001good morning I call this meeting of the Pinellas County school board on July 11 2023 to order this morning's invocation will be given by Rabbi Philip Weintraub from congregation benai Israel the invocation will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Vice chair Laura Hein and the playing of the national anthem please stand and remain standing until the conclusion of the national anthem Rabbi windrow would you please share the invocation so just a week ago we celebrated the birthday of our nation and while we declared independence on July 4th 1776 it was years before the Revolution I wore Was Won we tried to unify with the Articles of Confederation before realizing we needed a constitution written in 1787 it wasn't until ratified for two more years it opens we the people of the United
002States in order to perform a more perfect union establish justice ensure domestic tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity to ordain and establish establish this constitution for the United States of America it wasn't perfect it needed to be amended almost immediately with the Bill of Rights and continues to be recontextualized and re understood from generation to generation I learned that in public school participating in the IB program I earned a year of credit at an elite private university there I had amazing teachers just like my children have at the Midtown Academy we also have an amazing principal there with Keisha Victor who has truly transformed that school for the better every day our Pinellas County faculty and staff work to educate
003and prepare each student for college career and life and as a parent I am grateful for that every single day I'm grateful to them for their support I'm grateful to you for your support of their work ensuring every student in our district is welcome and educated not prioritizing One Faith or one perspective but demonstrating truly living the multiplicity and diversity of our community of every race and color every sexuality every Faith every everything I'm proud of this board of each and every one of you that live your own values and set them aside when needed to work for the well-being of every student here let me say our prayer May the one who we call by many names watch over you May the Holy One support you in your worthy Endeavors may they help you
004in times of trouble and in times of blessing may the Holy One help you support the students and teachers the administrators that they can learn and grow that they can educate and be educated may we all learn from our students and our teachers to live in a world where every voice is heard where all are able to share peacefully and compassionately kindly and lovingly may we learn to speak respectfully Without Anger or frustration but understanding that all are trying to serve the needs of the Next Generation putting their needs over our own amen for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice stripes and bright stars who says foreign for being here this morning thank you for the invocation I would now like to introduce today's video the PCS ignite Arts
005Camp is an exciting two-week summer camp experience for students entering in the 7th 8th and 9th grade the campus for students currently enrolled in chorus orchestra band theater or dance who plan to continue their art studies in the 2023-2024 school year students from throughout our district work with Master Teachers to perform a variety of high quality literature and choreography let's take a look night Camp is a completely free two-week camp for middle school students in Pinellas County that are enrolled in the Arts and within that camp they are learning repertoire for a concert on the last day this Camp would not be possible without the referendum we are able to hire staff we are able to use pay for the facilities we are able to bus three buses that are completely full we said if
006we want this to be an experience that ignites something for kids it has to be able to ignite something for all of our district so referendum has really been transformative and its ability to allow more students to access the Arts in general and more specifically to access this camp ever had we've got about 35 Pinellas County Schools represented here at ignite I love the community that we've created here at ignite Camp we've got students that have come all three years of middle school and now come back as high schoolers because they just love being here when I am helping a kid and I can see them like succeed it kind of makes me feel like my heart is sparkling in a way because just to see them like shine and yes they may have been
007struggling but even over a day just helping them and like breaking it down for them it just you feel like this moment of like openness and success on the street we choose to come here every summer because the kids are amazing and we love working with them this Camp is amazing and I came here because I did a dance at John Hopkins and I had so much fun throughout the year and I didn't want to stop over the summer so I came here to do more dance so seven days is very short of a time to put together a whole performance but we have some amazing teachers in this dance camp and like we've really pulled it together it's hard because you only have two weeks to perfect it and then you have to perform
008it in front of in front of all the people here and their parents and where it's like sometimes when something is hard it's you have to keep trying because it is kind of hard helping me grow because I'm able to get experience with more advanced pieces of music and so that will help me for high school and possibly even College oh my kids love this camp he did it the three years while he was in Middle School and now he's come back to volunteer well I thought it was amazing because she almost went to another camp that was a private camp that cost a lot of money and once we saw that this one and her teacher really promoted it I thought it was amazing I think it makes it a better Camp because there
009can be more diverse people so that you get the opportunity to just play music to have free access to something well you can learn and enhance what you already have inside that's amazing and I would highly recommend it to anyone who's interested wow that is fantastic it's fantastic to see so many opportunities for our students in Pinellas County and all the amazing things that it does for them inspiring them to continue studying continue working hard at the things that they love with that moving forward I'm going to present our director of strategic Communications Mr Sean Clark Sean Clark excuse me we'll introduce our professional and Community organizations here with us today good morning Madam chair members of the board Mr Hendrick and staff it is my pleasure to introduce the following representatives of community and
010professional organizations from Pinellas County classroom Teachers Association pcta Lee Bryant president representing North Pinellas League of Women Voters Debbie and Ken from the Pinellas Arts of a complete education Maria Anthony Lewis no members from the media are in attendance thank you so much Mr Hendrick are there any recommended amendments to the agenda Madam chair there is one recommended change it was posted yesterday there was an employee in item 7.3 that was incorrectly placed under the instructional Personnel recommendations it should have been under supporting services so we've moved that and it's been posted online thank you so much Mr Hendrick as board chair I find good cause to amend the agenda as described by superintendent Hendrick may I have a motion to adopt the agenda as amended Emotion by Mrs long and a second by Mrs
011Hein all in favor say aye any opposed none it passes unanimously 7-0 we will begin our special order agenda this morning item 4.1 is the recognition of Dev Shaw for winning the Scrib's National Spelling Bee congratulations yes thank you board members we're going to go down and greet our students Mr Hendrick will you please introduce the item the next two items we also have item 4.2 the recognition of Elisa Nelson's fifth graders for winning second place at Odyssey of the Mind World Finals thank you madam chair and as the board comes down to the front I want to note that the board does an annual recognition ceremony for students in our district who have won county-wide and state and National competitions and that ceremony is in May of each year and because of the timing
012of these competitions we were not able to include these students and it would have been nice to include them there but I think that their accomplishments stand out even above those ones that we recognized in May and are certainly worthy of individual standout recognitions today so first I'd like to call up Dev Shah as was mentioned and his dad Mr Shah who is here if you don't mind coming up to the front foreign before you shake hands Dev if you'll just stay right here and we'll I'll embarrass you wholeheartedly as is certainly deserve it for your accomplishments so Deb is a rising ninth grader here in Pinellas County Schools he's just recently left Morgan Fitzgerald middle school and as the room knows he on June 1st 2023 won the national Scripps Howard spelling bee becoming
013the first first Florida winner in two decades he became we became the Champion by correctly spelling the word in the 15th round of the competition the finals samaphile and he spelled it correctly of course he was one of 11 finalists aged 11 to 14 over the three-day contest that was held in National Harbor Maryland Deb has participated in spelling bee competition since elementary school when he attended Ridgecrest in 2019 he placed 51st in the National Spelling Bee there was no B in 2020 and that was when he was a fourth grader by the way and in 2021 he placed 76th in the competition this year as he got ready to participate in the national competition he actually had to make a choice he had qualified for the national math counts competition as well and they
014were on the same day and he chose the spelling the National Spelling Bee I had a great chance to talk to Dev a little bit this morning because it was hard to catch him over the last month as he's been in 50 different National interviews and personal things including his favorite ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange that took precedent over plenty of morning news shows visiting the White House and everything in between maybe the only bad thing about winning this competition is it's cut into his tennis game which he's an avid tennis fan and his busy media schedule has cut that in but he's looking forward to picking that back up in high school Dev we are so proud of you and the recognition that you brought to Pinellas County Schools your
015school in particular but our entire District I've seen you recognize that the city of Largo I've seen proclamations from a number of organizations in each and every one of those are definitely well deserved also very thankful to you and your family who've offered to be an ambassador for Pinellas County Schools and academic competitions such as this to raise awareness and to continue that student experience that we've emphasized in our district this last year and you've certainly brought great demonstration to we have a medal for you and a certificate which I'm going to give you but I also want to read one other Proclamation that came to us in your honor from United States Senator Marco Rubio and he said dear Dev congratulations on becoming the first Floridian in over 20 years to win the Scripps
016National Spelling Bee competition the countless hours you put forth to prepare for this competition speak highly of your academic commitment the knowledge earned from your work in the spelling bee in years of study in school will assist you in your future service to the community and our nation please accept my best wishes to you on this significant achievement I look forward to hearing about your continued good work as you set out to fulfill your own American Dreams sincerely Senator Marco Rubio Dev and Mr Shaw congratulations please come meet our board thank you yes I recognize it and Devin Mr Shaw feel pose right in the middle of the board here and as pictures are taken I want you to know that as you came in the building today you met dev's brother who's featured as
017one of our students in the walkway as you come in he's a graduate from Largo High School's IB program and is at Yale University and so as you walk out today maybe you'll see his picture great success for both he and his brother in our schools thank you Mr Shaw and Mr Shah couldn't be here today for sharing your students with us and elevating Pinellas County Schools congratulations Steph and this is a certificate that goes with your medal as well as the proclamation from the senator thank you Mr Shaw for our second recognition I'd like to call to the podium Dr Kristen Gonzalez the area one superintendent who is involved in this journey of the Odyssey of the mine all the way to Michigan and back and like to acknowledge our students and Dr Gonzalez
018please begin the presentation good morning Madam chair members of the board Mr Hendrick and staff it is my pleasure to introduce the Alyssa Nelson Elementary School Odyssey of the Mind fifth grade team who won second place at the Odyssey the mine World Finals in late May here today representing their team is Seraphina Gribble Gwyneth Harrington Veronica Sandusky and they're joined today by their teacher coach Miss Tamara Bryant and their assistant principal Miss Alford team members that were not present today are Lindley Aldrich Samira Saeed Ashton Plummer and Alexandra Nguyen this all-girl team traveled to East Lansing Michigan to compete against teams from all over the globe including South Korea and Switzerland at the competition students teamed up to identify challenges and think creatively to solve problems each round of the competition requires different problem-solving skills
019according to principal Hima adiya each member of the team showed incredible growth in areas of teamwork budgeting time management public speaking and above all humility and mutual respect the Blazers earned the opportunity to compete in the world championship after placing first at the state level congratulations to the Alyssa Nelson Blazers on their terrific performance at the Odyssey of Mines World Championship congratulations ladies foreign each other thank you to our students our faculty sponsors and the team at Eliza Nelson for making this possible this year the parents that are here thank you for pushing your children to compete in these and more competitions coming up and we thank you so much and we're grateful that you could come in the middle of summer and be honored today our board is going to come back up to
020the dais and we'll continue with the rest of our meeting but I want you to know as they do that we will continue to elevate these student experiences and competitions this year look for more of these for our students and I'll pass it back to our chair Mrs Kane for the remainder of the meeting well congratulations to all of our winners State and World Champs I'm so proud of you and we are so grateful and we wish you all the best we're going to do amazing things congratulations one more time and let them leave the room and from this point we are now going to move to the public comments portion of our agenda members of the public have three separate opportunities to address the board when we gather for business meeting the first is
021public comment on agenda items the second is at public hearings most of which are policies and the last is after our meeting when speakers May address the general business of the district at each opportunity for public input board members are here to listen to you this is not a time for interaction but the board will take your comments into consideration before it votes on agenda items the board is committed to a standard of Civility into Quorum in conducting our meetings this includes refraining from clapping or making audible noises during or after a speaker's comments We Appreciate You assisting us and maintaining a civil and constructive environment lastly please note that this meeting in all public comments will be broadcast live on the internet and video will be publicly archived members of the public may always
022communicate with the board through our email address board at pcsb.org or by calling the board office at 727-588-6300 thank you Mrs Houck are there any speakers on the Gen items yes Madam chair board members Mr Hendrick we have one speaker for agenda item 7.12 Mr Mark clutho more clutho Largo this is a request for approval of purchasing items in accordance with bid policies and purchases or procedures purchases or procedures yeah what's the difference having spoken to this one in a while the Strategic Direction effective and efficient use of resources well I don't see how you could possibly be doing anything along those lines when last time I was here you made that big mistake again you're talking about conservation when the word is supposed to be efficiency here's the book from the NRC which I
023don't put a whole lot of faith in this entity and there are only a couple of you up there that were around when I've had this here but let me read again which tells you're missing what says here you have a strategic Direction energy conservation Energy Efficiency though often used interchangeably energy conservation and Energy Efficiency are different concepts Energy Efficiency typically means deriving similar level of service by using less energy while energy conservation simply indicates a reduction in energy cons consumption which means you aren't getting something for using less energy now I don't know if you understand what that statement means but when you're talking about your studies thank you Madam chair there are no more speakers for agenda items thank you I thought there's also no business under unfinished business so we will move
024straight to to the consent agenda they have a motion to adopt the consent agenda as amended I'm sorry motion it's consent agenda was not amended so we have a motion Mrs Meyer and a second by Mrs cook all those in favor say aye aye any opposed none opposed the consent agenda passes unanimously seven to zero moving to non-consent may I have a motion to approve item 8.1 which is the request approval of the sports medicine service agreement with Morton Plant Miss healthcare for the 2023-2024 and 2024 2025 school years I have a movement for approval by Miss Edmond and a second by Mrs long Mr Hendrick could you please introduce the item thank you madam chair it's that time of year in just a few weeks when our high school sports seasons will actually begin
025their practices and we take great care to make sure our student athletes are taken care of and part of that is our agreements with our trainers and so today I want to highlight one of those agreements we have several groups that we contract with to provide athletic Training Services but all of them are important and here to share this agreement for the next two years as Ashley Grimes our K-12 health education specialist we'll give some of the details of this agreement Ashley thank you madam chair school board members superintendent Hendrick and staff I am happy to be here on behalf of the Pinellas County Schools Athletic Department to present the agreement for athletic Training Services provided by Bay Care Health System Incorporated this agreement will provide athletic Training Services to 13 of our high schools
026in addition to the agreement already in place with all Florida Orthopedic to support our high schools the long-standing partnership between BayCare and Pinellas County Schools has been vital to the health and well-being of our student athletes during both practice and competitions the athletic trainers are licensed Health Care Providers experts in their fields and uniquely trained to focus on injury prevention assessment management treatment and Rehabilitation attending daily practices allows the athletic trainers to not only treat the medical needs of the athlete related to the sport but but to also better understand the student and their needs and many times athletic trainers are the first medical professionals on the scene after an injury and are critical to getting our student athletes back on the field in court as our student athletes return soon to fall conditioning and
027practices we continue to put health and safety supports in place and our on-site trainers are critical to these efforts as just one example our trainers facilitate our coaching endorsement program to ensure that our incoming coaches are adequately prepared to meet the needs of our student athletes we are looking forward to another year for our student athletes and athletic programs and thank you for your consideration in the approval of the agreement for athletic Training Services thank you so much for the presentation we have some discussion from the board Ms Edmund you have your light on thank you Mrs Grimes would you please confirm if it's with Bay care or more in plant Miss Healthcare so it's more implant but Bay care is specifically who we work with so the Morton Plant the trainers come from there
028thank you yes do you have any other questions or discussions from board members seeing then we have a motion on the floor to approve item 8.1 the approval of the sports medicine agreement service agreement with Morton Plant Miss Healthcare Inc for 2023 2024 and the 2024-2025 school year all in favor say aye India post none the motion to provide an 8.1 carries unanimously seven to zero thank you so much for being thank you do we have any items by the superintendent to be introduced yes Madam chair just a few today a few other winning students that we've had across the last month or so this Summer that some of which the board was able to recognize at that Event in May but have had their opportunity for further recognition from the organization so a couple
029of those are at the skills USA championships competition events that showcase the best career in technical education students in the nation including those in high school and our own technical colleges we had two students from Pinellas Technical College St Petersburg campus won gold medals at the national skills USA championship in Kansas City Christopher Hayes won a gold medal for plumbing and Kate Wallace won a gold medal for early childhood education and two of our high school students who recently graduated James Barnett and Kenneth Cole Thornton from Dunedin High School won the silver medal in the national competition in robotics and automation technology so we're proud of those students and all of our Career Technical education students who competed in those programs one of our Walkers Rising Star our students Charlie Lane was a nominee for
030the Jimmy Awards a National High School theater competition and recently performed in front of a live audience in at minskoff theater in Manhattan recognized for the top performing musical theater students in the country and speaking of being in New York City the board did recognize those students of the national Scholastic art competition and those 15 students who won the gold medal were recently awarded those gold medals at Carnegie Hall in New York City continuing that great tradition of excellence in the Scholastic art and writing Awards by our students board members we know that just about 10 days ago the state released State assessment scores for all of our schools and we'll be talking more about that at an upcoming Workshop but suffice to say we're very proud of the results of our students much of
031which were already known by parents individually but now collectively as schools as a reminder there are no school grades this summer as there traditionally are due to new assessments there's benchmarking and state cut scores that will be set and then those provisional school grades will be issued sometime this winter but nonetheless we'll provide a presentation to the board in an upcoming workshop and last but not least as I've done each meeting as superintendent stand out somebody who's emphasizing those core values across our district and one this summer is Mariana Leslie apprenticeship and work based learning specialist in our Career Technical education department Mariana coordinates apprenticeships and summer internships for our students and recently she was recognized by a teacher who's a high school teacher in communication Technologies at Countryside High School and she wrote that
032Mariana coordinated an externship for her this summer at a local T-shirt shop she was able to learn those Technologies and Screen Printing and Design to help her students when she gets back to school this fall and so she wanted to reach out and thank Mariana for her incredible help to get this opportunity she was informative helpful and now she has the necessary knowledge and confidence to do the screen printing in class with her students none of which would have been possible without our business partners and this externship program so thank you Mariana and all of our employees for all they do each and every day are there any items to be introduced from the attorney no items today thank you but that school board members that we have Miss Meyer you have your light on
033first so I want to let you go first thank you madam chair I wanted to congratulate all of our students and teachers our students who are taking AP classes and are teachers who are teaching AP classes as an AP teacher myself I know the hard work that goes into this by all of the students and all of the teachers and the scores came out on July 5th and I know we were all patiently awaiting those scores and our students did phenomenal so congratulations to everyone who is taking those very difficult classes thank you Mrs Hein yes thank you madam chair just a couple of things I'd like to share with our team here and with our Community First I would like to say thank you to miss Texel Paula Texel our Chief Human Resources officer
034and her team and the great gains we've had in the last month and filling classroom vacancies as of June 10th we had 260 classroom vacancies and as of yesterday July 10th we have 180. now that averages about 1.3 vacancies per school that doesn't sound like a lot but if it's your child or your grandchild whose classroom doesn't have a am teacher you will definitely feel that impact and so I guess what I want to share with our community is that teaching is a noble profession and that Pinellas County Schools is an amazing place to work so with the leadership of our superintendent we are focused on building a climate and culture that is inspiring and focused on Creative Learning and if you or any of your friends might want to consider being a teacher this
035is a great time to join us we will find the right fit for you we will provide professional development for you for it to be a great experience so I just wanted to say thank you I know it takes a lot of work to recruit and retain and hire and I really appreciate you and your team and all that work and if there's anything I or we as a board can do to help continue to spread the word of Pinellas County Schools being an amazing place of work please please please let us know second I wanted to share some thoughts about a topic that I feel like has been present in many ways and that's the amount of information in the world that is that approaches our youth we made a unanimous decision as a
036board at our recent Workshop to enter into a lawsuit against social media companies for the demonstrated harmful impact on our youth so that's one Avenue of information that approaches our children it's not an Avenue that schools regulate or provide but it's a major Avenue and it impacts our children and it impacts our classroom and our youth as a board we've long had policies which we updated in the recent years where it where where we regulate instructional and supplemental materials and I think that is an Avenue of information that Educators have long cared about and do regulate but I'd like to put these things into context with the wider topic of information and youth that I just think is very powerful right now and I think we are seeing it play out in arenas from education
037policy to our kitchen tables and just ask if we as a board want to discuss information access and Associated policies while our students are in our schools we can either affirm the policies as they are or maybe we want we want to update some of them I sent a workshop request last week but I understand you all just received it yesterday so we don't have to vote on it today but I did want to take the opportunity because this is the one time we're together and we expand the time to share my thoughts on it so my just for some context my kind of macro to micro thinking on this larger topic of information youth is this and you all have heard me say this a little bit before but parenting and information access is
038a lot different today than it was a generation ago my mother was worried about the influence of Madonna and her mother was in was was worried about Elvis and I think any parent I know today would give their right arm to just have a radio knob to turn off but information is everywhere and a single day today parents and Youth Travel a gauntlet of information there are so many Avenues of approach as I call it that information can reach our children and in many of these Avenues it is unregulated uninhibited content and it stresses us out and I think it stresses it out for good reason we've seen damage to youth who then become young adults we've seen the damage academically and emotionally we just entered a lawsuit because of it school is one place
039in time in a day where our youth receive information a K-12 student spends on average 14 of their year in school 14 for those who want to know where I came up with that it's an average of six and a half hours a day 180 days a year and the other 86 percent of their time is outside of school now some might say well well you shouldn't count sleep and I guess I would say a couple of things there one sleep does count it matters how much sleep you get for health and well-being and achievement of your of your youth but two okay if you take out the eight hours of sleep our K-12 youth spend about 20 of the year in school so in that 14 or 20 percent that I would call our
040area of responsibility those of us here I would submit that there are three Avenues of approach when it comes to information to our students one is I would say is physical it's our teachers it's our curriculum it's our classrooms it's our libraries which is highly regulated and has the professional oversight of people who care about and chose a profession and support of our youth the Second Avenue is Pinellas County Schools issue devices or networks and I know we do our very best in Keith's office and a number of people to make sure that we have the right firewalls updates Network restrictions cyber security all of that it certainly isn't foolproof but I think we do the very best we can when we come to that Avenue approach of information and then I think the Third
041Avenue is personal devices that are brought into our schools and I think personal devices are the largest most unsecure Avenue of information in our 12 in our K-12 school day in some cases I know that these personal devices can be useful though in most cases I believe that they cause distraction in the learning environment and damage to our youth as we've had presented to us so it's the only Avenue in our area of responsibility and our 14 that we cannot regulate we do not have oversight of save simply not having them at all so I think our engagement in the lawsuit is engagement in consumer protection more more broadly and I support are engaging in that I believe we can join with other agencies that are committed to youth health and development and work is
042a is a Community to do more for Consumer awareness and use of best practices how we use these products throughout the other 86 percent of our days I hope to participate in that work but back to our 14 our school day the purpose of the workshop request is for us to feel confidently for us each to be able to feel confidently that in those six to seven hours a day our students are in our schools that the information that they're receiving in that part of the world that we feel confidently about that and we can either affirm or change those policies when we when we have that discussion so again I know you just received the request yesterday I just wanted to share these thoughts verbally with you thank you we don't have to vote
043on it now unless you want to or we can talk about it at the next Workshop as well so thank you thank you Mrs Edmund thank you Mrs Hines for your research as well as sharing the information I would just like to remind colleagues that there was a previous submental of a workshop request at a school board meeting and it was and we were all informed that the process would be to have that discussion at the workshop yes or any other discussion from board members no I do want to Second some of Mrs hein's comments on the matter although I think we do need to discuss whether we want to move forward with that as a workshop item at our next Workshop so we can discuss that as we discussed with Ms Edmond's point we
044had put that formality in place and we want to keep that as a board but I do have to agree with some of the sentiment on this I think there were some very valid and interesting points brought up in the presentation from the attorneys in that lawsuit that could be something we might want to discuss as a board during Workshop in in additional ways that we can protect our students from information that we don't feel is positive or healthy for them to have during the school day and so I think there were some points I'd like to discuss when we get to that point as well and I think they brought up some things that we haven't had the opportunity to discuss as a board as of yet in any of the time that I've
045been on the board anyway in the last five years so I think that there's new developments in this kind of information wave and I think that it'd be nice for us to continue to stay on top of the new information and I'm So at the next Workshop we can have that discussion and open it up for comments from the rest of the board I guess with that is there any other board requests for maybe this admin I would just like to remind the public that the job fair for bus drivers and bus assistants will be held July 19th from 4 to 6 p.m at The Coachman service center additional information is available on the website thank you to Mr Hedgewood for all the work that he's doing as well as the transportation department again it
046would be greatly appreciated if we had all routes filled come the beginning of the school year I would also like to say congratulations to Pinellas Technical College St Pete campus for earning nine hundred thousand dollars in Grants and seventy thousand scholarships for Pinellas Technical College's unique professionals which will begin January 2024. thank you Dr Jackson Dr Rodney Miss Culbreth and team for submitting and securing the grant as well as all that you do for supporting education in again I like to in my remarks with giving a plug for Pinellas Technical College if you are looking for another career path or opportunity to learn a trade please consider Pinellas Technical College because it's true opportunity starts here at Pinellas Technical College thank you so you know further board requests Miss Woodford could you please review any
047board requests that you heard yes I added that at the next Workshop we would discuss possibly adding a future Workshop to discuss information controls and topics along that line is there any further business for this meeting seeing no lights no no head shaking before we perform our board meeting evaluation we will adjourn the meeting and move to the public participation with that this meeting is officially adjourned we'll now move to the public comment on General business of the district please note that the views and comments of the public speakers are their own and not endorsed nor sponsored by the school board or the district we cannot ensure the accuracy of the statements made but will review concerns that are raised and take appropriate action which may include clarifications or the referral of speakers to the
048proper staff members for assistance the board is committed to a standard of Civility into Quorum and conducting our meetings this includes refraining from clapping or making audible noises during or after a speaker's comments we appreciate all of you in assisting us to maintain a civil and constructive environment additionally we'd like to you to please take note that although board members are superintendent Hendrick may leave the Deus briefly there are speakers in our back room and we will continue to be able to hear your comments throughout the duration of public comment Mrs Houck will you please introduce our speakers yes Madam chair board members Mr Hendrick we have six speakers the first two are Nancy velardi and Brant Robinson good morning as you know I am a recently retired teacher of Pinellas as you may not
049know I was asked to continue my drop and continue to teach here in Pinellas an offer that was very complementary and was considered very seriously I ultimately decided not to remain employed as a teacher here and now I'm relieved with my decision despite my excellent qualifications I would have been forced to relinquish my continuing contract and become an annual contract teacher ever at the whim of my administrator I would have taken a pay cut not much but a pay cut nonetheless these stipulations are not required by the state but are the choices made by our district while the state was cruelly Finding ways to eliminate the teacher's Voice by creating staggering obstacles for their Union to surmount they also did something nice for the Educators I'm not talking about the teacher's Bill of Rights which
050is a conglomeration of laws that were already in existence mainly in the teacher Authority Act gathered and tweaked ever so slightly to appear as though it was a consolation prize for the constantly vilified Educators and all they have tolerated for the past few years I'm talking about the changes made to the drop system and other retirement benefits that are legitimate Boons for the Educators who would like to remain in the classroom it was also passed as a partial remedy to the ever-increasing teacher shortage in this state I realize these changes will cost the district 8.8 million dollars but please do not alleviate that financial burden through the salaries of your teachers who choose to stay especially if administrators are not being treated the same way when they extend their drop they've been willing to extend
051their drop for three years offered by this new law let them keep their hard-earned contract and allow them to remain at their present salary if their position is not already taken by a transferring or entering employee leave them in their current position all of this is lawful but more importantly it is compassionate and just after all they're helping you out by continuing their work here dedicated and professional as they have always been make sure that they know that you value that thank you good morning Madam chair members of the board superintendent Hendrick and staff I hope you'll nod with me when I say this I hope each of you this summer has had some rest feel free to nod Rejuvenation some fun my name is Brent Robinson as you know I teach at Dunedin High
052School the scary fact of the day is I'm about to start my 27th year as a teacher 26 of them at Dunedin High School I'm always honored and humbled to be in a room like this with the shared commitment that we all feel for public education I just want to say thank you as always many people have heard me say many times that public school and all of our public schools are the foundation of our democracy and I know for some that sounds like a cliche but for me it really is a part of my way of being again I'm honored to be a public school teacher especially here in Pinellas County I know this will seem strange to say this before a school board but I hope as we start another school year that
053will all continue our commitment not just to our Public Schools but to our Public School teachers again I know many of you on the board and your commitment to public school teachers is without question and I really appreciate that but as you know two years ago I addressed this board to talk about something that I had only just heard about six months before and I'm a guy that has a master's degree in African-American history I addressed you to talk about something called critical race Theory and I'm always going to be the kindest most decent person in the room but in the last two years our public schools and our Public School teachers have endured a blistering series of attacks and allegations about things from indoctrination to grooming to sexualizing our students things that are truly
054disturbing but what's also happened at the same time is that as we know too many of our Public School teachers have left the profession sadly that is something that has been going on long before on average almost half of all teachers don't make it through the fifth year of their career so I hope as we start this school year we'll all commit to at least one more thing that we already do but let's just commit to every month let's check on our teachers let's openly check to make sure that we're modeling something called Fair process which is a foundational principle of restorative practice and we believe in that philosophy here in the district so we can commit to regularly checking our teachers I can't tell you what that feels like to get an email from
055Kevin or from any of you just checking to see how we're doing not just as teachers but again as human beings so thank you all for the opportunity to be here with you and I hope you have a great start to the school year y'all be well the next two speakers are John Jackson and Mark Pluto thank you very much good evening and afternoon as it is and I appreciate your time I'm probably here to be Debbie Downer and don't mean to be but it's important I think to understand that all of the students and all of the young people in Pinellas County and when I say all I'm not including parochial schools and whatnot but come to the public schools for education and generally you guys and the teachers do a wonderful job but
056we have a couple of programs that have been left over from 1920 and 1930 and 1940 and 1950 that no longer fit the life or the lifestyles or what's going on in America we have programs in the high schools and I'm going to pick on Northeast on 16th because that's the one I go by occasionally that only affect pardon me 15 or 20 students in the whole school and yet cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in another program that would affect maybe 30 or 40 students in the whole school and cost hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars and I'm talking about basketball and football ladies and gentlemen having a basketball team or a football team in a high school today is almost meaningless we now live in a time when TV has 10 channels
057of sports 24 hours a day the high school is no longer the center of the little town and representing its core and for the 15 students that's a number it could be 18 or 20. that play basketball in the high school we are leaving 2500 students that don't have a teacher that don't have the money they need to continue the things they need to do just the cost of the lights at Northeast High School for one week would pay for a teacher for six months so I'm asking the board to consider canceling all High School athletics you've talked about money three times having to do with the Athletics now already the health of the doctors the trainers we've got thank you thank you Mark Luther Largo this is a lectern not a podium how many
058times do I have to say it here's the article moms for stupidity draws GOP contenders Governor Iran the fuhrer of Florida receiving the Liberty sword from moms for stupidity isn't that nice and it talks about the mom's for stupidity quoting Adolf Hitler how low can you go oh yeah and here Pinellas launches sustainability plan It Ends by saying improving resource efficiency of County facilities by conducting energy audits nothing about conservation when will you learn Earth's axis is Shifting we're the reason what will happen next Tuesday was Earth's hottest day ever climate change is quickening the pace for fires and Heat scientists call Wildfire smoke the new abnormal Pinellas teachers challenge two school board members tied to moms for stupidity pear have arrest an Eden teacher according to union grievance it's a dog on shame I'll
059tell you need to let the teachers teach do what's right for the students not doing anything wrong imparting knowledge truth reality it's right there in front of you wake up the next two speakers are Lee Bryant and Angela Dubach good morning chair Kane members of the board superintendent Hendrick and staff my name is Lee Bryant I am the President of the pcta and my pronouns are he him and his I look forward to a successful school year that is coming quicker than we think as the pcta president I will make sure that our educators are cared for and supported so that they can take care of our priority our students in the public school system we have the honor and privilege of accepting any and every child that walks through our doors unlike the private
060schools we do not screen our students for ability to pay thought or conformity our students come from every possible background with Incredible experiences and more burdens than Can Be Imagined our job as public Educators is to help our students become whole capable and complete human beings to achieve that goal we must make sure that our educators are supported in the classroom our Educators also come from every possible background carrying a wealth of experiences and many burdens themselves they deserve a system that acknowledges their efforts with supportive administrators school board members strong unions and a fair and just contract our governor is currently touring the country bragging about what a huge budget surplus Florida has yet our teacher pay has fallen to 48 in the nation Florida has the fourth largest economy in America if Florida
061were a Sovereign Nation our economy would be 16th in the world how can Florida not at least meet the national average for teacher pay the answer is we can but we won't the state does not have the will to compensate us justly as has been said in this room before don't tell me what you value show me your budget and I'll tell you what you value we expect our Educators to uphold the highest standards possible we also expect our Educators to know and follow the contract and treat our Co their co-workers with respect we expect also expect our administrators to uphold their highest standards to know and follow the contract and treat all School Board employees with respect and kindness during my 28 years in the district I know that this has not always been
062the case superintendent Hendrick has some wonderful dedicated employees working with him in the district offices and some terrific administrators in the schools a few however do not live up to these lofty ideals our Union the PCT will not tolerate bullying for many administrator any school board member or anyone else without standing up for our members to our greatest ability I would like to finish today with a quote from Helen Keller alone we can do so little together we can do so much thank you hi good morning it's been a while don't worry I'm not going away I'll continue to take the errors for those who can't be here or are just afraid to speak up I've been very busy in Tallahassee talking to and working with our legislators just got back from Philadelphia at our
063mom's for Liberty Summit there's a lot of pissed off moms out there lots lots lots boy we are over the target big time Big Time we are literally in the Battle of good versus evil this isn't a Republicans versus Democrats it's good versus evil when we were there we were spit at threw eggs at us rocks at us they told us we hope that you die and they told one mom carrying her child that they hope her child turns up grows up trans and kills herself were some of these people from Pinellas County I don't know but I've certainly seen that type of encouragement and behavior online sometimes but I've kept up with these meetings and the lies and the slander from the community from some of the teachers from some some of the students
064about Mom's celebrity and about Stephanie and Dawn absolutely ridiculous so I'm going to tell some truths because it's been missing for some from some of these meetings truth there is grooming and there is indoctrination going on in Pinellas County Schools I saw it for myself we are a constitutional republic we're not a democracy but the party is socialism and Liberation Communist party was here speaking who's teaching students that communism is a good thing who's who's why why why why is that happening and the books no Mom's celebrity is not Banning books Our Haters say we ban To Kill a Mockingbird Huck Finn Etc that's all I and Laura I'm glad that you brought up about the damage of Youth I disagree I don't think our libraries are regulated I'm going to read and if they
065are it's not very well and I volunteer to help I'll help any media specialist I'll help any teacher I was told that they have to do it on their own however I'm going to read one of these books that we are asking to be moved to age appropriate this book is push it's labeled adult content but it's available to 14 year olds and up I don't boys I'm pregnant my father me and he knew it she kicked me in the head when I'm pregnant I think my daddy he stink I hate that white drop off his dick lick it lick it I hate it but then I feel hot sauce Cha-cha-cha feeling when he'd be me I get so confused I hate him you talk about appropriate anybody who was okay with this in public
066schools is a pervert groomer this stuff needs to be moved to it's labeled for adults okay so let's I'll help how can I help call me I've reached out to the principal superintendent I've reached out to everyone you guys I will help you take advantage of me okay please thank you no Madam chair there are no more speakers with that thank you all for attending today's meeting and that concludes our public speaking portion and we hope you have a wonderful day thank you foreign