Board Meeting - April 28, 2015

001Highline Show Choir. Tonight we will be performing songs from the music of Matilda as well as Brave and Don't Stop Believing. We hope you enjoy. Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to begin this evening's board meeting. School board meeting of April 28, 2015 is now called to order. The time is 6.02 p.m. At this time we request that all electronic devices, oh, the audio's not, got an audio, there we go. Is that better? Let me try this again. The school board meeting of April 28, 2015 is now called to order. The time is 6.03 p.m. At this time, we request that all electronic devices be turned off or put in the silent mode. Also, we ask that you please refrain from using flash photography except during the special presentations portion of the meeting. We would

002like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public of the district's mission, which is to ensure that each child reaches his or her highest personal potential and the district's vision to be a world-class school system. Prior to the start of this evening's board meeting, we have been enjoying the Skyline Show Choir from Skyline Elementary School under the direction of music teacher Sabrina Terry. The Skyline Show Choir is a second through fifth grade vocal and dance ensemble focusing on the mastery of advanced skills in the areas of expressive song and dance with a strong emphasis on team unity, discipline, and student leadership. Show Choir provides an opportunity for students to explore their time. talents while building confidence and self-worth. A strong supporter of the arts himself, Principal Velarde believes that by making students shine

003and encouraging them to be part of something bigger that is bigger than themselves, the school will enhance their academic achievement and overall experience at Skyline. At this time, the Skyline Show Choir will perform one more song. My name is Morgan Jones and I'm a fifth grader at Skyline Elementary. Recently, Skyline was named the first lighthouse school in Lee County and just the 104th in the world. But I think the staples button has it all wrong because it wasn't easy. When I came to Skyline, I didn't know about the eight habits. I soon realized the school I came from was missing out on so much. Soon I thought, wow, I hadn't thought picking up a pencil so nobody would get hurt was being proactive or doing my homework after school before playing was putting first things

004first. At Skyline, I have learned that I have been a leader all of my life. By being leaders, we get rewarded with opportunities to join wonderful clubs and teams. I'm currently a member of our WSKY Tiger Leadership News and Safety Patrol. Being a Safety Patrol means so much to me. Every day before we leave Skyline, I get to practice think-win-win and synergize by making certain my fellow classmates and I are safe in the halls. Six other fifth grade leaders and I put on an entertaining and informative news show almost every day of the year. We don't broadcast on major testing days. News crew is completely student-led, so we have jobs to do. When we call students down for the Pledge of Allegiance, we have to synergize to lead them where to stand and where to

005go afterwards. When someone is absent, we all think, win-win, and synergize before the show to see who knows the absentee's job and can replace them for that day. After the broadcast, we have reflections where we share examples of how we used the eight habits that morning. Another club and team we have is choir. We have show and mixed choir as well as a dance team. The girls and boys that are a part of choir have to be leaders. They must think win-win by learning the songs, synergize with our wonderful music teacher and choir director, Miss Terry, by fixing their mistakes, and even sharpen the saw by stretching before practices. These leaders vary in grades. They've learned over 15 songs and complex dances this year alone. I am delighted to say that all of you get

006to witness their hard work. My name is Morgan and I approve this message. Performance, thank you for inviting us to perform for you. It was an honor. And all I can say is wow. Wow for everybody. At this time we'll take a brief pause to clear the performance area, but I'm sure everybody would like to give one more round of applause to these great performers. Ladies and gentlemen, we're ready to begin again. Carson Young will be serving again as our student representative for this evening's board meeting. He is a senior at Estero High School, enrolled in the Cambridge program there, and has an unweighted GPA of 4.0 with a weighted GPA of 5.10. Carson is heavily involved with the extracurricular activities at Estero High, being the president of the National Honor Society, president of the

007debate team. Vice President of the Student Council, first trombone in the varsity jazz band, serves on council and co-founded the ACE Student Union, is captain of the varsity tennis team, as well as member of the Interact Club and a starting four member of the Trivia A team. He plans on attending the University of Florida with the intended double major of sustainability studies and business administration. And thank you for joining us again this evening, Carson. We really appreciate having you here. This evening's agenda includes the invocation, the presentation of colors and pledge of allegiance, four recognitions, special presentation to the board, public comment on agenda items, consent action items which include. Four items under resolutions, two items under executive services, five items under business and finance, 14 items under operations, three items under teaching and learning,

008six superintendents recommendations, four items for public hearing, non-agenda public comment, and four items under other business. Board members, is there a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. Second. Move by Ms. Fisher, seconded by Mrs. Dozier. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 5-0. Ms. Fisher will deliver the invocation after which Ms. Dozier will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. After the special presentations portion of the agenda, a brief recess will be called so that those who wish to depart will have an opportunity to do so. Please rise for the invocation. Father, we are grateful for this opportunity to come together and ask you to bless all here present. We thank you for our youth, their inquiring minds, their gifts, talents, and differences. We thank you also for our school

009district employees, each of whom contributes something special to our students and the community. Please bless the men and women in military service, our school nurses, teachers, and substitute teachers as we honor them through resolution this evening. Grant us the good health we need to fulfill our callings, the ability to work together in harmony, and the wisdom to make informed and meaningful decisions. We ask this in your name. Amen. At this time, please welcome Sergeant First Class Vincent Mitchell, U.S. Army Retired. Sergeant Mitchell is an Army instructor for Dunbar High School's JROTC program and will introduce the cadet presenting the colors this evening. Sergeant Mitchell retired from the Army after 21 years of active military service. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Hodges University. He has been teaching in the Lee

010County School District for the last five years. Thank you. Tonight, the National Colors for Our Pleasured Allegiance is presented by Cadet Colonel Fabian Rodriguez. He is a senior at Dunbar High School and is the current Cadet Regimental Commander responsible for leading over 460 cadets enrolled in the JROTC program. He is a member of the National Honor Society and has a 3.91 unweighted GPA. He has earned nine industry-level computer certifications during his high school tenure. He also was a member of the JROTC Raider, Color Guard, and Drill Teams. As Drill Commander, he recently led the male drill team at the state drill competition. He has accumulated more than 100 community service hours through JROTC. After graduating, he plans to attend Florida International University and major in computer science. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in saying

011the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. You first. Good evening. I'd like to invite Mr. Charles Velarde, principal of Skyline Elementary, and Ms. Ida Salivar, principal of San Carlos Park Elementary, to join me at the lectern. Chuck, those kids are amazing. The leader in me is Franklin Covey's whole school transformation process. It teaches 21st century leadership and life skills to K-12 students and creates a culture of student empowerment based on the idea that every child can be a leader. The Lighthouse Milestone is a highly regarded standard set by Franklin Covey that is attainable by every Leader in Me school. The attainment of the Lighthouse Milestone represents a significant benchmark and it

012is evidence that a high standard has been met by a school. Applying for the Lighthouse Milestone typically occurs three to five years after a school begins the Leader in Me process. Leader in Me schools, which have proven adherence to the process, report increases in the following. Student self-confidence, and I think we really saw an example of that tonight with the Skyline Show Choir. Teamwork, initiative, responsibility, creativity, self-direction, leadership, problem-solving, and communication for children of all ages, socioeconomic levels, learning capacities, and cultural backgrounds. The school board and the superintendent are proud to recognize and congratulate Skyline Elementary and San Carlos Park Elementary as Leader in Me Lighthouse Schools. Okay, while the San Carlos Park Elementary kids come up and one of their students is going to speak to you this evening. Congratulations Skyline and San Carlos

013Park. Hi, my name is Morgan and I'm in fourth grade at St. Clouds Park Elementary School. I have been at this school since I was in kindergarten and I have seen my school change for the better because of Leader and me. It's an honor to have achieved Lighthouse status. My teachers and friends have worked very hard to get there. We were so excited when we found out we had a huge celebration that day. Being a Lighthouse school and living the eight habits has prepared me to be a leader and set goals in all areas of my life. My favorite habit is find your voice. Find your voice means to speak up and inspire others to find theirs. I invite you all to stop at my amazing school to see what a leader in me is

014all about. I would like to thank Ms. Satterbottom, Ms. Forkey, and all the teachers who helped bring leader in me to my school. Thank you. Slowly moving off, I'd like to ask the following individuals from the Lee County's Elections Office, please come and join me at the lectern. Sharon Harrington, the Supervisor of Elections, Vicki Collins, the Community Relations Director, Sharon Brandon, the Community Outreach Coordinator, and Lindy Thrasher, the Community Education Coordinator. Okay, two are sick. Each year, the Lee County Supervisor of Elections invites all public high schools to participate in the High School Voter Registration Challenge. The outreach has been successful in registering thousands of new young voters since 1999. When a high school responds to the challenge issued by the Elections Office, representatives provide voter education with a power slide after which all eligible

015students are invited to register to vote. This year, the following 13 high schools participated. Cape Coral, Cypress Lake, Dunbar, East Lee County, Estero, Fort Myers, Ida Baker, Island Coast, Lehigh Senior, Mariner, North Fort Myers, Riverdale, and South Fort Myers. One each school voter registration application were verified and the process was tallied against the patrons eligible school eligible voters. The high school with the highest, with the greatest registration percentage was selected to display the traveling trophy, the little small one over here, this coming year. The board members and the superintendent are pleased to welcome Ms. Harrington and who will announce the winner of this year's high school registration challenge. I want to first thank all of you for allowing us to be here this evening. This is always a great pleasure for us to get all

016of these schools involved in something that we as adults kind of take for granted. But they are so excited, and they are really ready for next year. We've got a big year coming up, so I'm glad we were able to get them registered. I'm going to let our... So, Gail here talked about exactly what she did with the program and maybe you might want to mention what we've got in store for next year before we announce the winner. My name is Lindsay Thrash. I'm the community education coordinator for the Lee County Supervisor of Elections Office. Like it was mentioned, we have been doing this since 1999 and this year is the first year that we've had participation from all 13 Lee County high schools. So, we're really proud to be able to say that. What

017we do is we go to each of the high schools and set up a voter registration drive or a presentation and we encourage the students to vote and then at the end whichever high school registered the most students they get this trophy. So next year we're going to you know kick it up in high gear for 2016. It will be a presidential election. So we're hoping for all 13 schools to participate again so we can keep that on our record and continue to get these students registered and involved in the election process. So, oh, and we want to thank all the principals for having us and letting us come and opening their doors to us. And so without further ado. This year's winner is mirror Mariner High School, and I believe the principal was going

018to be here. Thank you so much We'll let you carry the trophy while they're getting this set up for the photo I did want to mention next year because it is a presidential year We are going to have another contest beside our registration drive, and we want you to start thinking about it now. It's going to be our Why Vote Challenge. This will be our third one that we're going to be doing, and we're going to challenge all the high schools to make a 30-minute spot, a commercial, on why people need to vote. We will have guest judges that will judge all the entries, and there will be cash prizes for the winning school. And we want you to start thinking about some themes now so we can get those out there. The winner will

019also be aired on our website for the entire presidential election cycle. I would like to invite the following to please join me here at the lectern. Ms. Lori Brooks, Assistant Director of Counseling Services. Student Services, Ms. Mary Lynn Rodriguez, Coordinator. School Counseling Services, Logan Arabali, 12th grade student at Estero High School. And Mr. Norm Habor, business teacher at Estero High School. Logan is the winner of the Character Education, which should be, yes it is, up on the screen, Character Education Digital Design Competition for the month of April. The school board and the superintendent are pleased to congratulate Logan for his creative design in supporting character education in our schools. I want to thank the school board members and Dr. Graham for your support of our students' creative efforts related to character education. We would also

020like to thank the Foundation for Lee County Public Schools for their support of this program by providing a pizza or donut party for the winner's class. Thank you. The Florida State High School Thespian Festival is an exhilarating gathering of the best high school thespians from across the state. By showcasing student talent, these festivals provide an opportunity to exchange ideas and learning from others. The Lee County School District was well represented at this year's festivals, with a large number of students being selected for various awards. I would like to introduce these students, their principals, and their teachers to you. As I call your name, please come forward and line up in front of the board table to have your picture taken with the board members and superintendent. We will take an individual picture of each school's

021group of honorees. From Cypress Lake High School, Principal Angela Rolls and Teacher Jason Lotte. I tried to read these names ahead of time to try to troubleshoot. Believe me, you'll know when I hit the really tough one. Students, Tommy Short, Nicholas Parker, Gowen McDonald, Zachary Homer, Marissa Zumbo, Gina Weitzman, Kiana Jackson, Trisha Garmiger, Joseph Garel, Callie Atkinson, Courtney Camarillo, Brittany Rice, Jessica Wells, Gillian Marino, Aria Hartwell, Sarah Heidrich, Jacob Boudreau, Jasmine Cameron, Isabella Cintron, Debbie Ann Daniel, Faith Deterding, Rachel Dominguez, Liam Fisher, Lotero Garcia, Shayla McClinton, Cameron Rudland, Anna Snow, Chloe Tsai, and Jody Vagel. From Estero High School, Principal Clayton Simmons, Jania Stevens, students Amanda Patterson, Aubrey Windham, and Savannah Faulkner. From Ida S. Baker High School, Principal Jamie Covert, Teacher Laura Licata. Students Efrain Lopez, Julia Rivera, Kayla Clements, Jasmine Torres, Brianna Morales,

022Brenda Chavez, Natalie Cuadros, Alyssa Ware, Austin Maldonado, Natalie Trimper, Samantha Licata. From Island Coast High School. Principal Kristen Bueno, Teacher, Christina Kohler. Students, Ryan Skrzypek, Steven Angulo. Did I say that right? From Lehigh Senior High School, Principal Jackie Corey, Teacher, Janelle Lops. Students, Dianella Gill, Ciela Cuevas. Ciela Cuevas. making it more difficult. Tyler Colmery, Leslie Morales, Shakara Hyde, Katie Harvey, Mariah Russell, and Nikki Garces. From North Fort Myers High School, whoops, wait a minute, that's wrong, from Mariner High School, Principal Dr. Robert Butts, Teacher Patricia Stout, Student Hallie Mallard. From North Fort Myers High School, Principal Matt Medeiros, Teacher Michelle Whitner. Students Haley Dreiner, Margaret Morris, Melissa McClanahan, Ben Lamoureux. Lamoureux? I'll tell you what those of you who are students from North Fort Myers High School who were the thespian winners would you please

023kindly come up and state your name in the microphone Sam Bowling Sierra Boris Olivia Irfman-Tenzel Miliani Roman Marley Rockwood Mitchell Lipscomb Ruth Jean Augustine Jessica Hill Lauren Kastner Michael Ostrowski Cassie Frederick Alex Karachi Sarah Hammond Zach Boyd Victor Simonelli Next is a special presentation by school board student advisory committee member and chair Echo Corland First and foremost, I'd like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Lee County Student Advisory Committee. My name is Echo Corlin and I'm currently a junior at Ida S. Baker High School and I was recently elected chair of this committee. I have come today to speak about the motions passed on April 21st of 2015. The first motion passed dealt with the lack of textbooks at many schools in Lee County, specifically IB, AP,

024and Cambridge Councils. The motion passed said the board should address the issues of textbooks per student and have it resolved before the next school year. This motion was made by our Secretary Tiana Ward and seconded by Board Member Victoria Kinley. The vote was unanimous and the motion passed. The second and third motion passed discussed the expansion of AR levels. The purpose of AR levels is to help students improve the literacy and comprehension levels. The first motion passed on this topic was in regards to students not understanding fully the piece of literature they have read due to the lack of discussion in class. We motion to have teachers encouraged to have discussions with students on any pieces of literature, article, book, et cetera, at hand before testing. This is motioned by Board Member Shamil Zaidi and

025seconded by Board Member Braden March. The vote was unanimous and motion passed. The final motion passed continued to elaborate on AR levels, discussing the issues students have with the restriction on their reading material due to their given AR level. The motion passed was to encourage teachers to be more flexible with the books that students will be allowed to read and test on. This motion was by board member Victoria Kinley and seconded by chairman Echo Corlin. The vote was unanimous and the motion was passed. Thank you very much. And I guess I'll ask the superintendent if we can have a report back perhaps to the board at the June meeting. Is that rushing it too quickly? No. I can get you the textbook information quickly. We'll have to talk to teachers about what they're doing where

026they are. That may take a little longer, but we'll have it in June. Okay, good. Thank you. At this time, we'll take a brief recess so that those who wish to leave may do so. Okay, the next item on the agenda is public comment. Mr. Martin, would you please address the agenda item of public comment? School board policy provides the opportunity to address the school board concerning items on the agenda or other subjects relevant to the operation of the school district. The opportunity to address the school board concerning items on the agenda occurs at the beginning of the meeting at this time. The opportunity to address issues not on the agenda for this meeting occurs later in the meeting just before board member comment. If you completed a card and submitted that to me before

027the meeting began, you'll be called in the order of the card submitted. with speakers commenting on agenda items called this time and those commenting on non-agenda items called at the later opportunity. If you have not submitted a card but still wish to address the school board this evening, the school board chair, Ms. Morgan, will give you an opportunity in a moment to indicate that desire. When doing so, please indicate whether you wish to address an item on the agenda or some other subject. You may speak at both opportunities but must limit your comments to a subject for which that public comment opportunity is provided. If you comment on an issue not on the agenda during the agenda public comment opportunity, you'll be required to hold your comments until the non-agenda public comment opportunity. The board

028does not respond during public comment time to remarks made by speakers. Comments concerning items on the agenda may be addressed by the board in their discussion on that agenda item before taking action. Comments concerning subjects not on the agenda may be addressed during board member comment immediately before, excuse me, immediately following the non-agenda comment. Speakers are required to confine the remarks to educationally relevant issues attacks on individuals and abusive comments will not be tolerated The speakers were persistent in violating such rules after receiving a warning from the chair. They may be removed from the meeting Miss Morgan I have three cards this evening to agenda items and 16 to non agenda comment. Thank you Is there anybody is there anyone on the left right side of the auditorium who wishes to address the board in

029public comment? That has not filled out a blue card Anybody on the left side of the auditorium, please stand and state your name and the end what it is you wish to address Mr. Valenta, what is the agenda item you wish to address? Yes, is there anyone else? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, sir. You have a card in and no Did I miss anybody? So I have one agenda item, Mr. Valenta, and two non-agenda, Mary Orthodoxou and Angie Salander, sorry, three, and Mr. Valenta. Okay. Please call the first speaker on agenda items. With the four additional speakers, that now increases the number to 23, so the time per speaker is reduced by policy to two minutes. Okay. Thank you. There's first speaker to an agenda item this evening is Miss Chris Quackenbush Thank you for allowing

030me to speak tonight. My name is Chris Quackenbush and I am concerned that item 4e 3 It says the approval of the Race to the Top Digital Learning Support Grant proposal and describes a proposal requiring a group of people to be managing, executing related documents, approve normal and customary accounting, bookkeeping and payroll processes to maintain continuity of federal and state grant expenditures during the year. Well, Race to the Top is the reason we're in this pickle today. I'm wondering why in the heck we are approving anything with Race to the Top in it. Race to the Top is unconstitutional. There are three federal laws against it. And we should not be approving anything that has reigned this unfunded mandate on our shoulders. And I want to call attention to the very next page, which has

031item G6. approving a renewal, an RFP, for $10 million for computers and related equipment that is also required by Race to the Top funding and EOCs and testing the FSAs and all that. So these are the things that are keeping us from being able to fund schools. We need to be going back to paper and pencil, eliminating unfunded federal mandates, and getting back to common sense, not common core. Thank you. Next speaker is Ms. Judy Elvis. Good evening everybody. My name is Judy Alves and I'm with the League of Women Voters for Lee County. And for those of you who do not know, the League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization. We do not endorse candidates, but we do study and advocate for issues. And the issue I'm here for tonight is about the

032instructional material, but not precisely the instructional material, which I know there will be a form posted this evening that I can write comments about. We are here to request with regard to the health instructional materials. about sex education from grades 9 through 12 that the school board enact a comprehensive sex education program. And by that I mean that you collaborate with both the health department and there are certain teen outreach programs that really deal with a very much more comprehensive issue of sex education for teens. These programs actually deal with the reality of teenage life and not an ideology about sexual education. We understand that the population of the public schools in Lee County is approximately 70% are eligible for free and reduced lunches, which indicates that there is a level of poverty that must

033be understood. And the reason we want comprehensive sexual education is because teen pregnancy is such a major cause for generational poverty. So we ask you when you're looking at these materials not just look at a booklet but to look at the entire package and I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you speakers. Mr. George Fox. Thank you board. Like I was saying earlier these machines up here that are shooting the light on the things. They're making so much noise, you can't hear the board when they speak. Those fans are making a lot of noise. Anyways, thank you, board, for hearing me. I want to address business and finance C3, the approval of the financial advising consultant, Ford & Associates. I want this district to become a pay-as-we-go. It's not just Ford & Associates. It's the

034attorneys, the trustees, the credit rating agencies, Dun & Bradstreet. All of those working together end up costing taxpayers lots and lots of money just to borrow money, which is too expensive to borrow anyway. I'm not happy with the work they've done over the years. The program started in 91 by the state using certificates of participation. The fact that you have to hold $40 million in reserve just to guarantee the payments, I just don't see why that should be part of the... debt terms and I think the interest rates are too high and the repayment terms are very very unfavorable for the district and for the taxpayers. I understand that you probably have to go ahead and do this because of the debt and there's things that have to happen. But I would like to see

035the board really press them to try to get that $40 million in cash reserve back out of those terms if they can. That'd free up $40 million that this district desperately could use. And I would like the board to really think about that and see if you can get Ford & Associates to do something that favors the school district instead of the people who are buying the debt instruments. Thank you. Those are all the cards with mr. Valenta. Yeah, we can't hear you out here. Just this one, you know, I can barely hear myself I would like to support the approval of the resolution Proclaiming May 5th 2015 as National Teacher Day No doubt Cinco de Mayo was chosen so the teachers could blow off steam after such a hectic high-stakes testing schedule Sorry to

036give you the item number on that but this one is for c5 approval of two purchase requisitions in the total amount of $30,964.39 and authorization for the issuance of two purchase orders as described. This is the agenda from the back of the room. It's not the 400-page agenda. It's just the summary page. Without it, it doesn't even say to whom or for what purposes. All other items on this agenda do, so that's inappropriate. I mean, a small short summary of what they're for, what the two purchase orders are for, would be appropriate. I'm not going to repeat everything that Chris Quackenbush just said on 4E3, but shame on you for complying with the federal program to bribe us with our own money, as far as race to the top goes. We the people do not

037comply. Thank you. Thank you. Next is the approval of action items in the agenda under consent board members. Are there any agenda items you wish to pull at this time? Miss Fisher. I have no polls this evening. Yes 4d for page 39 4e to page 63 and then under public hearings, I'll also be speaking to one of those The two that Ms. Dozier talked about, also 4C3 on page 27. What page? 27. 27. Ms. LaRiviere? No polls. And I have none. Is there a motion to approve the agenda's consent action items with the exception of the polled items? So moved. Ms. Fisher, seconded by Mr. Toiber. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 5-0. Included in the approval of the consent items on the agenda are resolutions proclaiming the month

038of May 2015 as National Military Appreciation Month. May 6, 2015 is National School Nurse Day. May 5, 2015 is National Teacher Day. The week of May 4 through 8, 2015 as Teacher Substitute Teacher Appreciation Week. We have three polls to address. Is there a motion for the first polled item 4D, page 39? We need a recommendation. Oh, I'm sorry. Dr. Graham, would you please read the recommendation? You're not going to take them in order? No. Oh, I'm sorry. I was taking them in the order in which they were given to me. First one, please. Or C3. Or C3? Okay. Page 27. I recommend board approval to award RFP number R157216JM for financial advisor consulting services to Ford & Associates, Inc. As indicated on the attached tabulation sheet and ranking form for the three-year period beginning

039April 28, 2015 through April 27, 2018, with renewal options for two additional one-year periods upon the written agreement of the vendor and the district at an estimated annual expenditure of $150,000 for the first year. Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all documents. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. So moved. Moved by Mr. Teuber, seconded by Ms. Fisher. Discussion? Mr. Teuber. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have several issues with this quote. First off, this is one that we talked about, that there was originally, this is for the refinance for our financial planner that actually works on a commission on our refinancing of our COPS. So the dollar amounts, really, that $150,000 really isn't included in that amount. My understanding, and you correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Graham, but

040it's based on a percentage of those refinancing. This $150,000 is actually an ancillary cost that we talked about to get as consultation if we're doing other things. And so I have a problem with that because I... I don't think the number really quantifies what our cost is but my biggest concern is you know We went through a lot of a lot of time and effort to put together a bid Apparently the bid went out to 63 63 were invited we only got two bids back and so when you only have when you send out 63 and you get three no bids and 59 responses or 58 responses that say that didn't get a response. My question is then I asked this to the superintendent, you know You think that, you know, it's quite a big

041contract for a government, and it's a type of financing type thing that's kind of plug and chug, and I don't mean to belittle the work that's done because there is some creative work doing it, but there is a lot of standard stuff to it, and a lot of people like to have these type of institutional type accounts. So to not get it back, you think it'd prompt the question is, did you call anybody and ask, you know, did we send it to the wrong people? Is our quote maybe not? written the way people are expecting it or why is the reason we're only getting 58 back and my and the answer that I think I got and I can be corrected but They didn't even bother calling. We got two responses and two is good

042enough. Well, two is not good enough for me when you're talking about something of this magnitude that I think that we need to do a little bit more diligence that we get a bigger playing field that people can actually advertise because I know if this board directs me, I can get five bids in no time because I know there's a lot of financial institutions in the state of Florida that would love to have the Lee County School District doing their refinancing. And to only get two back, it just doesn't, to me, it... The perception is not what I want to perceive to the public that we didn't do our due diligence to get proper bidding, that we got a bid out there to get competitive quotes. Any other comments? Ms. LaRevere. Okay. A question, if

043I understand correctly, it does not mean that when it says an estimated annual expenditure, to clarify, it has $150,000. That does not mean that's what it will be. It could go up to that amount. Is that correct? The $150,000 number in the board agenda is an estimate of possible expenditure if we do a financing project. If we don't finance a new project or refinance an existing COPS issue, there'd be no expenditure. The contract has no retainer fee type payments to the consultant. Payments are due under two circumstances only. First, if we have a debt transaction as a lump sum based on the amount of the debt instrument, the floating rate schedule in the contract. Secondly, an hourly rate based on individuals involved if we require the services of a consultant to assist us in a

044special project such as P3. So there's no money expended. There's no base fee. There's no retainer. There's no money expended unless we are actually using the service. Thank you. As far do you want me to respond to the the number of because mr. Toyburn I talked about this earlier today and We did not call to find out why we didn't get more vendors and we've already talked as a bit to staff I've talked to staff that we probably need to do that Interestingly the same Hillsborough County which is larger than we, they issued an RFP for the same services and they actually use a subscription service to do their RFPs, they also got two responses. So we will certainly go back. Us going back and asking after the fact the challenges that in our RFP

045it says any response received after the designated deadline shall not be accepted or reviewed. But your point was taken today, and I've already talked to staff, that when we get a, we at least need to go back and ask the question, what was it that made you not respond? But I found it interesting that Hillsboro, even putting a much wider net out, still only received two bids for the very same services. Any other comment? Ms. Dozier? Well, and I do understand. Mr. Tauber's concern about this. The fact that a lot of times we put out RFPs and the responses that we get are minimal, to say the least. And I completely understand what he is talking about. And I don't know what type of publications we are... advertising in. I don't know how we are

046putting our net out there and I don't know how Hillsborough put their net out there. They're another school district and I'm going to leave them over there to the side. But I do know that you and I had a conversation around this issue and I did ask you about the $150,000 and you checked and you got back with me and said that this is only if there is something that we actually do a type of refinance or something like that and um otherwise um there it will be like it'll be a contract for zero if we don't do any financing the one thing that i didn't ask is i know we have not had a contract in some years with the fords and associates um could you give us a figure of approximately what we

047have spent during like a contract year when we actually did do a financing. Not off the top of my head. I can get that from staff and get it to you. Okay. All right. Would you be willing to pull this off the table and bring it back when you could give us that information? That might help, I think, to get us to a 5-0. I'm not sure how that will change anything if that's the will of the entire board I can do that if everybody wants it pulled I mean I I'm not sure what it is what it is you do you want to know if this is more than what we used to spend no no I want to know approximately what has been the amount that we have paid during a contract year

048when we do financing Because I didn't go, I did go back and look at their contract once before, but I didn't review it again this time. I just reviewed the information that was actually in the packet. And the information in the packet was based solely on the RFP and what the responses were from the RFP. It didn't give anything about percentages or anything like that. So, I mean, you gave us those, so. That's why I'm asking for that information. All right board members. I'll ask you what your pleasure is miss Fisher and Miss La Revere. Mr. Tiber. I would like to see the Motion table that we can actually get the information find out exactly why You know was sending out to 50 if there's 58 queries why something of this, you know Why we're

049not getting the response. It just it seems to me that it just you know I just have a problem with, I just don't think the process, it just doesn't. It doesn't seem to make any sense to me. And if Hillsboro didn't do it either, it just begs the question. And for one, if I have to do it, I'll call other boards and find out how their responses were. But I just find it very peculiar that we get two bids back. Coincidentally, it's our current person and one other. And 58 people didn't bid. It just doesn't sound like we either didn't. put out to the right people or it's work that people don't want. I mean we've had people in the community make comments about our printing and all sorts of different issues and I just

050don't know if we're if I'm just getting a uncomfortable feeling that we're just not asking the right questions and doing the right things. And if people said we're just not interested and 58 people weren't interested, then my question is, of our 67 districts, who does our financing for the 67 districts? And all those people that do the other 66 counties don't want more business? Or is it just monopolized by these two people? I just find it hard that in today's economy where people are looking for new business, we can't get even people to respond to an entity that's one of the top 35 districts in the country. It just baffles me. And I just, for something of this magnitude, we're talking about millions and millions of dollars of COPS refinancing. It's not like we just

051have a little bit. We have almost a half a billion dollars in financing that's being looked at to be whether or not we're going to refinance it. And we do deals of magnitudes of 15 and 20 million dollar COPS bonds financing. We just did one the other day, you know, this last year. And it was substantial. And I think Ms. Dozier's question is well-founded. I think that it requires to have due diligence and it requires to have a little bit more looking under the hood when we're dealing with a half a billion dollars of management of whether or not we've got the right firm. And to just say, well, at the value of the board, I think that we deserve better answers and a little bit more due diligence, and the question should have been

052asked before it got brought forward. If you send out 63 and you get two back, something's not right. Either you sent to the wrong people or we're not, something's confusing or something's not right. Otherwise, why'd you send it to 63? If there's that many people out there, how come they didn't respond? I mean, it's just questions that I think begs answers before you start committing to somebody handling $500 million of our debt. Ms. Fisher? Yeah, well, I think it's always a good thing to have as much information as possible before making decisions and perhaps having the information about how we send out our RFPs. What's the vehicle? Are we advertising in periodicals? Are we sending a letter or are we doing it electronically? So perhaps it would be a good idea to table it till

053the next meeting and have more information so that we can come to an agreement. Okay, then I I think that we will ask the superintendent to table we will table it I would just like to offer the committee I make a motion need a motion to table So I would like to offer my comments which are that I am concerned that the board members are not asking these questions before these come to the board table and giving the superintendent an opportunity to pull it before we have these conversations in public So that's my editorial opinion. And now I need a motion to table. A motion to table. Second. To a time certain, is it? For the next board, until the next board meeting. 26. Bless you. It's a motion to postpone then. Yes. Oh, OK.

054Motion to postpone to the 26th. Second. Second. Second by Mrs. Fisher. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. I heard two things. I heard RFP process, and then I heard Mrs. Dozier's question about so you want all of that. Okay. Okay. The next item is 4D, page 39. Dr. Graham, would you please read the recommendation? I recommend board approval for the positions of specialist school intervention support and specialist district intervention support, approval of the job description, and incorporation of these new positions into the instructional salary schedule. Board members, is there a motion to approve? So moved. Moved by Mrs. Dozier. Second. Second by Ms. LaRiviere. Discussion? Ms. Dozier. I will not be supporting this this evening for a couple of reasons. One, we all received a memo about this, and in this it was for the

055approval of the job descriptions and positions for these two specialists. And while this is some background information, it has always been practiced to... Have job descriptions come for a briefing and these did not come for a briefing. I did ask quite a few questions of the superintendent and I really was not satisfied with the answers. I know that we are going down the road of Inclusion and I know that that is taking money away from the DRAs at the schools. I have a Great concern about reducing the number of DRA schools. I think are already strapped with doing more with less. And I think this is just another example of us removing some of the tools that they have to get the job done that we expect them to do. So I will not be

056supporting this this evening. Other comments, board members? Ms. LaRiviere. I see the need for the targeted job description because currently we have teachers in the district already trying. fulfilling these jobs of MTSS, but there is no true job description that delineates their responsibilities. This actually clarifies and says exactly what they're going to be doing. It protects the teacher and it also protects the administrator by clarifying that. So I would venture to say in most of our schools we have someone I know in my area, in District 5, all of the elementary schools in particular have someone who spends their full time taking care of the MTSS process, formerly known as RTI process, to identify the students, determine interventions, monitor the interventions, seeing if they're working. So this is not saying that a school is going

057to hire someone and give them this position. That's still up to the principal to determine who they're going to hire and what positions they're going to fill. But if they hire someone to fulfill this task, there is a job description that clarifies the position and what they are to be doing. Mr. Toiver. Thank you. Madam Chair. I mean, thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate it. Ms. LaRiviere, I respectfully disagree. This is a continuation of the directive of our ESE that I believe the superintendent has decided to go change a whole paradigm on how Lee County School District handles ESE. I don't think it was, and I... Her direction is something she can do as a superintendent, but I think if it's a change of this much of a paradigm shift, I think it should have

058been brought in front of the board, and it wasn't the last board, it wasn't this board. It's just something that we've done, and we've seen continuations of more and more spending in our schools. There's already been a DRA reduction in our principals based upon more ESE intervention. This particular function actually takes more DRAs from our schools. They have flexible spending per school, and we're actually taking away their flexible ability, saying you will dedicate. this amount for that function and so what we're doing is we're doing the same thing that we don't want the state to do the district is micromanage and we're the district is now if that requirement is belonging to a school which I which I you know by state laws or whatever there's requirements to do those reporting, I believe that we

059should give the control to the principals and let them figure out how they need to have that requirement met based upon their DRA. But by creating another specialist position is creating more positions that are giving less flexibility to our principals. And I won't be supporting this motion tonight either. CHRISTIE WOOD. Other comments? Ms. Fisher. MS. I have a question then. So this job description, Looks to me like it's describing something that teachers teachers or school counselors or someone at the school is already doing are we saying now that Those people will have a new job description and or that the school will be hiring someone to fill that job description Which will be another? Another person. Okay, a couple of clarifications. This is not an ESC position. This is MTSS multi-tiered support system. This is

060required that we take children through a process before we can offer the opportunity to receive an IEP. They start on Tier 1. That's why it's called multi-tier. They get to Tier 2. Many stop at Tier 2 because we figure out the interventions they need, and we don't need to go any further in the ESE. So it is not an ESE position. The district position, there are people doing these jobs. We just don't have a job description that explains what they're doing, and we need to have that. So there's no position being added at the district level. At the schoolhouse, we have told principals .5 of their DRAs. is to be used to have someone with this responsibility. It is labor intensive. It is a lot of time and energy with people and children and parents

061to figure out what interventions might work or not work. And there's no real defined... Way that's happening it at every school because people are just finding people that can do it. So most principals And I've talked to death dr. Desmore about this a couple of times She's the one who hears from principals when they're unhappy with their DRA allocation when they're unhappy with with Things that we've told them they need to do with their DRA location, which is not new There's always been portions of the DRA that have been prescribed. No one has commented that they don't want this position They have asked questions like can we use someone that's already here and combine it with something else and the answers to those questions have been yes, make it work for what works for your

062school. So we are trying to clarify what needs to be done with MTSS and early warning systems and again it is not an ESE position. So can I follow up with another half another part to that question? So then if there's someone at the school who's already doing that then point five of their salary would come from that DRA for them from from that DRA for them to do that part of the correct what's described in this job description. What are the parameters about choosing that person? We have encouraged principals to look carefully at the job description and be sure it's someone that has the ability experience if it's there. Again, most of these things are being done in a school, but it's getting bigger. And so we believe that the principals are more than

063capable of determining based on their staff if they have a person on staff. And I would suggest to you that based on what they've said, most of them do. And they will just combine that .5 with something else. And I guess my concern about the parameters would be I know because of my former... employment that a lot of elementary school counselors are doing this now. And we're trying, we know they have a lot of other things to do. Right. And then, so I don't, I think that all things considered, that would be a conflict for them to be able to do their, you know, if they were. We have done nothing to change what we put in place last year that every school will have a counselor. Okay. So this isn't a way to get

064half a counselor and half a, no. That's not part of the conversation. I understand your concern. It's not part of the conversation. Thank you. Other comments? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? Aye. Okay, motion carries 3-2. The next item is item 4E2, page 63. I recommend board approval of the instructional materials plan for school year 2015-16 which will include the adoption of 912 McGraw Hill Florida Glencoe Health and Physical Education at a cost of $412,800. World languages 912 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Spanish. one through four, NDMC publishing French one through four at a cost of $787,021.85. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Secondary Math at a cost of $967,752.15. Cengage Precalculus and Math for College Readiness at a cost of $417,859. And Pearson Grade Six World History Advanced in Grade

06512 US Government Honors at a cost of $498,200. 111 and 88 cents tax for the current adoption year for an estimated cost of three million eighty three thousand six hundred forty four dollars and eighty eight cents plus shipping cost of two hundred twenty nine thousand eight hundred five dollars and one cent for an estimated total of three million three hundred thirteen thousand four hundred forty nine dollars and eighty nine cents based on school year 1516 projected enrollment board members you've heard the superintendent's recommendation is there a motion to approve so moved Mrs. Dozier? Second. Mr. Toiber? Discussion? I would like to divide the motion by removing the adoption of the 9 through 12 McGraw-Hill Florida Glencoe Health and Physical Education Text Series from the Instructional Materials Plan. Second. Discussion? I need a vote on the

066motion to divide this. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye. Aye. Aye. You're opposed or you're... Okay, so motion fails. Two, three. Mrs. Dozier. Yes. Due to the fact that I was not able to divide the motion out for the health and physical education, I will be forced to vote against all of these. However, I was only going to vote against one of these textbooks because of the content that I had already expressed here at the table. I regret that my fellow board members did not want to support me in allowing me just to vote against one. But as it stands, I will be voting against all of them at this time. Other comments? Mr. Teuber. I also, and I guess I just want some clarification. In particular, the supplement of that health education is where

067I really have the most problems with, and I just want to know, is that included in this identification? At this time, yes. Okay. I personally feel strongly that I don't believe masturbation and transgender and all those type of things need to be in our program. And I've mentioned before that I think that we need to have some type of an opt-out. And I understand if people say that there is no parental figures in some of our school kids, and I get that. And whether we had an option one and option two where we send a letter home to everybody that everybody's going to be default by option one. and say, I want to go on option two, they can actually take something a little bit more, to me, a little bit more discreet and left

068to the parents and without being treated like a leper like they are when they test, when they opt out of our testing program. I won't be supporting this motion. I think that this is a reckless move by the board, especially not even allowing us to separate out this particular issue that I believe the community has a lot of people unhappy with that we should have a little bit more discussion. So I won't be supporting this entire effort, and I'm very disappointed. The comment miss Fisher. Yes, I have to comment. Thank you. I'm not going to ask the question Okay For the last several years I have had the opportunity to serve on the school health advisory committee for the last five years the school health advisory committee Which consists of the Lee County Health Department?

069nurses teachers people who are dealing with our young youth on a daily basis and knowing what the statistics are, that we are targeted by the CDC and the Florida Department of Health as having an inordinate amount of teenage pregnancies, repeated teenage pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases. I think it's time that we get real. This book really is too little too late. because some of our kids by ninth grade already have a child or two or are already suffering from the effects of a sexually transmitted disease. And I looked at the supplement book and I did see the words masturbation and transgender in there. I hear that on TV all the time and so do our kids. So, and my disappointment was that that was all that I found in that book. There wasn't even a

070description of it, so I'm not sure what the objection is, but I read through it carefully to be sure about that. So, I think that unless we teach kids from early on good health habits, ways of protecting themselves, we are going to continue to experience these. statistics and we are going to continue to experience the effects of what happens when kids are sexually active at a young age. I mean, it interferes with attendance. It interferes with academic achievement which is what we're all about so unless we get in there and educate our children and parents always do have the option of not having their children attend you know that lesson or that class that's always been that way but I really feel strongly that we need to do what we need to do to help

071our kids become healthy productive participating members of society. Ms. LaRiviere. Well this is one of those times that I was wishing that I could have gotten my phone and called my school board mentor from another district to say what do they mean when they say pull out and we had no time to add that discussion was not there and so I learned a lesson on that piece so I do see the value of voting on that piece separately. Too bad, so sad. I made my mistake and I wasn't able, you know, that was a piece that I wasn't there with. All that being said, I do believe that wholeheartedly is the primary educator for the child is their parents. I believe wholeheartedly the parents need to be doing their due diligence. I also know this.

072I also know that I've had students. and the middle school level that don't have those parents. This curriculum is at high school. I wish we had something there in place for the middle school to help assist the teachers to deal with that. When I taught fifth grade, we worked together and collaborated to develop our own curriculum to discuss the reproductive system because we did not have a textbook to work with. We had no curriculum, nothing to follow, to go along with. So we did a really great job of finding a whole lot of pieces that we could make copies of. And before we discussed the human reproductive system, our philosophy when we were at Gateway Elementary fifth grade team, those folder packets went home with the students. Parents knew they were going home. The instructions

073was for the parents to go through the packet. with their child. And then we helped correct some mistakes that the kids got in some of those answers. But we did help to clarify that piece. Now that was just dealing with the reproductive system. It wasn't dealing with how babies are born or the sexual act. But there have been middle school students, girls, and I would venture to say that they are probably an issue of... There is some human trafficking going on to a very minor level with some of these girls in middle school that wound up with STDs and had no clue what they were getting into or what that fact that what they were doing would even bring that about. And they did not have parents to go to and talk with. For some

074of our students, the only person that they have to go and talk with is a teacher. For some students, If they are fortunate and blessed, they have a friend's parent they can at least go and talk with. Some of our students don't have that. If we have a piece of material that a teacher can work with, the teacher and the district then will work to develop the academic plan for how it's going to be addressed, including parts that would be opted out, what portions may be gone over more so than others. The teachers need a tool and our students, I have to think about the needs of every student, not just the ones that come from homes like my daughter did. Okay. And I cannot possibly. Say anything more than Ms. Fisher and Ms. LaRiviere

075have said about the textbook. I support absolutely their comments. I did look at the book because Ms. Dozier requested we look at the book. So for just because I support what they've had to say, but also because of the committee process that's been used in the selection of all of these books. People have been involved. They've vetted it. They represent different stakeholders in the community. And I see no reason to override their recommendation, having looked at the materials myself. So that is my opinion. Is there any other discussion? Okay. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Opposed? Aye. I didn't hear you, Steve. Okay. Motion passes 3-2. And that gets us through table items. Now we have superintendent's recommendations. I recommend Board approval to renew bid number B137118BC

076for fresh milk and other dairy products to Borden Dairy Company of Florida for the final renewal period of July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016 at the estimated expenditure of $4 million pursuant to the same terms and conditions as previously approved by the Board. Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all related documents. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Moved by Ms. Fisher, second by Ms. LaRiviere. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries by zero. I recommend board approval to piggyback Osceola County School District RFP number SDOC14P065LH. to US Food Service for the distribution and procurement of food and non-food products for the power buying group for the period of July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016 at the estimated expenditure of $12,500,000 with an option

077to cancel it deemed to be in the best interest of the district. Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all related documents. CHRISTIE WOODARD, M.D.: You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. CHRISTIE WOODARD, M.D.: Moved by Ms. Fisher. Second. CHRISTIE WOODARD, M.D.: Second by Ms. LaRiviere. Any discussion? Seeing none all in favor, please signify by saying aye motion carries 5-0 I recommend board approval to renew bid number B147181CP for office supplies for schools, departments, and the district warehouse with contract paper group ink, Marco office supply furniture and printing ink, national art and school supplies, office depot ink, pyramid school products, standard stationery, and staples contract and commercial ink for the first renewal period of May 20, 2015 through May 19, 2016 at the estimated annual expenditure of $1 million pursuant

078to the same terms and conditions. as previously approved by the board. Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all related documents. Is there a motion to, you've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Moved by Mrs. Dozier. Second. Second by Mr. Toiber. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 5-0. I recommend board approval for a one-time increase to the estimated expenditure for bid number B147180JM for the purchase of Navistar International OEM parts from Wallace International Trucks, Inc. for the period of April 28, 2015 through June 23, 2015 by $150,000 for a total estimated annual expenditure not to exceed $1,350,000. Pursuant to the same terms and conditions as previously approved by the board, Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all related documents. Board members,

079you've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Moved by Mr. Toiber, seconded by Ms. Dozier. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 5-0. I recommend board approval for a one-time increase to the estimated expenditure by $300,000 for the piggyback of Collier County bid number 116-4-14, automotive and bus parts and services for the period of April 28, 2015, through June 30, 2015, for a total estimated annual expenditure not to exceed $1,300,000, pursuant to the same terms and conditions as previously approved by the board. Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all related documents. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Recommendation is their motion to approve so moved moved by miss Fisher second by miss dozier any discussion Seeing none all in favor. Please signify

080by saying aye aye aye aye Thank You motion carries 5-0 I recommend board approval to renew RFP number R127035JM for information technology hardware, software, and equipment with Audiovisual Innovations, Inc., B&H Photo, CablesandKids.com, Camcore, Inc., CD... CDW Government LLC, Contracts Furnishings LLC, E-Instruction, Lightspeed Technologies Inc., Troxel Communications Inc., United Data Technologies Inc., and VertiCom for the first renewal period of June 15, 2015 through June 4, 2016, an estimated annual expenditure of $10 million pursuant to the same terms and conditions as previously approved by the board. Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all related documents. Board Member, you've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Moved by Mrs. Fisher, seconded by Mrs. Dozier. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 5-0. Next is public

081hearing. Dr. Graham, would you please present your recommendations for this evening's public hearing items? I recommend board approval of the revisions to policy 2.02, Civility, Conduct of Parent, Guardians, and Visitors to codify in school board policy the prohibition of tobacco use on district property or at district sponsored events. The effective date of this revision shall be Wednesday, April 29, 2015. Board members, you've heard the superintendent. Oh, you have to read all of them. I'm sorry. Sorry. Go ahead. I recommend board approval of the revisions to policy 2.24 advertising to prohibit tobacco advertising in schools or the acceptance of sponsorships, gifts, grants, or materials from tobacco companies or their subsidiaries. The effective date of this revision shall be Wednesday, April 29, 2015. I recommend Board approval of the revisions to Policy 9.01, Site Selection, Acquisition, and

082Planning, clarify staff members who are authorized to negotiate the acquisition of a school site pending School Board approval, and to add zoning verification as a component of the site feasibility study required when considering acquisition of a school site. The effective date of this revision shall be Wednesday, April 29, 2015. I recommend board approval of the contract with City of Palms Charter High School Inc. for grades 9 to 12 school designed to serve at-risk students to be called Northern Palms Charter High School. Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute related documents. At this time, the public will be invited to speak on these four items. The time allowed for comment is three minutes. Is there anyone on the right side of the auditorium who wishes to address any of these four items? Anyone on the left side

083of the auditorium? Seeing none. I will now close this public hearing and reconvene the regular school board meeting of April 28, 2015. Dr. Graham, please restate your recommendations for this evening's public hearing items. I recommend board approval of the revisions to policy 2.02, civility, conduct of parents, guardians, and visitors to codify in school board policy the prohibition of tobacco use on district property or at district-sponsored events. The effective date of this revision shall be Wednesday, April 29, 2015. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Move by Mrs. Fisher, seconded by Mrs. Dozier. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 5-0. I recommend board approval of the revisions to policy 2.24 advertising to prohibit tobacco advertising in schools or the acceptance

084of sponsorships, gifts, grants, or materials from tobacco companies or their subsidiaries. The effective date of this revision shall be Wednesday, April 29, 2015. Board members, you've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. I heard Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Dozier. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 5-0. I recommend board approval of the revisions to policy 9.01 site selection acquisition and planning clarify staff members who are authorized to negotiate the acquisition of a school site pending school board approval and to add zoning verification as a component of the site feasibility study required when considering acquisition of a school site. The effective date of this revision shall be Wednesday April 29th 2015. Board members, you've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to

085approve? So I moved. Moved by Mrs. Dozier. Second. Second by Ms. LaRiviere. Any discussion? Ms. Dozier. Yes. I will not be supporting this motion. What this does is it removes the executive director of school support. And about a year ago, I spoke with Dr. Graham about this issue and shared with her my concerns about the fact that I have been I've been in conversations with several people that did not believe that this was a good move in not having an executive director of school support because the maintenance department and the construction department, sometimes they don't communicate and there's not somebody over that tier. And, you know, I did... When we initially made that organizational structure, I did say that I was a little concerned about that. And the people that are being given the authority

086to deal with the land purchases, I'm not sure that those individuals have the expertise that they need to be doing this. So I just cannot support this. Other comment? Seeing none, all in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? Aye. Motion carries. Motion fails. I'm sorry. Supermajority point of order. That is correct. To amend a policy. Motion fails. 3-2. I recommend board approval of the contract the City of Palms Charter High School Inc for grade 9-12 school designed to serve at-risk students to be called Northern Palms Charter High School. Approval authorizes the superintendent to execute related documents. Board members you've heard the superintendent's recommendation is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Miss Fisher second by Miss Dozier. Discussion? Seeing none all in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion

087carries 5-0. The next item on the agenda is non-agenda public comment. Mr. Martin, please address the agenda item of non-agenda public comment. The rules that I provided earlier apply at this portion of the meeting also during this public comment opportunity I would also remind the public that if a speaker wishes to address the school board to endorse the purchase of a product or service in which a speaker has a personal interest The speaker must reveal that interest before making comment to the board The time alloper speaker is two minutes due to the large number of cards this evening. I will call them in groups of five The first time you hear your name, please proceed to one of the two lecterns. The second time I call your name, you may proceed with your comments. The

088first five speakers are Mr. Kevin Riegel, Kelsey Lewis, Alice Weatherford, Joe Gilberti, and George Fox. Mr. Riegel. Mr. Riegel. Please turn on the microphone. Okay. Good evening to our board members, Superintendent Graham, Mr. Martin, Mrs. Johnson, and everyone here tonight. I would like to discuss the issue of testing. You have discussed at previous board meetings the elimination of a couple of tests in the future, but I'd like to ask if there's any additional tests being considered. This specifically looks at not only, of course, FSA and EOC possibilities, but the benchmark assessments as well that are given throughout the year as a bellwether. In the past, some grades might have two or three or even four FSAs or EOCs at the end, and each one might have three or four benchmarks attached to it. So one

089test becomes five, two becomes ten, and so forth. Also, I've heard a lot of concern from families in regards to their children being taught, of course, how to take a test, and we've discussed that here. That takes away from teachers with all important items such as reteaching the objective, of course, and valuable enrichment opportunities and projects that teachers do not have the time to plan for or execute. We're teaching to a test instead of those fundamentals. We're not maximizing the potential within a student. This is the damage caused by over testing. School is no longer fun and challenging for these students. It's repetitive. We should be pro-student, not pro-testing. A follow-up question would center around the attaching of grades to the benchmark tests, any FSAs or any EOC exams. Could we inform the public, because

090I've heard a lot of questions about this, is there any grade attached to any benchmark, any EOC? For instance, in the past, we had a 30% attached to some of the tests. Is that still going on? Is there any grade attached to any benchmarks or any EOCs? If so, what happens if somebody does opt out of testing? As a personal thought, parallel to testing concerns, it would be beneficial to make an investment with programs such as shop classes and offering classes geared towards specific preparation of a trade. This type of investment would be very beneficial. Kelsey Lewis. Page and I'm actually here speaking on behalf of the half cent sales tax I had the opportunity earlier to look at the options that were presented to you earlier this afternoon and I have to say it's

091very concerning some of the options There's no possibility with the property taxes, especially because with the increase of property taxes Well with the increase of property values going up then our state legislators are then decreasing the amount of funding that they're sending us. So that's the shell game that they play with us consistently. And then you look at the impact fees. There's really only so much we can do. We can advocate, of course, and of course we do that, but there's only so much. we can do on that end. And the other option, aside from the half-cent sales tax, was to take money out of the operations and to put that into capital outlay. And that is very concerning, especially when I hear the discussion going around that, considering that there was a discussion based

092on possibly eliminating positions. And my question is, when are you going to start investing in our children? and looking at investing in the employees. We had a huge thing that came out a few months back about how horrible Florida is in paying their employees, their teachers. And so then that's, this just falls right into that. And so if we take money out of operations to build this school, which we desperately need, and we reduce the staff to be able to build this school, how are you going to... put staff into the school if you don't have the money to even pay the staff you currently have? How are you planning on buying the desks and the materials for those students to use? How are you planning on buying lunches for those students to have? So

093those are great questions. That's extremely concerning, which basically only leads us to the half-cent sales tax. Nine dollars per person, effectively? That's a great investment in my viewpoint. And I know that I will stand and advocate and I'll be out in the street corners waving signs and at whatever fairs. Alice Weatherford. I am Alice Weatherford, and I have been a former Lee County student. I am a Lee County teacher. I am a Lee County parent, and I am a Lee County grandparent, and I am a Lee County landowner. And I think it's time we start spreading the opportunity around, not just to landowners and ad valorem taxes. I think we need to let everybody who shops at Walmart, at CVS, and any other store in this town the opportunity to help build the school. We

094need good, safe buildings for our students, and our students are only increasing in number exponentially. We need to look for the future. We need to plan positively. We need to plan smarter, and I think the half-cent sales tax is the best way to meet the needs of our students, of our teachers. And I'm pretty sure that there's not too many people that can't afford $9 out of pocket to help build a school. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Mr. Joe Gilberti. And before you begin, sir, placards by School Board policy are not allowed during public comments. So if you could set that to the side. Yes, sir. My name's Joe Gilbert. I'm a professional engineer. I came over here 10 years ago with Trudy Williams, freelanced me to finish up some of

095your schools, like I believe I did South Fort Myers, Ida Baker. I'm a civil engineer and a mechanical engineer. I have a piece of land I found up in Sarasota with a farmer that we found an underground alkaline spring that the EPA has been hiding for 45 years. They call it the North-South Water War. Water wars, 20,000 kids under 14 die each day. So basically, we're running a transmission pipe down the interstate, three of them, 84-inch pipes, where all the cities tie in. So your millage rates and all your school issues should be over with because... So many people are going to move here because the water stops cancer from growing in your body. And I implore you to come to our ranch and test the water, the proof's in the water. We had BP

096oil come on the site. Apparently, and excuse me, because I need like 15 minutes to explain it, and I want to turn in this report. The KT meteor that lifted Florida out of the ocean tilted platforms, floored platforms. We're next to Myakka Park. General Development Corp may have designed all your platted lots around this unique water resource. So basically the idea is all the home values are going to increase as soon as it goes on TV. I was surrounded by Secret Service and U.S. Marshals, put in lockdown for 268 days, so they tried to steal the farmer's land, but we made it. So here I am. It's a petition to redress a grievance. If you guys can get it on TV tomorrow, millions of people will be moving to Florida to buy land. So it

097produces every 30-inch hole. We get about 20 million gallons a day so we can keep the pipes full. It's the people's water. It's not my water. I have access to it. It's the cost to get it to you. We'll bottle from the ports where our estimates are 50 billion a day GDP because of the Blue Gold Water Wars, and it goes back to education, health care. Social Security the people I may pick up something on some engineering fees So I implore you to take a look at this have your consulting services and your teams come up with your engineers Thank You, Mr. Gilbert to your time's up sir Speaker six through ten Speaker six through ten are Michael dry corn Chris Clackenbush Sierra Susco Melissa Giovinelli and Tiffany Myers. Mr. Fox. Thank you board a

098couple things Pam I'd like to say I admire your courage and I agree with your point of view on the textbook thing I'd also like the board to know that I support miss quackenbush on her Using paper for the testing. I think that's an outstanding idea for many many reasons. She's spot-on with that So I give it my full support. I want to answer the questions asked earlier about the cost of refinancing I can tell you it was three hundred thousand dollars by the time you pay the financial consultant, the attorneys, the trustees, by the time all the staff, all the time and effort that gets put into debt, once again, that refinancing was because of the 2005 certificate of participation which was I guess Ford Associates advised the first 10 years were just interest-only

099payments. There were no principal repayments. It was a balloon. It wasn't 20 equal payments. It was a balloon payment. This is my problem with the Ford Associates and with the 1991 switch to leasing program that the state put all of the school boards on. This is why the half-cent sales tax will get this district on a pay-as-we-go and solve all of these problems and save the taxpayers lots and lots of money. The half-cent sales tax is a tax decrease. Thank you very much. Mr. Drycorn? Good evening, board. Good evening, Mr. Martin and to our distinguished student representative. My word to you, young man, is whatever you're doing, keep doing it. You're doing a great job. This afternoon I had the opportunity to watch on television the workshop. I haven't been able to make a lot

100of the meetings recently because of work. Actually, two weeks ago I was watching you on the Internet when I was in Australia. on business. It's good work that you guys are doing. But a couple things I wanted to point out from this afternoon's workshop is that I appreciate Mrs. Dozer's and Mr. Toiber's support to revert to the previous public comment process. It makes a lot of sense. I know there's some agreement on the board, and I would encourage the board to enact that pretty quickly, because this is a little bit cumbersome with regards to figuring out when I want to talk, right? I also want to appreciate Mr. Toiber's attention to streamlining the recognition process at the beginning of each of these meetings. And I would suggest maybe even a hard stop and begin of

101the agenda so that those that are here for the business part can show up for that with some certainty that we're not going to miss anything. Now, I also have a request that relates to Mrs. LaVier's thing about the defibrillators this afternoon. And in those that don't aren't familiar with it this afternoon she described an event that she was at at a school where a elderly Grandparent had had an issue passed out later that afternoon died And the fact was there's no defibrillator Superintendent Graham didn't corrected the record to ensure that everybody knew that the high schools are equipped by law with a defibrillator I would support the board to pursue actively to ensure that we have defibrillators in every school with adequate training of staff to do that. I hear tens of millions of

102dollars being spent here. It's a 20-year-old technology. It's not rocket science, and it's not that expensive anymore. Thank you, Mr. Drykoin. Your time's up, sir. Thank you very much. Ms. Quackenbush? Good evening again. Our state legislature completely missed the mark with their education bill, HB 7069, now signed into law by Governor Scott. We want you to end the federal and state overreach, restore common sense and end Common Core and high-stakes testing. And we talked about... the fact that they haven't ended the terrible content. They're jamming down our children's throat and brainwashing the children. We've talked about that they haven't stopped high-stakes testing. But there is something this board can do. And that is to revert to pencil and paper testing. Pencil and paper testing will give our children back the 40% of the class time

103that they're losing by the musical chairs of revolving computers. And it will also end all of the massive expenses we're required to do that are unfunded mandates by the state. $10 million in tonight's agenda alone. We could build school after school. If we allocate our money wisely, there's never been a single study I have ever seen that said that we get better results by computerized testing. When we're reviewing people's knowledge through the prism of their keyboarding skills, this is totally unfair to those who haven't had that experience. And when you're testing third graders to fifth graders who haven't had that experience, it's totally wrong to make life-changing decisions. based on their keyboarding skills rather than their knowledge. We can do this as a board. Simply say, no, it's an unfunded mandate. We don't have the

104computers required. We need our money to build other schools. We don't need to be spending our money on computerized testing so the data mining companies can make millions off the information on our children. So please, I implore you to consider this strongly because it is within your realm as board members to make this decision. Thank you so much. My name is Sierra Susco and I am a senior in Girl Scouts and I'm currently working on my Gold Award. And a Gold Award is when the individual goes out into their community and does something that will impact their community in a positive way. So I have decided to do a history crash course mainly focused around teens from grade 9 to 18 year olds but it's for all ages. And the importance of this is we

105are coming up on the 2016 presidential election and we don't want a bunch of 18 year olds just going. out and voting for whoever's name they recognize on the ballot. So I have created a simple 10-question survey, and I will be contacting the superintendent and all the board members to make meetings with you so you can take this survey. And it merely has several questions on it from my final history exam, and I just want to see if I can videotape some of you, and this is for everyone in the audience too. For those who I do videotape, I will be making a YouTube video and posting it online. And also online, I will be posting on YouTube the answer keys. Or if you really want to get this done over with, you can just

106do it tonight since I'm already here. And I really hope that you'll help me in achieving my goal of getting this award and also educating yourselves and in the community, everyone else who watches this video. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Graham and school board. The reason why I'm here tonight is to bring to your attention there's so much miscommunication with the FSA or actually no communication. I just found out today that my 10th grader is taking the EEOC exam, which is really the FSA exam. I didn't know this, and I'm... actually very upset and I actually had a meeting last week with the AP principal and my daughter's guidance counselor and I discussed opting out for the reading and but we were and I actually actually expressed that I was going to allow her to

107do the EOC because that's 30% of her grade, not knowing at the time that that would be the FSA test or the FSA exam or whatever. And I'm just really disheartened to know that they never, both of them, neither one told me or my husband, I said, well, you were in the same room with me. Was that told to us that that was actually going to be the FSA exam? And it wasn't. So I... I can't understand why there's so much miscommunication. I think it's because no one knows anything. They know a little bit here, a little bit there. People don't know. And how are we supposed to tell our kids this is okay when no one really knows? Is it okay? That's the question I have. Is it okay? It's really I the other

108thing is with this math exam that my daughter's gonna be taken on the FSA is all done computerized and I didn't realize Chris was going to talk about that But is that really fair to these kids that can't go home and practice using a calculator on a computer? I don't know how many of you use your calculator on your computer I never use mine and I use mine on my phone. I use mine on one by my desk But I never key in the calculator in my computer. So these killed it children are got to take this FSA EOC exam next week actually and I'm gonna have to use a computer calculator. That's really scary because how are they gonna do it because they don't even know. My daughter would be here tonight but she's

109home practicing on the calculator computer. Thanks. Oh and I love the word integrity. Let's all try to use it. Speakers 11 through 16 are Ms. Ramey Hall, Ms. Bonnie Kennard-Margolin, Ms. Lori Fahey. Mr. Kevin Daly, Ms. Brittany Medeiros, and Ms. Jill Castellano. Ms. Myers. I just wanted to share with you, I don't have a student in our school district currently. What I have are students in my Sunday school class. And I've been very proud of the work that girls have done over the years and watching them grow up and expand their learning opportunities through their middle school currently. But as seventh grade girls, they came to me last Sunday in a state of stress I had not previously seen them in before. And when I asked them if they had any prayer requests, the first

110thing off of their minds was their EOC exams coming up this week. I don't have girls that have ever had to worry about what their report cards are going to look like, but now they're worried. Upon finishing their first practice test, they're looking at 66 and 68 percent, and that will be a cumulative 30 percent of their total grade. And I felt so compelled and so convicted that I felt the need to come and share that with you, that I've seen girls who have no real worries when it comes to day-to-day activities in their classrooms and their ability to compete and really have, you know, success in the classroom but when it comes down to one test and this is what's on their mind this is what's consuming their stress level I just think it's

111important that you know what's being toppled on a seventh grade girl who has other priorities in her life in terms of what she's planning for and where she's going and that this is coming into full circle of her you know her life at this point so thank you for tonight and I hope you'll take that into consideration. Ms. Hull? Hi, thank you for allowing me to speak. I am a parent of a third grader and a seventh grader in Lee County Public Schools, and I'm very disappointed with the testing situation this year. It has been a miserable year for my third grader. Terrible. My kids, my seventh grader went through Edison Park too. The school is way different. His classroom is way different. It's not the same third grade classroom my daughter experienced. And that's

112a shame. But tonight I want to speak about the EOC. I have a seventh grader who's very advanced in math. She's one of six seventh graders at Cypress Lake Middle School in Algebra I honors. She is in a single block class and she has maintained an A in that class all year. We were told last week by the guidance counselor that she would be given an EOC. that she would have to take, they asked permission to pull her out of class for a week to have her prep for this exam. I was immediately caught off guard because I figured if the school wanted to pull my daughter out of class, the stakes must be pretty high. So I started researching what this EOC was, and I'm sad to tell you, I talked with multiple people

113at our district, Dr. Eitzen, not sure if I'm saying his name correctly, Ms. Christy. Coontz and they did not understand the stakes attached to this EOC. I spoke with the Department of Education today I talked to a lady named Janiqua, and she did inform me that the EOC is, in fact, the FSA. She told me this is a new test. I was told just today by Ms. Filares that she thought this was the same test, but it's not. Last year, our kids took the next Sunshine. I don't know all of them, but they took that. This year, they're taking the EOC, which is the FSA. I am very upset. I would like an opt-out plan for my daughter. to compel. I've emailed you guys this week. None of you have responded to me, included our

114superintendent. I want to compel you guys to take a stand and stop this high stakes testing. Ms. Kinnar-Margolin. Hi, my name is Bonnie Knard Margolin. I'm a teacher and a parent here in the county. I echo all of the complaints about the EOC. The new EOCs, Algebra, Algebra II, Geometry, American History, and Civics are being given on the FSA portal. And if the legislature says that they will not use those FSA scores until they validate that portal, why are we going to count them as 30% of our students' grades right now, this month? So I'm concerned. I'm concerned enough that I communicated with Lori and I communicated with a parent, Darcy Addo, out of Brevard County, and here is a plan. According to the new bill, 7069, in the seven to nine times that the

115mention is made of the EOCs being given through the FSA portal in the new language, nowhere in that language in all ten times mentioned does it attach it to the 30%. From our reading of this, we no longer need to attach a 30%. It is at the discretion of our board, and we beg you immediately to drop that 30% to 0% and give relief to these kids. And one other thing, I also spoke with Mr. Itzen's office. It wasn't Chrissy Coots. It was Chrissy. And she stated that the math CCEs were canceled, as well as the statement was made by Dr. Graham at the last principals meeting that all CCEs are completely optional to the teacher. That information has not been communicated to us teachers. We are still planning on our schedules for CCEs. Our

116whole lives are in disruption. Could we please make that announcement immediately? Thank you. Ms. Fahey? Hi, Lori Fahey, and I should always remember to go before Bonnie. She's really good. I have... My greatest concern tonight is that your next Board of Education meeting is a month from now. It's May 26th for your next action meeting. So it's important that you do address the testing and the EOCs. I also want to know what the current number of students... who are still at risk for not receiving their standardized standard diploma due to the FCAT. I think you just received that information recently. We have not. I've written to all of you. We really were the first district to bring up testing and I really don't want us to be the last to drop out of these EOCs.

117Seminole County did drop out of all of them except for state mandated, state created EOCs. And as Bonnie said, it's not in the new statute that we're required to put 30% of the student's grade on that. Miami-Dade. Schools are taking advantage of the new state law that gives school districts flexibility in administering and, of course, exams, measuring a student's progress. We will not use the results of these assessments, these district-developed and, of course, assessments to drive decisions on student promotion, retention, graduation, or teacher evaluation. I hope you'll do the same thing, and I do hope you'll do it this evening. We need your help on this. Mr. Daly. My name is Kevin Daly, and I'm a Lee County teacher and parent, and I would like to ask the board to support the half-cent sales tax

118for capital outlay. I'd just like to point out that, according to your own briefing, almost a quarter of the money will come from our lovely visitors from the north, and many people move down here as a lifelong friend, and I've heard it all my life. Well, I don't have any kids in the system. Well, we can get them now. So I advise that the board take up the half-cent sales tax for the capital outlay. Thanks. Ms. Medeiros? Good evening. My name is Mrs. Medeiros, Brittany Medeiros. I'm a teacher in Lee County and also a homeowner. I'm here to represent myself and not only myself but quite a bit of teachers in my school that are for the half-cent sales tax. Reading through some of the other options that you're considering, we really think that this

119is the best way to get this money to build the school that we really need. Thank you. Ms. Castellano? My name is Jill Castellano, and I am a proud Lee County teacher. I'm also a condo owner, so I own one-eighth of a building. I'm also a registered voter and an active voter, and I really want to encourage you to do the half-cent sales tax for capital funding. I teach in the E-Zone, and as we've seen in studies, the E-Zone is booming. We're getting a lot more students, and we need more high schools. We need more elementary schools, and I think that this is our best way to get that funding. Like Kevin said... Most of that money will come from our visitors from other areas and as it was mentioned by other people it's only

120if we look at it it's about nine dollars a person. I'll write you a check for nine dollars right now just I'm going to get paid in a couple days so if you can just hold it I'm just kidding. Now I mean I just think that this is a great way for us to build our buildings that we so desperately need for our students and to build. 21st century schools and continue with these programs. I really want to encourage you to look into that I believe many voters would stand behind this program because it does benefit the students in Lee County and again I think it's our best option. Thank you Those are all the cards miss Morgan. Mr. Valenta At the last meeting George Fox shamelessly brought his props to support the half-cent tax,

121of course you're for it So he was allowed I have no intention of debasing myself with such nonsense as I've already been informed that this board and mr. Martin will selectively not allow me to use a placard So this is my imaginary placard. I want you to close your eyes and imagine these very real numbers The FSA costs roughly $741 per student to administer on average. For Lee County alone, this equates to roughly $69.5 million just for the FSA. This doesn't include all the other tests or the computers to administer them. The FSA alone is approximately twice the amount Mr. Fox's numbers say the half-cent sales tax will raise. Preliminary math, not Common Core math, shows we will need to raise the tax by three cents, not half. I urge this board and Mr. Fox

122to be truthful when talking to folks about this tax. Please drop the half-cent tax initiative and replace it with a three-cent tax initiative or get rid of the tests. On a side note because of some things that went on here today. I want to add You know, I really almost didn't come tonight. I'm not feeling very well I actually have a cracked vertebrae in my neck and the broken off chip is resting on the nerve So I'm in a lot of pain, but I came anyways because that's how important this is I find it disheartening that in my broken state. I have more of a backbone than some of the members on this board Miss LaRiviere and mrs. Fisher You're not gonna like what I have to say when you talk about Having to teach

123inappropriate materials to children and the reasoning that you give is that because some of these children don't have parents to opt them out That make that defies logic. I want you to think about that statement tonight when you go home Really think about what you just said here tonight. It's on to you times. Oh, sir. Thank you miss horse orthodoxy Hi, my name's Mary orthodoxy I'm not standing here representing just myself tonight. I'm representing hundreds and thousands of people across the United States of America. The opt-out movement, the Stop Common Core movement, and parents rising up against this testing. You guys know very well you're hurting our kids. You've all admitted to it over and over. You opted out once before. Tonight we are demanding. We are not asking anymore. We are the boss. We

124are demanding. You do something about this abuse to our children. This testing is disgusting. You know it's disgusting. Twice already we had so-called glitches. Now here's the best kicker of all. Pam Stewart, DOE. All these kids are being stressed to the max, taking tests. These scores are not coming in until December 2015. That's from our state DOE. How are we placing these children for next year? School's out in a month. How are we placing them? What are you doing? What are you going to do, promote them and then bring them back? Because their test scores came in? This is retarded. We are demanding something be done tonight. We're not asking anymore. We employed you to do a job. Get some backbone and do your job. Over and over you've instructed this superintendent to come up

125with options, but you have been derelict in your duties because she never followed through and neither did you. Not one of you up there insisted she follow through. Over a year we're asking you to do this. Shame on every one of you and don't look for our vote when renewal time comes. So orthodox, your time's up ma'am. Ms. Salander. Good evening. I actually came today and I believe it or not had nothing to say today until I got here. My first thing I want to say is when the young lady came over and she talked about the student advisory and the AR, the only thing I heard sitting back there was they had voted on something that had passed unanimously with AR. And as a parent, I'd like to know what she said. I'd like

126to know what was passed and how this would affect my kid who takes AR. And what effect does this student advisory have on my child? Do they get to vote on something? Say, okay, we like this or whatever. We're going to vote on it. Okay, we're going to put this into play. That kind of doesn't sit real well with me because it's come just from students. And I think there needs to be a whole picture. I dislike AR. My son reads. He loves to read. But let me tell you, it's pulling teeth. I've said it time and time again, getting him to take a test. He doesn't want to go in and take another test. Take that 15 minutes they're taking the test, let him sit there and read in the classroom. Then you can

127ensure every kid is reading. You can monitor him that way. The other thing is, I'm for the paper test. I mean... I'm so glad I opted out even though my son would have taken paper test anyway. I feel for all these kids who have had to sit there. Do we know if any of these tests are going to be accurate that are on the computers? No. I'd be livid and personally. I think Pam Stewart owes every single kid who took that FSA an apology for the disaster. No excuse on whose fault it is. Doesn't take a lot to say, I'm sorry. You sat there. You prepped for it. You worried. You had to turn around. Retake it the next day. Simple apology to these kids is needed. It really does. And I think all the

128boards should push for that. The other thing is the sales tax. Everybody's been talking about that. I personally have said, no, I don't want to pay anybody else any more money. I think we need to cut our budget like I do at home. I cut my budget where I need to do, you know, to get my money. Thank you, Ms. Howard. Not everybody can afford $9. Okay, time for board member comments. Ms. Fisher. Well, where to start? I think that... There was nothing passed, Ms. Salander. The student came and gave a report to the board about what the kids passed during their meeting. They made a motion, and we're going to, the superintendent is going to look into the recommendations that were made. So nothing was passed by the board. Okay. Just bring it closer.

129Okay, let's start again. To those who came and spoke, thank you. You're absolutely right. It's time for us to do something, and that is in the works. We are trying to do something. There are times when our hands are tied. I apologize to all the kids, including my grandchildren, for what they've been through. I apologize to my former colleagues for the weeks and weeks that they are spending testing. And I think the paper and pencil test is a good idea because then at least we could do it in one fell swoop in each class and save money. I appreciate all of you caring and all of you coming and being persistent. I personally do support the half-cent sales tax. And I wanted to say something to Sierra. I'll take the test. Okay. I wanted to

130once again compliment Skyline and San Carlos Elementary for their awards as a leader in me, premier school. And I wanted to mention the talent, the teamwork, and the independence shown by the Skyline Show Choir tonight. And Mrs. Albs, if you're still here, from the League of Women Voters. Regarding the health education, health education done right, developmentally appropriately, is not inappropriate. It's totally necessary. And I, as a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, one of my great-grandchildren is the child of a teenage mother. We need it, even in families where we do teach our kids what they need to know. There's peer pressure. There's a lot going on. So we must understand that talking about sex is not inappropriate. And when you do it in a developmental approach, you're not mentioning those words that were a concern

131to younger children. We start out by teaching good, strong health habits, good choices. It's character building, and it's a curriculum that sometimes is created by teachers and is sometimes delivered by school nurses and counselors. It's scientific, it's appropriate, and I support it fully. Thank you. Ms. Dozier. Testing. All this high technology and it doesn't work. Isn't that wonderful? Paper test, absolutely. And I've got a voice big enough that I don't need this microphone. Every one of you from the front of the room to the back of the room could hear me, I assure you, if I don't use this mic. I know that there is concern over testing, and I did receive several emails, and there was someone that said Ms. Hall. Is she still here? Because I sent an email to you. Because I

132forwarded your email to the superintendent. I've been having a little bit of trouble with my email shooting things back saying that my emails are not going out. So if yours was one of those, I apologize. And I had them looking at my email today and something is definitely wrong with my email. So because I try to respond to just about all the emails. unless I know the chair or another board member has responded. As far as the testing, I know that our parents are very concerned. That's an understatement, but I think the students are very concerned. And that's the problem that I have. And not only do we have a problem with the testing, but we also have a problem with the communication. I think that somehow... We are not getting the right information out

133to our parents. And I don't know where the breakdown is. I don't know where the information or how the information is not being disseminated, but something has to be done. Dr. Graham, I'm going to ask you a yes or no question. Is it a fact that the scores for these tests are not going to come in until December? Yes, I correct. Do you want an explanation of why? No, I just want a yes or no. Yes, that's true. Okay. At this time, I would like to make a motion that we drop the use of the 30% towards the student's grade when they are taking these tests. Including the six mandated state tests? Yes. Second. Discussion? Mrs. Dozier? Well, this discussion is very simple. First of all, what's the use in taking the test if the

134students aren't even going to receive a grade? You know, one of the things that we learn as a teacher is immediate reinforcement. How is immediate reinforcement happening when a student is taking a test in April and they're not going to find out how they did on that test? How do you feel about that down there at the end of the table? Do you have a concern over that? I can tell you that obviously I'm going to prefer when I take a test to get my scores back as soon as possible. Absolutely. And I bet most of your teachers, when they give you the teacher-made test, they turn them around pretty quickly. Generally within one or two weeks or even less. I do have a quick question upon your motion. Would it be effective this school

135year? Absolutely. And I hope that my fellow board members will support this and I hope that you will see that basically the fact that the tests are given now, the results don't come until December, these tests are basically useless for anything except diagnostic purposes and we've said that all along that these tests are fine to be used for diagnostic purposes but to use them for high stakes purposes it is ridiculous and and I'm just going to stand on I don't care what anybody says I'm going to continue to vote against these because I don't believe we're doing what is in the best interest of the children I agree with the parents that are here tonight it's time for us to stand up and do something about it no please Other comments? Ms. LaRiviere. Well, I

136have a couple of questions. I know that the, what we all kept calling the FSA, was not going to be coming back to us as far as score-wise until December. Are we saying that the end of course exams for Algebra I, II, Biology, Geometry, American History, and Civics will not be back until December? We're being told that because the tests were never the reliability validity were never tested that they are going to do that in the by the fall and They will then make the cut scores etc etc The only thing we've been told by do e is that we're still expected to do 30% We I've been sitting here listening to all this thinking we need to revisit that that's but do e has not given us any technical assistance on 7069 we have

137moved forward based on what what we believe we can do and not do at this point but they have said that the 30 percent counts if the board chooses to go in this direction then we'll have to figure out how to deal with DOE on that. And correct me if I'm wrong but I thought this afternoon when you discussed this at the briefing at the briefing meeting that you mentioned did you mention that We were something to the effect of discouraging giving letting these count for a grade, but purely for Assess determination of standards He said we said that that was the recommendation for everything except the six EOCs except the six EOCs And that was based on information from DOE Okay Just a deal is crazy Okay, I don't have anything else to ask

138Thank you, mr. Tiber and again, I guess I continue to get confused in Lee County because I've had this discussion with a superintendent Seminole County has gotten rid of all the CCE CCEs and all the the EOCs except for the six required by law Leon County has done the same Miami-dade has actually they're still giving ten the EOC's but all three of them are not counting the 30% and I just wanted to make sure and I and yet nobody in our district seems to understand how many, if the CCEs are done, which EOCs we're not doing. We just don't seem to have the information out there. So I would like to include, you know, make a motion to amend our motion so it's equivocally clear that we disseminate in our community. I mean, every other

139community seems to be able to handle this, and we can't seem to get the information to our teachers. But I only want the motion that the EOCs don't count for a 30%. Our CCEs are done. disseminate that to all of our teachers. A note goes home to all of our parents so our community understands what's going on in Lee County. You know, Leon County is a third our size. Miami-Dade's five times our size. they seem to be able to have it done. And I made that comment to Dr. Graham today that, you know, for some reason, we just can't seem to get it out there. And it just seems to me that it doesn't seem to be an important thing for our superintendent or our district or our board. I don't know what it is,

140but it's sure important to our parents and it's sure important to our community. And we seem to keep getting it wrong ever since November. And I really want us at this board to take an affirmative step to say, this is what we're doing. This is what we support. This is what we expect. And so that news press can finally put something on the front page that's actually correct for a change above the fold and not have to correct it three days later on paragraph on page 3A to say they made a mistake. So this time we'll tell it to them completely. They can get it right. And hopefully we can actually move forward as a district and a community. I'm going to ask you, Dr. Graham, to please clarify exactly what we are doing and

141what has been communicated to the schools. We communicated to all the principals last Thursday at their monthly principals meeting exactly what the options were, that there would be no more. If a child took an EOC in any subject area, there would be no other assessment expected of them. for the end of the term. If they did not take an EOC, a teacher identified assessment would be chosen and that's all about the VAM which was not removed from the law. And so we have committed that we will develop a VAM score regardless of what the teacher selects. We weren't tying them to the CCEs. The CCE remains an option if they want to use it but there is no requirement to use it. So we have for all intents and purposes because we're not thinking too

142many of them will use the CCE we have given them the option to eliminate them. The only thing that continues to be required are the EOCs. We did not remove the grade element from the EOCs because there's nothing to indicate that we can based on what DOE says. We are trying to follow the department that we're expected to follow. Again, if the board chooses to go in this direction, then we'll have to deal with DOE on that. I will tell you, it was communicated to principals. I was very bothered to hear that a teacher stood up tonight and said she wasn't told. That's a problem. But it was communicated. It was communicated to principals. And I have to believe that they were going to share that information with their staff. And I will check on

143that in the morning because it doesn't make sense to me that teachers wouldn't know this by now. Did not do a press release. Did not go on Twitter. Didn't do any of those things. I believed it was the schools. I just think the communication sometimes is better when the school shares it with the parents. But if we needed to do a parent link, I... I will take the hit that I didn't make a major public news about this. And if that was a mistake, I apologize. But we got on it. The minute that law was signed, we began to look at that law and determine what tests we could eliminate. And that's what we've done. We have done nothing different than the counties that you name, except that we didn't publicize it appropriately, apparently. So

144the information's out there. I can tell you tomorrow. If it's not already, it'll be on the website. It'll be a parent link. And part of the confusion initially, I believe, is people have used CCE and EOC interchangeably. We did say, unless it was an EOC, we strongly encourage no grade attached to it. But it's going to be difficult for these to be diagnostic at this point because we aren't going to have the scores. And that's about reliability and validity. So what we're using to answer somebody's question, what are we using, since we're not going to have those scores, we're using the progress monitoring that we've been using all year. That's how we will make decisions about what courses children will take and placement and all those things. And if a child is... is promoted to,

145because the big concern is from third grade to fourth grade, that's where everybody's concerned. We made a decision at the beginning of this year, and this was communicated, that there would be, no one would go to fourth grade. and then be pulled back based on test scores. We have been working with parents and working on portfolios of those children that are in any form at risk. Parents have been informed and a portfolio, because that's one of the options, there are good cause ways to promote a child without test scores. That's all in place. Apparently what I have not done well is communicate out loud that we're doing our job. I just want to clarify we're doing the same things that those other three counties are doing but they also have drops the 30 percent. This

146is the first I've heard that I will work on all that first thing in the morning. I've been taking copious notes and I did I did get confirmation that both Miss Coots and Mr. Martin have confirmed that EOC according to well. I looked at Mr. Martin. But what we've been told, and the DOE is the only person, the only entity that we've asked about the grade association, and they still believe it should count for 30%. And I would tell you, based on not having those scores, I understand the frustration. Other discussion? Oh, yes, Carson. I have a question. Being in April 28th and I know that a lot of teachers have their finals planned if that 30% is attached a lot of teachers are using that as their final being it so late in the

147year if you were to drop that 30% it bothers me a little bit to to ask teachers to create a final for their entire year course within two weeks for some seniors or three weeks for for other students and I think that's something you should consider and We have told teachers if there is an EOC That's the only assessment thing the kids are going to take because we don't want them to have to take another one because what's gone on in the past the EOCs are early and all the concerns make sense the EOCs are as early as they are because it takes time to get them all through because they're not paper-based I mean I understand everything everybody's saying we continue to work within the parameters that were given if if we now say

148there's no grain We're gonna have to do something to so the kids have you know, Carson's right So now what we are saying is that they will then have to take another assessment. Or the teacher grades the EOC. Which is, you know, I understand. And you need to know I'm not arguing with anything that's been said. I'm just giving you the facts as they are right now. Mr. Martin. Yes, let me clarify the state of the law on the issue subject of this motion after the passage of 7069. The statute which requires state... State required end of course assessments to count as 30% of the grade for that course is still in existence. You will not find that addressed in the bill because the bill document addresses portions of statute that are added or deleted.

149And sometimes when a portion of the statute is deleted, only that portion is included in the bill. But the statute, which is 1003.4282, that contains the language requiring 30% of the grade to come from that end-of-course assessment for state-required EOCs still exists. Thank you. Mrs. Dozier. I have a question for you also, Mr. Martin. If, in fact, we don't get the grades until December, We have seniors that are going to be taking tests. So if we don't get their scores on the test that they're taking until December, how can we use it? for 30% of their grade. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. That's a fair question. Well, the only advice I can give you is what's in the statute. So therefore, my motion still, I think, would override the state statute because it

150is absolutely ludicrous that you have students that are taking tests and they're not going to get any grade on that test. until December and there's probably I would say a big percentage of the kids that are good. I mean, I'm thinking 11 high schools. I'm thinking approximately maybe 200 kids per high school. I mean look how many look how many 13 high schools. Excuse me. Look how many kids we're talking about. So I just got word on one one clarification seniors are not included in this. We're having, excuse me, we're having a conversation up here amongst ourselves. Is that according to DOE? You are inappropriate, so please be quiet while we have our conversation up here. Mrs. Coots just sent a message. Seniors are not, they don't have to meet the 30% requirement for the

151EOC does not go into there, so it's not going to impact graduation. Okay. That doesn't but it doesn't negate the point that the stooges making I understand that but seniors are not out of the mix Thank you I asked these when several of us are asking these questions that doesn't mean we're not going to agree with the motion We're just asking some questions first of all one There is no way that a teacher can grade the EOC themself is there Because once it goes into that portal and it gets sent off, we don't have access to it, correct? Correct. So there's no way a teacher could even grade it to get it. Thank you. Other comments? Well, I suppose teachers could do other things. They could assign a project. They could average out all of

152the grades for the year. I mean, there's so many things that you can do because our teachers are smart and creative, and they know what to do if we untie their hands and let them do it. So I mean I did not know that the scores were not coming back until December. What I've said this before. What are we doing. What are we doing. We do have to stop. Thank you Mrs. Dozier for making that motion. Could I hear the motion again please. You have a motion to amend on the floor at this time. There was not a second. Motion was to. And based upon, I believe Dr. Graham clarified the point that we have done and are doing everything these other counties are doing. The only thing that probably we didn't do was as

153good of a cheerleader as we should have been. Dr. Graham admitted that she's going to do what she can to rectify it. I'm going to withdraw my motion at this point. I think that Dr. Graham is doing what she needs to do if we give her the direction to do it. So that being the case we're back to the main motion because this motion is not based upon a recommendation that was on the agenda There's a requirement in policy and in statute to provide an opportunity for comment on this board member motion Yes, mrs. Dozier and I know that when you have to have comment on something because it wasn't on the agenda I would just ask everybody in the room if they agree with this motion, if you would stand up if you're a

154parent or a, on the motion that was made here at the table just now. Yes. To drop the use of 30% towards student grades and only use the test for diagnostic purposes. Okay, thank you. You'll still need to provide the opportunity, Ms. Morgan. Everyone may decline. That's fine. Is there anybody on the right side of the auditorium who wishes to address this motion? Just a minute, Mr. Dreykorn. Let me ask anybody on the left side. All right. So I'm going to ask you one at a time, starting in the front row, to stand up and please state your name. Hold on. I can't write that fast. Kathleen, why don't you just let them stand up and line up over there. That'd be the easiest and most. Yeah. Fine. So we'll start with Mr. Dreykorn. The

155lineup behind him. I support what the board's discussion has been on this. It doesn't make any sense for our students to be impacted by grades that not only are not going to be timely, but are also not validated with reliability. As some of you are familiar, I also have a doctorate of education. I have a lot of expertise in instrumentation of examinations. The measure is called a Chromeback Alpha. It's assessed by every question of every examination. If it doesn't load up right, what has to be done is the question has to be reformed and the answers, the choices of answers, have to be reformed. So whatever we gave the kids, if it doesn't come back with the right Chromeback Alpha level, will not be relevant going forward, right? So we just made our kids guinea

156pigs to validate the test. I think what we should do at best is consider this round practice. Thank you. I'm pointing at you because I'm waiting for the green light. All right, there we go. I'm not going to talk to you about Chromebook alphas. Please state your name. Kathleen Jasper. I want to thank, first, I didn't get a chance to say this before, but I want to thank Dr. Graham and I want to thank the board for not putting in any kind of intimidation tactics in place for kids who wanted to opt out. The whole book reading thing was a huge It was good for our kids so that they didn't have to sit there and we appreciate that. I'm asking you today to go further and do what's right. A year ago, you guys

157said that you were going to have a plan in place. You opted out in August and it was rash, although I was very, very happy that you had opted out. You said that you wanted a plan before you went any further. We haven't seen anything yet. And while you have done... the whole opting out of district eocs and i understand that it's frustrating when people interchange cces and eocs but you got to understand these people don't know they're the community they're just hearing tests and acronyms that they have no idea what they're talking about so they're confused and it's because there's so many tests dropping the 30 today is the right thing to do. This is something that you can do today that would be right for our kids. We've been begging you guys to

158do something like this. We know you're not going to opt out of all state assessments. We understand that you have an obligation as a board, but this is something that you can do today. I just want to end with, I withdrew my daughter from Lee County Schools this year. I thought leaving my job in this county was going to be the hardest thing I ever did. Withdrawing my student, my daughter, from public education was the hardest thing I've ever done. When you fix this, when you stop this, when you put the stopwatches away and you stop... assessing our students the way that's happening. I will be the first one in line to re-enroll my daughter in this county because I believe in public education. But I cannot subject my kindergartner to timed reading assessments and

159what's happening in these schools. And I'm asking you today to take a step forward and do the right thing. Lucky for you, I'm still an education activist even though my daughter is not in public education. But I'm just asking you to do the right thing today. 30% is excessive and it needs to be taken away. This is one step that you can do to make this happen for us, for our schools. Please, please do the right thing. Thank you. Green light, okay. Jill Castellano, I spoke earlier, and I'm a teacher, and I just want to address a couple things because there's a lot of things being thrown around tonight. Yesterday, I met with my principal, and he showed me an email, I believe that was sent by Dr. Spiro, to the principals, at least to

160secondary principals, about... The CCEs and these different things to do with HB 7069 and we met yesterday because he wanted to call a faculty meeting today and as I am the Talc rep he had used his two meetings and he said would it be okay to call that meeting and he made it very very clear that our students are taking the EOC that the students who are taking the EOC which is the end of course exam based on the Florida standards which is why it's called FSA because it's a Florida standards assessment. These are our standards that we teach the same standards that people think of as the next generation SunSight State. standards. Those students taking a Florida standard assessment and of course exam, and I believe it's six subject areas, do not now have

161to take an additional final exam or an additional CCE. CCEs are the district common course exams that we use as progress monitoring, and for courses where there is not a state assessment, that's where they were calculating our VAM from. He then explained that any of us who have a CCE, I am a world history teacher, I teach pre-AP world history, that I have the option to give my kids the world history honors course exam that the district developed or I have the option to give my students. A teacher standards-based exam the last day of school, the last time I would see my students. And so he is giving us the option. He's just asking us to notify him once our PLCs have come to a collective decision, which is the directive I gave my department

162as a department head, that to sit in your PLCs and make a decision as a team what's best for you and what's best for your students, and then submit it to me so that I can submit it to my principal as soon as possible so that we can communicate that to the district. I think there's a lot of miscommunication going around between these EOCs and these CCEs. And I think that instead of attacking our board, we need to ask these questions and make sure that we are 100% informed because it is confusing. But that information was communicated to my teachers in my school immediately today. And we were informed by our APC and our principal that our seniors would not be affected by some of these concerns. So I think that, you know, I know

163that these are great questions and great conversations, but I think we need to give everybody time to review these laws and find our place before we jump to rash decisions. I don't agree with so much being tied to testing because it does hurt the students and it does hurt me, but to make some of these rash decisions and be accusatory doesn't solve the problem. There's a lot going on that we all need to fix, but we need to do it together, and I think we need to come together and not attack. other so much thank you our schools are screwed up we have two choices we either have to fix the schools or we have to get our children out of the schools we cannot afford to waste a generation with an experiment that has

164failed we know the FSA's have not been validated we know that they are data mining our children with the computers. We know that to spend our tax money on computers one-to-one ratio, it would be a bazillion dollars. Not happening. So why are we doing this testing at all when paper and pencil testing has worked forever? And we know what the questions are. We don't have to guess. We've got it in our hands. We can check the papers. We can keep the papers. We can use it to inform our students. Why are we using the computer testing at all? Please opt out of the entire thing. It is wrong. And you know it's wrong. It's an unfunded mandate we can ill afford. It's not working for the children. Your job is to be our champion. I

165want you to opt out of computer testing at all. If you want to do your end of course tests, let the teachers do a final exam of their choosing. Whatever. The teachers are smart. They know how to do these things. Let the teachers teach. They are... certified and the schools are accredited if the legislature has a problem with that they should work on those two things and let you do your job it's got to be the parents and the local districts who are in charge local control is what we need take it it's yours do the job thank you so much Evening. Bonnie Kennard-Margolin again. I have the language that I was speaking to you about, the same language that was used in the other counties in order to remove the 30%. Before I read

166it, though, I do want to clarify it's obvious that I was misunderstood. I was not blaming our administration. I received great information from Dr. Itzen's office. The reason I was concerned that that information wasn't transmitted to me as a teacher is because when I asked Dr. Itzen's office why I did not receive that test information, The response I received, and I quote, was, your union president was at that meeting. So I did read it on our union Facebook page, but we just simply wanted this in clarification. As far as the testing rules, and I'm looking at http://laws.frrules.org 2015-6. If our understanding is correct, the new law no longer requires EOCs to be calculated at 30% of the student's grade. According to the law sections, as you read, Mr. Martin, 1003.4156 and .4282 govern the use

167of EOCs. See page 7. In the nine times at 4282 and the three times that the previous one, 4156, are mentioned in this new bill, the 30% mandate is never attached to the EOCs. Although the 2014 law required that 30% of the students' course grade and it was derived from the statewide EOCs, we are fairly certain that there is no reason to presume that it is now the same weighting applied to this new 2015 bill further if you look at the bill the language of the 30% is specifically stricken each time it appears in the bill twice on page 7 and once on page 28 it would be great greatly appreciated if you would confirm this and although some would like it tabled and for us to think about it I am a parent. My

168daughter is in this county, and we don't have time to wait. You don't meet until long after EOCs, and our children need answers now. So that is my request. Thank you. Lori Fahey. And those notes are on my phone, and I only have about 5% battery left. So someone could pull that up online and be able to read it directly from that. I don't, hopefully you all know I haven't been attacking anyone. I've been sending emails on this all week. I've been studying the statutes. I've been doing everything I can to educate myself and others. The kids are hurting. We had reports today that children who took this EOC that they're calling an FSA, you know, the acronyms are killing me, but it's basically what these parents are saying is this test was created by

169the company AIR, and that's why there's an issue with it. The reports we're receiving back from... Other districts where they have taken this, the children have been able to answer up to three. Excuse me. Thank you. Okay, they've only been able to answer up to three of 38 questions. That's a problem. These tests have not been validated. Everybody knows that. I'm not going to go on a tangent there, but I think parents get concerned because I know the district is a business. But the bottom line is we don't get that. We need information. And we need to have it like everybody else. Put it in the newspaper on the front page. We just passed a vote tonight for the news press to get a $100,000 contract. Is that correct? Just for this purpose. Please let

170us know. And I'm very concerned that we saw union members up tonight talking and telling you to vote for the half-penning tax instead of trying to get rid of the testing, which is breaking our bank. We can't afford the testing. Hi, let me start off by saying I think it's... That Robin Williams is not present because he would have gone into a good morning Vietnam rant about the acronyms that have been passed this evening by the board members throughout the entire meeting as well as individuals that have been coming up and speaking. We have to be considerate of the fact that there are a lot of new parents that are coming into the system that do not know what these acronyms mean or they're moving in from out of the area. So I caution you,

171please watch your acronyms and at least make sure that you... state what they mean at least once in the course of the evening. Having said that, let me go on to another section. I am a cognitive skills trainer. By definition that means that I repair the hard drives of people's brains while school teachers work on installation of software. The importance that I look at here is We're so busy focusing on the software that we're not taking into consideration the hard drive. And the hard drive right now has crashed. Okay? It is a physical impossibility to attribute a score, 30%, to a test that does not have a result yet. It's not possible. So why is it not possible for this school board to determine that that child sitting in the seat And doing the activity,

172whether it's opting out or whether it's actual participation, is not equivalent to a hundred percent. Hello. Put that into your 30% calculation. Maybe it would be better to just get the 30% off the table altogether. Looking at these things from a lawyer's point of view, because that happens to be what my profession is, or I usually call myself a recovering lawyer, although I am a health care specialist, you still look at physical impossibility. And you're dealing with the physical impossibility here. It sort of makes it an irrelevant issue. 0, you know, what are you going to give them? 0% because you don't have a grade? 0% for 30%? Really? So no. The logical assumption is you take it off the table. Now I hesitate to bring this up for fear that someone's going to take

173me up on this, but should you guys decide that you need to table this? Do not hesitate to wait until the four-week time period to come back here. This is the reason why we have emergency hearings. So if you cannot feel that in good conscience that you can vote tonight on this, and I would encourage you to do it in concert with what Ms. Dozier has recommended, please hold an emergency hearing. Trust me, we will be back. Thank you. Mrs. Dozier, thank you. Because of your words, we're having this discussion, and I think that's a wonderful thing. This is how our democracy works. Don't believe anybody's attacking anybody in fact I'd like to thank you for the discussion because this is only going to better our school district So in looking at the 30% I

174think we've all agreed that the results are going to come in very late I think obviously teachers cannot keep their grades open May June July August September October November December Parents, how would you like to get an incomplete for about seven or eight months? We'll see in December. Of course, we can't do that. So the question is, what can we do? And I think we have a motion and a discussion that we can't use the 30% this year, and I think the discussion should be then, are we going to do this for the entire future or just this year? Does it make sense to see, or does it make sense to make this a motion for good? And I'm glad we're having these discussions with what everybody else is doing, because I think it's wonderful.

175There shouldn't be a discussion about using the 30% Because obviously we can't send report cards home in May or June and say incomplete So this is a no-brainer So outside of that the question then becomes will this be permanent or will it be one year at a time? Thank you very much Is it on? Thank you. Yeah. I support your motion, Ms. Dozier. I think it's a good idea. I think the whole testing thing is way out of whack. And it's time for Tallahassee to admit they really don't know what they're doing. Be frank and just get out there. They really don't. I would like to see a board take it one step further, though, and put its foot down and give the state one day at the end of each quarter to do their

176testing. Say we'll give you one day whatever it is you want on paper send the test will administer it will grade it will send it back to you They right now as it stands. I think it's five percent. They're trying to change it to five percent which equivalents to I don't know nine days Whatever it's just too much all of it's just too much give them one day send the test down Give it to them and be done with it. Thank you. Good evening First of all, I have something to say. I know you guys are busy looking at your screen and thinking, but as you're doing that, these two are pow-wowing. We've had this discussion before. Mr. Martin is the lawyer for the board, not her personal attorney. And again, I'm going to recommend

177that we split these two up. I am sick of it. Now, if we're going to give information to our board members, we're going to give accurate information, are we not, Ms. Graham? How could they not know? that these test results are not coming in until December, that they're all sitting here shocked tonight. Had I not said something, as sick as I was, I almost did not come here tonight. Now I'm grateful I did. How could you not know this? And again, our children are paying the price. I urge you to go with Mrs. Dozier's motion. I urge you to opt these kids out of the computerized testing. Go back to pencil and paper. Let the teachers grade them. Are you aware that our tests are going out to Utah? This test we paid $2 million

178for, 77% failure rate out in Utah. So that's what we're looking at. That's okay with you? That's not in the best interest of our children. We didn't employ you to hurt our kids and play politics because of Tallahassee. And that's what's happening here. For a year we have been in here begging. begging you to do something before we got to this stage. So no, we're not attacking somebody. You have failed us, each one of you. And you have allowed this woman to mislead you. Why? Why are you doing this to our children? It's inexcusable. I cannot forgive this. Because we have begged over and over and over, and we have given you statistics over and over and over. And each one of you sat there. Nothing. You've instructed her to do stuff. She never has

179the answers. It's amazing. But she's always going to get them for you. But we have failed to see the answers. And you've allowed her to get away with this. At our children's expense. So shame on each one of you. Is there any other public comment? Is there any further discussion? Mr. Martin? Do you have anything you want to add? I'll be happy to address a statutory issue if you like, but my advice is still the same as to what the statute requires. I can give further explanation based on the comments if that's desired, but... No, okay. Thank you. Dr. Graham? I'm concerned, and that's going to make everybody really angry. I'm concerned this is happening quickly. I think... I think we may be in the same conundrum we were in last August in that there

180will be ramifications, possible ramifications. I don't know what they are. Didn't know this was coming tonight, or I would have been able to give you that information. If you choose to do it, then we will deal with what we have to deal with, but we are still under the authority of the Department of Education, and I think I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't at least say that. At this point the board's going to make the decision they're going to make but I the powwow was me Affirming from mr. Martin that indeed it wasn't any different than before that we are at risk as a district other board comment well, I just go along back with the same piece that if we will not have the Results back until December there. There's no

181way we can put a grade on the report card Oh, so that's what would happen is we'd hold the final grade. Excuse me. Please. Please. Okay. Thank you. Other comments? Mr. Toiber. I agree with Mr. Martin. I read the 65 pages. It specifically says that the 30% counts. But at some point, and we talked about in August, you know, we jumped. We didn't have a plan. We went through the whole process. We gave them the opportunity. This is what we get we have no pragmatic way of getting a score, you know back you know, in August, we said we're going to jump and we're just going to, we didn't have a plan. Well, now we have a plan. We can give our teachers the ability to finish up this year, get a grade in. It's

182not the best solution. You know, I speak into our student advisor here. You know, he seems it's pretty nonsensical. So we're taking an exam that doesn't count. And so now we've got a 30% void in our grade. He doesn't like it any more than we like it but I'd rather have a 30% void and have our teachers the responsibility of filling out a pragmatic way to fill that void and to come up with a solution where our children are not being penalized by a test that's according to anybody that... even myself who doesn't have that type of background or authorities that I, you know, thank you for Dr. Dricorn for his, you know, his intuitive analysis that it's true. We don't have a validated test to put our kids in harm's way. So at this

183point, I'm going to support Ms. Dozier and send a message that, look, we gave you a chance. We went through the whole legislative process. You gave us a solution that is not. by our speaker's definition, a workable, feasible solution. So we're going to fill the gap. You come back and do it better. Or like I said before, when this legislative session finally rests, which will now be in June, I will be imploring this board for us to go back to say, look, we know Massachusetts was the number one in the country for English. They teach traditionally. We can go grab that program right off the shelf. Those tests, nationalized tests, there's a whole host of them we can pick. We can do stuff that is as rigorous as what we're getting now because we have

184no idea what this rigor is. All we know is them to say, trust us, it's going to be good. I don't know if that's going to work, and I'm not really for it. So that's a discussion for a later day. But for this one to fill this gap, I think it's incumbent on this board to support Ms. Dozier's action and for us to do something that we may not be totally legal, but again, when something's impossible legality-wise, I think it's going to be their decision to say go and do it because, again, what's the solution? There is no grade. So I'll support this. Other comment? Mrs. Fisher. Yeah, I just have one more question. When, if we don't count the 30%, okay, because 30% of nothing is nothing anyway, but what would be the impact

185on the grade point average of our secondary students? Ultimately we'd have to wait until those scores came in and so for we have other excuse me we have other elements like I said the progress monitoring teacher recommendation and other ways to place the children but we we can't make up a grade. Was that your intention Mrs. Dozier? My intention was to not use the test, to eliminate the 30%, let the teacher use what she needs to use to qualify whether or not that student passed or failed. Our teachers are intelligent enough, and I heard the young man over here say that, you know, teachers only having... Carson, I think you said only two weeks for seniors, blah, blah, blah. Well, most of our teachers already have. They've got a drawer full of exams. I'm going

186to tell you that. I know they do. I mean, good teachers, they've got a drawer full, okay? And I'm not... Please don't think that I'm being ugly to you because you're just happened to be the student that I'm talking to right now And I appreciate your input on what you gave to us on this issue and I think that that what we are doing right now will send a very clear message and the message is enough is enough and the to for anyone to just be satisfied with giving a test and the results not coming in and they're supposed to count for 30% but not come in until December is absolutely that's insanity you know so let them come and get me let them do whatever they want to do because I'm going to stand

187on this motion I'm at the point where you know last year we were opting out As I begin to look at it, I think we should have stepped on that and we should have stood on it, and I regret that we didn't. I'm going to finish my comments after we take the vote. I'd like to move that we go ahead and call the question. Could I just have... Nope. No. I just want somebody... She called the question. I just want somebody to say the motion in detail again. The motion to call the question requires a two-third majority. We have a motion to call the question. You have to wait for a second. Second. All in favor? Aye. So, now. Mr. I'm sorry. Mr. Martin, would you please read the motion? The motion, as I understand

188it, is not to include the results of the state end-of-course assessments and the calculation of grades at the 30% that's required by statute. I'm simply 0% is my understanding of the motion. Is that correct, Mrs. Dozier? Yes. Basically, the test will not count except for diagnostic purposes. All in favor? Aye. Would the tests still be administered? Yeah. I mean, they're already giving them right now is my understanding. Some of the students have already taken some of these tests. And what we are doing is protecting the students that have already taken tests. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 5-0. If I can now. Proceed with your comments. Thank you. And I will try to be brief. One of the things that, if nothing else, we should have learned a lesson

189tonight, that we should have been, instead of having workshops on some of the stuff that we've been having workshops and briefings on, we should have been talking about testing. We should have been talking about what we are going to do in the event that something like this, this scenario. In fact, one of the things that I always try to do is anticipate what the end is in an action that I am taking. And I think as a board, we need to do a better job of that. Shame on me for not knowing that these results were not coming in until December. I don't know. That's a piece of information that I would have liked to have received, but that was not a piece of information that I had, and shame on me for not seeking

190it out. I would ask the chairman that we put something on the burner for, and not put it on the back burner, but a front burner about. testing and how we are going to do our plan, what we're going to do with the standards, are we going to use technology, are we going to revert to paper and pencil, what is in the best interest of our students. I think we have five collective heads here with the superintendent. We can make some decisions ourselves. And I think that we need to pull in some of the teachers, we need to pull in some of the parents, and we need to find out some of the experiences that they've gone through. Pardon me? And the students. And the students, absolutely. And I think that we need to, I

191think this would be something that would be important for us to do right away. I was very alarmed when I heard somebody say that a response that they received was, your president was at that meeting. Just because the president of the union is at a meeting, we all know that the majority of a great... many of our teachers are not part of the union and they don't get the information that is disseminated against the by the union so if they don't even get the information then how are they supposed to get it if they're not a member of the union so that really really sent up a red flag because that tells me that if we are saying okay well you know, you can get that from your union president. Well, if you're not a

192member of the union and you don't have access to the information that they are disseminating, then unless you hear it out in the hall or hear it in the teacher's lounge or hear it in the bathroom, you may not get that information. So, you know, for these teachers, some of them to say they didn't know, maybe that's why they didn't know certain things. As far as us talking about acronyms and EDUEs, that's one of the things that I have said. I remember sitting at this board table many times. saying that parents don't understand about EOCs and SECs and I have repeatedly asked staff that we don't talk in acronyms because that is not the daily language that parents use and we should be talking in an education. format that our parents can understand and for

193us to sit here and talk like that in fact I'm sure Mr. Toybar I know is at the table When I asked the night this and I can't remember how recently I asked this but you know We should have if we're going to use acronyms before we use the acronym We should always have a definition of what that is or tell the public what it is And that's one of the things that anytime I have anything that comes before me and it has an acronym in it And we haven't got an explanation. I always ask that we put an explanation in there for the very reason that everybody doesn't understand what we do. And I don't know how we have lost that. I also need to announce publicly that I will not be supporting any

194more job descriptions if they are not briefed at the table first. Okay, I had someone ask about the Student Advisory Council, and I did call it the Student Advisory Council, not the SAC, S-A-C. The little girl, Echo Carland, she is the elected chairman of that committee by that group of students. The advisory is composed of students that are in the middle school and in the high school. They had to write essays of what... contribution they could bring to the table. And then they discuss different educational issues that are affecting them and after they discuss them, if they want to make a motion to bring to the table, they can do that. Just because they bring it to the table, then we look at it and we determine what we need to do with it. The

195motion about the AR testing was, and it was really, it was a great discussion among the kids because the kids were talking about teen biz and they were talking about the AR and they were saying that sometimes they were restricted and they were not allowed to read higher books even though their reading level was high, they were restricted. And, you know, to give them more of an opportunity to have a, in the selection process, that was part of the concern. Another part of the concern was if the students are using team biz and they read, and team biz, they're reading articles and they're supposed to be like current event articles. And the program is such that if you have a reader that's on this level, a reader on this level, and a reader on this

196level, when they key in their number, it automatically knows what that student's reading level is and it will give all three of those students the same content but it will be written in a different format. For this student the vocabulary will not be as intense as the student that's at a higher grading level. But the aha for me was when the student said why can't we discuss these after we do them. Well If we are having the students read things and then we're not discussing them, then are we trying to teach the students just to improve their reading? Are we trying to teach them about absorbing the content? And I know that we constantly talk about present day skills. you know, the skills you're going to use out in the real world. Well, when you're

197in the job market and your boss tells you to do something, usually you talk about or you have some prior knowledge as to why that is happening. And if we are not talking about this with our students, then I think that that's something that was very clear for me that we definitely need to have. And, you know, I don't want to be micromanaging teachers, but like I told some... some of the students, I would guarantee that there are probably some of the students that are having these discussions and maybe some teachers aren't just because they're behind in subject matter or something like that, but they need to realize that that is definitely a concern of students. And with that, that's all I have, thank you. Mr. Toivre. Thank you. You know, it's funny when... I

198was opposed to opting out back in August because we didn't have a plan, and I wanted to go through the process. I was aware that the test grades weren't going to come back until December, but I was unaware. I thought when we got rid of the EOCs that because all the time up in Tallahassee, everybody that I spoke to is, it's not going to count this year. It's not going to count this year. And so I thought, okay, well, then let them take it for diagnostic purposes, but it's not going to count. So I was shocked about the 30%. I still saw that it was in state law, and I really applaud Ms. Dozier because we said we're going to make a stand, and we were going to do it after the Senate got over

199and gave them the chance. But as far as I'm concerned, it's over because they passed the law. So I guess the timing is right. And I also applaud Ms. Dozier because we also not just have to look at testing, but we have to look at if we're going to do testing, testing is just the end of the material that we learn. So if we're going to take a look at our testing, I think we also need to take a look at the whole, you know, and. you can call it Common Core Florida Standards, I don't care what you do, but it's all together. I think we really need to look at our content delivery, how we assess our delivery, and what we're teaching our kids. And if we're going to really take that, you know,

200as a group, I really applaud us for doing that, and I think that this group is willing to do that. And even the conversations, you know, I've had repeated conversations with Dr. Graham, and she is already working with me. Mr. Martin and working with her staff because she knows it's coming and and she has been doing some backward work too So I appreciate that with Dr. Graham First thing I want to talk about was with I know that mr. Valent is not well And so I appreciate him coming here two things number one the agenda the entire agenda is online You can pull up the whole thing but for your edification because he wasn't here and you didn't know that and I know you're not feeling well that particular item for the $30,000 were to

201follow up items. The first one was a purchase rec from Creative Sound and Lighting from Cape Coral. It was to purchase audio-visual for Fort Myers. There was actually a bid that would take the bid over. $25,000 mark so that bid was for $15,000 to finish up a job at Fort Myers High. The second job was from the maintenance department as well from Carroll Air Systems that was for Dakin AV unit ventilators and again that bid went over $25,000. It was a $15,000 addition to finish up a job at also at Fort Myers Senior High. So that's what those two were. The continuation of jobs both local vendors and and that was there available to you. I just want to talk real quick. One thing, I know it's late, on the sales tax. We talked about

202the sales tax initiative last night, earlier today, and I just want to talk to everybody. My point that I was talking about when we talked about the reduction in the capital, moving money from operating to capital, was just that we're moving forward and we're not sure if we go for a sales tax and it doesn't happen. Where does that leave us? What's the other side of the coin? And that's the same thing that Ms. Dozier talked about when we talked about we gave it to the legislature, but what was our plan B? If they didn't fix it, what do we do? And we didn't address it. Now we're going to address it. All I ask for the sales tax initiative is I think it's a good option to give the people the choice. This is

203what we're going to do. But I think we need to tell people if you don't pass it. This is what we have to do. We're going to cut our budget in this way, and it's going to have to do some, you know, we're not going to get the same services. And, you know, I bring it back to people when they talk about city taxes. You don't want to raise the taxes? Okay, well, just tell them. Then you're going to take your own garbage to the dump. You're not, you know, you're going to have this much delayed service for fire and EMS. I mean, those are the realities of what it's going to be. So, you know, we charge Dr. Graham, and she's going to get to us in the next two weeks. We actually added

204an action meeting for the 12th, so people think we're not going to wait until the 12th. It's this important. We're going to come back on the 12th. We're going to say she's going to put together a plan that if we don't have any other revenue source, and that was before we learned about the cancer creating water because that would be a great revenue source, but if we can't get the cancer water down here fast enough and we don't get our sales tax, this is what... the superintendent's going to recommend. This is how we're going to get from here to there. And she's going to give us the ramifications in what she's going to do, how she's going to move dollars, and how it's going to impact our system. So now we know that we can

205actually say that's what's going to happen. And she may come back with a plan, and we say, well, that's going to really work. And so we're good with that. It's not probably as painful as we think, but we don't think that's going to be the case. Then we can go together as a board and say, now we can go in good... Conscience to our district and say this is what we you know We think that sales tax is a good idea if you support it you do if you don't this is what's gonna be the result And so and at that point I said I would support it Because again, I think that gives us the the option B that we that we're lacking That's all I have to say and thank you board. I

206think we did some really Smart decisions, but I appreciate the efforts of the board Thank you, Carson, for being here and providing input. We really do appreciate it when our student reps do that. Thank you. I have to address Mr. Valente's comment to me about not showing any backbone. When I campaigned, when people asked me the question about how I felt, I spoke very honestly. No, then you must not have been where we had those pieces because I said I believed that we needed to have something in place. And one time that it was really something that created a little bit of a disturbance was when we had our meeting with the Libertarian. group when we were called for a forum. So I will share that privately sometime. If you would like to know a

207lot of the reason behind why I believe in it, I will share all of that with you. I'm a very conservative in many ways, maybe not in every way that somebody else is. I'm a very conservative Christian. In our household, everything is based on biblical values. But when I speak, I have to stop and think about all situations. And if things had been done a little bit differently, in my case, we just need to think about every child. And sometimes it may not make everybody happy, but we have to do what we can. to help our kids. And part of the whole concept with the comprehensive health program is also developing the confidence in our students to take a stand for what they do believe in and to have the confidence and the wherewithal so

208that they are able to stand on their own two feet and not be coerced into anything. And I believe in that very, very deeply. I have to say I'm very, and it's, I don't know how we're going to get our legislature to listen because we do need to make some changes with those. And of course exams, especially with the seventh grade civics assessment, it is absolutely ludicrous. And I would venture to say that many of our legislators, and including myself, would not be able to pass that with flying colors. It's very extensive and teachers and everyone is very, very frustrated over that piece. So I want you to know that, yes, there are many of us that do hear that and we care about it. And again, with regard to the possibility of a half-cent

209tax referendum, our goal is to share the status of our schools. And our goal is to share where we are and what needs to happen, where we are. And then you as a voter can decide what you want to do. Just because we believe, if we as a board decide the referendum needs to go forward, that does not necessarily mean that we are going to go on that vote and vote for that half-cent sales tax. But we believe that the community needs to be aware of where we are and they need to decide how we want to address it. Thank you. Mr. Young. Thank you. When I first got here and watched the show choir, I thought that would be the most entertaining thing I saw all evening. I stand corrected. Okay, moving on. The

210decision made by the board tonight is one that will affect all students. I do think it is a little reckless, but overall it is probably the right thing to do. One thing I really want to stress, because when we opted out in August, this was an issue is communication. What's going to happen next? Our principals and our teachers really need to know because we talk about how these tests stress students out. Well, when we make decisions that might be a little rash like this, it causes just as much stress. You guys know that. So that's something we really need to consider and we need to be effective with our communication to the administration at all the schools and the teachers and the students. Moving on from that I had some comments I would waiting all

211evening to make but uh, I'd like to thank dr Spyro and dr Graham and board for allowing me to be here tonight and for supporting the superintendent student advisory council Which is what I serve on and which is why I'm here I think it's pivotal that students are involved in understanding of what happens here at the district level if not for anything else simply because These meetings which we might sometimes forget they're ultimately about students So it's important to keep that in mind. Real quick, I'll talk about some things that are happening at my school. It is election week for student government at our school. It's very exciting. I'm the head of the elections committee tomorrow. We will have campaigning in the courtyard where we set up a whole bunch of tables and all of

212our candidates come out with tri-fold boards and they talk to all the students during lunchtime. They'll walk around and they get to talk to all the students about why they think they should be voted for and should hold an office in student government. And we, on Friday, May 1st, that is our election day, I've coordinated with... Ms. Thrasher from Lee Elections, who was here earlier today, and they are helping us host our elections on Friday. We'll have real voting booths, and just like you would have in any presidential election where students can go in and vote for candidates for student government. And in addition to that, we'll probably have a voter registration drive in addition to the one we had earlier this year. So very excited about that. And board members, I want to bring

213something else up very briefly. One thing I've noticed, I've been the student representative at a couple of these meetings now, there's a lot of talk of numbers and quantitative data. And I realize that this is necessary information, but I also want to stress the importance of the side of things that just can't be expressed with numbers. Seeing how students react to legislation rather than just reading data fed back to you on the effectiveness of whatever was passed here is really important. So with that, I urge you to visit our schools as often as you can. Talk to our students firsthand. Come and ask them about how these new testing plans are affecting them, how they feel about it, or how new technology in the art room when they get to use new tablets is affecting

214them. There's no better way to fully realize the effects of what is done here. then to go out and see it so please do that and before i wrap up i'd just like to thank everybody once more who made the student advisory council possible i think i speak for everyone on the council when i say we've come up with a lot of positive things here from this experience and and i hope we've been able to supply the board and the superintendent with some useful insight as well i sincerely hope that this board continues next year and for many years to come thank you Thank you, Mr. Young, and we are very glad that we've had students here this year while we've had some of these conversations. I have nothing that I'm going to comment about,

215but I do want to clarify what we want to do about a workshop with respect to testing, assessment plans, et cetera. Right now we have a workshop scheduled for May 12th, followed by an action meeting that is dedicated primarily to our capital funding situation. The meeting after that would be June, May 26th. Thank you. And I don't recall what is on that agenda. I know that there are certain things that we must be briefed on, like code of conduct. But the question is, do we want to have a workshop on that date? to talk about testing, assessments, our plan going forward. Do we want to call a special session between now and then, or is this something that can wait until June? I'm looking to Mrs. Dozier first because she's the one who proposed it.

216I think that it can wait until June. However, I think we need to, if we're going to make any drastic changes, which there is a possibility of that, and I know that... Mr. Torber brought up the fact that we can, and I've heard him say this before, that we can set our own standards, that we can, and I mean, I'm just saying that I've heard you say this before. That's my position. I'm sticking to it. Mr. Martin and I still have to have more conversations on that. Well, okay. But with that being said, I think there's a lot of information that we're going to have to go over as a board. And I think a workshop is appropriate. And I think if we could look at a one-day workshop, I think that it would take

217probably at least a day, maybe more. And I think we need to talk about it before we start having people tell us what we need to do. And I'm talking about, like, looking at the law, Mr. Martin, no offense. We make some decisions and then we look at how does this affect everything and then we start talking to parents because we've heard from parents But I think a full day is a beginning Just I mean I can summarize you know my concept, but it's just a working just like today's You know something that the board can take to work with I mean I have a concept, but again It's it's the board you you know more about education I could throw it out there, and then once we get everything fashion Then we can dump

218it on mr. Martin and see if we'll go to jail or not, but I'm I'm full I'm willing to you know again It's and I have to you know defer you know dr. Tep pesta was the one who kind of gave me the the framework and said you know where places to go I mean we're not alone on this type of forging out doing this type You know Texas never did Climb on board and there's a lot of states that haven't and there's a lot of authorities out there that the people have said You know if you guys want a solution we're here to help so that's where I would recommend Miss La Revere I'm I'm for an all-day workshop. I believe it needs to, and there will probably be more beyond that in order

219to fully tackle the whole piece. I believe we do need to move forward. Okay. Ms. Fisher. Absolutely. I think we took the first step, and now we need to move forward and get our plan in action. Yeah, we'll work on that. I guess what I would request of Mr. Toiber and everybody else is that you bring your ideas forward at least two weeks before the scheduled meeting so that board members and staff have an opportunity to look at it so we can have. So there's the maximum amount of information there. We're not sitting there looking to gather information while we sit. Are we able to bring that information forward to board members because of Sunshine Law? How do we address that? Just on a do not respond basis. So you just put it out there

220and you say, this is what my interest is. Thank you. And then staff will have the opportunity to review it. They will be able to answer questions, et cetera. Is that a fair way to conclude it at this point? We will look for eight hours in June for the board, Mr. Martin, Dr. Graham to be available, and there we are. Okay, that concludes my comments. Mr. Martin. None this evening, thank you. Dr. Graham. With my sincerest apologies, I should have done this hours ago. Tamara Forkey is here. She's an assistant principal who was at San Carlos Park, and she is transferring to help a new interim principal at Spring Creek Elementary. So Val and Tammy and Ida have been waiting. My apologies, Tammy. I usually remember to interrupt and do that before the rest of

221the meeting goes on. Thank you for persevering. I think that was the only thing I needed to say. I will start working tomorrow on what the decision tonight. And as far as the workshop that's going to be scheduled in June, if I'm hearing correctly, we'll see what people bring and if it requires us to provide any of the information. But no recommendations, just you all want to have a conversation first. Is that what I heard? Well, I believe that you all should be prepared to bring forth what you think should take place as well. I mean, I think we have to have, I mean, it's, I don't think we're, Well, the reason I say that, I thought I heard Mrs. Dozier say before anything is decided that you don't want to be told what to

222do or anything. So that's why I'm asking for clarification. And the reason I said that is because just like we had a motion on the table and y'all were telling us how we were going to be affected by that motion and I took offense to it. And it's not the first time that that's happened. So I I don't want staff to tell it tell us what we can do and what we can't do because obviously there are two states that have already done this and they've been very successful with it and that's Texas and it's Massachusetts. So maybe staff might want to look into those states and how they have accomplished this without all the red tape from their state mandates and their federal mandates. So that would be a starting point I think for

223staff. We are looking at their standards and we're already doing that and they never entered it. into Common Core so they've been able to do things differently. And I think that we might talk about just opting out of Common Core and do our own standards. All right. So the answer to the question is that staff will bring, you will bring information to us, let's hope two weeks before the June meeting, Mr. Toiber and anybody else on the board who would like to bring forward recommendations. to the board for discussion. We'll bring that to the board two weeks before so that staff has an opportunity to look at it, board members have an opportunity to look at it, questions that we may want to ask of staff we can ask in that two-week period so when

224we have the conversation and the workshop we have as much information as we can in front of us. Is that satisfactory? Yes, okay. What is the D? What's the end result? Do you want an end result or is it just the beginning of a conversation workshop is a conversation I Think if we were to want to do something decisive we would want a briefing and and to have a conversation I wasn't thinking action. I just want to know the end result of that particular meeting that is as I understand it. It is a conversation there might be direction that comes out of it, but It's it's a workshop Okay. Is there anything else, Dr. Graham? It's always interesting to lead this district. That's how I'll end tonight. And still a pleasure and an honor. Okay.

225The next scheduled meetings of the board are Tuesday, May 12th. There's a board briefing and there will be followed by a regular board meeting. At this point, having no other business to come before this body, I will entertain a motion for adjournment. So moved. Moved by Ms. Fisher. second by mr. toy Burr all in favor motion carries 5-0