001thank you all for being here this evening this evening we have one of our board members Miss Laura Hein our vice church will be joining us via Zoom so we're going to allow our votes this evening to reflect a six-person vote throughout the evening with that this evening's invocation will be given by Father Ryan Whitley welcome of Saint Thomas Episcopal Church the end invocation will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mrs cook followed by the national anthem if you all please stand and remain standing until the conclusion of the national anthem father Whitley would you please share the invocation thank you so much for welcoming let us pray almighty God you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world show them and help us to model for them that
002your ways give more life than the ways of the world and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals bless all of our schools that they may be Lively centers for sound learning new discovery and the unhindered pursuit of wisdom Grant to those who teach a steady hand and a patient loving spirit Grant to those who learn a mind ready to absorb and a spirit unafraid to accept new and challenging ideas I pray also for this school board that you may send down on them the spirit of wisdom charity and justice that with steadfast purpose they may Faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being and education of all students unite them in bonds of love and work through their struggles to accomplish your purposes here on Earth finally help us to
003remember in the words of American literary giant Ray Bradbury stuff your eyes with Wonder live as if you drop dead in 10 seconds see the world it's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories and God's one and holy name we pray amen one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all oh stay can you see me foreign foreign foreign now I'd like to introduce today's video last month we closed the 2022-2023 school year and our graduating seniors and for our graduating seniors it also marked the commencement Ceremonies for the class of 2023. let's take a look at some of the moments from our recent alum thank you this is the next chapter for us and it's a daunting one but when you leave here I want you to take
004away this one thing don't let that scare you and don't let that fear stop you and after today we leap through new windows of opportunity because times certainly have changed many of us are scared of these changes we've all felt the creeping anxiety that we'll have to pack our things and move on but I want to assure you that the excitement of change can be better than the comfort in which we rooted ourselves change is inevitable and earning our diplomas will be one of the biggest and the best my mother and father always taught me with perseverance and strength I could do whatever I put my mind because of them I am who I am now and I want to continue to make them proud you have earned the seat you are sitting in and
005you have earned the diploma you will soon hold in your hands I might have not been inspired to become an engineer without my tennis coach letting me write math I might have not been inspired to become a team a team a sense of spreading my experiences and abilities without having the opportunity to teach piano without knowing how frustrating it is working with a solder for my robotics instructor I would still fear failure without my friends I might select the confidence to express myself and to Value myself as a person out of everything I've said that might be the most important thing because you can't be successful unless you trust and value your own work so as we move into this next chapter of Our Lives let us always remember the importance of relationships let us
006be grateful for the people who have brought us to this point and mindful of those we choose to keep with us congratulations class to 2023 I wish you all the best of luck in the future thank you well congratulations class of 2023 we wish you all the best and now for our public information officer Miss Isabel mascaranis she will introduce our professional and Community organizations that are present with us this evening good evening Madam chair members of the board Mr Hendrick and staff it is my pleasure to introduce the following representatives of community and professional organizations from the classroom Pinellas classroom Teachers Association Nancy velardi president and from the Pinellas arts for a complete education Coalition Sue Castleman thank you so much Mr Hendrick are there any recommended amendments to the agenda yes Madam chair
007there is one recommended Amendment it is item 7.5 it was posted yesterday for the public just a few updates to our annual appointment of Administrators and just for the board and Public's knowledge for teachers or administrators that are not on this one they'll be on the June 27th board meeting to you are there any other recommended changes from the board seeing none thank you as board chair I find good cause to amend the agenda as described by superintendent Hendrick may I have a motion to adopt the agenda as amended I have a motion by Miss Long a second by Miss Edmond all those in favor say aye aye any opposed appearing none the motion passes unanimously six to zero okay but then we're going to the public comments on agendas members of the public have
008three separate opportunities to address the board when we gather for business meetings the first is public comment on agenda items the second is at public hearings most of which are policies in the last is after our meeting when speakers May address the general business of the district at each opportunity for public input board members are here to listen to you this is not a time for interaction but the board will take your comments into consideration before it votes on these agenda items the board is committed to a standard of stability into Quorum and conducting our meetings and this includes refraining from clapping or making audible noises during or after a speaker's comments We Appreciate You assisting Us in the civil and constructive environment Miss Howard are there any speakers the agenda items yes Madam chair
009board members Mr Hendrick there are three speakers for agenda items and the first two are ginger brangle speaking to item 7.40 and the mark clutho speaking to 7.44 and 7.46 good evening it's disappointing to see few changes in this year's reading plan and disheartening to note our achievement goal for 8th grade is set at a mere 54 percent why are we satisfied with minuscule gains when we have the ability to raise these numbers even higher my grandpa used to say if the fancy fly isn't working switch back to the worm this plan fails to mention the collaboration that should occur between teachers and school librarians and the use of library books to encourage the love of reading the doe template requires that programs used for reading instruction be supported by at least one study yet
010we continue to use programs such as think Circa which was dot meet strong moderate or promising levels of evidence however the IES practice guide recommends it guess what else the IAS guide recommends recommendation for states allowing students some choice of complementary books has a positive impact on engagement and reading comprehension empowering students to make selections of materials encourages ownership and responsibility in their learning while we when we remind students that reading can be enjoyable their resistance to read for academic purposes declines we need to reconnect with our school libraries stop assigning tasks and duties that prevent the school Librarian from collaborating with teachers and keeping the library open for students find other places for testing besides the library this year students were allowed to test all day if need did resulting in libraries being closed
011more than they were open give Librarians time to promote literacy with school-wide activities that encourage a love for reading but enough about a love for reading let's talk about what really matters test scores over the last decade 21 students 21 states conducted School library impact studies every study proved that active library programs increase achievement scores for example Iowa's Elementary School study revealed the highest scoring students checked out two and a half times more books during Library visits than students with lower scores a Kansas middle school study showed that students using their libraries had higher proficiency rates ranging from 3 to 13 points in five tested areas Pennsylvania study found reading scores were better for students with Library access and that black Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students benefited even more Washington State research proves students in
012schools with well-used libraries were more likely to graduate their rate of 85 percent versus 79 percent for those without an active program knowing these results why are we telling our reading teachers not to bring their classes to the library and not to provide time for recreational reading why have Library visits and Elementary level been cut in half Scholastics Reading report states that 67 percent of students find books to read for fun from their school libraries no other source came close to that this means a majority of our students have no outside access to books so instead of filling that Gap we plunk them in front of a computer screen we can't cast that fancy fly and then prepare a tale of The One That Got Away thank you Mark Luther Largo 744 completions of buildings
013one through ten at Tyrone Middle School another big mistake and then 746 inspections inspection reports for relocatable classrooms an even bigger mistake so what happens as a result we have headlines will the world we live in today be still be habitable tomorrow and Winston Churchill said we shape our buildings thereafter they shape us so just last week we have a headline carbon dioxide levels climb to yet another record high 424 parts per million Noah said see it's that old cause and effect you make these stupid buildings you rely on relocatables trailers it's absurd we have a headline record warmth has melted oldest thickest Arctic Ice cause and effect Earth is nearing The Tipping Point for a hot future cause and effect we desperately need a new electrical grid here's how to make it happen well
014why do you have the grid you're making this stupid buildings the stupid buildings and think about all those lying losses while you're feeding your stupid buildings Heat going up into the atmosphere it's a doggone shame you just keep ignoring the science here's another headline the next speaker is Paula Stephen speaking to item 7.40 good evening I just wanted to call some attention to the amount of testing that is done on our younger children in primary grades especially in our district plan it talks about that the star early literacy will be given three times a year of course that's the state that's the State Testing however lfac is three times a year and the modules are monthly which I know that is progress monitoring to see how they're going my concern is for the eye station
015the past three years I've taught first grade and this is my 25th I just finished my 25th year of instruction in Pinellas County and elementary schools all of which have been Title One schools I have watched over the years as students every month have to take this isip test it is time consuming for students that need Focus they need some students need to be pulled in those small groups to make sure that there's no distractions some children are fine taking it with the whole class my concern is the amount of instructional time that is lost from giving this assessment every month and I don't know if there is any research indicating if by or you know every other month is okay I'm just concerned again about the number of Assessments that are given the one
016thing I noticed that is missing on this coming Falls plan is Running Records I know in past years we have given Running Records three times a year so that's missing so that may be one thing that is going away that takes a lot of time but again just be aware of the amount of tests that you're giving of our young students that aren't necessarily State mandated thank you Madam chair there are no more speakers for agenda items may I have a motion to approve item 6.1 public hearing to consider the amendment to policy 7250 naming and commemoration of District facilities the movement of I have an approval for Miss Cook and a second from Miss Edmond Mrs Houck are there any speakers for this public hearing no Madam chair there are no speakers thank you
017Mr Hendrick would you please introduce the item thank you madam chair over the course of the last several months this year we had the opportunity to name two new facilities Pinellas High Innovation as well as Mangrove Bay middle school and in that discussion at Workshops the board recognized the need to update this policy and so we're bringing this back for the second time and Mrs Leanna Eisen our director of strategic planning and policy we'll give the public and the board the details chair board my staff and community as discussed at the February and March board workshops in the April 11th board meeting were proposing these amendments to policy 7250 naming and commemoration of District facilities the proposed policy expands is expanded to include four sections for various types of facilities the first section naming of
018schools is modified from naming of District facilities to naming of schools it removes the stipulation about selecting a name within one year from appointing an architect it maintains that if named for a person the person shall have been deceased for no less than one year adds the requirement of District procedures regarding naming schools and it specifies that those procedures shall include Community input section 2 naming components of schools states that District procedures shall be adopted and gives examples of what we mean when we say components of schools the third section naming of administrative non-school facilities is a new section it's similar to the naming of schools in that the superintendent makes a recommendation to the board and the board votes to approve the name the superintendent shall adapt procedures for naming these types of facilities
019and that if named for a location it should be brief and descriptive this section is different from the naming of schools in that it does not include the specification that if named for a person that person shall have been deceased for at least a year and in addition to naming the facility due to a change in program or use this section adds that the facility shall be renamed if the namesake becomes reasonably considered to negatively affect the reputation and Goodwill of Pinellas County Schools and or its School Board the last section is Memorials and School Board property and that paragraph has simply moved to a different part within the policy and it based on board feedback it changes the approval of the naming of the memorial from the board to the site administrator similar to
020naming components of schools finally we've added a clarification that school and facility names are permanent unless there is a change in program or use or if the namesake becomes reasonably considered to negatively affect the reputation and Goodwill of PCS or its board in the event that a school or facility will be renamed it is at the sole discretion of the entity that approved the original name we recommend approving the amendments to policy 7215 naming and commemoration of District facilities thank you Miss Tyson is there any discussion from the board seeing none we have a motion on the floor to approve item 6.1 the public hearing to consider the amendment to policy 7250 naming and commemoration of District facilities all those in favor say aye none opposed the motion carries unanimously six to zero thank you
021so much that we are going to proceed to item 6.2 may I have a motion to approve item 6.2 the public hearing to consider the amendment to policy 9210 parent organizations I have a motion by Mrs long and a second by Mrs cook Mrs Houck are there any speakers for this public hearing no Madam chair there are no speakers no speakers thank you madam chair again just like the previous policy this was brought to workshop and discussed here with the board both at workshop and at a board meeting and Mrs Eisen will once again give the overview of this small change to policy 9210. thanks to policy 9210 parent organizations were made in collaboration with the Pinellas County Council of ptas in alignment with the PCC PTA bylaws we're proposing the following substantive amendments to
022policy specifying that September 30th it would be the deadline for the ptas to establish themselves and provide their beginning annual materials to the principal clarifying that the principal and a non-signatory member of the PTA must review and sign bank statements and treasurer's reports and we moved up the statement regarding notification to the pccppta of any school pta's revocation there is one change since first reading and that change is changing back the requirement of two signatures on a check which does align with the PCC PTA bylaws we recommend approving these amendments for policy 9210 parent organizations thank you again is there any discussion from board members in this policy and we have a motion on the floor to a and a second to approve item 6.2 public hearing to to consider the amendment to policy 9210
023parent organizations all in favor say aye aye any opposed none opposed the motion to approve item 6.2 has passed unanimously six to zero thank you very much Miss Ice we will move to our consent agenda may I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda as amended as long and a second by Miss Peters all those in favor of the consent agenda as amended say aye aye any opposed none the motion to adopt the consent agenda passes unanimously six to zero we are proceeding ahead to the non-consent items may have a motion to approve item 8.1 request approval to purchase 2023 2024 instructional materials do I have a motion approval second move forward by Miss cook in a second by Miss Edmond Mr Hendrick would you introduce the item thank you madam chair as is
024required by state law each purchase of adopted materials must come as a non-consent item and we brought a large portion of next year's materials a few board meetings ago but this is the follow-up with a few more materials and our chief academic officer Dr Dan Evans will present these thank you thank you board members Mr Hendrick and staff we're pleased to bring forward for your consideration this evening as Mr Hendrick said some additional 23-24 instructional materials these materials will be used in the upcoming school year in per state statute we're bringing them forward as required as a non-consent agenda item for your consideration and approval the materials coming before you this evening are specific to our planned expansion of our Ace courses within our high schools our phased implementation of Standards lines materials for our
025ese access point classes and the purchase of previously approved materials to support our environmental science and Middle School Social Studies classes that we will need next year in keeping with our planned adoption cycle as the boards aware we amended policy 2510 to include the requirement that formally adopted materials and those used as major tools for assisting in instruction in our core courses will come before you via non-consent so that is why we're here tonight we are requesting your approval and we thank you for your consideration of these items thank you very much thank you very much any discussion from board members do you know lights thank you Mr Evans we have a motion on the floor to approve item 8.1 to purchase 2023-2024 instructional materials all in favor say aye aye any opposed none the
026motion to provide an 8.1 passes unanimously six to zero thank you very much next may I have a motion to approve item 8.2 request approval of the 2023-2025 youth Mental Health First Aid agreement with the National Council for Behavioral Health DBA National Council for mental well-being motion for approval by Miss Edmond and a second by Miss Peters Mr Hendrick would you introduce yes thank you madam chair you know each year the legislator passes laws and sometimes you know there's so many kind of lose track of which ones which and when it impacts you and those and this was one a couple years ago where the state required youth Mental Health First Aid training through a specific vendor with a specific curriculum and that every District needed to have 80 percent of its staff Train by
027July 1st of 2023. it was a very big lift and I want to thank our student services staff for organizing and getting trainers trained and our teachers and schools who had to find time to do this it was a six hour training of course our teachers were paid either during the day or if it was after hours but just to find that time is a burden to do it for 7 000 people and so with us today as our managing officer of school psychology Mr Michael Cali who is representing is going to tell you a little bit more about this and is actually a trainer himself and has trained hundreds and hundreds of people across the district Mr Cali thank you good afternoon Madam chair school board members superintendent Andrew Rick and staff I am
028pleased to have the opportunity to highlight our ongoing effort to increase the capacity of all staff in Pinellas County Schools to recognize and respond to students mental health needs and to build resiliency in our youth as is often the case our district was ahead of the curve in adopting youth Mental Health First Aid training beginning in 2015. this positioned us to be well prepared when the Department of Education formally selected that training for the state in 2018 and subsequently created a requirement for at least 80 percent of staff to be trained by June 30th 2023 and annually thereafter in Pinellas we have already surpassed the 80 requirements set by the department and as of June 8th we have 83 percent of Staff trained in youth Mental Health First Aid the request before you today will
029provide funding for future training seats materials instructors and participant stipends that will allow us to continue to meet and exceed the state requirement over the next two school years I would be remiss if I failed to recognize my colleagues Lisa depaolo managing officer of prevention and Donna Sicilian executive director of student services Lisa and Donna couldn't be here this afternoon because they're attending a Statewide mental health and safety Summit they're busy working with our partners from districts and States across Florida sharing best practices Lisa and her team of prevention Specialists and support staff have shouldered the Lion's Share of the responsibility to provide youth Mental Health First Aid training and to monitor progress toward meeting our goals Donna as she does for all of us has supported Lisa and her team and has championed the
030value of this work at every step and at every level along the way ultimately however as superintendent Hendrick was saying this is a collective effort of our entire School community all of your administrative instructional and support staff deserve great recognition in this moment for their commitment not only in meeting a base State requirement but in truly embracing this as an opportunity to grow our systemic capacity to support youth none of which would be possible without your support which we are asking for you to continue please thank you thank you so much Mr Kelly thank you is there any discussion from our board members quiet this evening we have a motion on the floor to approve item 8.2 or the approval of the 2023-2025 youth Mental Health First Aid agreement with the National Council for Behavioral
031Health DBA National Council for mental well-being all in favor say aye aye any post and then hit motion for item 8.2 passes unanimously six to zero and with that will move us along to any new business in the district any items from the superintendent Mr Andrew yes Madam chair thank you I want to just re-emphasize how great our graduations were this is our first regular board meeting since I think it was 22 graduations and 7 000 handshakes and I thank the board for your attendance the video tonight was a great representation of the student speakers and the excitement of students and families for graduation so kudos to the class of 2023 I know it's been several weeks now since those ceremonies but it's been our first board meeting it was a great time for our
032students and families as we closed out the 2023 school year and started Summer Bridge and other things this is also a time of year for Teacher staff as you just heard Donna Sicilian and her team at estate mental health Summit this week as well as the board to hear from the state and people across that lead our infrastructure across the state so last week I had the opportunity to join with superintendents and hear from the Department of Education hear from attorney general Ashley Moody and Liz listen to how we Implement all of the laws that have been passed in the legislator and just as a reminder for the board and the public we're in this weird position every year where laws get passed some of them are immediately some of them are July 1st some
033of them are October 1st and then we also have to wait for the State Board to make regulations and give us some direction of how to implement that so for any of the laws that have been passed we immediately go into compliance when those dates come along and then we bring our board policies up to speed with those even if we have to wait for a little more Direction with the state the good news I heard last week is they heard from superintendents and school boards across the state that you know waiting until September and October and December for these regulations is not good it needs to be sooner so in July the state board will be considering 17 new regulations that go along with those newly passed laws the public can comment on those
034online and participate in the state board meeting to do that but nonetheless in July at our Workshop we'll be bringing you our policy suggested updates as well as have Megan Fay there who's been giving you updates from to continue to show you how we're implementing those new laws some of which will require policies but most of which just require practice changes but know that we are continually implementing those as we do like we just heard about mental health this evening although the school year has ended our students are still making us proud and as you likely have heard student Dev Shaw an eighth grader at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School soon to be a ninth grader at Largo High School won the Scripps National Spelling Bee and made us all proud and doing so Dev was
035a champion spelling his final word samophile let's all spell it quickly go ahead I didn't hear that okay p-s-a-m-m-o-p-h-i-l-e yes I had a look at my notes it was the 15th round of the competition as you probably heard in some of the news reports and stories he started with preparing in third grade he asked his middle school principal to host spelling bee competitions which she did and it led to him participating in the National Spelling Bee three times and being the champion I just happened to speak to his father just a few hours ago and asked you know how's he doing and you know has it slowed down a little bit and he said well we have planned to take five days off of work it ended up having to be 10 because we had
036to go to New York City in the White House and places in between he said he's got Fox News this afternoon CBS in the morning and three more appointments tomorrow afternoon I asked if he was tired yet and he said no he's loving it he's a 14 year old boy he's eating it up but we will be bringing him before the board to recognize him in the coming weeks as we did all of our other students at the board recognition and we'll we have a couple more to bring you we want to congratulate Deb for his great accomplishment and the great honor he brought Hasbro brought to our school district for this great award and speaking of great finishes our students from Eliza Nelson Elementary School finished second in the world finals of the Odyssey
037of the Mind competition in late may they traveled to Michigan to do so competed against teams from all over the world and they had to identify challenges and think creatively to solve problems and we'll be bringing them to you as well to honor their great finish in the world championships one of our Palm Harbor University students Charlie Lane was recently awarded the best performance by an actor at the regional competition for the National High School Musical Theater awards at the Straz Center he'll represent the Straz in New York City later this month at a Broadway Theater for these National Jimmy awards they're called the national musical theater Awards he was also a finalist at the Walker's Rising Stars a few weeks ago as well I want to commend so many organizations and groups who have
038given scholarships to our students and just highlight a few that are either new or maybe just went above and beyond and one of those was a ceremony I attended with the Woodson Warrior African-American history museum they've been doing this now for four years every student who attends our schools gets at least a five thousand dollar scholarship they honored 19 graduates they bring back every student who has received year after year for a luncheon several of now have graduated college and are out and working many of which are working here in Pinellas County in different places and so congratulations to those scholarship winners and recently National Football League star Isaiah Nguyen who graduated from Lakewood High School established a scholarship program through the Education Foundation program or a foundation called win with win scholarship program he's
039awarding twenty thousand dollars a year and this year students from Boca ciega High School East Lake Gibbs in Lakewood won and recently recognized not a student but an employee sort of of Pinellas County Schools was school resource officer Grace Albritton who works for St Petersburg Police Department but is the school resource officer at Gibbs High School she was recognized on June 5th as one of 16 officers from across the country by attorney general Merrick Garland in a ceremony in Washington D.C for her work to support students at Gibbs High School we've seen her a little bit before through the boutique she's created at school with school supplies clothing and shoes as well as sponsored a number of the school's clubs including the fishing club we want to thank officer Albritton and all of our sros
040for the work that they do each and every day even though it's summertime we have lots going on and some upcoming events and things I want to highlight tomorrow we have a Pinellas County Schools job fair June 14th at Pinellas Technical College in St Petersburg bus drivers food nutrition staff painters electricians almost every facet of the organization walk-ins are welcome more information can be found on our webpage of course Summer Bridge is underway and going well we have over 12 000 students in our elementary and middle school Summer Bridge programs and several more thousand and credit recovery program times in middle school and high school lots of great things going on in our schools already some of those things that we Showcase with the board with some of the federal stimulus money like those National
041inventor Hall of Fame stem kits kids are already doing it's a project week by week by week they're really excited about them I visited two of our sites today and got to see our book buses in action the free books that students get who attend Summer Bridge and we want to thank the juvenile welfare board for their partnership with the book buses and all those Credit Recovery places are going on and just a reminder for our students in high school who still need a passing score on the reading or math test the act on July 15th will be offered the summer camp programs have also started although most of them are in July the ignite Arts Camp is going on now for two weeks at Gibbs High School for students from across the district and
042we have dozens and dozens of camps coming in July over 5 000 students registered for those academic and fun camps including things like Civics and Science movie making mural making how to fix your car bake a cake and everything in between so check our website out for those there's also a couple of other opportunities for students to engage in in families there's a family fun success Quest you can find out more at pcsb.org family fun just a competition that parents can do from anywhere across the world or certainly here in Pinellas County and compete for prizes with other families and lots of digital success competitions that you can also participate in and last in terms of updates just a reminder to families that our ese parent survey is currently underway it's done each year by
043the Florida Department of Education it closes out on June 30th and we always like participation from our families and giving us feedback and as I've done at each meeting I want to honor one of our employees as the superintendent stand out in recognition for core values and this meeting is Raquel Perez Russo she's a recruiter in our human resources services department does a great job recruiting but in particular recently she was recognized by a colleague for her great efforts to help in recruiting one of our director positions she went to extensive measures to identify any and all recruiting and advertising platforms and after three unsuccessful postings with little response her efforts resulted in 45 applications 14 candidates we interviewed and found a extremely qualified candidate who's now working for Pinellas County and doing a great
044job I know not only this individual who nominated her but many more can attest to Miss Perez Russo's efforts in recruiting employees to come to Pinellas County Schools so thank you to her and all of our employees thousands of which are still working today in Summer Bridge and other places for their efforts each and every day that's my report Madam chair thank you Mr Hendrick Mr kapersky are there any items to be introduced by the school board attorney I have no items thank you ma'am thank you do we have any items to be introduced by the board oh miss cook is the first one first one there you go the first thing that I want to do is to thank Mr Hendricks and staff for the amount of time that you take to prepare our
045workshops and then to spend the time working with us and talking with us and giving us the opportunity to really dig into some of these things it may have appeared tonight that we just passed things and past things and pass things but we had talked about all of these and so this is this is not happening everywhere but it certainly helps us make good decisions as and really understand what we are voting for or what we are talking about that maybe does not need to come to us quite yet so I want to thank you and all of the staff but Miss Woodford you as well and for Mr kapersky has to sit there and make sure that we're all staying legal and everything's above board but we do appreciate it and I know it's
046no small task and it takes a lot of time so they're working double time afterwards so thank you very much I also want to let everybody know and congratulate Mr Hendrick at the Florida school boards Association General Conference they had an evening prior to the conference for the evening of excellence and it was education excellence in education and Mr Hendrick with his first year of being superintendent was honored as an outstanding superintendent in the area of leadership so we have excellence in education and excellence in leadership right here in Mr Hendricks so thank you very much and congratulations the other thing just a small one you know small part of my report is to congratulate our own Caprice Edmond who has been elected the secretary for the greater Florida Consortium of school boards so she
047is well on her way to becoming president of the Consortium which mister Mr Smith you'll be glad to have that back won't you but anyway so I want to congratulate you and let everybody know that she is representing us well on the Consortium so and with that thank you very much and I am finished thank you Miss Cook Mrs long you had your life yes we had our first calendar committee meeting last Thursday I going to bring the calendars to the workshop this coming June 27th and then I report back on the 28th this year we are looking at the 324. boy that's hard to believe calendar and the 24 25 because a lot of parents their work and vacation is from January to December so if we can get the calendars out earlier then
048they can plan Vacations so I'm going to bring those out and I'm going to have some the forms for us all to look at and you can give input but it's looking like a pretty good calendar thank you thank you so much any other board members Peters thank you Miss Miss Keane I want to Echo some of Miss Cook's statements about our district and how this meeting went very quickly I emailed a ton of questions I made phone calls I talked to a lot of people to get a lot of questions answered with my first year School Board member because there was a lot in this agenda and I just want to thank our staff everybody that answered all my questions and continues to help and continues to not just answer my questions but what
049else do you need so we just we have a great leadership we have a great district and I'm just I'm proud to be a part of this so thank you to everybody who helps all of us do this job so that these board meetings go very seamlessly thank you all right that's all the lights that I see is there anything else we need to add I'd like to share some thoughts oh sorry Mr Hyde I don't have that computer in front of me so I'm sorry I see your hand raise go ahead thank you so much first I just wanted to thank Mr Hendrick for highlighting so many of the Great successes that we had across our County this year certainly the graduations and the celebrations demonstrated what we do well every day and all
050year long and certainly inspired me immensely I did want to make a comment on two topics that were on our agenda tonight we heard a little bit about in some remarks first on the reading plan you know I appreciate what Mrs Pringle said about our libraries and about our eighth grade reading goals feeling like those could be higher and Mrs Stevens comments on the testing in our younger grades you know it's brutal to see 54 at or above proficiency as a goal and yes I know we do well compared to other large districts in the state though I also know that everybody wants to do much better we had a good conversation in the recent Workshop around reading and around the shift in Reading curriculum and Palace schools that happened about four years ago I've
051also appreciated the conversation with our early grade reading Specialists you know from what I understand we made a pretty significant shift four years ago which means that students that just finished fourth grade would have had those new methods in kindergarten so I look forward to seeing what unfolds over the years as far as success from that shift and also feedback from our teachers as they continue to implement these new methods I certainly support anything we can do to get our students enjoying our libraries and learning from our Librarians you know I know I have a much better success rate when my elementary age children go into their library and select a book themselves as opposed to what I'm saying here try this so I certainly certainly support those opportunities I did want to mention I
052know mental health was also discussed tonight I've heard from from our County Commissioners that they will soon be making public What's called the coordinated access model which is a phone number that anyone in our County anyone but children adults teachers anybody anywhere can call when they need when they have needs with mental health access and that it's more of a warm handoff with follow-up as opposed to you just leave a message somewhere and maybe never hear from someone so I'm looking forward to them sharing that information with us and then are being able to share it with our school Community as well and then I know we typically in July our July Workshop have mental health discussion and I'm looking forward to that information and discussion as well so I just wanted to mention those
053couple things thank you so much thank you Mrs Hein before we join the meeting I just want to say I want to wish the best of luck to all of our graduates after looking at the video it really is an emotional time for so many throughout our district and parents and families as they start packing up and sending those college students off it can be an emotional summer and it's really a journey to the next phase of life for so many and even our younger students as they continue on and their experience and throughout school every year they do it once every year is special and every year at the end of the school year it's a little bit of an emotional letdown and then we get to be reborn through the summer reflect on
054the year past and move forward into the new journey ahead and I look forward to that as a school board member as this throughout the summer we get the opportunity to work on strategic plan reflect upon what's gone on this year reflect on the good and maybe the things we need to work on and push forward to a new beginning and so I want to wish all of our graduates the absolute best we couldn't be prouder that they've walked the stage they've completed it they've completed that part of the journey to move on to the next most exciting piece wherever their life takes them and we wish them all the best in their families and so I want to make sure that feels like sort of the end of the school year still even though
055it is already summer I really feel like we start the new in July so it's still the end for a lot of parents and so I want to wish them all the best as we wrap it up and hopefully you know start the new really in July so with that thank you all so much for being here this evening with that we're going to adjourn our meeting but before we before we perform our board meeting evaluation on our agenda we will adjourn and move to the public participation so with that we are adjourned for this evening we would like to now move to our public comment on General business of the district please note that the views and comments of our public speakers are their own and not endorsed and are sponsored by the school
056board or District we cannot ensure the accuracy of the statements made but we'll review the concerns that are raised and take appropriate action which may include clarifications or the referral of our speakers to the proper staff members for assistance the board is committed to a standard of Civility and decorum in conducting our meetings this includes refraining from clapping or making audible noises during our after a speaker's comments and respect to them and also their time We Appreciate You assisting Us in maintaining a civil and constructive environment additionally please note that although board members or the superintendent Hendrick may leave our Deus briefly there are speakers in our back room and they'll be continuing they will continue to hear all of your comments so thank you very much Mrs Houck could you please introduce our speakers
057thank you madam chair board members Mr Hendrick we have 10 speakers this evening the first two are ginger bringle and Nancy velardi hello again most of your list school librarians have a master's degree in library science which means you are paying them at the Master's salary rate that's a high price to pay for someone who simply checks out laptops and Proctors tests all year why are Librarians spending an excessive amount of time on this entry-level work when we should be given time to do these things instead are you ready curate a collection of materials that reflect student and faculty needs create a safe calm space for students to meet with their friends teach students how to search the internet efficiently and effectively hold reading contests with fabulous prizes provide resources for student school projects compete
058in the battle of the books match reading materials to a student's learning style help teachers locate resources that align with curriculum and standards assist students with the homework and class assignments create a place where students can use their imagination instruct students how to synthesize information from diverse perspectives host special programs and guest speakers provide a place to study without grades provide a place where the digital divide doesn't exist teach students how to construct and defend arguments provide opportunities for student leadership create a space where our school culture is fostered and thrives instructs students on the implications of their digital footprint model how to correctly share information with others host author visits via knowledgeable interested adult with whom to discuss books teach students how to evaluate information share the latest research studies with faculty do read
059alouds and story time model how to use online databases via conduit of information for the entire school and struck students how to use social media safely and responsibly provide a connection between the outside world and the classroom instruct all stakeholders how to respect intellectual property hold Book Fairs facilitate interlibrary loans prepare students for college and the workforce provide the ability to experiment and master new technologies via program that always differentiates learning create book trailers and hold book talks give one-on-one instruction assist with project-based learning help students develop personal productivity traits such as time management provide relevant resources that broaden Global perspectives create summer reading lists and programs sponsor a book club collaborate with faculty on school-wide reading initiatives sponsor the morning show visit classrooms for instruction or mobile checkouts train Library resistance in real world
060office skills via reference on a student's first job application provide Makerspace to spark imagination curate the best ebooks so students will never be without a book to read provide jigsaw puzzles and board games that encourage teamwork and socializing and be that cheerleader for every Club sport event and every student who participates in those this is just a sampling of how our dollars should be spent thank you good evening for years pcta has attempted to negotiate a universal transparent system of reporting violent students student incidents in the classroom we've been consistently refused and I am very curious about why why wouldn't we take every possible action to assure the safety of our Educators and students in our classrooms why when other districts have discovered the benefits of a universal system do we continue to have each
061School develop their own system many of which do not provide the information to the teachers and support staff as the team responsible for educating those students why don't we even have a universal referral form for all to use we have had conversations with administrative leadership who agree with the necessity of instituting this process we have recommended yet with the recent denial of our grievance on behalf of our member who was severely injured by an enraged student to the point where he nearly lost his and all of our Educators who have sustained graphic attacks on our campuses we are still no closer to implementing this obvious Improvement to our system because of the randomness of the current splap Dash methods of reporting incidents we have seen a dangerous uptick in educator assaults many of which could
062have been prevented by providing access to a history of students violent Behavior it has also been reported To Us by many Educators that referrals are not being processed in a timely manner teacher input is being ignored and sometimes they are not processed at all violent behavior in children needs to be addressed at the youngest age possible most of the time it's brought on by some form of trauma in the child's life and the sooner those issues are addressed by the appropriate Mental Health Providers the higher the chances of resolving the problem and assuring that the child has a successful future not only in our schools but later in life as well we're in the business of helping children just as it's our responsibility to review all of the available testing data to give each student
063the best opportunity for Success it's also our responsibility to identify as early as possible a problem that could one day destroy a child's life or someone else's parents pull their children from public schools for two main reasons and we'll continue to do so in the upcoming competitive environment one when there is no certified highly qualified teacher in the classroom and two when violence is worsening and there's no remedy to correct it if we don't act quickly educators will leave rather than be abused in their classrooms and our children will not get the help that they need we cannot avoid afford to ignore this growing Trend any longer please I beg you sit down with us and create a universal system that will protect Educators and students and the next two speakers are Janet Cunningham and
064Mark clutho good evening board members Mr Hendrick my name is Janet Cunningham and I teach at Calvin Hunsinger School most of you have an opportunity to visit my school over the last several years and those who haven't I invite you to do so I work with ese students students that have been put in my school due to Violent Behavior unpredictable behavior and behaviors that do not work at the traditional schools I want to take time to explain how the discipline impacts staph morale and support morale with the students that we have as an ese teacher specifically an EBD emotional behavioral disorders I recognize that at times we will work with these students that are dangerous and violent and I love my students but the discipline needs to be consistent across the board including our ese
065students staff is getting assaulted that staff includes our bus staff our support staff in my school teachers last year were punched bitten kicked hit in the back of the head and choked we had bloody noses and we had people leave because of the violence unfortunately the ese students do have different precautions and exceptions that we have to deal with and I understand that and at times I become inoculated to that personally I've been punched I've been bitten I've been fondled all as a teacher we need to look at the discipline that we have in Pinellas County Schools and sit down and figure out a way that we can ensure that our staff and our students remain safe we need to do this it's imperative over the last five to ten years there have been multiple
066systems that have been put in place where referrals have been in different systems that are not all viewable by using these multiple systems parents and staff do not have the opportunity to know what we're working with and that can become very dangerous we have sros on campus we have safety protocols we're an ese Center or an EAS now Center all of that being said we're very highly trained I fear for my colleagues that are not in my Center that don't have the training that we have that we recognize the dangers that we work with and we have a very good system to prevent as much as we can I asked the school board please sit down with pcta to work on a system that will better what we have and protect everyone involved students and
067staff thank you Mark Luther Largo here's a photo of owls you're one of them died are you still putting out those poison boxes for the rats that's killing the owls yeah doggone shame as I said before cause and effect it's killing the planet in New York giving aging buildings a green makeover oldest structures to reduce their carbon footprints they're doing retrofits cutting the utility bill by 80 percent and what are you doing making new buildings that are pieces of junk belching carbon that new one up there it Clearwater High School oriented the wrong way prototype what buildings should look like here's Florida friendly Landscaping celebrates 30 years and I look at the landscaping around your schools oh bad very very bad and as I read before carbon dioxide levels climb to get another high the
068situation is dire and you could be doing something you could make schools the right way high performance passive solar but you just continue to ignore the science Orient the building the right way you do it the wrong way what's wrong with you it's so simple the Anastasia Indians knew that over 1500 years ago it's malfeasance that's what it is malfeasance you can't get orientation right thank you the next two speakers are Denise Lugo and Paula Stevens hello again my name is Paula Stevens and I have been teaching for 25 years in elementary school title ones for Pinellas County Schools I do want to say this year I am teaching Summer Bridge third grade and I'm very excited about the invention the inventions that we're doing with this week the students are actually they're called optibots
069and they're creating paths and stuff that the robots will use sensors for light so they're drawing and designing courses and stuff and it's very engaging and the amount of materials and stuff that we have is definitely impressive and definitely upset engagement level so thank you for changing up some things for our students another it's interesting that Nancy velardi was talking about student discipline Summer Bridge is a very short program it's only four weeks we don't get a lot of information on our students on unless teachers type in on their forms I had a student last Thursday when we were out for recess that got very aggressive with another student ended up having to remove my classroom my class away from this student and the principal came out looking back I wanted to know what I
070could have done differently as the educator what I could have done differently to prevent this nothing on his sheet told me anything that there was ever any problems with the students no special needs no 504 no Behavior plan so I go into focus and I'm like okay maybe there's something in here as a classroom teacher I do not have access to any referral information on the screen I can find out when they had their vaccination shots I can look at parent contact information and find information there that may lead me some principles put in when they've processed a referral and talked to a parent in there some do not so there isn't a standard this child though did have it was and I had never seen it before I know our ese students have a
071little colored tag in our English language Learners have a little green tag but I saw it was a life preserver what's a life preserver and it's a it's a safety plan but from my experience safety plans are for students who have been bullied this was a child who was aggressive towards other students and had a safety plan going back there needs to be a system there needs to be I looked everywhere to see a list of codes I can't find the list of codes so it is something that does need to be updated and your teachers do need to be informed thank you good evening school board members I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak to you this evening for the allotted two minutes and 53. my name is Denise Lugo I
072am with the national league of conservation voters it is the oldest serving environmental organization in the country and we are here with a number of our members in the back of the room of the cheeseburg Florida program simply to thank you for being leaders in the region specifically around what you're doing to replace the diesel school buses with the electric school buses so we wanted to take this time we've been meeting with a number of school board districts in the I-4 Corridor and of all of the school board districts that we have met with we know that you are much further ahead in protecting not just the quality of our air but the quality of our children's lungs and the quality of our bus drivers lungs we are also here to particularly thank both school
073board members Eileen long and Caprice Edmond for giving us an ear and allowing us to speak with you individually about our concerns and we were happy to find out that you were all much further ahead so thank you for that and lastly because I'm not a woman of many many words I would like to encourage the School Board District if you haven't already done so to please make use of the application for the U.S Environmental Protection Agency it's my understanding that they have another round of 300 million dollars of which the EPA Region 4 which is where we are located has received the largest allotment of over 59 million dollars so in addition to what you're already doing and the funding that you're already receiving there's another opportunity to offset your costs by applying for
074this grant that is scheduled to the deadline is scheduled to close on August the 22nd so there's a bit of time if you haven't already applied and we also understand that in the fall there's going to be another bite at that Apple no pun intended but bite up that apple to apply for tax rebates which may offset not just the electric school buses but also the infrastructure that goes with it so with 56 56 sex at 54 seconds to spare I yield back the balance of my time thank you the next two speakers are Eliseo Santana and Lindsey Blankenbaker foreign Mr Santana has been kind enough to let me go first thank you very much I really enjoyed watching the video highlighting our valedictorian speeches from our graduating this year's graduating classes as a former
075High School teacher I really miss working with the kids and it's so encouraging to see such wisdom and such resilience and such hope in these young leaders I really feel that they can Inspire those of us Elders who were very deeply worried about the future of our state and the future of our schools I definitely agree Pinellas Schools here in Pinellas Schools we have much much to be proud of but I am concerned about a number of things that are plaguing our state and our and our unfortunately creeping into our schools Nancy already spoke about our grievance on student discipline and the record system I am very deeply concerned about the violence in our schools it's disheartening to to know that we agree that there is a grievous problem regarding student attacks on teachers that
076we even agree on Broad solutions to help fix this problem but that we can't agree to work together from my end seemingly because the solution has been broader proposed by us your Educators unions that is disheartening to me we are worried about the hate in our communities there is an uptick of violence in outright bigotry in our communities in our laws that are again threatening to creep into our classrooms lest we get too comfortable and content in our decorum and our procedures here I want to tell you what I saw in Hernando County when we went up to in a solidarity action with the Hernando County Teachers Union just a couple of weeks ago I saw proud boys standing shoulder to shoulder arm and arm in solidarity with the Hernando chapter of moms for Liberty
077two groups that have been declared hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center I saw Nazi salutes given following public comments walking right back up the aisle I saw an open condemnation of the presence of gays in the building including such extremely eloquent student speakers I heard an elected School Board member denouncing equity and inclusion in their schools with a commitment to remove it from their schools best case scenario she didn't know what she was talking about she didn't know who she was talking about worst case scenario is she did and while that experience made me thankful for what we have here the generally respectful and generally collaborative way that we try very much to work together it also reminded me that kind of a circus can come here very easily we have to take
078that as a warning of what can spread to our schools and stand up speak out and stop it I want to encourage you to cultivate that kind of environment that invites Educators to stay to cultivate the kind of leadership in your in your administrators that makes this a welcome place for educators so that we can keep them in front of our students that's what will keep our students in our school my name is Eliseo Santana and many of you know me I wanted to say first of all that standing here before you and being able to speak I feel so proud and honored you know as a veteran having served that country to maintain our Republic to be strong in our democracy to be active it just brings chills into my the my ability as
079a citizen to be before you and to speak is something that I cherish and I want to thank all you for for being for service for the service that you do I want to say that before I got here I was able to meet with the with the police chief for our schools and I was thanking him because nine of my no let me rephrase that 11 of my 13 grandchildren will be in our Public Schools starting this year the youngest one is going to pre-kindergarten in Dunedin Elementary and the oldest one is in a senior in Dunedin High and so I their safety is in all of our hands and and their education and preparedness for the future and Trust in your hands and I think I thank some of the board members for
080having reached out and to talk to me individually and those that have not I will be reaching out soon to be able to have that conversation I represent a large sector of the community that normally don't feel welcome not because of anything you're doing but it's just a natural thing of not feeling welcome and and not having trust and they don't participate in our processes but I will let you know that we are here we are looking at the things that you do and we're going to start contributing by sharing those experiences that we have so that you can do a better job of representing us because that is what democracy is that's what our Republic is about and it requires all of us to speak and to participate and we I am speaking now
081on behalf of Chief we're going to make our effort to be out here and to let the community speak I thank you the next two speakers are Tracy McConnell and Daniel amend hello it's been six years since I sat on myself after a long day scrolling Facebook scrolling Facebook and saw security camera footage released to the media of my husband being tackled from behind and knocked head first into the lockers at Seminole Middle this was one of the most difficult things I have ever watched imagine seeing the moment in time when your loved one was assaulted then about four years ago at Pinellas Central we had an administrator there named Daphne miles and under her watch we had a lot of teachers who were either assaulted or afraid to be at school they filled out
082intent to remove forms I was on the intent to remove committee where our mtss coach at the time said all teachers should expect to be hit I spoke up then as I do now teachers just like everyone else deserve to be safe at work one veteran teacher even resigned because she was so afraid to be around a student that was a long rough year at our school thankfully we have an administrator who does her best to keep staff and students safe I went to the events where we could meet the candidates for superintendent I asked Kevin as well as the other two candidates how they were going to keep teachers safe from students with extreme behaviors one of the things that was brought up was proper placement of students I want to tell you the
083process to get students help is clunky it takes forever I have seen it take well over a year to get a student services in the meantime teachers and students aren't safe not to mention how can anyone learn when they're afraid we are all in this together administrators are being assaulted too not much has changed since my husband was knocked into those lockers so my question to Kevin and the board today is what are you going to do to ensure the safety of our employees please start making sure that there are real consequences given for Behavior at all levels we're not preparing our students for life after school if kids are experiencing trauma then get them the help they need the classroom should not be Jail's waiting room thank you good evening on the changed topic
084it seems like you guys do have a problem with violence on down the street from Seminole Middle and I hear this all the time what is going on man I hear the teachers talking I was here the last couple meetings but there's so many people I couldn't get the talk while they were out in force apparently the memo didn't go out this time with regard to extremists that come talking about banning books and curriculum and all that as just a regular guy it wasn't too long ago that the left wanted to ban The Adventures of Huck Finn and Kill a Mockingbird for objectionable words and I get that I'm not sure if that needs to be in school necessarily I don't have a problem with it per se given the context but you can get
085those books anywhere in any regular Library if you want to stop the nut cases from coming to people that you don't you disagree with when adults share a sexually explicit material it's it's a crime it's it's immoral it's stupid it's deviant it's all that and it doesn't matter what stripe it is whether it's hetero or homo or whatever it's just doesn't belong it doesn't belong in a school so if you if that stops you get the extremists on both sides to go away because we all agree that doesn't belong in school but I think you guys do have a bigger problem at this point with the violence and that's been going on since I was in school and seminal hasn't gotten any better I apparently got in St Pete you guys have a big problem
086back in the old days you just used referral you got your butt whacked and where you got a detail down at the svec and you spent three hours raking up cow poop maybe time to bring that back it's not cured me in my problem just saying something to consider the next speaker is Donna Grace thank you oh thank you my name is Donna Grace and I'm a former educator and I'm concerned about some of the things that I've been reading about what's happening with Florida schools and one thing is desantis's idea that it's important to get rid of all the superintendents and replace them with people that he likes I read an alarming statistic that 67 counties in Florida out of 67 counties 61. have a new superintendent in the last four years that's really
087an amazing statistic and I think that I don't know how much that has to do with DeSantis and I don't know if we still have good people that are I know we still have some people that are retained in schools and are still doing a good job but it's very concerning desantis's laws are ruining the education system in Florida they will scare off good people from trying to come to get a job here I can't imagine a family deciding that they want to come here and bring their kids here to go to school because of the scary things that they're reading about what's happening in the curriculum it's not the only reason teachers are not wanting to come back they also are not wanting to stay in in schools and it's not the only reason
088that teachers are leaving the field there's a problem with the violence in schools teachers and staff are quitting because there's other things they can do that won't get them hurt I think it's a very serious problem and I hope that you can figure out something to do about it I read another statistic that said that Mr Hendrick was a started his tenure here in 2022 as superintendent and that the board said at that time that they value diversity I'm really hopeful that is consistent with what's happening here and that we don't turn into something that's just a DeSantis stamp because I'm afraid of what's happening with that and I think that you have a chance to do something and stand up for what you believe in and if you believe in diversity Yay good for
089you thank you very much Madam chair there are no more speakers thank you all for attending tonight's meeting and have a wonderful evening thank you 30 years ago