School Board Meeting 10_22_19

001good evening everyone thank you so very much for attending this evening school board meeting will call this meeting to order today we have the invocation by someone who I consider a very good friend of mine thank you so much for appearing with us today that is the Reverend Andy Oliver for Allendale United Methodist Church that will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance the national anthem the national anthem will be sung by members of our very own Seminole High School and they will have a second song that will be introduced by their choral director if you would all please stand I have brought along with me my son's Liam and Evan Oliver who are in fifth and 3rd grade at Ridgecrest Elementary who are gonna help me give the prayer tonight we pray in the

002name of the one who is called by many names the best of which is love and teacher and we pray that our schools and teachers are helping and inclusive of refugees we pray for kids that come from different countries to not be fearful of being taken from their parents we pray for kids who need more help learning English may our schools be extra loving to people from different countries in a world that is rushed may our children have time for play recess and friendships in a world full of shame about our bodies may our children know how to love their full selves no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity we give thanks for comprehensive sex education that doesn't erase LGBTQ children who are still learning who they are in a world that is violent

003may our children feel protected free from the sight of guns may our teachers be able to focus on teaching and not carrying the stress of wielding weapons in a world that fights may our children learn the ways of making peace where conflict arises may restorative justice practices give the tools for loving one another may we prioritize full implementation of these practices over suspensions arrests an expansion of the school to Prison Pipeline in a world where black and brown bodies are discriminated against and murdered may we be bold in our words and practices and actions to proclaim that their lives do matter may we do the hard work to dismantle white supremacy and racism so that all may truly have the same opportunity to live and to grow and finally we give thanks for those at

004this Dyess in this room for the teachers and administrators and students that they serve may they always keep in mind those students at the margins in every policy may the best that is in us which is also named love move us to lift everyone up all men we went to practice over there thank you so much for having us here tonight my name is Lauren Brautigan Cattell this is my eighth year teaching in Pinellas County and it's such an honor to sing for you all tonight our next piece that you're going to hear us sing is called keep your lamps and it's arranged by Andre J Thomas who's a former professor at Florida State and this is a traditional spiritual the background of this piece the history of it is that slaves who are working

005in the fields had to communicate by code they couldn't say hey I've heard the Underground Railroad is coming up soon so instead they would say keep your lamps trimmed and burning the time is drawing nigh and those are the words for this song thank you burn burn and keep your journeys soon me over Christian journey soon be over Christian journey soon me over the heart is joy my Christian journey soon me over Christian journey soon me over Christian journey soon be over hard is joy and keep your lamps trimmed and burning keep your lamps trimmed and burning sometime is John I keep your love's trimmed and burn and keep your love's trimmed and burning keep your lamps trimmed and burning thank you again so very much that was absolutely wonderful one of my favorite songs

006you didn't even know that thank you so very much the choral director Loren cattell seminal singers and thank you so much for both the national anthem and that wonderful song student's perfect great job thank you I believe your principal is also here I know that he'll probably be staying through the through the presentation for s R & R but principal Lucas is here as well I believe somewhere in the audience she is I'm sorry Hey thank you so much for coming we now have the video that we are more than excited to show you all for today the Pinellas County School Board strongly supports professional development for all of our employees the certificate of distinction program is an opportunity for our support employees to set goals for their professional and for their personal development and

007to choose classes that align with these goals level one participants are required to complete 65 hours of training and level two participants complete more than 150 hours of training in areas such as leadership technology and communication including 30 hours of community service last week we celebrated the latest program graduates I believe that was at banquet masters and at a breakfast ceremony let's hear from a few of them now hello my name is Franco Girardi I'm a licensed practical nurse and I work at 9'o Harris exceptional school I just started about nine months ago with a school district and even though I'm a new employee I wanted to do the certificate of distinction because my co-workers encouraged me to do so that I could continue my nursing career they said even though you just completed school

008the certificate of distinction has so many different types of programs of things that you may have learned in school anything from computer to bullying to all different kind of programs I got to meet a lot of people from different departments and I got to understand how teamwork like they say it makes the dream work and how people from different departments come together to for one common goal and basically I feel like it's an investment from Pinellas County Schools for their employees I would encourage anybody to get their search and forget a distinction it's very important to continue and do lifelong learning and always continue for your success when I think of support employees that I respect people who have been mentors to me and who have guided me in my career the one common factor

009they all share is completion of the zod programs my name is Shawn Ali good I am secretary to the executive director of Middle School education and I work in the administration building my experience with the certificate of distinction program was a very positive one both for level 1 and for level 2 and I appreciated the way that we were able to complete it self-paced and so I really appreciated the way the district made it so attainable for everyone professionally I feel that I have gained confidence and I've become much better at the programs I used on a daily basis we're familiar with policies and procedures in the district which is very important for what I do so overall I feel like I've gained a much deeper understanding of the way that we do things and

010the importance of our policies it's exciting to me that as much as I enjoyed the program and I learned so much about it that there are more ideas coming down the pike to improve the program and hopefully I can continue to be a part of that process my name is Shawn Ruth Lawrence and I work in the position of an ESC associate at Dunn in the Highland middle school the certificate of distinction program lets you know that you are valuable in the position that you're currently working in it allows me to have an opportunity to acquire new skills and opportunity to advance impossible you should be I learned immediately about goal-setting how important goal setting is goal setting allows me to give me a clear direction what the different wants me to do and what

011I need to do as a support employee I love working with the children the children makes the job a joy I think that I'm a better person because of the certificate of distinction program and I'm glad to have this opportunity to learn more and to develop my skills because of the certificate distinction program that was absolutely wonderful now we will have introduction of our professional and community organization representatives by Miss Lisa M Wolfchase and public information officer so are you how much longer are you with us this will be my last board meeting Oh until Friday we love you and we wish like thank you very much and madam chair members of the board dr. Greg Owens staff it is my pleasure to introduce the following representatives of community and professional organization representing the pinellas

012classroom Teachers Association Mike Gandolfo with the Pinellas County Council of PTAs Lawrence Claire mouth representing the Pinellas arts for a complete education coalition Linda Crowley and members of the media in attendance today include angela clooney with ten news WTSP as well as Sondra weathers and Robert Bill's of Bay News 9 today there will be a presentation from the student rights and responsibilities committee please welcome from Seminole High School Brianna Polly and Nicholas McClure thank you good evening I'm Brianna Polly and I'm a senior at Seminole High School being a war Hawk has offered me many amazing opportunities to do great things such as being the secretary of student government I am in e-commerce and Sal Academy I am a part of multiple amazing clubs National Honor Society National Technical Honor Society and a new Honor

013Society for psychology lastly I'm a captain of our softball team which allows me to be part of positive coaching Alliance these opportunities have led to a positive high school experience thank you for the time to share all the great things that are happening at Seminole high I'm going to be living the Laura the Warhawk way because our school spirit is second to none we have been invited by the mayor of Seminole to be ambassadors for the great city of Seminoles fiftieth anniversary celebration this year our senior class student government and athletic student leaders are cultivating a culture of positive vibes and a school-wide team spirit the Warhawk nation has experienced a surge in attendance in boasts capacity crowds at athletic events art based events clubs and community events this Warhawk pride has expanded throughout the

014community with our new tradition of sponsoring a multi-generational family drive-in movie event each month at our last event we had 60 plus cars in attendance we just had our annual Taste of seminal event where over 30 restaurants and local chefs transformed the Warhawk gym into a fantastic culinary experience for all in a few short months the dedicated oh yes the dedicated alumni of Seminole high school will be staging the world's largest alumni event in tandem with the city of Seminole in Seminole Parks and Rec they are going for a world record our Warhawk marching band sponsored the 43rd annual Seminole sound spectacular a few weeks ago with bands attending from all over the southeast Seminole High School received the golden school award for 2019 2020 from the Department of Education for leadership in school volunteerism

015Seminole High School in competition with major corporations and adult nominees were the recipients of the gte financial Community Partner of the year award we want our homecoming game and had an amazing homecoming dance in September let eclis the Seminole War Hawk nation has experienced an amazing 2019 2020 season so far the girls soccer team was part of the sweet 16 our baseball team were elite eight finalists and the boys soccer team were in the Final Four for the state just a few weeks ago the Warhawk boys 200 freestyle relay team shattered an SHS and PCAC record by three seconds that's an eternity in the swim world Seminole High School's junior Austin baby is the international karate Federation 2019 world champion in kickboxing he is an official member of Team USA in his on track for

016US Olympics stardom each one of our visual and performing arts groups qualified and performed at state level competition excelling in every genre vocal instrumental orchestral visual in theatrical our color guard achieved world guard international finalist status the visual arts students presented their work at Carnegie Hall our Warhawk marching band is number one in their class for the state of Florida Seminole High School Seminole High School's partnership with the dolly Museum the Florida orchestra and the Straz Center for Performing Arts still remains strong Seminole high school is one of only eight schools in the nation designated as a model school of excellence for 2019 by the International Conference for leadership and education this honor is due to Seminole highs mission and success in getting students connected while achieving and sustaining academic social and emotional success hi

017my name is Nicholas McClure and I'm the junior class president at Seminole High School I'm involved in leading first priority which is a Christian Club at our school a member of the swim team president of the prom committee one of the founders of the Warhawk shop plus a member of the National Honor Society National Technical Honor Society the academic team theatre Key Club interact and camp Club along with that I'm a member of the SEL Academy which stands for Center for Education and leadership as well as the e-commerce Academy our seven academies along with the avid program in the 50-plus clubs on campus provides students with the community of care and place to belong there are so many different opportunities for students to get involved at SHS highlights of these programs that range from media

018technology to engineering and beyond include the iock academy which is known for personalized and project-based learning celebrated its first graduating class and continues to expand their innovative internship and externship programs to solve global issues we are the only Pinellas County school to broadcast live all stadium and gymnasium athletic events through a picks a lot technology partnership aligned with the Seminole Sports Career Institute Academy this broadcast and print journalism coverage and commentary is presented by students in tandem with professional mentors at every football game students from Sports Academy will cover the game interview coaches and host spirits events during halftime the e-commerce Academy has been named an Academy of distinction through 2020 the creation of an innovation implementation of our online school store the Warhawk shop was a student in driven effort this innovation has streamlined

019virtually all financial services at our school to date the Warhawk shop plot the Warhawk shop has sold over three hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars in products like Warhawk gear tickets to school events and other items the Warhawk shop is led with students fully managing the store the Warhawk shop plus was born out of a need for our community to have access to Warhawk shop in a brick-and-mortar format so during my sophomore year I was in the class called business and entrepreneurship through our e-commerce Academy we were proposed to find a problem within the community and propose a solution to it so we wanted the community to be more connected to Seminole High School so we proposed having a brick-and-mortar store of our online shop so that the community and other members can come in

020and shop with us so that's how the Warhawks outfit came to be and from that iteration came the Warhawks pop-up shop so this pop-up shop is a cart we have that we bring to every football game basketball games sporting event big event at our school we pop up shop with our cash register and racks of clothes and that's how people who don't usually come to our school can shop with us another innovative idea that resulted from students voice and choice came wall-e's food joint students had to face many obstacles to make wallies food joint a reality they persevered because it's what they felt our students needed to improve safety academic well-being and attendance students met with local vendors and chefs and conducted taste tests met restrict food entry nutrition standards to start Wally's as a

021result of their hard work and effort Wally's food joint has three local restaurants and chefs providing tasty and nutritional options for students every day at lunch it's really a win-win because of the students and teachers amazing vision and success and the administration teams motivation the e-commerce Academy at Seminole High School received the Florida Association for Career and Technical Education Innovation Award and this Academy has been asked to present to the Florida School Boards Association in December our cell students continue to lunch bunch with batter elementary students to encourage fourth and fifth grade graders to attend school every day with the focus on literacy they also mentor and work one-on-one with batterer elementary school students in their litter series literacy circles to infuse the love and importance of reading as a part of cells students volunteer

022at ronald mcdonald house and conduct positive projects throughout our community school and community cell has opened the door to educational pathways and scholarship opportunities with SBCC and USF over the past two and a half years our cell students have earned over 1.75 million dollars in scholarships academically at someone high school we have over 10 national and international honors societies in 2019 we had a National Merit Finalist and graduate Julia Doyle chase Wiley is a senior that earned a perfect score on his u.s. history Yosi this past spring and we were just notified that Amanda Kelly received a letter of commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Program Seminole High School overall has demonstrated unprecedented academic growth and gains in learning from the past year particularly in the areas of science and English our overall graduation rate

023continues to soar in the high 95th percentile and our African American graduation rate is a hundred percent for the fifth year in a row to live your life with purpose respect and grit is called the Warhawk way we as the Warhawk nation claimed this vision with the relentless teen spirit thank you all for allowing us the opportunity to share the success in highlights of our school year so far thank you so very much Breanna and Nikolas that was absolutely wonderful and I see that your store has grown when I visited the school some years ago the only thing you had at a time where your prom tickets and your yearbooks and I was also coming out to help with your girlfriends group so now you have just really it turned into your own mini mall

024so congratulations great job great job and our principal Jana Lucas thank you so very much I'm sorry I said he instead of she but I know who you are so please forgive me great job keep it up keeping it now we get to have an opportunity to move on to if there are any amendments to the agenda dr. Greger there are no amendments no amendments to the agenda now please have a motion for someone to adopt the agenda is there a second we have a motion with a second to adopt the agenda as provided to us all those in favor signify by saying aye do we have any that are opposed no one is opposed it passes unanimously really quickly I want to acknowledge someone I see in the audience I was with them early

025early early this morning it was Dre right masa I saw him and I didn't see Sam from community Tampa Bay hmm okay from community Tampa Bay they also work with any town on program they were at st. Petersburg high school so I saw you in the audience I just wanted to acknowledge your presence here with us on today thank you because it's been a long day for you and the students and some students yes yes you rock definitely moving on to our special order agenda for the first two items we will remain here at the diets for the next two items we will go down and shake the hands of the persons that are here being recognized on today so we have our recognition of National School Lunch week yes ma'am chair and school board

026members it's always a pleasure recognize our dedicated hard-working food lunch workers no matter what school and I know you do the same that you visit you always go into the lunchroom and thank them because they work tirelessly to feed our children every day we are the largest restaurant in the in this in this area we feed more meals than anyone else so I am very proud of the work we're doing Lynn Geiss is director of food and nutrition I'm asked to present not only the proclamation but I know you have some words of thanks and encouragement we do thank you madam chair board members dr. Greger staff it's my pleasure to be here to recognize National School Lunch week which was held last week the theme this year is what's on your playlist so to

027recognize the changes that have occurred in our program over the years it's not our school lunch program that we grew up with there are definitely new things on the menu new flavors exciting things that the students have selected and we're pleased to recognize those endeavors with National School Lunch week school lunch provides pure empty calories more fruits fresh fruits and vegetables more fiber more whole grains lower sodium and based on the nutritional guidelines of our program and we're very pleased to help to offer the healthy meals that we have today the campaign goal for national school lunch is to promote our healthy menus promote the promote the profession of child nutrition in schools and to increase the lunch participation increase awareness of our program with all of our stakeholders we were pleased last week to

028have 17 schools throughout the district that actively took part in in the themed event with by engaging students in activities contests questionnaires trivia and a lot of fun so we have a lot of pictures that you can see on the pinellas school nutrition Association Facebook page and also the newsroom and the PCs Twitter and Facebook pages with that I of course it's tradition I would like to promote some of the also to tell you a little bit about the what's on the playlist for our department this year and with that I have Tammy on yet nutrition educator and our Master Gardener we'd like to share these meals with you we are pleased to share these with you which represent some of the newest additions to our program this year we will see vegan menu we

029have vegan chili with pico de gallo it can be served hot or cold it's very versatile on the menu we have offered the vegan menu countywide this year thanks to some of our chef managers who have designed the menu for us we also of course continue with harvest of the month you'll find a Florida tangerine tangerines are in season and being harvested in October and 2 to highlight our green initiative we are started to replace some of our styrofoam which lasts forever in the landfills with a wheat straw carryout container that is biodegradable made in the USA and we're very pleased to add these to our playlist this year so it might flip my pleasure to be here representing over a thousand child nutrition professionals in Pinellas County who together serving over 55,000 lunches a

030day every day of the school year ends and support with those meals supporting 100% student success with the energy for education so thank you very much I'm so you got the apron you got the apron okay so I need a hat Anna apron yeah all right okay okay yum-yum okay I'm gonna brag you guys the salsa smells wonderful in here I can oh okay so I don't have to go out for dinner two more two more mr. B mr. B your boss thank you thank you thank you dr. Corvis thank you so much and while I'm deploying guys I'm making sure that dr. Corbin gets his lunch dinner etc for today thank you all so very much I had a chance to visit a couple of schools and was in the cafeteria and had a

031chance to sit down with some of the kids and eat and notice the new containers which is absolutely wonderful when we're doing our part as it relates to on the environment so that's wonderful but just still the interaction and seeing the variety as a matter of fact a young man was upset because they ran out of chicken nuggets oh thank you all so very much for that you're just challenging things but it's terrible to run the chicken nuggets and likewise thank you for the work that you're doing with the Department of Agriculture would make it freed and whatnot sheath I think just really trying to open up some new avenues for us to have some selections and I think you guys are doing a wonderful job working with the Department of Agriculture so thank you

032thank you very much we have been able to offer we in September we offered fresh avocados for the very first time in our history so it's just amazing but that's that's the harvest of the month program thank you thank you so much yeah next we have the presentation of the proclamation recognizing lights on after school dr. Greger yes ma'am chair and school board members as you know after-school programs have become such an important part of our school district and with after the final bell rings we have in each and every one of our schools elementary and most of our middles we have after school program some before so this concept about after school and the lights on recognizing is really an indication of how important this is when a class dr. Marlin petit Bois who

033is the assistant director continuous improvement to come up and present this important recognition of our after-school programs good evening madam chair members of the board dr. Gregg oh and staff launched in October 2000 lights on after school is a national event celebrating after-school programs an important role they play in the lives of children families and communities the effort has become a hallmark of the after-school movement on Thursday October 24th the 20th annual lights on after school initiative will again highlight the remarkable work being done by scholars who attend after-school programs in Pinellas County we are very proud of our scholars in their after-school program our district is committed to ensuring all scholars have access to quality after-school programming as a district we believe learning doesn't need to start with a traditional school day in so

034our scholars are participating in small group tutoring online digital learning stem programs and enrichment activities before and after the school day and during the summer Pinellas County school has established strong partnerships and supportive after-school programs in collaboration with the juvenile Welfare Board our club childcare YMCA of Greater st. Petersburg YMCA Suncoast in the city of Dunedin together these organizations work with our schools since sure our scholars have year-round access to educational and enrichment activities today provides us with the perfect opportunity to recognize and thank our partners present with us today are desmond newton juvenile Welfare Board Amy Shore our club Barbara white YMCA greater st. Petersburg and Beth gets it ymca Suncoast thank you in preparing the PowerPoint for you with some highlights of our extended learning programs I kept thinking about the spirit of

035our after-school programming and the 2019 Beyonce song sphere is saying rise up to the light in the sky watch the light lift your heart and burn your flame through the night each time I look at the smiling faces of these scholars I celebrate their spirit and the light in their eyes but even more so it emphasizes the importance of providing opportunities for our scholars to explore their talents and passions this October 24th I invite you to join in celebrating lights on after school let's acknowledge the achievement of our scholars and proclaim our commitment to extended learning programs let's continue to keep our lights on and our doors open and help our scholars catch up keep up and get ahead thank you we have a presentation related to the celebration as well and school board member

036at Lisa Kane will read the proclamation Proclamation lights on after school whereas the Pinellas County boards Pinellas County school board stands firmly committed to quality after-school programs and opportunities because they provide safe challenging engaging and fun learning experiences to help students and youth develop their social emotional physical and cultural as well as academic skills support working families by ensuring their children are safe and productive after the regular school day ends building stronger communities by involving our students parents business leaders and adult volunteers in the lives of our young people thereby promoting positive relationships among children youth families and adults engage families schools and diverse community partners in advancing the welfare of our children and whereas all of our community after-school programs provides significant leadership in the area of community involvement in the education and well-being

037of our youth grounded in the principle that quality after-school programs are key to helping our children become successful adults and whereas lights on after-school a national celebration of after-school programs on October 24th promote it's the critical importance of quality after-school programs in the lives of children their families and their communities whereas more than 28 million children in the United States have parents who work outside the home and 15 point 1 million children have no place to go after school and whereas many after-school programs across the country are facing fundamental shortfalls so severe they're being forced to close their doors and turn off their lights now therefore be it resolved at the Pinellas County school board urges the citizens of Pinellas County to ensure that every child has access to a safe and caring environment engaging

038place where the lights are on after school and be it further resolved at the Pinellas County school board enthusiastically endorses lights on after school and is committed to quality after-school programs and activities ensure the lights stay on and the doors stay open for all the children after school thank you thank you so much for reading that Proclamation do we have a motion to accept the proclamation do we have a second second we have a motion with the second all those in favor signify by saying aye do we have any opposed motion carries unanimously and thank you all so very much from the various before and after school facilities the Y as well as our club this is the first event where we have the recognition for our club that art wasn't sitting in that second

039row so that's why I had to kind of look down a little bit but thank you so much for coming in for representing our club on today and thank you to each and every one of you now if you don't mind we'll go ahead and go down because we have the presentation of academies of distinction Awards as well as the introduction of our newly appointed administrators smile board members that gives me great honor to present mr. mark Conte and also Alex McKenna's the co-chair of the career ed board with the Pinellas Educational Foundation I certainly don't have to express to this board but mainly to this audience of the tremendous commitment that our school district has with academies and current technical education throughout all of our high schools and this is kind of a this

040is a combination of some of the most excellent career academies throughout our district so thank you who's going first mr. McKenna I'm going first all right welcome madam chair let me begin with a very generous thank you to the board for allowing me to speak on behalf of the Stavros career education board established by the superintendent and funded through the Pinellas Education Foundation our main purpose is to advocate for career education opportunities for students in Pinellas County Schools particularly academies of Pinellas programs which support the Foundation's mission of accelerating educational achievement for all students I would also like to acknowledge acknowledge committee members here with us today and ask them to stand when their name is called Joe Baker sherry Baum Lawrence Claremont Glen Gifford dr. Michael Greger Mark Hunt Joanie Jonas and Monty tremor

041on behalf of my colleagues I am pleased to recognize eight Academy programs at four schools which have been dominated as academies of distinction modeled after the National Career Academy coalition's national standards of practice for career academies academies of distinction provide students with a 21st century industry based education allowing them to segue to post-secondary opportunities which complement their interest and academic preparation working closely with the district's career technical and adult education department the Stavros career education board selects Academy of distinction programs for a two-year term after which programs may be reconsidered for another term during site visits last spring the Career Education Board visiting teams were impressed by the strength of each of these Academy programs as measured by a comprehensive scoring rubric evaluating business and post-secondary partnerships curriculum integration work based learning opportunities personal student

042advisement industry certification achievement cohort scheduling alignment with high pay high demand careers and appropriate certifications achieved by program instructors it's my pleasure to announce to announce these outstanding academies each of the program's is earning this honor for the first time and I'm very excited that for the first time ever in our district we are recognizing a middle school as an Academy of distinction and that my friend is the beginning of a bow wave and a good one at that this accolade illustrates the significant growth of Career Academy learning across our district we're going to ask Mark Hunt to invite the principals of each of the schools to accept a special Academy of distinction banner from the board mark thank you Alex for our first Academy recognition from East Lake middle school the Academy of Engineering

043we have principal Karen hussar and Greg Stewart the engineering department head if you all will come forward if you will go on up front we want to get a picture of you with a banner never miss an opportunity for photos these banners are displayed at the schools let me hang them on their flagpole or display them inside the building someplace this is the hardest part about the whole academies of pinellas thing is taking the picture of the bear great thank you and next up next up is a Richard o Jacobson Technical High School at Seminole and representing four academies at Jacobson to start out with is principal Marty Giancola if we'll have her come forward and we'll introduce each of their academies and we'll do a picture with each the first we want to recognize

044is the academy of gaming simulation and programming with dr. Jodi Kirk great and next up from the from Richard o Jacobson is the Academy of construction technologies and electricity with mr. Vincent Volpe all right next up from Jacobson is the commercial and digital arts academy with mr. Chris jewel and rounding out the recognitions for Jacobson high school is the veterinary assisting Academy with Miss Peggy barroom and Kelsey great good job Jacobsen our next school to be recognized is Osceola fundamental high school with principal Michael Bonet and assistant principal Daniel Schmitt L and we're we're gonna recognize this evening two academies from Osceola the first Academy to recognize from Osceola will be the Culinary Arts Academy with chef Timothy Timothy Fitzpatrick chef Christopher long and Samantha West a culinary student in the culinary club president all

045right the next honoree from Osceola High School is the Center for Technology Entertainment and design also known as C Ted and tonight representing the see Ted tribe our Courtney Thompson business education teacher Jerry Eaton business head teacher Jack Mathias Deborah rain students William pate Hannah Topol and Jeremiah Webb Thank You Osceola High School at our final school to be recognized this evening is Tarpon Springs High School our principal Lisa fat elitists will be representing the veterinary science academy it also assistant principal Lisa Lennox is here representing the veterinary assisting Academy thank you all very much and to close it out dr. mckennah thanks everyone and again thank you for the opportunity it's indeed a privilege to acknowledge and celebrate these eight programs this evening I would be remiss if I didn't take time to thank

046the principals teachers and administrators for their incredible efforts in creating and maintaining Career Academy programs with the highest standards for the benefit of the students of Pinellas County School District thank you very much for this opportunity Thank You mr. McKenna and thank you to the Pinellas Educational Foundation for your long-term commitment to Career and Technical Education our final recognition board members is that I want to always thank you for this time of introducing new newly appointed administrators we have three and when I call their names if you please come up and be welcomed by our board I would certainly appreciate it as I read just a short bio the first administrator I'd like to call upon is Jacqueline or Jackie Cassidy the new principal of nine Harris exceptional student education she began her employment in

047Pinellas County Schools in 2016 served as the assistant principal at Richard L Sanders exceptional student education until she was appointed as principal at nine Harris exceptional student education her background also includes serving as a classroom teacher in Virginia reading in math RTI coordinator assistant principal in Colorado and a classroom teacher in math coach in Pasco County Schools here under bachelor's degree in human resource management and masters in curriculum instruction from Colorado Christian University and in leadership and administration from the University of Phoenix congratulations miss Cassidy next recognition is Brian Doherty director of network and community telecommunications Brian began his employment in Pinellas County Schools in 2010 he served as a network administrator from 2013 until he's appointed as director of network and telecommunications effective October 9th of this year its background includes serving as network

048administrator apprentice and design engineer contract administrator for shared Technologies Incorporated he earned his bachelor's degree in business administration when specialization in Spanish from the University of Florida Brian congratulations our final recognition is Thomas Mark Haig would we I think everyone knows him as T mark began his employment in Pinellas County Schools in 2005 he served as the executive manager transportation services from 2007 till he was appointed director this past October 1 his background also includes serving as a route and safety auditor he served as transportation coordinator in Palm Beach district schools and as a bus driver dispatcher driver supervisor and training safety coordinator for metropolitan Nashville Board of Education transportation department he earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Western Kentucky University congratulations mister hegwood whatever that concludes our recognitions thank you very much

049special thanks to teachers and students who came out with the academies of distinction very very much appreciated all right thank you still very much that was really nice moving on to our public comments on the agenda items mr. Minetti do we have any speaker signed up to board members in dr. Gregg oh we have two speakers for specific agenda items this evening I have Ryan has insky will speak to non consent item number two and Mark clooth Oh will speak to consent number ten consent number twelve and non consent number one is mr. Kosinski here mm-hmm good afternoon honorable board members superintendent Greg o staff parents anybody else who's in the audience my name is Ryan has insky and I am a 16 year veteran educator from Hillsborough County I've come here today because I'm

050driving around and visiting a lot of the local school boards to speak about some very dire issues eight-point-two you know here you are applying for grants we are obviously in desperate need of funding which I'll get to in a moment Plutarch tells us that the mind is not a vessel that needs filling but wood that needs igniting are we really doing that with what Florida Education has become at this point some of you recently left the classroom you know what we're really doing testing it's all we do is make kids suffer through testing at my school I sure 22% of the days 39 days there was some kind of standardized test administered to a child and it's not just a testing as you know there's progress monitoring and everything else and kids are stressed out

051in a way that to me this is child abuse at this point it really is I've heard stories from parents about young child vomiting before the FSA because of being so nervous one of my good friends talked about her daughter in fourth grade who developed a disorder where she was pulling out her hair her eye her eyelashes bald because of I ready and FSA and fair and all these other things this is so not right and why are we in this position really when you think about it's because for 20 years and especially last decade for the performance pay movement and all the accountant baloney yes I'm sorry to interrupt you this is an opportunity during our board meeting for you to address an agenda item engaged with each speaker is given three minutes you've

052now used over half your time in so if you want to speak to the pathways to career opportunities grant I would suggest you move towards that now yes sir the point being is that the funding is all involved in this I mean here we are applying for grants I've been to districts that require donations we have a one trillion dollar economy that is the fourth biggest in the US and the 17th largest in the world and we're yet 45th in public education spending 48 an average teacher pay 50th dead last and adjusted for inflation spending and it's no wonder why we need these grants we need every penny that we can get because there's nothing else to be done except to take a stand and that's primarily why I'm here to ask you to stand

053with teachers with educators everybody in here an adult who touches the life of a child so you straight away from because if you want to speak specific to anything related to the grant that we're writing and presenting I understand your business and I understand and wait for general family you can speak at the end we do have an opportunity where persons can speak at the end of our meeting on a subject that's not on the agenda so yes sir most certainly can start make sure you fill out a card yes ma'am so that you can speak at the end on the topic that you're currently ok yes thank you I'm sorry do we appreciate you that's ok every district is different yes yes ma'am and I'm learning that as I go so I'm sorry for

054interrupting appreciate make sure you fill out that car yes ma'am if I could ask individuals if you have your cell phone to please turn it on vibrate if you will that way when persons are speaking it won't interrupt them or mr. Cotto we love you we're gonna give you your time how about that y'all littles me I put it on vibrate and it's still wrong so I apologize to everyone sitting here that was me mr. Clute oh thank you so very much for being patient and waiting on us we appreciate that mark luther largo 414 dollars for construction management for windows and building envelope replacement oh boy yeah and the building will be right when you're finished I doubt that seriously and then st. Petersburg high school completion of the third floor of building four

055I've been by there not right now then 8.1 request approval of the proposed five-year capital outlay plan and adoption of the tentative five-year facility's work program one word to describe that debacle one big debacle correlation what you do here what does that give us climate panel foresees big trouble is earth warms yeah that's what you give it give us with your plan a big joke because you ignore science that I have been bringing for nearly 20 years I mean there is an excuse and you lie and say things that you're doing or right it's a doggone shame it is alarming to read such a thorough cataloging of all the serious serious changes coming in the planet what's particularly disturbing as a scientist is that virtually all of these changes were predicted years or decades ago

056but you keep doing the same thing so Einstein said that's something like insanity thank you do we have any more speakers no more speakers thank you so very much mr. close we appreciate it do we have any unfinished business oh oh we have to I'm sorry yes we too have to item 6.1 and 6.2 before we begin those miss Latino you have a your light come and speak okay moving on to business items thank you madam chair a 6.1 considers this is second reading of a policy change policy number 2250 fundamental schools magnet programs and career academies as you know both mr. Hendrick and Miss truck Kowski covered these changes I'm gonna ask during a recent workshop that before they come to the board I think it's always very important for the public to know

057that this board reviewed all of these policy changes both 6.1 and 6.2 we had a single reading we went to a workshop and now this is a second reading there are no changes from that first by the way board members so I'm gonna ask mr. Hendrick and mr. Kowski to review this Thank You dr. grago board members as dr. grago said policy 2250 covers fundamental magnet and Career Academy programs as you know our district application programs are in policy and there's a procedures manual that's referenced that highlights the specific changes this evening as dr. grago said we brought this to the school board workshop on August 20th we had the first reading here at a board meeting on September 10th and tonight we present the second reading without any changes between the 1st and 2nd

058reading here to share some of the specific highlights and changes in the district application program procedures is our district application program specialist ellen truss Kowski basically we have a couple new additions to the magnet programs we have a garrison g owns a dual language program as well as turning the center for literacy innovation into a magnet program at Lisa Nelson other changes are we had a name change with Kings Highway going from the center of innovation and digital learning to the center of Digital Learning and steam as well as communications added to the journalism programs lakewood John Hopkins and Melrose we had some language making sure that were in full compliance with the ID a individuals with disability Education Act and then some other clarifying language to help understand the end-of-the-year process which we typically

059get some parent phone calls and asking for clarification other than that there's no additional changes no changes have been called in so any questions do we have any questions from board members as it relates to this specific item do we have any speakers from the audience on this item no speakers for this public hearing there's a second there's a motion with the second that we accept this item as it's been submitted and presented and this is the final public hearing on this item all those in favor signify by saying aye are there any opposed motion carries unanimously and for second item 6.2 I'm gonna ask mr. Cooper ski to just review as he went over during the same workshop in fact the non-discrimination enacted access to equal educational opportunities thank you dr. grago madam chair

060and board members and this is the second reading we've discussed this policy in the most recent past legislative session the legislature amended the Florida educational equity Act to add religion as a basis upon which school boards and school districts may not discriminate so we are amending our educational equity act policy to add that but I want to reassure again the board members and the public that we have over a dozen other school board policies that already prohibit religious discrimination and this will not change our practices we've never have done that and we do not do that now in the future but this is simply a requirement because the legislature has changed one particular statute just need to make sure we're in do we have any speakers from the audience board member and dr. Greger we

061do have one speaker for this public hearing mr. mark ruther since bill Dudley's made a motion may I get a second for the purposes of discussion so that we can have our speaker presented thank you mr. mark Luthor jacoco for the public hearing I hurt which asked a rager lives I'll just make a comment while we're waiting on mr. Kluth who I want to be fair if there's anyone that does desire desire to speak on any other topic other than what's on our agenda please make sure that you fill out the appropriate car so that information gets to Miss Anne simonetti and we don't we don't miss you and you miss your opportunity please if you would take your call to question bag we'll go ahead and move to consent agenda can I yeah we'll

062go ahead and move the consent agenda because I don't want to I've done this before another guest in the audience and so I do want to be fair at how we relate yeah so for the consent agenda I want to go ahead and table the item that we just had before us we will hold the motion with a second for purposes of discussion so that mr. Kuhn Foucault's present himself but for the consent agenda do I have a motion over the second to approve the consent agenda is there a second we have a motion with a second to approve the consent agenda as presented all those in favor signify by saying aye do we have any that are opposed motion carries unanimously I do believe we've given ample time I've tried to hold off so

063we have a motion of a second to go ahead and approve for the second public hearing record on item number 6.2 the non-discrimination and access to equal education opportunity all those in favor signify by saying aye do we have any data our polls motion carries unanimously thank you very much for your patience and also for the audience thank you for your patience moving on to the non-consent agenda request approval of the proposed five your capital layout do we have yes ma'am chair and this is the I'm happy to present the five-year Campbell plan I know that we have taken this off the agenda the last two board meetings because his State Department just wasn't ready for it to populate the fields and so I'm gonna ask mr. Smith or chief finance officer to present this

064to you for your vote tonight thank you dr. Greger madam chair board members and staff as dr. grago mentioned this is an item that typically gets approved the night of the public of the public hearing on that board meeting however that the utility that we use to create the five-year facilities work program was unavailable due to technical issues this is a requirement by DOA that we submit a five-year capital outlay plan and facilities work program each year and improvement by the board the technical issues were resolved on the week of October 9th so we were able to the plan and the facilities work plan contains a few key elements which enable us to do the program though five-year capital outlay program absent that we can't complete it so it's a doctor by this point that's

065when we bring into to here tonight the five-year capital outlay plan maintains balance priorities of projected revenue by year over the five-year period the facility work program in corporate incorporates the proposed five-year capital outlay plan as proprietor scribed by DOA the plan includes increased revenue from the local one and a half mil revenue millage levy as a result the increased tax roll it does not include picot funding as the state did not allocate any picot funding to traditional schools that they allocated some to charter schools but none to traditional schools it includes a second round of bonding which is anticipated to be approximately seventy two million dollars over the next five years and it also adds the addition of a fifth year which is the twenty twenty three twenty four school year there any questions

066would you have an answer do we have any questions or comments by any board member do we have a motion you have a motion with a second to approve i five-year capital outlay plan and again thank you to everybody for your patience we just needed to make sure that the state had his information correct before we presented our information and voted accordingly all those in favor signify by saying aye do we have any better opposed mr. Linton oh I do apologize you had your light right before mr. Evans stood up was that for an item or is that for your information like your report at the end I wanted my report at the end okay so I'll call you first when we get to the end for your report all right and I do apologize

067thank thank you moving on to the request for approval to apply for the pathways to career opportunities grant yes madam chair I mean I asked mark unto just review this is an exciting grant opportunity that we're actually going to be focusing on on growing our own teachers and the transition to teacher teacher program both in and out of career technical education so Mr Hunt is taking the lead on this and we're very excited about the app location business flowers for members dr. Greco and staff this grant opportunity comes from the governor's initiative to expand Career and Technical opportunities throughout the state and he funded a 10 million dollar pot for career opportunities and we wanted to take the opportunity to try and access some of these funds to provide the resources and materials to help

068us develop a high school teacher assisting program pathway for students that are interested in becoming teachers the concept is to use the funds to develop that career pathway more acutely increase the marketing and promotion to high school students that are in teacher assisting programs now and further develop the concept of potentially teacher apprenticeship in the school district for teachers in Pinellas County Schools so that way we can begin to solidify that pathway and as dr. grago mentioned and grow our own and have a more stable path of in supply of new teachers in the school district do we have any comment there's a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye do we have any better opposed no opposed motion carries unanimously that is absolutely wonderful so I'm looking forward to it thank

069you thank you sir Thank You mr. hunt request approval of the 2020 2021 instructional calendar yes I believe Miss Texas this year is thank you note aboard and really thanks to a lot of organizations of classroom teachers association our parents or faith-based leaders and many others as you see from the agenda item this is a fairly large committee and dr. Carr I believe you represented the school board on this committee too so thank you and so it's excellent that's good evening madam chair school board members dr. grago and staff I along with David Richmond who is our managing officer for payroll services are here to present the recommendation for the 2020 2021 instructional calendar and special observance days as dr. grago mentioned account a committee was formed and we met two times to review the

070recommendation and the drafts for our calendar for this year for the 2021 school year those members then once they reviewed the the options took it back to their stakeholder groups to receive input from those groups and during the second meeting that input was shared and a recommendation was formed so you do have that information in your packet of some drafts but I wanted to highlight a couple of highlights some of the dates for that calendar year it has a school start date for instructional staff on Monday August 3rd 2020 and for students on Wednesday August 12th 2020 there are seven days of pre-planning during for 10 months teachers which as you know has been implemented for the past several years and we continue to receive feedback from our instructional staff that this is a this

071isn't a great amount of time to get ready for the students when they arrive that Wednesday August 12th so we want to maintain that option for them the year is broken up into 86 days for first semester in 94 days for second semester which is similar to this year and that does allow as a reminder for all of our exams to be held prior to the winter break that was something else so we hear loud and clear from our stakeholder groups as we have done in this past several years the potential hurricane makeup days are also listed that is for everyone out there to know that these are potential days if and when a school needs to be cancelled it's canceled for those storms and if makeup days are required so we have listed those

072dates and you see those on the on the page we do have Thanksgiving break listed between November 21st and November 29th we have a winter break from December 19th with ten month instructional staff returning that Monday January 4th 2021 and students returning on Tuesday January 5th we have a spring break in the middle of March from March 13th to March 21st and importantly a school ending date that year for students on Thursday May 27th 2021 and for ten-month instructional staff the following day on Friday May 28th again the committee felt very strongly that we maintain a appropriate number of days in May to allow for our students to have the best environment possible for those testing dates and as we know our testing is now mainly May 1st to the 28th so we wanted to

073make sure we had enough days for students to take those in an appropriate setting we know that families and staff have been anticipating this release we got a call actually this afternoon right before I came up to the board meeting asking if the calendar has been put out so I know they are waiting for this and we just appreciate your consideration of this request very much any questions comments or concerns I know we talked about these doctor I just want to commend you and the committee for putting students first there were a number of different groups involved and folks who had different concerns or issues and brought them back and we're well represented but just really focusing on the needs of the students and that being the driving force and how we make our decisions

074so thank you very much for that coordination and it is a lot to hold all of that together so thank you very much seeing no other lights do we have a motion with a second to accept at 2020 2021 instructional calendar there's a motion and a second all those in favor signify by saying aye any opposed nay motion carries unanimously moving on to 8.4 setting a public hearing and authorizing the advertisement it's a big old thing but I'm sure yeah this 8.4 as also eight point five and six our policy changes I'm gonna ask them mr. Dell Jennifer Dell who is a director of strategic planning and policy to kind of orchestrate the next three there'll be other individuals that will be joining her with for any questions the first one deals with our pupil

075progression plan and some of the changes that happened this past session chair board members staff and community today we bring forward eye agenda item 8.4 for the consideration for setting a public hearing and authorizing the advertisement for this public hearing the first agenda item 48.4 is a number of policies they were workshopped with the board on October 15th last Tuesday each year and the reason these policies are bundled together the district reviews policies in alignment with our legislative updates as well as district and state practices 'm and that happened in our schools each each day the proposed amendments within these series of policy aligned to the student progression plan but also some policies that are very closely tied to the both the Student Code of Conduct and the progression plan so an overview of those

076changes to policy 5 for 10.10 we added language that updated the requirements for good cause exemptions for English learners students for their grade mandatory retention for five four five four one zero zero two we added language regarding state requirements for career education planning for middle school and social studies classes in five four three oh we added language detailing what courses can be omitted for the sole purpose of calculating valedictorian and salutatorian and our high schools in five five zero 0.05 we added language citing recent legislative standards on state reporting of student attendance and in six one five two we added language detailing fee requirements for advanced place exam fees so with that brings this for your approval today this is just the first reading of this item the public will be able to speak when

077we have it brought up on the second item but do we have any questions from any board members I know that we did we workshop this but are there any questions or other public for all of these policies and I'll reiterate in all of them as well second reading would take place tentatively scheduled for our board meeting in December thank you very much thank you there's a motion with the second Carolyn Eileen all those in favor signify by saying aye any opposed nay next okay next item is 8.5 and this is setting a public hearing also for a consideration of creating a policy sent around them the medical marijuana use for qualified students in schools mr. Dahle yes again this policy was brought forward at the October 15th workshop and would be bringing forward for

078second reading in December this policy is being proposed due to recent legislative actions specifically of the 2017 Senate bill 8a within in Section 1068 of the Florida Statutes requiring adoption of such policies policy codifies current district initiatives in this area and in preparation for this policy regarding medical marijuana use by qualified students in schools we reviewed not only draft policies from other districts but policies that were voted on by other board school boards in the state of Florida policy includes definitions sections that include definitions administration of such medical marijuana on school property please note that within the policy it does say that no school staff or administration or administrators are permitted to administer store hold or transport the medical marijuana in any form another section within that is outlined in the creation of this policy

079are the responsibilities of caregivers in adult students which include producing their current Department of Health registry ID card and complying with proper location and time for administration and additional sections are around principals and administrative responsibilities as well as consequences for rule violations outlined in this policy again this is for first reading and setting a public hearing for the creation of this policy with tentative lease then second reading in our meeting in December in one device do we have a motion or the second moving this on to the second meeting it's been motion it by a school board member Carol cooks second by Eileen long all those in favor signify by saying aye do we have any debt our toes motion carries unanimously the third policy is the setting of the hearing public hearing considering the

080amendment to the policies number 64 20 for purchasing cards in 63 20 the purchasing and bidding again these two policies are put we're put in front of the board in October 15th workshop and the amendments to the policy is align with current purchasing cards and district tag of taggable excuse me asset limits policy six four two four around purchasing cards it aligns with the district just going through the process of getting a new P card administrator and it allows us to set the taggable limit up to a thousand dollars so it moves the limit from $749 to 999 dollars in policy six three to zero this alliance with changes within the federal grant procurement procedures allowing for micro purchases thresholds to move up to ten thousand dollars again second reading would be within the second

081hour meeting in December any opposed motion carries unanimously thank you thank you very much and I have to say miss Linda Bal can you do a really good job in the purchasing department so thank you everybody does a good job but i know i bug you a lot moving on to new business any items introduced by the superintendent yes madam chair and school boards to say the last few weeks have been busy would be an understatement we've had so many events and I always want to start out by saying thank you for dividing and conquering and then really truly being representative of our entire district I too want to thank you for the certificate of distinction you're not only your attendance but your support this is one of we don't recognize realize this sometimes but

082I believe we're the only district that offers that and and just a way of promoting professional development of all employees I want to say thank you I know that miss flowers read the number of hours and the dedicated service and it's it's not easy to get those levels so thank you for for your support of that I also want to recognize our East Hall Department we run each year last week was no exception the Community Resource fair was held this October 15th at st. Petersburg College Clearwater campus and our esal department partnered with 50 district departments and community organizations and this place was absolutely jammed with community members our parents and our students the only 170 people signed in to this fair with dozen more in attendance and what I always think and what a

083great job she does natasha karach dr. Kroc for her work tireless work in terms of serving our esal population we also Lynn Mowat had over 300 people attend their ESC college and career and life affair this October 17th in Pinellas Park High School students came from 25 different district schools and parents and students attended this tremendous fair where they're able to explore opportunities in post-secondary education we also talked about post-secondary education in this past week we celebrated the rege rand reopening of canals technical college in their Clearwater campus and what a tremendous celebration a lot of things were going on that evening but after 18 months about 18 million dollars we reopened Technical College that I can say to his second to none we have over 30 technical programs there thank you to mr. Horrocks

084Department Mr Hunt Jake Pro cough the principal and many of the teachers and students that showed and just the testimonies that were given that evening to open up the Technical College both technical colleges working so well on both the one in st. Pete and in Clearwater that same evening we had girlfriends Club being inducted ceremonies we had 5/3 thousand role models where over 200 young men joined and gave the oath 5000 role models 150 girls took the girlfriend's oath so this is what I'm speaking about that same evening we had so much going on in fact that same evening we also ran over to the 11th annual nope candle light vigil and this board was praised by Lori and Mark Sarah who continued to do such a remarkable job for those of you don't remember

085the Lori was a retired employee of our school district and what a tremendous evening the sheriff and many other the judge and many other folks were there for this vigil just reminding us about the dangers of drug addictions and prescription drug addictions all too and they praised our faceit program by the way and what we're doing is with version programs of students to really educate students I also wanted to share that thank you for the support of my attending and it was very successful to the Florida Senate Education Committee and that was to work with the staff development components of it let me say that we were listened to in terms of the many things that are being placed on to school districts none of which are bad mental health of five hours child trafficking

086all of these various elements we're just asking for better coordination in terms of where and when as the day is short and is being packed by so many different things so it was a good a good meeting we also were invited back that's always a good sign and we're invited back with to provide some suggestions so the superintendent's Association and I too will continue to go back there but are now developing some sound recommendations for our legislators in terms of when we want to provide a recommendation of how to let's think it all the way through how this looks like during during the day so thank you for your support of being able to travel just this morning a group of us met with cognero with what we used to be advanced IDI and that's

087our accreditation agency that will be so it was served as a kickoff for school district to go through the accreditation cycle so just as a heads up board members those of you who are assigned to a committee I know we started this and then we put it on the back burner because advance DD was being acquired by another company that is done and they have theirs there their structure very organized so we met this morning for about an hour an hour and 15 minutes and we're looking to set up some calendar dates so dust off the old but we'll do new and I really appreciate the board's the board's involvement in that the College Board as you know give these opportunities scholarships in the progression of students who work with the SAT a CT but

088really the SAT is what the College Board runs get they get on to Khan Academy SAT practice or they've set up these various timelines for students then when students complete these things they get put into a national kind of pool and kind of a lottery system is what it's known and we had 13 Pinellas County students win scholarships which if you think about the whole nation the odds of that or students are really truly performing so well totaling over $10,000 in scholarship awards for our students and so I want to say we just got a letter today because we're working with the College Board to try to set up the same type of system locally with our businesses and with the Pinellas Education Foundation so I'm very excited about it all covered in the Future

089workshop with you maybe perhaps with dr. buyer but in the meantime we're going to continue to work with the National College Board recognition for opportunity scholarships and this is not the same opportunity scholarships like we call an opportunity scholarship this is from the College Board I know they use the same exact title of it my last thing is just a reminder as we move into the Choice fairs that these these start October 29th at Countryside High School November 2nd at Pinellas Park High School and November 4th at Lakewood High School truly the best way to get the information is to go to our website pCSB org so it's a forward slash choice if the all the dates locations the fairs and really any information that you need will be on moving on to if we

090have any I'm introduced about this attorney well actually I was at visiting Gulfport at the kindergarten class at Gulfport Montessori elementary school and it was just a very encouraging experience for me because we had one hour to sit in the classroom but they were doing math work and I was in in the impression of doing reading work and the low kids were really trying to do what they were going to do and they just they flamed out so I thought that I thought that was something that was unavailable and that was they were counting dots and they had all the little you know little little people out and they had the little bears and I was hoping to get a reading in the plan and they was there was a one-hour a Monday and one

091hour was on Wednesday I was looking forward to seeing in the classroom on a Monday and a Wednesday and we will see what will will be happening and I certainly appreciate everyone who's in the audience today thank you dr. Carr and then mr. Dudley thank you I just wanted to express some thank yous to some of the schools that I was able to visit since our last meeting I had the opportunity to go to Lynch elementary school which was very a very exciting place to be I also was made aware of the fact that their PTA had won two national awards one from Google and one from Mathnasium so they were very proud of that accomplishment as we should all be as well to be recognized nationally in that way and also just to speak

092volumes of their principals so often times we do have folks who who move from one school to another and when you see their staff want to go with them that really does give some acknowledgment to the relationships and reporters built by the staff I also had the opportunity to visit Mount Vernon Elementary which was a fantastic the grounds that they have a volunteer from the extension program who has native gardening and butterfly gardens taking place and they were really impressive in the involvement that they have within the community they're a school with one of the highest rates of homelessness in our district and the trauma-informed instruction that their staff was providing to those students was commendable and at the time they had a visiting group doing the bully presentation and just to give kudos to

093the nutrition experts that they had in the kitchen they had really taken on the school-wide initiatives to the point that the bananas they had written them the character words on the bananas so when students were grabbing a banana they were reinforcing the language that they had been focusing on which was really impressive and cute too right and I also had got to go to Ponce de Leon for to see how things are going in their building and I was so impressed how the principal there had put her office in the middle of the building rather than just being at the front office she's engaged in the entire building and how amazing it was to see some of our former ESP curriculum coaches working with our reading recovery and looking at how that program is going

094and who better to really exemplify that than a former supervisor of reading so that was that was a fantastic thing to see him put in place I saw dr. Cedric at Pinellas Park middle it's nice to see that the construction is making progress as always we like it to make it a little quicker because it is a challenge to get around that building and yet he's out there with clear positive rapport with the students and engaged and also at Medellin middle with the principal Paris and dr. Gordon who we know from Gibbs formerly from Gib so it was a very positive experience to have the opportunity to visit so many schools I really was trying to see how things are going with our ESC roll out in middle school and how that implementation of readings

095going in some of our elementary so what's going on there also thank you to Lori Matt Way and dr. grago who both serve on the board of the starting right now that was a moving ceremony luncheon that we were able to attend and really appreciate the extra time that you commit to that organization the great work being done by the group and the certificate of distinction Awards it was my first time to have the opportunity to attend that and it was very moving and I was really inspired by the leaders who came with their staff because they needed to provide that kind of support and I hope we will continue to see our leadership provide support to those folks who are looking to get involved in the certification of distinction also that busy night when

096I think we were all at something girlfriends and I was at the Pinellas County Council of PTAs and as I mentioned earlier Lynch won their awards but also our own Pinellas County Council has received a national award for parent involvement so they are really reaching out to be more inclusive and not people and put people in boxes as part of their initiative and there was a great turnout at this month's meeting so I know we all get a chance to go to that and this was my chance so and also our congratulations to Beth Hawk too often thank you our new representative on jwb had the opportunity I think we're all probably getting out to meet her and that was a very positive experience both for me to listen and also for her to seek

097input from us so we all know it starts with early intervention and jwb being so heavily weeded in providing support and early intervention so that's my report and thank you for the opportunity to serve on the calendar committee as well I'm really glad that we were able to move that forward tonight great sounds good thank you so much for your service mr. Dudley Thank You Man chair this past week we lost a truly great educator a human being Lee Benjamin some of you had the opportunity to know him no Warner just fantastic person he was those of you who didn't get to know him it's too bad because this is a man peccable honor and he just dis man truly truly love children and he was a true professional educator and just an extraordinary man

098he's loved by everyone when I made a comment and newspaper when they called me and he asked me to give a quote oh yeah I could think of among flies nothing but it was the one I thought it was probably solely Benjamin is I never met anyone who did not like be Benjamin just great great he was a soft giant he was a giant among man he was buried you know I'd kill him I used to kill him all the time he played basketball at us FSU and he was on scholarship there it was five foot six five foot seven and I used to kid at myself it must been six foot or something but he is he is inducted into the Florida State Hall of Fame Athletic Hall of Fame as well as North

099East High School is all affair he was the first coach basketball coach at Northeast he was top physical education there and that's where I got to know him when I can't became a student there he was the first coach I had now coach me in football because I certainly can't play basketball but I coached him he coached me in football and then he was my teacher and then later on after I graduated from high school yes I did then I came back and he became principal at Northeast high school and I he was the first principal that I had and I used to kid him all the time he had impeccable judgment and a keen sense of ability or select outstanding personnel so early right so I was and he also selected me to be

100the head wrestling coach which I maintain that for 38 years he was a real champion when we needed him the most integration in this 1976 times 70 71 72 the imagine was a principal of Archie's high school he you couldn't have picked a guy anywhere in the world they could do a better job he just created everyone they treated everyone the same yeah the kind thing to say about these kids of kids and he would talk to him and they get a little scratch he pull them aside and talk to him in his own soft manner and just he just had a way of diffusing a situation and we were very fortunate at our school and to have him as our principal and he later you know as I said he was a coach a

101teacher he was the area superintendent he was on the school board and you know he loved education he stayed in education and I know when I ran for office not just school board when I ran for when I was on st. Pete City Council I look for his guidance and when I talked to him and he just had to write things to say he's a great he was a great great man and he's like I said he's a member of official Hall of Fame noisy Hall of Fame and now he's a member of all of Fame up there they're about 500 people showed up Sunday at the celebration of life for him in Northeast high school gym that is named after him and Sallee Benjamin athletic center just I miss him he's a great great

102man and all those of you did to have the opportunity just listen and read about him and just think maybe you should be like him it's just a great person thank you it's long I see your light again did you have something else you wanted to say okay I just have a I'm sorry miss long-arm is Latino to you I was late y'all's been lonely I just visited onion high school this morning and they were doing a tour with parents and students for the new Junior Achievement and I was just flabbergasted how many individuals came we're pulling from all over the district and from private schools the kids were excited with what they were hearing and seeing so this is a great opportunity for Pinellas County and I'm excited it's gonna be at Dunedin high

103and st. Pete high so start there that's right I guess we're all getting a little jumbled up on our words today so I'm just a couple of quick notes I will I was honored to be the speaker for the girlfriend's a group event at Largo high school and it was extremely well attended by schools from the South County in North County as well as their sponsors it was a wonderful event thank you so much to dr. Valerie Brown Lori Matt Way and their entire department for putting on such a wonderful event and I'm so sad that I missed the ribbon-cutting at kind of technical college clean water but I heard you guys had a great time so I'm so glad that has happened I want to give a shout out to Melrose elementary school they

104have a buddy program that they're utilizing that is working their fifth graders go into the kindergarten classroom and work with the kindergarteners on how to read and so I think that's just really wonderful because sometimes students learn best when they're working one with another just giving a shout-out also the principal help burn he had a barbecue day where he and his leadership team fed the staff lunch and it was a barbecue and I was invited couldn't make it so he promised to make sure they saved me a plate then next time I was honored to serve on a panel for the st. Kofa series at Eckerd College it was put on by a group that's called legacy 56 the group honor someone who's doing something within the community that deals with Family and Children and

105this year they honored dr. dr. Sid Campbell she's a graduate from here she was a pediatric physician but has now moved into the area of mental health and she imparted some really good information to those of us that were in attendance as it relates to the mental health and stability not just of children but of all the dots as well the panel piece that I had a chance to serve on was just to talk about the things that we're doing here in Pinellas County Schools as it relates to the mental health of our students and so I was really excited to be a part of that but also a person who served on the panel was our own very dr. Mary carnage and she did a fabulous job so shout out to her I didn't

106see her back there in the back tonight and one of the things that they left us with which was just the Maasai tribes tender saying which is are the children well because if the children is well it is thought and believed that the community is also well and that's the framework from which the dialogue began and it was pouring down raining you guys and people showed up it was packed in us so I was excited that people from the community wanted to come and wanted to hear all of the different things I also had a chance to attend to 5000 role models event that was at the Stavros Center very well attended to see some of the parents there was like at 8 o'clock in the morning so to see some parents you know took

107off from work and made that sacrifice to be there I have to give a kudos though to country side if my count was right country side high school had the greatest number of participants lining up there so yeah they were there in full force I was very excited about that and I'm just also excited about what we're doing here in the district there's a lot of new construction renovation a lot of movement going on all for the betterment for the improvement of of our district on tomorrow I'll be traveling with school board member Carol cook and dr. Greg oh we're going to Kentucky for the great City Schools Conference I'm looking forward to learning and for partnering with individuals seeing what they're doing but also sharing what we are doing here this will be the

108first one I've ever attended so I'm really looking forward to going I will say to miss Rita best squares who's back there smiling get ready because we're already a quarter of the way through school so you know I'll be calling you saying where our students are they graduated where our students how many do we need to help so get ready for me because that's coming and I just want to thank the schools that have already had their homecoming events I don't know about you all but I have not heard of anything that was not affirming as it released our students and so I'm glad about that because I know every year we typically make announcements from the dais asking our students to drive safely please make sure that you're doing things that you know you

109should be doing so that we don't read about something in the paper because unfortunately persons are speeding maybe it's not the student as someone else and we've had to deal with that but I haven't gotten any of that this year so I'm really excited about that I feel pretty good about that so those are all the things that I have it are there any things that the Corbett that you were asked to follow up on I have no requests recorded tonight madam chair no requests all right so there are no requests we will go ahead and at this time adjourn our school board meeting and then we will open it up for any speakers that we have from the audience after I speakers from the audience we will do our highs and lows in the

110back miss anthem and any board members in dr. Greger we have 15 speakers this evening under general public comments our first two are Eleanor Faulkner who shared a handout that's at your chair and Lee Bryant good afternoon miss flowers and honorable school board members god bless you in your work serving especially our precious children and I just want to thank God for Lee Benjamin and his lovely daughter she was always very kind to me because she knew her father was always very kind to me I am Lenore Faulkner Florida educators since 1967 I was deeply involved in America's space program at the University of Florida I was an intern on our Space Coast my students parents worked on the Apollo spacecraft Saturday was a special day USF played football at Annapolis the United States Naval

111Academy dad was a Hellcat fighter pilot a dive bomber in the Pacific he arrived at the Naval Academy in 1945 with and Navy 80 aviators in graduate school in aeronautical engineering the most difficult course at this time that is my birthplace January 3rd 1946 I'm the oldest of 80 million baby boomers I take it seriously I fight for education excellence dad fought for public schools not for charter schools or virtual schools two years later he returned to school on the GI Bill to complete his chemical engineering degree mom was an artist I taught eighth grade chemistry at Pinellas Park middle using art their chemistry magazines were on the Internet in 1998 next week at the time I'll talk about veterans but I've been asked to go all over the world but my son's been sick

112at the VA hospital in Tampa for 20 years and I promised God I wouldn't go out of town this is from a letter to me on April 21st 2009 from page Keeley mrs. Faulkner is a senior science director at Maine mathematics and science Alliance in 2008 and 2009 president of the National Science Teachers Association I am honored to have been selected as the leader in science education delegation to South Africa I invite you to join me to participate in this important in an international exchange in conjunction with people-to-people citizen Ambassador Program this delegation has been developed a foster 1.1 dialogue with our overseas counterparts and continue the tradition a professional diplomacy set forth by President Eisenhower in 1956 this delegation specializing in science cell and education will convene in South Africa in 2009 I just

113thought this was interesting at the bottom it says we will read arrived back in the United States on August October 22nd 2009 god bless thank you so much I appreciate you good evening members of the board chair flowers dr. Rio and staff my name is lee bryant and in spite of the really attractive red shirt i'm speaking on behalf of myself tonight a couple of weeks ago a colleague of mine found a copy of the pay scale from Pinellas County Schools from 2005-2006 I'm in my 24th year of teaching in Pinellas County and I looked at the old pay scale for where I would be right now 24 years back in 2005-2006 24 years experience had the bachelor's degree and in that year was five fifty four thousand four hundred dollars the salary for me

114in 2019 2020 is fifty five thousand and eight dollars a difference of only six hundred and eight dollars a 1.1 percent increase in payroll overall in 14 years during that same period of time according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the CPI in the Tampa metro area averaged 2.2 2% increase in the cost of living with a cumulative change of 33% if the pay scale had just kept up with inflation rate over those years the pay would have increased from fifty four thousand four hundred dollars to seventy two thousand four hundred and three dollars no one here expects us to be paying seventy two thousand dollars I understand that's not what's gonna be happening but do we have to work year after year after year after year for decreasing purchasing power within the district I

115understand we want to pay beginning teachers really well and I'm fine with that I love that idea we need to pay everybody better than what we're doing as the veteran teachers we're the ones who guide those beginning teachers through those first very tough couple of years we hold them together when they're falling apart we pumped them up when they doubt themselves and we show them the way through when they start feeling lost we're the veterans that guided guide them through I'm a veteran of giving a dog ma'am just mentioned our veterans I'm a veteran I was a petty officer in the Navy you can't run an army or a Navy without your noncommissioned officers you can't have an army or a navy that consists enough of nothing but officers and privates you have to have

116the NCOs compensated you have to make them feel valued and right now many people in my boat at 24 years we're not feeling the value we're not feeling the attention that we think we deserve thank you for your time thank you sir hm thank you for the hand ways to that thank you very much I don't want anyone in the audience to think that we're not paying attention to what our speakers will say because we're not responding we're in the process of some negotiations and so we can't really respond in negotiate so I don't want you to think that you're not being listened to sir but thank you okay thank you so much I appreciate it our next two speakers are Mike Gandolfo and Mark Clouseau good evening Madame chair board members dr. Greg Irwin

117stamp great deal good occurs each and every day in Pinellas County Schools we see in the videos and presentations from our students at school board meetings and we hear it in the angelic tones of school choirs serenading us at these meetings which usually causes me to want to stop at the nearest church on the way home however like a duck gliding across the lake no one seems to see the frantic motions beneath the waterline that keep that duck moving seemingly without effort pcs has a great deal of frantic pedaling going on that falls mostly on it's educators the blistering pace that has been forced on educators is unrealistic unhealthy and it's causing damage to generations of students the problem is that this district has bought into a movement a movement that cloaks itself in a

118veil of accountability a movement that this movement disregards the will of the people on class size in favor of a strategy of stacking deep and teach Mt it's about disrespecting experience among jeopardy in favor of a turn-and-burn policy get the base best five years out of a teacher and then consider them disposable the district saves money every time a veteran teacher leaves the profession and there's a report is replaced by a novice we know the district saves money when classes are packed to capacity but is it right to build your reserve funds on the backs of people who have devoted themselves serving children we can all be grateful to have an influential superintendent that goes to Tallahassee to make the case for more funding but that does this a little little good if he fails

119to notice the toxic climate that has become the trademark here in the district this is my last year as president of PCA it has been my greatest honour to advocate for educators students in public education I would have enjoyed leaving this district in a better place than when I took office but the climate of fear that I have fought so hard against just keeps getting worse so while I enjoy working collaboratively would count my counterparts here at the district many of whom I consider friends I do not have the luxury of time this district too often supports ineffective administrators who use intimidation and bullying as if they were acceptable acceptable management tools I do not plan to slow down as I answer that final round of my term this is not part of my DNA

120I plan to concentrate all my efforts on stamping out intimidation retribution and bullying and see them replace with the same restorative practices you would have our teachers use with their students I spend my final days as president working hard to get this done that's okay I won't be alone because I plan on creating a lot of work for a good many people in this room so let the work begin thank you thank you next speaker please mark Luther Laura go listen that's a joke last meeting the chair made a stupid comment that I was somehow attacking those students from Tarpon Springs which I did not I was just doing a little segue into the fact that it nona the students that would have to walk through water on the sidewalk out in front I just

121can't believe how dense but then twice she's called the Deus up there a Dyess now you can't expect someone that gets that wrong to realize whether or not they're building schools the right way which you are not not even close otherwise you wouldn't have this headline climate panel foresees big trouble as earth warms cause and effect correlation get your dictionary checked out those words the sixth extinction an unnatural history that's what you are bringing it's malfeasance and your public hearing what about time certain aren't your public hearings supposed to have a time certain oh no no well how come it's a six and it comes after the sevens can you count yeah you just your games are all messed up aren't they this place is just one big joke and you talk about how you're

122gonna get things right look at the lighting system here look at the lighting system imaging specular reflectors upside-down I mean you people are just so pathetic and the planet burns thank you very much next speaker please our next two speakers are Judy McGinty and Karen Berman good evening school board may be here this evening and my name is Judy McKenna d and I'm speaking on behalf of a fast organization we have visit visited with you many times in these meetings at first I'd like to publicly thank Eileen long for meeting with us two weeks ago and bringing her the restorative practice discussion back to your last workshop thank you again this is one at that workshop frustration had been expressed over our demands for an improvement in the restorative practice implementation and we too are

123concerned with some of the content of these conversations we want to be clear on a couple of the following points we do support your efforts to provide teachers in our district introductory training on restorative practices we are grateful that the district has begun this implementation this process and we support your efforts however what has been done to date is not enough if we want the program to work in the way it is supposed to we know that based on research and based on visits to other districts implementing these programs Louisville being one of them based on the feedback we are hearing from our teachers and students here we are asking you to build off of the training that has already been provided we are not asking you to throw away the time or the money

124that has already been invested and our teachers and our schools we are not asking you to stop what is already being done in our schools we are asking you to build on that foundation by implementing restorative practices fully and ten schools specifically chosen in our district this way we can see the impact of a full continuum of restorative practices in our schools it makes no sense to implement restorative practices halfway it only makes sense to implement the entire program that is why we are asking you to find a way to implement restorative practices wholly in ten school and a pilot program in our district as a cohort to building upon the work that is already being done and thank you for your time take care good evening my name is Karen Berman and I have

125a daughter who attends Gibbs High School and I'm a member of fast from Temple beth-el in st. Petersburg restorative practices are vital for students who are struggling to feel supported and accepted by their teachers to develop school skills and in empathy and coping and this means more time for teaching less stress better overall outcomes addressing root causes and developing real life skills as one popular commercial says it's invaluable however restorative practices is not working as effectively as they should and need to be here in Pinellas County why while we thank you for knowing the value of restorative practices Pinellas County Schools have only implemented them halfway in order for teachers to be able to make this successful they need continuous ongoing expert training and support we heard firsthand from teachers that during this summer they

126received a short one hour training that was grouped with other trainings as I always encourage my children that when you start something you must put in your best effort to do it half way is not to give it your all and that is not how we achieve success in our school work programs and in life we must gather all of the appropriate tools for success and our children who are struggling cannot wait any longer for those tools please take the necessary steps to ensure that restorative practices are implemented properly thank you thank you and andreas good evening my name is Leslie wobble and I'm here today with fast I have a son at Perkins Elementary in st. Petersburg we want to take this time to touch on formal restorative conferencing which is not currently happening

127in our district we are concerned that there is confusion around what this is and what this is not formal restorative conferencing is a tool that is critical for restorative practices implementation to be a success it is a tool that is used for the most serious infractions in schools from the iír P website I'd like to read some information on a restorative practices continuum and formal restorative practices include effective statements that communicate people's feelings as well as effective questions that cause people to reflect on how their behavior has affected others this is much of what we are doing right now in our schools these informal practices include the circles groups strategies and more that our district has been introduced to I'll continue moving from left to right on the continuum as restorative practices become more formal

128they are more structured and complete a formal restorative conference is a specific process with defined protocols that brings together those who have caused harm through their wrongdoing with those that they have directly or indirectly harmed this is a tool for serious discipline in our schools I'll continue the aim of restorative practices is to develop community through informal practices ie what are we are doing now and to manage conflict intentions through formal practices through restorative conferences it identifies both proactive approaches like building relationships and developing community and the reactive approaches of repairing harm and restoring relationships in other words we need both sides of the equation the proactive and the informal which is what we have begun to implement here in pinellas and the reactive in the more formal which is what we are desperately missing

129in the implementation process this more formal piece what is required to address serious discipline issues in the school's restores restorative conferencing hold students accountable for their actions and addresses the need for an alternative to referrals and suspensions and lastly for both sides of this equation we must add ongoing coaching and support this is the restorative practices equation and as of now we are barely doing half of it thank you good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak and I also wanna say as a side thought I thank the school board members that are visiting the schools I talked for 37 years but I'm sad that I feel the need to speak again six years ago I spoke to you all about the stress and strain teachers were under I had taken to ambulance

130rides from my school within six weeks because of the Mahad I asked you to listen to us that I retired last Halloween after 37 years of teaching but I still volunteer at my old school I still have a passion for teaching and for children especially children in title 1 schools and poverty schools but sometimes it's feels as if when you're sitting up there looking down at us that you don't consider us part of the equation my teacher friends tell me it's getting harder not easier there are expectations that we will work over contract hours as a given if we speak out we're told I guess you just don't care at lots of students but it is an issue it's a health issue it's also an issue that we get to spend time with our families

131and our children and as my friend Lee Bryan said the many of them need to get second jobs I have a friend who's been teaching for 23 years and told me today she needs a second job because the pay has been locked in at a flat schedule everything else is not we are supposed to be on the same team we're supposed to work for the same students same goals we are not the enemy I know Tallahassee considers us that but they own charter schools for profits on the schools you do what profits if you want a profit from the profit school you're going to look for the money so I'm here asking you again please listen to us the best of the best are speaking to you when these teachers come up and talk to

132you they know they're probably going to be called on the carpet the next day I was I was told why did you talk but they are hard-working dedicated some of your best so I plead with you please listen to us thank you very much our next two speakers are Nancy Velarde and Carrie Nelson good evening let me begin by reminding everyone that teachers love to teach it's their calling their passion their great love as Jeff Bezos says you don't choose your passions they choose you every teacher I know feels this way I feel this way I left a financially lucrative corporate position in publishing which left me cold and unfulfilled to become a teacher yet since the governor's ill-conceived announcement recently about raises the assumption that all teachers care about is money has dominated the

133media yes they would like to be able to pay their bills without worry and not be forced to hold a second or dare I say third job a livable wage is a fair expectation but money is not the reason educators are abandoning the profession they love nursing their broken hearts the crux of the problem is respect or more specifically the lack of it the complete loss of autonomy and agency in the classroom has been soul-crushing for those of us who treasure being educators if the popular trend of using a business model for schools is to work at all shouldn't the model be based on successful businesses Steve Jobs founder of one such business said it doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do we hire smart people so they can

134tell us what to do your teachers know what to do and need to be trusted to do what they love without constant interference another issue is our existing contract this document is an agree that was painstakingly hammered out through the years by dedicated people of the pinellas district and the teachers union it is signed sealed and delivered agreement that members of both organizations have worked hours creating and recreating neither side believes this document is perfect but it is a finalized agreement it should not be open for personal interpretation at each individual work site no matter where the facility may be or what designation it holds it should never be willingly violated to suit individual needs I respectfully request that administrators in our work sites be reminded that this is a document to be honored and

135adhered to and not open to personal interpretation the protection of teacher working conditions is pivotal to successful schools and the small souls that enter those portals our students trust us to protect them nurture their learning and inspire their growth your teachers are asking that they be able to trust you to do the same for us last quote Steven Covey always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers our students are the best good evening good evening my name is Karen elfin and I'm a working mom of two children who depends on the daily bus routes I passed out some spreadsheets at track time and notifications we've received about late buses it was earlier mentioned we're about a quarter of the way through the school year the data I have in

13682 trips 13% of the time the bus was on time in the morning three days the bus never even showed up to pick up our kids in the afternoon 73% of the time of our bus through the kids are waiting more than 15 minutes at school to even get on the bus and that's kind of generous it's more 2025 minutes late the past month 76% of the time I have had you drive the kids to school due to the bus being late or unreliable twelve percent of the time the bus was confirmed on time my pickup times have changed about seven times from eight oh six eight oh seven eight thirteen seventeen thirteen 8:05 and apparently tomorrow it's supposed to be eight twelve the number of bus drivers we've had eight ten twelve I don't

137know I've lost count these are people that are just picking up the bus route they don't know our neighborhoods they take different routes constantly I've had 18 extra hours to work to make up lost time in the past month that's 18 hours I've lost with my family 18 hours I could have had with my kids I'm lucky my employer understands and that I still have a job I've had dozens of calls to transportation and the school board several emails to the board that have gone unanswered honestly with the exception of miss Len Tino who actually came to my work and spoke to me about this situation I'm extremely disappointed with the lack of communication and response this board has had with her constituents why do we need this problem fixed buses should run on time

138and have dedicated bus drivers for each route why it's plain and simple safety on September 17th my young son was on the bus for over 45 minutes he should be dropped off within 15 minutes of being picked up at school when he didn't arrive I was frantic I made calls to the school I had my husband Drive throughout the neighborhood and contacted anyone that could have any bus info he was late because once again we had a substitute driver who apparently made a wrong turn it must have been some wrong turn though since our stop is only four and a half miles from the school my little boy was scared driving through the neighborhood's he was I'm familiar with I hope none of you ever have to experience that sick feeling when your child is

139missing this morning actually another example the bus speedily drove right past our stop is I was on the phone with transportation trying to find out how late the bus was going to be this morning I usually give it 10 minutes before I call them again a substitute driver who is not only late and mister stop but she also made a wrong turn I ended up on a dead-end street on Queens borough of South in 48m South it took her five minutes to maneuver out and get back on the route our kids arrived at school 851 today if you're wondering how I know this I've had to equip my childhood GPS tracker that they can't depend on the bus drivers to know the route it saddens me that I've had to do this so what it's

140been done so far bus times have been changed routes have been combined so that bus drivers go to several schools have multiple kids from multiple schools on the bus stops have been eliminated and nothing has worked I hope that you can read my dad but thank you I'm just we're gonna ask mr. Clint Herbig who oversees others with the Transportation Department actually if mr. hegwood could raise his hand there he's a director of transportation he can help you our next two speakers are Casey Nelson and Brad to court before we go to the next couple of bus drivers first I do want to say to the mom thank you so very much for coming today I appreciate it and I appreciate the diagram you provided with us I'm not saying this you know to to

141try to give an excuse but we are short bus drivers and we have had bus drivers picking up other routes they'll go drop off of school and get back we've tried to be creative in the way that we have looked at hiring additional bus drivers we even train them internally now it's just difficult to get bus drivers I'm not saying that you know suffice is I'm just sharing that with you but I have I'm sorry if I didn't return your call because I've gotten a number of emails and calls and I try to get back to them right away or either I hand them off to mr. Clint Herbig and ask him to please follow up and usually he gets back with me very quickly on whatever happens you know try to resolve the situation

142but I just want you to know that all of us are very concerned about that as it relates to transportation because I could only imagine when you're not sure where your student is when they should be home a certain time so thank you so much for coming thank you for sharing this information for the documentation if you don't mind after that's your daughter after your daughter speaks because you probably want to stand up there with her to please speak to our staff that's back there in the back and let's see what we can do and again you know we apologize but we're working we're working on it I know that's probably not gonna give you any relaxation in it but we're working on it and I'm so grateful that even your place of employment has

143really worked with you on that to make sure that not just your student but you've worked with other students to get them there safely so thank you so very much we'll hear from your daughter and then speak to Stan hi good evening board members my name is Kasey Nelson I'm in fifth grade at jerilyn IB and I'm here to tell you how the late bus times has hurt my school year when I get to school I have to rush to get where I need to be the newsroom or my classroom distrusted me out and make me feel horrible inside once I get to the location I must rush to complete my morning assignment or make sure the news broadcast starts on time I volunteer to work at school News and Safety Patrol and I shouldn't

144be limited to my choices by the buses being white I have to be at the newsroom by 8:45 a.m. which is impossible since that's the time the bus arrives at school by the way it is scheduled to arrive at school at 8:35 a.m. in the afternoon I need to work different stations for patrol and not knowing what the buses can pick me up I don't know how long I'll be able to work and help out when we are waiting on the bus stop it wastes our time since what inconsistent bus pickup times I don't know if I have time to take out my work to do it and put it back by the time we wait for the bus to come can veins buy a lot and when we are awaiting my mother calls the

145district to see how late the buses can be sometimes the times they give us aren't even close to the times the bus actually arrives when the bus is late in the afternoon I'm not able to get done why need get done for homework for example I had a science project a week ago and one today is the bus was late I was planning on finished up my trials for the science experiment I ended up having to stay up late to finish my trials the late buses has also affected my sleep schedule when we get the tech saying the bus will be late I then have to wake up early get ready faster so my mother can drop us off at school by time I fall asleep and wake up I don't really get enough sleep

146compared to an amount I need not only it's the bus late the students on the bus are late to school the parents waiting with their kids for the bus are late to their jobs and the other routes the bus driver drives will be like - everybody is affected by the buses being late as you can see the buses being late has affected me other students bus drivers and parents that's why you should change the bus times I earn more drivers test the bus routes times over the summer and whatever else is necessary to get students like myself safely to school on time well well said young lady well said thank you madam chair members of the board dr. Greg on staff my name is Brad Daugherty and I'm an eighth-grade teacher here in Pinellas Walt

147Disney said that our greatest national resource is the minds of our children that may be but we have another resource in Pinellas County that we are at risk of losing that resource is the veteran teacher we risk losing the vet the knowledge and ability of these veterans teachers because of the lack of respect given to them 18 months ago and I'm when my wife unexpectedly passed away I was forced to take a hard look at my life and what I had given up for this job and whether I could continue my job in this district or not I had to look at the time it took me away from my family during the last 20 years I put my family second many times when I should not have had to do that it was either

148because of a second job which many in classrooms across the district must have to survive or having to work at home to get everything finished that we must all that we all must do my wife would ask me to do something or go somewhere but I was too busy with lesson plans or grading 140 essays to take the time to be with my family and now I cannot get that time back even when we would go somewhere I would take my school bags and be working in a hotel room in Orlando Mississippi while visiting family I am sure that I am not the only one dealing with these issues we should not have to take time away from our families to do our job but we don't always have a choice since we don't have

149the chance to finish everything we must finish in the time allowed at school as more and more expectations are put upon us every year I also had to decide if I could afford to continue teaching when I look around at my fellow teachers I can probably say with confidence that nobody got into teaching to get rich we got into this profession because we were called to it I love teaching but I also need to support a family with the passing of my wife my income my family income was cut in half Pinellas is not a cheap place to live and the salary we have does not make it easy to live here every year we must wonder if we will make enough to make ends meet a person working here should not have to wonder

150every year whether they will make it through the year or not a professional and we are professionals should be able to support a family without having to have a second job just to survive the working conditions and the salary must get better we cannot survive as it is now more and more students are being added to classes which has caused more work and stress to teachers now I do believe that the state allows districts to ignore the will of the people even though the people voted for a class I amendment but just because you can do something doesn't mean you should the stress of the workloads and the worry about taking care of our families is causing more and more educators to leave the profession many educators are developing stress-related illnesses who can blame them

151for leaving we need to do something to keep the educators we have because they may not be that there may not be that many coming in thank you sir thank you our next two speakers are Colleen Parker and Ryan good evening it's been a while since I've spoken to you all the first thing I want to say is I want to my classrooms in building for a third floor of st. Pete high that was brought up earlier and I want to thank mr. Hrbek for getting new carpeting in my room it took a while it's beautiful it adds to the room immensely when the graduation dates came out recently I saw June 1st for st. Pete High at 2:45 I was excited because I'm like oh good I don't have to do two sets of

152exams one for the seniors early and one for under class oh good I don't have to prepare the exam waiver list twice I can do it just once and most importantly on June 1st all the teachers could go to graduation instead of having a split schedule then today I was out for the last three days today I see that it was changed and it went from a wonderful to a nightmare because now our graduation is scheduled at may 23rd May 23rd which is a Saturday a holiday weekend okay and the teachers are supposed to be there it's six o'clock in the morning that means I'm going back to double exam waiver list double exams because I teach ninth through twelfth and as some of you know I read the contract a few times through from

153beginning to end maybe about 20 and I don't know of anything in that contract that will mandate that a teacher is going to have to attend a graduation on a weekend on a Saturday and I said there mr. Bennett was our principal for over ten years and I knew him well enough to note when I went in with a problem to come up with a solution or a proposed solution and I don't know whether anybody here has ever approached because let's face it graduation dates are based on a piece of ball schedule I don't know whether anybody has even thought about approach the Rays and saying hey do you think Toronto can flip-flop and can to raise Beale a way that week instead of having Toronto be with arrays at first week and just do

154a flip-flop of three games with two teams thank you I'm sorry fYI the baseball schedule was not set by the race is set by Major League Baseball so that's where you have to go to it's not to raise good evening again everyone Ryan's in ski Hillsboro County 16-year veteran educator I love numbers and so many of the issues that were brought up here I taught math and social studies huge nerd but I love numbers and they tell a really compelling story without any kind of context so let's start with this one trillion dollar economy that's what Florida generates is GDP we are the third most populous state in the u.s. we have a fourth largest economy in the in America 17th largest economy in the world and somehow the Florida Legislature seems it is fit

155to fund us at 45th in the US for public education spending 48th for average teacher pay and 50th dead last for adjusted for inflation dollars since he and the Great Recession the issues that were brought up here by my fellow educators are all revolve around this every single bit of it more numbers for context 2007-2008 the high-water mark for people spending since that time the Florida budget has ballooned nearly 40 percent thirty eight point nine percent the entire Florida budget you would think that there would be equity for education right no 14 percent is what Florida the education system has gotten in fact you see it the decrease in the total revenue for the budget it used to be 34 percent now it's down to 28 so a decrease in 6 percent total budget in

156Florida and who pays every single person in this system we all do chair flowers you said that the children are well and our community as well I would beg to differ when you think about the fact that I say it well I mean maybe not in it but in the sense that when you think about many of in it in most counties the school board is the largest employer we've been left out of the economic recovery as many of the teachers noted you do deserve 72 thousand dollars sir any veteran teacher does and if they had kept up with inflation this would have not been an issue so we need to do something different because voting in a gerrymandered state with closed primaries I'm an NPA I'm a centrist I have no voice I have

157no say but yet the Florida Constitution article 1 section 1 says all political power is inherent in the people maybe it's time we start a people powered movement maybe it's time we take a stand together board members superintendents educators everyone who touches a child's life deserves better deserves the respect deserves the salary more importantly our children deserve better they don't need all this testing so I'm asking every educator throughout the state to take a personal day On January 14th if you're a parent don't send your kids to school that day let's on the first day of legislative session band together and show the legislature that we will not tolerate this any longer thank you so much for your time and as I remind often everyone when we are silent we're complicit thank you thank you

158mister and what I what I read was just a quote from the Masai tribe that asks the question are the children well I asked the question I didn't say they were and I said when the children aren't well then the village is not well that's what I was saying next speaker please our final speaker this evening is Laura McCullough hey it's been a while since I've been up here you inspired me this evening dr. Carr when you said thank you for making students first in the calendar and then I heard build ugly over here saying what great things about Lee Benjamin about kids or kids right this district does not put students first I'm letting you know that right now who is putting kids first in a calendar the prioritizes exams and testing my middle

159school teacher testing is still out of control I've spoken to the board many times about this mice I've talked about my students then the toll that the testing takes on them it's absurd to think that this district puts children first when middle school students are tested in PE come on guys this is not right PE and every other subject and don't forget it's right before Christmas remember kids are kids right we have to spend 90-minute blocks which have now turned into two hour blocks the last week of school before Christmas testing our middle school kids kids are kids right is that a good choice for them to take them off their schedule and put them through rigorous testing oh my gosh let's look at the curve before we say it's rigorous 17% is passing did

160you know that 17% is passing I know you might not know that but it's true yes I'm a middle school teacher for 26 years and rigor is a thing for tests it's not a thing for middle school students okay rigor is one deep asses for the year that's your rigger how is this good for kids you know whoo thank you for inspiring me dr. Carr oh okay you know and now I'm gonna talk about teachers because I am a teacher and salary compression is a real issue that we face here in Pinellas County we already talked about the coverage of the news how new teachers they're looking to make 47,000 he doesn't decided where that money it's coming from maybe best and brightest I don't know but what happens to us I'm 26 years in

161I really want to retire with a living wage you know if the beginning teachers are making 47,000 that's good for them and it's the greatest thing that would ever happen that salary compression is painful thank you thank you we have no more speakers as always I like to try to end the evening with a positive quote and just to share that to our guest mr. Kosinski thank you for coming every districts rules are just a little different so again we do apologize that there was a little confusion here in the beginning with your comments but we do thank you for coming over and sharing with us the quote that I have for today is by mr. Henry brooke Adams and it says teachers effect eternity no one can tell where their influence stops thank you

162all so very much have a good evening you a few times through from beginning to end you