001good morning everyone let us pray god of peace we invite you to preside over this morning's meeting of the pinellas county school board give us unity of spirit lord even if we have different opinions as people always do help us to listen to one another as others share their points of view most of all help us to work as a unified team in combining ideas for the best outcome for our staff members our students our teachers and parents help us to work as a whole and grant us a spirit of camaraderie in this room as we all work together on our shared mission and we ask all this in your most holy name amen to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for allah thanks of the
002united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all now for you a piece called fire dance of luna we bright source oh oh oh college so listen to the evening so the skies oh wow one wow that's how i am no so is my god oh that was just wonderful thank you mr clear for that outstanding performance in celebration of music in our schools month i also want to congratulate all of you for being chosen to sing at the american choral directors association southern regional conference it looked like you had a great trip to raleigh and you represented pinellas county schools beautifully thank you and great job now i'd like to introduce today's video in pinellas county schools not only do
003we embrace the arts but we also introduce stem education early in our students academic careers let's take a look at some highland lakes elementary first graders as they use osbots to learn coding programming first graders interacting with ozobots also bots are these little robots that use color codes there are different color combinations that they can do like a red than a green then a blue is a snail speed so the ozobot will go really slow they can do a line jump where we red green red and that would jump right so they have all diff all these different codes that they can look at and really be able to say what do i want my autobot to do where do i want my autobots to go and it allows them to code it and tell
004it where to go you wouldn't think that first graders would be able to interact with robots but wow we are here we are seeing students interacting in a very high level using robots they're coding they're writing programs these are first graders writing programs for their ozobot to move through different mazes different sequences and also problem solving right here at first grade we use them a lot with the change of motion because we talked about how it can go fast or slow how it can go round and round zigzag just whatever pattern you give it'll go it'll track how it moves because of the patterns so you're actually coding yeah we're coding it sometimes we can make up our codes but we can also use the codes from this paper we get to like watch them
005and we get to see how they move and what type of patterns they go with why is it so much fun because you get time to do a lot of crafts and stuff with your odds it looks like fun all right now our public information officer isabel masquerinas will introduce our professional and community organizations good morning madam chair members of the board dr grego and staff it is my pleasure to introduce the following representatives of community and professional organizations from the pinellas classroom teachers association we have nancy villardi president from the pinellas arts for a complete education coalition we have maria cantones committee member members of the media in attendance are jeff solicek from the tampa bay times today we have a presentation from the student rights and responsibility committee please welcome cartes rents and
006deja williams from gibbs high school and their principal barry brown good morning everyone i'm cartesians junior good morning i'm dj williams and today we have a presentation for you here at gibbs high school all right so good morning i'm cortez jr followed by dji williams and jemmon garrett who is not in attendance today a little bit about us my peer jamon garrett he's in the 12th grade some involvements that he has around campus at the taste talking children he's in a traditional pathway there i guess out here at gibbs high school and he also aspires to become a music producer hi i'm deja williams i'm in 12th grade i'm in the dance program at gibbs high school some things i'm involved with cheer captain volleyball gymnastics flat football soccer national honors society srnr and tate
007stalking children and for my career i want to become a professional dancer i'm cartesian junior yet again i'm in 12th grade i'm and attend the beta program here at gibbs high school on one of our manning programs that we offer i aspire to become a nurse practitioner then become an officer commissioned as officer in the united states army and to also continue scaling and growing my business and split change clothing brand some things that i'm involved with around campus is national honor society national i'm the vice president of the national technical honor society as well as student rights responsibilities i'm also and i'm also the battalion commander at gibbs high school for jrotc program so let's take you on the history about our school gibbs high school first and foremost it's a lot gibbs high
008school was named after jonathan c gibbs he was the first african american secretary of state in florida in 1868 and he's also the first african-american state superintendent of public instruction in 1873. there was no prior to him there was no african-american high school in saint petersburg until it's until gibbs high school's establishment in 1927. fast forward to 1971 gibbs high school then became desegregated that allowed for now multiple coaches instead of just blacks allowed into the school the pinellas county center of the arts pcca opened its doors in 18 in 1984 offering a complete educational curriculum of artistic intellectual and creative group preparation for students as you've seen our beautiful pcca program they do well work every single time they go in 1998 the newly created magnet program pinellas academic academy for technical arts patta
009now known as the business economics technology academy beta began offering academic courses that combine the knowledge of both business and technological skills this magnet program teaches and enhances skills or technical skills in the workforce this was created because of our lack of technical technical support in the workflow at the time gills became the first black school to join the fhsaa once they joined they their first year of joining for basketball they won the state championship it was a amazing feat all right the democrat president nominate nominee barack obama visit to school visited the school for a town hall speech in august on august 1st 2008 at gibbs we have magnet programs so i'm in dance they also is voice visual arts performance theater musical theater instrumental theater in theatrical design and technology in all of
010these programs there is a four-year curriculum that help us become professionals in the career world and like if you want a job as well also there is a separate graduation from gibbs high school so you will graduate as pcca like pinellas c center for the arts and you will graduate with traditional gibbs high school our gifts high school another magnet program that we have is the beta program we offer business supervision computer science programming digital design yearbook club digital video technology gaming and design and networking support i'm taking i'm currently taking a digital design pathway and beta we offer as you can tell all kinds of technical skills when studying for one route you are studying for all routes i like to say we then we learn we go more in depth into the business
011side of what we're studying for as well and we touch a little bit on every other program that we offer so it's just creating well-rounded students for the technical program and just in making ensuring that we are producing the top qualified students to go on to to the workforce to go on to colleges and to perform at their utmost ability success from this year's school year panel pcca women's coral selected to perform at the acda regional choral festival in north carolina the theater main stage production fun home she loves me company brainstorm also we have sports the boys basketball made it to the final this year for the playoffs which is really good we're excited the girls basketball team made it to the playoffs varsity flag football team made it to the second sec second
012round second round of playoffs and three students of the wrestling team made it to the regionals in those years to go along with that our students have we've been working very hard to to pursuing our pathways pursuing our careers day in and day out these teams these these students my peers you know we all we're pushing each other sharpening iron sharpeners are making sure that you know we're we're always getting better at our craft and this is just one of the many things that we are getting better at our craft at some comments made from a couple of students around the school from jaden edwards he said that it was very humbling and exciting experience here at gibbs high school since he's joined joined gibbs he's also added that without the without the peers and
013without the knowledge that he's gained here at gibbs high school he would have never thought that he can make it to 10th 11th grade and he's just so excited that he has the people that's that support around him nathaniel wilborn he was one of our commanders for the color guard he said that it's a very diverse culture we all we always ensuring that you know we're all we're always doing things pcca is doing things with beta beta doing things with pcca and so on and so forth and we're always creating events around school just making the most of our galactic activities here at gibbs high school kaden potak said that the culture of gibbs and the gibbs pcca program have both aided me in discovering what i want to pursue for the rest of my
014life that concludes our presentation any penny questions thank you what a fantastic presentation thank you so much and thank you to gibbs high school principal mr barry brown mr brown would you like to take a stand please good morning i think today is just an example of the work that not only our instructional staff put into our students but but their performance today the accolades that they spoke of are an example of the work that our students have accomplished or continue to accomplish on our campus so i'm just a proud principal chess is out feeling pretty good just really glad that people got a chance to see our students in the wide variety of athletic academic and artistic talent and technological talent that we have so again i'm a proud principal john c gibbs high
015school thank you okay moving along dr grego are there any recommended changes to the agenda mr chair there's two amendments to the agenda 7.8 the board head during its workshop had reflected some changes to the job descriptions and so we updated those and placed those in the electronic version of your packet and then 7.27 is a request for the facilities use agreement at the with the blue jays baseball partnership this is an ongoing agreement that they were just able to get us the contract last friday so i'm walking this in because baseball practice is starting so i thank you for your patience on this okay board members are there any items that you want to discuss okay i find good cause to amend the agenda as described by dr grego do i have a motion
016and a second mr dougly emotion ms cook second all those in favor of the amendments and the agenda please say aye any opposed okay it passes seven to nothing all right let's move down to our special order agenda presentation of the proclamation designating april 2022 as the national occupational therapy month do i have a motion miss edmond a second miss hine all right dr grego miss madam chair and school board members i want to call upon jodi becker coordinator of occupational physical therapist and also thank our 63 occupational therapists who serve well over 2 000 students in in our district so jody good morning madam chair board members dr grego and staff april is recognized as national occupational therapy month sponsored by the american occupational therapy association occupational therapy is a science driven evidence-based profession
017that enables people of all ages to participate in daily living or to live better with injury illness or disability in the school setting the occupational therapist's holistic and customized approach to assessments interventions and outcomes helps a child with disabilities participate in school and social activities pinellas county's 63 occupational therapists and therapist assistants not only support a student's ability to access his or her educational environment but ultimately promote meaningful engagement and participation in all aspects of the students school experience the ot staff are now working harder than ever to bring their knowledge of movement and its impact on brain function and learning into classrooms through district-wide and school-based trainings for teachers as well as the introduction of simple movement activities that become that can become part of any classroom routine ots are helping teachers get all
018of their students better focused for learning each and every day we have an incredible team of occupational therapy professionals and as their coordinator i am very proud to recognize them for their dedication commitment and hard work on behalf of pinellas county school students i want to thank you for taking the time to recognize them today that's miss hein would you please read the proclamation thank you proclamation national occupational therapy month whereas the pinellas county school board of pinellas county florida encourages options for an active and healthy lifestyle and whereas the pinellas county school board speaks for the best interests of the public in recommending occupational therapy by a licensed occupational therapist to improve fine motor visual motor and daily leaving living skills to access curriculum and whereas through a national effort the pinellas county school
019board and community members are encouraged to join together to raise awareness of the importance of occupational therapy during the month of april 2022 and whereas this effort will bring awareness to our schools community and around the country of the roles of occupational therapists in schools now therefore the school board of pinellas county does hereby recognize april 2022 as national occupational therapy month in pinellas county schools signed this 22nd day of march 2022. thank you design any comments all right then let's take a vote the presentation of the proclamation designating april 2022 as national occupational therapy month all in favor say aye any opposed it passes seven to nothing thank you all right thank you our next proclamation is designating april 2022 as the national autism acceptance month do i have a motion okay miss cook
020and then miss kane all right dr grego with you let me it gives me great pleasure to call who's already at the microphone amy victor and ese specialist low prevalence and janine watkins the district behavior specialist to present this proclamation and i really enjoy the word awareness in this month is that this is autism awareness month to try to spread the knowledge and information of what what autism is all about thank you good morning madam chair board members dr grego and staff thank you for considering the proclamation for autism awareness month my name is amy fichter and i'm a board certified behavior analyst and the ese specialist for district behavior services here in pinellas county schools and i'm proud to introduce one of my team members ms jeanine watkins hi i'm janine watkins i'm a
021board certified behavior analyst and a behavior analyst on the district behavior services team since 1970 april has been designated as national autism awareness month by the national autism society in order to highlight the growing needs for awareness around autism the united states recognizes april as a special opportunity to educate the public about autism and issues for the autism community as well as spotlight the needs of individuals and families impacted by autism in the united states one in every 54 children has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed than girls but we know that strong early intervention is key for our students on average pinellas county schools serves 1700 students who have an eligibility of autism spectrum disorder additional students with autism spectrum disorder are served through our
022other health impairment eligibility the student services range from support provided within advanced academic courses including ib and advanced placement to services provided in self-contained classrooms for students that need a higher level of academic and behavioral support autism awareness month has shifted from awareness to acceptance as acceptance is an action as a district we act by acknowledging supporting and empowering our diverse and unique student population we celebrate their individual strengths while remembering our humanity is what we all have in common we advocate all of our staff presume competence and engage in inclusive practices so every learner in pinellas county schools feels like a member of our amazing community we recognize the importance of connecting with and listening to autistic student voices so we can learn from one another and further our professional growth our diverse community
023is what makes us so strong the district behavior services team has grown exponentially this school year not only in the number of individuals such as adding two registered behavior technicians but also in the number of intensive supports that are provided to our autistic students and all diverse learners our team has seven board certified behavior analysts and other members working toward obtaining their credentialing through the collaborative efforts of our district behavior services team we have expanded to 12 sites receiving a trauma-sensitive approach to addressing challenging behavior through functional assessment and skill-based treatment in both general education and sensory communication as well as emotional support classrooms we also recognize the need to support our families in providing intensive training support and access to services within our students homes to ensure successful transition back into the school environment
024please do not hesitate to reach out to our district services team to learn more about the amazing support we provide to the students families and the staffs across the district we're excited to announce that on this autism acceptance proclamation day that our summer 22 autism institute will be held virtually on july 19th and july 20th we're offering a variety of topics delivered by national speakers university staff and autistic self-advocates we encourage students families instructional staff educational leaders to attend and you'll be able to find more information on our district website during the month of april and we thank you for recognizing national autism acceptance month autism acceptance month whereas autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in the united states affecting more than three million people and whereas autism is the result of a neurological
025disorder that affects the normal functioning of the human brain and can affect anyone and whereas as the effort to address autism continues doctors therapists and educators can help persons with autism overcome or adjust to its challenges and provide early accurate diagnosis in the resulting appropriate education intervention and therapy that are vital to future growth and development and whereas this effort will bring awareness to our schools community and around the country of the honor to take part in the annual observance of autism acceptance month in world autism acceptance day and the hope it will lead to a better understanding of the disorder now therefore the school board of pinellas county does hereby recognize april 2022 as autism acceptance month in pinellas county signed this 22nd day of march 2022. thank you thank you thank you do
026i have any comments from the board all right then that's presentation of the proclamation designating april 2022 as the national autism acceptance month all those in favor say aye and he opposed okay it passes seven to nothing all right presentation of the proclamation designating april 2022 as school library month do i have a motion dracar and a second miss kane all right dr grego yes ma'am chair and school board members i call upon bronwyn mccarthy the program coordinator for library media to present this proclamation to the board thank you and good morning madam chair board members dr grego and the community my name is bronwyn mccarthy and i'm the program coordinator for library media i'm here today to request your approval to recognize april as national school library month and celebrate all the services that
027our library media programs and professionals provide to schools in pinellas county it is with great pride that i come before you today over the last two school years i have had the honor of visiting library media spaces meeting with our library media professionals and supporting schools in their efforts to get library programs back in place as we emerge from the covid19 pandemic i am happy to report that in support of student literacy across the district many schools have achieved their pre-pandemic book circulation levels some have even exceeded them this is significant because this is the first school year that many of our youngest scholars have had the opportunity to regularly visit their school library to explore create read and learn i think it is safe to say that we are finally getting back into the
028swing of things in our library media spaces and i am excited for what the future holds thank you to our library media professionals for all they do every day please join me in celebrating and recognizing all who support our school libraries in honor of national school library month thank you thank you mrs cook yes proclamation for school library month whereas school library programs promote and encourage a love of reading and are influential in preparing students for lifelong learning through the development of information literacy skills and whereas school library programs close achievement gaps for all learners by providing equitable access to academic resources and whereas school librarians play a critical role in supporting the instructional technology that is necessary to maintain a rigorous learning environment at each school and whereas school librarians are instructional partners who
029directly support and enhance student achievement now therefore the school board of pinellas county does hereby recognize april as school library month signed on this 22nd day of march 2022. thank you dr carr you have a comment just want to thank you during our work our most recent workshop we had the opportunity as a board to learn a great deal about our media centers and libraries and how materials are selected and the amount of rigor and time that is spent and it really i think illuminates the need for us to have this recognition so thank you it was a wonderful presentation and i know i personally learned a great deal about the whole process and appreciated your perspective and the depth of your knowledge so thank you very much thank you anyone else all right then
030let's take a vote presentation of the proclamation designating april 2022 as school library month all those in favor say aye opposed passes seven to nothing thank you for our next presentation board i'm going to ask that we go down and dr grego will introduce this okay okay so board members i know you already realize this but as a district we could not be as successful as we are without a lot of our with our volun without our volunteers and you're going to hear about some of the champions in each of the areas but i also want to remind us all that behind them are literally tens of thousands of others who volunteer in our schools on a daily basis so dr brim is we'll be presenting this recognition yes thank you madam chair board members
031dr grego dr greco and staff volunteers are vital to the success of our students in schools through volunteering they continue to support our students our teachers our classrooms our staff in a variety of ways by mentoring by becoming members of the booster club supporting our career academies tutoring students in our core subjects of course helping our coaches volunteer by helping them on the field providing internships for our students by major corporations and business partners writing grants to help pay for students to for school supplies serving on leaders i mean team leaders of like all pro dads dads club pta ptsa and sac our district has over 18 000 registered volunteers who's committed close to 300 000 hours this year their dedication and giving of their time to support pinellas county schools they truly have blessed
032us for so many years the outstanding school volunteer nominating committee and thank you again ms long for participating on that committee has selected 15 winners who who've demonstrated extraordinary services these winners will also be recognized at a breakfast on april 7th at the featherston country club at 7 30. the winners will be identified by areas in the following category youth adult and seniors we want to congratulate the following volunteers and as we call you up please come up and we'll give you your certificate and also another gift that we have for you area one our youth thomas brown from booga crete elementary the area one adult is mary molly hart from highland lakes elementary and the principals or representatives are welcome to come up as well and our senior is dorothy russell for the board
033countryside high school area two are you just go ahead area two our youth is raquel hernandez rello from plum elementary our adult is heather sakur from osceola fundamental high and our senior is cheryl schambach from plum elementary area three our youth is christina capote from orange grove elementary kapita i'm sorry our adult is tiffany brown from seminole middle and our senior is katherine duran from bogus diego high school thank you area four our youth is michael selage from john sexton elementary michael i don't think he's here today elisa is our adult elisa murray from panelist park middle and our senior is michael waddell from rollins elementary good morning from our transformation zone the adult is nicolette gomez from john hopkins middle our senior is christina williams from lelman avenue elementary thank you and our final
034is our workforce miss janie johnson from pinellas technical college st petersburg again we want to thank everyone for their hard work and theirs and dr greco and staff and board members for your continued support for our volunteer program thank you dr bram that concludes our presentations how you doing oh before we move on i just want to say thank you it was a very difficult job sitting on that committee because every time they present the next person it was just amazing that these individuals would take so much time and love and dedication to our schools they don't have to do that this is something they're giving from the heart and it means a lot to our schools and i want to say thank you to everyone what a what a great time okay now we
035are going on to the public comments agenda all right members of the public have three opportunities to address the board when we are gathered for our meetings the first opportunity to speak is during public comments on the agenda items the next opportunity is when there is a public hearing most of which are policies lastly after the meeting is adjourned we will remain for public participation when speakers may address items pertaining to the business of the district at each of the op at each of these opportunities for a public input board members are here to listen to you this is not a time for discussion or debate we will not take any formal action on information brought forward unless it is pertaining to an agenda item however the board and the superintendent may clarify statements or
036refer the speaker to the proper staff person to help work through your concern the board is committed to a standard of civility and decorum in the conduct of our meetings whether you agree or disagree with viewpoints expressed by speakers please refrain from showing audible support or disagreement we also ask that you insist assist us in maintaining a civil and constructive environment by confining your comments to the business of the district and refrain from profanity and intemperate or rude comments thank you all right miss houck are there any speakers at this time yes madam chair board members and dr grego we have two speakers for agenda items i'm sorry zero we have zero right speakers to clarify madam chair there are speakers to the public hearings but there are no speakers to agenda items other than
037the public hearings and those people will speak when we address the public hearing okay let's move on then to unfinished business 6.1 public hearing to consider the amendment to policy meetings public participation at board meetings this is the second reading and there are no changes from the first meeting do i have a motion miss dr carr and a second miss cook all right dr grego or mr kaperski mr kaperski thank you madam chair board members dr grego as i mentioned we will have speakers on this public hearing and they will address the board after i introduce the item so what you have in front of you as you noted madam chair is a second reading on policy 0169.1 which addresses public participation at school board meetings just to refresh the board of the history of
038briefly and then to educate the public who may not know this board held several workshops discussing this policy and there was debate among the board at that workshop there were several issues that were discussed including potentially making substantive changes regarding when the deadline to sign up to speak would be as well as how long a member of the public has to speak and so ultimately after those workshops the board decided as a group not to make any of those substantive changes and so what was left were clear clarifying changes changes i suggested a change also that brought in another policy that we were applying anyway so i would not characterize the changes that you have in front of you today that you already passed at first reading as being substantive but rather clarification and so
039you have the policy in front of you in the regulation of disruptive speech portion for example i wanted to clarify that the interruption of a public speaker must be in accordance with current case law and so there is ever evolving first amendment free speech case law and that is what we apply and that's what we had applied before any changes this policy were made that's what we will apply after assuming passage any changes to this policy are made we also inserted statutory language that's actually located in florida statutes that allows the board share to interrupt the speaker if they were interfering with the expeditious or orderly process of the meeting so again these are changes i think that clarify our current practice but and we reordered some areas for clarity but i would not necessarily
040characterize these as substantive changes if you have any questions i'd be happy to answer them other than that madam chair you should call on public speakers okay thank you madam chair our two speakers for agenda item 6.1 are david happy and dulce gonzalez shame on you that we're even back here and shame on you for that legal advice it's not tenable since 1964 this issue has been debated in fact the supreme court got involved in 1964 and what we're talking about is settled case law in 1964 william brennan said from the u.s supreme court that debate on public issues should be uninhibited robust and wide open that may include vehement and caustic sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials because you know what we have a first amendment right and class is in
041session so please stop tweeting or whatever you're doing pay attention to what we're talking about with regard to the first amendment because pinellas county school board you're not going to take it you're not going to take it away the first amendment guarantees our right for peaceful assembly it guarantees our right to petition our government so citizens that are listening you may not understand what's happening but you're going to understand it now because here's what your school board our elected quote-unquote representatives are putting forward that they would be able to interrupt your speech when they disagree with it that they'd interrupt the speech from their policy if it interferes with the expeditious or orderly process of their meeting so we get three minutes but they can stop you from speaking if the chair deems from her
042bench that your speech is interrupting with the expeditious or orderly process of a meeting determined by the chair that they that the speech can't be it might not be she can determine or he with the next chair would determine that it's not relevant that your speech exceeds the time allotted or is abusive threatening harassing defamatory obscene profane loud or interruptive or otherwise interferes with the meeting listen this has been tried so many times in court and it's about to be tried again right here in pinellas county because the parents have had enough of this crap we're not going to take this anymore from our elected representatives this is not the first time you've received erroneous legally debatable untenable information from mr kopersky the next school board should pick a new school board attorney that's actually
043going to represent all of our interests this is not the first time that you've got bad information but it is going to be the first time that one of your decisions is challenged in court i'm telling you right now we are going to sue and we're not going to settle because your actions here today deserve to be brought before a jury of your peers for restricting our free speech so you know it started with the restriction you know when we're talking about restricting what we can say with the fact that you won't put what we say during our public comment out there and that directly infringes and it marginalized those of us who can't speak english who might need somebody to translate those of us who have to work three jobs and can't be here
044they want to make sure that their voice is being heard here by seeing that the public comment so that if it's not being heard they can make the time in their schedule to come down here and address you and what you've done is you've just shut out the public from it and i know that the reason that you've done it is because you didn't like what we had to say but if you're allowed to make these changes based on what you don't like what's next the mere fact that you were discussing it as mr kapoorski said it i believe you said two multiple workshop meetings that these questions came up who introduced these questions i understand that you can't respond back to me because that's the way that this is set up but who introduced
045those questions wanting to cut down what we can talk about how long we can talk about if the public isn't aware you already can arrest us for getting disruptive you already have arrested us for getting disruptive and i don't have any kind of trust in the leadership here considering that i have videos of the previous leadership allowing people to curse up here but as long as they were with what y'all were saying they were allowed to stay up here and they weren't pulled out in handcuffs but if somebody out here got upset and called you all the child abuser he was pulled out because masking is child abuse we already found that out don't need to go into that but the fact that he couldn't come up here and say what he wanted to say
046you guys already have the powers that you're trying to do but you're trying to put it into an amendment so that you can grossly overuse those powers that's what's going on any infringement on our first amendment rights is wrong the fact that we can't even come and protest at your building although teachers were allowed to protest close but now we're pushed farther back we're not allowed to bring in signs you know that other counties and other public meetings allow the public comment and they stream it you know the proof is in the pudding you guys are hiding it from the public because you don't like that you know there's pornography in the books that there's the crt going on and what teachers are doing the fact that dr grego never got back to me about
047the abuse that happened with my son or even the abuse that happened with what's his name frank the guy who does the office of professional standards here gaslighting my son's abuse and then hanging up on me you never called me back but you do just you know you're gonna retire i guess it's on my birthday it's kind of a birthday present but the fact that nothing ever got resolved doesn't help me you know i see new people on mom's groups on facebook asking questions about schools and they're like oh let me go to the school board i like to pop their bubble right before it because they're not going to get anything here all they're going to do is get shut down so it's gross that you were even having a conversation to limit further
048what we can say how we can say it how long we can say it you know it's just proving to the people that you are scared you don't like what we have to say but what makes stronger teachers and administrators more than the volunteers that were here are the people that come and challenge you and hold you to your standards when complacency comes in because that happens at any job that you do for a long period of time that's what makes you stronger are there any other speakers no madam chair there are no more speakers all right the amendment to policy 0169.1 meetings public participation at school board meetings we've had the second reading there are no changes all those in favor of voting for this amendment change are there any discussions yes ms edmond
049just a point of clarification that the video recording or streaming of the school board meeting isn't in this policy so i know there's been discussion around it so i just want to make sure that the public is aware that the streaming is not included in this policy that we're discussing anyone else all right all those in favor say aye opposed okay it passes seven to nothing okay our second hearing to consider policy five five zero zero point one five parental bill of rights this is the second reading and there are no changes from the first reading do i have a motion mr dudley and a second sign all right mr kapersky yes thank you madam chair board members and dr grego this is the second of two second readings of policies you have today this
050is the parental bill of rights policy that was required by a law passed by the legislature about a year ago and so you we have workshop this you have seen it at first reading the first reading was back on february 8th of this year and essentially what this policy does is it tracks the statutory requirements to have a policy that advised parents of certain rights that they have i think it's important to emphasize that there is nothing new in this policy that we're doing differently in pinellas county schools but rather it's just putting in one place a lot of the rights that exist either in law and or other policies that you already have and so if you have any questions regarding the second reading i'd be happy to answer those thank you hey miss
051hauck are there any speakers on this no madam chair there are no speakers to this item okay any discussion any comments all right then let's take a vote for the consider policy 5500.015 the parental bill of rights all those in favor say aye opposed and it passes okay moving on to the consent i need a motion mr dudley and a second miss edmond all right is there any discussion okay then all those in favor of the approval of the consent agenda items say i all any opposed it also passes seven to nothing all right let's move down to the non-consent this first one 8.1 request approval of negotiated agreement with the pinellas educational support professional association do i have a motion miss edmond and miss cook's second all right miss dr gregor would you like
052ma'am chairs i'm very pleased to bring this agreement to the board hopefully for your approval also today but to go over the details of it i want to say and introduce and also thank paula texel kevin smith who works on the negotiation team lori dart who also works tirelessly as they have worked with pespa to come to this agreement so ms texel good morning madam chair school board members dr grego and staff i am here this morning to request approval of the tentative agreement with the pinellas educational support professionals association or pespa i first wanted to thank nelly henias who's our pr president of pespa and lindsey blankenbaker our executive director for pespa for their work during this process i don't believe they're in attendance today but wanted to thank them online so the total
053average compensation package for pespa was 5.2 percent with a salary increase of 3.25 percent for all employees in the pesva bargaining unit as previously shared i think back in the fall regarding our health care the school board as a reminder covered 100 of the increase for our employees for their health care this year and that was approximately nine million dollars for all of our employees so wanted to point that out and additionally the school board also covered the increase in frs contribution for all employees which is approximately four million dollars for all employees and again meant no additional cost for our employees this year so for some of the contract language i know was identified in the agenda item but just to recap a few of those agreements into contract language this year involved additional
054language on employee work schedules we clarified some of the evaluation procedures we adjusted the terminal pay percentages for unused accrued sick leave that is paid out upon retirement or death and so that was a couple of the highlights of our language agreement this year this did pass with 96 percent of our of our group voting in favor of the agreement and all increases that are approved today will be retroactive to july 1st and if approved today the employees will be receiving their raises and their retro checks on april 1st paycheck so on behalf of the bargaining team and superintendent staff we are recommending that you approve this agreement with pespa today okay thank you is there any discussion comments all right then let's continue with the vote this is the request oh dr gregor no
055i saw miss edmond i just wanted to say that we really appreciate our support professionals and are glad that you're bringing this item forth thank you thank you okay anyone else all right the approval of the negotiated agreement with pinellas educational support professionals association all those in favor say aye any opposed and it passes i'm sure if i can make a comment on this because sometimes we still have the pinellas county teachers association to settle and i'm very optimistic about that and i'll say that publicly but the other portion of that i don't think this board gets enough credit for is that ms texel talked about the complete coverage of health increase cost of health increase to our employees no matter who they are the support employees as we're trying to increase the minimum salary
056up the health care will will eat you up in terms of that salary so i want to say thank you may not hear it that frequently but say thank you for covering that increase in the health care and the frs make those combined i know not only for this group it's 13 million dollars for that and those of us who have had health care issues and costs know how dire are our benefits packages and it's a really good package and this board has been very generous in that so thank you for not only this group this comment is really for all of our employees i hear that in the community about how how good of a health care benefits package we have so thank you board for your support on that and thank you miss
057texel okay 8.2 the request approval of the second amendment to charter school agreement to change the location of the discovery academy of science charter school do i have a motion this cook motion and a second mr dudley all right dr gregor yes ma'am chair and school board members i know the next three items amy hayes is here and want to thank her for her leadership in working with applications and adjustments to our charter school partners but also want the public to know that you as a board covered with amy and others in detail during our last workshop each of the next three items so i won't repeat myself but amy if you present 8.2 for their approval thank you and good morning discovery academy of science opened in pinellas county in 2012 with an approved
058k-12 program model the school received high performing status in 2017 and has retained that high performing status discovery has renewed its contract with pinellas county twice the latest renewal was in 2020 and the contract expires in june of 2031. discovery academy has been operating as a k-8 school with two school site locations since it opened due to lack of facility capacity to expand to the grade levels of k-12 the school has an approved bond and has started construction on a new location that will accommodate the k-12 program this location is 2465 nursery road and clearwater we recommend the approval of the location change for the high performing school to the new nursery road location okay any discussion all right then we are going to request the approval of the second amendment to charter school agreement
059to change the location of discovery academy of science charter school all those in favor say aye any opposed and it passes seven to nothing all right and the 8.3 request approval of the charter school agreement for a five-year charter renewal with the athenian academy incorporated do i have a motion it's edmond and the second is cook all right miss haste thank you athenian academy has been open in pinellas county since the year 2000. the charter contract has been been renewed three times the latest renewal was only a two-year renewal due to the loss in the school's high-performing status and a negative fund balance the school has since made significant changes in staffing adding many student services position they hired a new principal and they've changed the curriculum to better align with the new state standards
060the school's fund balance is also currently in a positive net position due to the student support changes in the school's staffing structure the financial improvement and the positive direction of academic performance indicators we're recommending the approval of the five-year renewal for athenian academy any comments all right request approval of the charter school amendment for a five-year charter renewal with the athenian academy incorporated all those in favor say aye opposed it passes seven to nothing all right 8.4 request approval of the model florida charter school application for a five-year high performing charter replication for saint petersburg collegiate stem high school do i have a motion miss edmund has made the motion second miss cook all right this face the saint petersburg collegiate gibbs campus opened in pinellas county in 2004. the school received high performing status
061in 2011 and remains that hype retains that high performing status it replicated the high performing program in 2019 by opening the saint petersburg collegiate high school north pinellas at the tarpon springs spc campus st petersburg collegiate submitted another high performing replication application this past february the replication is consistent with the two other programs currently operating in pinellas county with a few exceptions st petersburg collegiate stem high school will accommodate grades 9 through 12 instead of grades 10 through 12 the students will work towards an associate of science instead of an associate of arts degree the school will also provide students with the opportunity to earn two industry certifications the school was approved for the early career and technical education grant in the amount of two million dollars which is the foundation of the program design
062differences of this replication after a thorough staff review of the high-performing replication application the applicant met the criteria in all pertinent areas of the application and therefore we recommend approval of the high-performing replication for st petersburg collegiate stem high school thank you any comments dr grego do you have a comment no all right that's a request approval of the florida the model florida charter school application for five year high performing charter replication for saint petersburg collegiate stem high school all those in favor say and he opposed and it passes 7-0 thank you amy all right items introduced by the superintendent mr i'm chair and school board members first of all welcome back from much needed and certainly hopefully you had a great spring break but i also want to share with you during that week
063of spring break mr hendrick has shared a few preliminary statistics as of monday which today's students first day back we there were over a 112 000 logons to to clever in in our school district 37 over 37 000 books were read during that week on with my on which is the electronic book format and over 40 000 lessons were completed in dreambox now those numbers are staggering considering sometimes we hit those numbers over the winter break which is two weeks but so i'm very pleased as we are heading into the last quarter of the school year which is kind of amazing but we are here so we're truly going to have a strong push thank you to the teaching and learning division and our principals area superintendents are setting up these challenges where we can
064kind of rest and let the students work and they they've done a phenomenal job you know we heard earlier the gibbs the pcca women's choral group and what what a tremendous talent there but also i want to say that we have that type of musical talent performing arts talent throughout our school district another example is the palm harbor university high school a cappella group is heading to heading headed to the nationals championship the palm harbor group it's called after school specials is one of only eight schools competing in the varsity vocals international championship of high schools acapello this is one of only is this is the only one of the global tournaments the showcase the arts and they'll be competing in the town hall in new york city in april 22nd so congratulations to theresa
065patterson and also choral director blake hudson but in addition to that i always enjoy giving accolades to our students and they are the heart of our business but in st pete high school the state spanish conference team from st petersburg high school won first place congratulations to them they won first place in their division and they had the highest score in the state at the florida state spanish conference held on saturday march 12th and they've received the highest ratings of any school there congratulations to principal lebo and the team sponsors linda santiago esther gonzalez wright and alvaro kino and so just these are folks i know we recognize volunteers today but these are people who put in many many hundreds of hours to work with our students to compete not only in the state level
066but also the national level the other part of the exciting end of the year the last nine weeks is are the awards ceremonies that we have we certainly one of ours and i know your favorite time of the year joseph carwise awards will be held on march 26 at central park performing arts center right here at largo the yes yes i can awards is march 25th i think i said 24th is the car wise i hope i said the 24th that car wise the 25th is at banquet masters yes i can the maria edmonds award we are having back live a lot of these awards were we're so excited about that but will be next monday the 28th at ruth eckert hall the rural davis awards on april 4th at the coliseum we're going to
067have the pride awards the turnaround breakfast awards which i know we have we have a very exciting guest speaker for that one so stay tuned the honors breakfast and so many others in in april and may so this is an exciting time of the year we need to finish strong and also i want to dovetail right into our summer bridge program which the registration opened today for summer bridge as you heard and this board was briefed during a workshop that we're going to have a longer day but in the month of june we're going to have a lot of enrichment programs i encourage parents to take full advantage of the enrichment programs we have stem camps featuring game designs and robotics you saw one of those even at a first grade level we have camp
068options in arts and music and theater movie making career exploration and many of the gifted programs that we have throughout the year so we actually have a website in our main website but if you go to our pcs.org forward slash summer camps you know we'll be specialized for the july camps that we have and also want to say many people know this but the summer bridge website is just forward slash summer bridge you'll find it our website is very easy to to to navi navigate so i also want to say thank you and to theresa price the director of our grants i know she's presented to this board recently recently today or yesterday late we just got recognition that we were approved for our arp or s or three funds so we wrote our proposal
069i want to thank teresa price for the consistency the timeliness we one of the first applications in i know we're nearing the end of march but we still have the resources now and we're going to have these are the funds at sunset i believe in 2024 though so thank you to the whole department thank you to everyone who really put in a lot of emphasis and a lot of details i can assure you board members that you need to be comforted that our district has a plan a very detailed plan of how we're planning on using those resources so that we can look back and we've been saying this to one another five years from now and said we made a difference we made a difference because we had a plan and so i want
070to say thank you for your patience and support and thank you to the staff that's not only sitting there but also throughout this building they've really worked hard with our state and federal grants that concludes my comments okay items introduced by the school board attorney i have no report today thank you man all right okay now items introduced by the board since we're celebrating recognitions if you all don't mind i'm going to go first first i'd like to congratulate dr grego for two honors he has received this spring junior achievement recognized his contribution to children and public education with the national silver leadership award at their annual hall of fame dinner yeah it was nice and the tampa bay business journal named dr grego one of their power 100 listing tampa bay's most influential business
071leaders in this article they noted that he sets an example for how to handle a large-scale organization postcovid and the education sector like many other businesses is facing budget cuts across the state with a shrinking talent pool how he leads the district through that while preparing his successor makes him one of the most powerful people in the region i think i can speak for the board when i say how proud and grateful we are to have you as our superintendent and know how deserving you are of this recognition congratulations dr carr that's hard to follow i don't know if there's an award you haven't received yet dr grego when i when we go to your office and we see that those those number of superintendent of the year honored by so many different organizations so
072i know a contractor who can build a great room for all your trophies the i wanted just to report a few things and also in recognition of one of our own board members i recently had the opportunity to attend the pinellas county urban league where miss edmond was recognized for her recognition at the national level and also for serving on that board so congratulations ms edmund on that and i'd like to say thank you had the opportunity to be a judge in our history day and our history teachers are really an incredible group of individuals who invest all of this extra time to provide an opportunity for students to engage in history in a way they don't normally do in the classroom so it was a fantastic event it was hosted at largo high school
073and i was so impressed at the number of teachers who were back all weekend judging the county-wide event so and the work that the students put into it was really interesting and i myself learned quite a bit reading all of the i had the chance to judge the essays so reading all the essays and then meeting the students it was a lot of fun and i'd like to recognize also some community members some of our local elected officials came i know jeff gao done eating was there and others so thank you to those folks and really to those history teachers for for they've had a lot on their plate i think in in this past year to and that's understatement right there but with folks presenting concerns with a great deal of passion about what
074they're teaching and they've really stepped up and continued to honor and respect critical thinking in their classroom so thank you to those history teachers also had the chance to visit our club's new facility and i just want to say thank you to our supervisor of elementary education mike feeney he really knows his stuff he has really been involved in a lot of articulation with early education which really helps us a great deal with providing the services we provide for pre-k through post-secondary so i really appreciate his knowledge his vast knowledge and expertise and his demeanor and in creating the rapport and relationships with the individuals in our community and with that i just want to again ask our community and those of us who and as we engage in our community to continue to seek
075ways to address the concerns and issues around our foster care we're continuing to hear a lot of concerns around the foster care system and how services are being provided and reach out to folks who potentially could offer that service and become foster parents but with that being such a great need and also in the area around our homelessness i continue to drive here into other places and pass a shelter full of our students right and it's a it does have family housing available and when we see our students and i'm grateful to our homeless coordinator here in the district for helping provide in our social workers and school counselors and psychologists to continue to do outreach to to the community but just that there is an incredible need to address youth homelessness and family homelessness
076in our community right now and right with that the foster care so thank you very much and that's all i have to report okay mrs cook sorry that's okay thank you we're kind of getting into the home stretch now with our superintendent search and things are getting serious because applications are starting to come in so i want to share with the public where we are i think and maybe even remind us where we are with this advertisements have been posted in several of the trade publications that we've talked about such as the american american association of school administrators education week florida association and school administrators the council of great city schools the national alliance of black school educators and the association of latino educators and superintendents it's also been shared with every school board association
077in every state applications are due midnight april 13th we are accepting applications we have our first set that have come in and the deadline closes at midnight april 13th and we'll be posting each week we'll be posting the applications that come through and we'll be posting those on the website so not only we will be able to see them so will the public be able to look at and review them our next work session to review the applications is scheduled for april 20th at 9 00 a.m if the public wants more information about this they can go to our website at www.pcs.org and forward slash superintendent search and it will take them to everything that we have done including the applications our advertising any of our minutes that we have moved forward so now it's
078time for us to get serious about it start reading those applications and having to look at who we're going to decide to interview and then how we move forward so it's getting exciting and sad all at the same time so thank you all for the hard work that you have done so far on this thank you miss edmond today we approve the renewal to extend the child care programs with our club and ymca and having the opportunity to serve on the board of our club as well as being a promised time facilitator when i was a teacher and seeing the impact that both our club and the ymca extended care programs have on children's family and staff i'm glad that we were able to move forward with that approving those renewals also saturday friends of
079the johnson branch library held a literacy festival at the enoch davis center it was so great to see children families and several community partners in one location promoting literacy and i think that is where we are strong or where we where the community is supporting education and able to support the district's efforts or work together collaboratively that's where we are strongest so i was really excited to be there in support of that effort and that's it about that but i'd also dr carr mentioned mr feeny coming out as well as herself mrs hein attending the happy workers tour it was really great to see firsthand you know when you attend the board meetings you hear about the shortage of staff you hear about the need or the decline in enrollment but to see the impact
080firsthand was shocking but i would like to thank deb ballinger amy shore sonia and staff for providing that tour because again i think you have to see it firsthand in order to really understand the impact i'm excited about some of their plans moving forward to support early education zero and up so that is something else that i look forward to as it relates to our club i would also like to remind students parents staff and community members that if you are hearing or seeing anything as it relates to bullying or safety concerns that you that you reported you're able to report anonymous anonymously on the website pcsb.org students have access to the say something app in clever again it is extremely important that if you are experiencing bully or know of any safety concerns that
081you are reporting those items thank you okay mr dudley thank you madam chair that time of year i wanted to be the cheerleader again for folks going out and watching our athletes and our well not just athletes but those law school plays and stuff like that going extracurricular and those kids pour their hearts out and it certainly would be nice for them to you know look out and see people appreciate what they do a lot of sports going on right now you know it's interesting to note that we live in an area where sports is primo i mean we have great athletes and we're just coming off of a fall where saint pius basketball team made it to the state finals and other schools have done very very well and baseball is a big sport
082in florida and particularly in this county come watch a high school game and you'll see future major leaguers you know i know doug rectors and jeff d'amico's that played locally in high school here and made it all the way up to the major leagues and just to mention too there's hundreds of them over the years but they really do appreciate you coming out there's a number of sports you go everything from lacrosse by the way if you haven't been to a lacrosse game it's rules are pretty simple and you don't have to have a great knowledge just go there and enjoy it watch those kids and they run from one end of that field to the other and it is it's really a lot of a lot of fun and i know they appreciate it
083so that's my pitch you know our kids you know really thrive on us going to see them and so i would throw that out there if you look for something to do this game there are games tonight games over the weekend softball flag football i mean this a plethora of different sports and activities so plays have been in production and getting ready to be done in in the theaters and so anyway that's my challenge to you get a little cheap entertainment brought a baseball game and i'll tell you what you're going to go to one of those outdoor events like baseball game or softball game the hamburgers and hot dogs are really good i mean you know then you take your family there and you know they get the parents out there and they're cooking
084and again going back to the volunteers that we all those people that helped that we recognized this morning we sports and extracurricular can't survive without those volunteers so anyway that's my pitch thank you sign i would also ask since we're asking and suggesting the community to participate in different things one other thing is you don't have to wait for teacher appreciation week to thank your teachers every day is teacher appreciation day so our classroom teachers is where the rubber meets the road and where your children's experience in school is the everyday everyday moment so don't wait for teacher appreciation week every day as teacher appreciation day so just say thank you and i this morning with the outstanding volunteer program i just love that i mean i've seen firsthand what being involved in your children's
085school can do for the morale of everyone in that school for the staff and teachers and parents and families and then it affects the classroom so get involved volunteer at a school there is so much joy when you show up at that school level we have all this stuff going on up here there's all this stuff swirling around tallahassee everybody hears all of that in the news but you know what it's in the classrooms go to a school they're beautiful they're amazing show up volunteer and above all when you meet a teacher tell them thank you okay miss kane thank you all so much for watching words and the encouragement to get involved but pinellas county schools were in it this is it this is a home stretch and it's the last quarter and i'm
086excited to come back from spring break a little bit renewed and i'm going to say what i said last night which i sat my children down and we had this discussion about regrouping and coming into the last quarter getting our mind right as you get ready to attack all that's left to do for the last bit of this year this turning point in their lives because every year matters when you're in k-12 every year is a developmental point and a big change for each one of them so it's important to go in there with the right focus so that you can succeed through the last quarter and i brought a couple of quotes to end our meeting on a positive note and i have a couple of encouraging ones and i have one for my
087arts my arts people who came earlier so the first one is dreams are lovely but they're just dreams dreams do not come true because you dream them it's hard work that makes this happen it's hard work that creates change this is a quote by shonda rhimes important to remember that as we go into this final quarter bogged down with the details but in the thick of our work in the thick of all we are trying to accomplish this year to remember how important that is i have a great quote by thomas edison many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up if you are struggling that was by thomas edison i think it's very important to remember one extra try could be the time
088that could be the success so keep pushing forward keep pushing to the end of the year finally for all of my arts folks this is a great one your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead so remember that going forth especially those who came from gibbs today and we were focused on arts this month and music important to to keep your focus on your education as well so everybody i hope that you all had a wonderful and refreshing spring break let's end this quarter strong focus and most importantly with excellence thank you very much dr corbett are there any board requests no madam chair there were none today all right at this time i'm going to adjourn the meeting after the public comments the board will come together and
089do our evaluation so at this time the school board meeting of march 22nd is done miss howe do we have any speakers today yes madam chair board members and dr grego we have two speakers the first is nancy velardi and the second is sweet gonzalez good morning at this