School Board Meeting 10_12_21

001good morning and welcome to the october 12 2021 regular school board meeting which i now call to order this morning our invocation will be given by rabbi joshua lobel from temple beneath yeah temple beneath israel in clearwater it will be followed by the pledge of allegiance led by vice chairman mrs long and the national anthem performed by the hollins high school chorus under the direction of chelsea gettinger the chorus will also perform a second song and will be introduced by their director please stand and welcome rabbi thank you for being here good morning my name is rabbi joshua lobel and i serve temple binay israel in clearwater a congregation affiliated with the union for reform judaism thank you so much for inviting me to give this morning's invocation in the book of proverbs we read

002train a child in the way they ought to go they will not swerve from it even in old age this verse reflects the responsibility we all share to educate our young people providing them a solid foundation for the future what our student what our students learn today will help shape their tomorrows we are planting seeds here and it will be our privilege to watch them blossom therefore it is our role as individuals who care deeply for learning to ensure that we create the best educational program possible for our kids giving them the ability to reach for the highest of heights with this shared vision in our minds and in our hearts let us pray oh god teacher and guide of all humanity you have blessed us with wisdom discernment and intellectual curiosity as we begin

003this meeting let us use these skills along with our patience courage and compassion as we come together to work for the benefit of the students of pinellas county and their parents let us strive to uplift and support our administrators and our teachers all who work with our students to help them along their educational journey may we remember to speak with respect and kindness never anger and hostility especially when we disagree the decisions made here today reflect the shared desire to do what is best for our learners and for their families keeping their best interests at heart may our work here together be pleasing in your sight together we say i amen allegiance to the blood of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation underway indivisible with liberty

004and justice oh me we is that our flag was still there love breathe thank you so much for having us here today this is hollins high school chorus or nine of our members our next piece that we're going to be performing for you is called will the circle be unbroken it's a traditional appalachian song and we're really excited to perform it before we get there i also wanted to inform you guys that it is one of our tenor's birthdays so i know that she's very excited anna over there to come out and get some time away from school to sing for you all will the circle be there's a battery if we try lord if we try with my friends i was born is oh thank you thank you and thank you rabbi lobel and

005the hollins chorus and miss gettner thank you very much and anna happy birthday thank you very much all right career and technical education is an important part of pinellas county schools and their programming recently middle school students had the opportunity to visit pinellas technical college for manufacturing day and also chemco solutions a local water and energy solutions company so let's meet some of the students and teachers who participated in this beneficial event the first friday in october has been deemed manufacturing day what we're doing here at pinellas technical college is we're trying to introduce students from east lake middle school and largo middle school to the concept of what manufacturing is all about and also present them with the opportunities that are available and here at pinellas technical college that's what we do is we

006give people we provide students with the skills they'll need to go out and get an outstanding career so today the students are going to three different areas this area here has 10 different programs behind me is automotive we have diesel we have our computer systems information technology we have welding we have all the traditional trades then they're gonna go over to the culinary area where they're gonna see our chefs in action we have practical nursing there there'll be a gurney with a patient a dummy patient that actually talks it's amazing and i wanted them to see more world connection to what we do in the classroom so they can get a better idea of the trades people that are out there and all the really cool stuff that's out here at pinellas technical college it's

007amazing and right now this reminds me a lot of the engineering expos today is so cool because we get to learn more exciting things to kind of inspire us so far the coolest thing i've seen is probably coding i've done it when i was younger so it's kind of fun to relive that moment it's cool because i get to learn more about tech and tech is probably one of my favorite things to learn about one of our group saw largo middle school students are going to break off from here and they're going to head over to kemco systems for us it's an opportunity to share the great career that can be made in the manufacturing environment and the manufacturing is not just the process of doing hands-on it includes everything from sales to accounting to

008supply chain and engineering and shipping and receiving and logistics and every element of what we do so very encouraging of students looking at these career options that many times passing by so i think it's really important for those students to see what what goes on hands-on on field trips like this because it makes them a little bit more interested in what is offered out there for them and it also helps them see it firsthand today i learned how to like forge metals and like crushes of water and how fast i can fill something up i learned a lot of new things working in like a place like this and how to handle it without getting hurt and how like the precautions are it makes my job easier as an avid teacher because this is the

009kind of curriculum that i go over and it kind of reinforces the things that i talk about in class as far as as far as career and college readiness goes that you don't have to go to college if there is another outlet that you are willing to explore there are things like technical school and trade schools that you can reach your dreams and we thank companies like chemco who will bring our students in because it's such a wonderful opportunity for our students to be able to see how what they're learning actually you know moves forward and plays out in the real world all right we have the introductions of professional and community organization representatives with isabel muscarinis our public information officer good morning madam chair members of the board dr grego and staff it is

010my pleasure to introduce the following representatives of community and professional organizations from the pinellas classroom teachers association we have nancy velardi president from the pinellas arts for complete education coalition we have tara shulman from the a steering committee there are no members of the media in attendance this morning today we have a presentation from the student rights and responsibility committee please welcome trinity savier and robert nolden from hollins high school and their principal robert florio good morning good morning good morning i'm robert and i'm trinity and we are the president and vice president of holland's high as well as the representatives for students rights and responsibilities first we want to start off by thanking you the school board and our administrative team and teachers at holland's high and doctors superintendent great despite the challenges of

011the last couple of years we are happy to announce that holland's high school is a growing and thriving school community at hollins we have rebranded and moved forward with our mascot the lion as we make positive and necessary changes that are reflective of the student body and the community we believe we are poised and prepared to take the royals into the 21st century as we make positive and long-lasting contributions for our community and beyond the transition from being online to in person has definitely been beneficial for our school student involvement has been up since last year as is easier to be involved when everyone is in person our attendance for school activities has been amazing our football game attendance is much better compared to last year since the stands are able to have a higher

012capacity rather than last year when there was a cap on the number of spectators those attending also have more school spirit than last year as they are returning to the games they are wearing school shirts and shirts that our football players recently sold for a fundraiser we recently had a game where we had a blue out and our studio our stadium did not fail to wrap our school color we'd like to extend our thanks to the school board for allowing us to return and get back to normal as the student body we have continued to look for unique ways to make sure every student gets and continues to have a great high school experience with the challenges at hand our school has managed to carry out safe activities that our students have enjoyed while being

013safe more students are joining clubs at a very rapid rate they are more involved than ever the classes are raving about the events we are holding as we just had an outdoor movie night on the field to raise money for the school and we sold out of the tickets since the movie night was such a success we are having another one in december and the students can't stop talking about it our school has a food pantry that has partnered with tampa or feeding tampa bay to provide bags of food for our families each week on average we help 60 families as a our school's a title one school is very beneficial for our students we also have a clothing closet where we provide clothes for students in need at our school our principal robert florio's

014main goal is student involvement so he has recently had a student center put out our school it's a place for students to get together do homework and eat lunch he has also started to reconstruct our courtyard as a beautification and attempt to bring the students at hollands together we also have a program the aea program which has continued their program with the three things which is the project the show and the game and they are making a film for their project that they are going to try to enter into competitions that are local state and national and we are hoping that they win and all of us are cheering for them and they also are going to put on a live show and also make a game that they are going to put out for

015students at holland to download and play and see how that goes and maybe even expand it out to more our school also has an interact club which is anti-bullying recently one of our students one student of the month and last week we had start with hello which a lot of the students participated in our graduation rate has stayed tied with last year at 97 percent our school grade was considerably better than expected our cambridge diploma rate was 70 percent which is incredible considering our teachers were teaching simultaneously my experience at holland's high has been great and i'm very happy that i decided to go there and participate in the cambridge program because it's such an amazing diverse community of students and teachers my experience has also been great and i don't think i would have

016chosen any other school to be part of it is great to be a part of all the clubs and the sports that they provide for us and it's just outstanding overall very good thank you thank you thank you two very good endorsements thank you good mr florio would you kind of wave your hand and chorus and the speakers today both came from there they made you proud didn't they there you go and thank you for sharing them with us all right let's look down now at the agenda dr grego are there any changes or amendments to the agenda there are two amendments the agenda madam chair one is at 708 i on page one i pulled the contract with the boys and girls clubs of suncoast i wanted refer the discussion with them and to

017refine that contract you will see it again and the second is in addition to the agenda not consent agenda item 8.06 and this is the request approval of the kovitt sick leave pay memorandum for the mou with sciu the fraternal order police and the fpsu so ms texel will explain that agenda item it will be under the non-consent agenda okay very good and i find good clause to add item 8.6 which changes the covid leave policy for seiu fop and our non-represented groups any other items for board members anything that needs to be pulled all right seeing then i'll entertain a motion to adopt the amended agenda by motion okay mrs long made motion we have a set and miss heinz may seconded it all in favor say aye all righty and it passes 7-0

018that the very first thing that we're going to move into in our special order is a presentation of the proclamation recognizing school bus safety week do we have a motion to adopt the proclamation no writing mrs long anyone else second all right that's cocaine second in it dr greg i'm chair and to the general public it couldn't be a more important topic you know each year i start the school year off at the our bus compounds and i plead with the community to please be aware of the safety aspects of buses being on the roads the time it takes and also the importance and as you see the theme this year with be safe know the danger zone and that is the proper techniques and proper laws of st stopping with when those arms come

019out those buses are big they have bright red lights it's hard to miss them so but still in this community and communities throughout the state of florida in the united states we have people neglecting those laws so this the timing of this is so important the national school bus safety week so and i also want to say a huge thanks to t mark hague who heads up our transportation department very difficult job this year as all years but especially this year so t mark thank you dr gregor good morning good morning good morning madam chair board members dr grego and staff florida joins other states across our country to observe national school bus safety week for the week of october 18th through 22nd and as our dr grego said the theme this year is be

020safe and know the danger zone each year our school buses in pinellas county travel about 9 million miles to take thousands of students to and from school daily we also perform about 3 000 extracurricular activities like field trips and sports activities they travel in a 10-ton vehicle and carry up to 65 students each year however the school bus is considered the safest vehicle around and it's the safest vehicle in our overall transportation plan please join me and the 15 000 school bus operators on the roads of florida in observance of national school bus safety week thank you and dr carr would you please read the proclamation thank you and i just want to say thank you to all of our bus drivers i think it was important to know how much we value our bus

021drivers during the pandemic those nine weeks that we were not running routes we still valued those individuals and maintained their salary and when the governor acknowledged that folks needed to be recognized for such a difficult year with a bonus we agreed that all staff should be acknowledged and bonus to our school bus drivers at the same rate so i'm really grateful to be a part of this board that recognizes the value of our bus drivers monetarily wherever possible and i hope will continue to meet their needs as they've expressed them to us frequently so national school bus driver national school bus safety week be safe know the danger whereas the health and safety of all students is essential to the happiness and well-being of families teachers and communities and whereas the exemplary safety performance exhibited

022each day by almost 15 000 school bus operators on florida roads ensures the highest level of safety for other motorists and student riders and whereas students are 70 times more likely to get to school safely when taking a school bus instead of traveling by car and whereas school buses provide the most and sometimes only reliable form of transportation to and from school which promotes attendance and punctuality and encourages better student achievement and whereas motorists must remember to stop when a school bus has stopped with its stop arms extended and red lights flashing and whereas school bus transportation employees should be recognized for their diligence and safely transporting the children of pinellas county local organizations are encouraged to support student and traffic safety activities associated with school bus safety week and everyone is reminded to keep

023a watchful eye for students going to and from school and take extra precautions around students and school buses and now therefore the pinellas county school board hereby recognizes national school bus safety week during the week of october 18th to 22nd very good thank you all right we have a motion and a second to adopt the proclamation so all in favor say aye aye opposed say no it passes 7-0 you're going to see in the next agenda item that safety is very important to our bus drivers and what they do one of the things that mr dudley and i have seen as we serve on the school transportation safety committee with the county is that people are not only passing buses on the left-hand side where the arms extended they are actually passing the buses on

024the right-hand side where students are getting off the bus the legislature in this last session increased the fines for that to happen you know and that's a good deterrent however it that does not save the lives of children so we're asking the people please pay attention and do their part our bus drivers are doing everything they can but do your part and make sure that you're honoring and respecting those laws so thank you so with that little tangent i will move on to the recognition of school bus drivers with safe driving records dr grego yeah yeah i'm chair and school board members i too want to add my comments to dr cars and i know this entire school board for thanking bus drivers not only those 62 or plus that we'll be recognizing today with

025over 10 years and some over 20 years if you think about your own driving record not that i want to delve into it but if you think about it's a long time 20 years and the difficulty of driving a very large vehicle on the road especially with the congestion of pinellas county to drive a safe driving record is truly remarkable so and i'm speaking about any minor infraction so it is good and i want to thank the board for taking the time to recognize these folks and to say thank you for what you do and to all of our bus drivers for what they do every day thank you mark yes sir thank you as dr grego mentioned we do have 62 drivers out of our 350 drivers that have over 10 years of safe

026driving we have 12 drivers that have over 20 years of safe driving normally i bring them to the board with me but today they're still busy running their routes so i decided that i would just read their names today so that we have five drivers that have over 20 years that's gary smith tiffany roshin sue pond marcus hart and annie bethune walker we have four drivers that have 22 years of safe driving that's lashang simmons deborah jones felita jackson and terrell drayton we have three other drivers kalondra jones has 22 years of safe driving stephanie holmes has 27 years of safe driving and mr charlie russell has 28 years of safe driving which is amazing and so i just wanted to mention that and then we're also having a safe driver luncheon we're going to

027do it a little differently this year we're going to have a drive through at walter pennell service center and food and nutrition is helping us with a goodie bag we're going to have a lunch for them and they're going to drive by and we're going to give them their lunch and they're going to continue on their route and i did want to mention one other driver he has 15 years of safe driving his name is rufus woodard and he has 37 years with the district and he's going to be retiring in a couple of weeks and so i did want to mention him 37 years thank you thank you awesome tremendous we appreciate that service as well all right we'll move on to the next item the presentation of the proclamation designating october 2021 as

028lgbtq history month do we have a motion okay dr carr and mrs long dr grego yes to to announce his proclamation call on she's already at the microphone donna cecilian and lisa depalo the manager prevention office and donna sicilian director of student services and to really say to the board thank you for the character development and caring for all students this is a extremely important proclamation because one of your core values as a district and the board is to nurturing care all students so thank you donna thank you thank you dr grego school board members and staff we appreciate this opportunity to do this proclamation that recognizes lgbtq plus history month in october of 2021 research and our experience tells us that students who identify with the lgbtq plus community are at a much higher

029risk for issues such as bullying suicide ideation substance abuse and misuse and a number of other factors so we do appreciate this board our community programs such as equality florida and other community partners that do a lot of work sandy hook promise in keeping all of our students safe and in particular this month we want to have this proclamation that recognizes the history and those that went before us as well as mrs depaolo and her team in the prevention office that stand currently working diligently to keep all students and staff safe excuse me all students and staff safe that's a lot of s's in one word for someone whose last name is sicilian so i thank you for this opportunity and we bring before you the proclamation this morning thank you donna very good thank

030you all right mrs long would you please read the proclamation lgbtq history month whereas the lgbtq history month was created in 1994 by a high school teacher in missouri named rodney wilson and whereas the lgbtq history month reminds our community of the lasting contributions people have made to strengthen our society and whereas this month we recognize our commitment to the struggle for equal rights for all students and educators and whereas pinellas county schools will continue to educate support and provide resources to promote a safe learning environment for all students and educators and whereas all students and educators have the right to attend school in a safe and inclusive environment free from harassment or discrimination where they can reach their full potential now therefore we the pinellas county school board do hereby proclaim october 2021 as

031the lgbtq history month very good thank you and mrs cook may i say that over the years of teaching i've had a lot of students that in middle school with where this first starts where they're trying to figure out who they are it's difficult to watch them as they struggle many times their families turn their backs against them they lose friends and for us to be aware and to try to stand up and help these these individuals it gives them an opportunity at life that we so we don't we don't want to see children committing suicide we don't want to see children bullied and this is a wonderful way that we can support and help them until they do figure out their path in life so i really am proud of the school board for

032taking all children into consideration thank you anyone else all right seeing none we have a motion and a second to adopt the proclamation designating october 2021 is lgbtq history month all in favor say aye aye opposed say no and it passes unanimously thank you all right we have our next item is for public comment members of the public have three opportunities to address the board when we gather for our meeting the first opportunity to speak is during our public comments on agenda items the next opportunities where we have a public hearing most of which are policies and lastly after the meeting is adjourned we will remain for public participation when speakers may address items pertaining to the business of the district at each opportunity for input board members are here to listen this is not

033a time for discussion or debate we will not take any formal action on information brought forward unless it is pertaining to an agenda item however the board and the superintendent may clarify or refer the speaker to the proper staff person to help work through the concerns the board is committed to a standard of civility and decorum in the conduct of its meetings so whether you agree or disagree with a viewpoint expressed by speakers please refrain from showing audible support or disagreement we also ask that you insist you assist us in maintaining a civil and constructive environment by confining your comments to the business of the district and refrain from profanity or intemperate or rude comments thank you this is how do we have speakers on agenda items madam chair if you don't mind i just

034want to clarify something because there were some speakers to agenda item 4.3 but i just want to clarify to the public that the opportunity to speak to agenda items does not include the special order agenda and that is allowed by policy and our and law and so that is why it is a special order agenda these proclamations are not allowed to be spoken upon by the public by law or by our policy and so this is the time where we are now where the public is to speak on consent and non-consent right so for those who spoke up to 4.3 signed up to speak that is why you were not called okay you do have the opportunity to speak after the meeting if you'd like to i was just going to since i had the

035floor i also mentioned to the board and to the public there are several speakers for item 7.8 which is a purchasing agenda item and so i would ask that the members of the public when you come up to to specify which bid it is to which you're speaking thank you all right thank you and i also was going to clarify their opportunity would you speak during public participation after the meeting is adjourned and we would be here to listen all right so let's begin calling the names please board members dr grego madam chair we have four speakers for agenda item 7.8 okay and we'll call the names two at a time you'll see now that we have two lecterns so the first name first person will go to one of them and the second person

036will stand at the second ready to speak when they're complete when they finish all right so would you please call the first two names our first two speakers are amanda diamous and barbara du michelle so we have one speaker and where's the second speaker okay so she'll speak at the end before the time starts yeah hold on just second we're going to call us another person the next speaker would be sweet okay is sweet here all right good thank you all right i want to speak on 4.3 okay that will be after we adjourn the meeting during public participation okay well that's what i want to speak on okay all righty so sweet is coming up and do we have a second person renee chia 7.8 all righty and if you'll wait at this one

037all right well before my time started i just wanted to ask you this thing never once done what's the difference between a presentation and a vote miss sweet i can speak with you after the meeting but well i just know that other people were wondering too but okay if if you don't want to answer what they did no the statute says that the public has a right to speak to action items with certain exceptions and one of those exceptions are proclamations and so you cannot speak to 4.3 at this time well i know i wasn't speaking to it i was asking you about what you had said and brought up and explaining it because i was wondering that myself and nobody could answer it so they said to ask you but i'm looking up at

038the purchasing for the 554 thousand dollars that you're requesting for the fed tutoring i also noticed when you open that bid that it's 27 per hour per student so i don't know is the student paying 27 per hour is the school paying 27 dollars per hour for each one of these students i'm sorry you shook your head know when i said the first time so i was hoping you would actually answer that after you finish okay so i'm trying to figure out where when you read it says that it's a flat fee paid to fev tutoring of 554 thousand dollars so where does this additional cost come in if you're paying this company 554 000 as a flat fee why is there an additional fee being incurred on either the school or student because when

039you read in it says 27 per hour but if you go into the purchasing bid it's saying that you want this flat fee for this tutoring service and when you look at 27 per hour i have a friend who's a teacher who's been a teacher for a very very very long time he's barely making that and he teaches like the ap and the ib program so i'm trying to figure out why tutors are getting paid more than teachers you know and the bus driver thing they didn't get that thousand dollar bonus until june of 2021 they weren't even included in the first one you know we were looking at all of this money being thrown around and it's great we finally got to the bus drivers after they weren't included in essential and essential the

040money first up front because i looked it up after ms carr said that they got money because they were so angry the last time and i saw that they finally got it in june of 2021 so it was finally like after you know their whole life crushed down but now you're bringing in a tutoring service a an additional tutoring service that's getting paid more than the average teacher to tutor when the teachers are supposed to be able to teach the kids and so that's why i'm just trying to figure out you know you we look at these budgets and there's so many other things on there where it's like you know we keep asking for more money and more money you guys make over 54 000 mr grego is rivaling the president of the united

041states with all of his perks coming up at almost 400 thousand dollars but yet the bus drivers get a measly thousand the teachers get a measly thousand and you're paying these tutors out of nowhere when you should be sending these teachers to get whatever they need to be able to help the students learn instead of paying an additional tutor as much as you would be paying a teacher these teachers aren't getting what you say that they are they're not getting the help the bus drivers aren't getting the help and you keep requesting more money for things like equity managers and things outside of all these things all of this money when it needs to be going to actually the teachers and the schools and the students that you claim to care so much about every

042single student when i hear somebody say that there were a lot of students last year that got left out of that we care about you so when i hear that it's like it's such a blanket statement that happens and it's so dangerous because it's not true it's just it's not true and all of this money is wasteful it's wasteful if it's not going to do any good how many how many years have all these teachers been in school and now we need to get a t we need to bring in tutors that are getting paid as much as the teachers or if not more because the ib teacher is the one that gets paid that not the lower end teachers that you know maybe don't get deep as well thank you dr gregor do we

043have someone that can explain that to the public the students are not paying the 27 dollars perhaps we could my suggestion is maybe let the speakers we have a few more and then i'll ask mr hendrick to okay address all right so we'll listen to the other speakers in case they're on the same the reason why they're on the same item so right okay welcome thank you i am here about agenda item 7.8 bid number 22961084 i'm here today to ask you to table this midnight this bid item three minutes is an inadequate amount of time to have a thorough review of the issues surrounding this purchase like our request last time to table line items for further discussion and review this tutoring program has problematic issues with its structure and its purpose it has

044come to my attention that i don't believe you're properly understanding the issue the theories and ideologies these items are based upon are at their core logically fallacious in other words if the foundation of your curriculum or training or whatever is flawed then everything that follows is flawed an example of a false premise is all birds can fly and penguins can't fly so penguins aren't birds the premise that all birds can fly is false some birds can't fly and this renders the argument logically unsound i have cautioned you about this from the first time i came before this board this marxist rabble is nefariously woven into and driven down through what used to be credible sources of academic materials an example from ohio recently where the school board was allowed to resign or face criminal charges

045is the english assignment from the usa today article by phil karen 642 things to write about provided to high school students enrolled in a college credit course called writing in the liberal arts too parents said there was a prompt that asked students to write a sex scene you wouldn't show your mom and another which said rewrite the sex scene from above into one that you'd let your mom read another prompt asks students to drink a beer and describe how it tastes parenting i'm sorry how does this relate to the contract with fev tutoring because it is the exact same thing that is happening with this fev tutoring okay i'm almost done with a quote another prompt asked students to drink a beer and describe how it tastes parents said they felt these writing prompts and

046others were not appropriate for high school students let's assume 639 of these were benign like write about your summer vacation or write about your favorite kind of tree does that make these three acceptable of course not they're clearly criminal raise your hand if you think 639 of them were benign in a fox news article recently there was a discussion also that says for months parents have been fighting what they describe as woke indoctrination in schools and purported attempts to fuel that at the administrative level the group the story was about the panorama education which has been in the news lately as i'm sure you've heard a lot of controversy about and you can look that up the fev tudor inc is an advocate of sel and a partner of panorama among others so stop buying

047this crap and let's have a dialogue you claim to be in support of and literally stop buying this crap thank you thank you i want to make it very clear that those assignments are not being done in pinellas county this is an example that was given from another state all right can we call the next two speakers for agenda item 7.8 the final speaker is sandy stergmeyer okay good morning i was wondering you guys are going to be spending our taxpayer money on teaching on training teachers on crt and i was wondering did any of you get the memo from governor desantis that's the crt about the clock please i'm sorry so which bid number are you speaking to 7.8 7.8 and there are several bid numbers in there we're buying parts for trucks we're

048buying other things we're buying this tutoring service that somebody spoke to okay this is apparently 800 and some thousand to train teachers on crt which is banned on crt we are not training them on critical race theory yeah you're now calling it cultural mister i'm sorry excuse me so i'm looking at all of the bids there's nothing on this agenda item that is anywhere close to 800 and some thousand dollars for training so do you have a bid number that you're willing to speak to if not you can speak about what you want to at the end of the meeting so long as it relates to school board business thank you thank you do you have any other speakers for agenda items no ma'am all right thank you all right we will now move to

049the consent agenda do we have a motion to accept all right miss hein and we have a second oh wait okay mrs long all in favor say aye aye opposed say no and it passes unanimously we will now move to item 8.1 where is it okay non-consent 8.1 request approval of the school improvement plans do we have a motion okay dr carr and we have a second thank you and miss edmund and seconding it dr grego yes ma'am chair and to the public this florida statute requires that annually school board members approve each and every one of the school improvement plans of our schools and we're bringing all of them to you as you've had them for a couple weeks now in draft form and now in final form i want to thank mr dahl

050for for really shepherding this huge task and also know that the school improvement plans and the district strategic plan are in alignment which makes which makes perfect sense to us and so it does it to our students and to our parents so i asked ms dull to just briefly review some of the highlights of the process and then the approval we'll be sending these to the state department after this meeting okay good thank you thank you doctor good morning madam chair board and members of the community and staff today i bring forward after we've workshopped both in july and again on september 21st for your approval all of the school improvement plans for the district this year as a reminder these as dr grego said are aligned to our district strategic plan and our strategic

051goals and actions schools work alongside teach members from teaching and learning our area superintendents title 1 family community engagement to ensure that their plans are comprehensive and look at all the areas for school improvement from where they are to where they're going these plans were a little bit different this year as number one we didn't have data from the 2019-2020 school year for fsa and was also a little different because we received our fsa data for 2021 a little bit later so some of them were made based on what they saw in their progress monitoring data and then updated why this is really important is that school improvement plans are iterative throughout the year and can be updated they can be updated for sac alignment with their budgets for the school improvement funds they can

052also be updated we all of our schools update the mid-year as we reflect on where we are and what goals and action steps we need to take forward all of these are currently posted on our online website following board approval they will go through the state process and be submitted and also be publicly available through the state sim site as well so today i bring those forward for your approval very good thank you board members any comments questions we had an opportunity to review those after the agenda came in we've also had conversation at our workshops about this so all right seeing none we have a motion by mrs kane and a second by miss edmond all in favor say aye aye passes and oppose the same sign it passes unanimously dr carr all right

053so before we move on we said that we would clarify after the speakers and i moved on and forgot to do that so we're going to ask for some clarification for the comments on the tutoring for item 7.8 yes ma'am chair and i'm going to ask mr henrik hendrick associate superintendent for teaching and learning as he's coming forward let me remind the public and to the board as we looked at all of our essar strategies that we were charged with the state department is to close the achievement gap based on the last 18 months and individual tutoring is perhaps one of the more effective if not the most effective means it doesn't preclude our own teachers for participating in this in fact we pay our teachers after school extended learning time all of the time

054but also in many cases our teachers are have long long days and have family obligations that we need additional tutors to do that so i want to thank and recognize mr hendrick for reaching out and securing a very well noted and also research-based tutoring company that can help our students and our parents and so mr henrik if you can give us some overview to this these funds though i want to make clear are specifically state funds for esser which was from federal through the state specific for this purpose yes thank you dr geiger as usual you're right on point with the comments as to what i was going to also share is that these funds came from the state and must be used to address learning loss as we examine learning loss of students over

055the last two years algebra and geometry are two areas where students in high school in particular have suffered the greatest loss and so when you look at students who are out of school one of the ways to catch them up is to get them more time and so with the help of our aar division we study different ways in which you can catch students up on learning loss and settle on a couple of different models including in-school tutoring where 11 of our high schools hired teachers this school year as well as paraprofessionals to come in and work with algebra teachers in classrooms to provide during the day tutoring we've also provided professional planning for teachers after school and are paying them their hourly rates to do that recognizing that teaching algebra to high school students

056is one of the most challenging tasks for a high school teacher so with that we also are looking at virtual tutoring it's been research based we've done a lot looking at different companies this particular company met our need both from a safety and security standpoint in terms of how they interact with students the recording of that and all the things that we would be concerned about but also having success with other similar student groups in large districts in the country so the 27 dollars an hour is paid by the school district to the company students teachers nobody else has any cost to them it's done both in school and out of school that's why in the contract you see a couple different versions and it can be done one-on-one or it can be done in

057a small group as well the data that we receive from that goes right back to the teachers that they use in their planning and is one of the ways that we are responding to the state's request to spend these dollars to close the learning loss that we've experienced with students over the last two years all right thank you thank you all right we will now move on to 8.2 exc if you have a question if you would go over or outside thank you alrighty non-consent 8.2 setting a public hearing and authorizing the advertising of the public hearing to consider the amendment to policy 2.2410 services policy 1140 discipline of administrators policy 3140 discipline of instructional staff 4140 discipline of support staff policy 5630.01 youth of use of seclusion and restraint on students with disabilities and

058policy 9800 charter schools this is a first reading do we have a motion okay mrs long second mrs edmund and dr grego yes ma'am chair 8.2 is an update to our policies based on the prior legislative session and things that are required to us that's why you see so many different arrangements of of our policies and ms dell who oversees all of the policies of our district will will bring you up to date with those keep in mind that and for the public's sake we went over each of these changes and clarifications on september 21st during our workshop thank you dr grego this is the first reading and approval to set the public hearing the public hearing for this would be set for in december at a board meeting date that will be set at

059our november organizational meeting so there is no actual date set yet but it would be the board meeting in december so the 8.2 setting of a public hearing as dr grego mentioned is for policies that are that need updating in direct alignment with the 2021 legislative session so for policy two one or two four one zero special services this aligns the language from house bill 590 requiring that the superintendent annually report to the department of education the number of involuntary examinations initiated at schools on school buses or at school-sponsored activities policy 1140 policy 3140 and policy 4140 all have to do the discipline of staff members specifically administrators instructional staff or support staff the language added to each of these policies aligns with house bill 131 and requires that all reports of alleged misconduct involving

060involving the safety of a student be investigated regardless of whether an employee involved resigns or is terminated prior to the conclusion of the investigation policy 5630.01 the use of seclusion and restraint on students with disabilities aligns to house bill 149 9 and what you'll see in there is a lot of deletions it removes the language for the use of seclusion or mechanical restraint on students with disabilities and policy 9800 charter schools adjust language and alignment with house bill 1028 it removes the february first deadline to submit a charter school application and it also is in alignment with legislation that states if a charter school changes its curriculum focus that change automatically assumed accepted if the curriculum aligns with the state standards so if we'll bring this forward for approval for setting a public hearing thank

061you very good thank you all right i see no comments or questions from board members again we did discuss this at a workshop i'm just going to read the policy numbers this time rather than what they all stand for but we have a motion in a second to have the first reading for policy two four one zero one one four zero three one four zero four one four zero five six three zero point zero one and policy nine eight zero zero all in favor say aye aye opposed say no and it too passes unanimously we now move to another policy 8.3 setting a public hearing and authorizing the advertisement of the public hearing to consider the amendments to policy 2421 vocational technical education programs again this is the first reading do we have a motion

062mrs long second section okay ms hein dr gregor yeah mr okay again this policy is brought forward and was discussed at workshop on september 21st and would be up for second reading in the public hearing in december when that date is determined this policy is bringing forward to update language so even the title of the policy vocational technical education will be updated upon approval of this to career and technical education those edits are made with throughout it also acknowledges dual enrollment students who take not only classes at the high school but also at our pinellas technical college and how that grade will be calculated and when that grade will be calculated there was a slight update since workshop to that language to clarify and to align with the practices of our technology to make sure

063that as we write it in policy the grades will be updated in accordance so for we bring that forward for approval of public hearing all right i see no board members requesting to speak so we have a motion and a second to set the advertising the public hearing for amendment 2 i mean for policy 2421 vocational technical education program all in favor say aye aye opposed say no it passes unanimously we're now down to 8.4 setting a public hearing and authorizing the advertisement of the public hearing to consider the amendment to policy 2460 exceptional student education you have a motion all right miss hein you have a second okay miss kane dr grego yes board members this policy and setting for a public hearing also aligns with the same timeline i described this policy is

064a little bit different than most policies we bring forward this is a policy that aligns with the state policies and procedures for exceptional student education also called the spmp generally the timeline is we work on this in this in the each fall and bring it to the board once it has already been approved by the florida department of education each spring because of some overlays with covid the timeline got pushed back so the document and the policy you're approving today has already been approved by the florida department of education it updates our spmp for the 2020-2021 year so it actually is from last year the team is already and including the florida department of education is already online to begin this next go around so this is a policy that we approve almost after the

065state has approved what we are doing so we bring this forward for approval for a public hearing you can see in the update all of the sections are updated each year the first one on there is restraint and seclusion which we just discussed as an update so it aligns with the policy set for a public hearing we just discussed there are areas about public and private partnerships our procedural safeguards how ieps and general education intervention procedures eligibility requirements participation in state and district assessments discipline and also newly to the policy or to this spmp starting last year is also the readiness due to local or national emergency so included within the spmp moving forward is also instructional continuity and continuity of services for students with disabilities at esc so i bring that forward for setting

066a public hearing good thank you all right i see no requests for comments so we have a motion by miss hein a second by mrs kane to set the public hearing authorizing the advertisement of public hearing to consider the amendments to policy 2460 exceptional student education all in favor say aye aye opposed say no and it passes unanimously on 8.5 we have a setting the public hearing and authorizing the advertisement of the public hearing to consider the amendments to policy 8420.03 which is reporting student progress and class ranking for high school and policy 5430 class rank do we have a motion okay mrs long do we have a second do we have a second excellent thank you miss hine shall we go straight to mistelle all righty all right this is the last one of

067the series so this agenda item brings forward the two policies that ms cook mentioned not to be confused with the sp and p i just discussed for esc this is part of the spp meaning the student progression plan so each year following legislative session staff goes back and looks at all of the alignment not only from legislation but in and also in practice and this year we are bringing forward two policies the first one being policy 5420.03 reporting student progress and class ranking what is being updated in here is amending to clarify language around early examinations and that this is not necessarily for convenience around vacation but for illness and those type of things it also clarifies in there that if a student is unable to take the exam at the scheduled time that they

068can take the exam regardless of semester upon return policy 5430 class rank is being updated because of the hope course it is being deleted out of what can count into the valedictorian salutatorian calculations as we are seeing more and more students start taking this before they enter into high school it is an unweighted class if you take it before you enter high school it is one of those that can impact the vil the valedictorian and salutatorian so it is being updated to remove that as something that's involved in the calculation of that honor very good and so we bring those forward for setting a public hearing alrighty thank you dr carr thank you i just want to acknowledge that this is a first reading of 8.5 on both of these and i think it would

069be pertinent for individuals in our community especially our students who this has an impact on to take time to look it over and provide us feedback there are lots of opportunities to provide feedback including email the board or utilizing let's talk there is there are some changes and of course they're around what was legislatively mandated but in there were also some recommendations if it's my understanding is correct and you can correct me if i'm off base that changed some of the decision-making to be there's at times sometimes a little more flexibility at the school level so i just think it's important for individuals to read this item over and have an awareness of the implications that might be in place and that they provide their feedback particularly students who you know as they're factoring and

070working towards their valedictorian salutatorian status okay all right no other board members or comments alrighty so we have a motion and a second to set the public hearing and authorize the advertisement of the public hearing to consider amendments to policy 5420.03 reporting student progress and class ranking in high school and policy 5430 class rank all in favor say aye aye opposed say no and it passes unanimously thank you very much okay and our last non-consent item is to request approval of the covid sic leave pay memorandum of understanding with seiu florida public services union and the fraternal order of police which is the fop and the covid sick leave pay for professional technical supervisory non-represented support staff and administrators do we have a motion all right miss edmond second all righty mrs kane we have

071a second dr grego miss ma'am chair and school board members i'm very pleased to bring this 8.06 which is the memorandum of understanding to extend the coveted sick leave pay memorandum to of that understanding through december 17th our folks have been through a lot and it was certainly as i know this board leads with several with compassion and the fact is that i'm very pleased i want to thank those areas in those unions that were able to ratify this and so we'll continue to work with this and miss texel i want to say thank you she's been the lead player in working with our various union groups and certainly want to extend this to as many employees as possible so today we're bringing it to the seiu the fraternal order police and all those non-represented

072employees to our district very good thank you good morning good morning madam chair school board members dr gregos staff yes i am here this morning to request the approval of the tentative agreements for the covid sick leave pay of a memorandum of understanding with seiu fpsu the fraternal order of police as well as the coveted sickly pay for pts non-represented support staff and administrators as you know since march 2020 the family first coronavirus relief act provided paid time off for employees who were unable to work due to reasons related to covid but that has since expired the district and seiu fpsu and fop bargaining teams recently agreed on specific terms and conditions for which employees can continue to be paid either through paid sick leave or through the use of the district's sick leave bank

073when needed to quarantine we believe this agreement is so important that it provides our employees with the ability to get paid following the agreed-upon guidelines when they are required to quarantine and as dr grego mentioned this agreement will be in effect until december 17th both bargaining units recently approved this mou and as with other previous agreements reached when the bargaining with bargaining units the non-represented employees will follow the same terms and conditions so on behalf of the superintendent's staff we are highly recommending you approve these agreements with seiu and fop as well as for our non-represented staff this morning thank you thank you very much any comments all right we have a request to approve the coveted sick leave pay memorandum of understanding with seiu fop and our non-represented support staff and administrators all in

074favor say aye aye opposed say no and it passes unanimously thank you very much all right we'll move to items introduced by the superintendent yes madam chair and school board members i want to start my comments today with thanking you for the many visits that you conduct to our schools and through our schools our principals sincerely appreciate you being there i know my staff and i have been making a concerted effort to visit all schools in our district multiple times especially this year and to see how things are going and also the needs of our schools our parents or our students i also want to say to san jose elementary what a great opportunity for the ribbon cutting there and opening up their doors to the community so it is refreshing to get the communities

075all back into our schools and truly being a true partner in in our schools i also want to say give you a very brief update for the area superintendents and chief transformation officers not only began their year-long training with the university of washington but dr corbin and i also attended probably not entirely but it's their training but we want to be a collective partner with them and i just want to say thank you to the commitment of time their work still is there after they finish and also the university of washington to the leadership development program that is known nationally and we're very much benefiting from from that also thank you to the board for the certificate of distinction the ceremony that we had the drive-by ceremony that i know mrs cook miss edmonds and

076our whole entire professional development department mark narkier and others we camped out at mount vernon elementary the administrative building right here and also countryside high school to hand out the certificate of distinction to each of the members 108 support employees earned a certificate of distinction 81 earning the level 1 and 27 earning level 2. we talk a lot about retention of teachers and the need to continue to to find ways to retain teachers and we're we're continuing to look for those ways i want to highlight one of which our professional development department and that's hosting the new teacher social as you as i reported earlier we were meeting with all new teachers throughout the county virtually just to update them and have other people mayors and others speak to them this last one we had

077a gathering actually a clear water beach holiday inn and just for our new teachers to come and socialize with others so we're seeing tremendous benefits of connecting with our teachers outside of the work environment and really understanding what their needs are and how can we help partner with them i also want to say leap tampa bay college access network that the we received the 2021 member of the year award of excellence from the national college attainment network as you know we've been working as a district with leap on the college and career readiness and we've been partnering with our with the pinellas educational foundation for this and i'm very proud of the work that we're doing as a local college access network leap members are working towards this needle towards our collective goal of seeing

07860 percent of the entire region not just pinellas county but the entire tampa bay working age adults holding a college degree or credential by 2025 and we truly are making a difference and certainly pinellas county is leading the way with its elevating excellence in college and career centers and nights and so forth i do want to bring up the event even last night of the college and career at countryside high school that was remarkably successful as i walked around it and i know this school board had a booth there and as they greeted hundreds and hundreds of people just the families seeing and talking with college admissions officers throughout the country and people came from all over all the way from california to the northeast to all of our state universities here in in florida

079so and we are going to still host a virtual one october 18th because we learned that was pretty successful not only in the face-to-face but october 18th there'll be over 100 colleges participating from across across the country including internationally so students and families will have the opportunity to visit and spend some quality time with those colleges and universities if you check our website pcsb.org forward slash college fairs it will give you all of the instructions that you need the district though application process for next school year is beginning tonight on tuesday october 12th at 6 30 pm the district will host a facetime and you tur youtube live event for families to learn about the processes the key dates and just a really an overview and orientation of the district application program the fairs will

080take place throughout october north county fair october 19th from 6 to 8 at tarpon springs high school the all-county fair from october 23rd all high schools and from 9 through 10 30 a.m in elementary and middle schools from 11 to 12 30 p.m at largo high school and then south county fair is will be october 26 from 6 to 7 30 p.m at northeast high school so if if you have any dates i'm throwing a lot of dates and times at you all of these dates and times would clarify additional detail is on our website following that we'll have discovery nights at individual schools throughout throughout the month of november and mid-december this will ensure that families and parents if they want further information and there's no better way to find out a school that

081is a fit for you if you visit that school so we'll we'll be having those and in just an exciting time period of the year mr truskowski is leading the way on this and met with her earlier this morning they're excited her whole team and student assignment is excited about this district application program let me also say that as they work with the district application program they're also working with to ensure that our community schools are a choice for our parents and that is we make a conscious choice of strengthening and working effectively with our community schools too so where there's a curriculum excitement or really an attraction whether it be like the cat program at lakewood or the medical assistants or medical program or an ib program we understand those are in select schools

082but also want all of our parents to understand the attraction and the quality of their own neighborhood schools the we have been selected to present twice at the council of great city schools annual conference keith master righties and pat wright will make one president will be conducting a presentation on leveraging student leadership and then jennifer dull as you just heard from and theresa price will be talking about leveraging our resources as the federal funds with esser funds coming down how to greatly have the this impact of of how and what where so that four three four five years from now we can look back and say we made a tremendous difference in the area of soup of student achievement and closing that gap last thing i'll mention to you is as we've had further discussions

083with the department of education and the commissioner is that they did submit their arp or american rescue plan funds that their application has been submitted i think the board has a link it's 342 pages i will read it and staff will read it i will see and determine but i believe as i looked at it from in in the early stages that our plans and what we're doing in the buckets are identical to what their plan is and their plan and our plans are were kind of formulated very similarly so we're we're not out there and doing anything that would be viewed as inappropriate or certainly out of line with the regulations that the state's putting in so the coveted relief funds will be there it will be here and we'll continue with that work

084that concludes my comments very good thank you and items introduced by the school board attorney mr gaperski i have no items thank you man alrighty thank you so we'll move to items introduced by the school board members dr carr thank you just to piggyback on that dr grego thank you for your leadership with the state as well as staff in supporting the state and their development by submitting our plans and working hard on our plans i also want to acknowledge student assignment if you have a chance today they've also done some work in there and it's looking really good they've had you know as we all are possibly looking at next levels of student assignments in our own families it's an opportunity to go through the system yourself and of course provide feedback so but

085just the facilities themselves mr herbic are looking really nice down there in student assignment so thank you miss long for your tremendous community feel with your presentation at san jose it was great to go out and see the turtles and see the construction that went on at san jose with their pre-k program i also would like to thank being that it is still dyslexia month those folks participating in the professional development in reading both at i had the opportunity i know it's going on in more places but to observe some of the professional development taking place at nelson elementary and palm harbor middle school so those are really fantastic places where learning is focused in on not only expanding the students ability to read but exposing them so that they can find the joy in

086reading i'd also like to thank all those coaches we know that's usually your area mr dudley but i had the opportunity to go to the city meet this past weekend and there were a number of records set that those saint pete high swimmers the young women relay sets a record and i know there were others and i may not remember them also had the chance to get to plum elementary school and there they have been working with their data room reviewing their student data and just had a outstanding amount of investment in monitoring the progress of their students so thank you to the leadership both the teacher leadership and the administrative leadership at plum elementary school it was impressive and at pinellas virtual was out at pinellas virtual and visiting bayside high school and with

087pinellas virtual's large increase in enrollment as well as bay sides increase in enrollment and new leadership there were a lot of initiatives taking place at bayside to really move things forward with the with the whole group of students there so that was a real wonderful opportunity and i just wanted to share it back with you also had that it was national walk to school and i participated at starkey elementary i know others were at other places and boy there was a huge turnout we it was all the way around the corner from the church and what a great school starkey is seeing so many parents and families joining together to participate in national walk to school day and thank you i know there were a number of us on the koch webs call recently and

088our involvement with kokwebs and participating in that i've been attending koch webb's meetings for over 15 years now and the there are challenges right now with how we will address accountability you know with the changing in standards and the changing in assessments you know we had fcat fcat 2.0 fsa now where are we headed so i really appreciate the leadership in teaching and learning to look at that and our assessment and accountability division and the certificate of distinction was a great opportunity to be here at the office and see so many familiar faces it's a great chance for professional development and a lot of feedback about it is a lot of work and it is a lot of time when when you acknowledge people's commitment to it and thank you to those folks who did

089move forward to to really invest in their professional development and just if you haven't been out to hollins high i was also out at holland's high who spoke earlier about their student center and it is beautiful and they have also really improved their for lack of a better word from these home improvements show like their curb appeal when you walk up there it just seems so welcoming and the climate the culinary arts program has an opportunity to pull things out the arts program and it just feels like such a nice community with the students engaged and the camaraderie amongst in between the different groups who are of students who are in different programs at the school it was a really nice place to visit and to just and obviously from the students this morning so

090those have been the things that i've been able to take part in since our last meeting and i just really wanted to share how excited i was being back out in our schools and meeting with people and seeing folks so thank you for your time very good thank you mrs edmond thank you this morning we voted on several items 7.9 through 7.19 and i'd like to ask if mr herbert can provide additional information specifically whether other firms are going to be considered for services less than four million dollars will the approved firms be provided the opportunity to submit bids for services that are less and is there a possibility for other firms to be used instead of the firms that were approved this morning okay yes thank you ms edmund and madam chairman board members

091the items that you approved this morning were all for the design there were a couple of actual and i don't mean to sound negative toward design but the actual work will be done a little bit later but this is for the design of different types of projects and but your questions is yes other firms will be eligible both to join the list this is you actually approved a two-year contract with an automatic third year and other firms can apply during that time and join the list so a new firm starting up in the area in fact we picked up two of those type of firms in our previous contract so other firms do come in and they do pick up work through that opportunity the firms that you approved this morning can go out and

092work on projects larger than four million dollars as well and many of them do apply for projects you know such as tyrone and clearwater and other projects such as that dr grego mentioned san jose and san jose it was a project it cost about three million dollars it was a perfect type of project to fit into these type of contracts that you approved this morning it's a little bit smaller it required design and it required a cm and on both of those since we started san jose prior to this contract being put in place we had to go out and do a general solicitation for that and what that does is it just really kind of slows down the project process for all projects over four million dollars we put out a submittal through purchasing

093companies from all over can apply for that we have a scoring committee who grades those we then invite them in for presentations and then award eventually those companies the project what the what the project or what the contracts you did approved this morning does is it's for projects for 4 million or less and really what we've done is we've pre-approved all of these firms so the necessity of purchasing to go out and advertise and for all of those companies to submit a book and to go through the presentation process which takes them time and it takes time away from the work that they're doing for other people is really a benefit not only to them but for us as well and so again these projects or these contracts this morning benefit both of us but

094it really we're very fortunate by the way that the state increased the limit on those contracts it used to be two million two million dollars it's now four and so it really does broaden the opportunities for these firms to work in and with all of these as well there are projects once in a while there are that will be less than four million dollars and that we just don't think that this contract for one reason or another is the best way to approach it and we may put out an individual bid or we may put out a hard bid and again these companies on this list can still apply for that if they want to but by and large most of them are very appreciative that they don't have to go through the submittal process

095over and over and over again hope that answers your question yes thank you and thank you very much mr herbick and something else that i wanted to highlight and recognize is our professional learning department i had the opportunity to join safety harbor middle school and earning a micro credential for mental health by completing the youth mental health first day in the cognito training which is also something that we purchase as well as participating in the threat assessment and showing up in person to participate in some of our ese trainings which include trauma-informed care and sensory sensitive strategies hazing prevention for all students and several courses of that nature i think it's very important that we recognize our educators and staff that are following through with additional training because i believe that it really provides extra

096tools for us to assess students and provide the supports that they need and i can go on and on about student services in the important work that they have and making sure that teachers are not only equipped with the resources but that our teachers are able to provide the appropriate dialogue and support to those students throughout the day we have seen that mental health issues or challenges are increasing and having staff that are aware of how to support students in other personnel is important so thank you all right miss hein thank you i just wanted to follow up on miss edmond and mr herbeck's conversation about the selection committee i had the opportunity to sit on those as a citizen representative a couple of years ago one of the other things i was really impressed

097with was the fact that any company that submits and once they're graded and all of that is available they can call mr herbert's office and get a rundown of where they were high where they were low what can they do better so we do a great job of even mentoring companies of what it is that they can do better so any company is welcome and encouraged to submit for those and you do a very thorough job on those selection committees i was impressed and then just since i pushed the button i will also mention on the school improvement plan part that mrs dull came up and spoke about i know we quickly approved that and didn't have any discussion but i know that for our area superintendents and for all of our principals and all

098of our sac committees out there and parents who participate on those and a school improvement plan is no small thing it's it's significant and you put a lot of time and effort into those and they really make a difference so i thought i would just take a moment to acknowledge that and say thank you all right thank you all right any other board members yep all right this past week i attended the florida school board the board of directors president training which they do every year with the board chairman vice chairman of committees and the president i am pleased to report that one of the items that we had during that time and talked about was our audit we have a clean audit for the organization which was good we also i want to encourage

099you to go to the joint conference or look on and see what they have the agenda is online and i just want you to look at one day is committee meetings if you are interested in serving on one of the committees you can still sign up that you know there's no statute of limitations here as to how long you can serve or at what point you can join but if you are at all thinking about submitting your name here for chairman or vice chair i would ask that you look at that and put the date on your calendar because we encourage everyone to attend that session so that you can learn how to be the best chairperson and vice chairperson possible the national school boards association sent out a letter to president biden and we

100had some conversation at our board of directors meeting and i'm going to send these to you we're concerned about the process as well as the content i can go into more detail later if you would like but we wrote a letter letting them know apparently the letter was written with the signature of the president and the executive director it you can pass it all the way down it was never run past the executive committee it was never run past their board it was just sent out on behalf of that so in here we mentioned the process along with some other processes that have been going on florida school boards association has withheld their dues until those processes are taken care of but i wanted to give you a copy of the letter that was sent

101on behalf of the florida school boards association not on behalf of the local not on behalf of this board because it was nothing that you approved but it was a board of directors that said you know we have concerns about the content of this letter we also have great concerns about the processes that are being used so that's just an fyi for you i did receive a message back about our master board training the december 6th or the 8th are available the 10th is not we will finalize a date after the meeting rather than sitting here with calendars right now in front of everybody so when we do our evaluation bring your calendar and with that my report is complete dr corbett are there any requests by the board no madam chair i did not

102record any requests today all right then our school board evaluation need of the meeting will be held after we have our public participation and with that if there are no concerns or disagreements the meeting is adjourned all right so we will now move the public participation portion of our meeting mrs houck do we have speakers i'm going to just remind everybody of the same comments that i have made before and part of our policy and i will quote that said that we may interrupt or terminate a speaker when his statements are not relevant or exceeds the time allowance if they're abusive threatening deflammatory we're not having that and you're also not doing that at this point so i think you all have read the policies and know what the expectations are and we appreciate you

103following through with that okay so mrs houck yes madam speaker board members and dr grego we have five speakers this afternoon thank you and we'll call them two at a time again to come up as we did last time our first two speakers are nancy villardi and barbara dumochel all righty and you can go to either one looks like nancy's coming to this one all right it's still morning good morning morning as you know my main mission as president of pcta has been to heal the rift and lack of trust that has gradually developed between management and employees over the past year years unfortunately instead of seeing improvement teachers are witnessing a steady decline in the relationship i understand that the unusual challenges of the last year and a half have taken a toll not

104only on the educators but also on the administrators at our work sites causing an excess of tension but improvement will not happen until we partner to make it happen the lack of trust goes both ways which further complicates this all important relationship administrators do not appear to trust the teachers to perform the duties that they were hired to execute which is evidenced by micromanaging excessive scrutiny and increased interference in the delivery of instruction this in turn results in the teacher feeling a deep resentment for not being respected to perform her requisite duties first-year teachers are expected to be expert immediately which is unrealistic since this is obviously a profession that requires experience to master instead of receiving support and advice meant to guide them to be great teachers they are criticized or disciplined or worse

105yet non-renewed or probationally dismissed in a time when the nationwide teacher shortage is reflected in our own community with over a hundred still unfilled positions and educators resigning every week we should be nurturing new teachers and creating greatness instead of prematurely sending them packing this relationship begins with cordiality between the district and pcta we must demonstrate a cooperation that can be repeated in the schools for some reason our relationship has been somewhat strained and it sets a poor example for the structure in our system pcta has no desire for our negotiations to be adversarial we believe that we should be collaboratively creating a contract that is intended to resolve conflict rather than escalated both organizations should operate from the belief that our educators are valuable and should be treated as such that same respect should

106be extended to the organization that represents educator interests pcta and for your information we have all pcta and passport have already agreed to the coveted leave mous we are simply waiting for the public employee relations commission we must abide by their rules for ratification so we are simply pending ratification thank you very much thank you good morning hi good morning i'm barbara dumoschel last but not least i get my three minutes that's why there's not thousands of parents here because we have to work for a living what a beautiful example of american values the two students who spoke earlier that we that embrace all races it proves that we embrace as americans all races to prosper and succeed all of our children are valued regardless of their color or personal beliefs that's already given that's

107a given the american work and i just want to comment on a few of the other comments the american workers teachers are undervalued and underpaid compared to the pay rate of executive and administrative positions that gap is way out of balance and secondly we all have equal rights in america the lbgt community need no special attention or recognition just like every other community and of values i do not agree with all religious groups and values and sexual orientations and racial views and they may not agree with mine i don't push my views on them and they shouldn't be able to push their views on me or my family or or in the classroom on my kids as a parent i have a right to teach my children my religious beliefs if any group wants to

108they can meet in after school meetings to support promote and communicate their belief system i mean that's what we did when we were kids if any individual child needs help in any area or guidance they should seek it is available you do not have the right to infringe on my child's learning time to address special needs sexual orientations religious or racial propaganda to do that have no bearing nothing to do with my children and their s.a.t scores they have no bearing on my child's education or success it is not a teacher's job to push their religious sexual or racist racial views on my child again if any child has any issues or any sexual issues whatever they can get help in a program dedicated to that end a teacher's job is to spot that and

109then direct them and guide them into helps which are available in the community in america that's our country we have a beautiful country a beautiful country so here we go these are my comments that was just addressing what was said previously and that you all seem to agree with okay please understand that i am not against any person here i hold no malice towards anyone other than to protect the illegality of csc and crt and mandates to my children i am a law abiding citizen mother grandmother protesting against a marxist ideology infecting our country through inside corruption of government officials media teachers unions and school board with the intent of destroying our nation i'm holding such and contempt of your oath of office to our values the laws embodied in our constitution thank you our

110next two speakers are renaccia and sweet and while they're coming up i want to share that this is not the only way or the only opportunity in which the community can get in touch with us we do have phone numbers that are available we have email that's available and other other ways of contacting us and i won't take any more of your time welcome thank you all claim you want to have a dialogue about this issue this issue being marxist rabble in the community so why don't we have a dialogue about this issue i've been here since july asking specifically for that and as was pointed out we only get three minutes at each meeting to to talk to you all about this sort of thing it's your job to engender public trust if the

111trust does not trust if the public doesn't trust you're failing at that job nicole you seem to be able and willing to respond to the newspapers but you don't respond to the public whom you serve i asked all of you in an email to explain your rationale for discounting the parents out of hand at the last meeting and vote to purchase training and curriculum they have questionable origins and content when all we asked you to do was table and have a dialogue lisa caprice and laura you also did not respond so far what i've experienced is a lot of obstruction not collaboration or dialogue if you're serious about collaborating with parents and it's all true that no teachers are teaching inappropriate content in the county then let's put cameras in the classrooms let the parents

112see and view and review in a transparent way the content of the curriculum and supplemental materials you're using for instruction if you have nothing to hide stop hiding everything i have a doctor friend in this county in pinellas county who pulled his kids out of your schools because his third grade daughter went to the classroom and brought home a book that had two gay men in bed together when he took it to the principal and said i don't think this is appropriate content for third grade reading the principal said why are you homophobic are you racist what's your problem he said no i don't think any two adults in bed together is appropriate content for third grade reading i have gay friends i have friends of color so there's there's a very disingenuous message and

113disingenuous way that you are approaching and treating the public on this issue when all we're asking for is a further dialogue and a deeper dive on the issue to that point let's talk about equity diversity and inclusion as i've told you before my degrees in anthropology when you say diversity if you mean representation of all races creeds and backgrounds then we can agree but if you actually mean all races represented except white people or christians then we do not agree so i think we need to get beyond this just using little jargon and saying crt the law by the way uses crt in the 1619 project as examples of the type of thing that is not allowed in florida schools not as the only thing so a lot of these talks are narrowing down and

114focusing specifically on oh it's not exactly crt that doesn't mean it's not marxist rabble that doesn't mean that it's not included in the sunshine standards as something that's not appropriate in the schools thank you i'm going to ask that you remember that the applause is only during the first part of it's not appropriate for the agenda on which we vote or at this point in time thank you and our last yes i can call our final speaker karen perez okay good all right she was in 4.3 she was being pushed but she can speak now if she's speaking to 4.3 she can speak now all right good morning so i have a dream that one day in politics soon this can all change i realize in the beginning before we had phones and high-speed internet

115we had to elect people to speak for us but i look forward to the day when elected official in this day and age of high-speed internet would put out votes for the people to actually find out what the people want because when we vote for people we vote for people that we think we have the best interest in that program is flawed because after we vote people in they tend to vote how they want to versus how their constituents wanted them to so i do have a dream one day because i think that it is i don't think criminal's the right word but i think it's a little bit skeevy that you decided to do that without having public comment without having public vote to just write out all the parents and pass that in

116and write and say it's a presentation and not a vote even though you asked four votes and everybody voted on it obviously i'm confused with vocabulary you know i must have needed an fev tutor or something but this is not right for you to not give people comment about that because this is their kids you know you're talking about sex sexual orientation who you want to have sex with who are kids want to have sex with who you want your children to have sex with sexual orientation is sex sex sex sex that's what it is who we want our children to have sex with that's what you're bringing into the school but mr grego i sent you the email about the updated incident report with the office of professional standards mr frank hanging up on

117me but i would also hope that you would look into the original investigation because with him hanging up on me that just tells me that this is the type of man who didn't care about what happened but you guys should know that miss blatavel at southern oak elementary told my kid and this is general comment so i'm allowed to speak to the things that i am submitting to the before you shake your head miss bloodivel told my son that if he didn't wear his mask right he was going to die like the first grader did in minnesota and the office of professional standards found nothing wrong with that so when i went to call the second time to let the office of professional standards know after my son told me of a second incident where

118this teacher told him he cannot go to mom and dad with new problems because mom and dad only have old answers that's perversive that's disgusting i've been a victim of abuse as a child you don't tell a child that they can't tell their mom and dad stuff unless you intend to tell them things they probably shouldn't be telling their mom and dad so that's the email that i submitted to you because i had been sick and hadn't gotten to it but i would also like investigation into the office of professional standards head person for victim gaslighting me he told me that if my ten-year-old son could remember the exact date and the exact time that this teacher told this to him that he wouldn't believe me and he hung up on me is that what

119we're doing to victims is that how we're saying we're caring about kids that if a 10 year old can't remember the exact date and the exact time then something didn't happen to them that is what's happening in schools right now and out of the respect for this man right here i stopped protesting in front of the school but i was yelling for days in front of the school so that everybody knew what miss blaudiville thinks is okay i have her on video i hope you click on that youtube link where she says that she routinely listens to npr on her way into school and tells the children about the stories that she hears this is not in the curriculum this is not what people send their kids to school for and i hope that one

120day you guys will realize that we don't vote for your opinion thank you good morning hi i thought i was short maybe i'm not as short as i thought i was i spoke to you guys last time and maybe you remember a little bit about my background but i just want to say a couple things about transparency and inclusivity if you really feel that labeling everybody down to the minutia of their sexuality and their race and their downtrodden status is so effective why are these board meetings so contentious why is there such a lack of transparency the more we cling to identity politics the further away we get from each other i don't know how this isn't evident to everyone on this board we're all individuals we all deserve to be judged by our individual

121contributions and the content of our character i believe a very wise man one day said this martin luther king jr you guys might know who he is the closer we get to examining the minutia of everyone's preferences the further away we get i know i sound the same i say the same thing over and over again it's not working it's tearing our communities apart it's making our children hyper self-conscious and focused on things that are superficial that have nothing to do with the content of their character i challenge you guys one to be a little bit more interactive when you vote on things it's very it's not exactly a nail biter every time you guys have something that you bring up and you vote on it's always yes i never ever hear a no i

122don't hear questions i hear questions after the fact of things you've already voted and passed through because you didn't know the details i mean it's the same with everything you have to ask questions you have to get under the hood you have to see what everything is about just because it says lgbtq doesn't mean oh well because we're defaulting into the society where one thing means right one thing means wrong and we're not using critical thinking to go beyond to really think is this the right thing is this the wrong thing what are the repercussions how will children learn how will we make better contributors to society by implementing these things another thing i ask is that if you're so concerned about diversity and critical race awareness why don't you ask people like myself who

123live in the community i've already told you my story i'm not going to go over it again whoever came a tremendous amount of adversity because i was hispanic i'm a single woman and i've done really well for myself and i would gladly i'd rather be contributing my time talking to children inspiring them saying hey i did it i had no dad i had a single mom i had a crappy childhood i have a master's degree i own a home i'm a very happy well-adjusted individual i'd rather spend my time sitting in your schools telling people of my success story than sitting here always asking the same thing over and over again and be moaning about how we feel invisible to you guys so these are just things to chew on that i thank you good

124morning good morning my name is amanda i feel like every single avenue every single opportunity that you take you deny god and his will you attack the children at every chance you can you push your sick twisted agendas on them on the minds of these innocent children you've went ahead and proclaimed october as lgbtq history month no regard what this does to all children young children who have no business learning about your perversion of what sex and their preferences are so let's talk about it here as adults what history on the lgbtq do you plan to teach our children do you want to talk about the horrific gender assignment surgery that they're going to have to go through why do you loop in the trans with the lgb this is completely different this is a

125medical mental disorder gender dysphoria is awful this causes great anguish to a very tiny percentage of the population and while these people need support and help you want to celebrate it and push it on innocent children who are forming their minds in a time of confusion and vulnerability is there anything that you did as a child that you might regret today so i'm asking you what history are you going to teach them because we know that we love to distort history and facts in our in our schools all across the country to fit agendas and please the overlords so according to a long-term gender dysphoria study suicide death risk in trans community is higher than the general population and occurs at every stage of transitioning so pushing this on our children when it causes irreversible

126damage we're talking about life-changing irreversible treatment and surgeries focusing on the symptom and not the root and you would be uncomfortable if i'd started to tell you exactly what that medical procedure looks like involving dismemberment skin grafts yeah look down so when people speak against this obvious attack on our children they're canceled labeled a transphobic bigot and i understand why you want to sit there and say yeah okay let's go on with it but if you do not choose to stand up against our sick society give your seat up stop being a coward and i am here to remind you that everything in the world that we're trying to normalize is not normal i am here to tell you every single one of you that you need to repent repent against the crimes that you

127are committing against our children because you will be judged in the highest court and even not believing in god is a sin that even the devil did not commit thank you are there any other speakers no madam chair there's than it is this portion of our meeting thank you all for attending you