OCPS | 2022-12-13 School Board Meeting

001good evening everyone Welcome to our regularly scheduled December 13 2022 meeting we appreciate y'all being with us board members are all attending on purpose it's one purpose and in person and I tried to did I cover for that one will I also want to remind the public that board members will not be engaging in outside Electronics in other words if you're trying to reach us by an email you're not going to get a response back right now we'll respond at the end of the meeting to my fellow board members staff District members anyone who's going to be using a mic they're very sensitive try to talk directly into them if you turn your head You probably won't be picked up and we want anybody who might be viewing to be able to hear what you

002have to say again thank you so much for participating and attending this evening it's great to see such a full house and now we're going to begin our meeting with a moment of silence and then I invite you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance foreign and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all well this evening we have a special recognition that I'd like to acknowledge before we discuss tonight's order of business for the past three years ocps has been partnering with Rollins College Pathways to teaching program this uniquely designed cohort based program provides ocps paraprofessionals with an opportunity to receive their Bachelors of Arts in elementary school or a masters of Art in teaching from Rollins College tonight we're recognizing cohorts that

003are currently in real enrolled as well as those who have completed the pathways to teaching program I would like to invest invite ocps Chief of Staff Dr Williams to tell us more about this wonderful program that's making teaching dreams come true thank you sure Jacobs I'm very proud of our four cohorts that we're recognizing this evening two groups of graduates have worked very hard extremely hard to accomplish their goals and become Orange County Public Schools teachers we also have two courts that are on track to graduate in 2023 and 2024. the pathways to teaching program helps ocps paraprofessionals Advance their careers by giving them the opportunity to earn an elementary education degree the program helps ocps as we work to address the Statewide teacher shortage the approved curriculum prepares graduates for Florida teacher certification by

004providing high quality instruction and offering small class sizes I'd like to thank Rollins College for this very unique partnership and support along with Bonnie tofoli and Kim wood you see Bonnie and Kim have made sure and they continue to make sure that our paraprofessionals have tools they need to be successful during and after they complete the program also Neil Ocho who's a graduate of Rollins College and we actually started with us on this journey now let's learn more about Rollins College Pathways to teaching program by watching this video which features cohort one graduate Maribel Doe who is now Cypress Creek High Schools intensive reading and structure congratulations hi my name is Mary baldeau a recent graduate of the Rollins Pathways to teaching program I was one of 14 paraprofessionals from Orange County Public Schools to

005enroll at Rollins in a unique program designed to help support staff become teachers I am a mother of two who was working two jobs but wanted to be a teacher as long as I can remember the ability to take classes in the evening made it as easy as possible Rollins offers full and part-time options that give working professionals like me a chance to achieve our goals this exciting partnership with ocps provides the opportunity for support staff to pursue a bachelor's in elementary education or a master of arts in teaching and helps address the Statewide teacher shortage the pathways to teaching program offers several benefits for students who are working in a Title 1 school with the previously earned associate's degree from an accredited institution these benefits include a computer and textbooks for each candidate during

006the program and a substitute teacher covered by Title 1 during both internships if the candidate works in the title one school candidates will also receive a thousand dollar annual scholarship from Rollins I can't believe that I'm standing in my very own classroom and making a difference in my community and so can you Rollins offers Florida Department of Education approved programs in elementary and secondary education at both the bachelor's and master's degree levels thanks to my education at Rollins I have achieved my dream of being a teacher foreign Bell ocps appreciates you being a Pathways to teaching Ambassador and spreading the word on the program I'd like to invite you to the podium to share how the program has helped you become a teacher at Cypress Creek High School good evening chair Jacobs and board members

007growing up in the inner city of Los Angeles as the firstborn in the United States of America of a family that immigrated from the Dominican Republic in search of a better life I always knew that education would be the key element to driving change in impoverished communities that thought change for them was impossible as I got older I somehow lost sight of that vision and had continued this vicious cycle of lacking self-esteem knowledge to continue my journey of becoming an educator I found myself in Desperate Times to survive and I lived in a motel right here in Central Florida so my primary challenge was to secure the means to know how to pursue my lifelong dreaming of the becoming a teacher and to secure financial support to attend college I worked two jobs and I

008raised two children and they're incredible so my priorities had been set finding opportunities that would pave the path for me to graduate with the diploma seemed impossible until one day I opened an ocps email and there was in huge letters exciting new partnership as a current reading teacher we teach this thing called rhetorical appeals and almost every word kept appealing to me emotionally and logically affordable program Wallace College paraprofessionals compensation during student teaching one word after another and that's when I began to cry I knew this was it the pathways program has not only changed the trajectory of my life but that of my family and the countless number of students that will benefit from this teacher's passion and lifelong dream to become an educator today I am excited to share that I am a

009certified 9th grade intensive reading teacher at Cypress Creek High School with a reading endorsement an esol endorsement and an ESC certification thank you and I am honored as you saw in the clip to be in my very own classroom it is an honor to walk into that classroom each day and know that I began my journey on a Less Traveled Road it inspires me each day to know that I can make a difference in a life and to offer the similar support necessary to help young minds thrive in their educational Journeys as ocps and Rollins College have done for me it seems like when I went from a paraprofessional to a teacher it was like in a blink of an eye well and also the income the income increase it's like a bonus every payday

010so most of us in the cohort we're now in the process of pursuing a graduate program and well for me I will be pursuing a graduate program in educational leadership so you see ocps they led by actions instead of words and they honored their own mission statement that they set forth for their students they applied it to their support staff and it reads with the support of families and the community we create enriching and diverse Pathways that lead our students to success well they did just that with Rollins College right by their side and they created those diverse Pathways that have led to their staff and that success for their staff the collaborative effort between Orange County Public Schools and Rollins College and those whose selfless Vision took a chance on believing in dedicated and

011passionate support staff and believed we were worth the investment please know that you have our deepest appreciation and gratitude because we can now call ourselves teachers thank you thank you Dr Williams before you go on I just have to comment you started out saying that you lack self-esteem and right now I'm like is this woman exuding self-esteem or what yes and you're going to make such a difference in so many children's lives but I can't even imagine the difference you're making in your own children because they're seeing how well you overcame a major obstacle they're seeing you go from not having self-esteem to being so self-confident that you could stand up here and you can just outright brag about how phenomenal you're doing anyway we're really excited about you and everybody that's doing this thank

012you thank you and now I would like to invite Duane Dickens come on Dwayne he was also a cohort one grad to say a few words about the Rollins College Pathways to teaching program what it means to him I've known Dwayne for forever good evening chair Jacobs and school board members Rollins College program have helped me achieve my career goals in many ways just to name a couple before the sake of time Rollins allowed me to complete my ba and degree in elementary education while still supporting my family College help Robins College excuse me I'm a little nervous guys Rollins College helped me complete my requirements to transition from classified to instructional my goal has always to be an administrative dean of students then further my education and education leadership one day and one day

013become an area administrator to help support our level 4 students and giving them the behavior treatment or curriculum plan and tools to change their thinking in order to change their behavior I worked for Orange County Public School for 20 years and in that 16 year I was a past coordinator at Memorial Middle School now I hold a position at Liberty Middle School as a behavior interventionist while supporting the Deans and everyday norms and expectations and safety throughout the campus according to the Orange County Public School Board for school my background is Juvenile Justice where I travel up the east coast and Midwest and of course for with a corporate company called youth Service international this treatment facility provides comprehensive strategies for providing services to trouble at-risk youth I would like to bring some type of

014program to service ocps support students in their school and in their community in the near future thank you thank you thank you and I know that you haven't had the time while you're working and studying to be following our school board meetings but let me tell you are a prayer answered we have been having these conversations so much about how what's the appropriate way to redirect our children's Behavior how do we use discipline as a learning tool and build in the support so that we can have a positive outcome for our children and it sounds like that's exactly where you're going to help lead us to so it's just terribly excited to have you two as part of the team and now I would like to ask Rock Springs Rock Springs fifth grade teacher Miss

015Loop another cohort one grad to step up to the podium and say a few words about the program good evening chair Jacobs and school board members I apologize in advance this is a pretty emotional topic for me so I will try my best to run it smoothly the ocps and Rollins Pathways to teaching program allowed me as a single mother of two young children to achieve becoming a teacher starting in 2018 I was an ese paraprofessional in an ocps School Rock Springs Elementary the job started as a way to accommodate my kids schedules but it quickly turned into a passion for teaching I looked into what it would take to become a classroom teacher and the odds were definitely not in my favor for that the financial struggles that come with going back to school

016were not ideal for a single mom I discovered the pathways to teaching program as one of the last members of the first cohort and my dream started to become a reality the program had many advantages for working single moms including night classes so I can still work during the day to support them free textbooks A1 thousand dollar scholarship each Academic Year and a laptop to use to complete my schoolwork which I could not afford at the time I never imagined I would be able to achieve my dream of becoming a teacher much less at a wonderful institution such as Rollins College the professors that took on the first cohort really changed my life they were helpful inspiring and brought out a confidence in me I didn't know I had I actually wouldn't be able to

017stand up here today and give this speech if it wasn't for this program presented opportunity after opportunity I have ocps and Rollins College to think for where I am today thank you thank you thank you and it's now my pleasure to welcome Rollins College vice president for academic Affairs in Provost Dr Susan singer to the podium to briefly speak on the program and introduce our four codes thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today with all of you I come to share Rollins deepest gratitude for the support and the partnership with ocps particularly Dr Williams Bonnie tolfee Kimberly woods and Kimberly Gilbert in the office of federal programs what I want to do is share with you some of the amazing information about our students and I would preface it by saying

018as someone who started going through certification was a high school science teacher and a mom whose daughter just this semester finished working full-time and getting her mat I deeply understand and appreciate how hard all of you in the cohorts have worked to achieve this is really all about you and your commitment to our students in Orange County so we have two cohorts that have already finished making a total of 22 graduates that are out there teaching in our schools and I think you got a flavor for how amazing these students are and we have opened enrollment for our fifth cohort starting in the fall of 23. let me just share a few brief facts about our students a hundred percent of the graduates that's right a hundred percent now are an instructional positions in the

019Orange County Public Schools foreign Ty of the paraprofessionals who participate in this program is marked in a number of ways they have concentrated work in our high needs settings in Title One schools 40 percent work with exceptional student populations many with profound learning needs eight of our students are members of the international Society of Education Kappa Delta Pi a very respected Honor Society the majority of our program graduates are graduating with honors and several of our students and graduates have been recommended by their principals and have already earned awards at their school sites with one currently running a support person of the year Alex Rodriguez who's in cohort for so even those that haven't quite walked across the stage are making huge contributions these students offer Rich perspectives bounce of knowledge cultural and linguistically they

020represent a wide range of racial cultural ethnic and linguistic backgrounds that are underrepresented in the education field and in our schools more than 30 percent of the current cohorts have a first language other than English and the breakdown in terms of race and ethnicity is as follows 32 percent black or African-American 30 percent Latino Latina five percent Asian and 37 percent white you mirror our schools in a really deep and meaningful way so now it's time to recognize each of you in the four cohorts cohort one members please walk to the front of the boardroom after your name is called and you will receive your stole and I practice but please give me some Grace if I don't get your name quite right I know how important names are so we are going to start

021are you ready with the stoles I don't want to jump ahead of you all right here we go Paola Delgado Dwayne Dickens Maribel Doe Christian Lou Taylor Montoya Roche Nancy Suggs thank you and Jab Nel villafane pause for Mom make sure everyone has their stole all right we are now on to cohort 2 members again please walk to the front of the boardroom after your name is called to receive D we're gonna do a photo op all right I'm gonna pause cohort two hold tight all right we're going to get individual cohort photos you can take in the future of Orange County public school education right here already graduated yeah it's Direct foreign all right cohort too you know just what to do now and where to go for your photo op so Daisy Alvarez

022Amanda Anderson Arnold Aisha Barber foreign Joanne David Gil Gonzalez Portillo foreign Kelly Longstreet Alondra mataze Ayala Alejandra Salinas Garcia foreign Williams we are so proud of all of you we are going to do cohorts three and four of them okay just want to be sure these folks have all walked across the platform relationship with their hands they have their degrees wait wait they all have jobs foreign all right thank you for cohorts three and four I can't wait to see you crossing the platform for graduation at Rollins for now as I call your name please stand at your seat so that we can recognize you cohort 3 includes Jennifer Baldwin who is working on a master of arts in teaching Natalie deller Alma Delia Elia Farley Jessica Fernandez Bianca gardo Melinda Girardi Kim Nguyen Erica

023Knight Tatiana montia Ashley Nelson Charlotte pagels ilka Richardson also working on a master of arts and teaching and I think I skipped over Tatiana what I mentioned Tatiana montia I did not acknowledge that she's also working on a master of arts in teaching Megan Travis kirthavix sama Stephanie Westerman and I'm going to continue with cohort for dear Marie Diaz Samira flag Phaedra Glee Phaedra's also working on her master of arts in teaching Tiffany hepple Lillian Purvis Alex Rodriguez it's like a Roman Rodriguez Shakira soul also working on her master of arts and teaching and Miriam Zayed maybe we could have cohorts three and four all stand together because so we can see you in your full Glory foreign I'd like to take just a moment and thank all my wonderful colleagues at Rollins who have

024been such good partners and now to the school board cohort one will be presenting you with a gift foreign thank you congratulations and now chair Jacobs so you expect me to open presents and celebrate and run a meeting and for those of you who said you're nervous guess what I am nervous every time I have to speak in front of the public okay so I wish I could tell you it gets better but the one thing is I know every time it's worth it you know especially when you're dealing with public education everything we do for public education is worth it and sometimes it's hard and sometimes it's scary and sometimes it seems downright impossible but it's only possible because of people like you so God bless you I'm so excited so excited okay yeah

025oh yeah we have some board members who want who need to be heard member Dennis Caster Dental thank you madam chair wow first I want to I want to thank Rollins College for being so generous and for investing in our community in our schools and ultimately our students and everybody and our teachers and their families it is greatly appreciated and thank you Dr singer Dr Williams the professors Kim wood Bonnie topoli for your part in all of this and then the students I know the commitment you're working while you're doing this and many of you are parents I purposefully made sure I got all my education out of the way before I became a parent because I wasn't sure I could do it at the same time so your commitment to your education while parenting

026and working says so much about you and your commitment and that is a strength that will carry you it is so special to be able to go to school with as a cohort and then for this cohort to be adults you're not College age students you know so you have a whole different experience and I know the teachers and professors appreciate that you're not out all night you are there at school you know you're and you bring real experience classroom experience dealing with kids your own kids kids in the class and that only enriches the experience for everyone around you so this program I want to know how I can get more involved if she could reach back out to me Dr Williams and but thank you and I know that I'm so happy you're

027coming back to Orange County Public Schools and if you do not know where you're going I have a couple we have many openings lots of great you are welcome in any one of our district schools so thank you so much all right this is not exactly all right this is not the voice and if it was every chair turned around at the same time that's right and I win okay because I don't care what district just be here in Orange County Public Schools all right next speaker Pam gold Miracles I just I can't say it better than member Castro Dental but there's a couple things that I'd like to add you know this is a very very tough time for people to get continuing education so that opportunity and really as you talked about in

028your speech is the opportunity to continue education and continue career pathing and find opportunities for yourselves and your families is really second to none and exactly at the core of our mission our purpose and our vision well beyond K-12 but that's okay but I want to compliment superintendent Jenkins and superintendent back with Vasquez as well as Dr Williams Dr Williams literally calls people who might be available for jobs at any point and time to try to match them into Orange County Public Schools but it's that can do enlightened and willing to try anything attitude that makes something that someone might say oh that's going to be so hard to do maybe we'll try it but I don't know there's none of that there is we'll try that we'll see if it works and that is

029a wonderful thing to be able to Foster programs like this and Partnerships in the community because you know we couldn't do this internally if we didn't have the external partners and so thank you Dr Williams for your leadership and for building such strong and incredible diverse Partnerships within our community and not just for teaching staff but for all staff and creating opportunities for our team and our community Gala thank you madam chair well I think that member Castle Dental member Gould said it very eloquently I'll just I'll add my thanks to Rollins College and to all of y'all that are going through the program as member casser Dental said to be parents or to have a full-time job some two some of your work in two full-time jobs and raise a family and then going

030through school takes a commitment and so I just so admire that so thank you so much for doing it and to Dr Williams she knows how much I love her she's tenacious and she and she does is she will leave no stone unturned to try to find to try to find a staff for ocps and she works hard at it and we're so lucky to have her so thank you and thank you Rollins College and thank you most of all all of you who participated it's so appreciated member bird thank you chair and they pretty much have said it all I'm just going to add a couple things we had how many students apply over 200 for this last how many oh that's another program but but we had a lot in this program more

031than we could even that's another program okay well we have yes my point to that is I want to thank you for all of the programs that we have like this one where we work on growing our own because I think it's so important it sends such an important message to our employees that we care about them and that we see value in their Futures as well so I'm so appreciative for that and I don't want to leave any employee out that wants to do it so Angie our legislative chair let's add this to our thing let's figure out a way where we can get more money to for all of these kinds of programs from the legislature to like grow our own to help fill our teacher gaps because I think it's so important

032and I want to tell all of you thank you for taking a chance and doing this I know many of you said that this has been your dream for a long time but there's been a lot of noise lately in education and surrounding education so I really want to thank you for staying focused on your dream and realizing that there is a really important ending point there to what you did that is more important than all the noise out here about what's going on with schools that you hear about that's not happening you know and so much out there that can really make you not want to get involved in education and so and that happens to some people so I want to thank you for taking a chance and for going for it and

033for investing in your future to be a part of ocps and a part of all of our children's lives and their Futures because we need you and they need you and we are just so thankful for you and district 7 is a little piece of heaven so you like that Miss Felder so you know no it's not you oh my God oh I did not do that I did not do that I'll put you there but I didn't do that okay oh there you go competition is not over it's just begun go ahead I'll move you up there well listen first of all thank you all so much for your dedication to public education Dr Bridget Williams is the Energizer Bunny she was raised by two Educators the principal and her mom who's a retired

034educator still living and her dad was my principal at Eccleston Elementary incidentally that's in District Five where the challenge resides but I want to say to you thank you all you know I've watched paraprofessionals for a long time in my teaching career and I believe that they are some of the hardest some of the hardest working people in public education and they do so much with so little kinds of things to work with and even when we as teachers are just exhausted just mentally exhausted just mad at the dog the cat and the bird but listen the paraprofessionals they come in ready they come in red and then for you to take it a step further because you've seen it you understand classroom management you know how to get it you know what it takes

035to get it and maintain it and now you have the knowledge base let me tell you something baby that's a good combination that's the best combination that's the best combination for success and I say this to you in closing don't allow the gang Sayers to get in your ear remember what worked for you as a paraprofessional now pass it on to work for you as a teacher remember what I said don't let them get in your head don't let them get in your head that same exuberance and excitement you have that you're a teacher now keep that because there's somebody out there that only you can reach and make a difference thank you thank you well said thank you member of Salamanca there you go sorry it's very dim light still getting used to it

036is so lovely to see you know it is so clear how energized you are from this experience that you have all been through together how kind of close-knit of a community you've been come through this incredible Rollins program and you know you represent so much of what our education system needs more of collaboration and optimism and energy and as member Phil said a lot of the energy of innovation and what comes next so as many of you have started early on in your careers and as things get difficult we know this job can be very hard and many of you know this already don't forget how much this educational experience meant to you and the magic of learning that it was for you and that you now hold that power and that you're that person

037for those students in those classrooms and it was a huge both privilege but also responsibility we're lucky that we have you who've experienced this incredible program to lead that on and bring that to our students in different settings in different contexts of course so I just want to welcome you to those CPS family and say how awesome it is to have you as a as a close night group community and just your energy in this room today so thank you for that and thank you Rollins and Dr Williams and superintendent Vasquez for for really pushing this program I'm also excited to get more involved I would love to thank you member ferrant I think everyone has said everything but I couldn't just stay here silent I'm so proud of each and every one of you

038just watching you know as your as your cohort or member of your cohort would stand up and speak and seeing how each of you would you know your eyes light up and you've all walked through it you've all you know worked so hard to get to this moment and so I'm so proud of you for those who are still in the program keep at it keep your head high you know there are days where you just you're pushing through and you need those buddies that say Hey you got this you got this even when you know you know everything looks kind of crazy around you and you just still put a smile on your face and you push through and I want to thank you as a mom of five kids thank you we need

039more people like you standing up and being the teachers and getting out there and you know our kiddos are the ones who who need someone to stand up there with a smile on their face and you've been through the hard times so when your kids come in in the classroom and they're maybe going through a tough time you've got experience to say hey you got this so thank you so much I appreciate it I appreciate your willingness to to work so hard for our kids thank you to Rollins and Miss Williams thank you so much I appreciate it and that's it thank you all right before we get back to work I just I have one question how many people in the audience are here as family members friends or supporters of these incredible people

040why don't you why don't you all take y'all y'all need to stand up and take a bow I'm serious you need to stand up and take a bow that's awesome all right well everybody said everything but every yeah it's still been said Rollins College oh my gosh I guess can't even no I there aren't words to express how grateful we are to you obviously if it weren't for each one of you that was so committed and is already working so hard and yet saw an opportunity to do and be even more in our students life so we have you to thank and we have Rollins College to thank and of course every day we have Bridget to thank so God bless you and like everyone said you know just when you need somebody call one

041of your cohort members and pick each other up be like a duck do you know what that means I had not heard this expression before so a duck when you look underwater they're paddling as fast as they can right those feet are just going when you look above the water they just cruising along nice and smooth and I think that's what you'll be you've been doing and that's probably what you'll be doing for a good bit of your time so those kids just see calmness and they see peace and they see smiles and they don't see how hard you're running underneath that water so be a doctor to all of our kids God bless thank you okay we have some proclamations you are welcome to stay around you are also welcome to leave so whichever

042you want yeah and go celebrate bye-bye bye-bye foreign thank you foreign yeah no I agree and we're reappointed are they just reappointed she was supposed to be the big cups all right ladies ladies I'm gonna try to get us back on Target and I'm all right we have a number of proclamations we are proclaiming January 2023 as National mentoring month in Orange County Public Schools is Terry Strickland here ah thank you sir a professor at Valencia College who has served eight years as a mentor at Hungerford elementary school thank you to come forward and read the proclamation thank you so much for being with us this evening hi chair Jacobs Hi how are you to the ocps board it's indeed an honor to stand before you as a member of Omega Sci-Fi fraternity as well

043as a represent of the many mentors who serve in this wonderful District today I'm reading a proclamation for National mentoring month January 2023 whereas Orange County Public Schools is committed to the success of each and every one of our 206 000 students and their successful lives on the support of families and community members and whereas ocps recognizes the positive impact of adult mentors who support young people through their daily presence and commitment to helping them thrive in and out of the classroom and whereas research shows that young people match with adult mentors are 52 percent less likely to skip school 46 percent less likely to use illegal drugs 27 percent less likely to start drinking and more likely to have positive relationships with adults and positive plans for the Futures and whereas research also shows

044that 81 percent of students with mentors are likely to participate in sports extracurricular activities and develop aspirational plans for the Futures and 55 of students with mentors are more likely to enroll in college and whereas quality ocps mentoring programs including find your voice generation Wild Latinos in Action and My Brother's Keeper promote healthy relationships viable communication positive self-esteem and growth among young people and make our community stronger and whereas quality mentoring programs also are proven to develop positive relationships that help improve School attendance and academic achievement promote responsible decision making and provide skills to better navigate relationships at school socially and at home and whereas January is National mentoring month and ocps is proud to step forward as a leader in reinforcing support for this cause to connect youth with trusted mentors in their lives

045now therefore it'd be resolved the school board of Orange County Florida does hereby Proclaim January 2023 as National mentoring month in Orange County Public Schools and urges teachers staff members and other ocps adults to take part in the powerful movement that is changing lives Teresa Jacobs chair School Board of Orange County Dr Maria F Vasquez superintendent Orange County Public Schools issued December 13 2022. Professor Strickland thank you so much for being here and reading that Proclamation and thank you for being a mentor to our students thank you sir we are also proclaiming a resolution not a proclamation we're issuing a resolution for Secure Storage and gun safety and as I explained earlier this is not a gun control bill it is a gun safety not built but it's a gun safety measure it's actually required

046by law that you are not supposed to have a loaded gun in your house that's not secure if you have children in the house and all too often we see that happen and all too often we see tragic tragic results so Dr Williams is going to find I'm sorry not Dr Dr Vasquez is going to look at ways that we can get that message out to our parents in a non-threatening way and we also I also want to find out if we have any introductions of newly appointed administrators Dr Vasquez yes we do okay we have Stacy Ann Daly who is a teacher at Phyllis Wheatley Elementary will be the new assistant principal at Memorial Middle School we have Courtney Knickerbocker who's an instructional coach at Castle View Elementary will become the new assistant principal

047at Castle View Elementary we have Tara Sue papovich who's a Dean at Avalon Elementary is now going to be the assistant principal at Avalon Faye Glory Roman is a teacher at Meadow Woods Elementary School and she will be the new assistant principal at stonewick elementary Eunice Santiago Lugo is an ESO compliance specialist at Roberto Clemente Middle School and she will be the new assistant principal at Winter Park High School Erica Catherine Shide is a behavior specialist at the Orlando gifted Academy and she will be the new assistant principal at Evans High School Shannon Nicole to come excuse me Tom kulkowski is the instructional coach at Apopka high school and they will be the new assistant principal at Horizon High School Dana Williams is a resource teacher at Ocoee Elementary she will be the new assistant

048principal at Panther Lake Elementary Rosie Williams is a resource teacher at Dr Phillips high school and she will be the new assistant principal at West Orange High School all right thank you all right Dr Vazquez oh no I'm sorry member farant first and then member Gallo remember front did you have something to say at this time or is that before member gallo thank you madam chair I was talking to some of the APS and principals and we're talking about how we announce when they get when they get promoted or signed and we used to bring them down to the ELC and I know that we stopped that do the pandemic but the pandemic's over and we haven't restarted it are there plans to restart that because I think it was very well received by our

049administrators when we would bring them down and their family members would be here and we would celebrate them with everybody else in the audience so I don't know if we've given that consideration or if it's something that we could bring back we can certainly bring back starting in January of 2023. that was easy thank you all right thank you member gallo all right at this time Dr Vasquez do we have any changes to the published agenda no Madam chair there are no changes to the agenda all right then I would ask for a motion to approve the agenda as advertised motion by member Vice chair Gallow is there a second by member Felder all in favor please say aye opposed motion carries unanimously we have a number of policies that we have before us today

050the first policy is item 3.01 request approval of revised board policy i h a m the local school wellness policy and this is a public hearing Dr Vazquez I will turn the meeting to you for the first policy I am on local school Wellness we made notification to the classroom Teachers Association on November of November the 9th of 2022 we published it the 13th of November we had our rural development workshop on the 28th of November and we're presenting it for approval today on the 13th of December thank you Dr Vasquez at this time I do not have any speaker cards on this policy is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak to this policy all right seeing none board members any discussion seeing none is their emotion motion by member Gould is

051there a second second It Was a Race I'll give it goes to Salamanca remember the second goes to Salamanca all in favor please say aye I was really pretty much of a three-way tie but thank you all for your graciousness at the at the Deus here unlike what I saw a few minutes ago with the competition here okay we are on 3.02 public hearing request approval of revised board policy i j o c School volunteers Dr Vasquez you're recognized thank you madam chair notification to the classroom Teachers Association was made November the 9th it was published on the 13th of November our rural development Workshop was on the 28th of November and we're presenting it for approval today the 13th of December all right and like the previous item there was no there have no

052public comments on the school volunteer policy just one more check in case that's why anybody's here seeing none the public hearing is closed and I will entertain a motion I moved to motion from Member Caster Dental is there a second second from Member farant all in favor please say aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously I should mention you don't have to push a button to to make a to a second emotion or something otherwise you'll just never get there all right they are the group is a little competitive okay we are on public hearing 3.03 and this public hearing is requesting approval of revised board policy JJ JJC student performance Dr Vazquez you're recognized thank you madam chair notification to the classroom Teachers Association was made on the 9th of November we published on the

05313th of November Rule development was on the 28th of November and we are presenting it to the board today the 13th of December all right again I have no comments on this public hearing no one in the audience wishes to speak on this so any board discussion seeing none I'll close the public hearing and entertain emotion motion by Salamanca Beach motion by member Salamanca second by Vice chair all in favor please say aye aye opposed the motion carries unanimously all right our next public hearing 3.04 request approval of revised board policy JB parental involvement in education Dr vest was your parents Katie thank you what did I say Jay oh I'm sorry yes thank you KB thank you madam chair similar to the other three policies notification of the classroom Teachers Association was made on

054the 9th of November we published on the 13th of November we had rule development on the 28th of November and presenting it to the board today the 13th of December thank you we do have three speaker cards beginning with Clinton McCracken Clinton I believe is speaking on behalf of CTA but he'll let us know good to have you with us thank you good evening superintendent Vasquez chair Jacobs and members of the board I'm Clinton McCracken president of the Orange County classroom Teachers Association I want to thank our board for your past support of our lgbtq plus students teachers and Families I'm here to speak on behalf of the over 000 14 000. amazing Educators we have in ocps teachers are a Bedrock of our civil society and heroes in every way teachers are there for

055students when they are having difficulty understanding a concept when they have disagreements with peers and struggling to learn to get along teachers are there to celebrate with students when things are really exciting and going well and also to to console them when they aren't and when they're down teachers are a natural collaborators with parents to help students on a path to being good citizens and they nurture a thirst for knowledge a love of reading a love of math science technology social studies Athletics the Arts and so much more a little bit about what teachers aren't teachers aren't groomers they aren't indoctrinators they didn't take on this difficult career to push students into corners of thinking inspired by personal agendas we've seen this in our country and that it's actually dangerous that this false narrative is

056pushed it is unfortunate that we're having to update a district policy to comply with this flawed state law a law created with the intention to divide us to stoke fear and to create culture wars the truth is we have amazing teachers who do extraordinary work every day in an environment that becomes more difficult every year we have teachers who have worked with parents and guard Guardians year after year as collaborators in our students education and teachers will continue doing so they will continue to be heroes in our society and they know that most people in our community and our country have full faith in the magic they make happen every day thank you thank you Mr McCracken before you step away personal opinion would you have a problem if our teachers were trying to indoctrinate

057our children I would and it's not happening and across our country that's the narrative being no I know I just I just wanted the public to hear that because I think most of our teachers would have a significant problem if they saw another teacher behaving in that way if they were doing anything to stifle a child's ability to think and learn critical thinking skills and learn that there are differences in the world and not be pigeonholed into only being indoctrinated into one set of beliefs so instead they're just creating a love of learning so yeah exactly if we could all just focus on a love of learning yes thank you thank you thank you and member Caster Dental no we have yes okay but I thought maybe it was okay thank you in response to

058Mr McCracken we have Bill Barnett Mr Barnett welcome thank you madam chair you've waited a long time and thank you for being here for so long oh thanks such a privilege to address the board and I thank you for giving me that chance I want to address the parental rights Bill and I'm sure that's the driver of all this so I'd like to talk a little about it I frankly don't understand all the resistance to that bill it seems to me like it's common sense parents are legally responsible for their children up until age 18. they are legally responsible for their children so I believe issues of culture and that type of thing should be given to the parents and the home environment and that's where I think that lies so I'm speaking in favor

059of implementing the bill as it was written and I think it's there for a good reason if you doubt there's a reason for that bill take a look at the Virginia elections last time that issue drove the Virginia elections it elected governor Younkin because there was this kind of stuff going on in the schools and the parents were pushed away at school board meetings and were not allowed to speak they were not allowed to get involved with their kids what was going on their schools and it literally drove a governor's race so I think we do need to take it seriously and deal with it in that way and that's why I'm struggling or not struggling I'm urging you to implement this parental rights Bill The Way It Was Written and not gloss over it

060and give it a hand wave I'm older than probably everybody in this room as you can see by a little bit of hair and most of it's great that doesn't make me any smarter than anybody in the room but it does give me a little more life experience and I went to school many decades ago and when I went to school I got science and math and English and history and those basic subjects and I didn't get any of the culture stuff and if my behavior was bad my parents were immediately notified and it was dealt with when I got home I think that's still a good way to deal with most of this I realize there's got to be some discipline in the schools but that ought to be the general approach and when

061there's problems with the child the parents are immediately notified whether it's emotional physical whatever it is the parents should be involved you think we don't have this problem in Florida but I have been to several meetings where I have heard moms break down in tears whose kids were in public schools in Florida not Orange County but other schools in Florida where the child was I won't use the word groomed but the child was brought to school at a very young age was given a new name was in different clothes and they were told changed before you go home so your parent won't know what's going on basically and that's what happened and that's outrageous to me that parents are kept out and these these mothers that broke down in tears talking about this tried to

062get involved in their schools and were pushed away they eventually made such a stink they got involved and were able to get their children out of the schools but that's the kind of thing that went on and then I had kids that went to school public school as well we didn't have this problem then either when I knew what my kids were doing in school the teachers and administrators made us aware of what was going on with our kids in school and we've never had a problem that we felt pushed away so I'll just encourage you to adopt the intent of the bill and not work around it with a hand wave thank you sir thank you all right we have one other speaker for those of you who might be new that beeping sound

063means the time's up and then after the beeping sound no I'm not being smart I wasn't he might not have heard it or might not have known then after that beeping sound after a few seconds then I kick in and have to do what I can't stand doing is interrupting people and then if that doesn't work these board members beside me start kicking me so we have a we have an order here of who's in charge Lou is Lou here yes there you are I don't recognize you with the hat well how about the head there you go that's better how are you welcome Hey thank you madam chair board members it's an honor to be here I'm inspired I'm inspired what I saw today got a new board for 2023 new teachers I'm the

064sport with the new parental rights we need to embrace that I'm a one of those rule of law guys I'm inspired because it's Christmas time too one of my favorite times of the year so I'm I encourage everybody to stay focused stay positive stay inspired we have a lot of work to do these kids are our future I have seven grandkids I'm gonna take a bullet for any one of them but I want to encourage you to make sure that these these kids get the education they need and I know you will I know what the intents there but I just want to jump I appreciate you and you will still see me here and but I'll say Merry Christmas in three languages Merry Christmas in English Feliz Navidad which is Merry Christmas and Happy

065New Years to everybody here thank you God bless thank you before you step away you know there's just there's so much we agree on and compared to the areas we don't agree on one area we could really use your help it's wonderful that we've got these paraprofessionals that have been trained and certified and can teach in the classroom but we are really struggling if you were here earlier you heard about the nurses we're struggling to get the teachers we're struggling to get nurses we're struggling to get the speech to pathologist we are struggling to get enough bus drivers we wouldn't be struggling so hard if we had enough money to pay them a competitive salary so I share that with you because unlike when I was a county mayor and every year we could decide

066we could the tax roll goes up every year because properties appreciate mine yours if you own your own house only goes up by three percent but the hotel's down and I drive can go up 10 15 percent that's how the county was able to keep up with salaries because we have that growth we don't have that here the state doesn't let us keep that growth that comes not from residential but from commercial you spent enormous amount of time here you're so committed I would just urge you to spend a little bit of time trying to communicate with our legislators they might listen to you they don't listen to us because we're school board members they listened to me when I was County mayor I don't exist now you exist so if you could help in

067that Arena it would sure I think I have a little influence there I can help you out quite a bit they're actually you know I'll be happy to talk offline see if we can help me do we can do to talk it Inspire some folks tell me what you're looking for and we'll do what we can do because the end of the day it's our community it's our yeah it is our future so I appreciate that absolutely and you know our kids are not going to get a good education if they don't have good teachers in the classroom amen thank you very much thank you sir and thank you for your commitment and being here as often as you are to share your passion and for your seven grandchildren I envy you okay member Caster

068Dental you're up thank you madam chair I just wanted to just State on the record that I will vote for the current language of this policy because it's required by law but I agree with the remarks by that where eloquently spoken by Clinton McCracken I do value diverse opinions and discussion and I am pro-parent I am a parent I'm pro-teacher I was a teacher but what drives my decision making is doing what is best for all of our children and I hope that we can get past this and focus now on what's best for all of our students thank you okay member Felder yes yes thank you Joe Jacobs I too am inclined to agree with what our CTA president said I was a teacher for many many years 40 years and I was raised

069by a teacher and I was raised by parents who were elderly when they got me so I've always been quite opinionated even as a child not being a not starting to walk until I was 18 months old and they thought something was wrong with me the doctor just said she's lazy she'll walk when she gets ready but also because my parents were when my mom was an educator my daddy owned a dry cleaning business they were very much in tune to what was going on with me in school I believe in in parents having rights but because I talked so long and I had the beautiful experience of meeting children from very different walks of life from very different experiences and I was able to allow my classroom to be a place where they could

070learn where they could talk and they could discuss based on our lessons and it was so many things I learned as a teacher and God of allowing me to travel as much as I traveled as a teacher I brought so much back to the classroom and I was able to receive so much from some of my students who were from different cultures I opened to Dr Phillips high school at the time in 1987 it was the most culturally diverse School in the district and I know the power of the classroom and the power of allowing the freedom of learning and discussion I know what that means and I know how important that is and I would always Advocate that but as my fellow board member said according to policies because we are in charge of

071governance it is our duty to carry out the policies that we create based on the statutes that are given to us from the state but it's my hope that we can find at some point a happy medium in all of this so that parents won't ever feel like we're against them or they don't have any rights that's that's horrible to think about that in that way but the same token you have to be able to express yourself you have to be able to to discover and explore as a student because that's how you're able to function as an adult you have to be able to see different things hear about different things so you can make a wise choice about what you're going to do and what you're not going to do so I wanted

072to share that with the board and with those of you that are here thank you thank you madam chair I just wanted to express once again just that I believe this policy is really about bringing Common Sense and transparency back into education making sure that parents feel like they have a seat at the table and not being pushed out the door and saying you know we also want to make sure that our teachers have exactly what they need and their teaching you know our kids exactly what they need to be taught and parents can trust that teachers trust it's just a it's ensuring that there's trust once again I think we've many parents feel that there's a trust that's been lost and I believe that this policy revising this policy will just ensure that there's

073a renewed trust in the system that teachers know you know what's what's expected of them parents know what's expected of them just bringing Common Sense back to the table thank you thank you member for member Gala thank you madam chair you know I just I want to say that I think at ocps we've always always always not only welcomed parents into our classrooms into our schools we've we've encouraged it we know that students can't be successful without parental involvement we have all kinds of Statistics research that shows us that when a parent is involved or a mentor or somebody in that child's life cares that they are more successful in our student outcomes increase so we've always encouraged this I don't know I don't know what happened with the narrative that it got changed that

074schools became a place that we didn't welcome or want parents I ran for office because I was a parent and there were some things as a parent that I thought we could improve Don and we have but I never felt like that I didn't have a say in my child's education I never felt like I didn't have that so I just want to I just I just want to say that but we welcome parents and I agree with member Caster Dental you know as a board member I'm here to make policy that isn't just good for our community and our staff because it's so important we can't educate our students without high quality Educators and staff and bus drivers and administrators and all of them it takes a village to educate these kids and we

075need parents parents are part of that equation and when we value our parents so I just I just want to say that thank you thank you member Gala member Salamanca thank you madam chair it's summer to remember Castor Dental now I'm voting for this because it's now state law but with the essence of transparency and parent involvement there's some fairly badly written policy here that doesn't provide very clear guidelines for school districts and does end up hurting a lot of students in the process if you want example when you read through a You Know A District like ours and this is not just unique like ours you know we have for the first time seeing students in the K through third grade not being screened for hearing and vision problems because majority of parents have

076not filled out the forms that opt them in into this and you know the status quo that I grew up in in ocps and many of us as parents saw as parents in ocps was you know all kids were kind of usually screened for vision and hearing unless a parent opted out but the default of opt out until you opt-in is bad policy it hurts our students and it hurts our families I don't think this district is against transparency I don't think this district is against parent involvement but as a district we should be outspoken about when bad policy gets implemented and hurts our students and parents you know we as a district can do as much as we can to communicate to our parents the importance of filling out these forms but both parents

077and teachers already have a lot on their plate and it is really hard for us to continue to put more bureaucracy on top of that we are bringing a lot of more forms and government into parents and teachers lives every day when we pass policies like this I don't like that I don't think a lot of parents are teachers like that but I will be voting for this because it is state law thank you thank you member Salamanca those were some very good observations and now I understand why some of I was seeing some email requests for information on how many parents were filling out the health form data so that's that's a great example of things that I think most people would agree make sense and most parents would want that test but may

078not get around to filling it out I find myself somewhat in the middle on this issue I strongly I think we all strongly agree that parents are absolutely crucial in children's lives and the best situation is when parents and teachers are communicating well and working together that's ideal as a parent very involved parent of four that is not what I always saw so and that was a while ago but my kids went through Elementary School we had a great principal we had an even better vice principal you know we had an equally good vice principal in Dr Vazquez and our principal our principal really was phenomenal and I was at that school all the time and very much appreciated I served on the sac committee I served on the PTA they welcomed my input and

079everything and so two years before my oldest son was going to go to Middle School I decided I would get involved in their Sac committee because it takes time to build relationships that did not go over well at all with the principal at that school and then I wanted to sit in on a class because I'd heard about how Middle School was and it sounded like a really rough environment and middle school is a lot tougher than elementary school so I just wanted to know what was it going to be like in a classroom and I was told I couldn't I couldn't sit in a classroom and so as as the mama bear in me came out I was like what's going on in those classrooms that I can't go in and now now it's

080no more games it's not I want to go away and it's I'm getting in that classroom because something bad's going on that was how I reacted turns out it was a Union contract thing that the teacher had to have 48 hours notice I was like okay so I can go into the classroom we just have to notify the teacher 48 hours in advance it still made me nervous because I was thinking well what's happening in the 48 hours before it was so different than the first school I went into and it left me with just a really uncomfortable feeling and fortunately I had four kids and I had enough time things changed but it wasn't a great experience for me as a parent I mean I found out Midway through school that my daughter was

081not dressing out and I found out not because anybody called and told me I asked for a School counseling meeting and they brought in all the teachers and her PE teacher was just had you know nothing good to say about her and when when I found out she wasn't dressing out I was like that's not but that's not allowed and I mean you're not allowed to not dress out what do you mean she's not dressing out and why isn't somebody calling me that's just that's ridiculous I mean I'm looking at my daughter thinking who the heck do you think think you are and you can go to school and not do what your teachers tell you to do but then I turn to the teachers and I'm like well who are you that you don't

082think you should pick up the phone and call me and what was the consequence and there wasn't any so I there's I've been the mom that didn't see Parental value the value in Parental input and for the life of me I can't figure out why that was the way it was but I and high school was a complete different situation we had a really neat high school principle what's her name Vicki she rode the motorcycle she was a little crazy woman but huh Jenny Jenny yeah anyway High School totally different I mean they wanted parents involved they understood parents made a difference in kids lives so I say all that because I don't think that with 210 schools with with 14 000 teachers I don't think that we can say that we know that everything

083is Right everywhere but I agree with with most of my board members that most of what that bill set out to fix wasn't a problem here in Orange County Public Schools were are there some teachers that don't want parent involvement there probably are and when we know about it we need to address it because that's not conducive to good learning for our students and that's I just I don't know I just wanted to share my personal perspective on this because it's somewhere in the middle of I think where most of the board is I also grew up in a time where you know that you had black schools and you had white schools and my middle school year was the first time I was allowed to go to school with with black children in fact

084most of the kids in that school were black and thank goodness we did away with that thank goodness I was able to go to school with people with a different second color or who would I be today and we couldn't I you wouldn't even look at somebody who was disabled or in one of those give you know other classes because you didn't know how to look at them and now they're they're prom king and queen we've come so far we really have come so far and there's so much to celebrate and how much better we are and how much better our kids are and we just need to find that balance and I think we found it on 95 of our schools and when we don't find it y'all let us know okay with that

085it's time to vote all in favor no I need a motion is there a motion I motion you want to discuss it I kind of thought we did well I could be wrong so we are on 3.04 we've had public hearing we've all pretty much everybody's said something is there a motion to approve it we have a motion member for Ron do we have a second I'll second it all in favor of the motion please say hi hi opposed motion carries unanimously you saw reluctance there are things about this bill that caused the board concern there are vague issue vague language that we don't quite know how to interpret it and do it right but this board is committing committed to following the law okay all right any other other business to come before the

086board Dr Vasquez oh yeah the consent to General I was just thinking about that I don't like the way we do it I think we should approve the consent agenda right right first you know is there a motion to approve the consent agenda you agree with me on that thank you so we have a motion who isn't moved okay please okay go ahead yeah I just wanted to just turn your mic on Mike thank you I want to talk to this guy out here I just wanted to say a couple of things about first of all I think it's what is it 12 what is it 12.02 category first of all I just kind of since we are being taped and there are people in the audience the continuing contracts that we have the jig

087with the Geotech I just want to come in the district in terms of that we're hiring like if you look those of us that have access to it the asterisk you can see the large amount of a significant amount I should say of minority firms that we are giving business to hey I'm gonna talk about that so I appreciate that effort I really do and also there's something about the I just have one question the general fund with the food service now we're doing pretty good with that too but I just have a question and maybe that can come in some other time like what is our projected fund balance at the end of the school year like June since we got a nice amount of I think it's like about what is it one

088no in the million dollars I wrote it down I just kind of wanted to know yeah 153 no is that it yeah million how much of that 153 million it was going to be Capital expenditures I just kind of wanted to know and we should know something by the end of the school year like June 30th right but we are spending the money well I just kind of want to make mention of that I only had one question that's it the fact that how much of that 153 million is capital expenditures but again I wanted because I was the one that talked about the involvement of minority firms working with our contractors and I see that we're doing we're on point with that we're doing that very well so I appreciate that's all I want

089to say board member Felder I will make sure that both during a concolino and Rory follow up with you regarding the capital budget Dr Vasquez do you have a report for the board oh did we not vote on that no that's right you stopped us yeah you haven't you had put a motion on the table though yes please to approve the consent agenda yes yes so we do have a motion on the table we didn't get a second thank you motion by the Vice Chair seconded by member Gould all in favor of approving the consent agenda please say aye aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously now Dr Vazquez you have a report oh I have a very okay I have a very brief report two items first I want to thank all of the teachers

090and the parents and community members who have been coming out to our community meetings we've been having some great turnout great conversations and incredible feedback as you know part of the rationale for having the community meetings was to gain input and determine next steps as I'm moving into my superintendency see alignment to our strategic plan and addressing concerns that are out there there is one concern that has arisen at every one of our meetings and I have also heard from board members that I believe we need to address sooner than later and I would like to propose or Engage The Board in brief conversations surrounding discipline and so that I know that several members of the board have shared ideas with me concerns teachers as well have shared concerns that they're having in the classroom

091and one of the ideas that I had was to create a task force that would look at the current issues and concerns and bring solutions back to the board this is not an Orange County only problem this is a problem that we see existing across the country a lot of it is tied to mental health and support that our children are needing as they're coming back from two and a half years that were on like any other and so I would be interested in hearing from the board ideas that you may have thoughts about the task force as we are looking to address an issue that's impacting our classrooms our students and we see it at the board table as well okay Dr Vazquez are you looking for feedback from the board so I'm I'm

092up here right now so I wholeheartedly agree with it the one thing I think it would be important for that task force to look at is best practices where who amongst our peers state or nationally have succeeded in improving their discipline or re reducing their disciplinary problems as opposed to just kind of brainstorming what do we think will work so member Felder thank you and Dr Vasquez thank you so much for allowing us this time to deliberate board member bird and I have had some discussions in last year board member ghoul mentioned to me about some situations she was very much concerned with in her area and I had an opportunity to have a conversation with a former principal of mine and he suggested to me when I asked I said we need to find

093out like what what what is it what what what is it that we're not doing what is it that we need to explore more in terms of how we're going to address this because we cannot wring our hands and say oh my you know what are we gonna do but he suggested to me he said my principal Edgewater this is not working here we talked we had a long conversation about it and he said have you thought about asking the students in terms of your tax task force Dr Vasquez have you Mark said to me he said have you thought about asking the students what do they think and we can do it in a way that we can keep it controlled because everybody got everything on their chest that's not what we try to

094have ad hoc situation but when we were at the fsaba conference in Tampa they had a panel of students who talked about issues and they said in so many words that the board didn't have a clue about what was really really going on but what concerning about that panel of students was that they were all very smart students they want the 1.9 students that want the 0.9 students you know it should have been a variety so when I talked with a marquis said think about in terms of this task force that you suggested to Dr Vasquez is that ask the students let them at some point find out because we may be doing all of this and it's not they may be in Utah and we're still down in Georgia when we got to where

095they are you know what I'm saying so we need to find out from them because we do need to do something and I'm so glad that you brought it to our attention and again I said it earlier in the previous conversation we The Gatekeepers eight of us people look to us to have an answer they voted Us in because they believed we had an answer and we do we just got to put our minds together we do have an answer so I look forward to that conversation students and Melissa suggested some of these city leaders some of these people who have been involved in activities that were contrary to what was correct but now they got a newly so life they could probably tell us how to get out of that because they've been there

096so I think that the city the communities need to see that we have a concern that and we don't need the media to dictate us how to do it we dictate to them this is how we doing it this we set the Matrix up not them we set it up so I look forward to that opportunity to meet and talk about that thank you thank you chair well I didn't know that Dr Vasquez was going to bring it up tonight so I'm glad that she did because I actually was planning on speaking on this you know I think the task force is a great idea but I also think that as member Felder said that we need to bring the community in as you know we talk about how we have all these behavior issues

097and we're seeing an uptick there's there's violence going on in our neighborhoods and there's so much so many issues going on there in our and within the community and now it's spilling over into our schools that it's putting our schools at risk and there's there's those issues and there's also just you know increased General disruption and disrespect in classrooms I've just I've gone grown come increasingly concerned over the well-being of our students and our staff and not only do we have to worry about the physical safety of both our teachers and our staff and our students we have to worry about their mental well-being through all of this I mean imagine being an a trained educator and having to break up fights like you're a bouncer in a club it's ridiculous and we have we

098have staff members on workman's comp because they've been injured breaking up fights in schools we've got kids that can't learn because they're so distracted by the distractions going on in the classroom or they're missing half the lesson because the teacher has to keep stopping to stop the disruptions and the kids aren't listening and there's nothing the teachers can do so there's just there's there's all those things and then we've got other issues where you know my principles and my chief of police in my area is telling me that you know the fights that are broken up at school are caused by issues that are happening in the neighborhoods and that have nothing to do with anything happening in the school so this is such a multi-faceted problem but we have to do something and I

099so appreciative for Dr Vazquez for having these Community meetings and hearing what they're saying and hearing that this is a number one concern among kids I hear it from my own daughter all the time from kids from teachers from parents it's just it's such a huge issue and I think this is the time for all of us to do this we've got our new board we've got a new superintendent I think it's time for us to sit down and figure this out so that you know kids don't have to be distracted parents don't have to be scared about sending their kids to Friday Night Football games for what might go on in parking lots I it's time to do it and I think we really do have to work with our community as I said

100earlier and as member Felder said since this problem is not just in our schools it's in our homes it's in our neighborhoods and we need collaboration to make it better so I'm suggesting that we have a sort of town hall in this boardroom with all of the board members and I would ask each board member to invite your community leaders your municipality law enforcement or you know any Community Partners any faith-based organizations that work with your schools let's bring everyone in here that we need to help and let's have a discussion about what we can do together to help this issue because it's it's so much bigger than just discipline practices though I also do think that we do need to make some adjustments there and I think some of those I think that can

101be talked about too but I think that we really have to start we have to figure out a way to work together so anyway member Felder and I we had a noticed meeting her and I and we had we're trying to find a day to do one just for ourselves and looking at our fantastic superintendents calendar good Lord this woman is booked all through January I mean every night has a community meeting so the next closest date we could find was February 7th so I'm just throwing it out there I think it would be a great idea to include them let them know that we see this as an issue we know we need to fix it help us fix it is what I think our message needs to be so that's it thank you

102Amber Gould I agree I'm gonna get a little more granular I think I like the idea of a community meeting but there are certain smes subject matter experts on this right one is there are blanket issues in the community and there are local community issues because a lot of the discipline is not necessarily being ignited in the school but but overflowing into the school so I do think significant Faith Partners I think mental health whether it's Aspire or someone else who's across the county that can represent that our law enforcement Partners who have been spending a lot of time on interventive measures and then we have a few really strong interventive Inner City Boys and Girls Club after school all-star our kid Zone kind of programs that have a lot of history in really making

103a difference but are only in you know streets they aren't even in entire neighborhoods a lot of times because it's so limited geographically to the street so and I think the community meeting is a great one maybe with a list of things that you've already heard get that student input first but then we need some Representatives who can really noodle over it that are not in Mass but can take and digest that data and then we need a super super super strong consistent message that goes out and puts Tools in our teachers and administrators hands and then a backup plan for when that doesn't work and I don't know that our regular discipline is there the last thing I wanted us to look at again and most of this board has not seen the really

104full presentation of restorative justice which has true peer-to-peer programmatic interventions and is there a place for that if if we're dealing with gang issues that's not the place for peer-to-peer but if you're dealing with a really school-based issue that is enough that's enough to have students yeah and we are we're dealing with both but so it's it's not a one-size-fits-all answer either in that progression so those are my thoughts on who should be at the table especially when we can get to more of a work group representation after we've gotten not only the input you have but maybe open it up a little bit wider to very specific Community experts and Miguel thank you madam chair so I agree I agree with a lot that has been set up here this evening you know knocking

105on doors over the summer the number one complaint when a teacher came to the door was discipline and the stories that they would tell me about what came what was happening in their classroom left me dumbfounded like no teacher trying to teach a lesson should be cussed out by a student that just shouldn't happen everybody deserves a right to feel safe our teachers our Administration our students everybody deserves a right to feel safe when they're on our campus and so how do we make that happen what does it look like I agree that we've got to engage the community we need parents we just passed a parental rights Bill we need parents we need parents to help us with this discipline issue they need to be Forefront when we have these discipline issues and they've

106got to be at the table because we're going to need their help to fix these issues to member Gould's point we do need to look at some of the programming that we know that works first off we do need we're not experts in the field so anytime we can pull experts in and get their expertise it's always welcome it's always needed and we need to focus we need to have those people in the room but we do know some things that work we know restorative justice works if applied appropriately we know civil citations work was receive recidivism if I can get that word out if if it applied appropriately I'm not talking about you know I'm not talking about felonies where people were hurt I'm talking about you know things where it makes sense we've

107got to pull these kids out of the classroom as quickly as we can when there's a discipline issue but we've got to keep them at school so what does that look like can we put them in pass and can we Infuse some programming like civil citations restorative justice mental health can we put our social workers in there we need to continue to educate them while we're trying to figure out the problem because sending them home to be on the streets when we know the violence is in our communities isn't the answer they need to be in school and we need to educate them the only thing that's going to get them out of the situation they is they're in is a good education and programming so what does that look like where can we get

108help so I'm in favor of all of all of those a town hall here in the boardroom in each of our communities I don't it doesn't matter to me whatever we feel is best just as long as we start having those conversations sooner rather than later because we're going to need to implement with with Fidelity and consistently as member gold mentioned with with our was it member girl that mentioned the messaging the messaging that we've got to send out it's going to be consistent we've got to be consistent in Arlo schools and how we handle it and we have to make sure that we do pull those those students out of the classroom because it's tough out there and and teachers are just they're they're so much as being asked from them and when they

109talk about when we talk about taking things off their plate this is like number one we got to take it off the plate and we've got to figure it out that's our job so thank you thank you member Gala member for aunt thank you madam chair I completely agree with member Gallo I number one thing I heard donkey andors every teacher that I ran into was saying please help us with the discipline issues I was speaking with superintendent this week and mentioning all of this that I'm we're having an issue right now where from what I'm hearing from teachers the teacher has an issue with a child it doesn't matter if they're in kindergarten or a senior in high school they're having an issue they try to resolve it in class it's not helping so

110they send them to the office hoping for backup it's like Mom having issues and I say you're going to go to your dad dad'll dad'll take care of it now if they go to the office and they get a lollipop or they're like okay well you know you need to be better and send them back well the kid goes ah I know I can do whatever I want and I just go to the office and get a slap on the wrist this is that parent Rights bill absolutely this goes back on the parents parents have to be disciplining at home if discipline isn't happening at home we've got kids running rampant at school and thinking they can treat anybody however they want so I think making sure that our kids know hey this is the

111way we respect at school you do not respect these are the consequences and then being consistent with the consequences and so whatever we can do you know if we're talking to we need to meet with parents and let them know your kid does this is what's going to happen and you can come to me and whine all you want but your child did this and I'm sorry these are the consequences you need to you know you've graffitied the bathroom well here's a sponge and here's some soap and water and you're going to scrub that or repaint it yourself those are the things I think we need to make sure kids have consequences otherwise kids know how to work the system they're super smart and they will figure out what to do but in order for

112our teachers to feel safe and like they have you know somebody backing them up and they don't have to go oh my gosh I got to deal with this again they can just say nope this is not working all right you're going down to the office and they know that whatever happens at the office will truly take care of it or at least get them on the track to being taken care of so I'm definitely in favor of of anything we can do to get this back back in order thank you member Kester Dental thank you madam chair thank you Dr Vasquez for your urgency in this we have schools that are bleeding teachers because of discipline and it's it is the number one issue for teachers and it's like my colleagues have said when

113there's an issue with a disrespectful disruptive student who is removed they're often returned to the classroom that same day with limited consequences and I know it's not just because we don't have consequences but we're also short staffed there aren't people who can watch a student who has been taken out of the classroom so it's going to take additional resources that I haven't seen that we have we're gonna have to go outside the district for for this kind of help I don't I don't know but I agree we have to support our teachers in when when they're managing the classroom that's the number one thing for Teacher retention in it's more important than an increase in salary they would they're choosing to leave the profession because it's so difficult so I you know you know this

114you've heard it and I just appreciate that you are willing to not wait and anything we can do I'm all for thank you thank you member Caster Dental I wanted you remember gallo were suggesting a list of ways that we could provide reinforcements to students once they are removed from the class and one of the things that you didn't mention but we celebrated was mentoring exactly and remember Castor Dental just said we don't have enough resources and I've often thought of some of the groups that I don't want to single anybody else out but that adopts schools but not necessarily kids or schools that really need it so there may be an opportunity when we're talking to our faith-based leaders when we're talking to those organizations that we were just mentioning to bring them in

115because I and we also when we talk about parents need you know parents have to play a part in my case I would have played a part in a heartbeats I did play A Part as soon as I found out she wasn't dressing out and that was the end of that but what I heard was it's pointless to call parents because at this age they don't do anything that was a long time ago but you have to face the fact that a lot of parents are not going to be there and have our teachers back because they got their plateful the kids are not behaving at home they're going to work they're they're you know trying to keep clothes on them and a roof over their head and I had four kids but my husband

116had a lot of flexibility and it took two of us every spare moment we had with four kids to maintain consistency that kids need in order to know there are consequences for every for every bad action and those consequences are consistent and they're Swift and they're you know none of them by the way involved a spanking but they were all consistent and it worked but it was a heck of a job and so I we need to rely on more than just parents we have to reach outside of just parents but that's where the mentoring I don't know how many of of them there are but we ought to enlist everyone we can government agencies yeah but with us with a strategic plan for how you know what their role is going to be we

117have some great mentors in our School District employees in our school district that have been great mentors that can probably help with what is a mentoring training look like so that our mentors know how to be good mentors not just have good Hearts member Felder I'm sorry member Salamanca and then back to memberfelder thank you chair I think number one thank you for talking to the schools I think it was clear from some of the conversations I've had with principals and parents of how much of a difference they feel with you going in and talking to them so it really has made a difference to them I think the i Echo remember Gollum farms knocking on doors and hearing as a number one concern and we'd be knocked on like thirty thousand doors and that

118was the number one certainly heard so you know I think what we saw tonight here with Randall Academy also kind of touches on you know post covid our students are disengaged and disconnected and they're in their own worlds where you know ex the fight with their best friend their friend with their girlfriend like you have you know everything is more important to them than perhaps being present in the classroom and learning so figuring out even within what we already have in the district when we're talking about this talk for task force there are incredible teachers out there that do know how to engage those students back in and some of those are programs of our own District that have proven to have a good track record in doing so right we heard from a student

119who'd given up on grades who I mean didn't really want to be in school anymore and we know those are the kind of students that escalate into potential disciplinary actions if they really get to that point and so I would as we think through that task force of evaluating within our own District now usually every school has one or two teachers or coaches who are like the go-to like go de-escalate students listen to you principals and vice principals tend to know who those teachers are who kind of can get and reach a student who is disengaged obviously it's tough to put the burden on the teacher and I'm not saying we should do that but I think there's there's some good work that has been done and I just don't think has been maybe perhaps

120elevated or we're as aware that's already here that could be helpful for at least a task force member Felder kept saying Mark but I was really talking about Dr shanoff he gave good examples of finding what you said board member Santa Monica about that go-to person that and this is my only concern we have to have an expert checking balance because we're very intelligent on this dance appearance and we can we can write a dissertation within an hour but all the minds up here but I'm telling you we have to have a check and balance because and I'm not saying any of us are not as serious but Melissa Byrd and I we talked for a while in that meeting you know that was publicly announced about the concerns and I remember that again with

121board member ghoul her concerns ladies once we pull it together it's not it's not a one-time fix thing you understand it's not no one time secondly we have to make sure the checking balances are in place because we got a lot of wonderful programs in Orange County a lot of things going on in the community but maybe we still got gang violence we still got Madness going on Beyond just foolishness so it's not gonna be a one-time situation we're talking about we have to end it we have to have the energy to and to stick to itness to get some results because it's not going to come right away thirdly the checking balances if you're gonna if you're in this position to do this are you doing it what are you doing we're not playing

122with you we need to see some results now getting the results and maybe that's not the place where you need to be I'm so serious because people are dying children are getting killed and shot daily and they have PTSD they haven't yet to step in Beirut or Afghanistan and now suffering from PTSD at home all Races so that's all I want to say not a one-time thing number two a real check and balance what you're doing is just not working okay no you don't feel like doing okay next I know I sound harsh but I mean to be harsh remember bird yeah as I sat here listening I think that there's a lot to be said on this topic and I think that over the past month or so since the football game issues and

123it was just it was like a two-week period where it was just really a lot of bad stuff going on and I've been doing you know a lot of digging and the discipline and you know what play what things we're doing for these kids and I would really like to be able to actually now that I've sat and thought some more about this have like a work session where with with staff with you know the area administrators the ones that are you know handling the higher level discipline I'd like to know I'd like to really get into a little bit more about you know the consequences that are in place for first offenses second offenses for you know how we're even though we have a code of conduct how it's actually playing out with the

124referrals and that kind of I feel like there's just some disconnect with what's in the code of conduct with what's happening and I think we need a little Clarity there and I also think there's a lot of ideas to explore and I think and I know you want to do a task force but and I shared with you some of these I think assigning the mentor is a great idea for a child that gets you know maybe a second referral they get assigned a mentor something to that effect we talked about Dr Vazquez and I were talking the other day about working on our alternative placement because you know positive Pathways can't handle everything I mean they're already at capacity I know you all got the list of all the offenses I think we need

125to look at you know if we're if we're suspending for three days five days ten days what are we doing with those kids for those 10 days as member Gallo said they need to be educated that's how we're gonna change so we've talked about doing working on an alternative type placement that's kind of like past but a little more intensive with Behavior Behavior circles you know mental health where it's like an all-day intensive treatment sort of thing and they get their schoolwork done and they go through that for that 10 days and then they go back to school so there's something that we're doing to help correct the behavior so we're not seeing it and hopefully mentoring them at the same time and showing them that there's other ways to handle we've also talked about

126the cell phone issue Dr Vazquez we have a few of our high schools that have completely eliminated cell phones and have seen a huge reduction in discipline issues so I think that's a whole other thing we need to talk about parenting classes I know that some district one District did that they're they're actually I believe their Police Department offered it to parents whose kids were in trouble and it was a class like called something to the effect of don't be afraid to discipline something like that but it was an actual discipline class for parents on how to discipline your kids because a lot of parents is as yeah a lot of parents are personal stretched yes they're they're financially going through so much they are working multiple jobs they don't have time to read the

127book some parenting and what to do and this is not an easy time to be a parent if you are raising children right now and you have adolescents you know it's not an easy time to be a parent it's it's challenging with all of the distractions and you know your one input for your child but your child also has 50 other means of input now right in their hand so it's just it's a hard time to be a parent I think parents need help I really do I think I think for a lot of our parents they just don't know what to do to to handle their children I mean it's hard it's really hard our kids are really smart really smart and so I think anything we can do I think offering parenting classes

128through some of our Community Partners might be a great idea and maybe that can be something we require or maybe something we give them with a discipline referral I don't know but these are all things that I would really like to explore more and I think that oh I would love to have like a work session yeah all right so perhaps we start with a work session and make sure that we understand where we are right now and what's happening and then have The Next Step okay so if I may and thank you so much for the feedback I took more notes and what I would like to be able to do is come back to you with maybe one or two options that could incorporate multiple items that you have given for example we

129could have community meeting where we invite people and get that input we could provide the work session so that people have a better understanding of the referral process the consequences and that information then is all taken in by the task force that then can come back with Recreation so I'd like to be able to go back to my staff review this information and come back with a couple of options and then we'll be able to move forward I just hope it's not later than February good days no no I'll be able to come back to it by the first board meeting in January and I'll brief you individually beforehand yeah I think what I hear a member Felder saying is don't don't lift that hold on February 7th it's on it's on my it's on

130my calendar okay yes I just wanted to wish everyone happy days this time of year we take time to enjoy our families our friends are so much to be grateful for we are definitely in a in a different time in space but when we look around and when I look around I am so thankful to be here to be able to serve our community to be able to work with such an incredible group of dedicated Educators and support personnel and so thankful for a board that puts some children first so happy holidays thank you and before we go any further we have to go backwards item 1701 thank you request approval of the 2023 state and federal legislative platforms and Dr Vasquez if it's okay with you I was going to turn it over to

131the chair of alleged legislative committee so chair and vice chair thank you madam chair so we've removed it from consent because there were some board members that wanted to make sure that I think in particular that the state platform covered certain items and so one of the items was and I think it would fall under the grow your own program which is one of our priorities it was mentioned that some degrees have vouchers from the state or like a buy one get one credits paid for from the state so we'd like to add teaching or be able to Advocate to have teaching be a part of that type of program so that like we saw this evening with Rollins College that we could expand that program past Rollins so that we could get more Educators

132into our classrooms and so in looking at the platform I believe that the grow your own program allows us to advocate for that so that's covered the other thing that was mentioned was on the Florida retirement system which we have that's bullet number two we want to add for volunteering because not only can you not come back to the classroom in a paid position we can't even have our teachers come back into our classroom to volunteer and as we just discussed with discipline and mentoring there's nobody better to Mentor our kids than a retired teacher that might have some time on their hands so we need to make sure that we can get them back into the classroom if they choose so quickly so and I believe that we could support that type under the

133FRS as well so I think that we're covered with the with the state and the federal platforms so at this time Madam chair I'll turn it back over to you for approval all right do we have a motion motion by member bird and second by member Castor Dental all in favor of the motion please say aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously now member Gould you recognized anything really exciting to share but I did send each of you a policy email earlier today and I have 26 policies identified that need to be revised and if you would like to let me know individually if you want to move any of those up or down or around like I said we have over 200 policies so I've only done 26 but we have to get back on

134our revision schedule around this one's a calendar so we can get some of those out those outdated policies revised and some of the ones that need to be revised with new statutory requirements and everything we need to get those going so other than that I'm done thank you okay member Gould so different topic and probably not one we can solve tonight but one I wanted to give the board kind of some thought around we have the Five-Year Capital plan which you know we do very very well at and we set in motion probably more than five years ago the revitalization and re-establishment of our tech centers and we have a lot of seats because of Portables and some movement in the tech programs coming back to the high school I am worried that in the

135post-covet area that we may have designed our tech centers too small because there are programs that are not smart or efficient and prudent to spread out in the high schools that are continuing to have traction and there is more and more awareness by our student body across the country about that you don't necessarily need a four-year degree to have a great career and I don't know that it's good or bad but I don't want to be I think it's in the good to Great Book and I was mentioning this to jesma today you know there's this crew this construction crew that is building the best road ever right through the middle of the Jungle they're cutting through they're making good time they're efficient they're under budget they are it's the most beautiful Road you've ever

136seen and the supervisor climbs a tree and figures out the road isn't in the right place so I just want to make sure that something that we planned for in a different time frame is not going to constrain our ability and we have Partners who want to partner with us from the commercial and we don't always have capacity on our campus to be able to accommodate that and then they go to private schools or they start their own because we're not able to take that volume so in that adult education as well as our transitional I would just like us to make sure we're doing it right or that we have the ability to expand on the campuses that we may be moving schools when they're moving from one location to another or that the

137plan allows for that to ebb and flow because we're not done growing in the central Florida region remember Felder I just want to as thank you chair superintendent Worcester holiday happy holidays but I wanted to mention that one of the schools in my district Jones high school did handles Messiah along with Orlando Philharmonic and when I tell you my chest doesn't need much it's a lot up here but it just stuck out even more to see those children playing and to hear my alma mater being played to Strings and it was composed by former Jones high school graduate Maestro Dr Carl malsby and to see all of the conductors were former Jones high school graduates Dr Jeffrey Redding who received a Grammy for his musical talents and I was just so happy and so many

138of the district people came to Daryl Jones High and I was just in one of my teachers sang at Ace music teacher Miss Stacy Ali I know she had a voice like that but I was just so grateful to see the support of District people coming and it was just so beautiful to see those young children those young kids sing and be confident by the Orlando Philharmonic and the crowd it was it was nice so I just wanted to say thank you and I'm just looking forward to it if you again if you didn't get a chance to come put that on your calendar for 2023 because it would be a most memorable occasion thank you thank you member Gala thank you madam chair and I'll be I'll be brief but the last I don't

139know we've had a board meeting so in November I attended the ex little XL and Ed conference out in Utah and then just this past week prior we all well several of us went to the fsba conference so I just wanted to give a small report more on the Excel and Ed conference there was a lot of really good speakers there and one of the things that we discussed that I've talked with the superintendent about and several board members and I were talking about it at the at the fsba conference was that it was called it's called the science of reading and there's a podcast and it's called it's called sold a story so if the board members or anybody in the public has a few minutes and they like podcasts I would highly recommend

140this podcast called sold a story because it's all about reading how students read and kind of the story that we've kind of been sold and how we thought they read versus how they learned to read versus how they really do and it really kind of brings it back to I think something that we've discussed from the diocese many times before which is you know phonetic based learning and I know that we have like orthong in like seven of our schools and I think it's it is its member Bird School Zellwood that we're seeing such great success because we're kind of bringing it back to that to that basic so I just wanted to to share that I did it in that conference that many of us attended fsba and that we're learning good stuff that

141hopefully that we can apply to to the district and I want to wish everybody a happy holidays thank you Amber Gallo member bird I just wanted to jump on what member Gould was saying real quick about the tech schools I think if I'm not mistaken that the west side does have some room to expand on yeah on theirs so that's good but I am all for moving as many programs as we can into our high schools because I really do think that access is a big issue and I love the idea of getting our kids engaged as as it was mentioned they're not engaged in school often and we're really struggling with that and I think if we can put kids in Hands-On classes where they learn something that they see as having purpose it

142will keep them engaged and I think our tech classes are a great way to do that so many of our kids just don't even know about the opportunities out there for employment and what they can do and how they don't have to go to college to make you know eighty thousand dollars a year so I think whatever we can do to encourage that if we can get more on our campus I love that I also think we need to take advantage as we've said oftentimes up here of our business partners out there like Randall Academy is a perfect example they built an entire building for Randall Academy they built it we didn't they did on their property to start this Academy because they believe so passionately about building up about teaching kids Workforce skills and

143it's not even just the construction it's the human resources department like the girl that spoke they teach them all different aspects of the business too and the construction skills so that is a perfect example of a business partner I know we have plenty of other business partners in Orlando that might be open to doing the same sort of thing on their property building a building that we could use we could come in through OTC and train and teach those adults for those jobs or even kids so I think you know that's something we should definitely look at and maybe even they might even want to build additions on some of our schools if we wanted to if it was going to be like a training center for that particular skill like let's say you know

144culinary culinary wing on okiva high school that has you know training but anyway also I wanted to just say Saturday night seven o'clock don't forget to cheer on the Apopka blue darters as they play for their state championship title we are so proud of our blue daughter Blue darters and it was almost a district seven playoff game with Ocoee too which would have been really cool but but anyway but we're still proud of them so that's what I will be in Fort Lauderdale Saturday night cheering them on so cheer with us but happy holidays okay okay on that note happy holidays and we're adjourned huh I don't nobody else you were saying happy I know yep no she said okay oh I heard it I thought you were saying oh okay thank you