.

Okay. No, and the reason I say that is because we're going through some other complex negotiations now, too, in procurement processes, both from the outside and the inside. You just look at our enterprise office. There's a lot of committees and procurement processes going through there as well. So I just wanted to make sure that those were also going to be reviewed with this board item. My other question, and this is more to the superintendent, I know that it's, I think it's public and we've all seen it. Our CFO will be leaving our district and we're asking for a September report. With the transition that you'll be having in the office, Dr. Dortrus, do you feel that you're gonna have enough time from now to September to complete the effort? Just because I want it done the right way and I know that we'll have some transitions, so I don't know if we're gonna need, if you need a little bit more time as you transition a new CFO into the role to be able to come back with this information for us.

Yeah, thank you through the chair. So this is really procurement. Charisma is on board. She's still with us. And so in the event that we cannot, maybe we'll go back for a possible extension. But I believe we can do a good portion of it by the deadline.

Excellent. Okay, just wanted to make sure that that was there. Thank you for the consideration. As the board item was probably filed before the news came out, and that way it just gave... an opportunity to do it. Okay, so that is the item with no further questions. Are there any co-sponsors to H4?

Move it. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, we now take the motion as recommended in H4 to a board meeting. All in favor?

Aye.

As amended. Okay. Our next board item is H5, and that is presented by our board chair, Ms. Mari-Tere Rojas.

Thank you very, very much. This one is a tough one. It's Miami-Dade County Public Schools' humanitarian relief efforts for the victims of Venezuela's strongest earthquake in more than 100 years. As I was looking at the reports that were coming on TV, online, and everywhere else, I was deeply saddened by everything I saw, but most importantly, To me, I was just devastated to see what was happening to the children of Venezuela. Many of them, by the way, remain even lost to this day. And so the school board has had a longstanding tradition of providing humanitarian assistance to any community that has been affected by some sort of natural disaster. and recognizing always that education as well as the passion and the compassion that have to go hand in hand during these very difficult times is truly essential so throughout the years our board has demonstrated its commitment to supporting students to the educators to the school communities to the parents and to everyone who has been impacted by this horrible natural disaster in Venezuela, but also by hurricanes in the past, wildfires we've had, earthquakes, we've had just about every catastrophic event possible where this board past and current have been engaged in providing assistance and we've done this not only domestically but also when it affects internationally other parts of the world so most recently at our January it was a 15 2025 meeting the board approved a good cause item that was h10 and this was my item and which expressed support for the Los Angeles Unified School District and provided humanitarian assistance, again, to address the educational needs of the children and of the educators and of all of the families that were affected in Los Angeles, California. And it was co-sponsored by my colleagues. So when I brought that item, I never imagined that the following year we were going to be dealing once again with another natural disaster such as the one that is happening right now that happened in Venezuela and the humanitarian relief efforts that are needed to be able to help those families that are in dire straits right now. And so The scope of this disaster is truly almost beyond comprehension, honestly. The earthquake caused widespread destruction. It claimed so many lives. It displaced thousands of families. It damaged homes, buildings, schools, critical infrastructures, and it actually left entire communities truly struggling to survive day in and day out. The impact on our children has been particularly profound. Again, as many have lost their access to what they consider the safe learning environments, their safe place, where there is some sort of stability, just like it happened with us when we were dealing with a pandemic. Schools were the places where the kids felt, hey, normality is starting to come back. Same thing is happening here in a time of crisis. So this tragedy is truly especially meaningful to our Miami-Dade County Public Schools family and community, again, because this is the home to the largest Venezuelan community in the entire United States. Many of our students, of our parents, our own employees and community members have deep personal ties to those affected by this disaster. So our Venezuelan families are anxiously awaiting now the news of loved ones still. and are working tirelessly to provide support to their relatives and friends in the hardest hit regions. And those prayers and thoughts from all of us is great, but they also need action. And especially to those families that are living in the capital city of Caracas, La Guaya, and Aragua, and Carabobo, and neighboring regions that have experienced severe impacts as well. So as they begin the long, arduous, and truly very difficult road to discovery, our school district once again is faced with another humanitarian act of love. So responding again with generosity and with solidarity, is truly something that I'm so proud to see this board has done in the past and hopefully will continue to do in the future. So thank you very much, Mr. Chair. That is my item.

Okay. We'll now take questions and comments from our board members. That first one I see is Board Member Danny Espino, recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, Madam Chair. Thank you so much for bringing this item. As we say, you know, District 5 of the City of Doral became the epicenter not just of the relief efforts with the Global Empowerment Mission located in the city of Doral, but also because of the community that's there and the ties. Many people from that community have family that were affected by it. And I spoke to Jeff, the COO of Global Empowerment Mission, and he said to me that he's never seen a community mobilize for a disaster like this one, like has happened for Miami-Dade County. And that's something that we should all be proud of. and the response was overwhelming. I also want to give accolades to the City of Doral, Mayor Fraga, Councilman Pinedo, and Councilman Reynoso, who basically, with GEM, spearheaded the mobilization of not just people, but because there were hundreds of people volunteering, completely volunteer, the entire operations volunteer with exception of GEM's administrative staff. The amount of donations from truckloads of water to individual clothing items and everything in between. They also procured warehouse space Because, as a matter of fact, the city of Doral also used Doral Legacy Parks Community Center when the foodstuffs and the goods needed to be climate controlled and they didn't have a place to put it. So the response has been overwhelming. This item is timely because one of the things that Jem said to me was at some point there is a lull in the response as sort of the fervor falls down and people, you know, the supplies are drying up. and being able to recharge the tired volunteers with potentially student volunteers looking to give back is something that could be like a second wave of support for that. So I welcome this item, and I look forward to the continued work we're gonna do to support Venezuela through this unspeakable tragedy. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Board Member Spino. I next have Vice Chair Colucci, and then we'll have Dr. Ventos Mendigo.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for bringing this item. And I think, as Board Member Espino said, it's very timely, but what I really, really appreciate about it is that it is, yes, a relief for humanitarian aid, but it is bringing it to our students, where they can see firsthand that they're part of something larger, where we are all connected, we're all part of humanity, and that when we are able to help, we can do so. So I'm in full support of this item. Thank you for bringing it, and for bringing it to the level of Miami-Dade County Public Schools so that they, the students, the teachers, and the Miami-Dade County Public School family has always stepped up to the plate in times of needs of crisis, and we continue to do so, and we continue to teach our students the way in doing so, and when they're leaders and adults, they continue to carry on that legacy. So thank you, and I'm in full support of the item.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Madam Chair. It is timely, but we do this 24-7. It's appreciated, and I don't know if she's watching. Zulai was one of my first members assistance when I was a state representative, who's Venezuelan. So just want you to know, and Zulai, I hope whatever we did was beneficial. Hopefully you're watching, but again, Madam Chair, thank you for the item, and we appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Board Member Blanco, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and to Chair Rojas, thank you for the item. I just wanted to really kind of echo the sentiments of Board Member Colucci. You know, when we talked recently with our strategic plan and the portrait of a graduate, there's a lot of talk in there about service, community awareness, giving back to the community, and just today I had a meeting with Mr. Rios because I have some ideas of how we can maybe strengthen that. So it's items like these. There's so many opportunities to help for our students to get involved in and help, but it's our job to make them aware of the need and provide them opportunities in which to do that, right, so that they can grow in that awareness, grow in that service, and grow in that majority. So thank you so much for the item at the appropriate time. I'll co-sponsor.

Okay, thank you so much. I'll go to you right now, because I actually had a question for you, so that way you can answer both. First of all, thank you, Board Chair Rojas, for bringing this. And thank you to Board Member Espino. I've seen you out there on social media and the Mayor of Doral. Everybody's just been amazing there, and it's just been incredible to see how our community has come together for the Venezuelan people who are suffering so much. And I think this is a great item to get things started, right? But I always like action first. with board items, and one of the questions that I wanted to ask of the superintendent was, what can we do as a district? Knowing that we are in budget constraints, so we can't give money and different supplies, but we always have ways in which we have donations of books that we might not use. We might have opportunities to lend some social workers and counselors that can do some virtual. What thoughts do you have, Dr. Dortres, that we can support in? And then obviously our students can jump in and support from gathering supplies and so on at the schools, but what can we do as a district as well to be able to support the people of Venezuela?

Sure, thank you. And I just wanted to follow up, if I may. Ms. Blanco mentioned something really strong, right? In our portrait of a graduate, one of the attributes that we all agreed upon was the community champion. And here we go. We can actually gather around that one attribute and really make it strong. So I was really glad that she mentioned that. There's a lot of things that we can do. It depends on what the needs are because sometimes what you have is personal living needs versus educational needs. But there's a lot that we can do as a school district. One thing that is really good about this is sometimes we're basically limited to one entity that we work with in terms of donation. Now schools can do quite a bit more from locally what they can donate. And if we have resources, we'll take a look at it. If we have any surplus materials or anything like that, we can definitely help in that situation. But right now we're sitting on a humanitarian type of situation. We'll take a look at that from the district point of view, but also the schools will have a lot of opportunity. What we may need to help is with centralizing some of the control to help out the schools. So we'll create a plan for that as well.

Well, thank you so much. And one of the things that I would add, and maybe we can have as a friendly amendment here, is for the superintendent to reach out to the commissioner of education or the superintendent of education. We are an educational institute. And just reach out and say Miami-Dade County Public Schools is here. Can we help from an educational standpoint? We are an educational institution. And can we offer any support for education? I mean, we We saw it, right? We see it through in all the big crises, whether it be COVID or it be earthquakes. These children are now not going to be able to go to school in many of the schools that they were at. So how could we support through there? We also have a lot of technology, right? Laptops that I see that are outdated for us, but in other areas are brand new laptops. So can we support from those areas? So I just think it would be a nice thing for us to reach out. And I don't know how the government of Venezuela works and their educational system. but it might be an opportunity for us. And that was just a recommendation to you, board chair. And it might just encompass itself there, but I don't know if the superintendent needs a directive from us in order to make contact with the entities there.

He can speak first and then I'll go ahead.

Okay. Yes, good point, Ms. Ranzo, but what we need to do is maybe start with a consulate right here. So it's a local connection and we can take it from there.

great recommendations thank you all right thank you so i'll go to the maker of the item there and then i think uh mr steiger will go to you after i think you okay thank you mr chair and of course anything that can strengthen this for the sake of the children again the children are are the main focus in my mind as they were when we went through the pandemic and other issues. If I recall, even during the time, and I know that Dr. Bendros-Mendingo was here with me, if I recall correctly, and I could be wrong, but I think I remember that when we had a horrific issue in Haiti, we even sent a bus to Haiti. This was like when I started years on the board. And I recall that. So there's so much that can be done. But again, you brought up the point of laptops that we may have that are no longer any good. Yes, all of that, whatever can help the kids in the schools is critically important, and I know that Doral has the highest number of Venezuelans, but we all have, I have a pretty significant number myself in the areas that I represent, and all of the communities I know would come together, the parents, the families, the children, everybody, to make this a success. for, again, the sake of those that are suffering in Venezuela, especially the children. So starting at the local level and even going to the state, whatever strengthens it more, I'm willing to do it because, again, it's for the students, the children that now have really been displaced. They have nowhere to go and not much hope.

Thank you so much. Superintendent Dorchess, you're recognized.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, having to clarify some, we do have limitations because everything that we purchase is through tax dollars. So the bus was a particular example that we, in order for us to provide We had to do internal mechanisms like selling and things of that nature. So there are limitations built in, and we will try to work around these in a very unique way, as we did, as Ms. Rojas mentioned.

Thank you. If you guys need to come back to the board, or maybe even as you review this over the next week before a board meeting, if we need to give you any support or any additional language here that the board chair can add to her board item to be able to give you that power, let us know so that we can support the folks here. So thank you so much, Board Chair Rojas, for this incredible item. And we continue to pray for all the people in Venezuela that are suffering so much. So with no further board members to comment on the item, I'll now open up to any co-sponsors. Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. We now take a motion to recommend H5 to the board meeting of July 22, 2026. Second. All in favor? All right, the H items have been discussed. We will now take a motion to recommend the H item.

As amended.

Okay, as amended. Before I move forward, I think Board Member Dr. Bendos-Mendigo, did you have a comment?

I don't do that. Complete what you have to say because I want to ask for permission to do something on an item that's a little tight.

Okay. So we'll just finish off with the H's and then we'll come right back to you. All right, so the H items have now been discussed. We'll take a motion to recommend the H items to the board meeting of July 22nd, 2026. All in favor?

Aye.

Okay. Dr. Bendos-Mendigo, you're recognized now.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. E142, I'd like to put some comments and questions on record because we've already gone through the voting. Am I right? Am I correct? Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We worked very hard and long last night. We should get a star for being the last ones to leave the building, I think. So I want to talk a little bit about E142 so that staff can share and help me understand exactly what we are supposed to be looking at, looking for, So I'm going to make sure that at the end of the day, my people will say she talked about what was good for all, but then specifically we've got to say what we need to say. Let's go. E-142. What specific analysis did staff perform to conclude that this proposal satisfies every requirement of Policy 6327 in Florida Statute 255.065? Now, Mr. Chair, I'm not too sure that all of these can be answered right away, but I do want them on record, okay? So is there something? Oh, I hear your microphone. Yes, through the chair.

Thank you so much for the question. I'm happy to take them on. Do you have a series of questions that we want to ask? I do. Do we want to ask them and then we can get a response for all of them, or do you want to go one by one? It's up to you because this is important to your community.

Absolutely. Okay. Let's see if Mr. Steiger is probably going to be addressing these. Would it be okay for you to ask them?

answer them rather one by one or sure okay that would be fine so um so for so for efficiency we don't have to do through the chair or you guys can let's let's move through the questions and that way we can go and you'll recognize mr steiger to respond to the questions of uh board member dr bendos mendigo okay thank you um so yeah dr bender's mendigal for for all of the unsolicited proposals we have a strict

statute that we have to follow that's now reflected the same in policy. So we follow the statute in the policy, which is we gather a committee and we have a matrix by which we have to go by. The questions have to be answered. We go question by question to make sure that the project is deemed qualifying. So the committee has to deem this a qualifying project. And to do so, we have to answer yes on a series of questions. I think it's three, and then once that's done, we bring it back to the board with one of three recommendations. One, it's not a qualifying project, so it's done. Um, the second is that it is a qualifying project, but we are going through an open solicitation, which is what you have in E one 42, or the third is that you have, um, it is a qualifying project and we are going to enter, um, into a direct partnership with this organization. The district's only done that once. Um, and I don't foresee us doing that when a real estate transaction, we did this, uh, for the Barry university private school. That was the only time we've ever done that.

Okay. May I go on Mr. Chair?

Absolutely, you can continue through all your questions.

Thank you. Has the general counsel reviewed the unsolicited proposal for legal sufficiency? Through the chair.

So yeah, Dr. Bendrish-Mendegal. Yeah, we have an attorney in that committee when we make that decision as a qualifying project. So yes, absolutely.

Since you said that, Mr. Steiger, Are there any legal risks associated with declaring this a qualifying project?

Unfortunately, I don't have my JD. I'm going to have to pass that to Mr. Harvey.

You're recognized to answer that question.

Yes, through the chair, the policy 6327, which is the public-private partnership policy. which handles public-private partnerships but also handles unsolicited proposals that references the statute that Mr. Steiger also referenced. That policy lays out what the board has determined to be the requirements for a qualifying project. And that includes, of course, the education mission. The project must support the education mission of the district. I think that was the focus of that policy. And so as I think what the committee has recommended according to the item and what has been represented is that the committee has recommended that the project be advertised to the public And if the project is advertised, then others can provide responses. And then at that point, the board, through a recommendation of the superintendent, can decide how it wants to proceed. If it wants to continue or wants to terminate or whatever, there's options that the board would have at that time.

Thank you. By approving this item today, What commitments, if any, is the board making to next development group?

Through the chair, so the board is not making any commitments at this time? The commitment is to advertise the project and to determine if there are any other proposals out there that would meet the requirements that the board wants or that might be better than the proposal that was submitted by the proposer. And then at that point, once it comes back, the board can decide how it wants to handle the matter if this item is approved.

Thank you very much. I'm going to move to workforce. housing, which is quite difficult for me to understand when it comes to affordable housing. You know my district well, and when I hear that word, I sort of cringe, affordable housing. But we're going to talk about this a little bit, maybe not today, but going forward. What exactly qualifies as workforce housing under this proposal?

So yeah, Dr. Bender-Smendigal, there's a state statute that defines what affordable housing is, workforce housing. It's all based on your wages for the year and what percentage that is. Now, the board has given specific direction to administration that we need to prioritize our workforce. And so anytime we enter into these negotiations, that's what we do. So any project, and you've seen that in the projects we've brought back after the solicitation, is the negotiation is always our workforce first. And then after that, if our workforce can't take up all of the spaces, then it opens up to others. But so for, there's a statutory definition and then the board has given us specific directions that we need to prioritize us first.

Thank you very much. Let's stay with housing for a minute. How many units will actually be reserved for teachers and district employees through this workforce housing situation.

Yeah, so actually, Dr. Benjamin, what's interesting is that now that it's been deemed a qualifying project, anything's possible because the proposal, which I think listed 100 units, that is just one entity's proposal. So now this enters into an open solicitation where we're going to get a number of qualifying, a number of responses, and then we're there'll be a separate procurement committee that meets and gives a whole separate recommendation to the board. And then if the board approves those recommendations, my guess is that it is almost certainly not going to be exactly what the, what the proposer, is initially proposed, something different's gonna come back. And then the board can direct administration, whatever, to enter into negotiation with specific requirements. And then once that's done, you'll see that another item comes back to the board with those final details about how many units, how many will be for our people. All of that is several board items away from actually being decided. This is just really the first step in the process.

Yeah, I understand that. Thank you very much. I understand that. But I hope the people who are asking me these pertinent questions are listening. I told them that I would try to get these questions done so that they would understand. This is really, really, really something that must be discussed in all communities. But being that this one is directly in District 2, then people are more than interested. What evidence supports the conclusion that workforce housing improves teacher retention in Miami-Dade County?

Thank you. I'm sorry, Dr. Benjamin, can you, the beginning of that question. Sure. I think I know how to answer it, but I want to make sure that I captured a couple of the few words where you started.

Sure. What evidence supports the conclusion that workforce housing improves teacher retention in Miami-Dade County? And this question is quite timely since I was listening to the radio on the way here and it talks about the number of teachers that we would need for the ensuing year.

Yes, so research document that I have to maybe ask Dr. Baggs to provide, something that is research-based or any data that we have that's solidified to a reference. But I can tell you, in the field, it's something that is always spoken about, that teachers are really looking forward to, especially the younger teachers that are coming in, that are establishing families. workforce housing for maybe more experienced teachers. That may not be the issue, but as a recruitment effort and to really the, it's not only a benefit for the teacher, but to really sustain teachers within a neighborhood of a school is very, very important. And there is plenty of narratives and information available that when you start developing this concept of a school embraced or surrounded by housing that's specific to the teacher, it is very beneficial. But we can get you research, evidence-based information, and I'll ask Don to provide that for you.

Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Yes?

I just wanted to add, Dr. Bendos-Mendigo, and if the superintendent can share, we recently did a survey because there was some of these questions in my community that I represent, which is all of our communities, and the district, through the work of Dr. Cabrera, did a really detailed survey of our employees and asking them if they were interested in living in workforce housing within our district because there was some national studies, but we wanted to also get a pulse for our own, and it was very eye-opening because we talk about our teachers, but we have custodians, we have bus drivers, we have so many employees within our district, And I think that information is important. And I think it's a great question for our community to ask. And I think it's important for us to be transparent in showing that we have done those surveys. We do have the proof, right, to show that there is a need and that we're going to be supporting that need through these efforts. So I just wanted to share that that survey has been done. And I think it was a district-wide survey, so we could probably share it with you.

Yeah, so what we'll do is we'll provide, that's what I want to say, right, because when it's evidence-based, there's plenty of research nationally that proves it, but locally what we can provide from ourselves is a survey. And it's not only for teachers. It's really, like Ms. Rollins was saying, it's across the board. We started with the idea of only teachers. Now we're actually amplifying the possibilities for multiple employee groups.

Thank you so much for both of you interjecting your thoughts. So I do have a bit more, but what I'm gonna do is look forward to you all getting the information to me. I do plan to make sure that we bring this information to the community. We are gonna schedule what is considered a town hall, but it becomes more than that when you get a large group of people in one room. And all the information that you can render, I would appreciate it the sooner The better. I'm an educator by trade, but I do know that educators right now are not ready to take on too much of anything in terms of housing and clothing and everywhere. The pay will not allow them to live well. in the fashion that they would want to live. So, Mr. Chair, thank you. I appreciate all that you're bringing back to me. It is competitive out there, but we can do it if we have a mind to do so. The public is interested. We hope that whatever we do, we'll receive fair value for that because some of our districts have lots and lots and lots of property. and they are hovering and they call it helicoptering. They are looking at everything and when someone brings these questions, I've got to make sure that I put them on record. I appreciate your support in getting this information and maybe what I'll do is pass on, Mr. Superintendent, questions that would need answers once Mr. Chair talked about his community And our communities are adjacent. And whatever is happening in his community pretty much is happening in, well, as you said, all communities, but our communities in particular. Thank you again. God bless you. See you on the journey.

Thank you, Dr. Bendos-Mendigo. And just to leave it kind of as a thought for all of us, right, as this conversation came up, I was just at Milam Elementary with our staff the other day walking, and Mr. Bueno was with me, and the principal was mentioning that they didn't have a registrar. And I was like, well, how much does a register make? What do you mean we can't hire someone? A register at a Miami-Dade County Public Schools makes $30,000 a year. They work 52 weeks out of the year, mostly. That equates to about $576 a week. Rent in Hialeah right now averages about $3,000 for a two-bedroom apartment. We need to help our employees, and that was proof to me that what we're doing is important and something that we really need to move quickly on. So I really thank district staff and this board for realizing that we need to be a part of this equation. As you said, Dr. Bendavindigal, we're sitting on real estate that we can leverage to help our employees as well as help our community. And any deal that we make needs to make sure that our employees are at the front of it and that a registrar, a custodian, a bus driver, a teacher, they all have an opportunity to be able to live in a place that is welcoming, that they can have a family, that they have services, and that any of us would want to live there. So I think it's important we do that. And thank you so much for bringing up those questions. It's important that we answer all those. We'll now move to contract extensions report by Ms. Mumford. I believe that was shared with the board. Any questions or comments on any of the contract extensions? Seeing none, thank you so much, Ms. Mumford. Appreciate you. Our next update is our legislative update by Mr. Ulivari. We have budgets now. We have funding appropriate to us. Great job in getting that past the finish line. Not sure if any board members have any questions or comments. I believe you also sent a report, unless you wanted to add anything additional to it.

Thank you through the chair. I'm open for any, as you mentioned, we provided the end of legislative cycle update with the appropriations gained and such. And as one ends, the other one begins. So there was a separate memo to the board that was sent out requesting any legislative proposals so that we can begin our program for the upcoming school year, the upcoming legislative year, sorry.

Okay, seeing no questions. Congratulations, Mr. Olivares on your first session. But as you said, that one's passed us. It's now time to start rolling up our sleeves and working again. So thank you, looking forward to working with you. The next item on the agenda is new business from any board members. Do we have any new business? Okay, seeing none, that exhausts today's agenda. There's no further discussion. Yep, yes, Ms. Blanco.

New business, thank you. It's actually a comment on old business, but I think our next budget meeting is the first public budget hearing, correct, right, so I wanted to get some clarification. I know Chair Rojas sent out a memo asking some questions, right, for no response from a board member at that time, but I wanted to get some clarification. When we talked about the budget, and one of the things that we were doing was looking at the small school allocation, right, to do some of our cost savings. And I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that the K-8s, because they have suffered, would, because of the way that the formula has been, they've kind of been at the short end, right, and that they weren't going to be impacted. But I'm hearing from some of my K-8s that the small school allocation is definitely having a very difficult impact and kind of tying their hands when it comes to you know, teachers and surpluses and things like that and they're having to cut positions and their class sizes are growing because of it, yet I was under the impression that K-8s would not be impacted.

wanted to get some clarification as to exactly how this is going to roll out and have an impact on our students through the chair uh sure yeah mr mr chair miss blanco uh so yeah the what was discussed was that the small school allocation wouldn't apply to boutique senior high schools and the pool there would be no there would be no allowance for because when we revamped the pool there would be some schools that gained, some schools that decreased. The only schools that would see any increase this year in the pool would be K-8s. So the K-8s were helped on the pool side, and boutique senior high schools were helped on the small school side. Now, all that said, there is, and we said this at the budget meeting as well, that above and beyond the reductions, there was gonna be a pool of funds set aside to ensure that the things that are unacceptable to us, that happen at budget conferences, that school, the decisions schools have to make, will be rectified. And so the regions, the, budget staff, HR staff, they're working with schools right now, actually. As we speak, there are budget conferences going on. And so I imagine, you know, and I know the superintendent spoke to all principals and delivered this message, but when a school balances their school-based budget and they go to conference, they might look at the worst possible scenario because that's what that is, but in the end, when they get to conference and those conversations happen, they'll find that there is available resources to be able to cure some of the things that are unacceptable to all of us. And I think the superintendent wants to add.

Yes, thank you, Chair. Yes, Ms. Blanquin, thank you for that question because, number one, there are standards or a formula that is applied. But in this round, because of what we're dealing with, we made sure, and I've spoken to the regions multiple times, we had even pre- MEETINGS WITH PRINCIPALS PRIOR TO THE BUDGET CONFERENCES. I ACTUALLY DELAYED THE BUDGET CONFERENCES SO THERE WAS MORE KNOWLEDGE BASE ABOUT WHAT SCHOOLS WERE DEALING WITH. SO WE'RE LOOKING AT SCHOOLS INDIVIDUALLY. AND ALTHOUGH YOU MAY HAVE A FORMULA, AND THAT'S WHY I TOLD THEM, I EVEN ASKED THEM, BECAUSE CASAS CAME OUT BEFORE THE 4TH OF JULY. AND YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WITH CASAS COMING BEFORE THE 4TH OF JULY? PEOPLE START WORRYING, AND THEN YOU HAVE A HOLIDAY. AND I TOLD THEM, WE HAD AN EDUCAST. Okay, upon return, you're gonna have enough time to speak to your regents. It doesn't apply to everyone, but it does apply to some more than others. And so we are looking at this, yes, there's a formula, but more importantly, we have to look at schools individually for cases of hardship. We're gonna do this more than we've done it before. We have, like we said, when we presented the budget, There's a set aside for us to respond to those, and we're doing it school by school. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Can I have a follow-up, please?

Yes, ma'am.

You're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I understand that, and that was expressed. We know this isn't final, and like you said, it's the hysteria that builds, right? Before we vote on the budget, will some of that be finalized through the chair?

Mr. Steigerer. Yeah, Ms. Blanco, some of the ramifications from budget conferences will be, and some of it goes right up to the first day of school, past the first day of school, because a lot of this, what's... What's the complicating factor to all of this, and I think we all need to keep this in mind, is what's most important is how many kids actually show up on the first day of school. And so when we build our budgets, usually budget conferences are in May. We didn't have budget conferences in May this year. We skipped to July. But still, May and July, we're working off of estimates. It's all estimated numbers. And sometimes the estimates turn out to be ambitious. Some of them, they turn out to be pessimistic. So what we do in the weeks before the budget adoption in the weeks before school starts, is we are constantly updating what school, the resources schools have to open up schools. Even once school starts, after the first week of school, we have mini budget conferences just to continue to modify. And after the second week of school, we have second mini budget conferences to continue to modify. So no, I can't say that everything's going to be finalized by the budget hearing, because it never is. And it always adapts to how many kids we know are actually gonna show up at every school.

And a follow-up. And I understand that. But so some of the concerns that the principals may have had in this first round before July 4th, right, can we expect that a lot of those conversations, like you said, for specifically the K-8s and the money that's being set aside, should some of that worry be eased somewhat before? And I know numbers can change, right? I get that. But that overall picture, right? Should some of that be eased before we get into finalizing and voting on the budget through the chair?

Ms. Blanco, some of those things we are hoping and we know we will take care of them at the budget conference. That's what the budget conference is. If we have to provide additional support, that's what the budget conferences provide. The opportunity for principals to come in, the regions, and budget and see what it is that we can do to support and assist the schools.

And just to give me an idea, how many budget conferences are there before the start of the school year? Are they ongoing? I don't know.

Yeah, so Mr. Alonso, Ms. Blanco, all of them will be done before, all of the budget conferences will be done prior to July 29th. That's the first public hearing. So all of them will be done by just a little bit after next week's board meeting.

Okay, thank you.

Next we have Chair Rojas, you're recognized.

Yes, thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

And thank you for the questions that you asked, because a while ago, and I want to thank the superintendent for the meetings he and I have had together to address the issue, I did send emails that went out, and it was CC to all of you, and I know the superintendent is working on getting it together, finalized for everyone. But I had a lot of questions, and the reason for the questions is because the schools are the number one priority, I believe for everyone on this board. And I know I can speak for myself, I have expressed this on more than one occasion, whatever cuts have to be made, they have to start everywhere else, in the last place. are our schools. So the superintendent has worked very collaboratively with me on this particular issue. He feels the same way. But we do have to really take a very good look at every single one of the areas that have been of concern with related to the issue of personnel, of small school allocations, and so on and so forth. I'm not gonna get into it now, but I know that the superintendent is gonna submit a written response to me and to everyone else on the memo that I put out at the very beginning because I wanted to, again, make sure that all of us together, the administration and the board, are working collaboratively on making sure that schools are the last ones. And he has assured me that they, as he stated, that they're meeting individually, that they're looking at school by school, and that whatever can be done, if it can be done, will be done. But again, we understand we have a budget crisis as well, and we have to deal with that aspect, and we respect that.

Thank you so much. I think we then had Is it Board Member Colucci?

Yes, and I want to just state for the record, there is a school allocation plan that's approved by the Board every year. Through the Chair?

Yes, Mr. Chair, Ms. Colucci, absolutely the Board will approve the school allocation plan at the first public hearing when that approves the budget.

and through the chair, that school allocation plan is expected to be followed 100% through the chair?

Yeah, Mr. Alonzo, Ms. Scalucci, yeah, we follow the school allocation plan. Obviously, the extra allocations that the superintendent mentioned, that... There'll always be additional resources given. There always have been sometimes, but yes, the school allocation plan is followed and distributed through CASAS to the school's SBBS.

Okay, and through the chair, just for the record, if there are any exceptions to that plan, how and when will the board be informed of those exceptions if they're not being followed? Because it's possible that that may happen through the chair.

Yeah, sure. Mr. Alonzo, Ms. Colucci, the school allocation plan basically guarantees a minimum allocation to every school. There are times that additional allocations are given on a non-permanent basis, right? So there are, the superintendent has the discretion When special circumstances arise to give additional allocations, that's been going on in this district for as long as I've been here. I'm sure many, many years before that. But the school allocation plan will absolutely be adhered to as the minimum allocation for every school.

Okay, thank you. And as of right now, our school allocation plan is being followed 100% for this project.

Yeah, Mr. Alonzo, the school allocation plan is turned into a... It's a formula. Yeah, it's turned into CASAS. When we refer to CASAS, that's basically an electronification of the school allocation plan, right? It turns into a series of formulas that becomes CASAS, and then in the end, it spits out a dollar amount and non-discretionary allocations, which the schools then have to buy through their school-based budget system.

Okay. Okay. And just further, as Board Member Blanco said, there's a lot of concern amongst principals, and I just wanna, as she said, ease the fears as I go to schools and I talk to principals, so thank you.

Yes, thank you. Okay, Dr. Bendos-Mendigo, you're recognized next, and then I'll go to the other board members.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Steiger, bringing up those nightmares. I listen to you carefully, and I have to say to you, as I've always said, you're absolutely right. I want you, though, to, I guess you would say, define a couple of things, probably for my listeners, because I've got them on. They better be listening so they don't catch me in publics and start asking questions. What is a boutique school?

A boutique high school, Dr. Benders-Malingal is defined as a school with less than 600 students.

Okay, I have some of those. What is a truncated unit?

That's very technical. So as you know, as a former principal, a truncated unit, we don't – schools don't generate 10 teachers or 11 teachers, right? It's on a teacher ratio. So when you divide the number of students by a teacher ratio, you get decimals. So if you generate 25.72 teachers, well, you can't buy – There's no such thing as .72 of a teacher, right? Human beings come in units of one. So the school buys 25 teachers, and then that .72 is what we'd refer to as the truncated unit. And it turns into dollars that the school uses to supplement any other thing the school needs.

Now that I'm through the chair, now that I'm on the board, I use them a lot. And we can talk about generations of children, parents who benefited from truncated units. Did anyone ever explain to me, Mr. Steiger, what it was? No. You just know that, as you just said, your teachers and staff members don't come in a .72. So thank you so much for that. And I'm still talking to these people who are watching. please pay close attention because we're in dire straits as it relates to our budget. I spoke with one of our representatives last night and she said, I've got to go back up there. I said, well, you go up there and you let them know that Dade County Public Schools will really be watching. So thank you for all that you've educated all of the people who are watching us and listening to us about what's going on in the schools. And thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you so much, Dr. Bentos. I'm going to go to everybody else, but I'm always confused also when we're doing our class sizes and we're talking about 0.5 students. I never knew that there was half students, but I understand that those are calculations. And I think there's board members that follow us, but I have one question. I've never been a school principal, never meant to be one. but I've run large organizations, and when we have reductions, we have reductions across all areas of organizations. And I think it's important for our principals, our schools, and our community to know what are the formulas used in the district office. As we have less students, we should have less responsibilities in the superintendent's office, in all departments across our district, and in our regions. Mr. Steiger, what formula do you use starting from the superintendent's cabinet down? in reductions in those offices?

Sure. Mr. Alonso, the question is actually best answered by a line Ms. Rojas used, which is that schools come last. So we've taken that approach with every reduction that we've made starting in 2008, that schools comes last. So the formula is that we take... If we overcut whatever is required for us to go to schools, then the district will take usually double or more. So we have made reductions to central office, as I've shared before, we've made reductions to central office after this 10% reduction we've most recently take. And by the way, how did the 10% come? We take 5% from the schools, we took 10% from central office. And so now that this reduction is done and implemented, the central office is over 50% smaller than it was back in 2007 or when this reduction's really started. And we have lost, as we've covered in the past, about 33% of the students that fall under us. So while schools have seen reductions, in fact, over those first, if you look at how much we're spending by function as a percentage, so by function, function is the state the state categories of like instruction, right? Like when we say, how much are we spending on school level services? That's actually by function. And so if I look from 2007 to now, there are only two functions that have grown as a percentage of the district's budget. And though it's a really interesting too, because it speaks to the real priorities of this school board over time, the real priorities of the community, the only two functions that have grown are instruction, and our reserves. Now our reserves, it was almost impossible to go down because at the moment we were at 0.01%, but that it just goes to speak that the two things that this board, and it's not just this board, uniquely to this board for the last 20 years, this board has cared about two things above all else, students and the taxpayers. And those are the two things that we have invested in. Financial services has been reduced substantially. Business services reduced substantially. The board itself reduced substantially. Everything we have, we have reduced, except for instruction and our reserves. Because in the end, when push comes, and I hear a million different priorities, there's so many priorities that come up all the time. But in the end, the only priorities that win out will always be instruction, which is how much you're spending in the classroom, especially on your teachers, and are we being financially disciplined with taxpayer dollars? And those are our priorities. And we can talk about a million things, but those will always be our priorities. And I know the board oftentimes doesn't even mention the taxpayers because it's a given. For the board members and every board member, it's always, it is a given that the first thing we are is good stewards of financial dollars. I actually take that for granted in conversations with the board that I know the board puts taxpayers and good fiscal discipline first. And then the only other thing then if we can spend our money on is instruction. So central office isn't instruction. Nothing in here is instruction, so we overcut. So there is no standard formula in answer to your question, but it is always as a reference point, are we reducing us more than we are reducing the classroom? And that's the number one formula.

Thank you for the follow-up, and I understand there might not be a formula, but I can tell you from optics, from the community, from principals, from teachers that I talk to at Publix, at Sedano's, and throughout our community, The cuts don't seem very visible at the central office, just being clearly transparent. We still have the same size cabinet. We still have the same size administration in many ways. And many of our regions have actually somewhat looked like they've grown, at least to the optics of others. When we look out there, I don't have an exact staffing number count. I think maybe what we should do, and I might be bringing aboard, I'm to do a full analysis of the central office and where we're at with employees and what the factors have been. Because it's important to be transparent so that everybody understands this is where we were at on number of individuals working at the central office five years ago to where we're at today. This is what the reduction, rather than pointing, I'm not one that likes to point, I like numbers to speak for themselves, but I think it's appropriate because we're all feeling it, right? We're all having to tighten our belts, and all of our principals are doing it in their schools, and I think it's important to be transparent to them to show how The superintendent's tightening up his belt in his office and doing reduction needs to be done in the finance office and throughout all the offices in our district, including our regions. How are we tightening up those budgets in order to be able to support what the ultimate goal is, which is the classrooms? We want to make sure those classrooms have those dollars. So we can follow up. I think there's more to that than now. And I did have some follow-ups, so I'll start from the end of the table because these are very important conversations. We'll start with Board Member Blanco.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to follow up on some of the questions that Board Member Colucci was asking. We do have a school allocation plans in place. I was referring to the conversations that we had at our budget hearing, right, where we talked about that the small school allocation was always or was created originally for those smaller schools. But because of enrollment, so many more schools fall under that small school allocation plan that we had to make some changes. to that plan. So I think to the point that Board Member Colucci was making is my understanding is through those conversations, we've kind of authorized that some changes can be made and the way that we do them, does that officially come to us to approve? And I believe it's part of the final budget, right? When we approve the final budget, that's when we're approving the final, the changes in the allocation plans? I'm not sure. So based off of Board Member Colucci's questionings, it just made me realize, when does that change? And I think that's where I was alluding to is, Some of those changes that Mr. Superintendent, you've ensured us will not impact the K-8s or whatever schools have a significant impact, right, that we'll take care of them because we've set some money aside. What is the timing of all of that to know when we're approving these changes to the allocation plans and how it's impacting the different schools and are those schools, or have we set enough aside to make sure that there is no instructional impact to those schools? That was my follow-up based on Board Member Colucci's questions.

So yeah, Mr. Alonso, Ms. Blanco. Yes, the school allocation plan is approved at the school board meeting along with the budget. The entire budget is approved by the board. I will only caution to say that This isn't just the board, and it's not a one-on-one conversation between me and you or even Cabinet. This is a conversation that's been going on with principals now since January in the Principals Budget Committee, the community through the Parents Budget Committee. What we've done throughout this entire process with the board, with everyone around, not just us, is present options in a really difficult financial situation. So when we get to the first public hearing, I would argue it's not... The real conversations have been happening about what's acceptable to us throughout the entire time. It's not a conversation then to say, hey, where can we reverse and go back to the beginning? It's the end of the road, not the start of the process. By that time, it really is a case of not... hey, what allocations need to change? It's a conversation about are there opportunities in the budget to cure some things on an individual, like the superintendent said, on an individual case-by-case basis that we wouldn't see as the overall approval of the budget, but in conversations about are there things that are unacceptable to us, because the superintendent has already said if there are things that are completely unacceptable on an individual level, then we just can't accept it then. Um, so I would say it's not that conversation. Isn't really a first public hearing conversation. It's a conversation like the superintendent said, school by school, while this first public hearing is a global meeting about, Hey, how are we balancing our budget?

Okay. But, and thank you for that follow up again. So the reason I asked the question is when board member Colucci said, are we following the school allocation plan? Not really because the approved allocation plan that's been in place, we have. kind of agreed to, hey, that might be somewhere where we can save $10 million. And so what we're going to be approving is where we've said we're kind of okay with that. And the conversation, like you said, the conversations have been taking place in January. I think you called us in, I don't know, June or something, right, to explain these are the buckets, these are the ways that we're seeing we can tighten our belt. And one of them was making some changes to the school allocation plan. So it just caught me off guard when she asked, are we following it to the school allocation plan? It's not being followed to the allocation plan that was approved last summer. It's being done with the kind of consensus agreement that we gave at the budget hearing that we last had. or budget conference to kind of say, yeah, we're somewhat in agreement. And so that's where my questioning came in. Yes, we're somewhat in agreement. We had some assurances about the K-8s. Then I'm hearing some concerns. And I understand budget conferences with the principals aren't over. We're going to take care of them. I just kind of wanted some assurances. And we're not basing it off prior school allocations. We're basing it off the future. school allocation that we haven't fully approved. But yes, in conversations, we've kind of given the nod. So I just wanted to kind of clarify because I think board member Colucci's questions is how are we following it? We haven't followed something we've officially approved. We're following something that we have had conversations about and understand it's one way we have to tighten our belt.

Yeah, Mr. Chair, Ms. Blanco, the school allocation plan is truly setting the actual formulas for the final budget, the final CASAS and the final SBBS, which occur in September. But you're absolutely right that we run a weird organization, right? Our organization, we are the only organization I know of that the fiscal year starts and then we pass the budget, right? This is a very strange... Public schools in Florida... public school districts in Florida, I should say, occupy a very strange legislative space because the whole system is designed for our fiscal year to start October 1st, like every other municipality. The way our millage is adopted, the way the budget works, everything is meant to start October 1st, but it doesn't. It starts July 1 because that's the proper term for a school district. So they shove our budget process right, a square peg into this round hole. And we may do as best we can, but you're absolutely right. If we waited to do school budget conferences until after the budget was adopted, we would never be ready for the first day of school. Every district around the state would be in the same situation. So you're right, we're in a weird space where things aren't formally adopted, but yet we actually have to make, as an administration, we have to make operational decisions based on conversations, and that's because it's the format of how our system works in regards to, versus when our budget is legally allowed to be passed. Um, so while you haven't voted, I think it is, it's vital for me. It's always been vital for me that we have these conversations with the board like throughout the process. There was a moment in this district's history when I, actually that's the reason I got moved to the budget office, when the board did not see anything until the first budget public hearing. The board didn't like it. It ended up being a first public hearing that went until two o'clock in the morning. There were changes to school allocations. The beginning of school was a disaster. The district ended up with a .01% reserve It was really poor practice, so now what we've tried to do is not just involve the board, but everybody, so that by the time we got to the first public hearing, it wasn't unknown to anyone what was going to happen. It was a slow process that was easily approved, and that's what I try to do each year.

And I know I understand it, and I appreciate it. The reason I brought it up is because I think Board Member Colucci's question needed a clarifying response because her question was, Are we doing it based on the school allocation plan that's been approved? The answer really is no. We're doing it off when we've had conversations that will be modified from what we've had in the past that will be approved.

Yes, I view the school allocation plan as the one that will about to be approved is the 2627 school allocation plan. So I don't have a 2627 approved school allocation plan yet, but we are operating as we always do through conversations that apply to the 2026-27 school allocation plan. The 2526 school allocation plan doesn't apply to 2627. And thank you.

through the chair, and I understand that, but I think in the way that Board Member Colucci asked her question and the response, I don't, maybe she understood it, but the way it was asked and answered, I think needed a little bit more elaboration, and so that's all that I was hoping to make sure that her question was clarified. Thank you.

Thank you. We now move to Vice Chair Colucci, and then I have Chairwoman Rojas.

Thank you. And I thank you for clarifying that because that was my question 2526. And I think it has been clarified that it's not being followed fully. And as for me, and I'm only speaking for myself, I find that to be a problem as, you know, something that as a board we approve. not being followed, and then I know we had conversations, but we need to be well informed of when these things occur and in writing so that we can be aware and come back and approve. So that's, something so important is that. So I will just state that for the record. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. And I think we're all put in a very difficult predicament as Mr. Steiger was saying, we're having to, do budgets without having a budget approved and our principals need this. So I think it's important to clarify that we've all been having conversations. We had some meetings. So I think it's important to clarify we have conversations. And look, these are difficult times. Our principals have to realize this. Last year, all of us here on this board together with the superintendent had to go to Tallahassee and say that our numbers were off and the state also took some fault on it as well because they were with us on our forecasting. And we had to make some very difficult decisions in budget because we weren't tightening our belt early on in the school year. So this should hopefully help us not fall into that same predicament. It's a difficult one, which is why I ask about the central office and other offices as well, because you know what? We all need to feel the pain, right? And we all have to understand that these are sacrifices that we have to make in order to make sure the classrooms get the support that they need and that we never take away from the classrooms. But I did have Board Chair Rojas who had a follow-up question as well.

Thank you. So first and foremost, we are all advocates for the teachers, for the principals, for the workforce. I know that for a fact. That I can speak on behalf of all of us. It's funny that I'm hearing the conversation we're having now because I wrote all this in the memo that I requested and I know the superintendent is going to follow up with that. We've had a conversation about it because the principals and the members of the workforce are feeling the pain and we all understand what they're going through and we have to do whatever we can to help them again so that the school sites are the last and the least affected by this process. So I heard some things being said that are interesting to me because do we all forget who generates the funding? The funding is generated by the schools. That's who generates the funding. They have to be the number one priority. Having been there as a teacher, as an assistant principal, as a principal, and then a region director. I know exactly what our schools, our administrators, our teachers, and the workforce goes through each and every day. They generate, they are the ones that generate the funding. I think a lot of people don't realize that. I heard Board Member Alonso making a statement which I fully concur with. And you asked about, okay, is there a comparison that can be made as to how many cuts have been made here as opposed to here? I did my own. I did my own research. I know what I have, because I did it, because I wanted the same answer. And it's important to know those facts. I went into the statistical highlights. I always go into the statistical highlights. And I found some discrepancy there. And I did speak to that issue and that concern publicly at one of our meetings that we had here. And privately as well. Mr. Steiger, you recall our conversation. Because again, having been in the seat that our principals are in today, I know what I have to look at. We also had the school allocation plan that's being addressed. Yes, we dealt with the school, as a matter of fact, there's a little portion that we have when we are administrators that we have to decide, okay, we have a pot of dollars. If I have to make a determination as to what I need for my school, I'm gonna look and see, is this discretionary? or not because that tells you that little d means discretionary that's something else that is very important in the allocation plan so there had been some concerns you know in reference to um some possibilities of positions that had to be mandated for purchasing and they really didn't um so I am happy that the superintendent has directed everyone to go case by case, school by school, and to try to assist those that have been hit pretty severely, because some schools had some reductions, but there are other schools that have had various reductions. which has really affected them. So I am very grateful that that is being done, Mr. Superintendent. And I know that after we had a long conversation, you and I were on the same page on that. And I think that the workforce is very pleased to see that that's gonna happen. But a lot of the questions that are coming out here, if not all of them, were in the memo that I sent and that I CC'd all my colleagues on the board and that will give clarity to all of the questions that I'm hearing coming out of my colleagues. So I know you told me that you're going to expeditiously try to get that out as soon as possible and that you needed more time than what I had requested, but I am confident that you will get it out to everyone here, but it's not just for the sake of those sitting here, but it's also for the members of our workforce, starting with our principals, to know that they're being heard, they're being listened to, that the regents are sitting in in the budget conferences, and that the regents have a say in the process. that is being implemented right now, and that is coming from you. So I thank you for that because it's very, very important. And I understand that we do have a budget crisis at this point, or we did. This year looks much more optimistic, but Tough decisions have to be made, but they have to be fair decisions, and they have to be made with one priority in mind, and that is the schools are the last and the least to be touched. And I think that everyone is on the same page on that particular arena. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. With no further questions, yes, Superintendent Dorges, you're recognized.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just a couple of comments and see if I can encapsulate this. Mr. Steiger mentions the fact of coming to the board with a budget with very little conversation in the past. We were very, very deliberate. This year in particular, we've you know, as I retire from this, from my position, it's incredible that I'm dealing with this situation right now, but we have to do it together, right? We have to be able to articulate and explain. And one of my goals has been always having those upfront conversations with the principals first, because they're really important. And one of the things that we did, to Mr. Alonso's point, we demonstrated to the principals in phase one, the district was impacted much, much greater than the school sites. We turned off hourly accounts at the district level, we turned off the P cards, then we worked with the schools, and we've been doing that gradually, because this is the only way that during a difficult downsizing, right-sizing process, it's the only way we're going to have people understand what we're dealing with. We made it a really important point that we wanted to share with the board members what the ideas were moving forward. And I asked Ron to have individual conversations with you because we did have a menu of items that we could have impacted. And we said to the board members, so we did not increase class size. Not acceptable, right? We didn't touch our bilingual programs. There's a huge budget behind bilingual. we didn't impact the music and art programs that we have in our school district. And so these were decisions that we made and some of the reductions that we're doing are as a result of legacy pieces that were in place and we had funding and we had the ability to sustain those legacy pieces And now we don't. We're not going to eliminate them all, but some we are. Just to be honest with you, yesterday, we're looking at some schools that are losing assistant principals and leaving schools with just one principal. Well, what happens when the absence of the principal is not there? Other situations. So we have to re-look at this. That's what I'm saying is we've been looking at this in many, many different parts. And so I believe that when we discuss with you the decisions that we've made, they've been really under, I believe, the awareness and our sharing with every single board member because I definitely don't want to impact something that the board would absolutely not agree with. So that's the point that we are. And so, you know, it's a very difficult, complex situation, and I don't like to compare ourselves to others, but I believe the way our board is making clear the expectations and the way that we've been working and sharing information It shows the difference in terms of what other school districts are struggling and what they're contending with, publicly I say as well. So again, as we move into this process, I just want to assure you, I was a principal. I was a region superintendent, I was a region director, and always I'm gonna go back to the importance that the principal plays in how we're supporting them, and how we're looking at the narrative of each school. Some schools will be okay. Some others may need more support. If we don't approach it this way, and we approach it formulaically like it was done before, 5%, 10% across the board, It sounds like a right formula, but no. There are some schools that don't and will not be able, if you cut the 10%, or at the district level, you won't be able to manage. So there is a side to a formula, but there is more an additional side to looking at these pictures individually. So I just wanted to assure you that that has been our approach, and I don't believe we are engaging areas of reduction that we did not share with the board because that would be completely unacceptable and we don't want to come to you with a with a budget without you even having plenty of opportunities to weigh in and this has been an ongoing process since phase one and like Mr. Alonso says we're here tightening up because we did not want the beginning of 25, 26 to be a complete disaster with a budget that we were going to hand over. So we held it. And then we started doing reductions like half year. But that has been the journey of what we've been dealing with. I mean, we're very thankful. that through our legislators, we were able to gain back $22.6 million from the loss of enrollment. That supplement was very significant. At one point, we thought we would not be able to have it. That would have been the difference of us not getting to a 3% of a reserve. And so, like Ms. Roja says, you know, the advocacy, we're in trouble. a better place, but we are in a difficult place. And I believe jointly, all of us together, understanding and being able to financially support one department versus the other, or one school to the other, I think we are going to surface in a good way, in a good way. And to Mr. Alonso, we are still looking at areas at the district level, we've taken advantage, and this is a strategy, we have taken an advantage of removing positions that come available due to attrition. That has been the number one pull that we've done. And then we've retooled other positions. And so across the board, the regions lost. The regions were also, they had some attrition, and so we took care of it there as well. At the district level, you know how many months we've gone out with no D21s? No administrators, no technicals being hired. We imagine that moving forward, our D21s are going to be minimal as well. We're being very, very careful. You're going to be receiving some revisions to D21, right? And some of those revisions are positions that we had to fill. We had to fill, but they're very minimal in scope. They tend to be from the operations side, finance, procurement, IT, because on the academic side, we have plenty of folks that we can move into these roles. So I know I spoke a lot, but I'm trying to provide a comprehensive picture that, yes, there are formulas, but those formulas have to be looked at beyond in order to be more responsive to the work that we're doing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just to clarify one thing, the final allocation ended up being $18.7 million. Through the chair. Yeah, through the chair. Well, to the chair.

Thank you. I'll go to you. I just wanted to circle back on the superintendent's point and when you mentioned a school having just a principal and not an assistant principal and that just really reinforces the urgency and importance of consolidation. We have schools out there with less than 200 students that we are having to staff and that is not a realistic formula. It is impacting students across our entire district because dollars are having to go to those students. And then at the end of the day, they're still not getting a good education because they're not receiving top notch education. If we truly care about the students in the classrooms, We want to consolidate them to be able to do that. I saw that personally in my district where I was able to consolidate Country Club Middle with Lawton Childs. Those families are so happy now because there is extra programming at Lawton Childs now that they weren't receiving at Country Club because now we have more students in one school. We then saw that at Hialeah Middle and Amelia Earhart Elementary where we now have one principal running both schools together with APs. Those are the type of decisions we have to make and we have to move quicker and analyze this because at the end of the day, a school with 200 or less students is not being served adequately and we can try to over fund it as much as possible to try to fill the gaps but it's just not a realistic model it's not sustainable and at the end of the day our students and the families that we serve are the ones that are being impacted um so i just think it's something we really have to continue to work on i know our enterprise office is working very closely on that and Dr. Dorches, you need to bring that data to us and show us where those areas are at and show us these are the schools that are 200 or less. We need to make some difficult decisions because we can't continue going this way. We will not continue to get bailouts from Tallahassee Board. We were bailed out this past year with these additional $21 million that were given to us. The students weren't here. And it was thanks to this board, together with staff, that went and advocated and asked for this. But we can't continue to go out there begging for money at the end of the school year because we didn't budget correctly, because we didn't have the students that we expected. So I think we've kind of exhausted. Did you have something at the end to just close out?

Yes, I think it's gonna close out on a very positive note. I believe that we are all together. administration and this board that there is no one that knows their schools better than those principals. And they're the ones that know what they need, the resources they need, the personnel that they need, so that we can continue to rejoice one more year as we just did. A-rated school district, the third largest in the country, graduation rates never seen before, and all of the other accolades. But if we expect our principals to be able to continue to excel, we have to give them the resources that they need in order for them to be able to, again, achieve together, because it's not just them, but they're at the helm of those schools, the amazing results that we're getting. So thank you, Mr. Superintendent. I heard you say that the principals, having been a principal yourself, you know that they are the ones, they're the ones that will help us to make the toughest decisions, but the best decisions for each one of their particular schools. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. And with no further discussion, I move to adjourn today's committee meeting. All those in favor?