001good evening everybody i'd like to call the meeting to order of the school board of indian river county it's may 25th 2021 and it's and it is six o'clock um i would like to invite mr richard meyer assistant superintendent curriculum and innovation to lead us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you mr meyer before um the first formal part of the meeting which is the adoption of the orders of the day i'd just like to say a few words to everyone who's here um everybody's got different points of view on many of these issues the only thing that i ask we ask is that
002we be civil that we treat people who may differ from one another and their points of view with respect doesn't mean you have to agree with them some of these meetings the last meeting you know unfortunately it had to be recessed for a period of time it's really unfair in a way that meeting early on was to honor a group of academic all-stars from the two high schools and unfortunately their evening was interrupted because we had to recess before we were able to bring them and their families up here to re to to recognize their many achievements and if you were here or watched it's why we're all we all care about schools is why we care about these young people and it was an outstanding group of young people and their varied accomplishments so
003tonight i ask that you be respectful of different people's point of view no hootin and hollerin please i don't want to have to recess a meeting i certainly don't want to have someone have to be asked to leave it's a i understand if people are passionate they even get emotional but uh and and you know we're not always going to agree we don't always agree with one another but we're here for one reason and that's as dr moore likes to say of all of us best for kids that's why we're here so with that note i would like to ask if as far as the consent agenda is concerned are there any items yes sir mrs barrenborg can we move consent agenda item 5b face covering requirements to action please yes ma'am thank you are
004there any other items mrs rosario i would like to move 9b that's the reorganization and 10a the zonar z-pass all right any other items may i have a motion to approve the orders of the day so moved no second dr schiff and mrs barenborg any further comments or suggestions uh discussion all in favor all right motion carries 5-0 at this point in time i would like to turn the program over to dr moore for a series of presentations and recognitions all right thank you mr chair and and welcome you and doc jones to the podium or to the diocese for the first time so it is nice to be back and be live we do have a number of brief presentations and for that i'll turn it over to our public information officer miss maddox
005hello good evening everyone it's nice to see everyone back in their seats i think this might be dr moore's second time up there five oh his fifth okay so um tonight we have a video for you that we taped last week grad walks if you know what they are if you work at a school you probably have seen some of the seniors come back to your school but um every year we have a couple of designated days where the high school seniors come back to their elementary schools and they walk through the halls and the students cheer them on and have signs for them and we captured it all in a video [Music] coming back to campus today was a really special seeing all your old teachers and seeing the students uh it brings back
006a lot of memories seeing you know the field where we play kickball or the hardcore replay basketball and seeing the classrooms we made so many memories and met so many friends it was a special moment it was amazing coming back just seeing everything um seeing all well like nothing's really changed but like it is different coming back like it seems a lot smaller it's nice knowing that i have people that i've known since kindergarten first grade that are still supporting me and that everyone has been waiting for this day to come and now it's finally here my favorite part about today was hearing everybody's favorite memory of rosewood because it brought back a lot of memories for me and how much i really enjoyed this school i mean it was definitely very like joyful because
007it's great seeing like little kids cheer you on and look up to you and how we're their role models right now and it was just a great feeling walking down the halls and having them watch here for us with the signs and everything advice i would give them is to just like keep working hard at what they're doing now because it will pay off like being here at an ib school like it'll pay off in the future for them i would probably tell students just to like keep at it i mean it is like you know high school but to like not take it for granted you know keep at it and it's like people say always it goes by like really quickly but it really does and it's just you know i really had
008a good time it was great coming back to campus today with preston my twin brother rosewood kind of fostered our competitive spirit at recess and pe running track together with coach that was really where we started competing love and compete with each other and then we also switched classes for the first time in fifth grade and miss flynn and miss carroll kind of fostered that uh it was great miss flynn just recently passed away but she means so much to both of us and uh just the bond we have with each other was really fostered because of rosewood [Music] it's it's funny to hear them say that everything looks so much smaller because they have no idea how much bigger everything is about to get for them as graduates our next presentation mr heiser if
009you would please bring the students in we have our state science fair recognition and i would like to ask once we get the students in mr doug herron he's the executive director of the education foundation of indian river county and mr heron and mr heiser will be joining together to recognize some of these geniuses that we have here lining up i'm excited to be with you this afternoon and what is sure to be uh the most enjoyable part of the school board meeting tonight i'm sure at least it's something we can all agree on we're recognizing students for hard work so my name is doug herron and i'm the executive director at the education foundation of indiana river county and we're here tonight to recognize those students in indian river county schools that received a
010state bid for the science fair this year now science fair under any circumstances is a tedious work research is tedious anyone that's been to school can tell you that and under ordinary circumstances it's difficult but under extraordinary circumstances like these students face this year it's just amazing so they participated in a virtual fair at the regional level which is the district and then they participated in a state science fair that was held virtually as well so as the as the students are passing by i would like to congratulate them for their hard work for their accomplishments and for making it to the state science fair this year all right as we call your name you can re you can come up to receive your your plaque lily strauss may bow ee avi yang [Applause] oscar
011lindenhall emma finney [Applause] adriana maceroni cintella [Applause] sasha hitler kaylee webster lincoln dikes av johnson [Applause] hunter gregory cook [Applause] louis st petery [Applause] max plotkin sawyer pachell [Applause] elijah blackwell clayton connor powell sienna malone noah hernandez and enzo christopher congratulations to our state fair bid winners for 2021. [Music] why don't we stand up i have that thing where you can't here you go all right ready one two and three okay now hold for your parents for a second and before before you leave i'd also like to recognize the science teachers if you're a science teacher would you raise your hand please thank you so much okay students do you have did i just take over before you were done okay time for your pass to take out the damage all right you all can
012exit out that door thank you [Applause] yeah no it's no but i get it again i can't get it there's actually a name for it transparency call it left right dyslexia mr sturgeon why don't you join me over here no it is like you got a point i can't get there and mrs kennedy i'm not going to steal your thunder because i know you do a better job at presenting this project than i will but we learned about a very cool project that the ib students at sebastian river high school were doing had a couple people reach out and say you have got to recognize these students at a board meeting and the project was the lara riding jackson foundation runs an oral history program that trains students to interview all sorts of different local
013people like pioneers of gifford veterans and women of the sea suite in late 2020 our beloved sebastian river high school educator billy wilson passed away when mr wilson died mia martinelli from the ib program she asked if she could focus the efforts of their oral history work on his legacy so i will let you tell a little bit more about this now or mia hi there i'm louise kennedy the executive director of the lower writing jackson foundation and this program started out in a much more general way but when you have a student like mia martinelli in your midst who really gets people moving and they come to you and make a proposal in order to honor a beloved educator you start to shift your gears so that's what we did and we trained and
014worked with students and ultimately pulled together their oral reflections with the people they interviewed who wanted to honor mr wilson and they created we created as a foundation a book of their reflections which we're sharing with members of the board this evening thank you for taking the time and for honoring the student initiative and i think the best person to really talk about the program is actually mia martinelli and andreas ruiz her other student leader so i'll welcome them to the podium um i just wanted to say thank you for recognizing it um i really appreciate that so basically we started this because mr wilson had passed and i think a lot of the ib program students you know were talking and we felt like we were really the last group of students that had
015him as an administrator and like had a bond with him or even some of the students that knew him a little bit less they wanted to learn more and i think that this the oral history project was a great way for like other students to learn more about him and i also i wanted to thank ms kennedy and mr sturgeon and andres because it really wouldn't have happened without them and we pulled 15 of my peers and 27 staff to all help with these reflections and so it's really an entire community project and we're really proud of that and the last thing that i wanted to say was that i've learned a lot doing this project a lot about you know the power of positivity power of a smile and building relationships um mr wilson
016was pretty great at that and that's why there's such um that's why it's such a great loss for our community um i encourage you i encourage you to read it and i just think that if our community adopts you know those ideas then it'll just make sebastian the district a better place [Applause] so myself i'm not really a local of sebastian um i moved here four years ago so i don't know too much about the ins and outs but one thing that doing this project and what i think mia martinelli for helping me work on is i sort of understood this community fabric within our school district and indian river county as a whole i saw the biggest impacts in the people that mr wilson worked with and i got exposed to a lot of
017different stories and i just think as mia said just working towards what his aspirations were of just loving people and making people feel welcome i think it's very important that we all have this opportunity to do these reflections and put it in a book so that we can look back and i'd like to say thank you we have copies for each of you is it okay for us to distribute some of the copies to you all okay absolutely while we're doing this some of you if you were here last week saw mia one of the academic all-stars and we saw her at the graduation last friday night she was the salutarian that celetorian of her class and she's headed for the coast guard academy this fall if you'd like to join us up here every
018week mia we could probably use some help and guidance mr barefoot absolutely yes sure and what are your plans for after high school are you a senior yes ma'am what are your plans uh the naval academy wow okay and we have one going to the naval academy wow there's not much of a rivalry is there between the coast guard and the navy they're complementary uh dr schiff you wanted to say something um i want to acknowledge you both um andres i haven't seen you as at as quite as many events mia i'm pretty convinced there isn't anything you don't do exactly because i've now been to scholarship events i've been to awards events i've been to graduation that like you're everywhere are your parents here [Applause] i don't i don't know if you go by
019martinelli uh mrs martinelli um can i tell you what an extraordinary daughter you've raised can i tell you um how impressed i am and i don't mean to take away from anybody else's achievements here by any means but i want to acknowledge not just mia but you because i know what it takes to be a parent i know what it takes i know how hard it is um i know about teenagers um so i want to tell you what an extraordinary job you've done how proud this district is i'm sorry if i'm embarrassing you um but you are both extraordinary students and i am proud to sit on the board of a district that produces students like you both so thank you for that mrs martinelli is one of our science teachers so if if
020any of you knew billy you know that this is a fraction of the book that it could be everyone who knew him interviewed him um and i can't wait to look through it i can't wait such a great project so we have some certificates tonight uh for me and martinelli for your leadership in the oral history project honoring the legacy of mr billy wilson iii under the direction of the laura writing foundation and andres we have the same award for you thank you very much for your work in the oral history project obviously honoring the legacy of mr billy wilson under the direction of the laura writing foundation jasmine cummings uh was also a student who worked on this but she could not be with us tonight and that's mr cummings daughter is mr cummings
021here no okay and mr sturgeon we have a certificate for you too because you have done so many wonderful things with our students at sebastian river high school this year and just thank you so much for your leadership thank you number four let's get a picture you guys want if you want to take some pictures before you go anywhere dr jones who's an alumna of sebastian river high school and many other schools in the district over the years would like also just a special thank you and to dr schiff you should see all the other martinelli's too that went through sebastian high school but i'm so proud of the students and thank you to the lord ryan laura writing jackson foundation we have a couple of board members here dr jacobs and susan lovelace thank
022you for this oral history it is so very very important for our community and uh to those that thought about mr wilson mr sturgeon knows a little bit too here because he's been involved with the high school in many different areas before he was with ib this is um he's a legend and i thank you so very much for doing this thank you [Applause] congratulations i know you guys are completely out of wall space for all your certificates certifications [Applause] good to see you dr moore that's all for mr presentations that's all for presentation tonight okay are we going to move the uh yes sir okay excuse me while we're repositioning the podium next on the agenda is citizen input there are 25 requests to speak and again i apologize ahead of time if i
023mispronounce someone's name but i can tell from the first few the writing is really good a couple of guidelines that i read every meeting each statement made by a member of the public shall be limited to three minutes duration persons will be recognized in the order in which the requests were received persons may speak for up to three minutes at the beginning of a business meeting during citizens input as indicated on the order of business and for up to three minutes to each agenda action agenda item during the action agenda and each board member discussion item as indicated on the order of business persons may only speak once however about any given item the time period may be extended by the presiding officer and only the individual submitting a speaker's form is allowed to address
024the board time may not be yielding to other speakers and mrs diagresta is the parliamentarian and she's the keeper of the time so the first speaker this evening is susan baldwin good evening my name is susan baldwin i live in south county indian river my husband and i take a daily walk on 20th avenue from 14 from about 14th street southwest to oslo middle school at which point we turn around and go home in this stretch it's about a mile on any given day i can count six to ten used dirty face masks which are discarded on the sidewalk and they're both the disposable ones and cloth and this is also the route the kids take back and forth to school is it a coincidence i don't think so this is just one route from
025one of the 20 plus schools here in indian river county whatever people think mass do or do not do you can say for certain that they pollute here's some numbers and facts from national geographic and discover 125 billion face masks are used per month worldwide they estimate that many as 1.6 billion could have entered the oceans last year and that adds up to over that that could add up to over 6 000 tons of garbage they're made from plastics um they could be in the ocean as long as 500 years before they fully break down and the microplastics they break down into are basically have eternal life these mass are a huge threat to the health of marine animals some species are mistaking the mass for jellyfish and eating them or getting tangled up into
026the elastic bands once again i always have to think sometimes the cure is worse than the disease if you think these masks are not making their way into the ditches during heavy rains and then out to the living river lagoon we might want to think again now we all care about our lagoon and about a beautiful environment we have here in indian river county and i'm sure the board does too so let us put our carrying into action to cut down the pollution of our waterways and the trash in our streets by making the wearing of mass by our kids optional it may not solve the problem but it is a step forward do it for the kids and do it for the manatees thank you thank you miss baldwin our next speaker is julie
027kaye miss k right front and center you get a front row seat hi my name is julie k i'm a school bus driver for indian river county i am here because we're going to be starting our contract talks and i would just like you to know you know what i have personally been through as a bus driver this year i can't speak for everyone when kobet hit i felt really bad for the children children and the parents they're the ones that got hit the worst when we were able to come back to school i jumped at it did not hesitate to come back we started with just a trickle and now our buses are completely full we don't have enough bus drivers we do double runs in disinfect our buses four to five times a
028day and it's just been really trying we um you know we we try to console the kids you know they get upset a lot easier than they used to behavior has been an issue but i just wanted to let you know that it has been trying for us also cost of living everything is going up groceries are going up lumber has gone up and we hopefully can maybe come to an agreement before the beginning of the next year that's why i'm here so i just wanted you to listen and hopefully you'll take that you know when we meet and hopefully we can come to an agreement before the beginning of the year thank you you're welcome thank you miss k next speaker chris allen hi my name is chris allen and i am one of
029the founding members of we the people indian river county and a moderator for moms for liberty in indian river florida one of you mentioned last meeting the florida citizens alliance letter to governor desantis and corcoran about critical race theory and i do want to mention that it was the county they were speaking of and we the people in indianapolis county was a supporting organization to it we've been told by many people i thought next year was going to be optional masking we've been told that our fight is almost finished and that we don't need to attend meetings anymore but i disagree without a constant voice asking and telling you to end the mask mandate you wouldn't know how important this issue is to parents though our group attendance varies know that this is an issue
030that has awakened the sleeping giant know that we will keep showing up whenever issues regarding our children arises so as an indian river county resident and parent whose child attends public school i ask you number one make masking optional as soon as possible as i believe it's harmful to my child and number two stop the purchase of the hmh curriculum that in the teacher's supplemental material as students to find works by authors of different races my child does not in any way ask for the race of an author before reading a book the same curriculum also wants third graders to discuss race relations my child knows we're all different but made in god's image it is not the school's job to socially engineer my child away from his biblical foundation we are all one race
031and that's a human race what happened to judging people by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin i suggest you use the curriculum the current curriculum one more year to further evaluate better ones to purchase cobit has disrupted our lives so much that i would rather my child use common core reading than one that makes him concentrate on race and also a curriculum that supports a marxist and since i have extra time may i suggest that mara schiff and peggy jones not sit in the diocese because you were the ones that voted against it last meeting thank you it's alan next speaker is angela love hello everyone my name is angela love i am here i live in here in vero and i have two daughters that are in the
032public school system go osceola and thank you all for all of your service that you do here in indian river county i'm here to speak up in favor of educating students about reality and ignoring racism and pretending that it doesn't exist is not the way to best serve our children i i know that indian river has fought the desegregation order previously we've wasted almost a million dollars doing so and it's been you know what has it been 50 some years and it's embarrassing it's shameful it's embarrassing when i have to tell somebody that our county is not complied and i say do everything we can to comply to comply immediately to comply right now i didn't bring it up here but there was a quote from supreme court justice kennedy that said it is a
033moral and ethical obligation to integrate our schools and that all children receive a great education and be able to get the tools that they need for our society and denying this is not improving our county it's not making this a better place to live it's not drawing in people that we want to draw in and so i'm in favor of doing what we need to do to make sure this is an equitable place thank you miss love jennifer pippen good evening my name is jennifer pippen i am the chairman for moms for liberty of indian river florida and one of the admins for we the people of indian river county first off i wanted to say thank you to a couple of people this being the last school board meeting of the year to mr
034eric seymour who has answered almost any parent's question or troubles this year that i've sent to with masking quarantining anything thank you very much mr eric seymour scott bass same thing anything with any issues i was able to send to him kristen maddox and sarah millerman for all the public records requests that we did as an organization to get the facts and stats correct when we address the board as far as the masking you guys voted on it last time three of you voted against it two of you voted for it thank you mrs rosario and thank you mrs barenborg for that i just want to give you the most accurate stats to date out of 67 counties in florida 39 counties currently have optional masking in their schools 22 of them have already made
035a commitment to either summer or fall and indian river is one of six counties in the state of florida that has not made a commitment again the plan to make a plan dr moore mentioned wanting to be first to be at the top you know mr barefoot saying you want to be the best one out of six counties that has not made a plan to make a plan to get these masks off the children it's wrong and it needs to stop and i know we have another vote brought please give the children an option to mask if they want to mask double mask staff administrators that is absolutely their right but give them the option to do so or not please last meeting there was a father a taxpayer he was doxed from this very
036meeting in a public place in a public meeting and he wasn't allowed to sit in an empty seat when two school board members it's on the youtube video allowed him to take their seat he was escorted out i'm not even going to give the validity to the um newspaper that gave a completely wrong article on him and doxed him from his job if taxpayers and parents cannot come to your meeting without being able to speak publicly and possibly lose their jobs that's wrong and that's on you and that's unacceptable anybody should be able to come in here and make a public um comment and not worry about if they're going to have their job the next day that's wrong and that's on you that should be in one of your policies that parents community members
037are not to be doxed in coming to your meetings and i wanted to remind you also i'm wrapping up the first amendment we have the right to speak we have the right to speak on public sidewalks in front of any building any home those are public places we as taxpayers and parents pay for those so it's not a threat to your security we're not coming after you if we want to do our first amendment rights thank you mr pippin next speaker john karapi good afternoon so one thing we could all agree on is that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger correct i mean anybody in here can agree on that especially this past year right well every morning when i wake up i say to myself i am one with god i am sovereign
038and i'm a free being and i'm and i and being free is our birthrightness on this in this country what's happening in this community is not only a a movement but it's an awakening it's a it's a conscious awakening of what's happening and what is happening on this board and what happened last time i i i'm speechless because as a taxpayer and as a parent in this community i should be able to have a seat in this room and you guys know that when i was asked to leave the building two of the board members obviously offered their seat jackie and terry and i thank you for that and that's obviously your intentions and the conscious awakening that's happening in this community is because of that because your conscious intentions show us not tell us
039all you've been doing is telling us telling us tell us then i come in here and say something say do this do that and i get my name in the newspaper okay now intentions for everyone on this board also goes to mr barefoot as well mr barefoot you had the power to let me sit in that chair and you didn't do it you asked ask the authorities to make me leave your intentions to call the newspaper and have an article written about me that is completely false shows you where your alliance is your alliances with the fake news media in this town in 32963 and 32963 is an enemy of the people and it's not good and it's always has been and you align to that and just because of that this is what happens
040the next day john karapi gets effective immediately you're suspended with pay until further notice like as they continue to investigate allegations that may impact my employment so your intentions to to cancel out a parent in this community is is is pretty dark and evil sir and it shouldn't happen and it shouldn't happen to somebody who's been in this town for 35 years that's had more than one job mara i've had more than one job in this town i i listened to the workshop today and you know i've been in this community for 35 years and i've done a lot of things in this community that nobody seems to under to remember and it's that's the past but i should be able to speak here and not be not be docked because of my job and
041where i work it doesn't make any sense so if you want to align with the darkness and be dark in this community the light has been shined on you right now people know about you and what you're about and that's not fair and it's not right and now i have to figure out what i'm going to do for the next whenever because now i have plenty of time on my hands so i don't know what i should do you know somebody speaks out and then i have to have my name in the paper saying that i'm going to incite an insurrection peggy peggy said that at the at the workshop today that uh inciting an insurrection you had a lot to say peggy at the workshop yes you did yeah yes you did yeah you
042had a lot to say you were quiet last meeting but you had a lot to say and it's unfortunate and now like now i don't have a job now so all right i appreciate it thank you very much the next speaker is esperanza remy so good evening to you all truth and freedom are words that echo in my heart as i stand here before you today as a grandmother of three elementary school aged children in irc elementary schools i am very concerned with what's going on for this school year our children have been held hostage of their freedom to be children they all had to learn to live with many limitations you are all aware of them for the past year you have parents sharing their concerns about masks and at times they have pleaded
043with you to all to predict to you all to have mass removed in the long run this masks are causing more health issues than the virus attacking the health of our children parents voices time and time again have been silenced why 61 counties in florida have lifted their mandates whether making men uh masked mine optional or just taking them all off why not indian river county give our children back their freedom you have no right to take that away in regards to cr the critical race theory curriculum um to my understanding this ideology was started by three harvard theories critical race theory was born out of a critical theory which is considered a marxist inspired movement in social and political philosophy that maintains that one of the primary goals of philosophy is to understand and
044to help overcome the social structures through which people are dominated and oppressed it sounds good on paper right but do you know that the basis of marxism is served as a theoretical base for communism is this the theory or ideology that you want to instill in your in our children do you think by modifying current assignments parents will accept this dr moore stated also in the interview the vero news that he's not going to let any political agenda get beyond the school house doors of indian river county well i must say dr moore from where i'm standing you're not a watchful doorkeeper if you and the board go through with this theory you will have opened the floodgates of an indoctrination which their main goal is to examine the difference of oppression and then name
045and shame the so-called oppressors who are judged by the color of their skin but we as parents and grandparents are not going to let your our children drown in your willingness to conform to this theory thank you [Applause] thank you mr amy the next speaker is angela bowling hi everyone it's hard to hear sometimes the name's being called off but anyway i would first recognize that it has been one year since the murder of george floyd an event that greatly impacted my perspectives and purposes in life i hope that the movement stirred by his death will not lose strength as time passes thank you for requiring masks over the course of this pandemic choosing to listen to scientific experts including the cdc you recognize that the schools are not environmental bubbles it's possible for a
046student to contract covid and while asymptomatic expose family members who then could unknowingly carry it into nursing homes where they work exposing the residents there which is of course how many of the residents caught coveted i've lived here since 1984 and all four of my children including the three white ones attended and graduated from our public schools i also interact regularly with teens of all races in my various volunteer roles and my former foster children both black and white attended in new river county schools thank you for being willing to address our court-ordered desegregation requirements i support the work being done by mr barefoot our board and dr moore um that you're doing in cooperation with the naacp and the equity committee while i wish we could have hired a chief equity and diversity officer
047i understand the decision to not make one person carry the weight in brunt of that responsibility after listening to many of the comments from the last school board meeting i understand there's more work needed for racial equity than i realized those individuals who object for instance to feeling discomfort at the term white privilege may not understand the racism that is experienced by people of color in our community our schools and nationwide my desire is that our curricula teach students a broad view of american history we cannot hide from the many wrongs of our past if we want to see true liberty and justice for all that is an ideal we still are working to achieve the discussions and learning will be difficult and uncomfortable growth and understanding require us to recognize that we are doing
048wrong so it can be corrected this is the same at a personal level as it is at a school system level we can't discover the errors if we are afraid to investigate and rather than objecting to crt which is not clearly defined other citizens would be better understood if they named specific topics that they think should not be allowed in the schools the progress of the past was won in spite of loud objections from many who wanted to maintain the status quo please don't become discouraged by the weight of the battle and the many naysayers i'm hoping there is some way that i can help in this ongoing process as i continue to learn with you thank you thank you miss bowling i remind you i understand that we're each of the speakers touches uh
049an emotional chord with each of you so so now we're about even where the people that have clapped for all the speakers so if you don't mind the next speaker is cindy gibbs hi thanks for the opportunity to speak i'm cindy gibbs i live in sebastian i have a master's in education and i taught elementary school in the school district for 15 years at three different schools i'm no longer a school teacher but i am a parent of a recent storm grove graduate and a recent pelican island graduate public school teachers pride themselves on what is sort of a mantra we teach them all they come to us we teach them no matter who they are when students come into the classroom we create relationships we build trust together everyone learns the teachers and the
050students no k through 12 school in this state is teaching crt no one is being forced to feel guilty about slavery or about women not having the vote until the 1920s or about gay marriage being illegal in all 50 states until 2015 no one is forcing anyone to feel guilty that some people have physical disabilities or mental illness reasonable people just want the school curricula to look like the kids and the teachers who are in the rooms learning and teaching and to honor the truth columbus didn't discover america washington owns slaves and we can better do for all of us if we talk about what and why and how our kids in elementary school and all grades are already talking the talk they know about different genders they know that different races look different from
051one another they know who learns differently they know who has nicer clothes and lives in a bigger house or lives on the beach or doesn't they know we need to catch up we need to have the conversations with them that they're already having i know a lot of parents are uncomfortable with their children having ideas that they have not given to them but let's be honest i don't believe every single thing my parents told me and i'm sure you don't either it's okay for kids to be able to have conversations at school with their peers and other trusted adults in their community that they may not feel safe having at home and there's good reason why they may not feel safe as a former public school teacher it was the law for me to report
052to the state if i felt anyone was in danger or unsafe in their own home and i made that phone call many more times than i'd like to talk about and there's a reason why we have to make those phone calls because not every home is safe and some of those reasons are because of what too many people in this community are worried about i am a little disappointed that we haven't decided to have a whole group of people talking about equity inequality but we really do need to know and i'm more than willing to assist how we're going to come to an agreement in this community so that we can start to heal thank you for your time thank you thank you miss gibbs the next speaker is nate wilkerson good evening one of
053the founding principles of critical race theory crt is that racism is normal ordinary and not aberrational it promotes and teaches a belief that america and our systems are inherently irredeemably racist and must be destroyed and remade professor derek bell one of the originators of american critical race theory once said racism cannot be ended within the current system the current system is actually both a byproduct of and a continuing excuse for racism minority opinions on the system are more relevant than white opinions since whites have long enjoyed control of the system and have an interest in maintaining it crt or any teaching based from it diagnoses the problems issues and inequalities in our society as nothing more than racism but its prescribed solution is to pour more racism into it to flip the script and oppress
054the oppressors children and students of color or any other minority groups are taught to believe that they are oppressed simply because of the color of their skin or because of the minority group that they belong to children and students that belong to the majority group namely white children and students are taught to believe that they are racist and must repent of their sins they're taught to believe that these things regardless of their personal experiences to the contrary boiled down critical race theory is the very thing that it decries a systemic perpetuated expression of racism and bigotry it teaches children and students to look at themselves and others only in terms of their group identity and to hate their perceived oppressors if they're part of a minority group or to hate themselves if they're a part
055of the majority we need curriculum that promotes the god-given intrinsic value of each person as a human being not as a member of a racial group or any other kind of group for that matter curriculum that unites and not divides curriculum that teaches children personal responsibility and not racial victimhood and racial oppression now more than ever we need to work on coming together finding common ground loving our neighbor critical race theory seeks to divide and uses hate to drive the wedge as dr king so famously said hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that his ultimate example of love and unity was jesus christ ephesians 2 14-18 says for jesus christ is our peace who has made the two groups one and destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside
056in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations his purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two thus making peace and in one body to reconcile both of them to god through the cross by which he put to death their hostility he came and preached peace to you who are far away and peace to those who are near for through him we both have access to the father by one spirit thank you very much thank you mr wilkerson and the next speaker is don wilkerson good evening my name is dawn wilkerson we are not here just to talk to you we are here to petition and request action based off of grievances mr barefoot it was very disrespectful for you to say today at the superintendent's workshop that you
057already have your mind made up how you are going to vote and that they're wasting their time and keeping yapping about something it seems as though you have very little regard for the people that you're supposed to represent and those who take time out of their schedules to come and speak so here's my yapping our governor ron desantis said on may 21st that kids should not be having to wear these masks in schools that's what the evidence has told us clearly from an emotional physical psychological perspective that's obviously a no-brainer let our kids finish out the school year on a positive note allow teachers parents and staff the right of option i'm asking at our last school board meeting there was a young guy who gave his opinion concerning critical race theory he said what
058you are going to hear about crt is false talking points designed to undermine any type of discussion on racism in our country it sounds like he's open to discussion about this so i visited his facebook page and i replied to his post with the following hi i was at the meeting and i heard you speak i am so sorry to hear that you received booze for some excuse me for some attending um i did not boo you and i know that you have every right as a member of our community to come and speak and to be heard i am with moms for liberty we are a group of parents grandparents and community members who know that we are the best advocates for our children whether it's concerning medical freedom curriculum at local schools or
059an overreach of public servants and we are dedicated to unifying educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government as a parent who loves my children dearly and wants them to succeed especially in loving others i do know what is best for my child when it comes to their education we are not trying to decide every little thing in the curriculum as you mentioned we do however oppose crt we do not believe it should be in the curriculum and i personally do not agree with your thoughts on it i do not believe that this ideology can or will bring healing and unity in our community thank you for giving me a chance to speak about this on your page maybe we can all sit down and chat about this further
060i was really hoping that he would take me up on this and we can have an open dialogue because i believe that's what we need but he blocked me from his page that makes it hard to have a conversation wouldn't you say so i decided that i would try to join a group that he's a part of and it's called parents for equity it turns out that they are not so inclusive and they would not let me join how are we to have an open discussion when blocked from doing so from the people who cry that they want discussions on racism i'm almost finished critical race theory is nothing more than an ideology posing as history and the two should not be confused i appreciate you saying that we are not going to be embracing
061crt but your choices of curriculum are suspect and if you are teaching our teachers to see our children only as colors we do have a problem we are all one race and that's the human race thank you thank you thank you miss wilkinson next speaker is amy gallo hi i'm amy gallo i haven't prepared anything um my son graduated in 2018 so thank god i don't have a kid in the school right now because you guys have a really tough job and and i know there's a lot of passionate parents and grandparents and people in the community but i just wanted to come today because i read an article that you guys didn't get any support for hiring an equity director or diversity director and i want to say i support that concept i support
062the idea equality is very important i can't really speak about education i'm not an educator i work in the sustainability industry i work in green building and literally every day that's what we talk about is social equality in sustainability in green building in our investments it is it's the biggest thing right now um if you want to look up what's called esg it's environmental sustainability um and governance or social justice and governments and those are the three things that the whole world was talking about right now it's really important that all of our corporations our schools everybody starts talking about what we can do as um what we can do for the environment what we can do for sustainable justice and what you all do in your governance roles super important and that's what the
063whole country is really talking about right now it's like a hot hot topic so you guys are on the right topic you know you're on the right path i just want you to keep going stay ahead of the curve do what you can for our students i can tell you as a gay woman married to an immigrant with a mixed race son it's it's not easy in this county i walk into a door and i get all the attention that i need they get treated differently i see it all the time so it's real people are not colorblind we're not post-racial it's not enough to be not racist we need to be anti-racist we need to have these conversations and i really like applaud you for pushing all of this forward thank you thank you
064miss gallo the next speaker is keeley koch or koch good evening everyone i don't envy on any of your positions i'm a parent in this county who just graduated an 18 year old white male in a county that is extremely divided so with that being said i think perhaps we should all take a moment and remember what it was like to be a kid in school pause and tap into that beautiful innocence and eagerness to learn remember how easy it was to absorb new ideas and information there was never any fear involved with learning something new there was only excitement and joy there was no need to be afraid of these bright powerful young minds learning things about our society and a light that feels scary to you as adults you may feel ill prepared
065for the conversations but rest assured your kids are ready they are already having these conversations and they can google any of this information the conversations you are fearing the most are not as scary or life-altering as you think they might be take some time to consider that maybe the thing you're railing against is not so much a new curriculum or a more child-directed learning approach or the hint of racial equity but your own fear of unlearning some really antiquated thought processes and learning that some of that foundations that this country are built on are actually rooted in the things like white supremacy and systemic racism we don't have to be afraid of these words or use them as weapons to protect your way of life what we can do is gracefully acknowledge that there are
066changes that desperately need to be made in this county this country in order for students to experience a safe healthy emotionally and intellectually supportive learning environment my homework assignment for the parents in this county especially those that are buying into all of this unnecessary rhetoric about critical race theory most of which you can never have a grasp on because you are white for a moment ask yourself what is it you are really afraid of because these minds these young minds are fearless and you can trust them and your educators to do hard things they are ready to evolve they are going to do it with you or without you so that they can make this county and this country a better place they prove that's this to us time and time again don't you think
067it's about time you started trusting your children a little more with their own education and their own creative thinking it's just a little challenge people it's only a conversation and it really isn't that hard thank you for your time [Applause] thank you miss koch please i know you want to clap and i know you're appreciative of all the comments but it would really be great if you wouldn't um the next meeting and the next speaker is laura yeah taurus hello thank you for allowing me to be here my name is laura torres my family and i spent the last year in germany there we enrolled my four-year-old and my six-year-old in a german kindergarten where they thrived they played they learned german and concurrently my six-year-old also completed indian river virtual kindergarten through osceola magnet
068school i am here because i want to contribute to creating the best version of indian river county public schools with mixed emotions we decided it was time to return to florida in april while our virtual kindergarten experience was nothing but positive i am plagued with thoughts about how going forward i might be shortchanging my children by sending them to school in indian river county i'm not arguing that one school system is better than the other there's pros and cons to both but there is one thing that stood out as i watched the last school board meeting i saw many concerns from parents that did not want content included in their children's curriculum because they did not want to feel uncomfortable or for their kids to feel uncomfortable for being descendants of oppressors ignoring history is
069not going to make it go away in a global world context is everything and knowing our past is going to make us stronger in the future if i may like to share a few things i learned in germany they deal and cope with their difficult past you are hard-pressed to find any young person that does not fully understand the holocaust you go to berlin and many things will remind you of germany's controversial history when you are around 12 years old you watch schindler's list with your class you know why because germans are collectively committed to making sure that this never happens again they don't want it to happen again and it isn't a debate it's truly shameful how we how little we talk about imperialism in america we've never dealt with it and this is
070how you repent by dealing with it any kid with a social media account is going to eventually realize that america is not as perfect as you thought it was through discomfort is how we grow how we heal how we understand what's possible and the only way to move forward because to quote a hero of mine maya angelou you do the best you can until you know better and when you know better you do better thank you thank you miss horace [Applause] the next speaker is rosemarie wilson good evening next month on june 10th the florida board of education will consider a proposed rule according to the commissioner richard corcoran corkman said we're passing a rule that says to the 000 teachers in florida you can't indoctrinate students with stuff that's not based on our standards
071the new b period e period s period t period best standards he also said the publishers are infested with liberals and we are not going to approve your bid unless a certain percent of our reading list is in your text it's time to stand back review the curriculum for a period of time use good judgment and eventually make a decision now is not the time to spend millions of dollars for naught thank you thank you thank you miss mrs wilson the next speaker is mink tyner um uh if uh if she's out there we'll have her come in but we'll move on and just hold her spot um not here all right the next speaker is christy mulatto i just want to thank you guys for having us back again [Music] advocating for children doesn't
072mean only advocating for the child in your home it takes it means taking off the mask and blinders and looking at all the children in the school system all children don't have two parent homes all chil children don't have a family to support them all children excuse me all children will have the ability to learn social emotional skills in the home because they don't have a stable home teaching social emotional learning to students isn't about teachers teaching for parents but yet guiding children into understanding their feelings in a school environment teaching inclusivity respecting differences coping and much more there are even schools at this time that are already taking steps towards that and i see the great results in my own home this is not taking parents power away from their own teaching of emotional
073skills but as the demand for social workers increases in schools so does the need for this type of instruction from the schools perhaps your child will find more compassion for the kid acting out in school because that child is acting out in school is often the child that doesn't have guidance in the home social emotional learning can simply teach basic emotional skills to assist students while at school this does not affect what you teach your children in the home we can all be different and still respect each other oftentimes we fear what we don't know fear looks like anger and i can understand parents fears fears of what's being taught or not taught but what isn't being taught is the truth about our history we washed our history and left some of the greats out
074of history to glorify those that were unworthy we need to tell our children the truth of how we got here not just discussing the present racism structural racism but encourage that's just putting a band-aid on an open wound i encourage you to find a way to advocate to teach black history and give credit where it's due columbus didn't set sail on the ocean blue and come here to have a cookout with us let's be honest teach about the historical african-americans in black history the women from nasa the godmother of rock and roll miss tharp who opened doors for women in the music industry thank you like just thank people like that um with positivity and truth you create change do not fear what you don't understand seek to learn and experience what others different than
075you have experienced change starts small but it won't change until we come together learn from your neighbors ask questions i ask questions all the time of something i don't understand we learn from each other thank you thank you miss mulatto sorry the next speaker rashawn green oh i was summoned here tonight imagine your child going their entire matriculation from kindergarten through 12th grade and never having a white teacher imagine your child only learning about black history the entire time they're in school except for one month out of the year imagine them being punished every time their behavior deviated from the behavior of black students because the teacher didn't understand their culture imagine them being speech impaired and not receiving speech therapy because the majority of students do not need speech therapy imagine your child being
076physically impaired and no accommodations are made for them because majority of students do not need those accommodations imagine your child being a national merit scholar but can't compete nationally because majority of students aren't as gifted so the school refuses to allocate resources to enrichment programs imagine you complaining about the challenges your child's facing but it falls on deaf ears because the majority of students don't have those challenges so you're ignored because the majority of parents don't share your concerns is that treatment fair is that treatment just is that treatment equitable equity in education requires putting systems in place to ensure that every child has an equal chance for success to hear people label equity and diversity is fighting words and those same people claim to be christians i have to question their motives because equity
077is love acceptance understanding and assistance equity is not an agenda it is what is needed to get to equality diversity is the practice of quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders sexual orientation but now to talk about critical race theory the district is not teaching critical race theory they're not even discussing critical race theory so i don't understand why we are discussing it or debating it and critical race theory is a concept teaching students about what actually happened in american history is not critical race theory it is not a concept it is teaching the truth it is the beginning of the end of teaching whitewashed american history lies and it will not make white students feel guilty or like they are victims of
078reverse racism it will actually help all students understand the history of those that do not look like them it will naturally create empathy and understanding for each other so why not allow them to receive the true history of america and let students come to their own conclusions and miss rosario to watch you from the diocese in your elected official your elected position spread consent conspiracy theories something about something that's not even being taught in this district from sources that have no credibility it's not only reckless but it lacks integrity you are elected to represent all people all students and you are being divisive and contributing to the circus that is destroying this district and for all of you who are watching her seat is up next year elect someone who will unify the community the
079district and represent all students someone who will lead with integrity and not spread political propaganda to get reelected thank you miss green next speaker kevin browning good evening it was a wonderful thing last board meeting to see the students that you had up here and to hear their accomplishments and what their parents helped them to do and it was also wonderful tonight i'd also like to give kudos and thanks to the school board the teachers and the staff and the superintendent for keeping our kids and employees safe during this pandemic we all know that mass were hard but you saved lives curriculum the district needs time to adopt the state-sponsored curriculum break down the standards to the coaches and the teachers and get the planning done in order to have a most successful school year
080how much time will be lost if the district is interrupted in this process over fear tactics that are not happening not one black person i know has asked white people to apologize for the past and yes the holocaust happened japanese internment happened slavery happened jim crow happened segregation happened and it was all evil and horrible to address some of what was said from the diocese and the podium equity and equality are not racism doing some real research you'll find that florida statute 1000.05 is called the florida educational equity act it deals with race ethnicity national origin gender disability religion or marital status so is it racist or wrong to help kids with disabilities or disadvantaged kids let's not lose kids by pursuing personal agendas as we go down rabbit holes hurting kids and dividing the
081community instead of looking up and bringing policies from less desirable areas dividing the community let's ensure that every child graduates on time on reading grade level in every grade and ensure that our area is the best in florida and the nation oklahoma rates in the ranks in the bottom 10 states in the nation for child well-being and 42nd for education why would we follow anything oklahoma does for education educationally the top of the list for states goes massachusetts connecticut new jersey virginia why don't you find research on what they're doing better yet in florida st john's county is the top-rated district and as a matter of fact it's got sumter palm beach county calhoun county miami-dade county public schools if you wanted to spend your time researching curriculum couldn't you research what state-sponsored curriculum they're
082using that they are using and go from there because they're the top if you want to do good for the district find ways to pay our teachers and support staff better help the food bank tackle poverty in schools address mental health and homelessness in schools find funding for programs like welding plumbing construction the arts and automotive and enhanced after school programs we need board members who make our community better not spread stuff that's not happening thank you mr browning the next speaker is michelle sanford hello everybody um allies that's it that is all every child in our community needs is an ally you don't have to agree with their life and you don't have to feel bad for them you just have to want every opportunity for every child that's all i want i am
083a parent of two children in our county i came tonight to ensure that dr moore and our school board members know that i am a parent who sees the need for ongoing strategic work focused on equity and inclusion in this district for all kids i support the district and their attempt to an educational environment focused on culturally responsive teaching practices as per our county curriculum and i hope to see more sustained training that will help our teachers and school administrators create learning environments that are safe supportive and conclusive inclusive to all students including students of color our lgbtq plus students students with 504s students with disabilities students who need a behavior analyst at their school daily and all other children from historically marginalized communities i would like to see our district invest in experts who
084can lead the work that needs to be done here i am dismayed that the loud voices of several parents may have resulted in a leadership position focused on equity and diversity being removed i also want to know how these responsibilities will now be delicated on to dr long i want my child and all children to learn in classrooms where history is taught unfiltered where we celebrate the contributions of diverse leaders of different races ethnicities disabilities religions genders and sex orientations and where every child feels they have someone who understands it it is critical that all children can see themselves reflected in our collective past as well as in the adults who teach and lead them presently why would anybody oppose that it is important to me that all children have the rich learning opportunities that
085come from emotional and social learning i wish some of the parents here had been taught this it is important to me that our district is not just best by some kids but best by all kids it is important to me also that every child feels seen heard understood and accepted by their peers and mentors inclusion equity diversity and other terms you've heard tonight are not coded these are not dirty words these are words embedded in the values of our country and many families yet they create such divide when a group who is not marginalized feels seen i want every child to have the opportunity to a world-class education system even if only in our tiny district one that really is the best by kids all our kids thank you thank you thank you miss stanford
086next speaker michael murray good evening board members dr moore because of the school district staff and many cwa support sisters and brothers my name is mike murray vice president of cwa local 3180 representing our 700 school district support staff wow what a year we had i do not think any one of us had any idea how difficult it would be to open our schools and what it would take to keep our staff and children safe during this pandemic but we did it and we were the forerunners of so many districts so i'd like to thank dr moore his staff and the school board for work with the cwa and the teachers union while we sat together and problem solved the many challenges that we faced to do what was best by children through many discussions
087we're able to resolve complex situations and obtain great solutions i would also like to thank our support staff for the bold sacrifices that were made to ensure our children were safe our bus drivers made sure each bus was sanitized after each trip custodians worked through almost impossible situations to ensure our school sites classrooms and offices were cleaned and sanitized our food service employees made sure our children were fed with healthy meals while providing a safe environment for all a bus mechanics was making sure our buses ran smoothly physical plant department keeping our ac units running replacing drinking fountains with fillable water stations and making sure the lights stayed on our secretaries worked with parents counting them through these epic times student support staff and health assistants working with our children making sure they were well
088treated and cared for just to name a few of the many duties performed by amazing support staff as i mentioned before i thank the district for working with us through this pandemic but also like to remind you that it was not for the hard work and dedication of our support staff employees we've never have been able to open our schools so quickly to get our children back to the brick and mortar this accomplishment was was achieved due to the dedication and extremely hard work by our support staff and should not go unrecognized dr moore you have stated before that you support and would any do and do anything for our teachers while we're asking for the same treatment our employees deserve to be respected they deserve to be recognized and they deserve to be compensated
089for their dedication and hard work as you know we will be continuing our contract negotiation in june we hope that you'll give us the respect and recognition that we deserve while we continue through this process thank you very much thank you mr murray thank you the next speaker is becky cook good evening board members and dr moore my name is becky cook i'm a teacher assistant i am part of the self-care aide media assistant esol assistant computer lab assistant and behavior tech group of support staff employees we are with students seven and a half hours daily media and computer lab assistants are not only with students all day but they also work with every student in the school we also make the lowest annual salaries of full-time employees as you know an assistant lost her
090life to covet this year since august we have pressed pressed past our fear leaning into courage to assist the teachers and support students on a daily basis this school year the covet toll on support staff employees is profound support staff employees are people in the trenches mustering the courage to go to work every day they worry not only about their own health but that of the loved ones that they live with they worry about the predictability and stability of their jobs many experience stress and anxiety some are struggling to cope because they have lost a loved one it has been a year like no other and the immediate future is uncertain support staff are the hourly wage employees of indian river county school district we are vital to the school district's success respect us honor
091us and pay us a fair and just wage thank you thank you thank you miss cook next speaker is maureen weisberg uh maya angelou once said without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency we can't be kind merciful understanding generous or honest i've learned that even when i have pains i don't have to have be one have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time it took courage for the support stop to work during a global pandemic not knowing of what we were doing was safe courage for bus drivers to bring food to children when we were told to shelter in place courage for food service workers to make meals while working together indoors courage for maintenance to pull out water fountains and replace them with water bottles
092courage for custodians to spray and decontaminate every night and place hand sanitizers for all our students courage for teacher assistance secretaries bookkeepers and nurses and masks and sneeze shields to navigate many new and complex rules and systems in a short amount of time with taunting pressure courage for everyone to leave family to work without certainty that we had done everything possible to keep ourselves and our children safe and even then hoping it would all be enough and yes we had our heroes this year those who sacrificed everything and loved ones we have lost we now ask dr moore and our esteemed school board members to show courage to these amazing individuals by granting them a living wage we ask that you show courage during bargaining that we can trust you to do what is right
093and help ensure these people can survive and thrive in a community they have had the courage to sacrifice so much for this past year on behalf of all cwa support staff we wish everyone a healthy summer break thank you [Applause] thank you thank you miss weisberg next speaker wilford hart wilford hart you know i was going to talk about the d.c but listening to my my friends behind me and they're talking about that critical critical race theory i'm disturbed see you call it a theory i'ma tell you about the critical race fact my father took myself and my brother and made us go to osceola back in 1965. i was in second grade had the greatest white teacher in the world she loved me she treated me like i was her own she made sure
094the students treated me like i was a human being i get to my third grade in my fourth grade and they call me made me sit in the back i can't ever forget this mess made me sit in the back of the classroom miss preston and miss brown third and fourth grades you want to know about facts i'm tired of this theory mess i'ma tell you about facts it hurt it hurt my brother as well we're the only two black students in the whole school before they integrated the school system my father came here from the bahamas and he could not handle the fact of what was going on in the school system and and being the local branch president naacp he said him and his team gonna do something about it i'm expecting y'all
095to do something about it i'm gonna meet with these folks here as soon as i get this new position i'm gonna meet with miss pippin and i'm going to meet with miss justice and i'm going to sit with them and i'm going to let them know the facts of critical race because we're not getting the facts i have some friends and i hope they're still here professors they're going to really give you the whole detail of some of this stuff that's been passed down to the month for liberty from this one organization and it's not totally factual and i have a problem that as well but today i'm going to ask the audience study critical race theory because if you really want to know about the facts you can ask me and my brother you
096can ask us how did it feel so you know what i did i made sure i went to all black college the film cooking universe was predominantly black because i want to know about my blackness because the school system didn't want to teach it but in my 11th grade miss rush taught black history and guess how many white students were in the class at least 10 to 12 white students it was an elective and they wanted to know all about it you ought to want to know all about it as well and so i'm going to ask you all tonight do the right thing let's get behind this critically still [Applause] thank you mr hart next speaker kelly foster you think i'm here at the end of may and uh kind of upset that we're
097still here talking about masks early on we could fall back on not having the data but right now that's that's not the case there any number of masks mask optional schools that we could have benchmarked at this point and more to the point we know the data shows that it works our top government officials have access to experts in their fields and to more data than any of us our governor the department of education they've both told the schools to unmask our kids so why are our kids in our county still wearing masks and why hasn't this board follow our governor and our department of education's recommendations already nearly everywhere has gone back to normal with optional masking restaurants dentist office the doctor's office even right here in this room yet not our kids who
098aren't the least at risk are still they're still being forced by you all to wear a mask for eight hours a day my understanding is that indian river county is one of six counties left in the state to make masks optional or to set a date for it that tells me that the majority of you up there are more interested in the power of your position than the health and safety of our kids when 60 plus counties in florida have already taken action we're still sending surveys at this point the refusal to lift the mandate seems to be nothing but selfish stubbornness and it does nothing but hurt our children that we're supposed to be serving i encourage you to take action tonight and look the band-aid thank you thank you miss foster that is
099the end of public comment unless maybe one one last time if mink tyner happened to return if not okay i guess not i asked my colleague is anyone interested in taking a five-minute break before we go to action with that is that good thank you all right we'll take make it seven minutes uh before we move to the consent agenda is there anybody on the school board or dr moore that would like to comment after the citizen input just briefly uh mr chair i want to acknowledge the the leadership of maureen and mike our cwa uh unit we are going into negotiations uh in the coming weeks and everything that that mike and maureen said regarding their willingness to step up think differently identify problems and work for unique solutions uh has been an absolute
100key ingredient in terms of the success this district has opening was able to open the way it was so by all means the value that we have in those individuals and the contributions that they play to creating a complete school system that is nimble and acts in the best interest of children at all times uh looking forward to getting at the negotiation table um and creating a a contract talking about you mike that that honors their contributions and and work uh in a very significant way so just wanted to acknowledge what they what they said uh and look forward to upholding my end of the bargain as we begin to negotiate um dr schiffer i actually had um a whole thing prepared and i'm and i'm not gonna read it um because i think the
101people who came tonight did it for me um and what i saw tonight and i want to thank everybody who came out tonight because what i saw is an issue that people are really passionate about have a variety of different perspectives about and want us to know how they feel and i want to thank everybody who gave who gave up their time tonight to come and talk about this i want to be clear as a couple of the speakers said and i actually i want to read something from the national school board association while conversations about equity can sometimes become politically charged educational equity is not a partisan issue educational equity is first and foremost about ensuring that school districts fulfill their core mission successfully educating all students so that they are prepared to be
102productive and engaged citizens creating educational equity is of utmost importance because public schools serve an increasingly diverse population with a broad range of needs the face of america's typical public school student has changed and will continue to change and so that said um that's from the national school board association and this is not a political issue this is an academic one we're not teaching critical race theory in schools we never have been that's not on the agenda it's not in the books diversity equity inclusion are not code words for critical race theory culturally responsive teaching is not code word for critical race theory social emotional learning is not a code and there's a lot more i want to say about that but i don't want to take any more time tonight um because i think
103a lot of people already said it but i want to be um on the record and clear that what we are doing in this district you know nobody sits here because it's a barrel of laughs nobody sits here for the glory nobody sits here because we don't have anything better to do on tuesdays sit here because we are just as committed to the well-being of every student of every adult of every family in this district is everybody sitting in this audience and whether we agree on issues or don't whether we feel the same way about them we're not here simply because it makes us feel good we're not here to dominate anybody we're not here to control anybody we're here because we're committed to the well-being of this district and everybody in it and while
104people may not think that about me or anybody else on this board i am clear that that's why we're all sitting here i'm not going to go in to a whole lot of detail about what critical race theory is or isn't as mr hart said it's a theory it doesn't mean it's a practice it doesn't mean it's an experience it's an academic theory developed 30 years ago that is not infiltrating the curriculum and to the degree that the commissioner of education and the department of education have vetted curriculum before it gets to us are we saying that they don't know what they're doing i don't think so i think we are going with educational standards that have been vetted in this state and it is as academics as academicians as leaders it is our responsibility
105to hear everybody who has a voice on this including the governor the commissioner of education the department of education the people in this district and the research that we do on it there's so much more to that there's so much more to social emotional learning and social emotional learning is a process by which children and adults acquire and apply knowledge and attitudes and skills to establish and manage emotions to set and achieve goals to feel and show empathy for others i've said in rooms with parents with children of incarcerated parents with children whose parents have committed suicide with children of in families who don't have enough to eat with so many things that i can't begin to name here i wish this was around when i was a student because it sure would have helped
106me it sure would have helped me a lot when my parents were going through a miserable divorce it sure would have helped me if somebody had taken a minute to understand something that i was going through as a child and i was a pretty privileged kid i will completely admit that but to say that social emotional learning is code for some other agenda um i i i've been i've been quiet about this for a while and i can't do that anymore so i'm not buying into it and i'm not buying into that these are code words and i'm not buying into that we're trying to ram anything down anybody's throat i think we do frankly an exceptionally good job of listening and whether or not we all agree i don't think we can say that
107this superintendent has not listened to voices in this district that he has not been out there innumerable times engaging in public meetings on facebook live meeting with school board members meeting with parents meeting with community groups i know i don't know that there's a superintendent who does as much meeting as you do i think it was uh mr bass said today um the grass does not grow under this man's feet so i want to again i um this is a difficult conversation but it is a politicized one that really has no place in our schools it has no place in our academic decision making it has no place to to take political conversations grounded in conjecture and insert them into curriculum which is not happening it's not happening it's not there so on that note
108um thank you again to everybody who came out tonight to everybody for whom i know it's difficult to get up at that podium and speak i know it's not easy i know that takes a lot for people to do and i know to come out tonight was at the expense of other things that many people could have been doing tonight so um thank you all for coming out tonight that's it mrs bear important sure um now that you brought that up i'm going to say something um as promised last meeting i said i was going to make a phone call to the doe after the meeting and i did and uh surprisingly i got a call back from the chancellor of k-12 education himself jacob oliva i was kind of surprised that the chancellor actually
109spoke to me on the phone which you know was nice that he took the time to do that but he called me right back he said they're very aware of the concerns that are happening in the division that's happening in our communities it's not just happening here it's happening across the state it's happening across the nation and they're also very aware that this the curriculum that we would will consider has been vetted for a year but they are having people point out concerns that they have on the particular hmh series that was brought up along with the other series so he did tell me that they are reviewing all the books again and that if there are things that are of concern those will be brought up and discussed within the next 30 days that
110was from the last time i spoke to him now understand that this procedure that they go through is based on standards and standards alone and those standards are approved by the legislature so for you to say that we know better than what they're doing is really interesting because they've gone through this whole theory now citizens have the right absolutely to point out when there's something of concern somebody pointed out something to me today that made me go oh i need to go read that um and that's what our job is to listen to those things but to pick out one story out of an entire k5 series with all these different stories and all these different books we need to expose our kids to diversity we need to teach love for each other that's kids
111that hope too if you've never looked into kids that hope which has been in our schools for a long time please look at that because if you really want to pick apart something all the time you know you're going to find fault in anything but i'm going to tell you that you know i for one don't want to vote on a a series when i find any child feels wrong about their race and when i see a story that points out that somebody should feel bad about the race you know think about the fact that probably in the past we've had stories that make other races feel bad but that really hasn't been put out there as much and now it's all coming to the forefront and now school boards get to be in the
112middle of it and this is a tough job but it's a job that i'm thankful that i get to do because i get to listen to what's happening and make what i think is the best choice i can for all the kids in this county not just for your child and so as i attended all these wonderful graduations and awards in the last two weeks and just the list is long the one that really struck out of me this morning and doc jones and i were at uh citrus and they were handing out awards and they did a little parade with the kids and what struck me was when a child was awarded an award the kids went nuts for each other and it didn't matter if they were white or black it didn't matter
113if they were handicapped they did it for all of the kids we need to start doing that for each other as adults we need to be the models for kids and i think it's the other way around right now so sometimes the kids are the models for us and i mean think about that so i will say when the chancellor called me back he did promise me that in the next 30 days they will review all the books any book that they consider which they are the conservative leadership that's up there right now if the book is considered that it has something in it that is going too far it will not make the list again it will be pulled if it has things that they think are going to teach children about diversity and
114social emotional learning that's appropriate and i agree with you there is a time and a place for things and i think people are taking words and running with them education we have our own acronyms and our own words and sometimes it's confusing for parents and that's another thing we need to talk about is how to help parents with those when we talk about social and emotional learning it's different than what's being out there in the in society right now it really is because when i hear it i think wow that's not exactly what we did in schools that's not how i consider it and i i know and i trust that mr olivia is going to make sure that the books that we have an opportunity to put in our schools have passed everything the
115books that you see out there may not be the end result books that's what he told me you know these things are put online and then they go to print they print them right now for reviews but then if there's something in there that somebody finds and that's why we give the 30-day window so that you can go and appeal it and if you win that appeal then i feel like if it's appealed and the appeal is won i can't vote for it because there must be something in there that the people that have looked at it which are attorneys that are listening to the appeal there must be something there that's a reason for the appeal but if it goes through that appeal process and those attorneys say there's nothing here that the state
116hasn't allowed with what their process is then there's no way that i think i can supersede that you've got two attorneys there in the appeals process if you feel like there's something in there that you need to have appealed go through that process that's why it's there and then we will hear that process and we will make a decision in june okay so i just want you to know i did follow up on that i did call the dui i've called them several times this year over masks over everything and it's interesting what's being said in interviews and then when you call their office what's being told to you over the phone and if you don't believe me do it yourself call the governor's office the day after he makes that statement about unmasking children
117and they will tell you to follow the cdc guidelines so i just wanted everybody to understand that because this is the position now we're in i'm willing to listen but i'm also willing to take the governance of some people that are really giving us that guidance of going through these materials more than we can i can't go through all these materials and read all these policies and everything else so that is why this goes through that that one-year look and during that though now they're re-looking at them so they're re-looking at them for the next 30 days okay thank you dr jones just a special thank you to everyone who spoke tonight you could really hear the passion and emotion and mr hart your your speech moved me i remember you telling me that story
118and i think i said this in the workshop today this is a public school system and we will have equity equity is more than race as we've said many many times our special needs students our merit scholars people need a little bit more help and esau lots of things there and this is something that we have to make sure happens as a school board one of the speakers said something about uh dr schiff and i not being up here in the dias and she had a point i voted against that but when we vote and it was a three to two vote we agreed to support what the majority of the board has stated so that is why i'm up here and i also double checked the tape and i did not say insurrection i
119said there were raised voices inciting and disturbances and that is what i felt from the last meeting but i want to have that on record thank you all right mrs rosario did you want to make a comment um i've been mulling over whether i i should sometimes silence is golden um but you know me i'm hardly ever silent um so i will just reiterate for anyone who wants to cherry-pick um what board members or what i have said in previous meetings to please not do that please don't cherry-pick if you want to understand the full context or kind of try to find out where i was reading or quoting from somebody else please go to our previous meetings and watch and listen and take note and then post anything about me based on the reality
120of what was actually there the cherry picking is really it doesn't do anything except cause an uproar not from me because i was very very clear specifically on social emotional learning many times social emotional learning i have said dr moore is shaking his head i have said it that is not critical race theory we have had social emotional learning in our schools which is critical for years and years and years so that has not come from me if it's come from other places then so be it but we cannot cherry pick and then accuse people of saying things that that that is just not true um ignoring his somebody said ignoring history does not make it go away you know not having a different opinion from you or not choosing to believe that critical race
121theory is appropriate for all students doesn't mean that we are ignoring history it doesn't mean that we wouldn't be teaching black history or african american history there are plenty of ways to teach black history to embed multicultural education in our school systems than to be divisive and really i i think that i don't even know how many times i need to say that um there are there are really plenty of of things but i think at this point it would be prudent of me not to say anymore um and so we we have a lot on our agenda still so thank you for that all right well i would also like to thank everybody i appreciate everyone was particularly articulate some have had a lot of practice they've and we appreciate that a couple of
122the items that were addressed tonight by all of you will are in the action item so you'll know what the outcome is before you leave or you can read about it so without further ado i'm going to move the agenda along and the next is to approve the consent agenda having removed for discussion in action items 5b 9b and 10a so may i have a motion i'll make a motion i'll second thank you all right so we have you all are quick to make motions and so who who gets credit for the second doesn't matter um all in favor aye aye the vote carries 5-0 mr barefoot yes ma'am just to note that we approved a lot of donations i won't go through all of them i just wanted to say publicly thank you to
123all those organizations that help us all the time to give special things to kids that we don't have necessarily in the budget and so um you can always read about those and uh i just wanted to say that it was forty seven thousand four hundred and eighty dollars this time um it's almost what half a million more than half a million dollars already this year has been donated so we appreciate that thank you and and to that same note uh mr heron who was here earlier representing the educational foundation of indian river county that science fair and all those awards are all sponsored by donations to that charity so there's a perfect example of what mrs barenborg's talking about uh miss dr schiff yeah the other a couple other things that we just approved in
124the consent agenda that i want to call a little attention to um item 5a was approval to work with the local naacp to develop a unitary sustainability policy that was an item brought by dr jones for discussion this afternoon and i encourage people to go back and look at that discussion um the charge was to the superintendent to bring forth a recommendation for that policy by august 10th we had a big discussion about who should be included in that how that should work um broadening the scope of community organizations who would have a seat at that table and a voice in that policy and i encourage people to go back and watch that discussion this afternoon secondly um i want to just call attention to item 10a which is approval of the 2021-2022 ci solution
125zoner z-pass agreement that is an incredibly long overdue safety security you pulled that never mind i'll talk about it later uh you're right never mind i'll talk about that when we get to discussion okay uh so the the first uh item that was pulled from consent was item 5b uh mrs barenborg yes um it states here face covering requirements but it doesn't exactly have an action item that's why i pulled it because i think we need clarification here because just putting face covering requirements doesn't tell anybody exactly what we're approving the other thing is i believe we've already talked about face mask optional for summer programming correct have we officially voted on that or had to vote on that because i thought we already made that motion to do that because i i heard from
126the podium that we haven't done that and um so i was a little confused so tonight the the item is to provide an update and make a recommendation regarding the requirements that are currently in place we had at discussion the opportunity to engage in the dialogue regarding uh face coverings for summer and then june 22nd is the opportunity to look at what we would be doing for for the fall but based on my initial research i guess is the item on the floor yes okay and looking at at the research i feel comfortable making a recommendation uh to the board regarding um our path moving forward and you know the truth be told we're going to evaluate and receive feedback and make it a determination that is in the best interest of all children as
127well as the totality of the school system taking the time to listen to those who are in our classrooms those are driving the buses those that are serving the food to really get a deep understanding of are we prepared to move a recommendation forward that would allow us to be mask optional so yeah i took the time to listen as i always do and make a decision uh or a recommendation in this case that is in the best interest of the system and puts us in a place that we will be ready for the opening of schools so in looking or receiving feedback from our families overwhelmingly over over 80 percent of our families are more than comfortable returning to an a a mass optional environment so that's not hearsay that's not a guess that's
128asking the direct question over a significant number of our employees all employees had the opportunity to respond to a survey on a scale from one to five five being i'm absolutely okay let's go mask optional uh that rating for all of the over the thousand that filled it out was was four so you know in in receiving that feedback step one but sitting down uh with our unions uh ensuring are there things that we still need to work out absolutely when you look at where we are in terms of covet as a community we continue to improve and and when we first discussed this at the um two weeks ago i'm sorry yeah two weeks ago at workshop i reviewed the two different criteria in which the cdc uses whether it's the cases per 100
129000 or the cases over the last seven days the straight the straight average both those numbers across the entire state as well as with our community continue to decline when you look at the state of florida you know we the governor is willing to put together an executive order that says mass will be optional for the opening of school uh the commissioner uh has already sent memos to superintendents saying you should be mass optional when schools are opening and the reality is i feel comfortable as a system and fully taking a deep understanding a step back from the reality the opportunity to listen uh to say that we can be masked optional effective june 1st and i think the reality is we need to make a decision so if there are families who are not
130comfortable with that decision it's inevitable it is inevitable we need to be prepared and give them enough time so waiting to make a decision in a lot of ways is hurting those without the amount of time so we have a virtual program uh that we think is going to be stellar in terms of the academic performance i think some of the parents that spoke tonight spoke in regards to the quality of that programming and we're looking forward to continuing to enhance that if that be the demand right now all the information that i have put out and i have said publicly a number of times we're working to be masked optional when school starts and make your decisions based on being mask optional we're not seeing a uptick in virtual enrollment but we don't want
131to wait to the last minute to create master schedules and ensure that we're ready for brick and mortar and or virtual when school starts we played the shell game all year long i think across the nation uh we're going to see the impacts of cove um and it's going to be very dramatic you're going to see students who got back into brick and mortar uh 50 50 through the school year and the impact that that had on them is is significant uh so barring a a major uh uptick in scores uh or covet cases or an outbreak my recommendation would be effective june 1 we would be mass optional the sum the only exception would be summer programming in which i would say on the bus you should be wearing a mask at this particular
132point and then bring what would be the safer of school plan the body of the safe roof school plan would really focus in on the safety procedures the social emotional support how to ensure that we're providing environments whether you want to wear a mask or whether you don't want to wear a mask everyone feels accepted and embraced for what is or is not on their face no mass shaming or you're not wearing them it goes both ways so how do we as a community support an environment in our schools where families have the opportunity to make a decision for their children uh to be actively engaged and feel accepted in our school system so that that is the recommendation i propose to the board members mrs barrenburg would you would you like to make a
133motion yes i make a motion that we um start mask optional by june 1st is there a second second i'd like to i'd like a second um i'd like to amend that i just want to be clear unless maybe you want to be clear the recommendation was masks optional june 1st with the exception of summer school what the superintendent is asking is to have masks on for buses during transportation is what i heard so i don't know if you want to let me let me ask um why why is that just the confined space that we're there the number of buses that we we are running so you know it's just a very very confined space high number of students on the bus i think in terms of on school uh environments it gives us
134the the opportunity based on the ratios based on the size of the campuses we're going to have the opportunity really to be masked optional even if nothing changed and i've said that a number of times but looking at the bus and how we've organized the bust and operating i think it's just a good first step if if students on the bus are socially distanced would they be able to take their masks off you know at the end of the route when you have three kids left on the bus i don't think it's ever been that's never been the problem but if you were to adhere to the way that our plan is then the answer would be yes okay okay so so i'm sorry do you want we've got a motion on the floor do
135you want to keep your motion no i'll pull my motion back i understand that we still have some people that haven't gotten vaccinated that wanted to be vaccinated i get that i think by the fall though those people that are employees will know that that that's what the expectation is is that we're going to be mask optional so i will um make a motion to make masks optional beginning june 1st except for for summer program for the buses when they cannot be socially distanced on the bus all right do we have a second to that motion second mrs rosario okay further comment i want to i want to be clear that i'm hearing this right uh mask optional june 1st now i have a couple things i want to be clear so the superintendent recommended
136not mask optional on buses where it's a confined space mrs barenborg you said what if there's only a few people on the bus and they're spread out would that be okay what i want to clarify and i guess this would be the doctor more is that leaves the bus driver responsible for enforcing or not enforcing the policy and determining when there's few enough kids on the bus to be masked optional that that potentially leaves the bus driver in the position of the decision maker don't they do that now they've been doing that all along well except there's been a team policy that says you have to wear a mask it's one policy it's not a policy that says wear a mask sometimes except when you're distanced enough and i make the decision it's a little
137bit different so i'm not against it i'm not against the idea from an operational um standpoint i think if mike murray had the opportunity to come to the podium he would say that's why we need to compensate our bus drivers because they are the authority uh on on that bus and right now it's it's a a one and done policy but they do enforce it uh while as they are driving the bus um and from not only that i have never driven a bus but chaperoning field trips uh you can more than socially distance on those particular buses so i'm not overly concerned that um our bus drivers can put that into practice and do it in a way that is safe and secure and effectively implemented okay second question previously when we talked about
138summer school we talked about mask optional when there were when social distancing of three feet was possible and requiring masks when it was not are we rescinding that and saying mask optional all the time irrespective of the three feet mask optional and we'll put together a guide of best practices things we'll be doing to ensure the cleaning of the buildings continue options within classrooms there's a number of things that allow us to support a level of comfort for all children i don't think for summer it's going to be any issues at all but as we roll out for the opening of schools these are the health and safety measures that we're taking to support a mass optional environment and we'll fully inform the community as we did for the opening of schools last year may
139ask a question for those students that want virtual option that might have an underlying health condition or something like that that's why the parent still wants masks or is worried about it is that option available for them for summer school we talked about that no i just want to remember so the answer there's going to be a number of one-offs and i think the answer to that direct question is yes uh the answer to the question that my child is in a magnet or in a choice program and has a health condition where we don't feel comfortable i'm going to honor that and continue to allow them whenever they do feel feel safe to return to that choice or magnet school you know any superintendent or leader who makes a a this is the rule
140and we're going to follow it without looking at the the individual situations of unique families uh is is going to be on the wrong of that individual family so taking the time to look at each case individually we've continued to grow it was 84 percent uh for the beginning of the fourth nine weeks they still continue to come back to to brick and mortar uh from a a social emotional academic standpoint we need our students in school we need them feeling safe we need them feeling comfortable we're going to have to make up a lot of ground next year especially in math and we've got to get this right we've got to get this right um and i think based on what i've learned in terms of the resiliency of our staff of our teachers
141and what we have learned together and how we have come together this year man i cannot wait till next year we're going to be great all right we have a motion on the floor with a second can you repeat the motion masks optional beginning june 1st except for on buses when's not socially distant only for summer for the summer right for the summer program thank you all right i'll call the question all in favor aye opposed motion carries 5-0 you can you're allowed to i think we'd all like to join too long overdue nobody wants to wear nobody wants to worry about long overdue and i think we're all delighted to be in a position to to be able to vote in favor and i think if some one of us said somewhere along the
142way if it was up to me individually or up to somebody else you may have voted to eliminate the mass a long time ago but i think unfortunately or not unfortunately it's our responsibility to consider the whole district the 2000 employees as well as 17 000 and some kids and i think i speak for myself that was one of the reasons that if it were just me i'd have been done with the mask long ago all right um moving on the second polled from consent mrs rosario you have item 9b i do thank you so much i only pulled um 9b so that the superintendent had an opportunity to present he presented to us this mor this afternoon during a superintendent workshop um this and the next item for the z-pass um i think are
143both very very critical i think they're both very important to not just present it to us but to present it to the community so i will hand it over to dr moore thank you miss rosario the next item is a what i would consider a minor reorganization of the district staff um over the course of the year we've gone through uh the adoption of a new strategic plan plan one of the foundations of that strategic plan was effective fiscal management being a good steward of the people's money in order to ensure that we are maximizing every dollar to ensure that we're maximizing uh the full potential of all students um in implementing that practice over the course of this year uh through the leadership of cabinet looking at the expenditures in which they're accountable for
144we're able to realize a overall two percent or five percent um increase in the district operating budget um we use that five percent savings uh as an opportunity to repurpose those funds uh to fund pieces of this reorganization as well as put about uh 371 thousand dollars back in the hands of classrooms and teachers and principals at school sites so this overall uh reorganization of the district comes at a two percent uh savings to the district in the amount of 371 thousand nine hundred dollars in in twelve cents there are some things that we set out to agree above being uh effective fiscal managers of of the people's money but also uh enhancing our ability as a district a support staff really design ourselves in the way that ensures principals and teachers have everything they
145need in terms of support in terms of guidance in terms of expectation and program delivery in order to be absolutely 100 engage with students each and every single day make their job the most complex most rewarding job in the world as easy as possible so we we knew that there were some things that we needed to do i'll speak briefly through some of the highlights of this specific reorganization from a business standpoint looking at positions within the district that are either self-funded or generating funds in order to improve the quality of support and services looking at how we engage families and community involvement there's significant opportunities to enhance that body of work parental involvement once again a significant opportunity to leverage and provide meaningful resources for parents to connect and engage at school sites to
146be partners to completely be involved one hundred percent with the quality of education uh that we in the school system provides we need to open up our school doors and provide meaningful ways to engage and involve parents we need to do a better job uh in looking at that as it's been discussed tonight really creating the district and the system in a way where we continue to build equity diversity and access ensuring that we as a community have a deep understanding of what that means and how we collectively are willing to engage in difficult conversations to ensure that we are the community that every other community is envious of and some of the dialogue and conversations may seem uncomfortable but man it is so encouraging that we are now in the midst of those conversations
147and willing to put this reorganization forward that will really begin to continue to put the right people in the room to engage in the dialogue to create classrooms and schools where the system of schools pulls us all together to improve uh every opportunity for all students so i will briefly go through some of the offices that were being proposed and give some examples we were able to get florida blue to fund for us a district wellness specialist this is an individual that will ensure uh that our teachers and faculty and staff uh are providing programming professional development incentives to fully understand how to take care of themselves how to participate in wellness and health programs the more healthy and physically fit and mentally fit we are as a staff the more effective we can be
148in serving our children and ultimately the more money that uh florida blue can save in terms of us not having to access um um our health care so a win for them and an equal win for us uh marketing quality control food specialist this is a opportunity for us to do a better job of branding and marketing the absolutely fresh wonderful food that we are serving in our cafeterias uh to create a buzz around the the great things happening in our cafeteria we know that we could to the generation of those funds more than absorb the cost of this position but really begin to generate additional funds to continue to grow the quality uh and kinds of food that we're providing in our cafeteria uh the creation of or the repurposing of a director position
149uh to a cabinet level position assistant superintendent of student affairs advocacy and access that position uh will be led by mr eric seymour who i'm going to ask to come to the podium at the end of my presentation this is the cabinet level position that ensures that every single concern and issue within our system is effectively addressed gives him the authority to problem-solve with principles regarding positive solutions as well as with family and parents also the access that is needed whatever that access may be across the entire system the 300 million dollar organization is designed in a way to ensure that that access whether it be opportunity for extracurricular activities whether it be sports programming whether it be ap or honors courses that that is available um so we will create that that additional position
150in over to ensure that that that work continues to be done we are repurposing the uh coordinator of equity and family and community engagement and bifurcating those two responsibilities i have learned over the course of the last several months that we need to be more intentional of deepening our understanding coordinating the conversations around equity diversity um with multiple facets of the community and having someone at the cabinet level in the bureaucracy of the running of the system isn't going to get it done so creating a sole focus of an equity coordinator to do this work is the absolute right way to go while at the same time continuing to maintain the expectation everyone in this system has the responsibility to embrace a public school system that addresses the needs of all children we will not
151walk away from it also the parent and community involvement we need to as i have said leverage the opportunity for parents to access their child's education at school sites um significant work needs to be done there i think this year was impacted significantly by covid but we're excited to bring those two sole focus responsibilities which will continue to build that responsibility offering a community liaison specialist this is the opportunity to create a position in which we're in the community informing everyone of the great work that's being done while the same time have an ear in terms of what's happening in the system so the school system deeply understands the needs of the community is not sitting back and acting in a silo but we're active equal partners uh and right now the system isn't designed
152in a way to engage in those particular conversations um so we will add that position and begin to ensure that that work is is being done when you look at mr stewart welcome back sir in looking at curriculum and instruction we had a cte coordinator position we are eliminating that position and then repurposing it as a steam coordinator a steam coordinator uh ensures that the quality of our steam initiatives which are in a majority of our schools is being done math is going to be a okay yes math is going to be an uphill battle um for the generation that is in our schools right now and we need to provide additional support uh in order to get that done so creating that steam program science technology engineering arts mathematics gives that additional focus uh
153in mr meyer's shop while at the same time lessening some responsibilities of other individuals so they can deep take a deeper focus and language art so even though we're just saying we're adding a steam position we're freeing up time of other individuals to take a deeper dive in their areas of responsibility as well in terms of the college and career technical educational specialist that is a new position so the shift in thinking for cte is to eliminate it from a district perspective and circle it back underneath the principle and ensuring that the principal has the authority to look at the programs in their school be accountable for are the relevant programs are addressing the needs of their specific kids we need resources as closest to kids as possible and we need to really begin to
154continue this is the third reorganization we have done and this is the third shrinking of the district uh the district's budget as a result and we will continue to do that and push resources back to kids this gives a direct support to students for career technical education and allows the principals the support at the school site really to drive their vision around college career and technical education so we're excited to provide that uh creating under mr meyer's shop a uh director for extended learning opportunities so um there she is miss emerson that this year uh under innovation that work was carved out under her area of responsibilities and has done a outstanding job in beginning that process but we have learned as a result of covet that when we have children in our space in
155our classrooms on our campuses we need to provide engaging innovative meaningful instruction uh and interventions and enrichment for those students so we will continue to build upon that with this new position also summer programming need to continue to ensure that there's a smooth transition and here's another good example this also frees up other areas the uh accountability the the area of academic success the department of instructional innovation uh providing this position allows them to take a deeper focus in their specific areas so a distribution of resources or responsibilities allows us to take a deeper dive in terms of the volume and quality of support also within this specific area wrap around services i think what were the so many great things about this community uh but leading the way is the um number of organizations
156that are willing to support uh put their shoulder to the wheel around helping children uh grow and we need to coordinate them lead the work in terms of where we need those resources this position will help coordinate that work as as well uh under ms dampier shop looking at our our nurses in schools we want everyone who is a nurse in a school to be a rn or an lpn we have three individuals who are naturally separating from our system uh going on to do retirement or other things and we're happy for them but as we replace them we're going to have that criteria in place we do not want anyone in our schools uh who doesn't have the appropriate qualification or skill set to be in service especially around um the the health of
157our students over the next three years we'll be able to move us to a place where all of those lpns um are lpns or rns in our schools and it's it's a a student or a faculty and staff approach uh rather than just conducting a reduction in force or eliminating individuals taking the time we'll be able to do this in a way where no one is is offset in terms of employment i think that's the great way the right way of doing it a data coach as well will be implemented and we've spoken very very proud of the work that dr mcmahon has done he has created uh i don't want to quote the number of dashboards um what's that there's 17 different dashboards that you can filter down pulling resources from probably 17 different
158sites and the ability to understand how to manipulate that data that is now housed in one place accelerates a principle or instructional coach or teacher's understanding of how impactful their instruction was uh so having the dashboards is powerful but ensuring everyone understands them at the same level in which dr mcmahon who creates them which is a tall order to fulfill um but really ensures we're drastically accelerating our own organizational intelligence on understanding the impact of instruction so this data coach will be fully in schools providing that support to principals instructional coaches and teachers really to deepen our our understanding those are the positions that will be repurposed or developed there was a number of positions in which we looked at job descriptions so we challenged cabinet to go through their areas from a district perspective
159look at those positions that needed to be modified uh assignments adjusted so the cost of this reorganization incorporates those shifts or changes uh so we're very happy about this reorganization it allows us um really to ensure that we are putting children first and we're designed in a way to maximize the support uh continuing to have a deep focus on pulling our community together around diversity and equity and as i say that i would ask mr seymour who will be our new assistant superintendent to come to the podium i know his wife is here and his mentor is here and you want to talk about someone who makes a decision very very very easy as ms pippen has already given him credit uh this night doesn't shy away from a difficult conversation uh every piece of
160mind i could possibly have uh when he's on the phone dealing with a difficult situation uh the best interest of the student regardless of what the conversation may be is going to be put at the forefront and so happy if you have the opportunity to lead this workshop um to the chair board members uh dr moore you know it's uh you know a lot of work but i think i've made some gain and giving me the opportunity to talk to parents and students and work out problems i live for um just to listen to parents and some of their concerns a lot of schools really don't know and me being able to carry that to schools getting principals to understand that hey we can work this out together we don't have to stick to rules
161let's look at our kids and let's make a decision together has happened and often and that i'm very grateful to our principals i wouldn't be able to do this again without our parents and i got to say parents um thank you thank you i appreciate each and every one growing up here you know in in vero beach the old school board was a hospital a lot of people may know how old i am now but but you know it's a wave back and uh you know that's where i was born and my mom you know put in 40 years indian river memorial hospital and there was times that i would go in the emergency room and wait for her you know see her work and do things for people and and my father who was
162very caring um grove owner here uh foreman and uh was in the fruit business for many years that's all he did was for people even times that you know we struggled he was there um now we can talk about a a little equality here and i grew up in poor little street some of the best athletes in the world all of us you know got educations he did well but behind us was you know a little more affluent street and it was that lady who lived on that street was my wife vicki of 30 years and and i couldn't go back there all the time but look i have her now and and she's in my corner she's an educator she's a director of st lucie county and did a marvelous job and just work
163for kids and continues to and for that i'm very grateful to her and um and when we talk about mentors of course i started at vero beach high school as a teacher and became a dean administrative dean at the time you're certified to be a principal but that was you know the level at the time and my mentor as a teacher was miss martha hudson that's edwina's mother dr sue's mother and dr eddie hudson who would put the fear of god in you you know if you nothing late in making sure that you did what you're supposed to do as a teacher and she gave me all of the values necessary for me to make decisions that would carry me further and i appreciate that family for that support uh becoming an assistant principal i
164was an assistant principal for a short period before i was recruited out of indian river county and worked for this young lady here miss jerry mcpherson at lincoln park academy for so many years she's done so many wonderful things and i'm so appreciative of her for guiding me and giving me the opportunity i remember see we were ranked about the 21st school in the country at the time and uh no lab no computer lab and back at that time that's that's when they were kind of putting the labs together but i always had i wanted to challenge kids and and i knew that they had the potential but had to find a way to do it and um our at-risk kids they were we knew where they were and they were improving but at lincoln
165park academy all of the kids are doing fairly well but we had a gifted group of kids who um maybe 364 kids who are getting a's constantly and that bothered me you know it's just okay you mastered the concept you got an a it didn't really work well with me so we didn't have a lab and we pulled computers together uh ms mcpherson gave that gave me that opportunity when we got these computers at that time the fcat was just you know coming about and there was an assessment program that i put and built into that computer lab and i tested the kids and our kids failed the gifted ones at about 53rd percentile i said boom we got it and then it was on after that and the kids understood that now okay there's
166a level you know that i can reach instead of just getting an a i know how to get an a but can i be pushed and and i again am so grateful for ms mcpherson for giving me that opportunity um also um hco you know what a department i mean we jailed from day one and just too mr bass good guy no just grateful thank you thank you for all of the hco members and every every person in there you know been supportive day one so i'm grateful and thankful for all of those margaret dawson brown you know keeping us going laughing something something good each and every day she's such a sweetheart you know uh dr sue uh michelle oak beth hofer you know go on and on jamie herndon who's you know she's
167just a superstar she's quiet she goes in comes back uh so many of those individuals have been supportive and and when i ask for support and need something boom they're right there you know marie all of those guys have done such a great job and i'm very grateful for the opportunity but again i went to the board to the chair dr moore mr bass i'm going to give it my all and i hope that by this time next year you say it was a great move and i'm going to give it my all to make sure that it happens thank you all right now uh mr tsar you get to propose oh okay yes i forgot um so i i make i um okay so i really wanted to because now i'm like distracted i
168i'm not going to be able to do this unless i um i address um i i have to say that i've kind of followed you over the years um and the only thing that keeps coming first of all this is well deserved so congratulations um we haven't voted yet but congratulations um and and i there is that there's the parable of the of the shrewd manager is the only one that comes to mind when i when i think of you in this new position and i'm going to read it i tell you use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it is gone they will welcome you into eternal dwellings whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with butch and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be
169dishonest with much so if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth who will you entrust with your true riches and i think that kind of doesn't need more explanation but sir i truly believe that you have been faithful with little and deserve the much [Applause] and so now i get to um make a motion um dr moore you know my concerns um my few concerns that i have i trust that you will always make the right decision and i thank you for the reorganization just a little bit before the reorganization does not belong to the board we don't uh create it this is his reorganize the superintendent's reorganization and he brings it to us as a recommendation so at this point um i make a motion to approve the uh superintendent's 2021-2022 reorganization second
170and dr jones you second all right any further comments or discussion i just want to say you know i know you rock and um we go way back to coaching days and fellow principals in st lucie county and i've watched you as well but i'm going to tell you that eric i have heard so many positive comments from parents who called me very upset and i said i'm going to give you eric seymour and then they'll call me back and say how wonderful they felt like they were treated so thank you you're a rock star [Music] [Applause] dr schiff go ahead yeah i'll be brief maybe um congratulations well earned well deserved um i remember first meeting you when you were principal at oslo in 2014 and and going back to do work there and
171being so disappointed that you were when you were no longer the principal and i could not be more delighted to see you get the position the authority the responsibility and the capacity that you deserve it has long been missing from um you have long been missing in action um from where this district needs you so thank you i'm yeah delighted about that and i have to just say real quickly thank you for mentioning ms mcpherson's name because i have been sitting here this entire meeting trying to figure out where i know you're from um and it's fau i've been at fau for thr and it's been driving me nuts where i know your face from um but i remember you from your tenure at fau i've been there for 30 years so um nice to
172see you again in in this capacity um congratulations when we get to the consent agenda i'd like to also offer congratulations to mr hart but we haven't we haven't quite gotten there yet we have yeah we do so while we're on the topic um we didn't vote but no yes did we vote not yet i'm not on this item we didn't vote on this yeah but this was pulled we voted on consent before um i want to also um while we're on the the positions that will be working with mr seymour i want to acknowledge mr hart because in consent we also approved mr hart we did right yeah yeah just just double checking because i know i've looked at that a whole bunch of times um we also approved mr hart as the to
173fill the community liaison specialist position that will be working um with mr seymour around those issues and i want to say congratulations to you too i could not be more delighted at your appointment and between the two of you and the other positions that will fill that department um could not be happier at where it looks like we may be going in this district so thank you both in advance for the extraordinary service i know you'll give thank you not to be out done no no no i had dr jones thank you mr hart for becoming part of the team as i said earlier when you spoke you touch me every time you speak and i think a lot of us will have lessons learned just from your experience and i appreciate that as i
174said before this is a public school system and we will have equity and mr seymour i think we go back i don't want to say how far but dean of vero beach high school and then attendance officer when i was principal gifford middle and then our connection with when you were vero beach high school at sebastian river high school and very very proud of the selection dr is recommended and i know there's nowhere to go but up thank you and the only thing i would add before we will vote is one i had a where you have most conversations at the most unexpected place it was in the parking lot this afternoon with with mr seymour and from what i know and the little bit of interaction i've had you know i you all know
175much better than i but he's going to do great but i have to tell you a story about mr hart so i i decided much to my wife chagrin and it continues to decide to run for school board and it got out i don't know how it got into the public domain the first person that i heard from was wilford hart and i get i don't remember wilford you you will remember whether it was a text or a phone call or whatever it was that you're that's exactly right when we were honoring the retiring chief and um and freddie wolf work was there and he was the you know the sort of the mc of the night but but that's right but the first person i heard from and every time i've had a question
176particularly it relates to trying to understand some of the backdrop regarding the naacp long-standing issue mr hart wilford's been there to educate me and i needed a lot of education because this is this is very different here from where i have been and come from so wilford thank you and congratulations and i'm sure that you mr seymour and everybody else uh we're gonna we're we're gonna make a lot of progress and we're gonna put this whole uh litigation behind us and we're gonna get to unitary status and as we discuss forever this afternoon in a way that is continues well beyond uh you know the designation of unitary status so with with that i'd like to call the the question all in favor of of the uh of approving the superintendent's reorganization plan aye anyone
177opposed if you are you don't have the guests to speak up it's 5-0 and again congratulations to everybody so the uh the the last 10 item 10a uh that mrs rosario asked to be pulled um once again mrs all yours yes thank you um this is an another one of those items that i thought was very important to present i'm going to turn it over to mr bass thank you mr zaria through the chair um kind of going to be hard to follow mr seymour and mr hart but hopefully i'll bring as much joy as as they did one of the things and come to the district a little over a year ago realized we needed to do some work in some areas in transportation and another thing too that we saw was we needed
178to take one more step to keep our students safe so we're introducing a couple of products tonight that hopefully you will approve and moving forward they'll be ready for the next school year that are in the realm of transportation but they also affect other areas of our children's lives at our schools we are going to be introducing an id card system that all students will have this is going to be something a little new to the district it is used in many other districts but first and foremost this id card system is going to keep kids safe by using the car to be able to identify who's on campus and what campus they should be on on the screen there you will see in the top right hand corner a sample id card we will
179have id cards for all students that will be school specific and it'll be multi-functional cards in that it will serve as their id also it will be used for transportation and way they will use it for transportation is they will swipe their card when they get onto the bus and off of the bus it's going to give us accountability we do have situations that occur from time to time when we have a kid especially a younger kid that will get off the bus in the afternoon and not maybe go to where they're supposed to go and a lot of times we are trying to track down that kid this will be able to give us the confirmation that the kid got off the bus where they got off the bus and what time they got
180off the bus so a huge safety measure here for our students and their families another thing it will give us the opportunity to have a much more accurate accountability system for when we have our survey weeks survey weeks for for people who may be watching this is how we identify the number of ridership that we have each year it's done in october and february this will all be computer generated now on a report however in previously and currently right now is used paper pencil so there's obviously the opportunity for inaccuracies to occur the next thing i want to point out to you is the um each student will be equipped with a breakaway lanyard you know going to this a lot of people will have some some concern about someone wearing something around their neck
181but these lanyards that will come with the price of this product we'll have enough lanyards there and it does it is a breakaway type system then each school will also have their own printer where they will be able to print new id cards if we have a new student that comes on campus and enrolls or have a student that changes schools so they'll have a school specific id card or get ready for it if they lose their card because we are going to unfortunately have some kids that may lose their car and lanyard it and i'll just go ahead and preface this right now uh and parents who are watching staff who are watching it is going to take a little bit of time um gauging maybe a month to get all of our guys
182in in in step with with wearing their id card each and every day but it will become habit and you'll have a lot of the younger kids that will be very proud of that id card also then here's here's a the system that will read the card and they'll be able to scan that um so multifunctionality i haven't hit on that these cards will also be able to be used for our food service so this year in you know at the height of coven starting school we wanted to reduce as much touch surface as possible and in the past you would have students that have to remember their six digit id number um that was always a challenge for the younger guys starting school so we introduced a swipe card system in our cafeterias which
183is working now the other use that we will have is in our media media system media center centers there we go and kids will be able to use this card also to swipe if they're checking out books and so forth and then just a few moments ago mr meyer pointed out to me of some proposed legislation that we anticipate will be signed by the governor any student in grades 6 through 12 who has a school issued id card the card must have a crisis and suicide hotline number on it or a text that they can reach out to if they need help so it is truly multifunctional then the other item that goes hand in hand with this and parents you're going to love this is the ability to track your child's school bus a
184lot of times you know i think about my own kids they're they're running late trying to brush their teeth and and the bus is coming and and they may miss it because i didn't really know that it was right there outside my door you can set your phone to the the parent app for uh z-pass and zonar that will allow you to set up a geo fence anywhere from 50 meters to 500 meters that will ping when your child's bus is coming to pick them up or when they're getting dropped off at home if you're if you're if you're working a parent and your child gets off the bus on their own you can know that you know they should be at home because it'll set up once you set up your geofence the prox
185the the proximity alerts occur every 10 seconds so it is a repetitive moving live uh cast on that also this will eliminate some of the um maybe annoying would be one way to put it sometimes but repetitive phone calls home by transportation indicating that there may be a bus substitution or combined routes or your buses late you'll be able to have push notifications to come to your phone so if approved we would need to really do have a grassroot effort to get parents to load this on their phone and keep track of their bus it is a um the parent app is a multi-step process to assure um authenticity confidentiality and we'll be able to have it will be password protected much like focus is so really excited about these two items um i think
186it's going to do wonders for our families and our students and also we'll bring our transportation department a little more up-to-date uh with technology may i ask a question yes we are so i heard you say that they're going to get a ping as the bus is coming towards their stop correct so in other words it's going to reduce the number of kids missing buses yes ma'am awesome this way and that's helpful for a parent too because as you're trying to get your child out of bed and trying to get your child breakfast and trying to get your child out the door you can hear that dinging and as it's coming close i can already see parents setting up dings automatically even though the bus isn't coming so yeah i would just say this is
187more for the parents well it's for both that's for people yeah i just i i want to add to this um i said it this afternoon but i'll say it briefly again here well the intention of this may initially have been about uh tracking kids on making sure we knew where kids were on buses and and coordinating lunch paint you know lunch swipe cards and and all of those things what it really is and you alluded to this and i just want to highlight um is this is about safety and security and this has long been missing from our district we have not had id tags for students so we know who's supposed to be on campuses where or when and in the absence of a horrific incident as some other districts have experienced and
188thankfully we have not nor will we ever this helps us know who's supposed to be on our campuses when they're supposed to be there how we can identify them where they are in the context of safety and security this could not be more important so while it is an asset to being able to know where students are in helping parents track buses and be to the bus stop on time and all of those things what it fundamentally does is gives us a way to know who should be on campuses when where they should be um and to keep track of that should there ever be an incident but even when there's not we need to we need to know where people under our charge are so as a safety measure i couldn't this is so
189long overdue i'm so delighted we're finally getting to it and i can't wait to approve it yeah that's good question yes will this also give children the ability to have access to a door um in the future for example they're locked out it's an emergency they can get in or is that a different system i don't know how i i don't want to tell you something inaccurate we i don't know exactly how that would work i mean we did have a meeting where we brought media services food service i.t and transportation together and and we talked about the different functionalities that could be put on this card um from the one from what i am seeing the access readers that we have now it would not be but again technology is always changing it may
190be in the future yeah that would be a security um conversation we would have to have i think when we have those meetings that we have and we haven't had one we haven't since dr moore has been on the team but um we used to have pretty commonly meetings with uh the su the sheriff and uh the police chiefs and talk about security so i was just questioning that also i remember getting my first id when i was in sixth grade and i was so excited that i had an id and then i was so disappointed that it did nothing for me so it's nice that i think the kids will be excited about it but um it just sat at my wall as a matter of fact i found it recently so it's nice
191that kids will be actually i think they'll they'll embrace it so i think it'll be great thank you okay yes um one other thing i'm not sure mr bass if you mentioned this but the the card is also beneficial for the students with regard to their media checking out library books and returning library books one of the questions that i asked earlier today was would the app be able to allow parents to see their lunch balance and and it would be nice in one place to for that feature um you mentioned that the the app could be adjusted maybe that would be something that we could look into yes man we'll definitely look into that that's a that's a great idea to be able to just have everything in one place so parents don't have
192to you know log into different systems all-in-one media you know library card lunch and and hope and if i can a shameless plug here hopefully we have some parents to watch this usda has approved for all meals to be at no charge for the 21-22 school year similar like we're doing this year so hopefully we won't have a need for a real balance check in the future but in the future yes certainly in the future the other the other uh great thing about having the ids is that the students can use the card um to in in certain stores and like in disney they might be able to get a student discount if they show their student id and i know that there are i think barnes and nobles also offers a small discount to
193students and some other locations so that might be beneficial to the students i cannot wait to approve this this is so long overdue having said that why don't you make the motion it really will bring us to where we need um need to be and yes i will make the motion board members to approve the 2021 2022 ci solutions zone rz pass agreement second uh dr schiff is the second i'm not going to ask for more comment i'm going to call the questions all in favor aye aye aye i do want to i do need to say something um just so parents are clear mr bass is it true that when students get off of the bus there's no further tracking of a student this id and the pinging and all of that the app
194is it does not work after the students get off of the bus yes ma'am all the all the tracking is solely based on the bus yes okay yay yay we now move to the action agenda the regularly scheduled action acts and agenda and this item is it's a public hearing for the adoption of revisions to the code of student contact conduct handbook effective 2021-22 school year so dr moore have you documented that this public hearing was properly advertised in accordance with state statutes i have all right i'm now going to recess the meeting to conduct the public hearing as advertised the public hearing is now in session dr moore are there any written responses to the advertised public hearing to be read at this time no they're not the public is invited to address this
195issue at this time is there any individual representing an organization or his own his or her own personal or public interest who wishes to speak well hearing concludes the announced public hearing on the adoption of revisions to the code of student conduct has been conducted pursuant to notice and that ample opportunity to address this issue has been prided to all so i will convene the board meeting where it's reconvened at this time and um do you need a motion we need a motion i'll make a motion a second right all in favor motion carries may i make one comment on that i know i don't want to go on and on but um at a previous board meeting i had brought up that in previous student code of conduct handbooks there was a page that
196said parents rights and that had gotten changed to just parents responsibilities and i brought up the need for that to be put out there especially with the bill that got passed has not become law yet um and i talked to the superintendent about that and uh i believe we need we i brought up the item about having us have a some sort of pamphlet or on our website or something so parents understand what their rights are also we can add on their um vocabulary section for acronyms that are for education i think that's important i used to do that and in the meeting room that i had ieps with first parents because we throw those around thinking that parents understand all those acronyms so um i've asked the superintendent if we could maybe um add
197that to our june meeting then we're gonna um i believe june 22nd so we can bring that item up but the reason i'm bringing it here is because that was something that i thought should be included in student code of conduct the more we talked about it i realized that probably needs to be a separate document for parents because when they go to student code of conduct they're usually going there for two reasons one at the beginning of the year a lot of parents do read through it um two their child got in trouble so they need to go look at the code of conduct but i don't think a parent would necessarily go there for their rights as a parent so i agree with you i think that needs to be a separate document
198so thank you and i'm glad we approved this tonight i just want to thank all the members of this committee for all of their hard work uh i observed this committee i think was two years ago and at that time there was a alignment that i thought was really appropriate for elementary schools and middle and high schools and i know it's a lot of work i know the principals use it on a regular basis and anything like this will always have issues but i really think it was a job well done for all this information thank you okay moving right along the next agenda item is a superintendent's report no report tonight but i do want to tease our next board workshop we will be bringing over 30 new initiatives that we'll be implementing within
199our school system so we're going to be rolling out we're going to invite as much media as possible to communicate the innovative new programming initiatives that will be rolling out into the new school year an opportunity to hear from each cabinet member regarding those initiatives how they're lying to our strategic plan it will be a day of celebration a day of acknowledging the innovation and new and new programs that are in place to drastically re-envision our school system to ensure that we are world class and world class is hard world class is difficult and it's not easy but ultimately when we're willing to dig in and have difficult conversations we can create new bold initiatives which will be rolling out to ensure that we are that school system each and every single child in this
200community deserves so looking forward to that presentation can i ask you a question about that our next board meeting is is tuesday june 8th and didn't we move the board discussion to be a master board training that day didn't we change that around so are you referring to the one that follows june 8th yes okay just to clarify because i don't want to miss that but okay all right we now there was nothing uh held for discussion so we moved to board member matters so mrs rosario i would love to thank you wabaso school special olympics was so much fun um i went last friday and um it was just wonderful and district staff it was hilarious to see this district staff play baseball against the students there and of course the students won so
201it was wonderful fun exciting the kids had a great time the ace awards the alternative center for education awards ceremony occurred right after wabaso special olympics that was also an incredible um ceremony and with great recognition the academic signing of course that we had and we've discussed at our last board meeting was um was equally as as wonderful i went to pelican island elementary's school their senior walk and unfortunately no students showed up but the kids were all outside and and the the administrators um used that opportunity because the kids had signs to videotape the kids saying special message you know giving special messages to the seniors anyway so it was it was a great opportunity for them um and what was interesting is the principal the assistant principal told me that that that happened
202to be the very first time that they had everybody together you know under under the um awning outside so it was the beginning of of new things to come coming out of covet i mean charter high school graduation and of course vero beach oh charter high school graduation i went to at vero beach citrus bowl i'm kind of reading my notes um that was a a wonderful graduation as well i want to give a shout out to charter high school they their graduation was um just as most grad high school graduations would be was organized and it was lovely to see everyone there that i did see of course our sebastian river high school graduation and our vero beach graduation lovely wonderful hot but fantastic everybody looked wonderful what i found interesting in my observations
203was sebastian high school sebastian river high school students they didn't have i didn't see any decorations on their hats which was so interesting everyone just seemed traditional and then i went to vero beach and there were you know flowers and just beautiful decorations uh just a an interesting observation so that was fun and of course um i participate night and participate i came to see our steam designation showcase last thursday which was incredible the presentations of the schools i wasn't here all day but i was here for a little bit and the presentations of the schools really vying for the position of of the the title of being a steam a designated steam school um almost seemed like they were competing against each other but they really had an opportunity to um using the same
204word to showcase um what they what their intentions are so that was wonderful it's a lot of things going on my um but the the next um looking forward uh the next opportunity that i am excited about is going to the fsba at the beginning of june and our superintendent is going to present there so i'm excited to support him and our district in at the fsba conference and that is all i have dr jones i attended the webassemble graduation it was absolutely wonderful and as mrs rosario said sebastian river high school and vero beach high school were wonderful there are about a hundred moving parts to make a graduation work and kudos to the principals and the staff i was on the zoo meeting with our scholarship foundation with camilla wainwright we had many
205recipients there and i was very very proud of all of our students i'm very much looking forward to the summer school programs because as dr moore said we've got some work to do especially in math but i see real innovation here i'm looking forward to that i attended the last african-american student council meeting at vero beach high school it was excellent they were electing their new officers they were following robert's rules they were collaborative and kudos to mr adams and mr morgan for their support i'm very excited the board talked about our unitary sustainability policy working with naacp and other members and i just think there's nowhere to go but up with that because once we put it in policy we are going to do it i saw the steam conference i got to see
206rosewood vero beach high school in dodger town present absolutely outstanding and so so very proud of them and i just want again to thank all of our support staff members our teachers our administrators our district staff for a very challenging year with kovid and i think we've done a great job and we're moving forward hopefully to somewhat of a normal year in the fall but i just want you to know that i appreciate each and every one of you thank you okay uh mrs barrenburg sure um i too attended indian river charter high school's graduation which was nice that they had it outside this year um one thing that was kind of interesting they they have a lot fewer graduates than we experienced at the two high school graduations but they were able to talk
207about what every single student was going to be doing next year which i thought was interesting um whether or not we have time to do that with ours i don't think so but it would be nice to see that in the programs so i'm going to say that publicly because i already had that conversation with dr moore um i but i did appreciate that dashboard we got on that so that was kind of nice that was new i also attended indian river state college's trio upward bound graduation and i have attended that in the past as well this year they had it seemed like more kids but um just so you if anyone doesn't know what that program is it's basically a program for kids to help them graduate not only graduate high school and
208try to know what to prepare for and not do all the paperwork and everything for college and those are kids that are either from a family that has financial struggles or first time to go to college and their and their family so that would have been a great program for both of my parents who are the first ones to go to college and their families and graduate from high school um but they didn't have those sort of programs back then and it's nice that they have that support there welbaso school graduation was awesome it was short and sweet because they only had four graduates but it was so wonderful it was so sweet and um i got to be the guest speaker at rosewood's graduation and this is the second time i got to be
209the guest speaker last year i went and i showed up and just sat in the front row and then the speaker didn't show up so i got to do something off the cuff last year this year i forgot my speech at home and so i got to do it off the cuff again this year which was a lot of fun um citrus awards today were really really special it was nice because of the way they did it and and the way that the kids really rally for each other and i saw that a lot of schools but it was really evident there and then the a sequels award a shout out and here's where i wanted to say this but mr hart organized a lot of that and uh he he just saw every little
210detail and i think that what he did in contacting all of those dignitaries that he brought that day to show kids you know that this community cares about you and your success i think he's going to bring that to his new position so i'm excited about that and then and uh i also attended sebastian river high school's awards night which which was a little long but because it ran into the time capsule they had a lot of kids getting awards what can i say but they ran into the time capsule time so when we walked out there were there was all these people from you know 25 years ago they look a little different but they graduated 25 years ago and they were excited to see what was in the time capsule that really smelled
211so think about it those things were in there for 25 years so it was interesting and then um something that i did also of course attend the steam showcase because you know i had to attend that and that was encouraging i think we still have more we still have more work to do on the steam um steam designation but i was encouraged by what i saw and then uh the retirement dinner nobody's mentioned that one so that's right yeah so the retirement dinner um was nice i don't think we've ever done that before have we no no no yes no no no okay i thought i saw a head knot over there nancy no um because i you know i have several friends now that were retiring because you know i'm that age we we're
212retiring except for me and um they were so touched that they had that opportunity um we might want to rethink the plaque thing only because when you're retired you really don't put a plaque up on you it was a great sentiment though to to do something like that and i think that's all i have so thank you and it's just nice to attend all these things this is the part of being a school board member that's a lot of fun your hands hurt a lot this month from clapping so much but it's neat to be able to celebrate children uh dr schiff i don't have a whole lot to add that hasn't already been said the graduations were terrific uh big shout out congratulations to the class of 2021. um you did it uh retirement
213dinner was great i've missed a lot of the events because of of other obligations um i haven't been to it able to as many i'm looking forward next week as the end of the year lunch and for the principals and the aps you know we're doing something really different now um this year and and i think more than we've done in a long time but certainly since i've been on the board we're celebrating people a lot more you know we're doing retirement dinners and we're doing teacher accola we're just doing a lot more celebrating um and and to dr moore who's encouraging that to everybody who's putting that together it makes it more joyous and and has us be more aware of the contributions of everybody in this district so i'm grateful for that um
214don't have a lot else i don't think actually not i'm short and sweet okay well i'll finish this up sort of echoing the alternative school graduation i thought it was particularly nice that senator mayfield and representative grohl were there each made remarks lots of awards given for various accomplishments from the kids that were graduating and i believe and correct me wrong two of the graduates were also graduating from vero beach high school as opposed to going back to their home school so that was great and the other metropolitan planning organization meeting is an is a is an interesting meeting a lot of conversation about the roundabout at 5 10 and 66 but what was what was interesting and was expressed um is they widened 510 going west from 58th street you go through parts of
215wabaso and what what not that i drive around the streets in wabaso but what was pointed out is a lot of those streets are dead end and the concern is that when they widen that stretch you're going to have four lanes instead of two and the difficulty there's no many of the streets there's no direct access onto 510 you have to zigzag your way out and the fear is that you're going to be in have a difficult time getting into track week particularly if there's a hurricane or a storm and it's a exit route headed nor headed west so uh i think that that that's not a f dot responsibility that's the county responsibility so there's going to be a fair amount of conversation i don't know whether what the school buses do when they
216go in and around that particular community but it seems that these streets were built sort of haphazardly it wasn't exactly well planned and so i think they got the representatives who are very articulate and very professional in voicing their concern really taking it as an opportunity to maybe address what has been a long-standing problem that's likely to get worse once this 510 widening takes place out a couple of years from now and that's really it so um unless uh actually law enforcement left i was going to thank them for their being here hopefully they haven't left they haven't left you're in the other room or they're having a night cap if not they probably deserve one at any rate thank you all and meeting is adjourned at 9 34.