001good evening everyone this has never happened good evening good evening are you can they not hear you no they don't hear me good evening everyone welcome to the Orange County school board's regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday October 24th thank you so much for joining us tonight we're going to have an exciting evening board members are attending either telephonically or in person so let me take a quick roll call beginning with Vice chair Gallow good afternoon Madam chair good afternoon member Fant good afternoon good afternoon member G member G is not with us yet she is at the County commission for an important vote affecting one of our schools and their stadium so we'll be seeing her when she when she can get here member Felder yes top of the evening good evening good evening Dr
002ker denl good evening chair good evening member Bird good evening chair good evening and member Salam monka could not be with us today as a reminder all board members will not be engaging in outside electronic or digital communication during the meeting so that we can focus our full attention on the matters before us to my fellow board members District staff and members of the public when speaking please make sure your microphone is turned on and speak directly into it so our YouTube audience and orange TV viewers can hear you clearly and again thank you for participating we will begin with a moment of silence and then I'll invite you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance and now for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and
003to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we have one outstanding recognition that will kick us off tonight I'd like to tell you a little bit about pedmont lak's middle middle science teacher and basketball coach Bernardine West coach West has a two-part Philosophy for her students first first work hard hard work pays off and just as importantly stay disciplined on and off the court coach West has REM remained true to her doctrine of Excellence which paved the way for her to receive the 2023 Orlando Magic Junior NBA scholarship Coach of the Year award this special award was presented to her at the Magic game on Friday night she was honored for her leadership her Integrity her positive attitude towards all players coaches parents and referees she
004has demonstrated influential coaching and shown that she has created a lasting impact on students and her Excellence has been recognized at the national level as well Bernardine was a 2023 Junior NBA scholarship coach of thei of the Year finalist and that's a pretty high honor Bernardine congratulations on a well-deserved award and thank you for your tireless dedication to the ocbs students both on and off the court can we invite you to say a few words and I don't put you on the spot you don't have to but we certainly love to hear from you and then we'd love to get a picture of you and your gorgeous good evening how are you we're wonderful good I just want to thank you guys for recognizing me it has been a great journey being at Pete my
005Lakes being under the supervision of Dr Ray I can say that it just not only begins with me it begins with up all the way down staff and those that helped me out with all my girls at Pete M Lakes we did go 9 and0 so we did make it to the championship we only lost by one by Wolf Lake however we'll be back so I'm not worried about it U we're gonna win this time and you'll see me before you again but again those girls I've only had six of them so we had six girls all the way 9 and zero again though they show excellent they represented Pete M very well on and off grades disciplined again under the Excellence of Dr Ray himself so I really do appreciate it and I couldn't
006have done it without him and Pete M Lakes midle School well let's get you and principal Ray up here for photo and if you have any of your girls with you please bring them up I don't they're actually in volleyball practice okay okay yes oh oh hold on just a minute remember Bird that's school thank you chair I just wanted to say a few words about Coach West as you can see from her speech where we're honoring her all she can do is talk about her kids right that's just the kind of educator and leader that she is and she's not only a tremendous educator at pedmont Lakes Middle School and Coach but she's also a super strong member of the Apopka Community not only is she the school athletic director and the head coach
007of multiple Sports at aapka but she's I mean at imp pedmont but she's also the coach of teams within the Apopka Community she is an eighth grade science teacher as you mentioned but she's taught every grade level she's a member also of the med iation teams that Dr Ray just put together last year after we had our antiviolence roundtables and she works with groups of kids helping them solve their differences talk them out learn how to resolve their conflicts and she's really a strong Mentor for the kids at pedmont and also in our community I know we've we've talked about after school activities she does she just she's so busy working with kids it's really her passion you can tell as soon as you meet her how much she cares about them so we are
008so fortunate to have her in our community and to have her at our school at peont so thank you and congratulations coach Wes this was a wonderful honor for you okay if we can get you and principal Ray up we'd love to get a picture thank you wait there's a cost you don't get a picture if we don't oh yeah congratulations congratulations conratulations congratulations congratulations baby girl yes it's wonderful oh my God your hair I know yeah that's awesome mhm here I love it yeah you're right well I hear a little one did you hear a little boy now I think the back Jersey says something so let's kind of there we go fix this what if you guys are like number one you can turn look toward your school and you guys point to
009her hold on hold on we got to fix the numbers again I issues you got issues you got issues in general I got lots of issues out of okay we're out of time congratulations congratulations oh go go you got a lot on your plate I don't know how you do it all all right Dr Basque do you have any newly appointed administrators to recognize I absolutely do so we are going to start with Aaron Albert who is going to be the new Prin ible at Orange Center Elementary thank you very much school board members superintendent Vasquez and staff for the opportunity to serve at Orange Center I'd also like to thank my family who's here with me tonight the community of orange Center as well as my former principles Miss Ivory Dr Brooks Mr do
010and my numerous mentors in ocps thank you Elena broft is going to be the new assistant principal at Pinewood Elementary thank you welcome thank you Schoolboard members and superintendent Basquez and staff for the opportunity to serve at Pinewood Elementary I also want to thank my previous leadership and Leadership teams that I've worked with over the last couple of years and my wonderful support system for being here with me tonight thank you Brit brockmeier is the new assistant principal at windamir high school thank you thank you school board members superintendent Vasquez and staff for this opportunity to serve at windamir high school I also wanted to thank Mr Martinez and Dr Pana and Mr leas for mentoring me the last few years Seth Knight is the new assistant director orange Technical College West Campus good evening
011I'd like to thank the school board members superintendent Dr Vasquez and the staff for this opportunity I'm humbled and excited to serve students in this new capacity at Orange Technical College West Campus again thank you I am truly grateful for this opportunity thank you congratulations Allan Lynch is the newest assistant director orange Technical College for the south campus good evening I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the school board the staff superintendent Dr Vasquez my boss Rosa grant for all the time we spent together CTE and my new boss administrator Alex heidleberg over at the South Campus looking forward to spending some quality time over there improving student programs Diana Mitchell is the new assistant principal at colney elementary hi congratulations thank you Schoolboard members Dr Vasquez and for this opportunity to serve at
012colar elementary I also want to thank my family and friends for being here as well as my mentors that I've work with over the past couple years as well as Dr W for this opportunity thank you Kristen Neo is the new assistant director orange Technical College main campus oh there you are hi sorry you congratulations thank you thank you school board members superintendent Dr Vasquez and staff for this opportunity to serve at Orange Technical College main campus I would like to thank all of those leaders who have supported and mentored me over the years and that includes Dr Michael arm Brewster Dr Rosa Grant Mr Alex heidleberg and Mrs Anita G and Miss Carol Tingley I want to give a special thank you to Dr Felicia Boyd for this opportunity and my family is here
013with me tonight my husband Julio my daughters Banna and Jasmine and thank you superintendent again and school board members thank you for the opportunity to serve and I excited Cynthia Santana is the new assistant principal at Southwest Middle School good evening thank you for this opportunity thank you school board members superintendent Dr Vasquez and staff for this opportunity to serve at Southwest Middle School I'd like to thank Mr rodado my school principal and also my family for being here with me and for always supporting me in all that I do thank you congratulations to each one of you we are delighted that you are going to help lead our students to success thank you superintendent if we could get all of our appointees up to the Das we'd like to get a quick picture and
014then if Frank thinks we can hand we'd like to have all our families join them fantastic good okay congratulations congratulations conat it's awesome very exciting my mom made name has mentioned to us great name yeah great name baby we're gonna yeah we're GNA have all the family life in just a minute wait right there don't go far don't go far don't go far good good and button jackets and look excited friends and family and if you drove to see them you can be in the photo it's okay this is exciting time oh it is I know I have that shirt I that shirt I have that shirt too m all right there are some friends in the audience they're coming all right if you're wearing green apparently you need to step forward yeah up I'll
015you a little hold great job congratulations do that one do that one all right we have an exciting challenge coming up so let me call on member Castro denl and member Fant starting with member Castro Den thank you madam chair I know that member Gould is not here yet to declare to declare one way or the other I don't know the outcome of her game I'm wait I'm waiting to find out when she gets here but those are not the only high schools in our district yeah and there is I just I feel a little left out of this whole rivalry love stuff that's been going on lately and as far as I'm concerned the most epic ocps football team or face off this year has not happened yet and I see principal Dr krider
016has something in the back if you could you could come forward Dr krider it is a barrel that Edgewater High School maintains because we have won in the last five years as we play Boon High School oh wow so it is the Battle of the barrel thank you Dr Cryder we win in this year 71st okay so who so there is a little history you can stay right here you're not done yet everyone needs to see that Barrel but the Rivalry goes back 70 years when we had the original Orlando High School it was divided up into two high schools in 1952 with Edgewater High School to the north and Boon High School in the South so hence the Rivalry immediately so I know we have some friends in the back who might want to
017come forward go ahead I want you to edar I think we see Edgar the eagle Edgar the eagle yes fly on down here here at Edgar yes here we go and Ed Edgewater is known for its school spirit whoa yes so we brought some school spirit to share we've got this great cheer team and you guys can I'd love to see it but I think it might be better if you all face everybody else back that way you might want to you know switch up the rows yes Edgar thank you so much for joining us tonight yeah this is great yes okay thank you yes thank you all right so I know we have some cheers to to teach to the group out there so hit it the Eagles are ready for you hey are
018you for all right are you ready are you ready all right that's that's great now I have stay right there I know there you probably have a lot of teers but hold on I want to give a little more information I know that member Felder was a teacher at Edgewater High School that's right I was and we also have Dr Bridget Williams who is our Deputy superintendant not only did she go to Edgewater or she graduate from Edgewater but she wore her black and red today too I don't know if that's just a coincidence oh yes she that was ldg you know don't tell anyone that she's involved because she might lose her job but I but anyway I taught a student also Chris ly he played for Edgewater a few years ago and he
019I taught him in third grade and he was something else back in third grade I was told that he would do flips standing flips when I would turn my back and I would turn back around and everything was fine I didn't learn that till later on so he's very athletic and he was in he was the best one of the best players at Edgewater and he went on to play for Alabama and now he plays for Georgia Tech and there are so many great players on the Edgewater team and we have great coaches and I'm ready for another cheer g g o let's go g all go g o let's go g o let's go g o let's go O Let's Go o let's go let's go g g o let's go g g o
020let's go there you go let's go all right thank you all right so thank you so much and I just know that this is going to be another yet another Edgewater win on November 3rd and I just I brought along a Jersey oh oh look at that and I challenge member forant to wear the eagle red after we defeat Boon at the November ninth game and I know that we are ready thank you very much well that was really cute it really was cute but I don't think you realized who has more Spirit yeah thank you okay I'm sorry do you see your school board member with her yeah her shirt on I don't think so hey y'all Did Awesome by the way I can't really smack talk kids this is really just between me
021and her and nothing against any of the kids okay and I'm terrible at at smack talking but let me tell you I didn't just bring a cheer squad see but I made sure the band was here because maybe if you didn't realize we have one of the most passionate sports fans at Boon high school we have even a rowdy crowd I don't know if there's any rowdy crowd here tonight but we have an entire rowdy crowd that goes crazy they do the face paint Wild Wild Ones Dr mastri I think even gets pretty crazy I saw him on on homecoming week with his orange wig and being all wild so nothing but the best I'd like our drum line to come up and the cheer I don't know how you want to do it who
022wants to go first but let's show them what Boon is made of okay all right let's go come on okay w h all right that's right woo by the way I don't know if you've been keeping up with the homecoming game but Boon defeated they the team they were against which is another one of my D3 so I won't say them 69 to zero so I'm sorry edge water is going down this week okay my husband and my oldest son are Boon alumni and I have a daughter who's about to be a boon alumni so we are very invested in Boon I've been watching these games I know kids on the team you're going down so I have no problem I have no problem with this waiver and you wager you're going to be wearing
023this jersey okay next school board meeting all right well I take I think we have a wager I think you're right you're going down get to I don't do good if I get a picture and we'll bring our own rowdy crowd with us to the Boon game okay do we need a referee here blue nail polish on tonight all right okay well and just in the nick of time member gold has arrived member gold I know I know you were taking care of some Stadium business as it happens and I think it's time for an announcement here so member Felder member gold who wants to take the lead here well now good evening to all yes Bard m m gold do you remember do you remember huh challenging me to wear a West Orange Jersey
024at tonight's board meeting at the if the Warriors won the orange crate game oh you do remember yes and did you see what happened at the game on Friday night yes it was a long game z00 for a minute then 30-0 and then we finally won so remember ghou I want you to stand up and show the people that pretty Jersey ah DP DP DP that's okay member Felder I forgot my cowbell night I did my best to annoy her on Friday night with my cowbell what a great night it was though I so enjoyed spending time with member Felder and actually both high schools because you know until very recently even though she was a teacher there DP was mine for 10 years so there's always a little piece of me at Dr Phillips
025High School but the Warriors rallied hard but the Panthers definitely roared that night I was arguing with the scoreboard at one point when it said 103 or 10 Z because we didn't think it was right but it was a great game and it was a great time and I really enjoyed spending time with you cheering and cheering for the bands the bands were absolutely fabulous you know being a band mom I can't not mention the bands so thank you and let's go in our matching close now for a picture all right so stay tuned for our next meeting to see how this next challenge goes down all right this time I'd like to call on wilbers lebranch Briana Marisol Helena kayama and Jamal Joseph they're from the superintendent student advisory Council and I'd like to
026invite them to share a few words with us it oh oh wow haha yes EV Evans there yes thank you and representing Evans High School welcome briis and hello my name is wver Le Branch we've come here to share our plan of action and improving the sense of belonging at Evans high school pride determination and perseverance are the pillars of success in our community the at Evans the words Pride determination and perseverance are not just empty words we truly mean it we have been tasked with fostering these words to create a stronger sense of Trojan family the first component we are going to utilize to increase our sense of belonging is game day Friday which consists of games like Uno Jenga connect for and more students tend to socialize with the same group of people
027repeatedly or not interact with students at all but with the integration of games the question at hand is who doesn't like games having games set up at lunch tables encourages students to interact with new people students will challenge teachers to a game of choice this adds the component of competition but also allows them to get to know each other in bond last Friday was our first game day Friday and over the course of A and B lunch we had over 200 students and 20 faculty members participate and I would like to give a special CH shout out to our children Hub Our commun Community Partnership school for providing the games for this to happen awesome Evans High School is very diverse and consists of many different backgrounds grounds as you all heard from our introduction
028and we plan to reach these hidden cultures through our Trojan culture Day Festival when students don't feel connected they don't learn they feel Invincible this will give students and teachers the opportunity to present their cultures we also plan to involve many of the different clubs on our campus and and as representatives for the different cultures that will be presented during our CH our Chan culture Day Festival clubs that may not directly deal with cultures will have different roles assigned to them in order for them to feel a sense of inclusivity our principal Miss Nelson Warren collaborates with us so that we can be creative and Innovative with our plan of to increase the sense of belonging at 4949 SilverStar road with her support and our pride determination and perseverance the children family will be stronger
029than ever and I have one last comment I have one last comment Dr cter Dental we would like to challenge you to a game of Uno on our yeah yes yes on R game day Friday on November 10th do you accept I accept and I don't think you realize what you just did I don't think you realize what you just did I will play UNO I will play Connect 4 watch out thank you at that I'll leave it at that once again thank you guys for your time oh no thank you thank you yeah thank you so much for allowing our students to come up and present to you School Board chair and board members our most esteemed superintendent as well and we just shared a little part of our Evans family with you this
030evening we also have our njr with us if you could please stand njrtc anything that we need they support us in our campus and they provided a sword entrance today as you entered into this venue thank you so much thank you thank you thank you so let's let's do this can we get our RC members up first and we'll get a picture and then we're going to get the supervisor super superintendent's advisory Council the mascot yes definitely and the mascot yeah do we have any rlgc teachers here if so come on up and join us yes I love walking through that those swords yes you guys are wonderful yeah Scot down keep going keep going this and only the masc want the masot mascot mascot Mas and the principal mascot and the principal over here
031lipsti are you allow to smile's Frank Frank they can smile they can't blink and now happy smiles good now you guys just compact a little bit go that way and just gonna get all of them I'm just gonna move this yes I love the jacket Soo excellent seriously call you yes he will make you cry principal principal stays principal stays stays mascot nice job you have on green I have on Blue yes she good even her lips are green I love it yeah here we go you got to help the mask good job ter that's that's okay I will move let him or her I don't know tippy toes on three goodcent congratulations congratulations thank you all right next I believe that Ron Pard president of oesa is here but I understand he's waving his
032time so I don't see him right now but will hear from him of course you can make a comment member forant wants to offer a comment before you all leave really quick to the Evans High School kiddos that came I just want to say thank you all so much for coming I love what Dr Vasquez has done and has a student committee at each school that comes and shares your thoughts you guys are boots on the ground you're the ones in the school day in and day out and so I really I love what you guys are doing I love the ideas that you've come up with to really create that Community feel where kids walk in and they don't feel like a number or invisible at your school but they'll feel connected it's awesome
033keep up the great work and you guys look seriously sharp so great job thank you well well don't don't leave yet don't leave yet remember cast D yes I want to Echo those comments I you all look so sharp and it really helps your presentation your presentation was on point and you came with the props that really helped to kind of illustrate what's happening and I love the idea of the friendly competition I think people can get into that I know I love some friendly competition as well so and I'd like to know more about the Trojan culture Day Festival when that's coming I'd love to come out for that as well and I love the ROTC group that was presenting here today too so thank you and thank you principal Nelson Warren you're doing
034an awesome job over there and thank you to the mascot thank you so much for coming in all right now I'd like to call on Clinton McCracken president of the Orange County classroom Teachers Association welcome they're a hard act to follow they are that's true good evening chair Jacobs and members of the board at the last board meeting I shared some of the positive comments we've received from teachers about their principles while I think it's important to recognize where things are going well so that good things continue and maybe even spread to other places we also have to take a very hard look at where things are aren't going well we'll soon be sending you feedback we've received from teachers about specific schools and principles after I share them with Dr Vasquez it's a long
035document the vast majority of the comments we've received are that teachers are feeling beat down and many of the problems shared aren't ones that can wait for a task force or a committee meeting to discuss their immediate concerns no employee is going to stick around in a job where they're constantly disrespected micromanaged and overworked on top of being underpaid based on the many concerning comments we've received I have five things that I would recommend to the board first please read the feedback in its entirety but understand that it's limited these are the voices of your teachers however please understand that as many people have written their concerns that many more have called us or have shared their stories with us during our school visits what you'll be receiving is just a sampling second please take
036action visit those schools that are mentioned but please don't announce yourself before you go you'll get a song in a dance just as I've been visiting some schools with Dr Vasquez I would suggest that we visit some schools some of these schools together let's talk to the teachers there and see why they're feeling beat down third I would recommend each one of you host a teacher Roundtable for your district and invite CTA to participate so that our teachers know their Union and the school board members are working to address their concerns however keep in mind that most of our teachers are now on an annual contract they feel Limited in what they can say in person because their principal can just not reappoint them at the end of the year receiving a letter that says
037the school requires a different match for the instructional team can cause a teacher to quit the career that they love some have shared that they're so afraid of retaliation that they won't even complete our Anonymous form fourth many of our principles need training on how to be a good leader I've recommended an amazing trainer to Dr Vasquez who specializes in principal and other leadership training I've been through portions of his training myself and I found it meaningful and inspiring the priority needs to be how can we improve in order to retain our teachers I just have a few more comments keep going fifth take things off teachers plates that are unnecessary they're overwhelmed and they're pleading with us to help them there are lots of ideas on what we can do to improve for example
038forcing teachers to prepare prep lessons to role play in front of their peers during plc's is unnecessary and it's demeaning when what teachers really need is time to plan thank you Clinton thank you so much for being here and thank you for those suggestions yeah it's it's easy to tell us what's wrong but it's very helpful to be constructive and tell us how we can start improving it all right we have a number of proclamations I was going me oh no no no I'm sorry yes of course guy I'm so sorry I think I skipped right over you I sure did president-elect of the Orange County Association of school administrators I am so sorry no worries no worries sometimes it's easy to look right over me oh no no that's greetings CH Jacobs and Schoolboard
039members Dr V Vasquez and Dr arer have done a terrific job of focusing our efforts as ocps as people first one ocps organization it takes a triangle of support between administrative instructional and classified to make the work happen and to make every person's why become a reality on a campus each day as any new initiative is being proposed one of the concerns okasa members have is who will be the staff member to manage it and bring it to life whether it be an academic program or a discipline initiative who will be the champions of these programs and does each school have the appropriate Staffing levels to be able to accomplish these tasks with Fidelity we want to make sure that as the number of initiatives grow that the board considers the People First in these
040decisions so that we don't continue to Simply add more work to our Workforce one aspect to consider is that not every school has the same positions at their school for example just recently L not every Elementary School had an assistant principal leaving the principal as the only administrator we applaud our superintendent and our board for seeeing the importance of including this position in every elementary school and I'm proud okasa helped to Champion this the same can be said for counselors security guards instructional coaches disciplined clerks you name it there truly is no stock Staffing package at every school every school is different and in fact this can be a great talking point when you speak with principles to highlight one example discussions have been ongoing for quite some time regarding walkthrough metal detectors in our
041secondary schools if the board were to determine that there would be a need to go beyond the handheld wands that we currently use our okasa members would want you to consider the people needed to implement such a new undertaking because if the current staff on duty in the morning were to shift to working metal detectors then the rest of the campus is not being supervised certainly a change like this would not would take not only a Hardware in investment but a people investment as well will additional staff be included in the plan and how will they be paid and will it be enough to entice them to arrive on campus an hour earlier at 6:00 a.m. to be ready for the first bus that often drops students off at 6:25 to be a people first
042organization it is important to learn from the people who make the work happen it is for this reason that we ask and perhaps challenge challenges seem to be popular that each board member that they Shadow not only not a teacher not a principal but I suggest you Shadow a security guard there is no better way to understand the work that is done on a campus than to work alongside and speak directly to Personnel charged with the security of a campus this will give each of you a lens into the important facet of a school in order to advocate for arcasa administrative members so that they have the tools necessary to keep your constituents safe ultimately though though with any initiative it is the people on a campus who need to make it work and we
043ask that you consider those people in your decisionmaking thank you for your continued support thank you thank you very much member cast Den is this from before member it's for now thank you thank you very much I recall when I was serving in the legislature anytime we had a bill there was an analysis and it provided the cost that this bill would impact and often staff so I wonder if there's a way for that when we process these initiatives that we do some kind of internal check and think about the what's this going to cost for personnel and additional costs before we just jump on some of these awesome ideas what is it really going to take to get these initiatives off the ground and if we can't staff them then they're not that great
044right so maybe that's another point that we put into our decision-making process and another thought I was just having is I wonder if it would be beneficial if a member of a CTA talk to people in okasa and so that not always coming to the board for ways to kind of mediate the workload but maybe the admins and teaching staff were to have conversations directly as well and maybe you could come up with some other solutions that we don't readily see maybe you see the same requirements that are not useful or that are really not necessary maybe that would be helpful I'm not sure if that's something that has happened in the past but I think that could be helpful for looking at the workload thank you thank you member Castor denl all right well
045thank you all both both of the last speakers for the suggestions and the cander now now we're going to celebrate some proclamations let me begin with proclaiming October 28th as National First Responders St in Orange County Public Schools we're proclaiming November as Florida family engagement month in Orange County Public Schools and November 2023 as Native American History Month we are also proclaiming November 6th through the 11th as week of the family in Orange County Public Schools and I'd like to ask Melanie Williams former president of the Orange County Council of P ptas to come forward and read the proclamation Melanie it's so wonderful to see you again it is wonderful to be here good evening superintendent chair Jacobs and board members and staff thank you so much for this opportunity and if I may take
046a point of personal privilege I just want to commend you all on just showcasing the talents of our students just bringing them here now this see what you're doing and you're showcasing their talent it does my heart glad I do have a band student so my child is in marching band so it we're at the games and everything so we're looking forward to district one thank you so much to the proclamation week of the family November 6 through 11 2023 whereas the mission of Orange County Public Schools states that with the support of families and the community we create enriching and diverse Pathways to lead our students to success and whereas the school board of Orange County recognizes that parental and Community Support is essential for the educational benefit and well-being of our students and
047public education in Orange County and whereas a goal in our strategic plan includes an Engaged and invested community and whereas on and between November 6 through 11 2023 three Orange County students and their parents are encouraged to recognize renew and celebrate their bonds and family life now therefore the school board of Orange County Florida does hereby Proclaim November 6th through 11 2023 as week of the family in Orange County Public School signed by Cher Jacobs and superintendent Vasquez thank you so much thank you so much and thank you for all you've done for our schools over the years you've been just a remarkable leader and a great team member thank you thank you I do I do need a picture Frank absolutely yes we do have two committee members yes please absolutely have you met
048Melanie wasn't that event with Maria panel was that hysterical right thank you all right we are proclaiming November 6th through the 10th as National School psychology awareness week November 6 through 10th as Holocaust Education week November 13th through the 19th as National apprenticeship week November 13th through the 17th as American Education week November 13th through the 17th as National philanthropy week I know that's a lot of proclamations I just want to pause for a moment because October and November are very heavy months for proclamations but every single one of these proclamations means a great deal to this board and to our schools and to our community so as I read them I hope you will take away some thoughts as you go through the next week about each one of these proclamations and how important
049they are to our community and with that I feel like I should be announcing Str strategic Plan update week here in our orang County Public Schools but actually it's just a strategic Plan update so with that I am pleased to introduce Brian Holmes our chief of police for Orange County Public Schools for a school safety specialist report thank you madam chair good evening members of the board Dr Vasquez tonight I will be presenting to you in our community the school safety specialist annual update the margorie stowman Douglas High School public safety act require requires that the superintendent appoint a school safety specialist the school safety specialist is responsible for all School Safety and Security Personnel policies and procedures for all public schools including Charters the school safety specialist is required to annually update the school
050board in a publicly advertised meeting on matters associated with the Safety and Security of schools and I do have to say I have to credit our past school board members and of course our present and our superintendent for their support of School Safety and Security programming we very much appreciate it and I know our schools do and the community does as well let's talk a little bit about the agenda tonight you can see I'm going to do an overview of some legislation I'm going to power through those slides very quickly we built it in there so we'd have it in the record in case anybody would wants to look back on it and then we're going to talk about how we've complied with the stemman Douglas safety act talk briefly about some pH physical security
051improvements and initiatives we have going on in our schools right now talk about our grant funding and give you an opportunity to ask questions this is how we have a broken down here because it takes a team to make this happen we've got the Department's name they do a lot of heavy lifting everybody does I've got a few team members back here behind me my boss vco I mean we're all in and we're all committed to making sure that we can have as safe as schools as possible you know some of the compliance that we're involved in with this legislation is not just a school ba school safety bill but we also have what's called Rule 6A and they tag that along to what's going on with the bill so I'm going to talk a
052little bit about House Bill five 43 that they passed in 2023 I think the most important thing about this particular slide is that it actually allows for our public schools to take advantage of the Guardian program I only bring that up because our Charter Schools take advantage of the Guardian program and so that's a little competition so some very scarce resources I just thought you know in that we do have some representation to the charter schools here at the district level that is something that is going to have impact on them moving forward it also required doe to come up with a Florida specific behavioral threat assessment instrument and threat management portal now I gave you a Str a strategic update a few weeks ago on threat management itself so I'm not going to go
053too much into detail about it but that said it is part of this presentation and there's also another inst thing about this particular bill it actually revised the requirements for carrying of concealed weapons without a concealed weapon or firearm license in a school safety bill it was actually attached to a school safety bill now it doesn't really and I and I just want to point that out because it doesn't change the prohibition for possessing a firearm on a school campus you cannot bring a firearm on a school campus unless you're law enforcement period now to the Florida administrative code changes this is Rule 6A 1.18 and one thing it touched upon it had a big impact so far this year it expanded the requirements associated with the conducting of safe schools and the drills and
054the requirement to review those so I have the pleasure of being able to look at all of our drill reports and review them and see how things are going in the schools as they report them out it also changed the number of drills remember last year active as salent we had one every month it that's been reduced to four active as salent drills per year six fire drills per year and then two weather or we like to call it shelter and place drills yes don't want to go too much into threat management again I've gone over this quite a bit bit I do want to say this though I've got an amazing team of people that work with and for me deputy chief Randy derky has spearheaded this effort along with Dr Julie Joseph from
055student services to train our school-based threat management teams and the entire leadership of those particular teams so far we have trained a total of 758 School based threat management team numbers we should have a total of a little over almost 1,500 trained by the time it's all said and done so we're about halfway there we knocked out some of the SRO over the summer which is very very difficult we have a an off day coming up here shortly and we're going to take advantage of that and trade some more SRO we got safe schools helping us with that I think the one thing that is probably going to be the most difficult for our schools I mentioned it in the other strategic update is the very short timelines in between a school based threat management
056chair receiving a threat and then having to turn that all the way around to it eventually coming back and being shared with the district threat management coordinator it's a very very short turnaround it doesn't give a lot of time for for that threat to actually be assessed and everybody involved to you know be engaged in that particular threat but you know we're going to do what they tell us do the best we can with Fidelity and U I'm confident our schools will be able to pull it off all right let's go to Stow and Douglas I'm on a tight timeline I just want to make sure you know we've got actions taken you can see it right underneath where it says safe School officers there it says action taken during 2223 and then down below
057the next bullet down major bullet actions planed during 2324 the next several slides are going to show you that what we're trying to do is tell you what we did last year I've got to report that out okay those initiatives how we did and then what we're working on now because we're well into this year all right we're well into 24 so we have a lot of stakeholders involved in this SRO and all of our law enforcement agency partners we have nine besides District police which is 10 law enforcement agency providing SRO services for our schools and law enforcement Services they are a good example of stakeholders we interface and interact act with them regularly you actually have 260 SRO and 39 SRO supervisors that you reimburse for their services school-based threat assessment teams I
058talked about threat management well let's look back over our shoulder right now we're involved with with the SE stag model not the threat management model we had to carry that out to the end of the year it goes through December 31st then the big shift January 1st we're on to the new model so that's why we're involved in this training right now that's why we're getting ready for it and I hope hope we hit the mark I think we will again more about threat assessment and last last but not least the only other thing I want to mention to you about this the original statute on this required what we call the core 4 you absolutely have to have a school administrator somebody with mental health background instructional and a law enforcement officer on your
059school based threat management team can't just be a guardian it has to be a law enforcement officer has access to fccn cic criminal history information etc etc and so that's really an important aspect of it and every agency and every school is engaged and involved in that for us here in Orange County got a brag on my mental health Team I say they're mind because we work together on a lot of this together they successfully met the statutory requirement of training over 80% of staff and youth Mental Health First Aid by January I'm sorry July 1st 2023 they actually trained 18,000 195 school-based staff yeah that's a heavy lift right there that was 80 87% of our school staff great job Mary and your team this is more about the drills and some of the
060work that our team from safety and Emergency Management carried out over the 2023 I think if any of you any of you had an opportunity to attend preparedness days hosted July 18 18 through 20th and 2022 and they did the same thing this year we had preparedness days again this year again we're looking back over shoulder and what we've been doing this year it was a big deal they did a fantastic job on it and there was a lot of community engagement in that particular training for our school administrators and our community for that matter our law enforcement community and fire actions plan for 2324 with safety and Emergency Management it's going to be a heavy focus on conducting a an exercise to test a District student reunification plan that's the big one right there
061conduct workshops on it prepare for it and then carry out that exercise looking forward to it's exciting stuff for us all right here's another one of those big heavy lifts every year we have to complete at every one of our Public Schools a school security risk assessment it's done by a school administrator we help that from the district police perspective we provide them a reference guide 375 questions yes all Safety and Security related does your school do these things and we have to answer it and how do you meet this particular requirement of standard so I have a couple of Administrators that work directly for me and they do a amazing job on making sure we get this out get it in on time and yes we met the deadline this year the deadline was
062October 1st and we actually got it done in early September proud of my team great job guys this is another thing that we have to do we call the triennial Public Safety tour we have to do this every three years so we got it done in May of 2023 law enforcement and Fire EMS they come into the schools they do a tour they provide us recommendations we take that they build that into our ssra for each one of those schools and we utilize that occasionally depending on what the recommendations are if it fits into our profile for Safety and Security equipment and gear we'll go ahead and ask for grant money for that it's a great way for they can have you know some input into what we're doing at our schools all right physical
063security I'm not going to go into detail on this I met with each with each one of you in a one-onone and we went into great detail about this what we're doing what's a compliment and everything we do when it comes to Safety and Security is meant to go enterprise-wide we want the same systems in place at each one of our schools and that's the goal so enhanced building security and identific and identification I'm not going to go into detail but that's one of the focuses that we've been involved in ensure adequate radio transmission and last but not least enhance our perimeter security at our schools how do we pay for all that well it's expensive but since 2018 we've been receiving grant money and so far we've received from the state of Florida in
064our we they call it the hardening Grant 8,835 1800 and we put it to good use the only money left on the table was left on the table by some of our Charter Schools they just couldn't accomplish what they had planned for but that said most of this funding has been spent or is being spent right now we've also utilized $600,000 from our Esser funds to purchase the digital threat management system to support threat to self and threat to others when we roll this thing out in January trying to stay on top of those timelines and making sure we're documenting this stuff properly is really important we're bringing it on a system to be able to do that called PCG plan we're working with them right now Mary's team my team how long we've been
065meeting one those folks year a year sometimes twice a week trying to make sure this thing is going to meet our need because it needs to it will not be ready January 1st we're hoping maybe late January February we can start training on it ourselves train our trainers and then start rolling it out to the schools we need to get it up and running as soon as possible so I come up with findings every year because I want to make sure the district knows where we're at in this and I do find that ocps is meeting or exceeding the requirements set forth by the margorie stowman Douglas High School public safety act and our Florida Administrative Code we have challenges the board have challenges we have 6A rules that are going to have to be
066adopted yes General Council adopted into the Schoolboard policy and getting on all y'all's agenda is not that easy we know that it's tough but we've got to do it and by the way we got to go back to threats again jik oh my gosh I think it's the eth time we've done it is it eight yeah it'll be the E time to go back and amend J but we have to do it all right I have some recommendations they're pretty simple and I they're kind of General but I want to make sure we continue to mature our competency based emergency preparedness skills that's what we're going to be doing when we roll out that Community reunification continue to evaluate School Safety and Security procedures for improvement I'm about to push out a new one it's
067coming out here next in a few weeks and it's going out to all the schools all and believe me we're building upon and improving upon all the work we've done in the past nothing radically different but updating and upgrading that's what we're doing with those type of procedures mature emergency prep preparedness program to include adopting and updating family reunification plan and notification procedures enhan School emergency communications along with electronic and physical security infrastructure back to that hardening idea continue to conduct monthly threat Management training to ensure our new school-based threat management team members ret receive training that's after the first of the year anybody knew that gets and we have turned in our schools gets new that gets assigned to one of the threat management teams they have to be train within 60 days so
068we're going to have to stay on top of that offer trainings every month integrate the public Consulting groups digital lead plan threat management system upon its availability in early 2024 and last but not least and certainly not least Implement a weapon screening pilot at our high schools and I think I made it in 15 minutes Dr Basquez did you did you tell on that was that your 15 minutes or was that Chief's 15 oh yeah I was just trying to figure out by whose meas that 15 minutes it was 15 in my clock here all right let me call on Vice chair Gallow first thank you thank you madam chair you know I have to say this first first off it's very unfortunate that they had to put concealed carry in a bill that was
069meant to protect our students and our staff and I know that Stam Parkland who who was a supporter of this bill the groups down in South Florida were happy when when they merged those two bills they could have kept that as a separate bill and left it alone but that's neither here nor there so I have a couple questions the resiliency standards where what subjects are those going to be taught in I have to defer to on that one hi so you've got two things you've got the resiliency mandatory instruction which is what that 5 hours of mental health instruction used to be is now resiliency so for 6 through 12 those standards are being taught through our resiliency days our Red Ribbon Week and in our social studies classes so that 5 hours is
070covers those res resiliency standards for our elementary school the resiliency standards actually have not been approved yet we still have character education standards that elementary schools following and so they have the resiliency standards but they won't go into effect if you read them on calms they won't go into effect till next fall but that would go into that Elementary Health course thank you thank you and then I just I want to say that I know I'm very proud of Orange County I know that we've worked really hard as you pointed out Chief homes long before well Pam was here but long before the rest of us were on this board after Sandy Hook that there was a lot of work that went into making sure that our schools were safe we implemented a lot of
071safety programs you had to have your license you had to get buzzed in so we did a lot of that before the margerie stowman Douglas Massacre happened I went down there and chief homes I went down there two weeks ago they were doing their final tours of margerie stem and Douglas and they asked legislators and school board members and really anybody in the in at school districts near and far there was people from Oregon Utah Georgia to come in and just kind of bear witness and then they went over just the Colossal amount of mistakes that were happened on that awful day and it was it was awful it was it was heartbreaking it was awful the amount of mistakes that were made the decisions that were made things that could have changed that could
072have just mattered when lives mattered that mattered and the things that didn't happen was really heartbreaking so I'm I'm confident that these bills while some of them are taxing have made our school district safer and have made our students safer and have made our teachers and staff safer and so for that I'm I'm thankful for the advocacy that they've done down in South Florida and for all that they've done to help us be a safer District thank you thank you Vice chair member forant thank you so much Chief homes for sharing all of that with us I do have to say I'm super grateful that the salent drills have been minimized I think kids definitely can get it in is it four now yes I think they can they'll remember it's it's definitely intense enough
073Our concern is drill fatigue yes you just get burned out on it and you don't really care right so you Le we needed to have at least four I think that's fantastic and they can be more effective with less drills I agree I agree and I know this board has talked about that before and just the impact that it's having on our kids especially ESC kids or kids who might be more sensitive to those drills so super excited to hear about that I did want to ask I don't know if this pertains I guess but Gaggle is this all part of I wanted to ask just a few questions or maybe if you guys could do a little research and send that back to us but how much speaking of like extra work I just
074wanted to see how much extra work that is putting on our staff at the schools and is this pertaining to this or should I leave this oh you've got oh yeah yeah okay how much does it cost how are we paying and then when does it renew Dr bqu we will send the cost and renewal data to all the board via email I don't want to speak without having the exact dollar amount I can tell you that there is a lot of extra work on our administrators with Gaggle because they receive the alerts based on well they receive all all of the alerts I want to be careful what I say so we are looking at whether there is a method or or an Avenue for us to further refine the alerts what are the
075drawbacks or things for us to consider when we do that before we commit to you know continue and Beyond the current contract but it has it has alerted to students who they have been Baker acted and so you know what is the cost of one life that you may have saved or or several and I believe the board has received that data but the answer is yes it's a lot it's more work on them okay that's what I had thought and so I do think it would be beneficial to just check and see the I mean I do I absolutely agree that I think every one life is worth everything so if we're even saving one life but just to see kind of the balance like how many versus how many assessments they're having to
076look into or if there's maybe another way where we could send that to a pant or something like that like hey just want to let you know this is happening I don't know something we can always talk about later but just thought I'd bring that up thank you again thank you member front for raising that issue and I think it will be interesting to see if there's a way to make it more efficient and I know there I'm sure there are other districts using it in the same situation so hopefully through collaboration and partnering we can take a deeper dive into that but thank you for raising the issue okay Chief you're off the hook you can get back to work thank you very much great presentation thank you excellent use of minutes all right
077Dr vqu do we have any changes to the agenda no we do not all right since there are no changes to the agenda I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as posted motion by Vice chair is there a second second whoa let's start that over again I was just going to declare both of you off limits anybody other than member CER denl and member Fant want to Second it I'll thank you member bird rivalry is tough up here all in favor please say I opposed motion carries with all members present voting in the affirmative okay I am so sorry I should have asked if we had any speakers for public comment on the agenda we do not have any yellow cards then and we've already approved the adoption of the agenda there's no one
078to speak so at this point I'll entertain a motion you two stand down I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda okay well wait I'm one I am one Vice chair how about a motion so moved no vot seconded by the previous Vice chair no member gold all right all in favor please say I opposed motion carries with all members present voting in the affirmative I'm just concerned about anybody who might have t tuned in in the last five minutes they're going to think we've gone nuts up here okay we are now on non-agenda public comment and this is period of time that we devote to public input on items that are not scheduled for discussion or a vote before the board do we have any speakers yes Madam chair you have 10 10
079cards 10 speakers excellent there's some guidelines that I would respectfully ask that you adhere to First that you comply with our code of Civility which means among other things Miss Glover's second grade class is practicing Ela this is going to be our last one and it's Haley's turn to answer every single person on Earth has a brain a simple sentence way to go Haley to go Haley with so much meaning I would describe Haley as resilient there are many things she has to overcome each and every day she doesn't complain about things and she works hard since day one in kindergarten she has wanted to do it all herself and be just like everyone else despite being born blind that's exactly what Haley has done chapter to the challenges from reading and writing it is
080to going on adventures at recess with her classmates come on guys we got to explore the whole field and everything in between knock knock boo boo booo why you crying it's Halloween Haley is persevering every day I'm special because well I can't really do the same things you can but I can do it in a different way overcoming so this is the map of the classroom and adapting so you are sitting let's see right like right here with a no quit attitude I know the world is going to be full of tough hard things that I have to get past a strong message I can't give up I need to try again and I need to try harder from an even stronger little girl yummy that has everyone listening sh she's different she can't see
081but she's the same as all of us should we be practicing with the kids at home so Parent Academy is basically a conference for parents instead of kids going to school parents come to school for the day to learn how to make their kids successful in school we offer lots of different sessions for people to pick from but if you're anything like me really hard to learn when your kids are pulling on your shirt so we offer a youth Academy where kids can go learn and have a great day while their parents are free to ask questions with the district what about poetry we're very adamant about our children's Futures and so we made it a point to be as involved in their education and any meetings meet and greets as possible today's theme is
082a guide a successful school year so we have transitioning to kindergarten transitioning to Middle transitioning to high navigating the school year as an exceptional student education parent which can be a challenge we also have understanding the ocps parent portal using the new talking point system and four sessions that are only in Spanish it's not one school or district for itself everyone is a united front and when fam see that is really what is going to inspire and change this world today we have a 859 families register which is amazing we'd love to have even more but the number one reason people don't come to Parent Academy is because they don't think we speak their language so what I want people to know is whether you speak Spanish or Russian or Chinese every single session is
083closed captioned in over a hundred languages education does start in the home absolutely but we can't do what our Educators outside of our four walls can provide for us and if we can just meet them in the middle of that it'll just Bridge beautiful relationships we do what we do so our children have it better than us and every single person here who puts this together that's what they want they want their children and all the children in ocps to be successful in whatever success means to them today we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month within our school a lot of the different teachers chose to do a wax museum the children either were a character from Hispanic heritage and shared about all their history hi I'm sire I was born in Puerto Rico and they got
084the dress up some students chose to do a country of Hispanic descent and learn about their cultures and the diversities of their foods and music and things like that when students were coming in I were I was nervous but when people started pressing this button right here then I got more confident and I felt much more better I just kept on practicing overnight and over over and over again it's important to know that you know people who come from your background also made an effect in history and them getting to know you know people that look like them or came from the same country that they did impacted the United States in different ways is I opening for them that they can make a difference too I like drawing myself and Freda K is amazing
085drawer and I want to be an artist when I grow up as well so she inspired me to believe in my drawings Hispanic Heritage Month is like when you're celebrating and like trying to learn different things in different languages it's inclusion I mean we need to understand where people come from and what their points of view are and what their upbringings are we're not all raised the same so it's important that we have that background knowledge to coming in together in a community to understand each other the school cafeteria is a place to refuel hey my dear you want a Teryaki a finess manager Sharon Rous and her team listen after a long day of testing it's time to eat make sure the Wolverine Cafe no I don't blame you honey is that and more
086oh you sure can you think you did okay on your testing I hope so you have a marvelous day this is my passion seeing the kids every single day they may not get this meal they may not get the love they may not get the attention that they desire every day so I'm here for them me and my team so when it was time to level up the menu items in celebration of national school lunch week they didn't hesitate well today is our Wing Bar we have the jotoso sauce we have the teriyaki sauce we have the mandarin orange sauce and let's just say the students enjoyed it a lot I good isn't it the Wing Bar oh that was spectacular impeccable great you could say my friends they all liked it they were taking
087my chicken they're taking other people's chicken they're going around and I really enjoyed it this all in hopes of getting more students to enjoy the no cost meals offered by ocps to show them new menu item to show them that they can win prizes and that we are amazing so whether it's a wing bar or pizza food and nutrition services team is always catering to the students the district always level up they always thinking outside of the box and we always involve the students efforts that don't go unnoticed they want to make things better and that takes heart to want to make things better I appreciate it the best yes than yes thank you thank you a teacher that's made a big impact in my life has to be Miss Steven she's the bedal teacher
088here my favorite teacher is Miss colia a teacher I like to shout out would be Miss Philips my favorite teacher is Mr fairy Miss Robinson Miss Freeman Miss Carr Miss Lam would definitely be Mr Mendes my favorite teacher is Miss cor Miss child Miss Williams Miss Skipper is my favorite teacher she's really made me appreciate my strengths she was there motivating me she pushed me and she helped me a lot because she's always so nice and she helps me learn a lot he often saw things in me that I didn't even see in myself he's nice and also he helps us with everything that we need she helped me funnel my love of writing and teaching she's nice she's kind and she's grateful for her children she's nice and kind every time I have help
089she helps me and then I get to know how to do it better she's really nice and she gives us easy ways to learn multiplication and other facts cuz she's the best teacher in the whole I world it was a big week for teachers and students across ocps rock your school week rock your school rock your school is one of the ways that you can engage students in content our teachers aim to be and this year of course with the lessons provided by the district it helps them to set the stage for that topic that may be a little bit challenging to hook that students interest into the learning that excitement for learning filled the hallways and Spilled into the classrooms swimming into a new story I love the fact that we get to show
090a glimpse of what our teachers aim to do every day which is setting the stage to engage to keep students interested in learning it's thanks to teachers like Laney Clowers at dreamlake elementary who go above and beyond to make magic happen so we went and got po noodles and we cut one po noodle in half and we hot glued it and then we bought this net on Amazon and then we just connected it so we're going to use our pull noodle soccer net her resourceful ways create an educational environment these students won't forget I get out of it good scores on my tests it's a lot of fun for the kids when the students walk through that door and they see my room transformed into a p pck golf or soccer field the noises their
091faces the smiles that is why I do it just lights me on fire and that's why I come here every day a flame that will carry on throughout the rest of the school year the students yes they're going to enjoy it and then they're going to love school even more they're they're going to be oh I can't can't wait to see what Miss Clowers is going to do next I can't wait to see what we're going to do next week and it gets them excited to want to come to school and that's the goal is to want kids to love learning and love being at school hello I'm marun Shaker and I am the TSR at Bridgewater Middle School I've been with Orange County Public Schools for 17 years now as a technology Support rap
092you have to fix things that you plan for and train for and you have to play a little jazz music and you got to fix things You' never seen in your life when you have a challenge like no brightness on screen and you can get to the end of it and you can hand that to someone and you made their day a little bit better that's a really good feeling you always have to be aware of the time so taking a look it is 7:43 7:44 so lost laptop I dealt with three image laptop I am working on finishing we have to hit room 654 for a mic that's solid yeah 631 for a Smartboard issue and we have to move a printer cuz the people love to print I try to keep a positive
093attitude because when you're faced with NeverEnding emergencies everyone's issue is the most important thing to them and they all need it to be solved immediately so you have to have a pretty good sense of humor and relate to people in order to to just balance it out and not go crazy and that's done okay time is now 9:04 so what I'm trying to do now is stock up for anyone who has any problems with their laptop specifically whether that problem is with their laptop not starting they don't have a charger they good to go so no fine no fine they're a brand new student whatever your issue is I need to have everything in this room to help you so this class is tech support class and the teachers our media specialist what we do
094is anyone with a laptop issue during our available class periods first second and 5ifth can come down and we'll help them with whatever laptop issue they have the thing that makes me show up every day yeah I'd say it's that feeling of helping someone students want to start applying as soon as possible so in September students should already be working on their common app most schools in Florida have pretty early deadlines we have a few schools now doing early action which is an October 15th deadline and then other schools doing a November 1st or December 1st as a College and Career specialist at a PKA high school I have the pleasure of working with all of our students but particularly Juniors and seniors on preparing for college or whatever post-secondary plan After High School my
095College and Career specialist Miss Stevenson has really helped me guide through deadlines and telling me what specific thing I should be working on at the current moment like whether it's college essay or recommendations there's a huge benefit to using the Common App there's over a thousand colleges and universities on the Common App so it lets the student apply to multiple colleges without repeating the profile information over and over again like we used to have to do I think it's so important to connect with your teachers and create this really close relationship with them cuz you know they're the ones that are going to be writing your recommendation for you so you don't want them to get a template and do fill in the blanks for you the most important thing besides just getting started is
096there are multiple paths to the same destination so maybe your first or second choice doesn't work out for a college but that's why you have multiple options in multiple colleges hi I'm Josh Vandergriff I'm the athletic director here at Edgewater High School I've been at Edgewater High School for the last four years and in Orange County Public Schools for 4 years athletic director's job description is probably four is long you're a coach of the coaches you're booking transportation for all the teams you're making sure that you have officials for every single Sport and every single game that you need them for you're still helping out with Administration during the school day so we're going to do class change let's go let's go let's go walk faster get a class we have lunch duty that we
097have to do you throw that on top of everything that we do to get ready for the evening when we have multiple events going on every single day joke all the time with my wife she says that if we ever win the lottery that she won't show up to work the next day and I always say that I will so it's just one of those things that I really like doing and you know when you love doing it's it's it's just fun all right so now that we got the parking lot set the next step in our list is to go ahead and kind of get the front entrance gate and get the field set up so that way everything's Set for this afternoon the why is I'm here for the kids I want to
098try and make the best experience possible for the kids to help the coaches create that type of atmosphere we basically want to create that environment where these kids can be prosperous and once they leave Edgewater they go and become a productive member of society I'm not leaving here until 11:00 11:30 at night on a Friday after a football game cuz once we set everything up you got to break it all down so yeah it creates a very very long day great team win tonight proud of y'all love watching y'all getting better and better every week it's just an awesome thing to see have fun celebrate it this weekend Monday time to lock in and get ready to go for next week Eagle H ke how much do you want wants two two one out we
099all learn best by play it is it is the mode of learning for a four-year-old so what you have behind to me is a dramatic play experience it looks like a dollhouse and so we have 15 of those and they will going out to VPK programs all over the county they can go to the ATM they create often times their own transactions when they're in here based on what they've experience with their parents what they see they can save they can invest they take it they go to the grocery store and they shop and not only the grocery store there's the animal clinic there's the restaurant there's the doctor's office so they're aware that everything has a cost they're little sponges at this age so they're picking up on everything so it's really important for
100some of these basic concepts to be talked about at such an early age this is fantastic it is so great as an institution that we can come and do something like this and partner with ocps Junior Achievement Early Learning Coalition and do something that there's a need in the community no one is doing something like this is the fabric of everything our society is built on and the fabric of everything that every individual does so it's important that we put a high emphasis on how to save it spend it manage it invest it hi my name is Brian howth and this is K9 Coco and we're the new K9 team for ocps district police work girl good job so on a day-to-day basis Koko and I will travel around from school to school doing weapon
101screenings she cuts down on the search time dogs noses are 100 to 200,000 times greater than ours and smelling so to to go in and do a search that may take 20 minutes for us to go through and search everything by hand cooko does in about 3 to 5 minutes I started with the district police in April of 20123 and Koko and I were teamed up towards the end of April so we did a lot of bonding the first couple months before we went to training it was just a bonding period with with Brian and his dog the dog had experience Brian had experience so we bring him here and we put him through a refresher course that helps the team bond together it helps them know how each other works girl good job girl
102being a Handler it is more than just walking the dog you have to interpret what the dog is trying to tell you trying to take care of the dog good girl go magical girls so Coco does come home with me she lives with me she runs around the house with my two other dogs when she's at home she's just a dog so she's playing with the other dogs and just being a dog here in the kids closet we provide over 4,000 clothing items to students and that's just clothing not to mention our hygiene items school supplies and backpacks we give out clothing items to all ages so that's prek all the way up to grade 12 so we need to keep in stock as many sizes as possible right now we're really low on tops
103and so we need as many tops to come in for those lower sizes because our elementary students are growing so fast these supports are available for our parents and our students so that they can succeed and then end the cycle of homelessness or housing transition here in Central Florida brilliant work it's not every day that you come to school and get to play soccer with some of the biggest names in the game try to keep as much space as possible such an honor to meet all these special players and my dream was to meet players from from the UK Premier League players and coaches from the United Kingdom came to windir elementary school as part of the FanFest event in Orlando and students even got in some practice on the pitch we had all the
104mascots from the Premier League they got to take pictures with the trophy Premier League the kids were just over the moon they did it for fourth grade and second grade this is all part of the League's effort to bring soccer themed activities to students in the US as part of that the league partnered with education technology provider everi to deliver free teaching resources to schools which focus on health and wellness social learning and being a good digital citizen we're partnered with ocps schools to come in and help show students the importance of this type of whole child education to carry through for the rest of the school year and the rest of their lives the idea though is to not only spread the love of the game but to inspire a passion for sports to
105get kids up and get them moving it helps them academically if kids get their energy out get their wiggles out and they go back and sit in the classroom they're able to focus more some kids they don't enjoy the academic side but they love the sport sides the league coming out here was getting kids to play soccer that haven't normally played soccer maybe they fell in love with it maybe they're going to sign up for a league now I mean just getting them engaged and moving it's fascinating well the kids actually don't know that he's coming he they don't know what he's coming for so it's going to be a surprise for them teach in at Baldwin Park Elementary took a turn when Jose santes arrived by show hands how many of you have heard
106of Lazy Moon Pizza nice but the general manager and part owner of a lazy moon in Orlando did not just impressed with his highflying pizza making skills look out people in the front oh look out it was cool because like I've never seen anything like that because like it's a real talent to do that it was really cool because it was like really high and like it almost hit the ceiling and I was like kind of scared that it was going to get stuck on the ceiling it was also his story that resonated with these kids 13 years ago when I started what I told my boss was I would love to own and run something like this and I was just coming in as a dish person he was a dishwasher and he built
107his way up so that's really inspiring that you can do that stuff Jose's work ethic and determination were the real lessons it's so important to do something that you love whatever you're doing whatever you're setting your mind to you should really care about it and have a passion for it and it's very possible he just met a few of his future employees what do you want to be when you grow up probably a pizza maker get to make pizza at Lazy Moon talk about an Extreme Makeover a fleet of 1,500 volunteers from Trend Micro set out to spruce up Orange County Schools Tren micro is a global cyber security leader we're a platform company we protect everything from cell phones to major corporate organizations and we've been doing it since 1988 these volunteers represent 85
108countries spread out at schools across the we're at four different schools today we've got about 1,587 people distributed amongst these schools I think we have 40 some odd buses taking them all there among those schools getting a makeover was Shingle Creek Elementary throughout the school there's new murals being put up there's paint walls being painted Garden that's being extended mulch Landscaping weeds being pulled the panda store Baker space whatever you can think of is happening right now but it was isn't just a makeover Trent micro also raised and donated more than $115,000 to each school and they're still working to raise money Shingle Creek is a title one school where 50% of the students here speak a different language at home and where projects and donations like this well don't happen very often we don't
109have volunteers or the money the resources to come do big projects so for Shingle Creek this is huge these kids are our future and if you put a little investment into time you reap a ton of rewards hi I'm Jim Waters I've been a master AC Tech for ocps for 23 years today we have a couple chillers the reset that are in alarm and also we have AC leaking condensate line and a couple belts to change change and some duck work to seal up I love coming to work it has its challenges there's no doubt but it's a great place to work to see the smile on these kids face faces and they get the air going for them it's rewarding now we're headed back to Winter Garden to the OTC West Side some they
110call it Westside VCH there's a couple of rooms not cooling over there so we'll we're go see what's going on over there it was a bad run capacitor yes sir for the fan motor so you're up and running thanks so much yes sir thank you it's just great to have a team that you can work with interact with joke with and it makes the job a lot more fun and the day the day they go by faster and you go home happy when the air is working then everybody's happy charity recycling bins is one of the easiest ways for partners families and our neighbors and employees to support our schools you will find at schools that have them a little white bin with green writing and in that bin you can place anything made out
111of fabric so close clothing sheets towels old curtains actually leather can go in there too so you can put shoes you can put luggage so then what happens is there's a little camera in the bin and when the bin fills up Charity recycling services comes weighs everything that's in the bin empties it out and the schools receive 10 cents per pound I chose to bring my items to our school's donation box because I know that we receive funds from the poundage and we want to do a lot of things for our students so we have a lot of things planned for our school this year and we want to reward the students for their hard work what an easy way to show how much you care about our kids and you care about our community's
112future because they are tomorrow's leaders we need to make sure they're as prepared as possible and that they are meeting their full potential if I don't know it I'll just pull up the words on my phone I'm so excited I just can't you I like this roll shake it shake it home going to R around in my pocket hi my name is Johnny oon I'm a trade stick at ocps grounds department and I've been here 8 years now morning is loone the earliest we clocking is 5:52 then I'm going to take attendance now Chris good morning man I got four crews if that's Elementary they do two two schools a day middle school and high school is one school a day you all know the routine already let's head out there do what we got
113to do try our best we're short-handed let's rock and roll we are heading to Autobon K8 School the cruise was here yesterday they didn't have a chance to finish the field because of the weather so I'm coming I'm going to finish it off today for them I always think of it as just making the schools you know for the parents to feel good dropping their kids off to a nice looking school like that everybody thinks it's easy doing long Landscaping they everyone thinks is easy but the TR is not it's an art in our area we have only there's only 12 of us and we have over 60 some schools to maintain it we have to be at school at least twice a month that's from trimming Hedges edging the sidewalk weed eating around the
114light Poe every little thing I just love what I do you know I get to I don't sit behind a desk all day long this one this is fun for me drive around meet new people almost like an adventure Miss Glover's second grade class is practicing Ela this is going to be our last one and it's Haley's turn to answer every single person on Earth has a brain a simple s because so is going to be full of time and I need to try harder from an even stronger little girl all of us we be practicing with the kids at home so Parent Academy is basically a conference for parents instead of kids going to school parents come to school for the day to learn how to make their kids successful in school we offer
115lots of different sessions for people to pick from but if you're anything like me really hard to learn when your kids are pulling on your shirt so we offer a youth Academy where kids can go learn and have a great day while their parents are free to ask questions with the district what about poetry we're very adamant about our children's Futures and so we made it a point to be as involved in their education and any meetings meet and greets as possible today's theme is a guide to a successful school year so we have transitioning to kindergarten transitioning to Middle transitioning to high navigating the school year as an exceptional student education parent which can be a challenge we also have understanding the ocps parent portal using the new talking point system and four sessions
116that are only in Spanish it's not one school or district for itself everyone is a united front and when families see that is really what is going to inspire and change this world today we have a 859 families registered which is amazing we'd love to have even more but the number one reason people don't come to Parent Academy is because they don't think we speak their language so what I want people to know is whether you speak Spanish or Russian or Chinese Chinese every single session is closed captioned in over a 100 languages education does start in the home absolutely but we can't do what our Educators outside of our four walls can provide for us and if we can just meet them in the middle of that it'll just Bridge beautiful relationships we do
117what we do so our children have it better than us and every single person here who puts us together that's what they want they want their children and all the children in ocps to be successful and whatever success means to them today we celebrate a Hispanic Heritage Month within our school a lot of the different teachers chose to do a wax museum the children either were a character from Hispanic heritage and shared about all their history hi I'm s Meer I was born in Puerto Rico when they got the dress up some students chose to do a country of Hispanic descent and learn about their cultures and the diversities of their food and music and things like that when students were coming in I were I was nervous but when people started pressing this button
118right here then I got more confident and I felt much more better I just kept on practicing overnight and over and over again it's important to know that you know people who come from your background also made an effect in history and them getting to know you know people that look like them or came from the same country that they did impacted the United States in different way ways is eye opening for them that they can make a difference too I like drawing myself and Freda K is a amazing drawer and I want to be an artist when I grow up as well so she inspired me to believe in my drawings Hispanic Heritage Month is like when you're celebrating and like trying to learn different things in different languages it's inclusion I mean we
119need to understand where people come from and what their points of view are and what their upbringing are we're not all raised the same so it's important that we have that background knowledge to coming in together in a community to understand each other the school cafeteria is a place to refuel hey my dear you want a Teriyaki FNS manager Sharon R and her team listen after a long day of testing it's time to eat make sure the Wolverine Cafe no I don't blame you honey is that and more oh you sure can you think you did okay on your testing I hope so you have a marvelous day this is my passion seeing the kids every single day they may not get this meal they may not get the love they may not get the
120attention that they desire every day so I'm here for them me and my team so when it was time to level up the menu items in celebration of national school lunch week they didn't hesitate well today is our Wing Bar we have the jotoso sauce we have the teriyaki sauce we have the mandarin orange sauce and let's just Madam cheer I have a actually I have a video if my friends in video services are able to put it up yesterday we had the pleasure of attending the Orlando Magics pick read and roll and it's due to the tremendous partnership we have with the Orlando Magic that our fourth and fifth graders are able to come out to Amway arena and interact with the players and hear them talking about reading to say that it was
121an energizing experience doesn't quite describe it but if we're ready to share the video let's go magic let's go magic this is pick read and roll it's a celebratory event very high energy where we are going to celebrate the most improved fifth grade readers from 48 Title One schools obviously our students are motivated by fun things but I think the best part about this is it celebrates growth so it doesn't necessarily mean you had to get a perfect score a level five it really is looking at how much growth did a student make and all students can make growth that stud B inspired me to keep on going and do good I got a level four on my reading fast test at the end of the year so many of our students look up to
122the magic player they aspire to be basketball players and for them to hear from them about reading and the joy of reading and their favorite books mean so much to them and it's something that they'll remember for the rest of their lives I know I always want to get back you especially to the young because for me it was so crucial you know and I think to impact the next generation is a gift to have be good and always do your work and try your best wonderful yeah it really was an incredible event H and to see how much energy those students had and really celebrating Improvement the fourth graders that were there are challenged to make Improvement so they can be there next year so thank you to everyone that made that possible my
123C cabinet members went out as well and support so it was a great event and thank you to board member Felder and board member bird who were there I think we saw them dancing a bit so it was it was a great event and just another sign of the great Partners we have in our community thank you so much Miss emble do you have a report for the board I don't have a report but I do need to request an executive session so pursuant to section 28611 subsection 8 of the Florida Statutes and in accordance with board policy becc and enti may meet in private with its attorney to discuss pending litigation to which the entity is presently a party before a court or administrative agency provided certain conditions are met including the requirement that
124a transcript of the executive session will be made part of the public record upon conclusion of the litigation in this case I'm requesting the school board's advice concerning pending litigations styled as Orange County School Board versus tracks Corporation in case number 2023-24 d0 on Thursday November 9th 2023 at 3:30 p.m. the executive session will be a closed meeting held in conference room e at the ELC and will take approximately 1 hour a notice has been drafted for posting those in attendance will be Teresa Jacobs chair Angie Gallow Vice chair Maria salamona Alicia Frant Pam gold Vicky Lane Felder Karen Castor dentl and Melissa bird school board members Dr Marie Vasquez superintendent Amy enval general counsel John palmerini Deputy general counsel Jad Brewer staff attorney Michael Milan outside counsel Kate Hollis outside counsel and a court
125reporter and thank you madam chair that's all I have for tonight thank you I have one quick report and then I'll call on board members the superintendent evaluation has been completed the recommendation of all board members to was to renew her contract therefore her contract is hereby renewed sh yeah okay any committee reports okay then let me call on board members in the order I see them member Castro denel thank you madam chair I have two issues I want to bring up and one is regarding teacher workload I know that this board did a deep dive for the budget a couple years ago where we looked at every position and every dollar and I want to recommend that we do something similar with the teacher workload do an a comprehensive Deep dive into what tasks
126we're asking our teachers to do what are we preventing them from doing and really look at this because we hear it every year and I'm I hear it from both veteran and newer teachers alike that this year is the hardest yet and I just can't fathom how hard it must be I mean it's it sounds like the job is impossible and I'm not even talking about the salary it just sounds like it is so hard and I really think it is important that we look at that I don't know how we would structure it but I think it's worth looking at and comparing different schools and are we asking different schools to do different things or do some teachers in some schools have to do things that others don't you know how can we uncover
127some of those unnecessary requirements and then my second concern is about the book challenge process I know that when we say things up here on the board as Schoolboard members we have to be very careful because our words kind of reverberate throughout the community or throughout the district and we have to be careful when we reach out to other people in the district because I remember Dr Vasquez mentioned that when a Schoolboard member reaches out to someone on the executive staff they stop everything that they're doing and try to accomplish whatever is whatever question we're we're asking they stop everything to do that and I don't think we as board members always realize the weight of our interactions with teachers or staff or principes and I want to just urge caution for all the board
128members in how we are asking principles and staff to do things when there is a policy already in place that we need to just follow our own policy so I just I just want to put that reminder out there thank that's all thank you thank you m member cter Den member gold so thank you Karen for those comments that's true we know that things kind of stop when we are asking questions or or wanting to do things but I actually am coming with really good news I was late because I was at the County Commission where they approved the move of our Stadium on to windir and I am so excited so first of all I want to thank the chair because she was in office along with me when we went through the original
129assessments and really helped to make sure we had schools and even highlighted that we didn't have a high school back then and helped to find some locations for both of our high schools and unfortunately our compromise plan just did not work it's it was not a good location it was too small it wasn't safe it all those things so I'm thrilled with that but secondly so one more yay 10 years woo secondly we had gen wow last week and it was magical it was absolutely magical and actually what I would like to do if I can find it quickly is read to you a posting that was sent out from a parent about her daughter who had attended twice Jen wow so let me see if I can find this quickly I can it says
130I'm incredibly proud of my senior high school scholar exclamation point she serves as the vice president of her gen W group founded by Donna orender this week she had the privilege of introduce the privilege of introducing the remarkable K Rollins at their school convention I am grateful that she attends Orange County Public Schools which enables her to start studying calculus in 7th grade she has now achieved a top 25th per ranking on her class and is preparing for college I'm thankful for her and I'm thank ful that she has many inspiring women to look up to I am glad to express my gratitude to Pamela G and Dr Vasquez for all her amazing teachers for their dedication of efforts within the district to quote create enriching and diverse Pathways to lead our students to success
131if anyone is looking for a dynamic personal and responsible intern please let us know thank you I also have have to share with you two young ladies that opened jwow they had attended last year and one stood up and said I was asked to read a letter last year and I was terrified of public speaking in fact I was crying off stage she said a year later I do presentations I have moved more into leadership roles and I am the President of the club at their campus and the one that stood next to her also said I was going through something very rough last year and without this I don't know where I would be this year those two statements alone just made that day worth it and that was at the start of the
132of of our I don't know what to call it's not a meeting it's not a celebration it's a it's a it's it's an amazing learning opportunity in a creative share way that really allows these girls to boost each other up and learn grit resilience opportunity from a 100 women in our community it was just magical thank you m golden thank you for your all your efforts and Your sponsorship and getting this going in the first place I guess definitely an experience member bird you're recognized thank you chair I appreciate member Castor denell bringing up our book Challenge and I wanted to ask our general counsel when policy igl is going to be reviewed again do you know that off hand we kind of are at a stand still at the moment we have to wait
133till you have your organizational meeting to set forward with your meetings for right now we only have meetings set through November so when you have your organization Mee you'll set your meeting for December and moving forward we do have it on our list that's what we discussed during our planning session so it's on there okay we just don't have a timeline for it right now okay good because I want to make sure that we get that policy on the scheduled because I do think that we need to address the issue of Schoolboard members bringing reconsideration request for reconsiderations directly to principles when I looked back over the policy it you know the first step is to cons to ask in writing for a conference with the principal but I and then the second step is
134submitting the request for reconsideration but I agree with member cter denel it's it's actually I don't know if you talked about agree with me you talked about this but I just think that it is a puts a principle in a very difficult situation when it's a board member I have also been told that things stop when a principal gets an email from a board member and that whatever that issue is has to be dealt with right then and I've seen it because I know it happened with me I made that mistake one time and Dr AR Brewster brought it to my attention after he was not working for ocps anymore and explained to me what the whole what my one email the whole process it that later followed because of my one email and it
135was quite a process with very many people involved so I think that it's just inappropriate for a Schoolboard member to anytime go to a principal about any kind of issue at a school I think that a school members should be going to cabinet members only and let them handle it so I really think that our policy needs to be revised I don't think that's a good position to put our principles in and then second thing is the pronouns discussion I know we talked about this at the last meeting about bringing that forward again to have another discussion with the board about that in the meantime I had also spoken to the superintendent and Mary Bridges about our lgbtq guidance and getting an lgbtq guide available for our staff as I said at the last meeting
136I think that and as was mentioned tonight I think that it's vital that we provide that clear direction for our staff for our students as well so and yeah that's it thank you okay thank you member bird I just I want to clarify or one one statement I know we have not set our calendar for next year for meetings but our work sessions never conflict with our board meetings so I don't see any reason the superintendent and I set the calendar I don't see any reason that we can't work together to set a date for us to come back on that policy so without objection Dr Basquez would you be agreeable to you and I oh we've unless something has changed and I wasn't notified we've blocked off Tuesdays the board agreed that we have
137blocked off Tuesdays and while we try to avoid board meeting days to also have another meeting and maybe that's what you were waiting on we certainly can look at scheduling them as soon as POS possible on those Tuesdays thank you member font great thank you okay so I am if anybody doesn't realize I'm the one who filed the request for consideration and as a school board member I went to our legal council I went to Dr Vasquez and I said as a school board member how would you like me to proceed I found a book it is called blankets it is explicit sexual content naked people having sex drawings I've emailed it to miss McGill who then will forward it to all of you can look through it for yourself this isn't like Little Red
138Riding Hood and a cute little story and so they asked me they said that I should proceed with our policy I said that I did not feel comfortable speaking directly and having a meeting with the principles as I felt that would be inappropriate for me to waste their time and sit with them so I sent a nice email that just said I just want to let you know that I this book is in your library and if you would like to go ahead and review that along with your media specialist and let me know if you are going to proceed with finding the literary committee and both schools both principls and media Specialists review the material both decided that this was in fact sexually explicit pornographic material and should not be made available to students
139HB 1069 starting at Line 270 States each district school board is responsible for the content of all instructional materials and any other materials used in a classroom made available in a school library or classroom library or included on a reading list this is my responsibility as a Schoolboard member I've been voted in for this my constituents are relying on me to ensure if I find a book this to me is the same as if I were a teacher and I saw that a student was being abused and I had any kind of thought that they were being abused if I do not do something about it I could get in trouble and so in the same way I found a book and for anyone to come here and try to promote this parents you need
140to know that there are people who come every week who want to ensure that your child has access to pornographic and sexually explicit material and have even come today you can request it with records at ocps.net they came today it is not videoed because this board is too afraid to video and it they wanted to compare these explicit books to the Bible which is in fact my favorite book and the Bible warns us it says it would be better to have a large Millstone tied around your neck than to cause a child to stumble I rest thank you thank you madam chair so first I just want to say that I agree with member Dr CER Dental on on the teachers I'm hearing I think probably some of the same stories that she's hearing when
141it comes to what's on our teachers plight what they're trying to deal with this year does feel different I'm hearing it more and more from teachers like my friends that are and my friends that aren't they're kind of laidback and they're just at their wit's in and so I don't I and I've and Dr Vasquez and I have had many conversations about this and I know we're we're we're trying to figure out so I don't know if it's more people on the campus I don't know what the different Dynamic is but it does and I'm hearing the same thing that there's this is our hardest year yet and I keep saying what's different like I we can't fix what we don't know so we need like specifics What specifically is causing so much angst amongst
142our staff so that we can see what we can do to fix it and I know that Dr Vasquez does have a plan on how to reach out to the teachers and gather some of that information but we do need to get to the bottom of it because there's a lot going on and the last thing that we need is for our teachers to to to feel like they're underwater and not supported the second thing on I agree with member bird on the clear guidance whatever that guidance is it needs to be clear and we need to be able to give it in a manner that is readable and un and understandable by our staff because a lot of times things that we put out is hard to digest and we need to put it
143out in more easily digestible items and we need to be clear like this is our position or this isn't whatever position we take we just need we need to be clear about it and it it needs to be out there for everybody to see and then Skyward I had my district advisory counsil last week and it was great I love meeting with with parents and teachers and principals because they're so they have so much information and I brought up the Skyward and I was like yeah we had a 20-minute conversation about how Skyward doesn't sink and one of my princip principal said yeah it does and I said what and she goes yeah you can all you got to do is hit the sync button and canvas will sink with Skyward and I was like
144hm we had a 20-minute conversation about how we needed to fix fix it in it so that we could do this anyways so that was great information the parents overwhelmingly at my meeting were like Skyward is so hard like they just have trouble getting into Skyward and managing Skyward so I don't know if we could put out some more easily if we can help with that manner and how we communicate ways to get on Skyward and how to use Skyward because it's clear that parents are struggling and the same with the PDF with our with our permission slips maybe there's a better way to do it than how we're doing it when we think of parents parents my age parents a little younger that may not be technologically savvy or may not have access to
145a computer or to broadband what does that look like for them and how do we do we offer in pencil and paper like what's our alternatives for those who struggle to return PDFs and then lastly I did not hear anybody come up during pre- agenda and say they wanted pornography in our schools I didn't hear anybody support pornography nobody wants their children to have access to pornography nobody's nobody's asking for that or supporting that I did not hear a conversation where that happened so I did want to set the record straight on that thank you thank you madam chair just a couple of comments we are looking at putting out guideline more specific guidelines to Shonda Brown Canon our chief academic officer and Mary Bridges have already started working on that we should have a
146draft there are some elements that I believe the board is going to see clarification ification from doee and so until that has been clarified that will not be included in the guidelines unless we received a response sooner but we hope to be able to push something out with I'd probably say within the next two weeks after we've been able to review it secondly teacher workload we did a thought exchange actually a couple of board members gave me that idea to do right after the nine weeks and we did receive some very interesting feedback as well as feedback I've received from Mr McCracken and I do think we're going to be able to work on some things that are going to work on the culture based on the survey he sent out as well as some
147of the things to come off their plate interestingly enough the number one item that we received was deliberate practice and what we could do around and so I did have a chance to talk to Mr McCracken earlier today about working collaboratively on on some of these things and then we'll also look to see can we take a deeper dive I've had conversations with various teachers in fact I met with one today and a lot of it does stem I believe from miscommunication that people are perceiving or hearing H and you know I own this but you know the district initiative or the district is saying we need to do this when in actual in actuality the district is not saying that and so a couple of the things that were brought to light we've tried
148to clear up where teachers should not need to fill out any type of data charts that's why we have performance matters so the data is available and admin and whoever needs to see it can go on to Performance matters there were a couple of other examples cited about like interventions that are being used or if if people are coming to visit requirements about filling out charts they've done lesson plans and so you can access the lesson plans and be able to see what they're teaching understanding that sometimes you know things don't go exactly the way we want them to and they may be a day or two behind or or more but I think there are some some things that can be corrected with communication and then we can start to look at some of
149the heavier lifts like the deliberate practice which I think is doable but people need to understand the pros and cons the as far as the book challenge process certainly we can bring it back I was going to mention we have two days slated but board member FR followed the process she filled out the form she did not feel comfortable going in and speaking to her principal for the same reasons that board members have mentioned there it's very I don't want to say intimidating because our board really has great relationships with our team but it's true when a board member is asking same as if I'm asking people drop what they're doing and so she did fill out the form and she did submit it as part of the email I believe board members received a
150copy of that as well but if the board wants to revise that policy we certainly can look at that and prioritize that as we're moving forward I think that's enough I'm sorry having problems here member foron awesome thank you I wanted to talk now about really what matters and it's really really what matters is the education and so this week I had an incredible visit to Pine Crest prep which is actually a charter school in District 3 I was blown away by their data they are taking the vast test just like our students and where we are just above state level and we had just seen that in our strategic plan Pine Crest prep is astronomically above us in in performance and so I would love I'm going to be doing my own research and
151just speaking more with the principal there and or even through Greg Moody in his Department with a school choice and just to see what are they doing that is helping their students to really listen in class and absorb the information I think we I know all of us that's really why we're here to make sure that kids are getting an a phenomenal education and so they're reading but especially their math scores they were scoring at I believe it was 75% which is I was liter I almost fell out of my chair it was phenomenal and so I think just I'd like to I'll just let you guys know that I'm going to be looking more into that and hopefully come back with some ideas and things that we can Implement here just kind of see
152what they're doing and I know Dr Vasquez and I have talked about that and just really focusing I know her focus is on those getting our kids reading at grade level and the math getting those math scores at grade level so excited to see what we find out all right thank you member Felder thank you chair I first want to say I had a visit I guess about a week ago to positive Pathways and I was extremely impressed with the discipline in terms of the children when they move through the hallways they don't talk they all have clear book bags so nothing is coming in we just not have been able to find something to deal with the vaping because that's a small piece of metal that means your cell phone and all that will
153possibly go out but I was just impressed with the work ethic the students in class the things that they were doing and the fact that one of the students he was getting ready to leave and he actually said he said I don't want to go to my homeo school I want to stay here because you guys have helped me and this was a student who had to he got real rooted in to get it into trouble but he had to rest himself because his parents were not available or at home he was kind of literally kind of doing things on his own so he registered himself in positive Pathways and they had to say look we need to get your parents but he came up to the principal I was there and said I don't
154really want to go I'm going to miss you guys because say you've made me feel good so I just want to commend Greg Moody and what he's doing with the students over there and I remember teaching at the Detention Center some years ago I taught at Orange house I taught at Little Red Schoolhouse and I taught at we used to call it the orange house but now it's Y O A or something like that and the students used to always simultaneously ask me are we really bad I said no you just got caught I said bad kids everywhere secondly I just want to and it's been said but as a former teacher my mother said to me she said Vicki the least you can do is put together a lesson plan that used to fuss
155about everything so and I said okay I can do that and I had younger teachers who were more computer savvy than I was some of them now are APS and they I would put my lesson plan together and they would show me how to connect it with the crms and everything was very helpful to me but I do know that there are some teachers and we mentioned it but I really hope that we find a way to assist them with all that extra work it's just it's just too much the discipline we need to work with discipline because if you can't if they not quiet you can't teach them and if you don't attend to them you they can't be taught and then also there's some APS I know that are under Fierce duress from
156principles and so Dr Vasquez I think at your start and what you're doing now why we have renewed your contract because you're doing something so different and you really are trying to be a hands on type of superintendent and I really seriously from a teacher perspective and now the board I really do appreciate that because I'm telling you when they're not getting paid the money that we think and they believe that they should and it's true the least we can do is let them feel good about coming to work the least we can do so APS up under the gun you know being aggravated and I'm glad you mentioned I'm going to say it again some teachers still think they can't write referrals you already told them you can write referrals who whoever's telling that's
157a lie stop don't do that and so I appreciate my fellow board members I think we're all in agreement with trying to do what we can to lessen the load on some of our teachers and I'm I'm All whenever we meet we come together with something we have to but I wanted them to hear members of my constituency I want them to hear that we all on board we understand what you going through thank you thank you member Felder member cter denl thank you madam chair thank you Dr Vasquez for really engaging with teachers about what we can do to make their work bearable and I know it's not just new programs that we're putting in but it's it's Decades of layers and layers and layers so that our school system looks very different than
158it used to so to remove some of these things is going to require us to change our system and that's not going to be easy I know it's not just pulling a thing off here or task off here it's going to require some real adjustments but I think we're going to have to do it just so that we can survive and maintain teachers so thank you for doing that I wanted to mention two more things the Scholastic Book Fairs I think I don't know are they a vendor for our schools do we have a contract with them as vendors or is every school individually Contracting with them individ individual schools set up their Scholastic Book Fairs I did reach out to tashonda Brown Canon our chief academic officer asking if there had been any schools
159with concerns about not being able to have books to date we have not received any concerns or request but we'll make sure that we share through our media special through our media Specialists and our team here at the district office about the availability of of the books and as long I don't believe from what I saw on the news the titles there was a link to the books I don't think we're going to have an issue with having all of those books available okay I thank you for that I want to make sure that Scholastic is not censoring books for our students that the this is a chance for them to make their own purchases often with their parents by their sides so if we can send a message to them that Orange County Public
160Schools does not favor their putting aside books that are on someone else's list I think that would be powerful thank you another update I want to give real quick is on Eatonville schools in Hungerford we are looking at adding a preschool with a partnership with travel and Leisure for two and threey olds and also adding our orange Technical College Eatonville branch which will likely open in January thank you thank you member cter denal member bird thank you chair I just wanted to take a minute to clarify my comments earlier I was not saying that it is not a board members role to protect children or to report incidences that put kids in danger whatever I can assure you that I am constantly alerting issues to cabinet or the executive leaders or directors of elementary middle
161and high school they're probably tired they probably get tired of hearing from me I'm sure my point to that was that we need to change the policy though that so that the policy doesn't Direct school board members to go directly to principles that was my point secondly I wanted to also clarify that no one is trying to get pornography parents you do not have to worry about your children in our schools no one is trying to get pornography into their hands and actually to make a statement like that is very insulting and disrespectful to our Educators and to our very highly trained media Specialists and I think it was it's just so wrong your words matter you are an elected official up here your words matter and you need to watch what you say about
162our employees and what they do and the fact that you have found a few books out of the thousands and thousands and thousands of books in our libraries that are have been curated over so by our I can't even I'm so it's so frustrating it's this is so not a this is such a nonissue that we again are wasting time on and I didn't even want to come back on and say anything about but I'm so frustrated by it and by the way I'm looking at my daughter's Library access form right now on Skyward and if you don't like it there are there is no Library access you can choose for your own child limited Library access you can choose for your own child or unlimited Library access no one is forcing anything on your
163own children you have control over what your children have access access to in our libraries in our schools so parents you are okay don't worry thank you thank you member bird I actually want to take us back for a minute to the concern that the majority of the board expressed at the last meeting about the use of pronouns and I know we've had some discussion here we only have a few meetings left before the end of the year so I would like to propose I first of all I don't think the public knows about the maybe they do I'm not sure if they've seen the memo that came out from doe just recently pardon me I don't yeah they probably haven't seen the memo and I the timing of it I guess I could say
164the timing was convenient but it does address pronouns but it does not say that you can't ask that a parent can't ask that a student can't ask to use the preferred pronoun it does not say that it's it there's three things it prohibits and all of them are prohibiting the mandatory the demanding of our students to use a pronoun of an adult but it does say as we know the statement about it being false to ascribe but I think if the if if the statute said it's prohibited it would say prohibited as opposed to false to ascribe I'm okay with falsely ascribing if that's what the state wants to call it and as a parent I think I'd like the parental right to be able to ask people to falsely ascribe under the statute so
165given the fact I think there is a credible argument to be made I would like the board's support in drafting a letter working with our legal department to make all of the cases I think that can be made one about parental rights and two about the statute and a what I think is a very reasonable interpretation of the statute and bring that back to the board for review and if there's support for sending it to send that up to the state and ask for confirmation that we are correct or in the absence of a response we will assume that we are and I we are not getting answers from the state generally speaking when we ask questions my five years on this board I've never gotten a single response from anything I've sent to the
166state so I think I think it behooves us to make it clear that we believe that this is correct that other jurisdictions have taken this approach and if we don't hear back we will move forward accordingly so with that I'm going to take comments in the order that buttons are pushed remember gold that put you on the up next you want to respond to that or you want to take up whatever you wanted to take up we can come back to you so much if there's others who want to respond to that all right who wants to respond to that member front you're also next do you want to respond to that or you want you have okay member Castor denl thank you I fully support that and I support you taking the lead on
167that as well and I just want to State on the record again how ridiculous it is for the legislature to make a law about pronouns it's just so silly so I and really it's just so silly but yes I support that sounds like a great idea and I think it helps us get some movement on this and some clarity thank you thank you any other comments from board members member Gall I was just going to say thank you for for taking the time to do that and I agree thank you okay all right then let me go to member gold for a separate topic and having not heard majority of members in opposition will proceed forward and I'll bring that back to the board yes member G you recognized so I actually had a question
168for member Fant with the charter school that you went to I'm not familiar with it so where is it located how many students does it have and what's the demographics it is located right in the middle of my district right over by the airport okay and I not I'd have to get back with you on the exact number of of students they didn't tell me that but it is a k through eight and it is a very very diverse population of kids so it's not like all one demographic great I'm very anxious to see that data and see what they're doing yes yeah thank you member foron okay I would like to just so the public understands this the school board none of the members are allowed to speak in private the only time that
169we're really allowed to speak other than how is your day and how are your kids but anything that relates to Schoolboard things we're not allowed to speak about in private so unfortunately we do have to discuss things in public and have disputes at times but member bird I do want to just let you know that I'm definitely not trying to point out media Specialists I was actually referring to U members of the public who come to the meetings every single meeting to try to act like the books that are being removed which in fact contain sexually explicit content they're trying to keep them in the schools that's what I'm referring to and so I am frustrated with that and I think it's ridiculous that we have to go back and forth with this and we're
170all mothers the majority of us and if you don't have a mother from your womb you've got mothers from from your heart and children from your heart I'd also like to say that the we can definitely go back and look at the policy but when I tried going directly to the superintendent and just saying Hey I want to let you know there is a book in your in these schools would you like to speak with your principles that way I'm not going to the principles I'm just letting her deal with that and just letting her know I don't know how you want to go about this but I just want you to know that I've found this book I just other moms are seeing these things and whatnot and so I bring it to her
171attention and when I did that all of a sudden it was board member fan is trying to go against policy and not follow policy and so this time I followed policy explicitly and the two schools were not in my district and so I felt it was very inappropriate for me to go to another Schoolboard member's district and speak with their principal I felt it was very inappropriate so I wrote a very kind letter that just said I want you to know it's in your book it's in your school this book is in your school so I'm definitely not calling out media Specialists I believe with I want to believe and I have spoken with so many media Specialists who are amazing but I believe that our media special are not outright trying to order these
172books like what books have porn in it and let's get it in our schools I believe this is something that I would like to speak with at the state level and see how we can ensure that the publishing houses that are sending these books in a package deal because if you order it as a package deal instead of just buying the three books you need well hey we'll give you know five or I mean I know they're ordering hundreds at a time so if you order 300 I can give you 500 and whatever and these are free and they throw it in there and the media Specialists literally have thousands of books so there are amazing books in our schools but at the same time as a Schoolboard member I want to ensure that there
173are not explicit content in our schools period M CER denel thank you madam chair I guess some of the issue here with that is there is the parents Bill of Rights where you can control what your own children read and I believe one of the schools it was in my district Winter Park High School I kind of was surprised that you reached out to the principal and I think in one of those schools one of the books was even checked out by a student that you didn't like and I just kind of played that in my head my kids went to Winter Park High School I imagined my son having one of those books and then having it recalled and saying sorry you have to turn that book in now because member Fant doesn't want
174you to read it and I just thought that was silly that you're the standard for what our kids read not that I agree with you or disagree with you but that's not your role it should be the parents role the students should have the ability to make those decisions too explicit sex is not the same as pornography there is a different standard for pornography and I also speaking personally don't want my two kids to graduate from high school so sheltered that they are they become easy victims it could be to human trafficking they could be in a very unhealthy relationship where there's abuse and there are in these books cautionary tales where students and whoever reads them can learn about these experiences without having to experience them themselves that's part of education and making sure
175our kids when they graduate they're adults and they are entering a very challenging world and I don't want them to go out ignorant and unprepared I don't want them to figure out oh wait there's a book on the in the bookstore that I could have had access to this would have been really helpful if I had read this when I was in Middle School maybe I wouldn't have been a victim maybe I could have found someone else in a book who's gone through the same thing maybe I could have learned how to report someone maybe I could learn that incest is really inappropriate but since I wasn't allowed to learn about it and in my school I had to learn about it once I left home there are so many things that you want to
176protect our kids from but reading isn't going to protect them from things that happen to them it can teach them how to get out of these situations it can prevent them from getting into these situations it can teach them why it's not good to have unprotected sex I can tell you kids don't go and have sex simply because they read about it in a book they do it because it's a natural human thing to do and I want kids to be prepared for what happens if they have that experience I want them to know about contraception I want them to know about what how difficult it will be if they have a child in high school and they read about it I'd rather they learn about it in a book than firsthand and I don't
177want you to be stopping those lessons from our students because you don't like the part in there that makes you uncomfortable I don't think that the Alicia Fant standard is what we should have in Orange County Public Schools thank you member forant okay member Castor Dental have you looked at the book blankets did you go ahead and open that email do you mind doing that real quick I would love for you to just look at it real quick I think you just missed my whole point no I didn't I didn't miss I don't need to read a section of a book that might be difficult to read or uncomfortable or naughty to say how dare we have this book there are reasons to have some of those scenes in books so that our children can
178learn from them well have agree to disagree so it is I know there is no convin you didn't read and you don't want to read it that's fine I read lots of books who do care I will be sharing later on my Facebook page so that you can see for yourself what content was in the book it will be a link and with a warning that this is just for adults to look at but you can see for yourself and I do want to remind parents that if you do not want your child to have any access to sexually explicit material or pornography within your in the school you would have to to your canvas and I will also show you how to do that I will do a quick tutorial to let you know
179because I know many of you it's hard to even know where those are and I know the Schoolboard thinks that all of you are completely okay with that if you are fine with having your kid look at sexually explicit books those are readily available at the Public Library but I don't believe that taxpayer funding should be paying for explicit sexual content to to be in our in our public schools and this is the end I will not discuss this any further but I will continue advocating to remove any explicit sexual content in our Public Schools period okay we're we're about we're about done here I the only thing I will ask is member front at this point do not speak for the board when you say the board wants you don't read minds you don't
180know what we all think do not speak for the board go ahead your recognize well the entire board is completely fine with all these books at this point every time that a book is so you guys are okay with this book being removed you can't say I'd like okay hold on it's the process I would like every board member to go through one by one and let me know is this book ex with explicit content would you find this appropriate if I printed what is in this and I went and I started showing this to 14-year-olds in our high schools would that be okay or would I be arrested for showing pornography please go through member front you may have forgotten what happened when Jacob Eng Les walked in so oh he got removed correct
181for reading explicit content that was in our schools we have I did not interrupt you that is not yes he would not stop reading the book what also happened and maybe you missed this part is I asked the superintendent to look at that book and make sure that book was not on our library and it was taken out of our libraries the superintendent the previous superintendent had her team review it and it was off of the shelves permanently so don't speak for me okay okay I have not read the book in fact I can't find the book I well I just emailed it I emailed it to miss Miguel Sor you know what I'm sorry I go by when we started this meeting and we said we weren't going to communicate so I don't have
182my iPad or my phone open to see if you sent me an email okay I have tried to figure out where this book is and I figured I was going to have to ask the superintendent I'm I will definitely be reading the book and I may end up agreeing with you oh well that thick I'm not going to read it okay I'm sorry if it's really that thick I'm probably not going to read it but okay bottom bottom line and this is to everybody I really think it's inappropriate to say with certainty what you think somebody else is thinking you can you can think you know what you can say I think you're thinking this but to make a blanket statement and I it's not just you I mean people do it all the time
183and I just think it's wrong to ascribe to somebody thoughts or motivations when you don't know for sure what they are that's all I'm saying so member Felder you're recognized thank you and at some point we're we're going to we're going to call it a day go home land the ship I just wanted to make this observation book Banning has been going on since the beginning of time if you just bear with me for a second Paul was in an area and the Lord spoke to him said I need you to go down where this Ethiopian is reading Isaias Isaias talked about you know Jesus and the Messiah and there were many people who were not believing in that so he asked him does thou knowest what thou read readest and the thing of it
184is that book Banning has been going on for a long long time and so and I assume I don't know but he probably had to sneak it out because nobody wanted to talk about this new Messiah no one wanted to talk about him so he was sneaking reading it he was a unic in the in the Kingdom of C Queen Candice but I do want to say this is that because I see a book or I read a book and I don't feel like it's an appropriate book I don't have a right to determine whether it's appropriate for somebody else's child or somebody else I don't have that right because just like some parents feel like that's pornography I think they ought to tell the true story of the transatlantic slave movement that needs to
185be told but you might not see that's a an interest so you don't have to teach it in my school you can I'm going to teach it in my church and in my community centers cuz they going to get the real lesson so I just believe that I think when member cassad Dental was talking about the book in the books and the reading I don't think she was saying that all that what you were saying what I mean what the Banning books but what she was saying as a parent none of us as board members we govern the operations of this District but with the parental rights if a parent feels that their child can handle that book then as a board we're not to govern the personal rights because the governor came up with
186parental rights so there's some parents out there who don't have a problem with that so as a board we are to govern the legislation that comes down from Tallahassee and legislation has come down and say that there are parental rights so we cannot urp authority over the parents even if we personally feel about certain books that are not right but we can't do that thank you member gold so member Fran I did look at that and that would not be a book that I would have let my children look at but I would have wanted the option to say why did you even want to take that book out what what Drew you to that book and and open up that conversation so I think that the parental rights is a tool for parents and
187I and again I'm I looked at the components that you pulled out so I don't even have it in the context of the whole book right now what I saw was disturbing to me but at the same time if my child felt the need to bring it home would want to have the conversation and we had rules in my house there's there's no Facebook access I can't get to there's no social media access I can't get to I can spot check anything in your room at any minute that I want and we've always had kind of an open relationship I want that for all parents and I want to respect my fellow parents rights to do and raise their children the way they see fit I do worry I will always follow the law because
188that's what I do I follow the law but I do worry this is a very slippery slope well I agree with you about this book I think it's a slippery slope that we have to be careful not to cross because all of the sudden as we've seen on the on the long list of of kind of question books there's some things that I personally don't understand why they were questioned and we do want our kids prepared to walk in the into the world as soon as they cross that stage so I I hear with an open heart what you're saying and I certainly hear what my fellow board members are saying but I think we have to figure out get together the best way to implement this Law Without It feeling we're doing the parents
189job for them so that's what was on my heart to say member Fant thank you member gold I appreciate that you took the time to look at the book I hope the other school board members would take the time to to review that as well State Statute 827.071 says it is unlawful in the State of Florida to provide children not for a parent to provide it you are if you're a parent and you feel that your kid needs a look at porn I think it's ridiculous or if you think your kid needs to read a book about explicit sexual content in that looks into the window of a child of incest or if it looks into I mean all these reasonings that people give if that's where you are at as a parent and you
190want to provide that's on you but as a I'm a Schoolboard member and as a Schoolboard member the law states that is unlawful and so that's why we remove them these are books that shouldn't have ever gotten into our libraries and as in this case with blankets when the media specialist saw that she said oh my word why is this in my library this definitely is not appropriate and it was removed and so I'm very thankful we have common sense in this district and parents who feel that they are frustrated that a book like this or push or gender queer or whichever ones have been removed if you feel like your child needs to read those or have access to them they're readily available they' have not not been banned these books have been weeded
191out of our out of our schools to make sure that the content is curated and is appropriate for the age that is here these are adult books and that's it okay with no further comment this meeting is now adjourned oh