001Five seconds. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Orange County School Board's regularly scheduled meeting this Tuesday, November 9th, 2021. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. As a reminder, face masks are required indoors on the school board property, which includes the board chambers and the lobby. I also want to remind the public that board members will not be engaging in outside electronic or digital communication during the meeting so that we can focus our full attention on the matters in front of us. To my fellow board members, district staff, members of the public, when speaking, please make sure that your microphone is turned on and speak directly into it so our YouTube and Orange TV viewers can hear you clearly. Again, thank you so much for participating this evening. In a moment, we're
002going to rise, and I'll invite you to join us for a moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance. But before doing so, I want to share with you all some... Sad news for us here in Orange County Public Schools. Our Chief Facilities Officer, John Morris, recently passed away. John Morris oversaw the construction of 102 new, renovated, or replacement schools located in every corner of the district from 2011 until 2021. Part of the three billion dollar capital improvement plan John worked right up to the last possible moment serving our students here in Orange County Public Schools Mr. Morris oversaw a reduction of more than 50% in the number of portable classrooms needed over the past decade Even as the rules of Orange County rolls numbers of Orange County students increased by thousands His role with the
003school district also included overseeing maintenance and custodial services for all 205 schools. And during his tenure, more than a half a million maintenance work orders were completed and custodial kept clean more than 32.5 million square feet, which became extremely important during the COVID pandemic. Mr. Morris also oversaw the transition of all campuses to digital ready, as well as projects to enhance the safety of all school sites. He believed strongly that every neighborhood deserved an extra special excellent school and watched every penny on behalf of our taxpayers. Mr. Morris was known by his employees and colleagues for his open door leadership style, his kindness, his calm, thoughtful demeanor. Before joining OCPS, I also had the privilege of working with Mr. Morris when he worked in a similar role at Orange County Government. He played key roles
004in the construction of the Amway Arena and two phases of the Orange County Convention Center. That's who John Morris was to us here in Orange County Public Schools in terms of what he did in his working environment. But for those of us who worked with him and knew him, there was a whole other side to John, and that was one of the kindest, gentlest people that I've had the privilege of working with. One thing you could count on, John, if you asked him a question, you were going to get an honest answer, and you could take whatever promises he made to the bank. He was genuine, sincere, he was kind, he was gentle, he was authentic, and incredibly dedicated to this district. I still am amazed that when I got the call from Dr. Jenkins
005that he was in the hospital, in ICU. And just days before I was getting emails about setting up another... meeting to go through all the plans that were coming up for our school buildings. So incredibly dedicated. We will miss him and I ask that you join us in prayers for his family that they may find peace and that they may find comfort in knowing that John's life made a huge difference in the lives of so many. And join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. We have a number of proclamations for November. We are proclamating... well i can say this proclaiming november 8th through the 12th
006as holocaust education week here in orange county public schools we're proclaiming november 15th through the 19th as national philanthropy week and november 15th through the 19th as american education week we're also proclaiming november 17th as national education support professionals day here in orange county public schools and let me see if mr pollard is with us There you are, Mr. Pollard. I thought you were there, but I didn't see you. If you would, yeah, would you come forward? We would love to just hear a few words from you as we recognize our professionals that are unsung heroes here in Orange County Public Schools. Please, sir. Will you read the proclamation on behalf of the board? Thank you. Yes, I think so. Yeah, just angle it up a little. It's probably this muffled thing. Dr. Jenkins, Chair
007Jacobs. and all the members of the school board. I take great pleasure in reading this. I'm gonna be honest with you. This proclamation says National Education Support Professionals Day. Whereas public schools are the backbone of our democracy, providing young people with the tools they need to maintain our nation's precious values of freedom, civility, and equality for all. And whereas Orange County Public Schools is home to more than 7,500 education support professionals who serve more than 206,000 students across 205 school sites. And whereas education support professionals are integral to the education process. And whereas education support professionals contribute to a safe and healthy learning environment for students. And whereas education support professionals work tirelessly to serve our students and communities with care and professionalism. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the school board of Orange County,
008Florida does hereby complain November 17th, 2021 as National Education Support Professionals Day in Orange County Public Schools. And I said this, I really do. I take pride in reading this. So I had a couple of comments. First of all, as the sole representatives of the classified workers in Orange County Public Schools, well, we certainly appreciate being recognized by our employer. ESPs, along with teachers and admin, work tirelessly to ensure the safety and most comfortable school experience for our students. Next week is National Education Week, with Wednesday the 17th being National ESP Day. And I think we all have to appreciate the important role that each and every employee does for OCPS. So again, I thank you. A side note, maybe we should work to eliminate the term classified employee, and I said it at the
009beginning on purpose because listen to how it sounds, and replace it with ESP, education support professional. So I thank you all I love that. Thank you. I think one last thing Yes, sir as a favor before we leave Can I get you all to you to sign it? Absolutely I got some of these on I got these on the wall and it's a great I like to point to our members and show when they say The school board dr. Jenkins don't appreciate us. I said no they do And this is great. I appreciate it. Absolutely. We would love to sign that. Let's get that done while we're up here, if we would. All right. Thank you so much. Yeah, they're amazing people who get so little attention. And we could not begin to operate our
010schools without them. Our children wouldn't be the same without them. Even if we figured out a way to operate our schools, it would be hollow without the men and women that come in every day. And if only we could find a way to reward them adequately for their hard work, if all we can do is say thank you and do our best, but please know we mean it. Mr. Pollitt, would you mind if everyone signs it? Okay, thank you. Thank you. Dr. Jenkins, do you have any newly appointed administrators to recognize? We do, Madam Chair. We have Karen Hall, who is an instructional coach at Clay Springs, to be the new assistant principal at Rock Springs Elementary. Joshua Torres, a mental health clinician, will be the assistant principal at Killarney Elementary School. And Melanie Perez-Cedeno,
011acting assistant principal at Oak Ridge, will be the assistant principal at Lake Buena Vista High School. Thank you. Let's give them all a round of applause, even though I don't think most of them are with us tonight. And next, we should have a strategic plan update on parent engagement. Dr. Jenkins, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. This month, our strategic plan update is based on parent engagement. Very happy to present to you Glenna White, who will walk us through the presentation and then listen to any discussion or questions you might have. Welcome. Thank you. good evening chairwoman jacobs school board and superintendent jenkins tonight we'll be providing you with the strategic plan update from the teaching and learning division take a moment to read this quote on the screen it is clear that parent and
012family engagement is one of the essential components of ensuring every student has a promising and successful future This quote comes from the article, a dual capacity building framework for family school partnerships released by the U.S. Department of Education. This framework serves as the foundation for family engagement in OCPS. The Teaching and Learning Division uses our OCPS 2025 strategic plan to guide the work of parent and family engagement. During our time together this evening, we will describe how departments provide a community-wide network of support for students and families. As we work towards achieving our objective and goal, we embed and utilize our OCPS values as a driving force for our work. Parent and community voice is essential for developing responsive family supports. To meet the expansive needs of our parents and community at the onset of
013COVID-19, we surveyed our families. We relied on multiple parent advisory groups to provide input and reaction. We also gathered input from parents and community members regarding the utilization of ESSER dollars. OCPS collaborates across departments and with various community partners to offer professional learning to parents and families throughout the year. Accessibility is critical. In addition to offering multiple events throughout the year, they also occur on Saturdays, in the evenings, and midday through a variety of modalities. In this presentation, you will hear about central office and school-based supports and events, as well as communication strategies used to promote these resources. This year OCPS has established a collaborative structure for all central office parent supports from the teaching and learning and communications divisions. The focus of this collaboration is coordinating parent and family engagement outreach across the following
014departments. Curriculum and digital learning, exceptional student education, federal programs, media relations, multilingual services, professional learning department, and student services. This collaboration allows OCPS to support family engagement in a connected, streamlined, and purposeful way. As part of central office support, several departments have dedicated positions and teams to support parent and family engagement. Let's take a closer look at how departments support our parents and families. The Professional Learning Department has a strategic focus on empowering, engaging, and educating families and caregivers by providing high-quality training sessions and resources for parents. The Parent Engagement District Advisory Council, also known as PDAC, provides input, reaction, and direction on parent academies and Engage360 events. This council is being expanded this year to include representation from Title I and non-Title I school families across learning communities, district departments, and community members. Dr.
015Jenkins established the Parent Academy in 2014 to build capacity in parents by equipping them with the tools and strategies they need to support student achievement. This year, our academies will be offered three times per year on Saturdays, and the theme is Together Towards Tomorrow. The first parent academy for the year is this Saturday, November 13th, from 9 to 11.30 a.m., and will be virtual. Engage 360 Learn Where You Live is personalized to the unique, locally identified needs of learning communities. Six of these evening, weekday sessions will be hosted throughout the year. Our newest event, Engage 360 Lunch and Learn, is a weekday on-the-go virtual learning opportunity. This opportunity allows for parents to attend a 45-minute live session during lunch. Four sessions will be held throughout the year with topics determined by the Parent Engagement Advisory
016Council. All dates and registration links for professional learning outreach events are posted on the www.parentacademy.ocps.net website. Let's look at some data from the fall parent engagement events that have already occurred. The first two Engage360 Learn Where You Live virtual sessions were launched October 6th. The Southeast session focused on acceleration with the growth mindset and the high school session focused on college and career conversations, including dual enrollment opportunities. Each session was delivered simultaneously in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese. A record 569 parents participated in the sessions with 153 parents utilizing the translation platform. In order to be responsive to family needs identified during the Engage 360 Learn Where You Live high school session, a district-wide series on college and career readiness with a focus on AP, IB, and CTE will be offered this winter. Engage
017360 Lunch and Learn was hosted live on October 21st. The session offered via Facebook Live focused on connecting families to OCPS digital platforms that support student success. 738 families attended the live session and 2,500 families have viewed the recording as of October 29th. Spanish language captions were included during the live stream. The curriculum and digital learning team intentionally supports cohesive communication and engagement efforts for all families as they navigate the school year through digital learning family outreach. Curriculum and digital learning outreach includes direct supports through social media engagement, the development of tips, tutorials, and tours, trainings, as well as family nights, and collaboration with external parent groups. Currently, 1,735 families are active in the official OCPS Digital Learning Support for Families Facebook group. The newly developed ESE Parent Outreach Team is dedicated to bridging the
018gap between families, schools, and the community to provide support for students with disabilities. Using the ESE Parent Feedback Survey data from the 2020-2021 school year, the team outlined three main areas of focus. Support for individual learning needs, improved communication with families, and enhanced or additional support services. To address these areas of need, the Parent Outreach Team is hosting monthly workshops in collaboration with external agencies. Sessions held in September and October were attended by a total of 30 families, and the recordings were viewed 89 times in the ESE Families Toolkit. In addition to hosting parent workshops, OCPS prioritized developing strong partnerships with the external agencies and organizations to provide additional support services for our families, including Project 10, Bright Feeds, and the Parent Education Network. The district exceptional student education website was updated, making the location
019of needed information easier for families. The team has also increased its presence on social media platforms to keep parents informed about upcoming events and important information. The ESE Parent Outreach Team created a parent support ticketing system as another way for parents to communicate their questions and concerns, with 41 families having already utilized the system. Multilingual Services offers comprehensive parent and family supports through parent learning and language translation services. Adult English classes are provided to enhance language development and communication for parents of English language learners through collaboration with Orange Technical College. Multilingual parent liaisons facilitate monthly bilingual workshops for parents of ELLs. The bilingual workshops are focused on topics such as social and emotional learning, OCPS resources, and strategies to assist ELLs at home. Sessions held in September and October were attended by a total of
020261 families. Multilingual parent liaisons support all schools by assisting with school-based Multilingual Parent Leadership Council meetings outlined in the District ELL Plan. In addition, they coordinate the District Multilingual Parent Leadership Council that is designed to promote and support the welfare of all ELLs in schools, homes, and communities. To support communication between home and school, the Multilingual Services Department offers a translation and interpretation services in the three most common languages. Also, every school in OCPS utilizes language line in over 240 languages and insight video conference translations in over 30 languages, including American Sign Language. Student Services has multiple ways to ensure parents have the information and resources necessary to lead students to success through connected academic, social, and emotional supports. The academic services team provides parents with financial aid presentations in both English and Spanish. Every
021high school has parent information sessions that cover FAFSA, the Florida Financial Aid Application, and Bright Futures. To support the needs of parents during these critical times, the mental health services team provided self-care bags to all schools to share with parents who attended back-to-school functions. Parents can also access virtual home social and emotional learning lessons and materials, crisis intervention supports, and counseling resources through the Mental Health Services website. The Social Services team created the OCPS Community Connect search engine. This search engine leverages Aunt Bertha, a free web search tool, to provide parents with local resources and information. Since July 1, 2021, there have been 7,557 search sessions by OCPS parents. This month, social services collaborated with district departments to kick off the Feed the Children project and provide non-perishable foods, hygiene items, and school supplies to
022school pantries throughout the district. All schools in OCPS support family engagement. In fact, 2021-2022 school improvement plans included a focus on supporting family engagement. Schools strategically utilize staff to bridge the community and school, connect families with resources, and build a culture for authentic family engagement in school staff. Every Title I school has a parent engagement liaison or secondary engagement liaison position funded through Title I federal dollars. Engagement liaisons are responsible for program coordination of parent engagement activities. The goals of engagement liaisons are to establish and improve effective communication between home and school. improve parent and family outreach, and coordinate training opportunities for parents and families of students in grades pre-K through 12 to positively impact student academic performance. Engagement liaisons receive focused professional learning opportunities from the Professional Learning Department's Parent and Family Engagement Team.
023These professional learning opportunities are enhanced through parallel learning labs for school administrators. OCPS supports strategic and streamlined family communication through collaboration across the communications and teaching and learning divisions. This year our efforts have been focused on enhancing web and social media interactions. New for this year is also an OCPS families YouTube channel that houses on-demand parent learning from all departments. Another strategy was redesigning the previous students and parents webpage on the OCPS website. Now called the Current Families page, the newly designed webpage organizes information for families in an easy to understand format. Content is reinforced weekly through what's news and tech tips, newsletters sent via email and text messages, as well as parent and family trainings. This page has been visited 19,002 times between August 1st and October 17th. As a district, we have concentrated
024on building systems to create an engaged and invested community. We will continue to reflect on and refine practices to provide a community-wide network of support for students and families. At this time, I will turn this back over to Superintendent Jenkins for her comments and any questions and discussion from the school board. Thank you, Ms. Wyatt. Thank you, Ms. Wyatt. We are certainly very clear that we have to be partners with all of our parents in order to lead our students to success. And so we don't take parent engagement lightly. I was... Kind of surprised to hear and be reminded how long the Parent Academy has been in place. And now that we've gone virtual, we've actually seen large increases in some of the attendance. And so for anyone listening, certainly want to encourage parents to
025take part in all that we have to offer because you are critical in the partnership for your child's success. Members of the board, certainly happy to answer any questions you might have and listen to your comments. Thank you so much, and thank you for that excellent presentation and all the hard work that is going into this. Let me call first on our vice chair. I just wanted to compliment you all. These last 18, 24 months have been challenging for parent engagement, and we know that we had a cliff because of what happened, and you've done a phenomenal job of finding tools and ways to outreach in a very difficult time and a time where it seems harder than ever to get. valuable information into the hands of people who need it. But I just wanted
026to compliment you on that. And I love the new text and the site that you have. I think the more we can spread the word on that, the better. Awesome. Dr. Castrodano. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I also appreciate that presentation and all the work that you and your department are doing. One of the things that I was concerned about when I first ran for school board was our communication with the community and parents. I always felt like it was like a one-way communication from the district and out. And I can see you have so many platforms and topics and even using the multiple languages. I think it really helps. strengthen our partnerships with our parents and that benefits our kids and I appreciate all the work that you've done I know parenting is certainly
027rewarding but it isn't easy and I appreciate the resources that you've provided to help parents get through this stage of life thank you member bird you recognized Thank you, Chair. I, too, want to just add my thanks for this presentation, but also, as the Vice Chair said, everything that you did through the pandemic to make communication and resources available for families, especially families that really needed a lot of help, and we were there for them, and you all did a great job of making sure they had the resources they need, so thank you. There were so many things in that presentation that I think are just fantastic because as Dr. Kastadentil said, being a parent is really challenging, especially. you know, our kids are facing a lot of challenges. And as a parent, it's just
028hard to always know what resources are available to help them or what resources are available to help you help them navigate the things they're going through. And we've talked a lot up here about, you know, making... having easy access for parents to be able to get to those resources. One of the things, the Community Connect, by the way, is just fantastic. It's such a great resource. The fact that you can just go in there and find any kind of resource within your own community is just phenomenal. So that's just great. Everything, though, the Parent Academies, the Parent Engagement District Advisory Council is just fantastic. You know, I love that they, a lot of like the parent academies, that all of these things are available online for parents to go back and watch. I would say,
029you know, if... Since it is such a challenging thing and sometimes parents are pulling their hair out when they get on the computer to look when they need help that we could just and I know that we just reformatted and it's great but I feel like on the home page there just needs to be like an easy button that says parents, guardians, you know, help here or something. You know what I mean? Like just some really like something on the homepage that just makes it easy. Because you do have to go through a lot of clicks. And, you know, it can be kind of a stressful time for parents if they're looking for help for different things. So that would be my only comment about that. And then as far as the ELL families. It's
030a big concern of mine that we are making every effort we can to reach them where they are and to go into their communities especially. I feel like we expect, sometimes we expect those families to come into our schools to. you know, learn different things or to ask for help if they need help, you know, at home. But a lot of these families don't feel comfortable necessarily coming into our schools, some of them for different reasons. You know, we have a big migrant population in my area. And at a community meeting recently that Member Lopez was so gracious to attend and help with, they really expressed a lot of concerns that, you know, they needed. they had so many questions and they needed so much help and they really appreciated the deputy superintendent and school
031board member being there and staff being there to answer questions and it was in their community at a community center within their community and i think that if we can the more we can do that the more we can go into the community and have these sessions where they can just come to us and ask us questions and get the answers they need i think that's really helpful so thank you thank you member bird member colbert Thank you, Chair. I just want to also express my gratitude. Great presentation and great job during the pandemic, making all of those efforts to keep families engaged. I hope that we'll continue some of the technology options. Obviously, we're all anxious to get back together face to face and nothing compares. But I know that during that time, we
032had... skyrocketing participation in some of our parent meetings and in some of our schools because of that technology option where you could be making dinner supervising kids homework and participating in the SAC meeting. So I hope we'll continue with some of those options. And then I agree with Member Byrd about a great big make it easy help button on the very front page. And then finally, because I'm still a parent, I still have a child in school. And that being said, I want to share an anecdotal story that makes me very proud of district staff. Tonight, when I am working, my husband is parenting. And our daughter has been having some struggles in her first semester with grades. So my husband, on his own, decided he was going to go on Canvas and look at
033grades, but then didn't know how to get in Canvas, et cetera, et cetera. Right? But district sends out tech tips for parents. So I forward him the tech tips. He emailed from the link. And the next day he texted me and said, they called me. They called me and they walked me through the process. They got me on, you know, got me a password, the whole thing. And that's just an anecdotal story. They didn't know who he was. He was a dad that emailed, I need some help. District called him and was successful in helping him as a parent. So whoever. is in charge of that i just want to thank you and as just sitting back as an observer and a parent that to me was a success so thank you absolutely all right
034thank you again thank you yeah that was a great story especially the part about they didn't know it was him thank you so much thank you all right before we move on to the business portion of our meeting i do want to recognize that the november 11th is veterans day And for those who have served in the military and have risked so much for our security, for our safety, for our freedoms, I just want to take a pause here to thank each and every one of them. I don't know how many people we might have. We have a small audience today, but if there's anybody in the audience, I know Mr. Klein was in the military. If you would stand so we can recognize you. thank you and to all those who continue to serve
035may they always remain in our prayers and in our thoughts and our gratitude should always be with each and every one of you who have served and everyone who continues to serve all right dr jenkins do we have any changes to the agenda no changes madam chair with no changes to the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda as drafted Motion by member covert is there a second second by member bird all in favor. Please say aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously Do we have any public comments before? Voting on the consent agenda. No madam chair. All right person or on the phone All right, perfect with no public comments then I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda There was a motion by member I'm sorry. I have to apologize for
036not getting enough sleep and not being 100% on. Thank you, Member Gallo. Is there a second? Second. Member Castrodent. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. A little bit of disclosure. I am excited to share with the board that I became a grandma. Wow. Yeah. And I have whined publicly for so many years about not having grandchildren, being a mom of four children that are all ages 30 to 35. So I wanted to take a moment after all my whining to just celebrate my excitement. Yes, she's a beautiful little baby girl, Riley Jo. And Mama and Dad are doing phenomenal. She came a little bit early. And she's a tiny little thing, but she's already home and just doing wonderfully. And on a little rougher note, my mom is in the hospital right
037now unexpectedly. So I did not get the best night's sleep. But good news is everything looks to be doing really, really well with my mom. And I think she'll be coming home tomorrow. So anyway, an emotional ride over the last couple of days, but terribly exciting time. So for all of you young women on the board, you have something to look forward to. Yeah, may you be next. Okay, we have, with no further... matters to vote on let me turn to general counsel i already took my um moment to talk about my personal matters general counsel do you have any business to share with the board i do not thank you madam chair thank you dr jenkins thank you madam chair just a couple of things in in case um hillary is listening i still
038just have a grand puppy but we but we are hopeful we are hopeful all right so So we have I I had two grand puppies two grand kittens and a lot more whining than that You got a ways to go my friend. Well, they think it counts because Cooper thinks he's a human but it's not the same All right. So I have a plaque for the district from the Florida Beverage Association was so pleased today to Not that kind of beverage I had an opportunity to go over to ACE where they met us to provide a $25,000 gift for environmental sustainability grant. Jennifer Fowler and her team applied for it and received it, and we have the plaque to prove it, and the check is on the way for $25,000. So congratulations to Jennifer. who
039works under our COO, Roberto Pacheco, I saw a minute ago, they were very pleased to receive that. Secondly, if we have the, there's a picture. Secondly, if we have the other photo I was asking for, please to announce that we have asked the experts, Dr. Pino, who is Director of Florida Department of Health in Orange County, and Dr. Hsu, who is Chair of our, yeah, there was something with the camera angle they had to put us on those platforms, but, and most times you won't see that on the video, but Dr. Hsu is both Chair of our MAC, as well as during his. Days, Executive Director of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention for Advent Health. And so they came to us as we had the entire MAC the last time, weren't able to get that all
040arranged, but these two gentlemen came and gave of their time to answer the questions that were submitted by our parents on our website. They consolidated, condensed those, and we asked about 15 or so questions. It is live today. called Ask the Experts, particularly around the topic of vaccines for our youngest children, for our students. So encourage folks to take a look. Also to look on the website for COVID-19 information. You will see all of the dates and schedules for the vaccine clinics at our high schools this week. Again, as we stressed in the video. We certainly encourage parents to look into the best decision in consultation with their health care providers. But these gentlemen gave their time free of charge to answer so many questions that we had heard from our parents regarding that vaccine.
041Very pleased to announce that link is live today called Ask the Experts. That is the end of my report, Madam Chair. Awesome. Thank you. Member Gallo, you're recognized. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to really briefly address the three callers that called in. Thank you. From the FS, concerned FSBA being that I sit on the board of directors. So there was, as mentioned, a comment that Ms. Patrika made that was insensitive and she recognizes that it was insensitive. She's working hard to understand and to be more sensitive to the needs in her community and that's between her and her community. But from the FSBA standpoint. They have there's been many many meetings regarding this is it's not something that the FSBA is taken lightly It's not something that we've ignored. I believe
042this week. We just put out a resolution about Inclusiveness and equality and equity and what that means to us and how that's a forefront from everything that we do So I just want to make this the statement that we don't take this lightly we are aware of the accusations um as board members you've probably been um privy to many emails that have come your way and it is being addressed within within fsba but um palm beach county did withdraw from fsba last week um so i i'm continuing conversations with with the executive director adrian uh andrea messina and we're trying to work it all through but it's it's I just want the public and ready to be very clear that it's vital that FSBA stands for certain values and principles and that is inclusively and
043representing all children and making sure that every voice on the school board is heard and that's at the forefront of everything that they do. And then I had one more thing. No, go ahead, please. So I know there was also a lot of discussion about the books this evening, and you asked that we do a workshop on it. I think that's a great idea because I think that as we work, I know we have policies and processes in place, and I believe that those policies and processes are good, and they've worked for us in the past, but I think that it's important to be transparent when we start having these conversations. I think that the book that was at the crust of all this angst that was discussed at the last board meeting, I read
044it. I know you did too as well, Chair. And there was content in that book that I believed is important for children to understand. Unfortunately, there was other content that just isn't appropriate. for children in our schools. But I think that we need to be transparent about it. So I don't know if we could put like, we need to be transparent with our community that we say, okay, we looked at this book, the book went through the process that we have in place. If we're removing the book, we need to let everybody know that we're removing the book. There's been a lot of, a lot of. news reports about the book. It's been on Fox News. It's been on the Aledo Sentinel. And it feels like that everybody else is controlling the narrative of what's
045going on in our public schools versus us. And that narrative and that story should, the truth should come from us and it should be transparent to the community. And I also want to say. Because I've received a lot of emails from my LGBTQ community. I've actually spoken to Equality Forward and I've had some conversations and I think that we need to be very clear that we support our LGBTQ community. This board has always been extremely supportive of LGBTQ. We understand that they need to be accepted and feel accepted and feel safe in our schools and that they need to feel represented. So in no way, shape, or form. as a board are we proposing that we remove books that are appropriate for our lgbtq plus community we just need to look at all the books
046regardless of the content of the book and make sure that it is developmentally appropriate age appropriate for our libraries and that we're not subjecting our kids to material that shouldn't be there. I would also encourage parents to please know what your kids are reading or know what they're looking at on the internet, understand what they have in their back packets. It's up to us as parents as well to be accountable for what our children review or read or look up online. And so I just wanted to be very clear. And there was a suggestion that made that for every book that... We have to take out if it involves LGBTQ students plus students that maybe we replace with three more that are appropriate so that those kids feel represented and accepted because that is important
047for them in their journey. And so I just wanted to mention that and just I just wanted to be very clear that. that this board is extremely supportive and i didn't want it to be out in the community that because maybe one book needed to be removed due to content that we weren't supportive so i just want to say that madam chair thank you so much for saying that and um i'll just take a moment because i oftentimes am speaking on behalf of the board and i generally feel pretty comfortable because I've served with you all long enough and you've been very transparent about your positions that I'm trying to be very careful and make sure that I'm only speaking when I'm sure of where you are and it occurred to me today that just
048because I feel strongly about certain content in that book that I might not that we might not all be on the same page and I don't want to overstep my place, but I'm glad you distinguish because it seems that everyone thinks that this is banning books about gay students or queer students rather than the sexually explicit content in that book, which I wish we could just redact out a few parts of that book because there were valuable, valuable messages throughout that book. And that is disappointing to me that there are things that are of value and it's extremely important that we have books that represent and speak to all of our students. So I just wish, like you said, that we could control the narrative better and that we could really get people to believe
049that we're not taking sides on... Well, if we're going to take a side on LGBT issues, we're going to take a side on the side of inclusiveness and supporting our students. So thank you for your words there. Let me go to Member Lopez. Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I would like to congratulate the district because I was reading the... the magnet program promotion in Spanish. So I have to congratulate the communications department. And I know as well that the multilingual department also is related to this. Amazing. I love it because even the pictures are very inclusive. and the information, so I highly appreciate this. I believe that our ELL students, specifically the Spanish-speaking family, need to be more aware of the magnet programs in details, exactly the way it is, very friendly, bold
050letters, diversity all over the book, so I love the pictures, everything, so congratulations. And I also want to talk about the books. because sometimes I feel that, you know, we are not living in the medieval ages, so I don't have to ban every book because I'm not aligned to our religious beliefs. We have to be very careful. I'm not an expert on books, and sometimes we have to be careful on speaking on behalf of all the board members because, you know... It's very delicate. I'm a mother, and I receive both type of emails in reference to two books. I receive emails in favor, and I receive emails... that are not in favor. And I like that, you know, to have different point of views. But I would like to know if we have a protocol
051to be followed once a book is recommended or once a book is not recommended. Because just saying, no, take away the books, you know, we have to be very careful. I think that we should have, you know, experts revising the books before we make a decision. And also, is there any policies in place that we can discuss as a board during the amazing idea of the chair of having a work session and also the recommendations from the parent about having a committee, something that we can see different point of views in the books. You know, I was watching with my daughter. certain cartoons and this is a personal experience she is 17. and i was looking at the the cartoon i said is that what i'm seeing you know because it was very explicit and
052she said yes mom you know they are explaining the middle school mentalities because when they are living through different levels of life, they're experiencing different hormonal changes. So their personalities are changing, and this is the way they speak. This is the way they behave. That's the real situation. So, wow, it's true. So I just sit down and watch that, and believe me that if I don't have my daughter close to me, maybe I change it. But I was looking at the cartoons that are very, very explicit, but the explanations were very scientifically, but explicit. And the psychological part and the mental health when somebody's depressed and when somebody is just thinking about their identity, it was interesting and made me... think about the books. Because maybe we have a lot of books like that. Then
053maybe the students when they read they feel related and maybe we think very traditionally speaking maybe they're not going to read it. But maybe they have to know and they have to understand certain topics that for us maybe because we have certain ages or certain beliefs, we are very traditional in not having those type of books in the library. But I believe that we have experts and I donated books for elementary school. And I asked for the expertise of our curriculum and technology department. I did not recommend books based on my beliefs. I just said, you know what, I want books that are diverse. I want books that are very inclusive. I just need your recommendations, and I want to see the titles, and I want to know what the book is about, and I
054just donated. But we have that type of, you know, we can have that type of conversation if we like or don't like it, why we don't like it and why we like it. Because we have a diversity, a diverse community, diverse families, different beliefs, different religions. So we have to be very careful on saying just remove because we have one person saying that they want to remove the book. That's very delicate. Yes, that's gonna be also just want to share that experience and thank you so much for all you do because I know that all of the school board members are very Engaged in this situation and I know that all of you receive a lot of emails all of us Receive a lot of emails with the same concerns. Yeah, absolutely. That's why I
055thought Yeah, if we can just set aside time. I should have used the term work session, not workshop. I get those two confused. Sorry about that. But just an opportunity for us to discuss it. We do have a policy, and the policy is somewhat vague, and we have a process. And the process... is mostly the media specialist, the principal. So it's hard for them to read every single book that they're putting in the library. So I think there might be some ideas that collectively we could come up with that would give us a greater sense of comfort that we're properly screening books before they come in. But the bottom line is this board working with the superintendent, we need to decide what are those standards if they're going to be some standards. And we need
056to be extremely careful that those standards are not discriminatory. I agree. So those are, yeah. I agree with you. And I also remember as a teacher for AP Spanish Literature, we have a lot of poems and stories that speak about. you know, they're going to go to the university. They have to know the content of this poem. They have to know the history. They have to know. We cannot say, okay, so let's get rid of this poem and this story because, you know, it's explicit, but it's part of the curriculum of the university. That's why they have to read it, and we have to work on it, and we have to explain, you know, the reason why we're reading about this, you know, virginity, sexuality. So are in the content and we cannot change the
057AP curriculum. So I just want to also share that as well. Thank you, thank you. Member Castrodano. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Member Lopez, for explaining your position so well. I agree with you. And I know that... As a parent and as a former teacher, if there's one way to get kids to read, it's to ban the book. I think those books are now sold out online. You can't order them. So it is a slippery slope when you start to go down this book banning process. So I agree if we're reviewing. standards of our books that we need to be very transparent, inclusive, and make sure that we understand what we are trying to keep out of our schools and not keeping, not discriminating, not being unfair, and not treating all of our
058students as children. I mean, there are some who are very mature and can benefit from a lot of these complex topics. And as a parent, I know I, and as an elementary teacher, I worked very hard to kind of create that bubble around those ages so that they could be innocent and maintain that childhood. And I... I still believe that, that that is a special time in someone's life. But I think we have a bigger problem with protecting our children's innocence when we have so much technology available. If you really want to monitor what your children are reading and seeing and saying and filming, look at their phones and don't give your child a phone before they're ready. And I, my own experience before 13 is too early. You don't, when you give a child
059access to the internet in their hand, they type in whatever words they want. There is no filter unless you put a parent filter on, but the kids get around that. There is so much access, and even if we're using it well, they've got to stay in touch with their parents. We need to know where they are. Well, there are, I guess there's some simple phones you could use for that same thing that don't have all the bells and whistles, but you have... You really don't know even if you think you know Even if you think you know what your children looking at you don't know I'm speaking from experience. You don't know it doesn't matter if you even if you look at the phone. You don't know so I Would think that a campaign to
060inform parents about how to keep their children safe on their technology is a more worthy cause than banning books. Member Byrd. Thank you, Chair. I love listening to my fellow board members. It's always just so fun. I wanted to chime in after Member Gallo spoke about us controlling the narrative. And I think that's what's been probably the most frustrating thing. I agree with you about this. And it happens sometimes that, you know, stories get out in the media and then the two different sides share their point of view, but then the school district or the school board, I should say, doesn't share their view. And so no one knows what we're thinking or why we did it, or they think they know why, and it's not really why at all. So I completely agree with
061that sentiment. And I'm wondering if it might be appropriate, because, you know, while we shared all this tonight, not everybody watches these school board meetings, might it be appropriate for the school board to release a statement or... yeah, just a statement on our view about this situation with this book and how we feel about it. I don't know if that's something we might want to do or not, but it's just disturbing. I don't want, I agree, I don't want people thinking that. you know, anybody comes, groups come and complain, and then we react, and, you know, we're, we're all super thoughtful women up here. We don't just do that, so, and we are, as she said, you know, we're very, very supportive of our LGBTQ community, and, and it's hurtful to have people think that
062we don't want books in our libraries or that we would allow a group of people to come in and have us remove those books and do that to these children. So, yeah, I mean, I'm just wondering if maybe that's something. Okay, let me, if I can respond or react to that. If I can take everybody back to the moment where Mr. Ingalls was reading that book, if you remember the reaction of this board. And the language he was reading was not appropriate to allow him to continue. And I was pretty certain at the time that the whole board was in agreement and that it was appropriate for me to stop the reading of that book. And I explained that nobody on this board knew that that book was in the library. I thought there was
063a lot of support for that position. I'm not sure based on what I'm hearing right now. Where this board is as a whole and I'm not sure that we will get there until we've had time to Delve a little bit deeper into this than we're doing right now so I think if I were to venture to guess what a statement would be, it would be that this board is kind of like what I have sent out in my emails, that I don't believe that with this board there is any way that this board would ban books because of the content might be about gay students or... queer students or transvestite students because we are extremely supportive of our LGBT students and that we have done everything we can to create GSAs in all of our
064middle schools and high schools. That was one of when I came in that was Talking to Dr. Schuller, I was like, how do we get every school to have a GSA? The first proclamation I brought to this board was for LGBTQ month and I thought, I don't know how this is going to go over. And how it went over was everybody was thrilled and wondered why we hadn't done this sooner. So I think a statement of that nature, yes, where is that line between what is appropriate at different age levels, what should be in different libraries? I don't know that we have. a defined position and we might be a little all over the place as we were with dress codes we have different lines and it took a lot of talking and until we
065landed the plane on on that issue so i think unfortunately i think personally i think we're not quite there The thing that I do am very confident is that this board would work extremely hard to make sure that the type, the sexual identity or preference of our students will never be a criteria that enters into what type of material should be in our libraries. I'm quite confident of that. But where that other line is, if there is another line, maybe there is another line. For some board members, I'm not sure. From my own personal experience, and it goes back to that one book that I think I will explain to you all in more detail later about that book and the timing of it and Columbine and just the fear that I had as a
066parent and wondering why my child brought home this book. And then finding out that there was no process. It was entirely up to one person, the media specialist. And I do think that there needs to be... more than one individual who decides what is appropriate content at different age levels. There's some line that I think we would all draw the sand in, or draw, that's not a good analogy. There's some point where probably all of us would say not for kindergarten or not this. And it's going to be different for all of us because we're all a little different. But we're very common overall and we'll probably find that place. But I think it'll take us a little time. So my messaging would be we will never. I will never, and I don't think this
067board would ever use that as a criteria, and we will be very, very careful as we walk through this process, but we do want to make sure that there's a process in place of determining what books go in our libraries. That's about as far as I could get with a statement. Member Felder, you're next. Thank you, Chair. I think I'm coming from a little different perspective. But when I was teaching, you could walk in my classroom and there was a poster that said, when I read books, I come to life. You can take that in whichever way you so choose. I'm just addressing the issue that was discussed about the Okoye Massacre and why is it being taught. And I was one that encouraged my senator to push a bill so that it could be
068taught because it's history. And history can be kind of funny, especially... If it's history that puts you in a light that you are not ready to accept or a light that you didn't know was on you. And I am a person who believes in history. I also taught a book. while at Edgewater, Pursuit of Happiness. And I had an opportunity to meet with Christopher Gardner. We talked for some hours, and I presented him with a lesson plan. And that chapter does, there's a chapter in the book that deals with sodomy. But before I allowed my students to read that book, I sent letters out to the parents. and I had conversations with them and out of the five years I'd read the book maybe a total of two parents did not agree but my point
069is as board member Karen Castadino said that as a parent it's your responsibility. And as Board Member Lopez said, to see and sit down and look. And you can look at your child's phone and still not know what you're looking at. You don't because they have all kind of ways. And so I'm hoping we are educators and we have had experience. of an educational system that I believe in this county far surpasses many districts that I've been able to vaguely know about in comparison in terms of what we do and the material that we present to our students. We have a diverse curriculum, and I'm very happy with the curriculum, but I do know sometimes things may get a little off, and we may have to, as the chairperson said, we may have to look
070closely. Again, as we monitor, but because I'm a writer and I'm a teacher of literature, I really have some issues with banning books. However, I do understand that sometimes the language in the books may not be appropriate or you may not have the frame of reference to draw from to teach. kindergarten about that. And so you that's maybe you may have to do something a little different. But I do trust this district with their abilities and the teachers they have hired and administration, the expertise that many of the teachers that I've worked with come with in the classroom to make choices, to make great choices about stories and books, because whether we have it in the book, it's out there. It's out there. It's out. This is the real world. And so I think we
071have a diverse board up here. Not all of us are teachers, but many of us have been involved in educational system in one way or the other. And I think that we have a good frame of reference, Chair, to draw from if we have to make some decisions as it relates to how we have materials disseminate with our children, our students, because I think that history has to be taught, whether you like it or not. And it can be quite ugly. But it's real, and you've got to deal with it. But you must know how to present it so that children will not walk away with a warped sense of truth. So I just wanted to share that part. No one talked about the concern that the parent had about the teaching of the Okoye
072Massacre, but I need to let it go on record. I was one of the ones to tell my son, and I said, look, you need to make sure. This becomes legislation. They need to learn this. They need to see. Because I remember at 17 years old, my mother and father would not allow me to go to Pine Hills or Cora after 6 o'clock. They knew the history. I didn't. I just learned about it in my adult life. And I embraced it. I said, oh, my God, this is what happened, what, 15 minutes from where I live? You know, so it's history. It's ugly, but it happened. Deal with it. So I thank you so much for this time. Thank you. Thank you, Member Felder. Member Gallo. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Member
073Felder. We always appreciate you. We really do. I just wanted to echo just a couple of things. Number one, I know that I've said this. not privately because we don't have private conversations, but I wanted to say publicly to the chair. What a great job that I think that you've done this year. We've been under a tremendous amount of pressure, of stress. This has been unprecedented. It's been tumultuous, to say the best. And to be able to share everything that goes on with grace and to be able to respond in the instant that something happens, trying to keep order in a boardroom is not an easy feat. It's not one that I would want to do. So I just wanted to say that we recognize the position that you've been in this chair. We recognize
074that you're under more stress than any of us sitting on this board, not only because you represent the entire district and not just a single-member district, but because you have to control these meetings as such. That makes you the punching bag for a lot of things. And I know that that's difficult because I know your heart, and I know that you take that. You take it to your heart. So I just wanted to say we're thinking of you. We're here for you. And we're so happy that you're our chair. Thank you. Thank you, Member Gallo. Thank you. Thank you all. Member Gould, Vice Chair. Vice Chair, I'm going to leave now. I'm going to leave you in charge because I think I just got a pass for the rest of the evening on that. I
075know. I hate to follow that now because I actually couldn't agree more. We are grateful to have you as our leader this last year as well as this entire. characteristic and um virtue of this board and i don't use that word lightly but i think that we are all here and dedicated uh for making things better and and never come with a hidden agenda and that's what's so wonderful about this group but i wanted to go back to what you were saying about um kind of our our retrospective in um when when we had that reading that reading was out of context of course and very blatant and I'm sure was and it's not in my opinion appropriate but was probably the worst thing in that book to be highlighted for that reason so I
076don't think any of us thought it was inappropriate to stop the meeting I don't want that to snowball into something else as we've heard here tonight and I think we just need to be careful and thoughtful about that because it would be very easy to then be highlighting books and articles and information that actually bring people together and bring people closer and and break down barriers. And so we just have to keep the protection of that as cherished as protecting what's appropriately and developmentally appropriate as we as we get the book so You know, I wouldn't be opposed to a very general statement like that as long as it didn't focus on banning books if we ever decided to do something like that while we're looking into the workshop. But it really is about what's
077going to. help foster the best possible citizens we can have in the future and bring peace and harmony to our world because right now that's the leaders that we need to be. We need to be the leaders that lead to bring peace and harmony because the world is not peaceful or harmonious at the moment. So those were my only thoughts. Thank you member Gould. This was a great conversation Thank you all a good start for a future conversation I think you know based on what you just said vice chair I think one of the things we should all think about before we come back to have this conversation is why I always remind myself, go back to my why, think about my why behind everything I do. When you talked about agendas, I really do
078feel that for the time that we're in, we have an incredible board. That if we were a dysfunctional board or if we came here with political agendas, I don't know what this past year and a half would have been like. It would have been, it just would have been horrible. And so I think, that we're all where we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be here. But I think for myself, if I think about why coming into this conversation, that will help me figure out what we need to do based on why we need to do it. But I know it's not easy. It's not even easy for me. I can't define for myself. I just know that there is material that's age appropriate. And I think that, Member Felder, your points. Some of
079the things that you said, it's so important how things are taught. There's no question in my mind that we need to teach history, and we need to teach it from an early age, and kids need to know what happened, not just somewhere, not in Selma, Alabama, but in our backyard. But it's also so important how it's taught so that we don't have kids walking out of class afraid. of their neighbors because their skin color is different and they don't confuse what happened then with what happens now. So I took away, I try really hard when people talk to believe the best that I can believe about where they're coming from rather than the worst. And so I tried to look at it from the sense of why would I be concerned about my kindergartner? I
080was actually concerned with my kindergartner when he came home from my first, when he came home from CCD and some of the things he was learning from his Christian religion about what happens to babies that aren't baptized. And how mortified he was that they were gonna go to hell. Right? So that's what they taught. Can you imagine how horrible? What is your thought when you're six years old, five years old, and you think God is sending little babies to hell? don't you know i'm sorry but i i was in to see the priest on that one i skipped over all the nuns i went straight to the priest to talk to him about what's age appropriate and how much sense does this make and i'm sorry but i don't believe this and i'm not gonna
081allow my child to believe this and so i kind of i revert back to my own motherhood and the things that i thought that should be discussed and shouldn't be discussed and and i will i guess the bottom line is i'll always be a mom first And I look forward to working with all of these great moms. And everybody is a mom on this board. They just have different children in different ways because you've got a lot more than we do. So on that note, Vice Chair, were you finished? Okay, we're all done. Anything else for the board? And I wanted to bring this conversation up, so I'm so glad you did. And I also wanted to... discuss a little bit FSBA and I'm glad you brought that up because that is kind of haunting
082I think probably all of us and I always you know you never know the full story of the truth and it's important to know the full story and so we're relying we're relying heavily on you to to lead us in this go ahead I just want to add for the record too that um the people I believe and and our general counsel can correct me if I'm wrong called in called in from lee county and one of the ones i just want to go on record one of the ones that called in was her former opponent that called in and a lot of this And I'm not defending anything that did or didn't happen. I just want to put it in context that it's coming from her former opponent that she beat in election. So
083I just want to make sure that that's understood as well. That might have been the person talking about portables because we all got very confused about how that had anything to do with portable classroom. Member Castrodentil. Thank you, Madam Chair. I also had a thought about FSBA, but not with the latest. complication more about the special session that's coming up is it next week and there will be topics that are related to school boards and they're not necessarily on our legislative agenda those topics so I didn't know if there is a way for us to participate or reach out to our legislative delegation and give them some of our own talking points or issues that we have or if or if there's a way to do that through our legislative director or if FSBA is
084going to be helping us with those issues as well So go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I don't know that FSBA is going to be taking a position on it only because we FSBA represents the whole state and not every district is in isn't has the same thought process regarding mask that we may have or maybe even disagree with. They may agree with the parental bill of rights and what's being implemented. I'm not sure, but I know that we have varying degrees of opinions regarding it across the state. What I can say for. us as a board is in our priorities. It's very clear when it talks about local control, about being able to locally control decisions that impact our community and our students. And in my mind, masking and the health of our
085students and our staff should always fall under the purview and the policy of the board. That's what we were elected to do. That's what our constituents believe we should be doing. So I think that we could. at the very least have conversations around local control. That is a local decision. It shouldn't be a state decision. And we could probably also make the argument that a mask is not a medical device. And I would also add on a personal note, if parents can make decisions about masks and they should be able to make decisions on whether the child or Baker Act or not, like we should get their approval. But that's another topic. But I just want to say that. Well, to follow up, the Parents' Bill of Rights, then, if they're going to be addressing
086that, then where does that stop? Will parents be able to opt out of all the tests? Will they be able to say, no, I'm not going to allow my child to do homework at home? That's my time. You can't tell me what to do in my house. I mean, where does that stop? So maybe those are some of the issues that we bring up. to our legislative delegation and i think um although now that i'm a grandmother my eyesight might be failing me but i think i think scott howard's in the back there is that scott scott i thought that was you but you're like not standing up not coming forward so i was you're waving in support anyway you taking all this in All right. We'll look for some guidance from you as this
087next week comes up, but I think you're hearing no surprises in terms of where the board is. Member Kestredental, interesting. I was really thinking along the medical lines and where does that stop, but a very good point about where does it stop in terms of the academic lines. Unfortunately, I fear this is a case where the pendulum is going to have to swing so far out of whack that it will come back, but unfortunately in the meantime. Yeah, unfortunately in the meantime we have students going through critical periods of their life. So All right. No further Comments no further business for the board. This meeting is now adjourned