School Board Meeting 9_28_21

001welcome to the september 28 2021 regular school board meeting which i now call to order this morning our invocation will be be given by iman abdul karim ali from the tampa bay area muslim association it will be followed by the pledge of allegiance led by vice chairman mrs long and the national anthem performed by the lakewood high school chorus under the direction of lisa dean the choral director and accompanied by jason jacob merrick the chairman of the performing arts department at lakewood high school good morning and welcome please stand morning to madam chair and vice chair to members of the board the superintendent members of the community i'd like to extend the greeting of peace that's given from our creator to the human family god peace be with you may we pray with our lord's

002name with our lord the creator's name the merciful benefactor merciful redeemer we witness that there is but one lord one creator who the creator of the human family and the creator of all systems of knowledge the praise and thank belong to our lord the creator we beg for your forgiveness and we beg for your mercy we thank you for enabling us to meet here today for this wonderful meeting we ask your god that may you continue to guide and bless this body this administration to do what is right to do what is just for all of us all of our student in all of our schools for one day these minds will be asked to lead our community lead our city our state our country the world in which we live so we ask you

003god to bless this body to develop young minds for the test that's before them let us as citizen work together to make our community a better place for all to live we thank our wonderful women and men who serve this community who serve this country who serve the world to help keep us safe and make this world a better place we ask you god to reward them for their effort and these of our prayers we pray in your holy name we say amen amen to the flesh of the united stand one nation honor god individual with liberty and justice good morning my name is jacob merritt i'm the department chair for performing arts at lakewood high school this morning we will have the spartan chorus led by miss liza dean performing the national anthem followed

004by lift every voice and sing oh me is my god let every voice is foreign let us thank you very much to the liquid chorus and thank you iman ali we appreciate you coming and participating in our board meeting dads play a key role in the education and development of their children last week the district held dads take your child to school day and the school throughout the counties welcome students and their fathers for the special morning activities so let's look at take a look at the great turnout that they had at ridgecrest elementary this morning at ridgecrest we had our dads take her kids to school day this is our third annual event of this type and basically it's just an opportunity for dads to come in hear a little bit about the school

005and spend time with their kids we took about 15 minutes where they just sat played games had conversations took smiling pictures there's lots of smiles lots of giggles lots of happiness that's what we want what's something great we need to see more fathers and male role models in the elementary school setting and in these times we need dads and male role models more than ever so it's very excited today to have an opportunity to get back to what is our new normal and present this activity i love what he do at this school and i know that this is best for him and i know that me being a part of his life is helping him out each and every way the way i look at it's amazing what a little support can do and

006how much meaningful it is for him seeing that i'm here it's important for me and for all dads to to be involved with the school and we had a bunch of people so it's good to see folks back and pulling together as a community it's important to support my daughter and make sure that she's doing the very best that she can academically and behaviorally she enjoys when i show up the events and i'll be here for and support her so it's a good thing it's a great thing i think that boys are strengthened by men in their lives to help build be models for them we've been away from school for so long to see this many families come out for a program that's a great great exciting part to see that the families really

007want to be involved with their kids and we hope to keep bringing them back to other events okay this is just one of the many ways dads can get involved with their students education for more information and resources visit our website at pcsb.org dads in the school alrighty and we will now move on to the introduction of professional and community organization representatives with isabelle mascarenas our public information officer good morning good morning madam chair members of the board dr grego and staff it is my pleasure to introduce the following representatives of community and professional organizations from the pinellas classroom teachers association nancy vilardi president representing the seiu and the florida public services union talmadge andrews from the pinellas arts for a complete education coalition co-chair maria cantones members of the media in attendance are bay

008news nine today we have a presentation from the student rights and responsibility committee please welcome diamond brown jeremy white and elia ball from lakewood high school and their principal aaron savage thank you good morning good morning good morning everyone my name is diamond brown and i am a lakewood high school senior i also take part in many programs and clubs such as the national honor society avid alma drama club crop and i am class of 2022 senior class president a few things i would like to talk about today are avid and the crop programs at lakewood and how they prepare students for after life after school after high school however there aren't many classes or programs that help prepare these students or yourself for the real world such as starting applications and looking for scholarships

009as you are getting ready for college for example last year avid gave me my first opportunity to apply for a scholarship it was the dr martin luther king jr essay oratorical scholarship and i came in first place avid and crop are two two programs that are not enough talking about and that students don't really take part in while avid stands for advancement via and individual determination crop stands for the college reach out program these programs work hand-in-hand in preparation for students to get ready for life after high school they teach you organization time management and how to successfully complete a post-secondary education as i've taken from my freshman to senior year i can truly say how much has helped from setting goals planning things out and maintaining a balanced schedule my high school experience has

010truly became one to remember as i have learned how to have fun while also being on top of my academics good morning my name is aliyah ball and i'm currently a senior at lakewood high school center for advanced technologies and i take part in a multitude of organizations such as national honor society spanish honor society fbla and i'm the captain of the swim team but i'm mostly going to focus on fbla for right now also known as the future business leaders of america i became a member of this organization my seventh grade year at madeira beach fundamental and i've stuck with it ever since fbla has taught me a multitude of skills such as public speaking leadership skills how to work as a team but above all it's taught me to become a more confident

011person and how to push myself past my comfort zone fbla has also provided me with the chance to join a lot of leadership positions after i was a chapter officer for my seventh or seventh eighth ninth and tenth year i finally decided that i wanted to take it a step further and run for district office this did not go that well i choked i bombed my speech and i didn't get the position but i saw this as a minor setback and i tried again the following year and i'm now the district 12 south region vice president for fbla so this is just one of the prime examples for what fbla has done and how it has helped develop me as a person and another organization i take part in is nhs the national honor society

012and nhs it provides students with so many opportunities to not only get volunteer hours for bright futures but more importantly to help people and help the community through beach cleanups and helping with tutoring students and providing supplies and donations to the needy nhs is truly an amazing organization that never fails to give students the opportunity to help and give back to their community so while these are only two of the organizations that i take part in there's still many other amazing programs that our school has to offer so thank you good morning my name is jeremy white i'm a senior in the cap program at lakewood i follow the programming pathway and my experience has been i have worked on the cad website at our school i've also helped to develop the food pantry website

013that's used at lakewood hollins and gibbs high school i've taken courses such as foundations to programming ap computer science and i'm currently enrolled in procedural programming as a senior in cat i am a member of the cat advisory board i collaborate with teachers and administrators and sponsors to help ensure that students have the proper tools necessary to succeed in the workforce whether they choose to follow a career field in stem or liberal arts ensuring that students are well versed in things like our robotics program cyber security and our programming pathway of course i'm also part of the network assistant program where i work hand in hand with rit director mr borg to ensure that students have students and teachers have the proper hardware and software to complete their daily tasks and such and above all

014to ensure that students are prepared to do their schoolwork and whatnot thank you thank you thank you both and congratulations on your first place as well as your district position you know sometimes we learn as much from our mistakes and things that don't go so well and i'm glad you went back and tried again so all of you did a very nice job word members are there okay terrific thank you we will now move on to see if there are any amendments to the agenda dr grego madam chair there are no amendments all righty board members anything that you want to pull from the consent agenda all right we will now move on i'll accept a motion to adopt the agenda okay mrs long and okay and miss hines all in favor say aye aye

015opposed say no and it passes unanimously thank you we will now move to the special order agenda and our first is a presentation of the proclamation observing disabilities history and awareness weeks during the first two weeks in october do we have a motion to adopt the proclamation all right mrs long and miss edmond second all right dr grego yes ma'am chair it's an honor to call upon lynn moed our executive director of the exceptional student education department and just before to to talk about the many activities that we're doing to not only honor our teachers and our students and parents but all of the support staff and everyone in our district that work so keenly with students with unique abilities and so we're we're truly blessed to have you lynn so thank you for bringing

016this proclamation forward thank you dr grego good morning madam chair members of the board dr grego staff and community during the first two weeks of october we will celebrate disability awareness weeks during this time schools should engage in activities that support the history of disabilities and promote awareness in pinellas county we proudly serve over 14 000 students with disabilities during the past year we have continued to see higher rates of inclusion for our students and adults and celebrate the positive impact they have on our lives and in our community we have placed a focus on universal design for learning highlighting the importance of access for all our teachers provide behavioral and academic instruction and as a result we see our students growing and reaching their goals many of our students have graduated and have gone

017on to become employees of pinellas county schools throughout these two weeks schools should support activities that promote positive attitudes towards the successful inclusion of students with disabilities increase respect and acceptance of individual differences increase understanding of disabilities and related social issues and facilitate the development of literacy and language arts skills through activities about disability awareness thank you for acknowledging the importance of our students and adults with disabilities and the positive impact they have on our district and community good thank you all right mrs long would you please read the proclamation proclamation disability history and awareness weeks whereas the pinellas county school board recognizes the important contributions and achievement of individuals with disabilities and whereas during this two-week period students may be providing intensive instruction to expand their knowledge understanding and awareness of individuals with disabilities

018the history of disability and the disability rights movement and whereas the goals of disability history and awareness instruction include a better treatment for individuals with disabilities especially for youth in our schools and increased attention to preventing the bullying or harassment of students with disabilities b encouragement to students with disabilities to develop increased self-esteem resulting in more students with disabilities gaining pride in being an individual with a disability obtaining post-secondary education entering the workforce and contributing to their communities and c reaffirmation of the local state and federal commitment to the full inclusion in society and the equal opportunity for all individuals with disabilities and whereas public awareness knowledge and understanding of disabilities promotes full participation by students with disabilities into the school and community activities increased knowledge of individual contributions by people with disabilities advances inclusive

019communities now therefore the school board of pinellas county does hereby recognize the first two weeks of october as disability history and awareness weeks in pinellas county schools and we call on all citizens of pinellas county to celebrate the many contributions individuals with disabilities make to florida our nation and the world thank you board members any comments or okay then we have a motion and a second to adopt the proclamation observing disability history and awareness weeks during the first two weeks in october of 2021 all in favor say aye i oppose say no it passes unanimously thank you we will now move to the presentation of the proclamation designing octo designating october 2021 as dyslexia awareness month we have a motion okay miss hein and this long count second dr grego as board members i know

020you're as proud as i am for the advancements we've made in teaching students innovative literacy strategies and with students with dyslexia we've always had a keen focus on the training of our teachers and partnering with the universities in our local service area but i'm also very proud when we decided two years ago to open up the center for innovation literacy innovation at lisa nelson elementary school and then this past year expand that to both midtown and palm harbor middle school and i always say this let it be clear that those are not the only places that we're really focusing in on on students with with dyslexia but rather those are the places that we're kind of lab schools that we're really using to train all teachers throughout our district elementary teachers so lynn moed is

021also here to to present this proclamation okay thank you dr grego i'd like to introduce tiffany bell who is our instructional staff developer for our dyslexia initiatives in the district to introduce this proclamation good morning good morning madam chair members of the board dr grego and staff october is dyslexia awareness a month the aim of this recognition is to promote understanding of the unique characteristics of individuals that have dyslexia the international dyslexia association identifies dyslexia as having difficulty with accurate and or fluent word recognition poor spelling and decoding abilities these difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language and are often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth

022of vocabulary and background knowledge students with dyslexia require more explicit systematic instruction and the area of foundational skills in order to become proficient in word reading accuracy and rate students who don't receive such instruction may continue to struggle with decoding spelling and oral reading fluency which can ultimately affect reading comprehension and writing those with dyslexia are known to have average to above average intelligence some of the most notable people with dyslexia are albert einstein whoopi goldberg tom cruise leonardo da vinci and thomas edison this year with your support we have continued to grow our training for reading coaches classroom teachers and school administrators in such methods of identifying characteristics of dyslexia we have worked as a team to develop a word reading difficulty screener also known as the lfac in grades k through 2 where

023full implementation has begun through such measures we can use the data to drive instruction in the area of foundational skills for the purpose of providing strategic instruction based on students need we have also developed a screening process for grades three through five where teachers are encouraged to take a closer look at students who meet set criteria for further screening teachers can then use the data to dig deeper to determine if the student's word reading accuracy and rate has a negative effect on the reading comprehension through such measures they will be able to use the data to drive instruction and systematically address deficits and the area foundational skills so that our intermediate students become proficient at reading and understanding grade level text excuse me thank you thank you all right mr dudley would you please read

024the proclamation whereas the pinellas county school board recognizes that dyslexia is defined as an unexpected difficulty in reading for an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader and due to the difficulty in getting to the individual sounds of the spoken language which affects the ability of the individual to speak read spell and often learn a language and whereas this dict dyslexia is the most common learning disability and affects 80 to 90 percent of all individuals with learning disability and that early diagnosis of dyslexia is critical for in ensuring that individuals with this lexia receive focused evidence-based intervention that leads to the promotion of self-awareness and self-empowerment and the provision of necessary accommodations to ensure school and life success and whereas an individual with dyslexia may have weakness in decoding or reading

025fluency and strength in higher level cognitive functions such as reasoning critical thinking concept formation and problem solving and whereas the pinellas county school board celebrates that great progress has been made in understanding dyslexia on a scientific level including the epidemiology and cognitive neuro biological basis of dyslexia and now therefore the school board of pinellas county does hereby proclaim october 2021 as dyslexia awareness month in pinellas county schools and in doing so urge all citizens to recognize that dyslexia has significant educational implications that must be addressed good thank you all right we have a motion and a second to adopt the proclamation designating october 2021 as dyslexia awareness month all in favor say aye aye aye opposed say no it passes unanimously our third proclamation is the presentation of a proclamation designating october 2021 as national

026physical therapy appreciation month we have a motion to adopt all right mrs long and this is edmond second dr grego this madam chair this proclamation will also be presented by lynne moett she's take it away lynn three but before i turn it over to her it's always appropriate to thank our physical therapist and for the many students that they serve and sometimes we don't it goes unsaid but the parents that are so appreciative of the services they receive in our public education that otherwise they would not have so lynn thank you thank you i'd like to introduce jodi becker who is the coordinator of ot and pt services for pinellas county schools good morning madam chair board members dr grego staff and community members october is recognized as national physical therapy month sponsored by the

027american physical therapy association pinellas county therapy staff physical therapy staff not only support a student's ability to access the educational environment but also help a student participate in all aspects of the educational program they accomplish this by utilizing therapeutic techniques to improve a student's quality of movement by modifying the environment using adaptive seating and a variety of mobility devices and by collaborating with and educating staff to assist in enhancing a student's physical participation in all activities throughout their day the pt staff do all of this to improve the student's meaningful engagement in his or her curriculum while promoting safety and greater independence this past year our physical therapists and physical therapist assistants have worked together to train more than 350 medical behavioral associates across the county in proper body mechanics proper lifting techniques and transfer

028training as well as educating them on adaptive equipment such as wheelchairs for maximum safety for themselves and for our students with special needs this is an ongoing initiative that will continue as new mbas are hired and existing mbas need refreshers i am proud as the coordinator for otm pt to represent and recognize our physical therapy staff for their dedication and hard work on behalf of pinellas county school students and i want to thank you for taking the time to recognize them today very good thank you thank you dr carr would you please read the proclamation thank you and thank you to the physical therapist for the shift in so many ways to meet all the needs during this ever-changing time and in different environments thank you proclamation national physical therapy month whereas the pinellas county

029school board encourages options for an active and healthy lifestyle for all students and whereas pinellas county school board speaks for the best interest of students in recommending physical therapy by a licensed physical therapist to achieve safe physical access to the curriculum and whereas through a national effort the pinellas county school board and community members are encouraged to join together to raise awareness of the importance of physical therapy during the month of october 2021 and whereas this effort will bring awareness to our schools community and around the country of the roles of physical therapists in our schools now therefore the school board of pinellas county does hereby proclaim october 2021 as national physical therapy month in pinellas county schools and in doing so urge all citizens to join in a national effort to raise physical therapy

030awareness very good thank you so we have a motion and a second to adopt the proclamation designating october 2021 as national physical therapy appreciation month all in favor say aye aye opposed say no and it passes unanimously our fourth and final proclamation is the presentation of the proclamation designating october 2021 as national principles month do we have a motion all right mrs edmund do we have a second and mrs kane in the second dr grego yes thank you board and certainly this rounds out a great recognition program this morning but what could be said about the leaders of our schools and also the leaders of the community not only this last 18 months but even beyond that i always call the principalship perhaps the hardest job in america because they balance not only the staffs

031but the community and they attempt to lead under so many different circumstances so i we will be thanking them throughout this month as we as i do throughout the year but but also as you so let you know i will be meeting with them this month in person and certainly having some special occurrences for them just to say thank you and we can't thank them enough and i encourage the community to thank them if you have a child in the school district you have a principal and it doesn't take much to just reach out maybe a little note or you know sometimes they get so many emails that but getting an email from you saying thanks for the job you do every day means the world to them dr hines is going to present his

032proclamation as one of our area superintendents who oversees principles thank you good morning madam chair board members dr grego and leadership we are excited to declare october as national principles recognition month as you all know the job of a school-based administrator has changed tremendously over the years the job has become more and more demanding and despite some of the challenges that we face we are so excited in pinellas county to have some of the best leaders leading our schools supporting our district initiative working in our communities to ensure that our students receive the best quality of education and so we are honored to stand before you to ident recognize and to help celebrate the national recognized month as october as being national principals awareness month so we know that the research says second to that

033of a classroom teacher the impact that a school-based leader has on students in terms of student achievement as we look at the hiring practices within schools looking at motivating our families and communities and providing those environments where students can thrive and learn and grow so thanks to your leadership and your support over the years and even in this time of year to help us recognize and celebrate with our principals for being recognized and the work that they do day and day each and every day i mean i think about the times that they you know we're home and they may get that phone call and they're called to task and call to duty and they do it with a smile and we are appreciative of their support and so having said that we would like

034to again celebrate and honor them this month of october by recognizing the work that they do and we know that we cannot do that they we cannot do what we do as district leaders without them on the front line supporting our teachers and our schools and our school communities so thank you board for declaring and celebrating with us and accepting this proclamation to recognize our principles thank you good thank you mrs kane would you please read this proclamation whereas principals are educational visionaries instructional and assessment leaders disciplinarians community builders budget analysts facilities managers and administrators of legal and contractual obligations and whereas principals work collaboratively with teachers and parents to develop and implement a clear mission high curriculum standards and performance goals whereas principals create school environments that facilitate great teaching and learning and continuous

035school improvement whereas the celebration of national principles month honors elementary middle and high school principals and recognizes the importance of principles in ensuring that every child has access to a high quality education and whereas the florida association of school administrators the national association of secondary school principals and the national association of elementary school principals have declared the month of october 2021 as national principals month now therefore the school board of pinellas county do hereby proclaim the month of october 2021 as national principles month good thank you all right we have a motion to adopt the proclamation designating october 2021 as national principles month all in favor say aye aye opposed say no it passes unanimously thank you very much thank you all right now we will come to public comment on agenda items members of

036the public have three opportunities to address the board when we gather for our meetings the first opportunity is to speak during public comment on the agenda items the opportunity the next opportunity is when public hearings which most are for policy and later after the meeting is adjourned we will remain for public participation when speakers may address items pertaining to the business of the district at each of these opportunities for public input board members are here to listen to you this is not a time for discussion or debate we will not take formal action on information brought forward unless it is pertaining to an agenda item however the board and superintendent may clarify statements or refer the speakers to proper staff people to help work through their concerns the board is committed to a standard of

037civility and decorum in the conduct of our meetings and whether you agree or disagree with the viewpoints expressed by speakers please refrain from showing audible support or disagreement we also ask that you insist us in maintaining a civil and constructive environment by confirm by confining your comments to the business of the district and refrain from profanity or intemperate rude remarks thank you mrs howe do we have any speakers to agenda items board members and dr grego we have nine speakers for agenda item 7.10 okay and one speaker for agenda item 7.8 all right thank you would you like to call the first two board member first two speakers the first two speakers are barbara dumashan and travis pettigood 7.10 and 7.08 good morning good morning i'm barbara dumochelle my dad was a former superintendent of

038schools my mom's a teacher i have four grandchildren from first grade to 12th i just want to read something i just wrote to myself here we go a state attorney general has issued a warning that critical race theory that ideologica that i ideology that essentially concludes whites are oppressors and blacks are victims violates federal and his own state constitution when used to impose different results or requirements on individuals any effort to take account of race in a way that differently accords benefits or opportunities or creates a hostile environment in an educational institution is almost certainly unlawful under the equal protection clause in title vi wrote arkansas general leslie rutledge in a letter to state lawmakers mandates from any government are illegal we are americans who maintain freedom and truths as dictated by the law of

039the land our united states of america and state constitutional law and our declaration of independence no board or government may supersede those inalienable rights any person or government who does not uphold their oath of office to comply with our national and state constitution is not recognized by god or we the people of these united states all right i'll change the subject no no no i what this is an opportunity for you to address the agenda item you've identified agenda item 7.10 and i'm not sure what part of point ten years well i do i'm addressing crt is that located in your opinion yes it is where is it in agenda item 7.10 crt and also the sex education is what i want to address and where is sex education addressed in agenda item 7.10 i'm

040sorry i'm sorry i'm asking the speaker i don't really understand what you're saying i thought i could speak on on behalf of crt and sex education in the school system that this is an opportunity for the public to be able to speak to the items that are coming in front of the board are those items are they items that are on the board agenda i'm not aware that this is an item in in agenda item 7.10. so i have to wait till the end you can speak about that at the end if you wish sure thank you sure and to anyone else who signed up to speak i'll ask the same question thank you okay the next let's call through you know let's go ahead and call four speakers so that they can be on

041on deck because apparently some of them aren't here when it's you know we'll call you in the order in which you signed up and we'll ask that question when you come up i previously called travis pettigood is travis pettigood here karen perez david happy michelle michaela schmidt okay who was the first person you called me karen perez karen perez okay spelled weird thank you i'm not sure now if this is relevant or not because i did do 7.10 and i do want to talk about curriculum i won't bring up the acronym but i will say that i just want to encourage you when you are thinking about curriculum and cultural influences or whatever if you want to put in there i just want to share a little bit about my background who i am and

042i am a minority i'm hispanic second generation from puerto rico mother had me when she was 19. father left me when i was two my father to this day cannot read or write criminal drug addict was never in my life mother married four times grandfather worked in a wafer factory from puerto rico came here couldn't speak a word of english i sit here now stand here before you as a woman who is single i've never been married i have a master's degree i have a very good job and i own my own home so i encourage you when you look through the lens of identity politics and encourage children to identify solely with the tiny tiny perspective of the color of their skin where they come from i really caution you against doing that because

043i didn't have that experience when i grew up and i did get discriminated but i used it as fuel i didn't use it to make myself a victim i didn't have anybody to look up to i didn't have a parent who did any of the things i did but i found the influences out there my mom encouraged me as a single mom a nurse who worked very often oftentimes holidays things like that you know i was raised a lot by my grandparents i was an only child i encourage you to let people's unique self shine and not whittle them down to the tiny little prism of your color of your skin it's degrading it's insulting it's insulting towards others too who you may define as oppressors we're all in this life we have our own

044unique journeys and people like myself who choose to succeed and transcend identity politics do not need teachers and curricular planet planners to speak on my behalf or attempt to encapsulate my unique personal life experience through one narrow lens again i will say it is very insulting and children growing up today i don't think they have an alternate perspective teaching victimhood is not teaching 100 students success every person has a unique ability and it definitely goes beyond where they came from their economic background or their racial background it's when you attempt to put people in boxes and define their potential in life experience through that narrow lens that you diminish their visions and their abilities and i sit here as an example of that so i didn't have all those hang-ups and i didn't let those

045hang-ups get to me and i came out pretty okay so i just asked the board to consider that good thank you okay a statement that i read in the very beginning said whether you agree or disagree with the viewpoints by a speaker please refrain from showing audible support or disagreement if you agree you're more than welcome to raise your hands or give her the thumbs up or whatever but we will not have people applauding thank you that was done only during presentations with students and special recognitions all right our next speakers we called four names i called david happy and michaela schmidt okay michaela schmidt would you please get on back all right good morning good morning hi mr kopersky david happy tarpon springs i think what people are speaking to is specifically from within

0467.10 some purchasing that has been identified as bid numbers 22 dash 961 22-961-079 fortunately today i get to come in as an advocate for you not as an adversary for you so it's kind of refreshing for me but here to share with you two things about the purchasing of curriculum that are happening that our board members just might not be aware of and i'm asking you just to maybe slow down a little bit to kind of understand what these people are here for two things i get to bring to your attention today number one there was a national alert that's probably driven some people in here because there's national organizations that are actually following the pinellas county school board for various reasons but one of those alerts brought to the attention things that were contained

047within your consent agenda for today having pertaining to curriculum that you're probably going to want to take a look at the other thing that i want to bring to your attention is as a result of the curriculum that pinellas county has been working towards and working on there's a local law firm that's been gathering information that is specific to 7.10 that is specific to the bids numbers 22 961 058 and others and specific to a sunshine request that i completed which comprised a bunch of information about some training for culturally relevant teaching that ties specifically into these bid numbers so i think what you're hearing from people today is just a request for our board and dr grego you guys might not be aware of all of the nuances of the research that's being done

048by national organizations by a local law firm that's ready to pounce to enforce you guys have done a wonderful job of following state and federal law and so what i'm here today is just to point out to you what several of these people are here to talk about is things that may be contained within your consent agenda that i think you i think you already approved it but to take a second look at some of the curriculum that's being purchased and to really just take a step back and understand what it is you may you may decide that you ultimately all want to bless the curriculum that's being purchased but we're just asking that you take the time get from mr from counselor kopersky the foia request that i requested specific to culturally relevant teaching

049and look at the material that was provided from the district because some of that comprises the same information that the law firm here locally is looking at and that they're looking at on a national basis so thank you and god bless you all thank you thank you our next speaker emmanuel oramos amber alici angela d okay i'd like all three of you people to line up please in the order in which your names were called and then we'll take you one at a time okay so we have two people the third name you can stand just behind him okay who's the first person okay very good thank you welcome hi thank you for having me i'll keep it brief but just to continue to include some notes that i have just on the curriculum for

0507.10 crt is a world view that pushes chaos and evil and it's a religion in itself just advocating for evil destructiveness and divisiveness and i don't feel that's appropriate for children's innocent minds to be indoctrinated with that kind of world view it's purposely political and says that rights are racist and the reason that it's a threat and why i'm bringing it up today is because it's robbing humans of our personhood and is it as image bearers of christ our creator and it's grouping groups against one another and having little innocent children viewing one another as either the oppressor or the oppressed and crt is a false gospel grounded in ethnic prejudice and just from a biblical standpoint sin by race quoted in john 6 27 first john 2 2 9-11 in matthew 21-5 including all

051in leviticus as well in 1915 all partiality is a sin and we are all equal and that should be emphasized in a school board setting and so critical race theory is critical hate theory and thank you for your time thank you all right i'm not going to say it again if this continues i will ask for the chambers to be emptied and have the speakers come in one at a time we've asked now twice for you to not respond in an audible way thank you good afternoon good morning yes hi my name is emmanuel ramos and agenda item 7.9 was conveniently summarized and hidden by the public but the general public is quite intelligent unlike to the imagination of the politicians and the people who write the agenda so it's okay we know it's about

052critical race theory my name's emmanuel and i am here to speak on the detrimental effects of critical race theory critical race theory summarized is a compiled agenda meant to be taught as curriculum in schools about how racial inequality has oppressed can you please just pause we stop the clock so you won't lose any of your time again and maybe dr greger or dr corbett can speak to this because i'm not familiar as much as the administration is with these programs but my job is to make sure that the speakers are speaking to the agenda item that the board is going to be acting upon and so i one person has identified two different bids one deals with a leader in me training and one deals with an eye observation training it's my understanding that those

053do not deal with critical race theory or even culturally responsive teaching and so seven oh also 7.9 for your information is the financial statements for the month ending june 30th 7.10 he is speaking to i thought he said he identified seven points okay okay so all right so sir are you speaking to the financial statements or what does the card misspoke his card says 7.10. okay 7.10. okay i thought i heard seven points he did say 7.9 he misspoke when he came up so apparently okay you're speaking to 7.10 but but to my earlier point does he specifically says 7.10 as well no i understand yeah yeah your card says 7.10 and you misspoke and that's fine i did not misspeak it but that's all right if we misheard it's all right too okay we

054make mistakes we're only human right okay so sir to my earlier point and i don't know if the administration wants to weigh in or let this go and that's fine but i just want to make sure that the speakers are not exceeding your policy authority okay so do we do you know which bid that you're speaking to sir i the ones that were identified before yes yes yes i'm speaking i'm speaking bid numbers 22 961 zero five eight and twenty two nine six one zero seven nine okay and those bids relate to a trainer and leader in me and one to eye observation and madam chair beyond that i would turn over to the administration to see if this is related but i'm not that familiar with those programs okay dr grego eye observation is

055an instrument that we use for teacher evaluation that our principals use is it's nothing to do with curriculum okay all right so they are addressing crt which is our critical race theory in their mind and our culturally relevant teaching no is that part of this item at all it is not part of this observation is a software program that our principals and others use to carry out the marzano right teacher evaluation is very far from any kind related to any type of curriculum material it's not curriculum it's a tool that we use to observe the effective teaching strategies that our folks use all right leadership i'll make a clarification leadership training is a is student leadership as very as we heard with florida school board i mean the fbla and others it's a it's a

056student-led leadership training component so there's nothing to do with any crt which is my point all right speak about it is important that we hear certain you know it's it's whatever the responsibility that you have as the school board members to legislate pass rules pass ordinances over the students it is important what i have to say because it encompasses a great many things all right then we're going to ask you to speak after the meeting is adjourned since it's not to an agenda item it is towards this specifically agenda items it is vocab the vocabulary of that agenda item is specific and i am specifically going towards 710. 7.10. all right all right so this country was founded on the beautiful idea of freedom self-expression and a pursuit of happiness yes our country saw great

057injustices but it evolved successfully in ending it and providing equality for all the american people have had a long and proud history in eradicating oppression hate inequality unlike any country on earth so much so that and so successfully that it is still has the highest rate of immigration in the world amongst the many immigrants that have come are my family as my grandparents fled cuba as exiles they left an idea known through out the world as the most oppressive form of human enslavement ever communism an ideal rampant oppression fostered and promoted by misery-loving company individuals and a concept that has failed everywhere it has been tried upon leaving the country we brought our culture a culture of pride hard work and a need for individualism an entrepreneurial spirit so strong that it built both miami

058and tampa from a once swamp principles and values beating parallel to that of the american heart i'll be damned and i'll be damned if me or my children will stand for this load of crap to be taught in our schools and taught with the inferior to teach us to be inferior shamed or placed with ships on our shoulders by some myth that our country was founded on the hatred of man towards another man by their skin color our country has many inequal seen inequality and violence but from the same soil equality and love was grown the form to form a foundation for my family to step as once immigrants and today proud americans thank you your time is up please stop mr ronos your time is up thank you all right okay can you please

059make sure that he finishes speaking thank you goodbye okay i am going to ask specifically what your bid number is yeah you are here for 7.10 they're going to yield my time to renegea who is on the list as well you may not you can choose not to speak but you do not yield your time oh every person gets three minutes okay so i'm speaking to the same midnight give me the bid number please you want me to read you the same bid numbers yes i hope you're not timing me for that i'm not timing you at this point i'm asking you which bid number so that we can look at what the exact item is 22-961-058 and 22-961 okay that is the from the professional development it is learning it's lsi learning sciences international

060yeah are you speaking to that item yes ma'am i am all right yes i am a parent i am a woman of god i am very concerned about what is happening in this government school system these items need to be discussed and disclosed to the public at large i'm asking for a meeting in which all citizens and parents and teachers and staff are invited to to actually read the language because like what has already been said today many people have no idea the language that are in these bids and what you all are looking to pass a budget for we declined that thousands of parents in pinellas county declined that we do not want you to pass a budget for these measures we want an open town hall meeting where these can be discussed openly

061we can all see what the language is what's behind this that's why you're hearing from us today because we are aware of the racial bias behind these bid items you may not be aware and the public may not be aware so we need to have an open discussion before any vote takes place any monies are allotted we need to be able to see exactly what this is and comment on that and that's what i'm asking you all for thank you thank you hi good morning i'm also speaking on item 7.10 i'd the same exact bid numbers that she just said mentioned i'm asking you to table this for discussion and do some more so we can do some more research in regards to what these items are we discovered after a lot of digging that

062two of the two of the vendors slash contractors when you research who backs them and who funds them it goes all the way back to ibram x kindy critical race project and critical race theory in the 1619 project we spent hours this whole weekend digging all of this up okay and literally he teaches kids to be racist from his book quote the only remedy to pass discrimination is present discrimination the only way to remedy present discrimination is to is future discrimination so please do not vote on this because if you pass it's breaking the florida law and then i started doing some more digging and more digging and more digging and let's see here we have a job description here in pinellas county equity equity training equity teacher equity equity please stick to the agenda

063item yeah okay thank you thank you thank you our next speakers the next two speakers are rene chia and eric rogers hello i am speaking to agenda item 7.10 i'm here to oppose bid numbers 22961-058 and 22961-1 whoever is your reviewer for curriculum and trainings in this county is woefully incompetent so my question is has your council reviewed all of these items for compliance with florida statutes the sunshine act in title 7 and 9. the first bid number is for professional development and training from franklin covey called leader in me reading key portions of the text clearly the ultimate end in mind in working with students is not academics school culture or leadership skills these are all means the ultimate end in mind is for students to develop the skills and mindset that will allow

064them to lead their own lives to be able to work effectively with others throughout life and to make a meaningful contribution wherever they go in life academics culture and leadership skills are important means to those ends so the hope is that schools will address all three challenges most effectively and in a balanced way this is offensive you all have one job to teach the kids academics reading writing and math i will teach my child the morals and values i believe in the curriculum states leader in me a whole school transformation process the leadership principles and lessons are not taught as a curriculum but instead are incorporated into courseworks tradition systems and culture leader in me seeks to among other things create a culture of trust and engagement empower students to lead their own lives and

065make a difference with others develop empathy none of this is your job this is the job of a parent my family doesn't value blanket empathy empathy and sympathy are sometimes warranted but are not an entitlement we believe in kindness and compassion balanced with personal responsibility i don't care how you feel about all of that i don't care how you feel my family does not value co-dependent socialist trust and engagement my family values strength character and integrity if you are going to teach culture values and religion at a minimum it should be shared american culture values and religion yes we have shared values and culture in america these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness god-given rights with freedom equality hard work and the benefits of your individual work and justice for all i'm going

066to skip to the next bid item because i'm almost out of time the software license subscription professional development from learning sciences international as you mentioned is the marzano framework the marzano framework if you go to dr marzano's webpage on the resilient educator links directly back to ibram candy's work this is the same genius who defines race thank you morning i just want to thank you all for the work that you are doing here for the community i realize it is not an easy job it's a lot of work and i do appreciate what you are doing here i do want to speak to item 7.10 again as you've witnessed amongst many of the member or many of the community members here there if nothing else something that can be brought or taken away from this

067is a need to take the time to reevaluate or re-look at some of these different curriculum providers and specifically the contractors that the board here is taking on that's all i ask is that there are enough people here to make it where it is enough of an item of concern where we should simply look take the time and also evaluate what some other opportunities might be whether if you know there is a need for educating more on you know anti-discrimination efforts there are other avenues there are other curriculum providers i myself have a background in human rights education and so i've spent many many years doing that but i do believe it is very important to maintain those patriotic values and to of course maintain the work we're doing in the community so i do

068request you take time please table this item for the time being and really seek some other opinion and feedback because there are so many what's really incredible is there are many home school moms here as well who have other incredible curriculum resources that might be of asset to the board here so we should work together as a team to look for alternative solutions that the majority can of course agree upon anyway thank you so much and thank you for the work you're doing thank you there are no additional speakers oh alrighty good thank you all right so we now move down to the consent do we have a motion all right miss edmond do we have a second okay i didn't hear you i'm sorry dr carter all right all in favor say aye i

069oppose say no all righty it passes 6-1 with mr dudley voting against the entire consent agenda all right so we now move on to setting a public hearing and authorizing the advertisement of the public hearing to consider amendment to policy two two five zero which is fundamental school and magnet programs this is the first reading do we have a motion to accept okay miss hein do we have a second okay dr carr and dr grego yes ma'am chair and to the public this is an item that this board reviewed very carefully during her last workshop and there's some minor modifications to our district application program i asked mr hendrick the associate superintendent for teaching and learning to present those to you good morning good morning thank you dr grego board members in the community today

070we asked to set a public hearing on this first reading on policy 2250 working on our district application programs as you know there's a 47-page manual that outlines the processes of the district application programs including how parents apply receive invitations acceptance and waitlist procedures it also outlines the over 80 programs that make up our magnet and fundamental programs including those incur technical education the arts stem wellness and many more at the school board workshop on september 21st we shared with you the process for gathering input from stakeholders and how recommendations are made for changes this year there's only one new program the city center for literacy innovation replicating the one at eliza nelson elementary at midtown in st petersburg there are four name changes in the manual and clarifications on language for professional courtesy fundamental

071programs gifted programs as well as ib programs this starts the process of our annual district application program season including upcoming events such as on october 12th the virtual q a for parents in the community to learn more about programs school-based discovery nights throughout the months of october november and december and our in-person fares this year on october 19th at tarpon springs high school october 23rd at largo high school and october 26th at northeast high school thank you very good thank you now this is an item that we workshopped at our last meeting we had some discussion so we have a motion and a second to set the public hearing and authorize the advertisement of the public hearing to consider amendment to policy 2250 which is fundamental school and magnet school magnet programs all in favor

072say aye aye opposed say no passes unanimously we'll now move to request approval of the proposed five-year capital outlay plan and adoption of the tentative five-year facilities work program for 2021 22 through 25 through 20 25 26. do we have a motion okay mrs long do we have a second okay mrs kane with a second dr greg board members this also was presented in great detail at our last workshop a five-year capital plan i don't want to miss an opportunity thank you for the aggressive plan that you continue to approve for this district as we want world-class schools and buildings and materials and so forth for our teachers and our in our community i believe mr smith is going to introduce it and also mr herbick is ready to to add to that conversation too

073so mr smith thank you dr gregor madam chair board members this is our five-year capital outlay and facilities work program we are required to submit this by statute each year to the doa and it must contain specific elements this represents the fiscal year 2122 through 2526 five-year capital plan it's been updated to reflect the rev new revenue estimates for that time period it also has been updated to reflect the intri the interest and principal payments for a bond issue that we issued this year as well as major capital programs and projects we'll be undertaking over that time period at this point i think mr herbert would like to address some major projects we'll be undertaking in that time frame yes thank you mr smith and madam chair and board members as dr grego said we

074did share a few of the details of the plan with you at the workshop and i wanted to go ahead and share a little bit more with you and also share some of the details with the members of the public as well what we did not share at the workshop is the fact that the capital plan also includes our maintenance plan and a plan with our area superintendents our maintenance plan we have 29 million dollars a year in our in our maintenance plan through capital outlay it pays for everything from preventive maintenance to replacement of chillers like you saw on the on the agenda that you passed just a few moments ago all the way to carpet ceiling tiles i mean everything that you can think of that could break into school we address it

075through that maintenance plan and michael hewitt our director of maintenance does a fantastic job of getting getting out in front of issues and making sure that we do not have a lot of things breaking down we also have within the capital plan that you'll see is a five million dollars a year allocated and distributed amongst our four area superintendents and our chief transformation officer as well and they use that money to help schools with smaller projects and it's really curriculum enhancement type of projects if a school needs let's say another computer lab or they need to reconfigure a room to meet something that the teacher wants to do kind of innovative wise in a classroom we can use that money from those area superintendents and attend to that the big pot of money that we

076generally talk about is a little bit sometimes to some people a little bit more exciting is the projects that are coming up or the projects that we're working on right now as you know we're working on big projects at clearwater high school at tyrone middle school and several other locations and just to again to share with the public what we already shared with you at the workshop some of the big projects that we have within this next five years will include installing permanent walls at three of our open concept elementary schools we still have three elementary schools without walls built in the late 70s early 80s and we want to go ahead and install walls in there and make it a little bit more of a traditional school those are pinellas central elementary sandy lane

077elementary and bowder we also have an extensive remodeling project scheduled for seminole high school that we're just now getting underway and then the other kind of kind of a big project for us is at several schools it's replacement of portables and i just want to make sure that it's clear that we're not going to replace every portable in the district there's still going to be a need for the occasional single or two portables but what we're working on right now is replacing what we traditionally call those portable villages where you might have six seven ten portables sitting out at the edge of a class they're at a edge of a campus and we want to kind of bring those obviously take the portables out and give us some more permanent structure but create a sense

078of community around those as well and those elementary schools are plum pasadena fundamental gulf beaches seminole elementary and inona elementary are all targeted in the next five years for that as is osceola fundamental high school and they have 14 portables there now so again those are the highlights of the plan it's much more than what the big projects that you see includes that maintenance in the area superintendents fund and i just wanted to make sure that everybody was clear with that good thank you all right i don't see any questions or comments from the board so we have a motion in a second to approve the proposed five-year capital outlay plan and adoption of the tentative five-year facility work program for 2021-22 all the way through 20 25 26. i even hate saying that all

079in favor say aye aye oppose say no it passes unanimously and it sounds so far away and it's only five years all right the next three items i think we're going to take together the as we request approval for the salary increases for professional technical supervisory and non-representative groups as well as administrators request approval of negotiated agreements with seiu the florida public services union and request approval of the negotiated agreement with the fraternal order of police they're all very very similar so we'll address them at one time so dr grego chair and to the public i want to introduce miss paula texel the head of our human resources department also the head of our bargaining team so thank you very much i'll have further comments when you're finished but if you could cover all three

080of these for the board they are so similar if not almost identical outside of some contract language i think it'd be best to put them together also thank you good morning madam chair school board members dr gego and staff yes i am here this morning to request approval of the next three agenda items which include the tentative agreements with seiu fpsu and fop as well as the salary increases for our non-represented staff so the first item that i'm presenting is to request that approval of the tentative agreement with seiu florida public services union i first want to say thank you to joey brenner as well as becky dean talmadge andrews who i know is in attendance today and richard mcdonald for their work on the negotiations with sie seiu this session our salary increases for

081all members of this bargaining group is 3.25 percent i also wanted to point out in regards to health care first of all thank you to the employee well-being and satisfaction committee who worked really hard on this process this year the district has agreed to cover the increase in health care costs for all employees which does equate to approximately nine million dollars and that is for all employees not simply the members of this bargaining group i know our employees really do appreciate that their health care payments will not increase this year and again we thank you for your support in this area in addition the school board will cover the approximately four million dollars for the increased frs contribution for all employees again which means no additional cost to our employees so the total compensation package

082for seiu this year is 5.2 percent but as it was mentioned before in addition to salary and healthcare this year we renegotiated the expired contract with seiu and a few of the items that were agreed upon include clarifying the number of sick days that an employee may use for personal reasons increased from four to five we also clarified that some shift differentials for bus drivers include both the am and pm shifts we also increase the amount bus drivers earn quarterly for perfect attendance we also discuss our bus assistance which is a fairly new position and talked about them receiving some uniforms as determined by transportation and for our mechanics who do such a great job in our in our buildings and our sites we did increase their monthly tool allowance from 50 to 75 and

083again we just clarified some general language throughout the contract as well so this agreement passed a few weeks ago and all increases if approved today are retroactive to july 1st 2021 and if approved as i said employees will be receiving their raises and retro checks on october 15th so i wanted to put that out the next item is with our fraternal order of police or fop i wanted to thank ken afianco and officer dave harrison for their work as we work through negotiations this session employees in this bargaining group will also receive a 3.25 increase the board will contribute the same amount of health care and frs as mentioned earlier and again their comp their total compensation package is 5.2 percent in addition to the salary in health care several items in the contract language

084were agreed upon in addition including increasing the number of sick days as i just mentioned before for our seiu group we also are providing an annual shoe allowance equal to 80 for these members and we also did go back and clarify the increase in their certificate of distinction and this is a program for all of our support employees who can participate in and in just increasing their annual for certificate of distinction from 250 to 275 and if for if they do earn their certificate of distinction 2 from 275 to 300 and again this was voted on a few weeks ago and passed as well and again these are retroactive and will be if approved they will receive their raises and retro checks on october 8th october 15th as well and our final agenda item that

085is presented is for the approval of the salary increases for our non-represented staff this includes staff such as confidential secretaries our food service managers those staff that are non-represented they will exempt employees classified as administrators and pts will receive an average salary increase of 3.25 percent but our support staff who are excluded from their bargaining units due to their classifications as confidential will receive a salary increase equal to 3.25 percent again the board will contribute the same in health care and our frs as mentioned before and so the average total compensation package for these groups is also 5.2 percent if approved today these employees will be receiving their retro checks and their raises either in their october 8th or their october 15th paycheck whenever their pay date is so on behalf of the superintendent staff

086we are highly recommending that you approve these agreements with seiu and fop as well as the increase in salaries for our non-represented staff very good thank you dr grego i'm fine i'll make some comments later but i'd like for you to address it if you have any questions at this point yeah anyone have any questions all right what we will do is treat this kind of as an agent similar to a consent agenda we will take a vote for all three if someone has one that they would like to pull out for whatever reason if you'll let me know that now all right then i will entertain a motion for 8 items 8.3 8.4 and 8.5 on the nine consent which is approval of salary increase for our administration professional technical supervisor and non-represented support

087staff also the negotiated agreement with seiu the florida public services union and the approved negotiation agreement with the fraternal order of police is there a motion to accept all three all right mr dudley and mrs long made the motion and second to approve all three all right i see no other conversation so all in favor say aye aye opposed saying no and it passes all three past unanimously passes i think good i did want to just as as those were approved i did want to let you know we do have two other bargaining groups that we are continuing to work with that is our pcta and our spa groups and we continue to have negotiation meetings scheduled we are meeting actually with pcta tomorrow evening and we hope to have that agreement to you as

088well soon and be able to present those recommendations to you very good thank you all right very good so we will now move to items introduced by the superintendent yes madam chair and to the school board thank you very much for and i want to say thank you to all of our employees well-deserved in terms of what this board has accomplished over the last say nine years i think this is my tenth in terms of bargaining but in nine years this board has increased the instructional salary at 41.35 and the instructional support at 41.96 percent we've used the word unprecedented a lot over the last 18 months for various reasons i would i would include that in in this these increases for our faculty and staff in addition to that what's also unprecedented this board

089has agreed to pay the entire amount of increase in health care healthcare costs continue to be continued to escalate and to have a board that is willing and able to pick that up so i want and unfortunately it goes about to say well that's not really a raise but it really is because the cost of health care is out of our control so somebody has to pay for it and when you use it you have to pay for it and so the notion that this board has been as nurturing and understanding with health care rising health care costs to try to protect its employees is truly been remarkable so thank you for that i do want to thank and miss paula texel as we talked about it before but dr corbett laurie dart kevin smith

090and rita vasquez were and as well as many of the principals who serve on the bargaining teams on staff so i'm proud as a 3.25 and to get this accomplished as early and to get these checks and to get the increased cost into our employees pockets and before the holidays is very important as i know it is it is to you i also want to say as a reminder to thank this board for the thousand dollar bonuses that were provided to all employees as you remember the governor provided a thousand dollar increase in and for the work that they did over the last year and a half but last year in particular and was specific to classroom teachers and to principals and as a result this board came in and said no everybody else bus

091drivers food lunchroom service managers workers everyone assistant teachers everyone regardless of your pay scale everyone is receiving the same thousand dollars we didn't tier it other districts thought about it but we didn't tier it we just we just paid that out i know also that the bargaining team as is important to me and i know to the to this board we've offered the extension of the emergency medical leave to the end of this september to the end of this semester given some conditions that we will work because we understand the notion about the covet is still with us and if people are out of sick leave and that we want to help protect our employees in addition however we also i want to continue to remind all employees about the sick leave bank that is

092also another a viable viable option to do that so thank you to this board i don't think it's said enough in in terms of what you're providing you're the largest employer in this community and you continue to provide what i think is you know understanding about their wages and increasing it and also want to thank mr smith because throughout the year we work to get to this point and you can't just get to this point a month or two before you have to plan for such a thing it's like your own savings account you just can't plan for something you have to continue to put resources aside if you're truly planning on this so thank you mr smith and your entire team for keeping us frugal along the year so we have this opportunity to

093do what we're providing to our employees today so thank you thank you to the board board members i also want to provide you as mr herbert could do this also but i think he's kind of wanted me to do it i don't know why but to give you a transportation update so the first the first group of 10 alc transportation drivers took hold and took to the roads and took over our extended transition program in the high school and for the high school routes for two weeks ago in addition the second group of the alc drivers began last week that's an additional 10 so that's 20. this allows more of our pcs drivers to run their elementary runs on time and we've certainly recognized and saw the difference of the last two weeks additionally a

094group of eight new hired drivers began training last week and five will begin training the following week that's october 4th and this is in addition to the eight that hit the road or i shouldn't say hit the road but got onto the road and passed their driving portion of behind the wheel and were released to drive independently last week so that's 28 at that point and then we are also recruiting additional drivers and that flow and i just want to thank or again a human resources department because we are recruiting drivers we're marketing our district in many ways we're starting to get more and more folks stepping up for this so mr mr herbig anything that you want to add to that all right i would say no but board members we are taking a

095look and i met with mr hegwood yesterday that we do still have some routes in the morning in the first slot that have to go back call them double back routes and we're really putting a lot of effort right now into eliminating those i think if we can eliminate those i think parents students schools everybody would feel a tremendous amount of relief so we're pulling kind of all the stops within that we can with our own employees to try to find people who can cover those routes who who have the training and the appropriate credentials to drive those we're also expediting the training program the classroom section that we're doing in the evening times on saturdays so we're taking what usually what about a month long and we're narrowing and trying to cut it into

096half not behind the wheel those hours of the hours but the classroom portion of that certainly could be could be done in long longer chunks of time so all of these things plus many many more things that we're doing to try to alleviate i see i see us getting to that point in very in the very near future i also want to say thank you to human resources department because our substitute fill rate has increased by over 25 just the last two weeks as you know board members we took a chance and we said okay we increased the sub pay for receiving an additional 50 for the daily rate it helped along with our communications with our sub bank where people are starting to come back and people are feeling more comfortable to come back

097and substitute in in our in our schools so we see this also improving as you know last week there was a new announcement i think i was at the superintendent's leadership meeting in in tampa or nowhere in orlando and the new surgeon general dr joseph ladapo issued a new health ruling for all schools in the state of florida and you could see that decision tree we placed it in cerro tool placed it on our website it's a two-prong decision tree now where where parents can have a choice of if if their student is asymptomatic and i really want to emphasize that the really the important thing is if you're not feeling well regardless of what you think you have stay home and talking with dr cho yesterday and again earlier today listening to him i've

098yet i've heard a sense of true excitement in his voice because things are going down as fast as they went up and he's he says the hospitals are fine we have some of the lowest rates that we've seen and he only envisions it getting lower as we do as you know we still have our testing sites in our district that's worked very very well and we're also advertising the booster shot that is currently at cvs and walgreens and so we're going to be communicating that as well as i was on a call this morning with the county commissioner barry burton and others so they're going to be communicating it to throughout our entire district any one of our employees because we're a high kind of yield whatever we say a high touch a high contact

099occupation anyone 18 or above can certainly receive that boosted shot if they so desire to do that but two things they continue to emphasize if you're if you're not feeling well stay home and you know vaccinations really truly are working in this in this community i want to say thank you to the stuff the bus and the pinellas education foundation they collected about ten thousand dollars in school supplies during their annual stuff the bus campaign it's amazing no matter what this community is going through people still come out to stuff that bus it's still a good time you know so tomorrow morning volunteers will be delivering those supplies thank you miss edmond i believe you signed up for help to help with those deliveries we thank you to the foundation to attend 10 tampa bay

100will be with us and all the people who donated to this wonderful efforts and it's so different in the past we didn't deliver it but now we're actually taking it to the next step and delivering it to schools and seeing and seeing those supplies reach reach the school last week was our annual start with hello week in conjunction with the sandy hook promises board has been so such huge champions of san diego promise it's worked tremendously in our school district schools and students throughout the district will have special activities to make sure everyone in the campus feels included and welcome we have a few photos that will that we're sharing you could see them on the screen seminole middle school built a smile wall where students were asked to write notes to their peers an

101elementary school created a special signage inside and out outside the school bear creek students learn that helping someone is as simple as three steps see someone alone reach out to help start with hello i want to thank donna cecilia and sandy hook promise and all the student services and school-based support and staff to work on this campaign not only the campaign during this week but if you walk on our campuses they are caring nurturing places i also want to very proudly say and thank judy vigue for her work but really a whole lot of work and principals and teachers we've had 22 pinellas county school students named for the national merit scholarship a semi-finalist this is the 67th annual national merit scholarship program which is conducted by the national merit scholarship corporation and the students

102were from largo palm harbor university osceola st petersburg high school and east lake high schools and students who are among one those 3 22 of 16 000 semi-finalists across the country will compete for over 30 million dollars in scholarship most of these students will receive full rides into university studies as you go as you know that the qualifier is the pset and msqt exam that we provide in 11th grade and it's one of those benefits of offering the psat in eighth grade ninth grade 10th grade and to the students who want to we had a tremendous increase in the number of students who selected and offered to to take the psat this year in 11th grade those test dates are coming up so wish our students luck because in in a high school in middle

103schools but they'll they'll be a psat sat school day this board has been so supportive of leveling that playing field for all students they all have the same opportunity and it's it's a great it's a great day i want to if you haven't noted but over the years duke energy has wanted to really try to help and capitalize on some solar energy and i have a slide in here to show you what duke energy is currently installing some large solar canopies at john hopkins middle school sometimes you see these canopies being shades for for cars but also fueling the electric energy into into our school building so we want to just thank duke energy and and that you the school board for allowing such a thing to take place and certainly supporting it this is

104also believe it if you remember john hopkins is our special needs shelter during any type of evacuation due to hurricanes so it's a special place to be in in terms of storing up electricity if if we so need to and that's one of the reasons why why john hopkins was selected as a place and additionally about 100 students are working with art instructor to design artwork to place on the solar canopies for the for their support so it's going to be a great event and a great structure when it's finished my last comment is to just thank the dads and the grandfathers and the uncles and the male role models as was highlighted in the video in the beginning of the meeting just thank them for being involved with their child's with education and continue

105to stay involved all year round thank you madam chair that concludes my comments thank you no thank you all right items introduced by the school board attorney i have no items today thank you all right thank you and we now move to items introduced by school board members mrs long yes last thursday i had an opportunity to go by osceola middle school i know many of you have seen on good morning america there are murals they had credit for well they've added a couple it is incredible the kids have an after-school club run by dwayne shepard the art teacher and when you go in his classroom it's not an art classroom it is an art studio where every child gets the opportunity to pull out their interests and if even if they feel they're not

106artistic he has such an ability to pull it out of children and i walked around and spent several hours looking at the murals you would think that you know i taught in middle school for a long time they have a way of touching their little hands and you know chipping the murals not not here they treat those bureaus with such respect it is amazing and it shows what the taxpayers money is going for with the referendum this is one fantastic example of what the public is doing for kids is to let them be creative let them decorate our schools they have ownership dr dr lowry does not believe in letting teachers hang pictures of other artists it has to be student made which is incredible and what a wonderful place to visit so i wanted

107to give them a shout out very good thank you mr dudley thank you chair i wanted to give a shout out to one of our own it's mark allison mark started i got to know mark obviously as a coach and he was a state champion at countryside high school later went on as assistant coach here for a while became head coach at dunedin wonderful coach and did terrific things at a state champion or two and i was also a wrestling official and saturday night he hit the pinnacle he got elected into the national wrestling hall of fame as a coach and a as an official and i was there and it was a great evening although i'll see air conditioning quit and we survived it they you know i i'm also in the hall of

108fame but they give us these green jackets to wear they're lined up i'm wearing this thing and i'm just dying but anyway they've got the air conditioning fixed and it was a great evening mark is very very well deserved he's a fine young man he is now the one of the assistant principals at northeast high school and so my congratulations to him he had a great following a lot of people who have known him since he was in high school were there and it was very heartwarming and it was gave a great talk great speech and anyway so congratulations to mark congratulations any other board members all right seeing none do we have any requests dr corbett no man i'm sure i did not record any requests today all right and we will do the

109evaluation of the school board meeting after the speakers as we always do and with that the meeting is adjourned so we will now have our public participation for those people that want to address items that pertain to the district of the business of the district but we're not on the agenda before we do that i want to just read a portion again whether you agree or disagree with the viewpoints expressed by speakers please refrain from showing audible support or disagreement and we also ask that you refrain from profanity or intemperate remarks okay mrs how many how many or what speakers do we have madam chair board members and dr grego we have nine speakers okay would you like me to call the first three yes if we can go ahead and call three or four

110of them as we did so that they can line up so that we can do this efficiently yes ma'am the first three speakers are amanda diamous talmage andrews and amber alici all right i see two people standing up where's the third is the third still here okay and because of maybe getting out of order if you'll just speak say your name when you come up and speak it would help and then we'll find out who the third person is again all right good morning thank you chair and vice chair dr grego and school board members i'm representing pinellas county school public teachers i mean publix teachers oh wow i wish i was a teacher i would represent florida public service union and i'm here to thank you for your indulgence in passing our salary and

111our contract because we have a three-year contract that we negotiated with miss texel and the rest of the school board bargaining team along with ours so i just want to say that we are grateful that you all have done such a wonderful job in supporting your staff because your staff is the backbone of what you know what this county does and the people that it serves i also want to say wear your masks because these things protect you as well as me and i want to ensure you that wearing this is not an hindrance at all mine is very thick it has a pocket where i can put some other protection in it but i still be able to breathe and i still be able to talk through it but i chose not to talk

112to it through the night because i get stuttering sometimes also this critical race theory it was taught in college in a law college it's not taught in your public schools i don't know why people insist on believing that critical race theory is being taught here in pinellas county school it's not you're teaching history and history is a part of what brought us to where we are now so please stop the critical race theory conversation it doesn't pertain to anything and again i want to thank you all oh one other issue bus drivers have an issue mister i can't call your name right now i got it mr herbert has addressed this problem along with mr t mark haywood and that hopefully will resolve itself in the future because drivers were getting sick and tired of

113going back and forth and back and forth and that was their main issue and you had about 30 to 40 of them here last school board meeting and the only three got to speak so they want to make sure that you know everything is running smoothly they have some other issues but i'm not going to go into those financial issues up here now so though that and with the critical race theory i want to thank dr greco because he summed up everything that i was going to say please assure the bus drivers that we are working on it thank you alrighty good morning good morning my name is amanda i am a first generation american who grew up during certain points of my life with three bedrooms in one room with my brother and my

114mom i was taken to panama in venezuela at a very young age and i witnessed third world country so it always gave me great pride to live in a land of opportunity i grew up pledging allegiance to the flag of the united states of america under god and all over the country we have seen despicable acts by teachers from pledging pledging allegiance to transgenders flags to giving extra credit to students for participating in antifa to actual pornography in elementary schools crt is a gateway to behavior like this political ideologies do not belong in curriculum marxism does not belong in our curriculum as a minority with a daughter who is half white what takeaway would she get oppressed or oppressor both are equally offensive no one deserves to grow up with a lens of victim consciousness

115it is criminal the governor banned crt and you rebranded it and named it something else it is in our schools so while being under a microscope please what would you do if we weren't paying attention at this point it feels like a deliberate attack on our american children american pride is not illegal yet to be american is to embrace many cultures races ideas and to empower our children with opportunity if we want to focus on any oppressors it's not white people it is people in power elected officials who do not share my passion for liberty and for god every single public comment here was against it you interrupted them you made faces at them you rebuked any approval of going against it and then you ignored them by passing it so who really are the

116oppressors here the sad thing is you probably sleep well at night knowing that you did your part in sowing division hate and actual racism in our schools the last thing i'm going to say is you make blanket statements on booster shots and vaccinations go look at israel they have the highest vaccinations and highest of new cases the fda just admitted that it kills more people than every life saved on september 17th you can watch it was like six hours long they voted against the booster before they pushed it through anyways so you saying that they are helping is ignorant at best they do not stop the spread they're these are facts by cdc so you dr grego are spreading misinformation and the last thing i'm going to say 99.9973 is the infection survival rate of

117kids 0 to 19 mass or not wake up you guys thank you if the approval or disapproval continues i will ask individuals to leave i have said it over and over and over again i'm seeing the hands raised and that's great you're letting them know that you're in support but you must remain silent so that people can be heard our next speakers our next three speakers are angela d renee chia and nancy vilardi somebody just come up it doesn't matter which order just somebody come up okay our reason for calling three is so that we could do this more quickly sure before you start my time and before i forget i'd like to formally ask how i can get a printed full transcript of this meeting is there can i get information on that yeah

118we'll get we'll get that information to you right after the meeting thank you very much based on my previous comments i would like to ask yet again what the board intends to do to have a proactive approach to ensuring the curriculum in pinellas is in compliance with florida law a passive and complacent approach is not good enough the three items i have now raised with the board as being in opposition to the law collectively add up to more than a million in taxpayer dollars while that might seem a trivial expense for your final solution it is not an inexpensive investment for one county in public school this is not an acceptable solution to me either shop around and find objective teaching materials devoid of this poison or we the people might have to consider the

119solution being to disband public schools all together and reimagine a world with parent driven academic education you know when my son was in eighth grade he came home from school one day and said mom this is so stupid last month they were teaching us that asexual meant a cell that can reproduce itself now they're trying to tell us that it means a person who doesn't like to have sex a word can't mean two different things son i agree your job as educators is important but you are collectively failing at your one job you spend all your time in childish fantasyland teaching incorrect english with all these stupid pronouns he her is silly enough but they them that's just grammatically an abomination and you should all know that what are you doing there are objective truths

120if you throw an apple in the air and stare at it directly underneath it i don't care how much you want to believe it can float but you think you're a serious person when you're trying to convince people you don't have a black eye now it's dangerous to entertain anti-reality rhetoric and let me tell you why raise your hand if you thought the taliban was going to be friendly and respect human rights this time because they think he promised show of hands if you were surprised when they started cutting off hands and hanging people in the town square who here believes they are not raping the women they just segregated in the schools accepting nonsense starts with you teaching the kids to believe what isn't true you teaching the kids to look the other way

121you teaching kids feelings are more important than facts speaking of looking the other way what are you teaching in history you know why looking the other way is dangerous right the kids are supposed to be educating don't our legislators had to specifically write teaching the holocaust in in school into the law why is that time to put childish things away it's time to join reality it's time to grow up i know that will be difficult for the zealots in the anti-reality cult but i will continue to be the apple reminding you thank you thank you good morning morning i was here to witness the conversation that you did have thank you for about the safety protocols at your workshop last week unfortunately it was neither live stream nor posted that section on the pcsb website

122for those who requested the conversation you were asked by parents and educators to engage in a discussion regarding masks as well as other protocols in lieu of masks and you did so but nobody heard it but only those few in attendance for the record the subject of masks wasn't brought up i think in the future when a conversation is requested by the community members and your employees you should make sure that it's accessible to those stakeholders i also would like to suggest that the future board meetings have more 5 p.m meetings than 10 a.m meetings which is not the case right now for that same reason none of your employees and few community community members can attend those meetings during morning working hours the district has also adopted the surgeon general's rule for parents to

123determine whether or not an exposed student can attend school while this is wonderful to get more kids back in class when they are not sick we must be careful not to encourage sick children with anything to come into school as it is not safe for both the teachers and the other students around them well-being we always need to keep well-being and safety in mind well-being includes a feeling of security in one's employment the legislature placed rules in the teacher salary allocation that provides for annual contract employees to receive more substantial raises than the veteran teachers it is an abhorrent divisive new rule that will cause dissension among the employees when some are rewarded more richly than others the idea of not valuing those employees who have dedicated themselves to this career in this county for

124many years is inequitable and downright insulting especially since they have remained at their duties during these most recent challenging times i'm asking that the district formulates a plan to ensure all educators are equally compensated above and beyond the demands of the specifications of the salary allocation i did send you the op-ed that i wrote when the la when that law was passed last june which describes in detail the inequities embedded in this new and disruptive rule pinellas should be focused on taking care of all of their employees so that they may continue to do to take care of our students and i thank you for your time thank you our last three speakers are shyla sams heather huddleston and jill smith thank you good morning good afternoon all right afternoon here right there i just

125wanted to make an impact statement i had to rewrite some things because my daughter is out there so i'm just going to be brief with my time i'm a mother of three here in pinellas county i have a son that attends st p high school in his construction program he's 16 and i have twins boy and girl 10's john hopkins they're in the journalism program and also in the music program i'm also a community advocate i'm also a pta mom and previously at fillmore former school board candidate of district 7. my profession is a nurse most recently director of nursing of 162 bed facility until the pandemic arose in 2020 my children were met with the challenge with the online format and that led me to resign for my position i had to walk away

126from a lucrative job that i had my newly met fifth grader had a teacher who started talking about covet and depression and suicide my fifth grader started talking about she wanted to kill herself and the teacher would did not include me in this conversation and started her and the social worker started calling the police on us in our home i'm at home with my kids left my job and she's just constantly calling what led to that was cps got involved eventually they took my daughter out of my home because these agencies thought that she needed depression medication i'm a nurse my profession for many years psychotropic medications were prescribed my daughter is just now returning home after seven months of being in foster care she's been sexually assaulted and she's been emotionally abused there is

127the fallout of us and our family i thank god that they finally saw that i was a good person and returned my daughter back to me but i'm left i'm bankrupt financially and emotionally from what happened to my daughter and our family i've had to hire a private attorney to secure my nursing license and i always wonder what will happen to the teacher and the social worker i have not been able to work for seven months now so what i want to do is ask the board the district staff employees your assumptions and your biases okay just a moment dr grego can we get her with a staff member that can it's just a statement just for seven months i don't need any help any now because i've been reaching out in the community for

128help but i tried i'm sorry i'm sorry give me i'll give you two more sentences because i believe if i'm listening and listening carefully that your children are going to john hopkins yes my twins yeah but but you what you're talking about is in john hopkins the child of saint pete i've been area superintendent or transformations on tracy webley okay if you could please raise your hand i'd like you to speak with her but the cps calls and the baker has calls they have to stop because again i am bankrupt financially emotionally and i am pulling back the pieces of my family that's what i believe if you could those assumptions devices have to stop okay and she can get some of that information and share that with us well i don't know if i

129need it because i've tried numerous agencies to get help it the baker at the start we can find and specifics very definitely but we're hearing you and she can share some of the specifics with us hello my name is heather huddleston i'm i'm actually a former nurse as well but i'm here to say first and foremost our children are the most important out of anything you all should have our children in your best interest you don't your best interest is all about a political agenda and going along with this narrative first and foremost our kids should actually be taught reading and math and english and science and our true history what really happened not this 1619 stuff critical race theory is causing division within our schools within our children you're basically segregating people for unvaccinated

130and vaccinated or unmasked and masked that's not how we win this that's not how you know we join people together we need to become united not only that i want to mention in regards to the pedophilia that is in the curriculum in not only pinellas county but sarasota counties manatee counties multiple counties that has no business in our schools our kids do not need to learn about pedophilia they don't need to learn about sex until they are way older and that's something that the parents need to do us parents do not co-parent with the school board us parents do not co-parent with the government that is our job to teach them their morals and their values and as for these masks masking children is child abuse as far as i'm concerned it's child abuse it

131can cause bacterial pneumonia it can cause lack of oxygen it can cause multiple harm effects so y'all saying you're doing what's best for our kids you're not really doing what's best for our children y'all are doing what's best for y'all's political agenda and the greed that you're getting from the government thank you thank you all right that's it would you ask the people that just clapped to leave thank you goodbye good afternoon to all jill smith we parents the majority and living in america will and do have the right to decide on issues related to the education of our children we will decide all issues related to their health including whether we want them injected with dangerous and deadly poisons they will not be forced to wear useless diapers to control them and hinder healthy

132breathing we will not tolerate ungodly immoral indoctrination of any kind crt lgbt socialism communism or any of the liberal agenda being shoved down their throats you must keep ungodly agendas out of these innocent lives your job is to teach academics only and to protect our children from being harmed by others and bullying you will uphold the laws of our constitution and respect govern governor desantis or face consequences thank you thank you are there any other speakers our final speaker is barbara du michelle what you're hearing today is righteous indignation jesus took a whip in a temple and the fear of god is the beginning of wisdom and our country is based on that our constitution our declaration of independence the ignorance of the law the constitutional law and the rights and liberties of americans will

133not excuse you it's shocking to me that in the age of information and you're supposed to be experts you don't acknowledge what's really true the real science for instance 15 000 people have died of the vaccinations thousands there are vaccine injured that are not being reported uncensored i mean censored doctors and scientists it's appalling to me that you're in a position that you're in and not even have a knowledge of this so anyway your mandates are not legal they're they're they're going to be your you will face justice for it you will be unseated unless you open your eyes any person who does not uphold their oath of office to comply with our national and state constitution is not recognized by we the people or by god you should have the fear of god right

134now truly because and you don't have a right to teach my child or my grandchildren all of this garbage you just don't have that right according to the constitution the state and united states so i'll tell you what i can't finish because we only get three minutes even though everyone else on the board can talk forever and we i work you know i'm a grandmother i have responsibilities it's hard for me to sit here for three hours and then just get three minutes at the end of the day that's just not right we should be first god is exposing evil to remove it time is up for the corrupt crt is evil teaching perverted sex education to young people and kids that are totally innocent and are pure and innocent and you want to infiltrate

135their minds with this darkness that is just weird and i'll tell you something masks we've already told you i don't know why you're not educated on it we had an expert on this tell you that microorganisms sail right through any mask cloth or paper there is an agenda that is against our constitution today but it will not work it will not stand because americans are good we are a good country our values are great are what and protected by our constitution and you cannot take that down thank you are there any other speakers that have signed up no ma'am there are no more speakers that ends this portion as well i said that you we would let you know afterward if you'll talk to mr kaperski about how to get a public record request that

136would be the person to whom to speak all righty thank you all for being in attendance you