001I call this meeting to order at 6:03 it is Tuesday June the night 2020 this is our regular business meeting at this time we are located in the Joanne Idol a teacher Education Center we are adhering to the CDC guidelines and we still have a setup where we're trying to maintain at least 6 feet in between each of us here in the room right now we have to my left dr. Mora mrs. justice mrs. da graça Christa Maddox will be helping with technology from a distance so then we have Brandon and that is behind me that is with technology also we have members in the that are sitting in the lobby that can actually see the meeting right now on one of our televisions that we have and they will be called in during citizen
002input and joining us through teams we have dr. chef mrs. Rosario and then we also have mrs. Baran board at this time board members if you would please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you I'm just having our Junior ROTC here giving us the presentation of the flag we are going to move into adoptions of the order of the day board members are there any items that you wish to move from consent to action no all right I need a motion for approval move approval so move make a motion okay a second I have mrs. justice with a first and then dr. Schiff with a second mrs. justice would you like to speak to your motion no ma'am thank you doctor sure well thank you other discussion no okay are you
003unmuted all in favor aye all right any opposed 5 0 we we do not have any presentations correct and those will start back when school resumes okay miss having those also so we are gonna move into citizen input the public may offer public comment by appearing in person we invite you to come and and and come and speak to us but if you do not feel comfortable coming in and speaking to us there's an email that we have set up citizen input June 9th at Indian River schools org and we had posted that and asked any individuals that would like to send us public input to please email us by 12:00 p.m. today and at this time we do not have any that we've received so we do have three individuals that have signed up
004to speak so I'm allow them to choose the order that they would like to speak if you don't mind we have mrs. cannon mrs. Freeman and then Mike Murray is that the order miss feelings gonna go for good evening miss Freeland and tonight I would like to yield my three minutes to Miss Elizabeth cannon thank you good evening those cannon this is my final this is my final speech as president of irce over the past five years I have learned a great deal and would like to impart some of the wisdom to you this evening as a leader of IR CEA I've worked directly with three superintendents four if you count interim each brought to the table different experiences and different ideas I have also worked with 13 different school board members the pattern I
005have seen is one of which I would like you to be aware those who select a superintendent tend to have an unwavering belief in their words now dr. Mora has worked with us more collaboratively than any other superintendent but we do not limit our knowledge of issues to only what he or staff brings to the table we view many different sides of an issue before we discus decide a course of action I ask you not to be faced with irrefutable evidence and merely take the word of the superintendent and staff as you did at our impasse hearing as president and chief negotiator I have purposely not brought forth proposals that were against the district's best interests much to some of my members dispay I saw no reason to cause the death harm to the district
006that has been my home he's past 21 years in the end we are all working towards the same goal a district that serves the students employees and community to the best of our abilities in order to be best by kids you must be best by employees to since employee working conditions are student learning conditions that leads me to my second piece of advice in your mission to continue the millage you faced a challenge to your local control in fact I agreed with our County committee nurse who spoke of the legislature absconded of all local control this is much how teachers in the classroom have felt for years I know my students and sometimes what is in the best educational course of action has been removed from my hands for example I know that best practice
007dick dictates that intensive remedial classes should be no more than 15 students but that does not necessarily fit into a staffing model this is the one example but we have felt the autonomy of our classrooms wrenched away from us for years like the taking of local control remember to let the voices of those in the trenches have a modicum of local control and finally when I taught world cultures I love to pose a George Santayana quote for the discussion those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it it seems that we are currently in a time warp reliving multiple historical events from the influenza epidemic of just over a hundred years ago to the civil rights protests of more than 50 the black lives matter movement has great relevance in our district as
008we have been actively under a desegregation order since those civil rights protests so long ago the great controversy lies in two unnamed words for those who oppose the movement they see the word only before the phrase as in only black lives matter for proponents like myself we see the word too after the phrase as in black lives matter too while this is an ela teachers dream to finally have such a powerful message powerful lesson to teach the importance of modifiers it is also a powerful message to those who see the phrase with hate in their hearts believing that a black man's life should not be extinguished with violence does not mean we condone the violence that has followed but as I said this is not new and this has not been fixed by the passage
009of civil rights laws laws do not alter the implicit bias people carry as we struggle to comprehend the institutional systemic racism that continues to pervade our society we must use our privilege to point the injustice and microaggressions that are used so freely hate still impedes our world and the frustration of explaining it to those of us filled with privilege eventually boils over as educators we need to stand up and find ways to overcome privilege to reach not just equality but equity in our schools and in our society my own ignorance and privilege have made me complicit with the injustice but I choose to be complicit no more for all the young black boys who have passed through our classrooms we need the world to change to ensure they will grow to be black men in
010our society today do this we must see people of color as part of the rich fabric of our humanity and recognize that they are not all provided with the same advantages others receive we must recognize our own implicit bias and though not to just to do better but to be better we must use our privilege to speak for those who are too frightened to speak I believe sir Lena Maxwell said it best you keep saying that an innocent black man was killed but destroying property has to stop try saying it's horrible the property is being destroyed but killing an innocent black man has to stop you are prioritizing the wrong part as a school district we must prioritize changing our little piece of the world making sure we are serving all students with excellence and
011net are denying that black lives matter - I'd like to make I just want to thank you for serving as the IRCA president and I wish you a lot of luck and success in working in the future Jennifer so thank you both for your service mr. Murray good evening board members dr. Marc Disick staff my name is Mike Murray president CW CW a local 30 to 180 and let's can dimension during his speech two weeks ago and during dr. Moise workshop today the IR CEA and CWA came to a mutual agreement with the school district and negotiated very minimal insurance increase for the upcoming school year we thank you our employees will be getting their last raise in July without an increase to take that away I would also like to thank you school board
012school board members dr. Moore and staff for listening to our concerns about the Cova 19 epidemic and allowing us to work from home so we can remain safe for our families during the crisis as dr. Moore mentioned in today's superintendent workshop there were many memo use being drafted signed and implemented to ensure our employees are protected I would like to thank Scott pass the Michelle oak was working with us many times up until the last minute working with us many times at the last day they mo use expiration to ensure that all matters and concerns were covered before we extended it again thank you for allowing the final MOU to be extended until May 29th the last day of school this eliminated the need for the 700 employees to return to work the last two
013weeks of school just because on June 1st all 11 in 12 month employees returned to work with a staggered start there were some bumps that were encountered but due to the feedback I received from my Executive Board but many concerned employees and the countless meetings we had with Scott past Michelle Oak were able to minimize the impact and it alternate plans already dr. Schiff I would like to thank you for your email about the recognition of our support staff it was extremely thoughtful and appreciated many of our bus drivers food service workers you'll be prepared and transported thousands of meals throughout our County fear hungry children we had custodians coming out out of their low kayson's to make sure Aries would kept clean and sanitized well families and students came to pick up their belongings
014we had AC technicians electricians plumbers and so many employees who came into work why they only have three minutes remember this is all during an epidemic I've told you before I have no problem giving praise where as needed I also said I will fight where I think it there's things missing all the past few months we have heard teachers teachers teachers as you know my wife for the teacher and I have the utmost respect for them but what about your support staff we have over 700 support staff employees consisting of bus drivers foodservice custodians teacher assistants media assistants nurses maintenance mechanics and many many more why aren't we being recognized why is there no support staff appreciation week why do we not have new employee orientation at the beginning of the year why aren't our
015teacher assistants and student staff employees included in the professional development classes it may not be mandatory for their certificates but wouldn't it be nice to be included they get a team building between them and the teachers dr. Moore I know you're Anu and this is no fault of yours but I hope this can be addressed I've worked closely with Michelle employee relations and just started working closely with Scott bass deputy superintendent and look forward as we continue to build our working relationship to make our conditions better but I urge you think about ways you can come up with that will let us support staff employees feel that they are important and that they make a difference if it wasn't for the many support staff employees who came in to their locations during this epidemic the
016success of the school year may have had a different outcome thank you thank you mr. Murray and I would also like to congratulate Liz without loose cannon with her support I think the CWA and the IRC ei have become extremely so I'm working together with the district together we improve to the district that we can work together as unions as as Liz said the other side during the the County Commissioners meeting when Liz says you know it's nice to be on the same side not always on the other side so I like the same things was also a thank you we have a couple of board members that want to make comments so if you want to stay in the room mr. Murray I don't know who it's gonna be for mrs. berenberg yes Thank
017You mr. Murray for those words I agree with you it takes the entire group and I'm sorry that the employees were not recognized usually I believe they are recognized with teacher appreciation week so I'm sure dr. Mora will address that in the future I went around to all of the different areas that we're surveying lunches and breakfasts one week during teacher appreciation week actually and visited them and thank them and appreciated the fact that they were the ones that were in the trenches doing the work all others were working from home and I'm sure there were others as well custodians and maintenance staff so we appreciate that mrs. cannon thank you for your service for everything that you've brought to light and interesting to listen to the patterns that you've been served and thank you
018for that feedback and I like to say thank you for what you had your words are very important at this time and you're right we have worked with me as a teacher have worked with kids that I know don't have the same abilities to have access to everything and as a school board member I need to make sure that we allow that and we push for that and we will do that and so I agree with you black lives matter too thank you okay dr. chef thank you excuse me I want to I want to thank all of you for your comments and I'm going to indulge for a minute and because I'm not as good on the fly all the time I want to repeat a couple of words that mrs. cannon has already
019heard because they were in an email but I want to read them into the record and I want to say mrs. cannon thank you for all your years of service to this district and to the IR CEA and while we haven't all seen eye-to-eye I have always respected your professionalism your dedication to your constituency and the acuity you bring to everything you've done in this capacity well I've not always enjoyed being on opposite sides of the dais I have enjoyed getting to know you in the various forms that that's happened since I campaigned for office I am looking forward to welcoming is friedland into that position and I know that she will be an ex an equally excellent advocate and steward for the IR CEA and she will Shepherd SDI RC teachers as well as
020you have mrs. cannon so thank you mr. Murray thank you for your kind words thank you for the advocacy you represent for people who you are absolutely right we do not always see as clearly and as visibly as we need to and I second your call to include them in PD and other ways that that we don't always so thank you for always bringing that to our attention I have you fully enjoyed getting to know and work with you since campaigning and I look forward to more of that thank you all for your service your dedication shows in all of the ways you go above and beyond duty to take care of your constituency in this district thank you I don't have so Mike I hear you and I think we'll be able to accommodate
021Jenna from the time that we've started working together really looking forward to building on them on the relationship Liz I as I listen to you speak and had the opportunity to work with you over the last five months those comments really lay heavy on my heart and I say they lay heavy on my heart because I think of all the missed opportunities over the last five years not to problem-solve with you and mr. Baskin say it the negotiating teams can say it some of the implementing that we're implementing and I'm getting credit for were your idea so you know it was we were as we were struggling through Kovac 19 and mr. bass and myself we're talking like what are we gonna do is I don't know let's just call this and it is a
022testament to you your intelligence the depth in which you understand this system as a whole the priority you put in on teacher teaching and learning and educators so I don't have the fortune of continued I mean I know Jennifer will have you one building away now and continue to work with you but I just think that so many students probably missed out if there was a lack of willing to to problem-solve have we debated absolutely have we've discussed absolutely but having that willingness to say if you're in the best interest of children and you are and I am in the best interest of children and I am we can come to a synergistic solution and I think over the last five months we've had a number of opportunities to come to synergistic solutions and you
023are an innovator and creative thinker and have a willingness to solve problems so on behalf of this district that this board and all the teachers that you represent you have represented them in an absolutely outstanding way thank you thank you mrs. cannon for you for your leadership during my time on the board I know you've brought forward several items that that we're always in the best interests of the students I know you represent the teachers but your heart are the students and so I appreciate your leadership I look forward to working with mrs. Freeland always enjoy working with Mike so um I just want to say thank you for your leadership and your patience for us to get to where we are right now it wasn't easy but we're here now and it's only gonna
024get better so thank you okay how did that that timer down there work this is the new timer that I was asked to operate so that alarm sound is a little alarming all right so that was our public input let's move on to consent agenda I need the approval of the consent agenda move approval all right second second all right mrs. Farren board with the first would you like to speak to your motion I just just wanted to say thank you to dr. Moore and its staff for answering all the questions so that this board meeting can go very smoothly I appreciate that and I feel very first in what we're going to be voting on so thank you for that okay mrs. Justice no ma'am any other discussion on consent items board members now
025see you then all right all in favor aye aye any opposed 5-0 all right so it's um we are going to move into action agenda we have one item which is our public hearing and adoption of volume 20 number one and special update for coronavirus dr. Moore do you like - absolutely on April 28th 2020 the board moved approval to set a public hearing date to adopt new and revised district school board policies the purpose of the of the revisions new policies and repeal policies is to be consistent with president practice and legislation the policy change process was followed in accordance with Florida State statute under Florida Administrative Procedures Act chapter 120 remaining and school board policy bylaw 0 1 3 1 the proposed policies are attached madam chair okay this item deals with adoption
026of new and revised district school board policies dr. Moore have you documented that that the public hearing was properly advertised in accordance with state statutes yes okay we now recessed this 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 I'm sure another or not the public is invited to address this issue at this time is there any individuals representing an organization or his or her own person or public interest that wishes to speak so the chair concludes that the announce public hearing on the adoption of the new and revised District School Board policies have been kentuc conducted pursuant to notice and that ample opportunity to address these this issue has been
027provided to all the board meeting is reconvened at this time I need a motion for approval I make a motion all right mrs. um Justus with the motion and then mrs. Rosario with a second would you like to speak to your motion no ma'am thinking this is Rosario no ma'am any further discussion seeing none all in favor aye all right okay high five zero all right that was the only item that we have on our action tonight we're gonna move into the superintendent's report dr. Moore thank you madam chair I have two reports this evening one of which is actually 3 2 which will be combined the digital learning feedback survey as well as some survey results regarding the work we're doing around preparing for the opening of school for the 2021 school year and
028then a presentation on the monthly update regarding the implementation of our african-american achievement plan beginning with the online feedback as you know on March 13th we shifted our practice completely moving from a brick-and-mortar or traditional learning space to a online digital learning platform in which we created designed and provided development for ourselves to move to that digital virtual reality as an organization we would like to seek feedback we sought feedback throughout the process as we were problem-solving look at looking at very specific concerns in order to troubleshoot improve the quality of services but as we step back at the end of the school year and really wanted to capture the overall experience rather than just looking at one specific area in which we were problem-solving because we knew we had problems what was the rate
029of satisfaction overall in terms of the complete implementation of our online format the platform that was created the structures that were in place so we pushed out a survey and we begin to problem-solve and reflect to continue to improve moving forward how do what do we take away from this experience as we prepare for the upcoming the upcoming school year so we had 1265 individuals respond to this survey looking at overall I'm satisfied with the quality of education my children are receiving in their school over you know over 88% strongly agree or agree I'm satisfied with the communication to support my families receive from my student from from my student school during campus closures 90% strongly agree or agree the district defending River County has done an excellent job of adapting to the challenges brought
030on by coronavirus pandemic 89% strongly agree or agree the district of any River County has provided my children with educational resources and materials needed to continue their education during these time 89% strongly agree or just strongly or strongly agree the school district of Indian River County did excellent job of keeping parents informed and supported during school closures 92% agree or strongly agree my child has adopted well adapted well and is succeeding in the virtual learning at home only 73 percent strongly agree or agree they're only 1265 individuals completed the surveys those who had access so it isn't a complete capturing of the true impact of that virtual experience but it is a good indication of the efforts that we put in to helping and designing that that service I mean that systems of support moving
031in to the opening of schools we are in a process in which we really need to continue to evolve and create once again looking for feedback from our families regarding the reality in their level of comfort regarding their our current understanding as it relates to kovat 19 and returning to school what we have done as a system is look at the reality look at phase two the requirements and restrictions within phase two of the governor's return to traditional normalcy and we are going to plan what a opening would look like giving the parameters defined within phase two we don't know if we will hit phase three which would once again be the last phase of returning to normal prior to the opening of school so we want to be prepared with phase two and we
032want to completely inform our families of what we perceive that reality would be one of the things that we'll be doing on June I believe it's the 29th the Friday before we go home for the 4th of July weekend maybe it's the 24th or it's the 26 June 26 we will be developing a Facebook live session in which we will not only discuss what the reality would look like but physically show what the reality would look like we will take staff put them on a bus show them the health requirements that we're asking students to adhere to what bus drivers will be doing what bus drivers will be wearing what bus aides would be wearing so they can physically see what that reality is we want them to see the cleaning regiment and the materials
033and equipment that we are using in our schools as well as clearly understand the structure of how and what the frequency would be in terms of the cleaning throughout the day as well as the end of the day we want students or parents to know these are the procedures within the confines of the school day so rather than saying flexible spacing or flexible seating well what does that mean what does that look like we'll show them in maximizing space using cafeterias during the instructional time using spill out areas resource rooms auditoriums gyms to maximize space once again we want to give a clear visual as to what that would look like show them the materials and the cleaning supplies the sanitizing materials that teachers will have access to and students will have access to show
034them the requirements within classrooms in terms of sanitation within hallways so a very explicit based on our best understanding On June 26 this is what we anticipate August 10th would look like that then gives our community a month to plan and prepare as well as the environment itself to continue to improve as we move forward what we are doing tomorrow is meeting with our principals to begin to problem-solve with them receive their feedback I mentioned it this morning will follow very strict problem-solving process with our principals in the design of the information that we will be sharing on June 26 so a very structured continuous feedback loop where we're providing information based on CDC recommendations as to what they would look like and how they would be implemented here to receive their feedback and continue
035to grow requirement to pull us to a place where we're normed on what our criteria would be in the design what and how we would push that information out and discipline looking or preparing or having some data available we wanted to begin to initially seek information from our community so about a week two weeks ago we had a facebook live we informed our families as best we could at that particular time and asked for their feedback this survey received over 3,000 responses in comparison to the first survey that I was talking about which was just over 12,000 here are some of the highlights from this and not all of it is encouraging or good but it is the reality and the truth 55% of the respondents indicated that all caregivers are at work outside of
036the home during the confines of the school day so it makes it very hard and complex for families to go to that a be or arm on this day or off that particular day 51 percent of the responses indicated that they would be likely to allow their students to physically attend school daily while adhering to CDC guidelines that's just 50% in the event that modifications are needed to reopen schools to ensure social distancing 38% of the responses indicated a preference of attending school physically on all days of the week while instituting instituting two shifts during the day of maintaining small class sizes 30% indicated they were referred to attend school physically on alternating days during the week while participating on online on the other days so a lot of varying opinions regarding where students and
037families feel safe at this particular time most preferred disease prevention measures continuation of promoting proper hand-washing and techniques temperature checks all things in which we were planning for the school district of Indian River County oops sorry wrong page over 55% of response indicated that the reopening of schools as soon as possible if necessary to allow families and caregivers to return to work 73% of the responses ending indicated agreement that health and safety measures such as cleaning and social distancing would lower the risk of contacting or spreading kovat 19 in our schools so the data if it tells us anything is that we need to be very intentional on informing and allowing them a clearer sense and understanding and as we interpreted some of that data that we just shared with the team that is when
038we decided you know what we need to design our plan with our principals as early as possible push out that information allowing principals and allowing families I'm sorry to really understand what the plan is and what the plan would look like so that is what we will be doing we will be going down a path that ensures that we are prepared for whatever that reality would be we will prepare for a Monday through Friday opening under the traditional times we will prepare for eight alternating day schedule which would give us a little bit more flexibility in space in size we will provide strict criteria on a school bus we will establish all the criteria in terms of one-way hallways one-way stairways using or encouraging the use of a mask for all staff for all students
039encouraging it is the the word the word there clearly defined a protocol of how materials will be cleaned I believe as we design the plan it will be clearly communicated to all members of our community affording them the opportunity to have a level of comfort when we return to school ideally I would like to turn return to a Monday through Friday experience where our students and our parents can a be safe when they arrive to our schools and our parents can have a level of comfort with the restrictions and protocols and procedures that we have established to allow them to be safe so looking forward to creating the plan in a very timely manner and then communicating that plan in the coming month so that is a very brief update regarding what we have learned
040during the implementation of our instructional provision plans as well as some data that is helping us prepare for the return of schools dr. more when we talk about the future and some uncertainties as far as phases two phases three when we move through those if we do the other thing we know that it is uncertain to a certain degree is our budget in the Twenty twenty one twenty two twenty twenty two school year and we've been being given a warning that to expect our cut in our budget from anywhere between ten and twenty percent which is significant especially when a lot of them a very large portion of our budget is salary and and we're serving students in classrooms so what impacts do you see right now with these different accommodations to our budget has
041the state offered any guidance as to if they will be releasing additional allocations for any type of modifications that need to be made to schools or classrooms or busses in order to be able to meet that need so right now the the best answer that I can give is limited information no clear direction regarding this is the amount of funding in which you should receive information just has not been made available we anticipate receiving a budget that is as close to whole as coming for this coming school year correct will there be additional allocations for safety and not to my knowledge at this particular point so some of the relief would come in or maybe even offset what would be a reduction for this particular year so how the process that they would use to
042make us whole this year may include some relief that would be provided to us as a system or relief throughout the state that is the information that we need to have to ultimately put the puzzle together for this particular school year and ultimately prepare for the upcoming school year so as you know we we have mr. Feigin and myself really intentional regarding of looking at how we are spending developing a values-based budget system that ensures that we're getting the most out of every dollar and I would be misleading if I said that we weren't able to have realized significant savings this year moving into next year in terms of eliminating some of those redundancies looking at how we spend discretionary funds and ensuring that each dollar is intentional improving student outcomes and those are discussions
043once we have a a solidified budget on what those savings would be from year a two to year B which gives us a a level of comfort of course any savings we want to move to implementing that recruiting and retaining our instructional staff creating social-emotional spaces and environments for our students and create 21st century learning environment so there's still a lot of unknowns when it comes to the budget and we'll continue to work through that as the information becomes available thank you thank you madam chair dr. Moore I have a couple of questions if you don't mind sir is this survey still open at this point if a parent hears or watches this board meeting and they realized that they didn't get to take it or community member at that point you know if they
044didn't get to take it are they able what can you hear me I was just trying to get the appropriate answer the question was the survey no no it was Miss Mack is the survey still open what was the question they're closed so they they're actually closed but just to give you a reassurance we'll be pushing out additional surveys in in the coming weeks regarding what we learn I think every time I conduct the parent or the taskforce that meets on an opening of schools we try to push out new information which and through that dialogue creates more questions and then we push out additional information so it won't be the last survey I guess is what I'm saying there's a lot of people who have made well let me let me preface what I
045was going to say with this with this first question who created this particular survey so we did right we looked at a number of different resources and other surveys that were out there and then we probably solved as a team and made them unique to our specific district okay I want this to be a testament to the work that gets done at the district under your direct supervision obviously and with leadership and with your cabinet members and everybody else was involved in creating this type of work because this type of work is what happens at school levels when you take data and you make decisions data-driven decisions are really the best kinds of decisions because you're actually using real information and this kind of information has been most of the surveys that have been sent
046out from the district I have received only positive comments from commune members and parents even some asking where is the link to XYZ survey because I'm interested in filling it out I want my voice to be heard and and I appreciate that I really I'm just one that I like surveys in general I think we can really learn a lot from what is derived from the results of them and this is one of those decisions where we'll use this information to make choices as far as opening school and what that will look like and it will be in the best for what is in the best needs of our kids and doing what is best I kid so that everyone of course is safe and well and I appreciate that and I just wanted to
047say that I think this is something along with all the other surveys that you might want to consider to add to your evaluation process because it certainly is something that I think is missed and I know that this drives decisions it is the reason you're not just you know pulling out of a hat hey let's just do it this way you're actually digging deep into the dynamics of homes and and how it affects children and that's how we're going to address it moving forward so I do appreciate that and I look forward to more information on on what what happens as a result with me so what I'm gathering 3000 took the survey 55% individuals who took the survey said there they work outside the home so they would need caregivers but both caregivers live
048out work during the confines of the school day so that's 55 right here I would have to take a look at the survey but it was a 51% it had said they would preferred for the student to attend daily with social distancing and all the other safety put in is that right 51% yeah it split down the middle in terms of you know 51% wanting to return physically adhering to a daily yes all day to shifts and then 30 percent Monday Wednesday and then alternating days right so did they get to vote more than one song thing well we wanted to assess a level of comfort this survey started two weeks ago where we were two weeks ago versus where we are now is significantly different but we wanted to assess what is the understanding
049or feeling of our community with an understanding of who would be filling out the 3000 is not a true representation of the tire community but we understood that but still wanted to incorporate that into our thinking and then really seek out and provide additional information where we know there was no voice or representation in terms of an online survey of the caregivers or the parents want to return as soon as possible yes 55 percent of the response indicated that the reopening of all schools as soon as possible if necessary to allow families and caregivers to return to work okay so just from my initial look at this what I'm looking at is we don't really have an overwhelming that feel comfortable about coming back to school do we have anything on the survey that said
050would you like to continue distance learning on the survey was that an option these are highlights so you know I just wanted to pull out in terms of the reopening of school so when you dig down into the survey if it was 51% that wanted some wanted additional information as to what it would look like others were comfortable remaining in a virtual environment so so what I'm seeing is 49% really as you I would say 25% wanted additional information needed more information so and we're prior to making a decision other 25% would be considering that that virtual it tells us there is not a overwhelming feeling in terms of were ready to go back I mean we say jokingly parents want their kids you know to go back to school I think that that is
051a true statement but not at the jeopardy of their safety in terms of the conditions and environment so I think the the next best stab is to establish what those conditions would be in a very visual and clearly transparent way push that information out with enough time to provide us as a system to respond to the feedback our families are providing to us based on a full and deep understanding of what that would look like so this is just an initial set to guide our thinking to think what we have learned here is we need to be we just can't ask these generic questions and come to consensus on whether we should open schools Monday through Friday full schedules we need to vet out a plan as to what Monday through Friday a full schedule
052would look like what the restrictions would be so we can make we being the community can make informed decisions based on a full and deep understanding and is that the work that we will be doing in the coming weeks so in addition to this what really stands out to me is that if we don't answer you know if we don't calm the fears or answer the questions the way that the parents would need them to be answered for those their students to come back safely I just hope that we're prepared to have a large number of virtual students come in in the fall and not be surprised by the number that don't return so is there any way that what are we doing to make sure that we have plenty plenty of staff that's working
053on that right now third a chair we're trying to create that problem do to be very honest with you I think we've done a good job of marketing and making a level and awareness regarding our virtual programming we-well be under the reorganization that will be coming to you at our next board meeting pushing staff around to solely work in that particular area not only in the management and coordination of that particular area but above and beyond instructional support for students who choose to participate local support for students who choose to participate in that virtual programming and then really beginning the work of innovating and pushing that out to maximize opportunities for all members of our community to connect to the rich instruction and the enrichment of our instruction within the school district of Indian River
054County so I am very excited about that work right now we're creating we continue to market we continue to enroll and do the marketing around awareness and make sure parents understand this is a viable option for you within the school district of Indian River County any other comments questions from board members we have dr. ship and then mrs. Rosario thank you I'll I'll be brief I appreciate our need to prepare for all possible scenarios moving forward that's that that's responsible that's accountable that's what we need to do that said the context is we have absolutely no idea what its gonna look like a week from now two weeks from now a month from now so as well as we plan and prepare and have these conversations the environment is changing I don't know like every
055ten minutes so it's a little hard to predict of course the best we can do is prepare for all these different scenarios but I want to I want to also pick up on mrs. Rosario's comment about the survey and either reopening or leaving this one open or making sure that we do this at regular intervals because the context in which somebody answered that survey last week may be very different than how they answer it two weeks from now what we know is that we're in Phase two of reopening that there is a plan for Phase three of reopening we also know that as people are becoming less socially distant it is possible that our risk increases but we don't know what that looks like yet so it's very hard to prepare for that so I
056know you mentioned there'll be other surveys and other ways of receiving feedback but I want to make sure that this is and I know you know this but that this is a dynamic process not a static process because the context changes performant to moment and we simply don't know inside of that I also want to make sure as mrs. zorek was referring to that we're really sensitive to well we may be in what the governor calls phase 3 of reopening and that may have certain conditions that attached to it there may be people who don't feel comfortable with that there will there may be students who are immunocompromised there may be students living in homes with people who are immunocompromised and whether or not they are legally allowed to go back to school does several
057mean that families are comfortable with that for a whole host of reasons and so inside of that I think we also need to prepare for the possibility that while there may be an opportunity for some for kids to get back to school and teachers for that matter to come back to school there are many who may not feel that that's in their best interests for matters of their own health and safety and well-being and so I want to make sure that we are equally preparing for individual choices along that and what's difficult and I know I have to do this often in my own work as a college professor I have to prepare for both in class and I have everything online on online platforms I work on canvas so all of my courses are
058simultaneously set up to be delivered face-to-face as well as on canvas and we may have to start thinking about how we do that for the students who are unable to be faced even if they are legally and physically permitted to be there so I just want to throw that into the space I know you're considering all options but I want to make sure we are as broad as possible and that we get as much possible feedback as many scenarios and unintended or unforeseen possibilities as as we can possibly account for absolutely and I believe we will have a plan that is as flexible as the unknown reality in which we're planning for thank you madam chair dr. Schiff is right but there's the the other part of it which I am absolutely sure that we
059have to we have talked about and we can go to all lengths to show how clean we are the lengths of which we are trying to keep people socially distant and maybe even have extra buses on routes and so on and so forth but the other part is the asymptomatic person the child who may have gone to the all or you know been somewhere and maybe or an adult who may be asymptomatic yeah you know the worries out there for parents can be so complex but I really wanted to ask whatever happened to the virtual school surveys did we ever get the results of that back through the chair we pushed out information marketing the opportunity to participate in virtual school so I'd have to pull and see if the number what the numbers currently
060are in terms of growing those particular those particular numbers yeah I'm interested to find out how many people actually shared an interest because when those surveys went out maybe we can reopen that survey if those surveys went out and we haven't looked at the results that might make a difference as to what other options mrs. Thorpe was just asking about and how we're going to possibly address and I know everything is fluid I know that we don't know what is gonna happen from one day to the next but it's definitely something for us to consider how to plan for the virtual school or I mean who knows if we're gonna have a boom in our virtual school you know attendance where kids will by the groves want to you know or parents will choose to
061opt to have their child you know transferred into that school so I'm definitely interested to hear the results of that survey also is there can you share a little bit dr. Moore right now what is difference between virtual school in our virtual school as an as a school option versus what parents are doing right now through the cherry it would be drastically different as we designed this virtual opportunity it was on the fly keeping kids in the courses in which they currently were at creating so or through canvas really ultimately in some cases building the plane as we were flying it in order to ensure our teachers kept the control and authority because they honestly knew the needs of their students better than any one else in a virtual space clearly defined and developed instructional
062activities instructional lessons delivered on an online format classroom sessions feedback provided videoconferencing as well as phone teleconferencing with a particular teacher the structures are clearly as established so I think what we did clearly gave a good understanding as to what it would be like to be in a virtual environment the you know canvas isn't an online platform for a virtual school it helps you load activities and assignments so we were stretching the use of canvas as an LMS as best we could so the use and familiarity of some of the platforms online traditional online learning would would support would ultimately ease the process for students so is there a live teacher on the other side of the screen absolutely will school through the chair absolutely so the students are not going to pull up something
063that says you know well they will read and do but there is a live teacher unlike what they are experiencing now so for those parents who might be interested in having their child still remain at home but be a virtual school student they can actually get instruction quality instruction by a highly qualified instructor and still be a district student I mean a registered district student it's not with anybody else but Indian River County School District thank you mrs. Rosario yes for the school district I know that you're a home school mom vote as a district mom are our classes ended on May 28th so we're not we're not in class right now as a parent but I did did I say that they were in class now but we do have we did have as
064a parent I did have a the classroom teacher also that called and talked to my kids and and helped them through through the process during the distance learning so I just wanted I know you didn't mean it that way they don't I I know it a lot of individuals who have not experienced going through the provisional plan they don't understand what was going on behind the scenes so I just wanted to make sure that that was understood so no you didn't appreciate that but I do know what was behind going on behind the screens but what I'm saying is that virtual school in the like Florida virtual or k12 which was what was presented to us as a renewal of contract today is vastly different in structure and in format than what students experienced and
065parents experienced during Kovan 19 vastly different that you cannot compare the two and that's the point that I was asking dr. Moore to express so parents who did not like what they experienced during Kovan 19 need to understand that if they do want virtual instruction it will be incredibly different than what they've just experienced that's my point so and I respect that so I'm trying to understand what's so vastly different dr. mark can you explain that I know you just said that it was put together on a rapid response but can I just think the the platform intentionality would would be what would be different individuals trained and made a decision to go into a online environment as an educator fully committed and aware of the technology that they would be using in comparison to
066surprise your a virtual teacher now is significantly different and presents its own challenges not that we didn't stand up to those challenges and knock it out of the park in terms of presenting those challenges so I think they you know they are different because they are designed to be different and they were created within different intentions in mind okay I just asked that mrs. Rosario cuz we had a good experience with the distance learning so I've not had the experience with the virtual so a lot of a lot of people do a lot of people have great experiences but then you have other people who didn't other people who have said this is confusing this is hard to do I can never do this again but then you have children who loved it loved to
067being home but the parents just don't want to be the teacher they want the live teacher in front of the screen they want the live instruction so there are differences and it's important for parents to know their options when they are choosing a choice school and so I I just don't want anyone to compare the two and it's incumbent upon us to express that so that they understand what their options are just one moment mr. Meyer did you have a comment you wanted to make to help us needed okay mrs. justice yes thank you I think that mrs. Rosario and and everyone that spoken has brought up some great points and I would imagine that mr. Meyer and dr. Moore given some time to be able to give an example of virtual learning and what
068it would look like here could give a more comprehensive overview perhaps this would be better as a workshop item where we could have a broader discussion with more information being presented to us because I do also as a parent of four have questions as I know many other parents do may we move on mrs. zorek to the equity update mrs. justice I feel that we're having a very solid discussion here we absolutely are but I given the importance of the conversation I think a taking the time to really have a thorough discussion with information being presented and mr. Meyer and dr. Moore being able to be ready to answer those questions would be appropriate mrs. Rosario do you have anything else that you would like to say I disagree to interrupt a conversation when we're
069having a discussion like this I'm I'm a little floored but go ahead mrs. Rosario I agree that it's we are in the middle of a discussion that was really addressing exactly what dr. Moore began the discussion on so this was a follow-up to that I think it's appropriate for us to have had the conversation and thankful that dr. Moore has talked about it he hears the board's questions and concerns and heavly he said that he will get the results of the survey and I'm happy to wait on those results wait no no I I appreciate the comments from the board members typically I'm not the talker and one of these topics but this is something very dear near and dear to my heart I'm very vetted into understanding this completely so I am asking a
070lot of questions but you know it's very important that we know how we're gonna move forward so all right so we had 2120 three individuals complete the virtual learning in survey 443 voted think they were be interested in rolling in virtual school which is about fourteen percent of the individuals who completed the survey 68 percent said they want to return to the physical education in some sort with 22 percent of that are still considering the virtual space so when you look at 14 percent voting for online only there is considerable need to continue to support and push around the virtual space which we fully intend to do it's interesting because that's quite a bit I mean if two thousand people and I'm just estimating I can't remember the exact number but if two thousand people
071of the 2014 said that they are interested and approximately thirty to know approximately twenty I forget the exact number are thinking about it that would give us 36 32 students total imagining that population everyone if everyone decided to do the virtual school I mean that's about 720 students so that's a lot I don't I don't imagine that that would happen but it's still quite a bit okay thank you all right mrs. berenberg had a comment I thought I saw here and then I had another comment mrs. Baran reported at 7:03 you know okay yeah happy having talked with a mortar bird tool teacher and I am still virtually teaching it is definitely different than what was just experience so I do know that mrs. Rosario is correct there are probably lots of questions but I
072know that with the item that we had before us it was about school opening however without going to in labor eNOS discussion any longer I do think just like any other school promoting what they're doing it would be interesting for parents to get a presentation about exactly how would virtual school look compared to what we just went through because it is definitely different I mean I I teach virtually and I know it's totally different than what we're doing now but my comment was more about we're not unique in the situation and we're not just the only School District in Florida doing this we're not the only School District in the United States doing this we're not the only School District in the world doing this and there are school districts that are already going back
073to school right now and they're putting things in place it's been very interesting to do some research about what's happening in other countries and how they're putting steps in order whether or not that's appropriate for our country I don't know but I also know that you're looking into lots of different things and I think we're getting input from a lot of different sides and parents and their opinions and I know that every parent wants to do what's best for their own child my thought is I want to do what's best for most children if not all children and I know that not every parents could be happy with what we choose but we need to be diligent and looking at the research that's out there what other districts have already put into place that are
074already started to go back to school and what they're seeing so I appreciate the information I'm sure we're going to get more on this topic thank you thank you alright justice yes thank you mrs. sort I think the issue is so important that I think it deserved a whole nother meeting to talk about it a workshop where board members could ask questions I just want to thank dr. Moore dr. my excuse me mr. Mayer for making the best out of a situation that I'm not sure I would imagine he never thought he would walk into right starting a new job so I'm excited to see what you have planned for the future for a name County and thank you for you know just really giving it 100% and and and just coming to really embrace
075this community and make sure our students continue to learn I know that it was a big task thank you please pass my thanks along to your team sir thank you I would love to have the presentation of the differences between virtual and what what we just experienced like I said we had a great experience with the distance learning but I would love to have that presentation and maybe we can do it at the next workshop if it's through the chair I think my recommendation would be is to continue to work that plan I think the presentation that we give to the entire community on June 26 well clearly defined all options the brick and mortar Monday through Friday as well as the opportunity if you're not comfortable with that to explore virtual and at that
076time we'll continue to have more information on what that would look like in terms of what you were just exposed to in terms of the in provisional plan all right all right thank you very much and we'll pull up the the presentation this is the equity update as it relates to the implementation of the african-american achievement plan for this month so we will always as we start just a kind of historical perspective what we've done over the last several months you know we have provided laptops and computers hot spots throughout our community making sure everyone had access in addition to that we've paperback paper-based packets to offset where there was a digital divide or just a better situation for that particular student schools administrators maintain contact with students throughout the closure of schools we have
077been very intentional and of providing flexibility to our teachers to use multiple ways of assessing students in the mists of kovat 19 and we provided a great deal of guidance and support encouraging teachers to use those multiple ways to allow students to demonstrate mastery when you look back at our timeline in terms of our african-american achievement plan monthly updates to the school board the last one we did was May 12th May 13th we were scheduled to have our equity meeting with the Joint Committee but that was scheduled I'm sorry we had the equity meeting which was scheduled for May 13th which we were very excited to offer that had to be cancelled May 21st was an equity committee meeting but as a result of coke at 19 that was also cancelled so what we did
078is push out information as a to the committee members as it relates to what we have been working on the progress towards goal attainment as it relates to the african-american achievement plan so even though we are out of school no academic Yossi's or assessments taking place there's still a number of progress points for us to monitor so when you look at well what kind of data are you collecting when you're not in school or you're not in that traditional setting credit recovery student recognition course failures grade point averages student Ruhlman screening for gifted including plan being eligibility for ESC services Asia racial and ethical ethical attic ethnic breakdown for instructional staff and attention rate so there still is a number of data points that we were able to collect in looking at those that data
079points that we were able to collect you see there are some points of growth although they beam in are both minimal you do see some points of growth you look at the african-american student GPA from this time last year compared to this time now Jeep GPAs went up from two point four nine to two point five four slight increase if you look at the number of course failures this time last year to this particular school year you see there's a significant reduction 1482 1062 it's not lost on me that a piece of that data set is influenced by kovat 19 so we need to take that into consideration and continue to monitor that data point moving into the future the percent of students identified as SLDS with specific learning disabilities a slight decrease from fourteen
080point three to twelve point three comparing may 19 to 20 an increase in percent of african-american teachers from nine to nine point nine which is a very slight increase a 1 percentage in increase so that's maybe one or two teachers as a as a total so that's a data increase but it's not nothing really to celebrate african-american in instructional staff attend decrease from one point three two once of the you know in order to of retaining our staff a eight point three once again nothing really to celebrate but it's a slight tick in our data we continue to implement the plan maybe not necessarily data points available but virtual data chats with teachers mr. Myer and his team going through a very rigorous master of scheduling requirement process yesterday was at Vero Beach today was
081a Sebastian River working with school site leadership teams ensuring all students have access to the appropriate core and we're putting kids where they need to be in order to ensure success continuing to work with schools in monitoring graduation rates monitor and graduation rates isn't something that you do at the end of the senior year it's something you do year by year insuring kids are in the appropriate courses if you failed of course how do you make up that course is their recovery is their forgiveness how do we establish a GPA from a counselor's perspective scheduled information events of the african-american parents guardians and students advanced coursework dual enrollment scholarship information strategies for academic success so continuing to work even in the miss of this particular reality looking forward there's a lot really to look forward
082to first we as we spoke about minor improvements we also want to look at opportunities for improvement when you look at eligibility for ESC services although SLD which I reported earlier went down a slight tick overall eligibility for african-american students improved not improved went up by one percentage point african-american students screened for gifted services from 1819 to the end of May note no growth and still maintained less than 10 african-american students meeting plan B Plan B eligibility for gifted so there are opportunities for growth we did conduct an ESC boot camp and number of these issues were discussed within this session this was a very creative and innovative idea who was actually birthed as a result of a ESC super intense Advisory Council which is the opportunity for me to sit and conduct in conversation
083and dialogue with parents who have ESC students within our school and this is something that we really thought was a priority this was three days of intense training by our ESC support team really to ensure our administrators understood the systems instruct that were in place to provide the highest level of support bringing tears to your eyes in regards to the quality of service in support we were providing to some of our districts most important and fragile students and I wanted principals to hear the impact that we are having on families so it was an opportunity not only to tell the story but to ask questions from a parent's perspective and gain insight regarding the work we as a district need to do to improve the quality of support that we're providing for our parents when
084you look at next steps we will continue to provide oversight and support for schools and students principals will continue to monitor course failures for Irani participation to follow up with individual schools as needed from a district perspective students have been identified contacted for course recovery laptops in hot spots still available for those students to participate in that summer programming in our summer illuminate 20/20 extended school year virtual summer VPK a course recovery enrichment opportunities is all getting ready to launch two additional activities that are not on this PowerPoint but have been scheduled both of which have been discussed before On June 24th which is coming up in the end of this month is the opportunity for the joint committee along with members of my team to come together and really look at the plan itself
085so you may recall when we presented the plan for your approval initially back in February one of the things that we said we would do is come together and conduct a day of evaluation a day of reflection and a day of planned design moving into this new school year so this is an opportunity not to work in isolation but to work shoulder-to-shoulder in the development of what will be our african-american achievement plan for the 2021 school year as you know you may think well this plan is already coming back to me it just came to me in February the plan needs to be approved prior to the start of school so we're looking for to establishing that with our principles with our Joint Committee collectively shoulder and shoulder to create a plan that is revised
086which is modified there's been a lot of learning one of the areas that we know that we can improve is simplifying the data reporting process and making a little bit clearer and easier to understand the volume of data that we are providing right now is a little overwhelming so we're looking forward to do that also on July 24th is going to be a event that we initially had scheduled dr. long was working on it partnering with or getting support from from dr. Schiff really having a day of equity in the school district of Indian River County and when I say a day of equity in the school district of Indian River County I mean opening up our doors this is a week in which we'll have intense development for our principals and teachers leaders our
087Reed Knight professional development will take place Monday through Thursday that will be high energy high impact problem-solving for each leadership team over the course of four days you'll be receiving additional information on that it will be powerful it will be impactful and I can think of no better way to end that powerful week of asking leaders of our community to come in and have a deep understanding of what the reality is as it relates to equity in our schools and in our community so intentionally looking at July 24th to have this event we will share where we are as a system we will encourage community leaders to come in and engage and be partners with us in a dialogue around equity in this particular district we will ask members of the community to come in
088and tell their story as to what it means to grow up in the school in the school district and in the community of Indian River County and what we could do collectively to make it a better place to grow and raise a family so it'd be a very intentional day in the morning we will have workshops we will have breakouts we will really have an open and honest conversation regarding what our reality looks like and then in the evening our principles evening in the afternoon our principals will have the opportunity really to begin additional action planning looking at the planing that they did with their school improvement plans through reignite Monday through Thursday really looking and being intentional around the equity work that they will be doing over the course of the school year ensuring
089that we're not walking away from implementation of the african-american achievement plan but we are very very intentional of a coming to a deep understanding of where we need to grow not only as a nation but the role that we all individually play to grow this community as it relates to equity and ensuring that all lives matter all children matter and that we need to be doing a better job of being open and honest and coming together to be in service of each other where we all can feel comfortable safe valued and loved that is my presentation board members correct yes ma'am moving into sorry sorry my computer did die missus berenberg did you have a comment I did thank you the only thing I wanted to ask about was the GPA information how can we
090compare GPA this year with GPA from four meters when coping 19 kind of changed the way our teachers were grading at the end for that fourth quarter and may have affected GPA through the chair I am confident that that last nine weeks Kove 819 had an impact on grades GPA is the the final grade is included at within your GPA so one quarter of that grade had influence so did it had influence just as it did on course failures absolutely and those would be datasets as we move into next year that we will continue to monitor Thank You justice sure mrs. work thank you very much tonight I'm going to be sharing an article that was written in lemon lines it's a weekly publication that goes out it's all over in the americani so if
091you're looking for some positive information that comes out in the community supporting things you can pick it up it's free um Russell lemon asked me to do an interview with him and I thought rather than it would but this was given to me and I thought it fair to share tonight lemon drops why isn't justice running petty politics chewed her up and spit her out someone on Twitter accused her of having an affair with the superintendent of course it was done anonymously and no proof was ever the weekly must-read Vero Beach 3 2 963 picked up the story and ran with it Tiffany Justus a first-term member of the school board now says she regrets not sticking up for herself in real time she Viet mentally denies anything improper happened with Mark Rendell who left
092his position in 2019 the anonymous tweeter turned out to be a school district employee sadly Rae McNulty's columns in 3 2 963 which gave credibility to those salacious tweets were delivered to her father's mailbox ripe until he died in May 2019 one can only imagine what it's like for a father to have his daughter reputation daughter's reputation smeared in such a public way one can only imagine what it's like for a daughter to have her father read those things about her to this day no evidence has come to light that Tiffany justice was unfaithful to her husband mark they've been married for 16 years and have four kids ranging in age from 8 to 15 that's what's so maddening about all of this her reputation as a school board member was destroyed by an anonymous
093tweet that quickly took on a life of its own in 3 2 963 it simply wasn't fair justice 41 decided against running for a second term on the school board it's a great disappointment of my life she said I really enjoyed being a school board member I love and appreciate Vero Beach Indian River County so much more now than I did before she says the rumor of the affair is not what stopped her from running for re-election what bothered her is that no other member of the all-female school board Terri berenberg jockey Rosario Marsh Schiff and Laura's work came to her defense beyond the cyberbullying on Twitter she was subjected to other intimidation tactics that come with the territory for example 3 to 963 ran a rare front-page editorial endorsing Bryan barefoot in the district
0945 rates plus there were public requests records requests akin to warning shots about seeking another four-year term I think that the school district has had an enormous amount of controversy and chaos over the past four years and I think there has been an effort to retribute some of that to me which I know is not true but it doesn't matter she said I do not believe a divisive contentious election is what's best for kids right now I'm choosing my family I firmly believe justice could have been a star in local politics when I described it as a wasted opportunity she responded with this thought-provoking question at what price I fully intend to finish out the remainder of my term and I will do so with the same attention and intention and passion as I have
095served the past three and a half years I thank everyone for working with me for making me a part of your school family and I look forward to a very bright future with dr. mordough thank you that is it for board members this evening mrs. ork who would like to go next mrs. just our mrs. rosario mrs. berenberg or dr chef okay I am can you hear me yes I am looking forward to having some free time over the next several weeks and really getting into the trenches of doing as much work in person as possible keeping socially distant being in quarantine has been kind of challenging and you know not having a child someone to watch my son has made it a bit difficult but I expect that over the next several weeks now
096that we're going into summer and things in our schedule have been changing I'm looking forward to really trying to get some kind of normalcy back so I'm looking forward to this summer and what is ahead and I hope that that everyone else does the same thank you mrs. Baran board do you have board member matters yes couple things I participated in as many of the fifth grade graduations that I could each one was unique and different and I celebrate those students and I also celebrate those principals and faculties that came out and supported those kids because I know under the circumstances it was rough and at least they got some sort of celebration attending what boss's graduation was very touching it was a great job by staff for Plan B when the train when the
097damn poor Cain and I thought it was a very touching experience so I was glad I was able to attend that I couldn't attend the peaceful rally that took place at the sheriff's department because I was out of town I turned a big number that way that day actually the day before so um I apologize for not being there in person but I do want to send my support thank you for setting up an equity training dr. Moore and a call to action I think that's important for us to respond to what's going on and I think we as a school board member it's our duty and the millage I am happy that it passed I am happy that we prevailed but I am not happy that we had to spend taxpayers money to do
098so and I'm not blaming our school board on doing that this situation caused that to happen and that's very unfortunate for for the fact that money was meant to do something that was had to be protected and I hope that people learned a lesson from that and that we can move forward from this and the time to doctor more about ways that we can maybe recoup some of that money and I know he had some ideas for that so hopefully that'll move forward as far as the comments from mrs. justice I'm sorry that you didn't feel supported by this board member I will say that sometimes when things happen to board members that are very very personal we have to be very careful walk a fine line I wasn't there I don't know I also
099talked to attorneys and made sure that I was following what I had to follow in order to in respect to you in respect to nameplate I apologize nice that things happen that way I certainly hope you don't feel like I felt that anything was going on with wrongdoing on your part so my apologies if you felt that way thank you doctor chef thank you I appreciate all the comments of my fellow board members I am actually gonna do something which is a little unusual for me which is I'm I'm actually gonna read a statement into the record I as mrs. Baron Borg alluded to I think we are in a moment of time that we cannot ignore and deserves recognition and acknowledgement by all public figures this board included so I'm I'm actually gonna make
100a statement about that and in the wake of recent national and local events I know many people don't know what to say or how to say it so we're saying nothing at all and I don't want to do that so I posted something comparable on my recent Facebook page I'm gonna read it here as well although it's slightly modified for this moment rather than that one and I'm reading this I cannot represent the school board on this so this is my own personal statement to the members of our community who are frightened hurting sad and angry about the events surrounding the violent death of George Floyd and others I stand with you an outrage dismay and calls to end unnecessary police violence to be clear being anti police violence is not the same as being
101anti police and please let's not confuse the two just like being against racism is not the same as being actively anti-racist I'm grateful for many of the things that dr. Moore mentioned tonight about how we'll move forward in this district in regard to equity and anti racism the events of these last few weeks have been devastating and I have spent a lot of time and reflection and dialogue and silence and solidarity as I process my own thoughts and actions and I'm not done with that process nor will I be for a long time as much of the community now knows and mrs. Baran board mentioned the I was present at the that first peaceful rally to end police violence and to honor the unnecessary deaths of mr. Floyd and others both within and outside of
102our community I was proud to see members of this community of all colors and backgrounds come together at that event I was intentionally low-keyed and remained somewhat publicly invisible as at that rally as I did not want to make it about me nor divert attention from the members of our black community who organized the event whose voices matter more than mine and who really deserved to be in the forefront and in the spotlight not me during and since that time I've been on on innumerable calls and webinars I've watched videos I've read material and other actions around this issue and in light also of mrs. cannons earlier comments I want to say loudly and clearly that saying black lives matter does not mean that other lives don't matter of course they do it simply matter
103it means that when some members of our human community tell us they're hurting we rise up to acknowledge them in that moment a longtime african-american friend and colleague of mine who who has served as a County Prosecutor a juvenile AG advocate and has had many other justice and education related titles recently wrote this to me in an email she said I am sad for the two many sacrifices made to get us to this place but I'm excited about the possibilities those sacrifices created just days after dr. King's assassination civil rights legislation was passed by Congress I enjoyed the benefits in the 70s and the set of the sacrifices in the 50s and 60s it feels like this is a time in history when we could finally in irrevocably balance the civil and economic scales for
104black folks and others as much as the nonviolent strategy of the mid-century century civil rights movement exposed the unrelenting violence of southern culture against black people in their interests we are witnessing the exposure of violence of the violence of anti blackness that is baked into the very fabric of our society and everybody of good conscience is fed up it looks like change is coming and at a great price but coming nonetheless those were her words not mine I want to say also that when mrs. cannon mentioned I believe using the our own privilege in support of children and others in this county and I want to say that I will continue to use the privilege of this position to reiterate my ongoing commitment to rectifying decades of inequity and systemic injustice in our school system
105as ms Mershon green who organized that Sunday's peaceful protest and who is also chairwoman of our own school board equity Committee stated it's completely unacceptable that only 30 percent of our black third-grade students read or do math on grade level it's equally unacceptable that this persists through high school and that we graduate students lacking basic academic skills it's also unacceptable that black students are discipline airily referred and suspended it persistently and disproportionately higher rates than our white students all means all and every single student in our schools deserves to feel safe included supported to be and do their best so just to be clear as long as I sit on this school board I am committed to doing everything I can to rectify these inequities it may not always look the way everyone wants it
106to as this job comes with challenges and decisions and obligations that are not always internally consistent with each other nor obvious to the community from us we see on the other side of the dais but they assure everyone in this community that's what I stand for I thank you I stand with you and we are SDI RC stronger together thank you thank you dr. chef for that I'm thank you board members for a good meeting it was a great day I I look forward as a board to move move this district forward into a positive manner we have a lot of great things happening and I hope that we can maintain that focus going forward I do want to mention before we we close this week we did lose another student this student was he
107was diagnosed with cancer whenever he was and seven between the seventh and eighth grade from storm growth middle brenton had two long years of he battled cancer to the fullest this past week he did pass away and I just want to send our love out to his mother Mandy his father Joe and his little brother and let them know that we're thinking of them and and that we we love them and I personally knew Brenton because he went to school with with my kids at storm Grove so just a great kid that was in my son's preschool class one thing yeah mr. kids so with that we are going wait do we okay with that we're gonna adjourn right now it's 748