001good evening everyone and welcome I'd like to call this school board Awards and presentations meeting to order the time is 5 30 we are in the Joe and idle Junior teacher Education Center Dr Moore the floor is yours thank you madam chair we do have a number of presentations as we are going to remind ourselves why we do this work as our students come in I'm going to turn it over to our public information officer who I do not see yes I do there she is uh ladies and gentlemen uh Miss Maddox hi good evening everyone we have a full line of presentations tonight and I am excited to say that we are starting out with our awesome middle school jazz band under the direction of Mrs Michelle Hastings thank you see accept number [Music]
002foreign [Music] tomorrow [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] all right [Music] [Applause] [Music] now [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you I don't know where to look all right let's give them another round of applause thank you so much we're gonna give them just a minute to pick up their equipment and make their way out [Laughter] well done thank you much it was really good for a middle school tomorrow I need to get those chairs out there for people with the chairs so for our next presentation we are starting a new uh recognition at our board meetings during our award and presentation section and we will be doing a student Spotlight and a Safety and Security staff recognition we're calling these our shining star
003students and our shining star staff members this student will be nominated by sdirc staff members and participate in an sdirc extracurricular activity show outstanding achievement and go the extra mile for their school and peers we hope that this monthly presentation highlights the positive impact sdirc extracurricular activities and those students participating in them have on our district Mrs Hastings are you coming back out all right we need her for this next student Spotlight because we have someone from our very own Oslo middle school jazz band who's receiving our first student spotlight Mr Seymour would you ask Mrs Hastings to please come out Mrs Hastings she's back there okay so as we're getting our last pieces of um instruments and drums out of the way here I'd like to ask Mrs Hastings to come up to the
004podium please to introduce our student spotlight all right good evening first and foremost thank you for allowing us to perform for you tonight our students enjoy any opportunity to perform and to show their talents to the appreciative audiences when I was asked by Sarah milliman to nominate a student for The Shining Star Award I truly had to think about which of my eighth grade students I would nominate this group of eighth grade students have overcome so much in the past three years and have really shown fortitude to continue to excel in music they fondly refer to themselves as the covid kids because they began sixth grade with no introduction um to beginning band we had no summer camp and an instrument fitting to properly choose an instrument for them we were not able to do
005so when we started school that summer that fall they actually just came in and we were like what do you want to play and we let them play it where we normally sit down and work with their physical attributes and stuff so they had to sit when they came into the band room they had to sit at six six feet intervals spread across the banner that sometimes looked like a black hole at open and swallowed chairs due to quarantining they weren't able to sit close to each other and work on some of the most basic band elements because again we had covid that first year they didn't have a Winter concert a spring concert an end of your trip amongst other things all the events that make the band become a community and family their
006sixth grade year they didn't have their first concert was the seventh grade year at our combined bandarama concert with Gifford Middle School was a Halloween concert we had just started this group having had no experience at all then went on to receive superiors at the Florida band Masters association's a musical performance assessment in the spring of 2022. they have never they had never been to um MPA so to go to something that they didn't know what it was really about and to do be successful was quite an achievement for them all of the eighth graders have shined as a star in one way or another so to narrow it down to only one student was a very arduous task and one that I did not take lightly the decision to pick the student was based
007on several aspects of being part of the Oslo Middle School band and what makes the shining star shine attitude academic fortitude dedication to not only the program but the school and the desire to be a part of something that is bigger than an individual a student who goes beyond what is required of them to make the whole group successful someone who is kind empathetic and compassionate not only towards adults but students alike someone who enjoys making music listening to music and sharing their love and Talent with others and always willing to help out after looking at all of these qualities I realized that the student who best emulated these traits on a consistent basis was my eighth grader AJ Freeman on alto sax Barry sacks and guitars so this is AJ Freeman that he did
008not know he was getting this award until like I dragged him up here just now okay [Applause] we are proud to recognize the work of our Safety and Security team each month we will be celebrating staff members who work each and every day to ensure our students and campuses are safe and secure for our next presentation and a nomination coming from our Safety and Security team I'd like to ask Mr John teskey and Mr Eric Seymour to please come to the podium hmm first off as a former Wildcat I want to give that group another big round of applause thank you and I see another former wildcat in here Dr long where did she go there she is and uh I gotta say extracurricular activities that's the fun part of my job and uh you
009see the benefits of it now um let me say this too we have a group of individuals our safety monitors that do a great job each and every day and I am so proud of these guys so we wanted the community to know what these guys are doing and uh this special person here is a communicator and if you know anything about him that's what he does that's his role and because of his talents he's been able to deal with matters that possibly could have gone in either direction but I gotta say that this individual deserves a big pat on the back and that's why we'll we are recognizing this person today in addition to that we have about 26 monitors on each of our campuses and some of those individuals are law enforcement former
010law enforcement so that makes it just that much better when we have individuals like this that can work well with our srds also with our school safety coordinator Mr teskey we recognize the talents of these individuals yet we know we have work to do but our goal is to continue to train and drive these individuals in the right direction and I think we're off to a great start Mr teskey well that pretty much sums up what great things Mr Floyd has been doing uh we are a see something say something school district our campaign is to always report things as soon as possible and with his extensive background in law enforcement his uh knowledge of students and coaching and mentoring young students they trust him his reactions save lives and just to put it plain
011and simple he reacted quickly to uh quell a situation that could have become very very serious and dangerous on one of our campuses for that we are forever grateful to Mr Floyd and I know his administration sitting next to him is is very grateful for his actions as well too he assisted uh his principal and assistant principals and school resource deputies uh about a month ago at Vero Beach High School and uh it did not go unnoticed when we created this award you're at the top of our list Mr Floyd and I know I speak from everyone in here we're very grateful and blessed to have you at Vero Beach high school so thank you also we have uh some of the Vero Beach High School staff here Mr Greg Ahrens and Mr Mark Harris
012as well so they're going to join us in a photo with uh Mr Teddy Floyd enough [Applause] thank you so we have several individuals in the audience tonight and if you look around you'll see some familiar faces of our law enforcement officers thank you for that pause I needed it for a second let me grab these so if you didn't know law enforcement appreciation day was on January 9th and national school resource officer appreciation day was on February 15th we have over 35 sros and srds who are overseen by Captain Milo Thornton and Lieutenant Justin Knott for Indian River Sheriff's Office and they are all serving our North Central and South County schools from Indian River County Sheriff's Office Vero Beach police department and Sebastian Police Department our officers from Fellsmere Police Department not only
013make a huge impact in the city of Fellsmere but in the lives of our students at Fellsmere Elementary School all our dedicated and hard-working sros keep our students staff and campuses safe and serve as positive role models and mentors for students of all ages we would like to thank them today and every day for their service to our district so we have just a very small token of appreciation when I call your name if you would please come up to the front and stay up at the front so we can get a really nice group picture Sergeant David Bailey Deputy Ian McKay Deputy Carlos Negron Deputy Ron bear Deputy James barkwell Deputy RT Williams Deputy Kaylee Ward Deputy David ragley Deputy Anthony maraca Deputy J.J Kane Sergeant Roderick Smith Deputy Andrew Dean thank you Deputy
014Tim Miller Deputy mark howder Deputy Sean primavera Deputy Eric Carlson Deputy mark bertel Deputy Mike snowhill Deputy Tiffany Welsh Deputy Shannon Dean Sergeant Ron Garrison [Applause] Deputy Pavo Manus Deputy Sean Negron Deputy David pardon Deputy David May Deputy Larry McCollough Deputy Robert bonby Deputy Eric getchell [Applause] Deputy Todd Cleveland Deputy Andrew siebress officer Charles McFarland [Applause] officer Randall Slattery [Applause] thank you officer Hector Hurtado officer Sean Daly [Applause] officer Al Rosemond [Applause] officer Eric wraps thank you and I'd also like to recognize um with Vero Beach Police Department we have Captain Matt Monaco and Lieutenant Dan Cook who also oversee our sros and srds if you would please come to the podium [Music] and with Sebastian Police Department Sergeant Todd Finnegan and lieutenant [Music] yes sorry wrong one there you go was I close I
015I tried I'm sorry okay and can't forget our very own Captain Milo Thornton and Lieutenant Justin Knott and last but certainly not least we have all of our leaders here Sheriff Eric flowers [Applause] Chief David Curry [Applause] Chief Keith Touchberry and chief Daniel Acosta [Applause] [Music] a nice group photo of everyone [Applause] okay if we can kind of think that um get closer please ready thank you so much thank you thank you thank you outstanding sir thank you guys go to dinner enjoy it thank you [Music] so we haven't had a board meeting since a couple days after our Gala so for tonight our video is going to be our Gala recap video we just wanted to share how much fun that night was so let's go ahead and quickly Career and Technical education is
016all about opportunities for our students allowing them to pick a pathway that can lead them into college readiness or a career trajectory right from high school [Music] Career and Technical programs offer our students real world application right on site at our schools whether they're in a biotechnology lab working on drafting for architectural design or flying drones with our Aerospace technology program the students are immersed in learning from the minute they enter into the career and Tech classrooms Career and Technical education is important because it teaches kids the real world work experiences that they need when they leave high school and Beyond things like communication and problem solving decision making teamwork all of our careertech programs teach those types of skills that you wouldn't necessarily always get in a regular classroom some advice I'd give a
017student hoping to do a CTE program is to just to work hard the CTE programs at the school require hard work and then with our hard work comes payment of skills After High School a lot of these students are realizing College isn't for everyone maybe they want to go to trade school or maybe they want to go straight into the industry if you have the drive to actually learn from someone and you're teachable industry will pick you up and you can go anywhere in some of these jobs it's a lot of fun it's very creative you learn a lot of skills that you could use even if you're not going into the culinary aspect of life After High School I also got my ServSafe certification for food management just gave me a lot of information
018on food safety in a healthy environment for like future customers in the workplace CTE programs give our students power and they give our students flexibility students enter any one of a number of programs and they can come out on the other end be College Bound they can come out on the other end and go immediately to work they can come out on the other end and start their own business the State of Florida has been excellent in providing numerous opportunities for Grants and for strengthening programs helping immediate vacancies in the local Workforce and they've created opportunity for our students that they didn't have before at Treasure Coast Technical College we offer high quality Workforce programs which equip students with the skills they need to start a career or pursue other college opportunities a lot of
019our programs are designed to prepare students to go out into the workforce to hold positions such as practical nurses welders HVAC technicians phlebotomists nursing assistance and medical assistance all areas that are in high demand right now in Florida we are so fortunate to have such incredible programs here both at Vero Beach High School Sebastian for high school and Treasure Coast Technical College in fact both of our high schools had over 500 certifications through our career and tech programs last year we have so many different programs to meet the needs of all of our children throughout our entire County to ensure if they're going to college we have that for them we also have these vocational programs that ensure we can meet their needs and have them ready to fulfill their dreams that they have of
020themselves [Music] so that was not our Gala just in case you haven't figured that out although equally exciting that video was created for our CTE months um and hopefully that gave you an idea of some of the really exciting programs that we have going on in our schools so that students can continue their path After High School um it may not be college for everyone and we have some amazing programs for students to participate in so we will have that Gala recap video for you at another time because I don't think we have it ready right now but um we have already released it on Facebook so make sure that you check Facebook Twitter and our YouTube channel to watch the gallery cap last but not least we have our casual for a cause presentation
021and if you don't know what casual for a cause is for a small donation each month we like to recognize an organization and our students and staff members for that donation they get to dress down for a specific day of the month our calendar is voted on every summer by our principals we have people that call in throughout the year and ask to be on the list for consideration um so if you if you have an organization or know of an organization that you'd like to see on this calendar please do not hesitate to reach out to be placed on that list for consideration but uh we would like to recognize Gifford Youth achievement Center and we have Miss Angelia Perry and Mr Freddie wolfwork here to accept our check please [Music] and the students
022and staff members of the school district of Indian River County together raised 2122 dollars for Gifford Youth achievement Center and Storm Grove Middle raised the most money at 497.10 yes good app excuse me good afternoon on behalf of the students and families we serve at the give for youth achievement Center I'd like to thank Dr Moore members of the school board staff of and students of the school district for this award we are very appreciative of the funds that we've received we just recently celebrated our 25th anniversary and for 25 years we've been in partnership with the school district to be Best Buy kids and so we are grateful for that continued support I just want to quickly introduce a couple of folks that I bought with me Dr Deborah Taylor long our board chairwoman
023Mr Freddie woolfork who needs no introduction Mrs Denise Smith who is our student support specialist and last but not least Mr Jay Lundy director of our youth employability program so thank you so much for this donation pictures thank you all right thank you so much [Applause] Madam chair that concludes our presentation six minutes over but when you have so much to celebrate what can you say thank you everyone thank you to Dr Moore Miss McMillan for these wonderful presentations thank you to everyone who has recognized tonight we can't do it without you we're going to take a 10 minute break for the room to clear before we go into business meetings so this meeting is adjourned we will start again at 6 16. call this meeting to order good evening and welcome the time is
0246 16 the date is February 27th we are in the Joe and idlett Junior Tec for the business meeting today would you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and the Colors by Vero Beach high school ROTC foreign with us tomorrow why please March [Applause] [Music] okay good evening everyone this time I'd like to adoption of the orders of the day are there any items board members wish to move from consent to action and board members number one I'm going to be moving 10A the racial Equity policy from consent to action ladies and Gentlemen please thank you so much we want to do this in a in a good way and any other board members moving anything from consent to action Madam chair yes Miss Rosario I'd like to move eight F to action and
025I'd also like to add to a discussion item social and emotional learning thank you any other board member for discussion yes I want to add two discussion items cell phones and Middle School concept thank you and I'm going to add to discussion Robert's Rules of Order training for the school board thank you very much ladies and gentlemen we really need to have it quiet in here I appreciate everyone being here but it just has the way to be that way okay at this time uh Dr Moore we have a proclamation on Black History Month thank you madam chair I think I turn it over to Ms stampier so [Music] through the chair good evening we're so pleased to have an item on the board agenda with honoring Black History Month February 27 2023 at this
026time I'm going to call Dr shafty up to announce the the participants that will be presenting this Proclamation tonight you good evening through the chair tonight I would like to bring to the podium Mr Tony Brown president of the IRC NAACP and Mr Kevin Browning education chair of the IRC NAACP as well as two members of our work group [Applause] Proclamation honoring Black History Month February 27 2023 whereas February has been nationally designated since 1976 as a time to recognize and celebrate the contributions and sacrifices made by African Americans of the past and present as well as gain insight and Inspire progress for the future and whereas historian Carter G Woodson and other notable African Americans launched a negro history week celebration in 1926. the annual observance grew to honor the achievements by black Americans
027and other people of African descent as whereas in 1976 as part of the nation's Bicentennial black history week was expanded and became established as Black History Month and is now celebrated all over North America and whereas Black History Month is an important time to celebrate the many achievements and contributions made by African Americans to this nation's cultural diversity social equality and economic contribution and whereas African-American students make up 19.3 percent of Staff ten percent per 10.7 percent of the school district of Indian River County where we celebrate Black History Month and the many contributions of African-American Educators leaders Engineers servicemen and women as well as many others who have demonstrated extraordinary courage talent and service to our schools as well as our community and whereas the graduation rate for African-American students continues to increase which
028is indicative of our students and families accessing quality educational opportunities provided by our organization and using it as the foundation for a successful post-secondary career and quality life and now therefore be it proclaimed that the school board of Indian River County Florida that we designate the month of February 2023 as Black History Month adopted this 27th day of February 2023. [Applause] okay we need a motion in a second all in favor of the Proclamation for Black History Month say aye aye aye 50. thank you Mr Brown Mr Browning we appreciate you [Applause] hey next Dr Morrow is a report from the superintendent thank you madam chair and for the sake of time I do not have a presentation this evening okay all right at this time I'm going to read the guidelines for citizen input
029we have quite a few members who are speaking tonight A lot of them are just on the general citizen input but they are on action item I will call you up at that time and if I make a mistake there are 40 of them please just correct me and let me know you're going to come at a different time each statement made by a member of the public shall be limited to three minutes duration persons will be recognized in the order in which the requests were received the time shall start when the speaker is at the podium and the school board attorney will be the official time keeper you will hear a beep at the end of your three minutes persons may speak up for three minutes at the beginning of a business meeting during
030citizen input as indicated on the order of business and for up to three minutes to each action item during the action agenda in each board member discussion item is indicated on the order of business persons may only speak once about any given item the time period may be extended by the presiding officer only the individual submitting the speaker's form is allowed to address the board time may not be yielded to another speaker during the meeting please refrain from clapping or outbursts of any sort that so that we can proceed with dignity and with decorum by not infringing on any individual's First Amendment rights I need to remind everyone to direct all comments to the chair not to individual board members or the superintendent board members may or may not address any citizen input statements at
031the end of all the citizen input comments as board members listen to citizens without interruption citizens are asked to give board members the same respect as per Florida statute 1001 372 the presiding officer of any District School Board May order the removal from a public meeting held by their District School Board of any person interfering with the expedient or orderly process of such meeting providing such officer has first issued a warning that continued interference with the orderly process of the meeting will result in removal speakers shall not engage in personal attacks or abusive language chairperson has the right to terminate any speaker's privilege to address the board if the rule is violated again we appreciate your support and decorum okay for our regular assistant input I'm going to call the name and then name who
032is second so you can be ready the first one is Steven Dean and then Bonnie McDougall thank you welcome good evening everyone good evening my name is Stevan Dean I am a community community organizer with faith in Florida but I'm also a father I'm here speaking on behalf of the Indian River Community one of the things that I do as an organizer I speak to people in the community of every group of every community and I hear what they're concerned about and one of the main things that keeps coming up is education tonight I would like to stand in solidarity with our school board members who has recently come under their text we have a responsibility to protect those who have been assigned to protecting our children as an organization that protects family Across the
033Nation faith in Florida and in this case here as I said I'm standing on in solidarity with Dr I don't know if I can call names but Dr Peggy and Mr Beer for there um there's been a recent attack on black history on our children um and my concern as a father who has a son in the district is is that at some point uh history and especially the history of African Americans will be whitewashed and instead of us learning and healing from the past we our children will repeat that and that is not what we want um the school board uh office and position is a non-partisan position um it is not it's not a place where um uh that can be used to exploit or to be exploited or to be used for
034to put to to further somebody's political agenda and neither should our children be used as it as Pawns in the game of chess um we are coming here today as a community to ask um all of you I'm not speaking to one of you I'm speaking to all of you as the board members um to do what we elected you to do and that is to defend and to protect all children to protect all children from people who are bullying them and I said that coming from all levels being bullied and to make sure that all of our children regardless of race color religious uh sexuality that they all receive a free and a fair education thank you thank you thank you all right our next speaker Bonnie McDougall and then Mara McDaniel thank you
035please hold your applause please thank you for years now the roles of trained Educators and professional politicians have bled into one another so that Educators sometimes air their political views and politicians try to write curriculum we are now at each other's throats or for some of these blurred edges of responsibility for instance Governor DeSantis claims he rejected an AP course in African-American studies whereas the College Board claims it made its own revisions before it received the Egyptians rejection what stands behind this rejection the governor has said he does not see African-American history as separate from American history but surely ancestors Coming to America as slaves or free people to find different histories where there was a such fuhrer over an elective students do not have to take this AP course can the politicians of Florida
036say this AP course is in violation of Florida law while allowing residents to choose enrollment in for example Seton home school which exposes a Catholic curriculum using Catholic textbooks these are very important issues but not when I asked to speak today I want to suggest an alternative to this brutal boxing match we have about racism this is not solely an American issue many Chinese and Indian texts for example have a profound emphasis on a preference for fair skin Americans did not make racism the entire world for centuries led to this foulness but Americans can see ourselves as having a special opportunity to end racism I am referring to the vision of the man I consider the voice of our Sentry James Baldwin he lived a gay man's black experience in America and abroad these words
037so generous and Visionary are in the last paragraph of his great essay stranger in the village and this is a quote one of the things that distinguishes Americans from other people is that no other people has ever been so deeply involved in the lives of black men and vice versa it can be seen that even when the worst has been said it must also be added that the Perpetual challenge was always somehow perpetually met it is precisely this black white experience which may prove of indispensable value to us in the world we face today end quote he is saying isn't he that it can be us Americans who can end racism so why don't we quiet our stride in voices why don't we accept Baldwin's view that we Americans black and white have a history
038like no other a history that can allow us to celebrate his triumphal hope that Americans can be the ones to end racism and so do thank you so we honor the promise of our beloved land thank you very much oh Mara McDaniel and then John krappi hello my name is mar McDaniel and I'm a student here in Indian River County uncomfortable a four-syllable word some people like to use that word to describe the books you are all planning to ban what topics do you think make them uncomfortable the lgbtq about the about 10.7 million people in the U.S identify as lgbtq so I'd say that's pretty normal uh how about single home families about 24 million families in the U.S are single home families that's about normal too maybe it's the sex in them just
039about 000 miners get pregnant before they even turn 18 in the U.S so I would say us kids really know where that is the word uncomfortable doesn't seem like the right word they are trying to describe I would say shunning is the correct word people want to see these books ban because they are trying to shun these topics because it's not their version of normal we beg you to stay open-minded and don't be quick to ban these books we deserve more thank you thank you thank you say John crappie [Applause] Please Don't Clap or we're going to take a break and start again please thank you John karapi and Jennifer Pippen good afternoon uh TGI Now isn't a great TGI thank God it's now a moment right now with everybody here in this room and
040the community support and all kinds of causes well we have one thing that's going on in this community that we have to be very very mindful of and that's the mental health of our children I've been coming and speaking out about the mental health of our children for two almost two years now I met with Dr Moore I've met with Terry berenborg I've met with Mr Seymour Mr Bass as well numerous times speaking about these these things and have having to uh talk about how we can curb the bullying and the violence in the schools because we know it's it's it's worse than we've ever seen in this community guy I have to say it we've a lot of people here have grew up in this town there's a lot of violence going on in
041our schools and we have to be mindful of it because God forbid something happens in one of these staff members because we we I don't know if anybody saw that video of the of the staff member that got tossed like a rag doll in one of the schools here in uh in Florida and I don't want to see that happen in this community and I've been coming here and I I I'm only one person I'm only one man a concerned citizen a taxpayer it comes to these meetings and speaks about these things and even got fired for his job for speaking out about the mental health of the kids two years ago when we knew this was going to happen this is the cleanup this is what we got to do we got to clean
042it up and if something does happen in this community like this I want to see all these people in this room just like this to gather for the same causes because God forbid that happens to anybody because you know this is this is a very critical time in our in our country and we got to be mindful of that and like I said I'm the only one person it's not about me it's about our community we I've lived here my whole life and a lot of people here have too and this is the most people we've ever had in this room for this all every every meeting we've had for the past two years this is the most we've had in this room so let's support what's happening in our community think about what's happening
043with the the code of conduct policy look at it think about it the board's going to vote on it next next month next board meeting think about it look at it decide what you don't want to see in these schools so that we can make sure that nothing happened to these kids because I don't want to see it we've already had it when we had one kid kill himself this year and I said it was going to be suicide and it happened why did it happen there was things that were going on with these kids and we have to be mindful of it all right I just want to just make sure that people see that in this community it's an oh this is a form of people that can understand what we're trying to
044accomplish as a unit and a unified group of people to realize that this is what we have to do as a community it's we the people of this community not we the people of this Fringe group and that Fringe group it's we the people of this community the community of Indian River County Vero Beach Gifford Wabasso Sebastian you name it it's all the same it's all part of it so let's support it and get out here all the time at these meetings this many people this is what we need thank you thank you Mr crappie Jennifer Pippen and Cindy Gibbs good evening my name is Jennifer Pippen and I'm the chairman for moms for Liberty Indian River Florida and one of the co-founders for we the people of Indian River County and I wanted to
045speak today on the DeSantis hit list or Target list I don't like that the media is calling it that and DeSantis didn't call it that we're holding our elected officials accountable you are you represent the community and if you're not protecting children and putting children and families in the best interest by parental rights and children you're not doing your job and you see all the news outlets here you're I'm sure you're getting lots of calls when we tell you you're breaking the law or you're not following the governor's orders or the health department orders it doesn't stop here we're sending that information to our elected officials in Tallahassee we're sending it to our representative our Senators like we're supposed to do as Citizens so if it falls on deaf ears here it doesn't stop here
046it goes up to further government unfortunately a lot of things that in issues that happen here in Indian River County the past couple of years fell on deaf ears The Mask mandate that violated the governor's orders the two people that are up for re-election in 2024 you voted for that we told you it was breaking the law you voted to put pornography sexually explicit content and critical race Theory back on the shelves a year ago this month we're not allowed to read the books that are currently in our children's libraries because it's obscene but you voted to put those books back on the shelves and guess what we went through legislation and we have a new parental rights law in education now we have a new library vetting committee and those books are going to
047be permanently removed they will be permanently removed okay quiet please so I know one of you asked in the news how does DeSantis know our voting records again we sent all that information to him because he can't know what's going on in 67 counties it's our job as a citizens to let our elected officials know what's going on and you know what if you always follow the law and you always followed the rules you would have nothing to worry about but this case again and again and again we're getting letters from the Department of Education we're getting letters there's been multiple Department of Education letters that have come to this board that said we're not in compliance there's two we currently have now and I know they're getting discussed later so what we ask as
048Citizens is to follow the laws follow the rules respect parental rights and be best by all children and not just some children thank you thank you Miss Pippin Cindy Gibbs and then May ascencio thank you Miss Gibbs and then may ascencio shh good evening good evening I'm also a parent not every parent has the same point of view I know that you're elected officials and I'm very impressed with the background of the two people who are currently on that targeted list and there's no air quotes it's all over we know that it's a targeted list we're talking about somebody who has served decades to public education always with kids all kids every kind of kid in mind and families and teachers the chair of our board is the shining star of equity in sports and
049athleticism and make sure that everyone gets included regardless of ability if that's not about all kids I don't know what is I went to the prism concert I got to go twice this year and at both nights we talked about how the chair of our board has been awarded honored with the Florida music Education Association distinguished service award and music education that is a person who shows up and does the work Mr Barefoot has Decades of business experience and I'm so sad that he hasn't been able to really use that experience here to drive the way business should be happening in this school district there are so many people in this room that are so tired of this nonsense I just heard about all the discipline problems when are we going to focus on that
050nobody's hitting each other with books nobody's even touching the books they're not getting checked out can we please move on to something that is actually valuable like pardon me a moment while I access it the school district of Indian River County School Board mission statement academic success success ensure high quality Equitable standards-based instruction for all students Equity culture and climate cultivate a safe respectful supportive School environment which are Equitable and inclusive that's impossible when the adults in the room are threatening each other communication and engagement establish connections and Trust among all internal and external stakeholders that's everybody in this room that works for the school district and all the other people who are stakeholders too there's more talent and development build a culture that attracts develops and supports the continuous growth of all employees our
051teachers can't quit fast enough what are we doing to keep good people organizational and fiscal responsibility efficiently use District resources not based on frivolous lawsuits to enhance learning and ensure Financial stability please let's work together thank you Miss Gibbs we have May ascencio and then Logan gieslin I will be brief as I do not want to take time away from parents and others that also want to voice their concerns here today my name is May ascencio while I do not have children currently in the Indian River County School System I did raise three children all grown adults now and I was a teacher in the Orange County School District I'm speaking to you today as a concerned Citizen and urge you to listen to parents in this County that are requesting a review of certain
052books in our schools children or minors under the age of 18 are not allowed to purchase cigarettes liquor Playboy or Hustler magazines in our local stores or walk into a XXX theater unchecked and watch a movie however there is currently in our school libraries which I have seen and read that have quite explicit sexual language and illustrations in them I recently also learned that the school board does not allow the reading of passages from these books in these public meetings dubbing them as obscene truly I was surprised at this and it is the reason that prompted me to speak up today how is it justifiable ethical and indeed moral to have books in our elementary middle schools and high schools with words so offensive that they are prohibited to be spoken in a public meeting
053would you say the same thing about the pictures that appear the illustrations that appear in some of these books if I show them to you would you be offended and ask me to put them away and keep them hidden then why do we have them available for underage children to view what happened to protecting our children's innocence in conclusion I have three simple points number one I urge you to listen to the parents here trying to do the right thing and protecting their children from topics that are too adult-like and mature for their age it is their right as parents to protect their children from words and pictures that they are not yet mature enough to process number two I want to express my support for this board's policy and procedures regarding these books and
054urge all of you on the board to please support it but more importantly to deliver on it I thank you all in advance as I am assuming that you will all do the right thing and remove books from our school libraries that include mature sexualized content these books should be vetted and reviewed and removed and last I urge you to edit the citizen input guidelines so that parents and the community may have meaningful and fruitful discussions on this topic nothing is accomplished by putting our heads in the sand so that you don't have to see what is happening thank you for listening thank you very much Logan and Marie Stiefel my name is Logan dripson gieslin I was born in Vero Beach at the hospital on Old Dixie and I graduated from Vero Beach High
055School I want to thank you all and Brian barefoot in particular for taking an active interest in education in Indian River County in my mind your efforts are thwarted by politicians polarizing public education and weaponizing literature for political gains it's time some of the citizens and parents of Indian River County woke up thank you thank you hey we have Marie staple and then Diane perintella thank you Marie Stiefel resident of Vero Beach I would like to commend the members of the school board and particularly chairperson Peggy Jones for their maturity and good sense in the face of recent challenges they could have hidden behind their education degrees those teacher certifications master's degrees and phds that took years to finish adopt we know better than you attitude and dismiss the concerns of parents but they did
056not do that rather they put together a committee of Educators to look at all the books on the list and they asked was this big the questions are going to be are this is the book appropriately placed in the library if not take it out if it's in the right is it in the right library for example some books are in Middle School libraries that really belong in high school libraries and then they can move them what is commendable is that they handled a highly and are handling a highly emotional problem with rationality and Common Sense moreover a process is established being established that will be used again if other book titles or questions in the future that's a step toward constructive problem solving problems inevitably rise when dealing with such a complex Enterprise as
057public education by starting with a spirit of Good Will by saying we can do this together we can establish structures to deal with these contentious issues so that they become the foundation of a more solid harmonious educational system thank you chairperson Peggy Jones and all the school board members for being grown-ups in the room thank you Marie Diane parentala and Susan bromwell good evening during your August 29th board meeting I came before you to advocate for the PebbleGo and PebbleGo next resources that my students use last school year last year my students accessed over 13 000 articles using this great online database through Capstone press one of the areas of need at my school for students to improve their ability to read informational text our first graders just completed a study of habitats where each
058student selected a habitat did research last year they got to use PebbleGo this year they did not when thinking about my speech tonight I went back to My Capstone resources for inspiration here's what their research tells us school librarians are matchmakers they are experts at matching students with just the right books and teachers with just the right resources but that is just the beginning of their expertise we at Capstone are proud to support school librarians in their vital work by developing books and digital tools that help them promote in their students a lifelong love of learning and the critical thinking skills to become Savvy digital citizens and consumers of information we join our voices with theirs advocating for equity and access for every student in every school research repeatedly shows that students who are exposed
059to Quality School library programs staffed by certified school librarians achieve better educational outcomes in fact 34 Statewide studies confirm links between consistently providing provided findings that a positive relationship between full-time qualified school librarians and scores on standardized based language arts reading and writing tests regardless of student demographics and school characteristics having a qualified full-time School librarian that provides reading incentive programs as well as planning collaboratively with classroom teachers has a beneficial effect on test scores and helps to create not only more confident readers but also help students become more independent readers when students are able to self-select what to read next their reading performance excels school librarians Aid in this by helping students find the right books and encouraging reading for fun a study found that 30 of students Age 4 12 to 14 and
06019 of students age 14 to 16 say that school librarians are among those who give them the best ideas about books to read for fun student reading for fun leads to Independent readers which leads to student academic success so now that you are setting policy for purchasing Library materials let's make sure the process is not so drawn out that our students never again have to go without new books in their libraries for over a year thank you Susan bromwell and then Susan mihill I'm Susan bromwell a 20-year resident of Vero Beach a graduate of Duval County public schools and the University of Florida I taught public schools in DeKalb County Georgia and Fayette County Kentucky in recent months I've read about undo and negative pressure focused on our public schools and I'm here to thank
061and congratulate you as residents of Indian River County we should be proud of the dedicated professionals that educate and enrich the lives of our school children so thank you school board members and superintendent Moore for your steady leadership please extend my thanks to the teachers administrators and support Personnel for their commitment in providing the children in this County a quality education and lastly I'd like to extend congratulations to the Indian River County school system for having the fourth highest graduation rate in the state of Florida thank you thank you thank you very much Susan Miguel and then David Dinan good evening I thought we'd review some duties of elected officials one you should err on the side of too much transparency not too little for those of you who are expert in education law if
062meetings are held with about parent input from the meetings and from those meetings came recommendations approved by the board and implemented by the superintendent experts I'm asking you should the meetings be in sunshine you should use common sense as elected officials the library book Review Committee did send you recommendations which you did approve and the superintendent did Implement using District staff you knew their meetings were not held in sunshine they were not fact-finding air quotes I understand meetings and you expect you oh and all of the experts knew it when all of it was pointed out to you you still refused to admit that they were held illegally you have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of this County to use their dollars wisely in ignoring the obvious whatever the reasons you wasted taxpayer money
063and time because now the district has to answer the legal challenges those attorney fees should come out of your pockets not ours and because the Consulting attorney was clearly in the wrong maybe it should come out of hers and you need the means to call her out on that common sense tells us the only way to cure this is to review the books again in sunshine and that arduous task the one that you hailed the last superintendent for struggling through in the darkness that time and trouble is not ours I have to add for the record that I've read a couple of things lately no one I know asked the books about Harriet Tubman or Roberto Clementi or any other historical figure be removed from our libraries in fact we want kids to be taught
064all of our history particularly about those people of color who struggled who were courage courageous who studied and who achieved no one wants to divide us except those with an agenda lastly I would guess most of us in this room stood and pledged our allegiance to the American flag one nation only one and under God we don't divide people by their color of their skin and we recognize one God one higher power and when we all get back to those premises we will our kids will not suffer and we ask God to help us thank you thank you David deanan and Karen hiltz David deanan and Karen Hills hello hello I'm here to make some general comments about the downstream effects of the political theater that swept through school boards and across education throughout the
065country these last few years what I want to share is the perceptions that my children are developing from many sources whether it's friends at school media home or the public we all have hundreds of interactions every single day and all of those interactions affect us at some level and if this is what my kids are getting I wonder what your kids are thinking about both of my children attend public school here in IRC my oldest son who happens to be African-American turned 10 last fall he's smart athletic generally sweet and learning personal responsibility a family member gave him a book as a birthday gift I'm Ruby Bridges it's a short level appropriate book and it gives a unique perspective on a momentous event in American history here's the interesting part it was written by Ruby
066Bridges herself and it was written from her perspective as a five or a six-year-old this was intentionally done and it makes it approachable for young readers and it also tells the story from her experience it does not contain an adult analysis it keeps the adult side out so we read it before bed on his birthday and when I asked him about how he felt about the book he could recount the story and the events which he thought were a little bit incredulous but he he already knew the history but I was dumbstruck by his last comment quote we could never read this book at school this wouldn't be allowed it talks about racism I'm going to repeat the words of a 10 year old to everyone in this room this book wouldn't be allowed okay
067uh this book could be allowed we could never read this book at school it talks about racism and again remember I already told you it's from a child's perspective nothing about the angry parents or all the other shenanigans we'll come back to that in a second because my other nine-year-old I mean so my other son whose nine-year-old also asked me the same question a few times this fall since school began can we talk at school yet about our family now my kids are just kids you know uh much like anyone else's so what I say to everyone and I mean everyone in this room is that we all need to think about the effect this divisive rhetoric political posturing and ranting over the last few years is having on the most fundamental level it does
068in fact filter down to our kids whether it's attempted book bands or words or topics that can't be spoken it has an effect and not a good one no one can be claiming to do Best by kids or bettering education when these are the conclusions that two kids in your school district are drawing now the board and the superintendent do have to follow the law to the best of their ability I get it but we as the public have a moral responsibility to really think about the downstream effects of attention-grabbing headlines publicity stunts and angry rants about non-existent Boogeyman all this nonsense drains our school systems even further so it can't actually focus on academics out of 35 member countries in the oecd the US ranks 30th in math and 19th in science and all
069of this dumb drama is not going to fix that so everyone needs to realize that supporting promoting or seeking ill-fought-out big legislation and regulations is doing more harm than any problem it supposedly fixes Dr Karen hiltz and I'm sorry Paul crespi good evening I'm Dr Karen hiltz Sebastian residence resident I'm sorry I want to address policy and will submit written feedback regarding two policies on the agenda tonight 5780 and 57 80.01 policy isn't arbitrary it should not be based on feelings or political agendas policy should always be based on the rule of law that's why our founding fathers created a constitutional republic not a democracy I'd like to share a policy experience I had during my time as one of eight elected school board members in Virginia as I believe it's good to learn from
070others experiences our superintendent recommended amending a homeschool policy by adding additional requirements as you can imagine this didn't sit well with homeschool parents as the sole member that supported school choice I was contacted by several constituents a review of Virginia state code confirmed what is required discussion during our meeting included me informing my colleagues that if they want to make a change they need to do it correctly and work through our state legislators to modify the law not arbitrarily impose additional requirements via local policy I'm sure you don't won't be surprised when I tell you the vote was seven years and one nay in support of the policy changes then a lawsuit was filed which made its way to the Virginia Supreme Court the ruling stated upon examination of the relevant statutes and constitutional Provisions
071it is clear that a school board's authority to adopt regulations for the supervision of schools means for the supervision of public schools not home instruction in addition the ruling stated a school board May adopt regulations not inconsistent with State statutes it's important to understand school boards are an administrative body not a legislative body this forced the district to retract the policy changes in order to align with the law this exercise in what I refer to as the aspiration for power and control is an example of government overreach along with unnecessary expenditure of tax dollars and resources therefore when you decide that policy needs to be changed or updated it would behoove the board to always ensure it is based on and aligned with State legislation and statute it should never conflict lastly if the board
072intentionally invests time and resources it should seek to minimize unintended consequences I would also recommend that policies be enforced consistently and consequences are clearly communicated regarding non-compliance with consistency thank you thank you Paul crespi and Tammy Bogart good evening my name is Paul crespi I live in Vista Royale up in US-1 and I moved down here from Weymouth Massachusetts about a year ago I'm now a full-time resident of Vero and a voting citizen of the State of Florida Massachusetts was the first state to allow same-sex marriage and it's it opened a floodgates for the whole LBGTQ agenda and now I come down here and I see the you folks are fighting over it in the in the libraries and um I want to encourage you in a way take these books out of the library
073it's all this is being done in the name of inclusion and diversity and it's uh in a better time in America this would be called sin and it's an affront of the Lord Jesus Christ and God will not be marked and that's what's Happening Here one-on-one parents who have children in the school system our grandparents who have grandchildren on the school system to lean on your elected officials tell them you don't want this in there this is this is not this is a detriment to the kids and it's not going to help their education on a personal note my own marriage is blown up by the lgbtq agenda and uh it's a terrible thing to go through but I just want to uh encourage you to get these books out of the library and uh
074I want to live on a personal note I want to quote scripture from the Bible from the Christian Bible the book that we all used Generations which produce the most prosperous and productive country in all of history it's out of the Book of Luke chapter 17 verse 2. it says it were better for him that a millstone would have hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea then that he should offend one of these little ones and they are being offended by this agenda thank you very much Mr crespi and now we have Tammy Bogart and then Ryan blade I'm here this evening as a concerned Citizen and taxpayer of Indian River County because both of my children are adults and have graduated from Indian River County Schools however I do have friends
075who have small children a couple of whom I'm very close with and the two issues that I want to address are the violence in schools in Indian River County and bullying I have two friends who have children currently in Indian River County Schools who are being bullied mercilessly and it is being handled very poorly I have an adult daughter with autism who was bullied mercilessly herself in junior high so badly that I had to remove her from school and homeschool her for two years it affected her health adversely and one of my friends her son is not only having mental health issues because of this and severe anxiety but also it's affecting his gastrointestinal health and he's missing school because he is terrified to go to school I know that the code of conduct meeting
076is not going to be addressed until next month's meeting but I am asking you pleading with you to please take this seriously please discipline these kids intervene you are the only means for them to be protected and right now parents don't feel like they're getting the support they need I also had lunch with a young lady who's attending the Freshman Learning Center and I was shocked when she was describing to me what she's witnessing and experiencing at the Freshman Learning Center as far as violence students threatening one another and the fights and more importantly that there are students videotaping these fights who are not being disciplined I just I don't understand why this is being handled so poorly and not being taken seriously so I asked you to please intervene these students need your help
077and your protection thank you so much thank you very much Miss Bogart Ryan blade and then we have Dr Maura ship my name is Ryan blade I'm a County resident right off the bat I want to say as a resident I support all the items tonight on the agenda as for the education issues at hand I found it's been about keeping education at its core not putting ideology into education given that I am almost 25 years old I'm around the age where a man of having children at some point I certainly would not want to put my kids into the school district with the things I have seen there's absolutely no way I would I also want to say too as the vice president of the Vero Beach Republicans I've been tasked with starting High
078School clubs here in this County I've actually had a request to come from somebody from the local party to get the local to get the high school groups going again as they were many years ago the past couple of times I've attempted to define a student to start these clubs they've been either hesitant or the parents don't want those students having those clubs because these kids are scared or parents are scared of retaliation from other peers or perhaps even teachers that's one of the best online going off what I've Been Told I would certainly hope given that we do have technically it will help Republican majority on this board I would hope that wouldn't be an issue and I also like to say as well tonight I do stand with John krappi Monster Liberty in
079Denver Florida and all the conservative residents who have spoken tonight and yes the the fighting I know that there is some stuff being done to hopefully resolve that but it does need to be resolved and I agree with John on the mental health situation it's even because I'm the older Generation Z but the younger end of my generation it's still in school right now and I have to contend with the younger generation coming through as I age and I get older I certainly do not want to see any more children really across the country having to fight with the various mental health issues that go on because the Hostile environments in schools granted I did not grow up around here but I experienced what hospital is like when I grew up up north of Connecticut
080I certainly would not want any child to go through what I went through or what any child here now is going through and I certainly hope that everyone in the community can get together to resolve these issues thank you thank you very much Dr shiv and then Chris Allen hello all still getting used to being this side of the podium I want to speak to three things tonight I'm going to attempt to speak quickly uh first as are all of you I am very tired of talking about books but I'm going to do it again anyway the culture of exclusion created by the removal of books targeting anyone who is other than white heterosexual and generally Christian is not a good look there's a meme going around that says the ones who decided to ban
081books are never the ones who came out on the right side of History while you play semantics and say challenged books rather than Banning books let's be real what does this communicate about the kind of community we are and we wish to be if you are not nor have ever been a member of an excluded marginalized or persecuted group you don't actually get to say what that feels like do we want a culture of inclusion and welcome or do we want exclusion and marginalization do we want to further demonize teaching and reading in our schools or do we want to encourage kids to get everything they possibly can out of their education number two thank you through the chair Dr Jones and Mr Barefoot I probably more than anybody else in this room at the
082moment knows what it's like to sit up there and knows what that feels like I know what this job takes I know it's not always fun I know it's not always easy and I know that it is subject to constant accusation and personal attack from others with limited information awareness of Law and policy and it is made even less appealing when you must ward off blatant attacks from others who think they can and should tell citizens of Indian River County how to think and how to vote the governor's Hit List let's be real and let's be clear is a blatant user patient of local control and expansion of government interference into local decision making it should be up to the citizens of Indian River County to select the representation without interference and propaganda from State
083the state and their unelected unappointed extra governmental advisors it's unconscionable that you should have to suffer these attacks from the governor and others and I for One support and value you for your impartial unbiased and unpoliticized work and I thank you for that lastly for those who are not paying attention this is an issue that has not been talked about much and while it's not a school board issue it is certainly a state issue bills hb1 and SB 202 allows school choice vouchers and flexible savings accounts as the wholesale transfer of public education tax dollars into private hands with little or no accountability or standards if you determine that it is for educational value you can buy a TV you can buy a PlayStation you can buy a new desk and so on there is
084no income threshold on these bills as they're currently presented a family with five children could be eligible for up to almost forty five thousand dollars or nearly eight thousand dollars per child to put those kids in homeschool or private school irrespective of household income threshold do you want our Indian River tax dollars to foot the bill for private schools irrespective of income threshold thank you doctor see you again later thank you okay Chris Allen thank you thank you Chris Allen and Melissa Burdick thank you hi I'm Chris Allen with We the People Indian River County and as a parent I wanted to stay my full support for the Governor's woke list um through the chair I remember when you and Mr Barefoot voted to violate the governor's executive order as well as going against the
085um surgeon general's directive enforced mandatory masking on children without parental opt-out the district got a letter from the Florida Department of Education about this saying that you were wrong I also remember when the board decided to violate Sunshine Law in order to allow pornographic books back into the hands of school children and the books are so bad Miss Pippin wasn't even allowed to read them in a public meeting every time she tried it was stop so you can't say that it's good for students but not good to read in a public meeting and also it looks like the board got a letter from the Florida Department of Education stating the violation of sunshine also um I just wanted to say that these two school board members have not done best by children should not be
086reelected for these Physicians I came to every meeting for two years to only have one School Board member listen and I'm happy now that there's another one that replaced the person who was here last I whole wholeheartedly agree with Governor de Santa's analysis of the actions of these two school board members up for election it seems that the state still listens better than our own school board thank you thank you Miss Allen next we have Melissa Burdick and then Anthony Stewart thank you hi good times huh alrighty um so part of the education crisis is the lack of qualified teachers and teachers we have a deficit of minority teachers especially so what can we be what can be done to boost the current numbers sorry I'm following a lot um first reduce the time it
087would take to get the accreditation students wonder what students who wonder what if four years of college would do for them could be attracted to the teaching profession if they could see a salary coming towards them in less time push dual enrollment as a quicker path to earning a living the more credits acquired in high school the less time it in dollars it takes to get into the teaching ranks if a young person can get into college and take credits right now as a teen then it's assumed they are intelligent enough to teach I'm just gonna that's a stretch but not too much of one they're ready for on-the-job training at the very minimum in addition appeal to a retirees in the community showing the appreciation of experienced people who have already been teaching families
088for decades life skills count we all know the numbers of retired Professionals in Indian River County let's get them off the golf course into the classroom and it could be way more rewarding than playing and shooting 100 again and again and again I think Barefoot you know what that means I don't okay we may not have a City Vibe here to attract Lively Young Folks but that's what the many newcomers here want Indian River county is not Tampa It's Not Orlando and God forbid it's not Miami but we need to work with what we have if you want to just go take a cruise head to Orlando to get the seniors into schools we can also push the changes in licensing of the school grads Governor DeSantis has just expanded the teacher pool by allowing
089veterans to teach without the four-year teaching certification great idea they've done some college but they're looking for a rewarding career we have life veterans all in this community we need to use them finally accept these young folks who do want to stay in the community and have shown ability to pursue academics people who have degrees in teaching might not be able to tell you what they learned at a regular relative teacher school after a four-year liberal arts degree and even those with master's degrees cannot tell you how it applies to the first day in a public school you just can't teach that I know I was a teacher we're not asking to lower the standards just give credit enough to be able to stem the tide of current Educators fleeing the profession pay newcomers in
090increasing increments to keep them interested with cooperation from the administration and continual training especially for the young High School grad or the life skills grad Indian River can reload and we can stop this hemorrhaging the theme of qualifying as a licensed teacher without a Harvard Education shows how it is possible to increase the numbers of professors in Professionals in this community today we can start now sorry what I'm saying sorry thank you shout out to three non-profits Vero Beach rowing crossover missions and work together in spite of the differences thank you thank you Anthony okay Anthony Stewart and we had Edward Hall I want to give to each of you all and uh I like to say to uh Dr Barefoot and to uh Dr Jones that when I read in the paper what governor
091DeSantis said for you all I had to refrain myself from shooting fireworks because I knew you was on the right side of History you will be on the right side of History I want to share with you all something I talked with Dr Moore he threw a joke at me telling me that he hadn't seen me since my radio show and they sold a station uh and the last two two programs we had I dedicated to a guy by the name of Christopher Mad Dog Russo and I think that we all need to know who Christopher Russo really is he was the first person in America that attacked critical race Theory he there's a whole I'm giving you his bibliography biography here and I hope that you will read this because we can understand who
092he is and what his intent is first of all I thought he was attacked in critical race Theory but I found that he really is attacking public education in America he is being funded by a group of billionaires and he'll you he's using far right extremist groups like moms for Liberty and other groups to attack the public education system DeSantis last month appropriated 2.6 billion dollars from the education public education funding to go toward this private education theory that they are trying to build in 2020 he allocated to 200 million toward it there are many things that this guy has said I'm talking Christopher Mad Dog Russo and his whole intent is I thought it was to attack critical race Theory his intent is to attack the public school system and they're going to privatize
093it and make all kind of dollars for his billionaires only got oligocchus who were backing him and if we don't stand against this the next thing he's going to attack other systems other institutions and we'll wind up being an autocratic country he has fashioned his educational theory after uh the the prime prime minister Victor Orban out of Hungary and Victor Orban is the person who has changed hunger's education system he has added anti-semitic books thank you thank you thank you very much thank you very much Edward Holmes Wanda Mosley good evening good evening um I am a little perturbed because of the fact that we are all discussing critical race Theory and the ramifications of whether it's taught whether it's not taught to understand critical race Theory I've lived in Indian River County for 61
094years uh both of my parents were Educators right here in Indian River County my mom for 36 years my dad for 37 years no one has to tell me about the importance of critical race Theory because I've seen it uh we're coming up on our 50th uh class reunion and our class was a litmus test of integration living together graduating together after four years together our elementary schools all of our elementary schools our pictures that we're gathering for our reunion all show segregation there will always be a question is I don't understand what the problem is I don't know why they're so distant disenfranchised about what race truly is and if these things are not taught then we have a generation that will never ever understand the plight of people who have been suffering who
095have seen this firsthand and and I have Governor DeSantis with uh Ruffo as trying to say that and you'll see it in your in in the package that you were given that having these the lgbtq and the critical race Theory uh critical race Theory taught in school is going to turn our schools into a hunting ground for teachers for educators and that's so far from the truth until it's it's ridiculous so what we would like to see is an effort made um to educate to educate by definition is to give intellectual moral and social instruction to someone especially our children my children will never know what we went through but they can learn what we went through as a as a race as a country because it's important it's it's it's absolutely important that that
096this knowledge be passed on to Generations that come after us so that there is an understanding in that there can be something congruent about uh the relationships that we have with each other despite the color despite our color despite our differences despite everything and it's just something that's uh passionate and very important and I think that it it needs to uh needs to be changed and addressed thank you very much Mr Holmes Wanda Mosley and then we have sorry Reverend Don Dr John baccario I'm sorry hello my name is Wanda Mosley uh Scott um I'm a graduate of Bureau Beach High School went to the U.S Navy retired 21 years I'm a professional Soldier I say I'm also a business owner a couple of business owners part of the Mosley family groceries which is 62
09762 years old and um we're still active and very much part of this community I'm a mom grandma and an Advocates activists and and all of those things I wanted to just share a little bit this was also given out to you about the new school curriculum raises out eyebrows in urban Hungaria um hungry I'm sorry the anti-semitic author will soon be compulsory reading in Hungarian schools and history books will be Rewritten to promote pride in the nation Victor Orban controversial New School curriculum is drawing outrage and I just wanted to share this it's pretty thick but I'm not going to go through all of that along with the controversial new bill that greatly increased the power of Hungary Hungary far-right prime minister Victor Orban which has been described as crit by critics as a
098power grab the country education system is also facing reforms reflecting the government's nationalist propaganda when Auburn presented The New National Core Curriculum Nat at the end of January nobody suspected that two months later all schools in the country would remain closed until further notice the coronavirus crisis has particularly brought Hungary Hungarian education system to a standstill apart from a few exception homeschooling is currently not working in hunger Hungary I just I'm just saying that because I'm a little nervous a teacher mahali um high school and Budapest told DW the state out online learning platform regularly breaks down many teachers and students do not have access to stable internet connections or laptops especially in the pool regions of the country it kind of reminds me of Gifford um just a little over two years well the
099last two years thank you very much thank you okay Dr John bacchiano and then Anthony Brown good evening could we pause a moment and bow our heads as I recite the student's prayer almighty God we acknowledge our dependence upon thee and we beg thy blessings upon us our parents our teachers and our country amen I think tonight we could all agree for one thing that we would certainly love to see American Education become great again history has proven that when a nation and its people recognize the omnipotence and sovereignty of almighty God there is blessing favor and protection upon her and her people Psalm 33 12 reminds us that blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord on the contrary when a nation or people turn their back on God then the opposite occurs
100two historical points I'd like to make tonight quickly to remind us the first is related to the prayer that I just prayed from the 50s and the early 60s that prayer was opposed by it that non-sectarian prayer was opposed by five parents and it made its way to the Supreme Court and led us to the removal of Prayer in our schools one can look back at the detrimental effects that took place upon many aspects of the students and their schooling because of lack of Prayer the second point was when the United States Department of Education was placed into power in May 1980. statistics also show us the devastating effects that have come upon our American Education as well it's my hope as we seek to work together to transform education that we would re-establish the
101concept of Common Sense Thomas Payne wrote a famous 16 pamphlet series entitled The American crisis and he signed it common sense we're certainly in the midst of an educational crisis in our country and our overreaching Supreme Court in 1961 in the establishment of the United States Department of Education have only produced our nation and our education system the bitter rotten fruit of tyranny in his pamphlet Thomas Payne wrote tyranny like hell is not easily conquered yet has this com yet we have this consolation with us that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph what we obtain to cheaply see we esteem too lightly it's his dearness only that gives everything its value heaven knows how to put a price upon its goods and it would be strange indeed if so Celestial and art
102an article of freedom as it should not be highly rated My Hope and prayer is that as we move forward together looking at law and policy and procedure that we would do so through the heart and mind of Common Sense our children parents and teachers deserve it thank you God bless you thank you very much Anthony Brown and then we have Mr Kevin Browning good evening Anthony Brown president of the Indian River County branch of the NAACP I come before you this evening sad dismayed and conflicted I refuse to be angry I will not allow stupidity ignorance arrogance entwine with racism to control me or my emotions ladies and gentlemen our educational system in Florida is under attack more specifically in Indian River County my concern tonight is more about Indian River County I would
103preference what I have to say with censorship and First Amendment my focus is the targeted Dr Pega Jones and Brian Barefoot and the repeal of the racial Equity policy those of you who sit behind the diocese are responsible to us the citizens of Indian River County you must represent us holistically you are not allowed to play partisan politics with the lives of our children especially my black children my first concern is that I have not heard one of you stand in support of Dr Jones and Mr Barefoot I must ask is it political fear ideology or simply self-survival today is is Dr Jones and Mr barefoot but Don't Close Your Eyes tomorrow it may be you it reminds me of a story where Hitler went to get the Jews and no one said anything when
104he came to get the Polish there was no one to say anything collectively bored you members have the power to alter the course of this runaway training you cannot strongly or adequately represent my children from a position of fear agenda or political partisanship are you truly here to serve my children racial equity why are you all even considering the repeal of this policy do we African Americans deserve Equity equality and inclusion or do you consider us irrelevant unimportant underserving good for nothing or without worth as a result of this bias and insensitive political climate in Florida I'm inclined to believe you're motivated by political fear going along to get along and to be accepted by the Warped racist bigoted and biased atmosphere in Florida I must remind you that you are seated at that dice
105pledge to ensure the educational success of all children not a privileged and Selected Few when you objectively look at the recent attacks on education in Florida one must admit they all appear to be racially motivated at a minimum or have racial undertones I must ask you as an elected board member why is there power to change I will close with saying do you really care about my children thank you Mr Brown thank you Mr Brown Kevin Browning thank you and then Thomas Kenny good afternoon chair Dr Joe board member superintendent Dr Jones Mr Barefoot thank you for a job well done first of all I'd like to say thank you for navigating all this craziness that you have on a daily basis but now it looks like we have a new kind of craziness that
106has absolutely nothing to do with making the school system better you know one of my favorite movies is The Dark Knight when Alfred tells Batman that some people just want to see the world burn referring to the Joker well it looks like we have the Joker today who wants to see Indian River County burn for his own political game he has no plans to improve the standing of Florida in education no plan to make school facilities better no plan to improve public schools for all kids but notice that the plan is to give away money from the public schools to other areas and the plan is not to increase the salaries of support staff nor the teachers their plan is to attack teachers and call them groomers stress them out on the job make him
107feel like they can be sued for actually teaching teachers and support staff be careful for what you vote for because these people who are trying to attack the school board members also want to pull the money out of public schools and that means less jobs for you because they'll have to cut jobs when they give the money away they're attacking any student they just feel that they can do whatever they want to do and finally this plan the latest one is to attack one of the most highly revered leaders principals and school board members that this county has ever seen Dr Jones has led schools with thousands and thousands of students improving their lives with all kinds of innovative programs and there is not a person who comes with her background and experience and cares
108for kids so I'm here to State emphatically she's for all students and we support Dr Peggy Jones one hundred percent of the way Dr Jones this community loves and respects you and your record is well known and respected now here board you did the right thing with the equity policy but I know there are some dark Hearts who want it gone keep this policy that protects all kids Wordsmith it if you must but keep the policy and just in case the phonies didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ loved everybody as a matter of fact he disliked the hypocrites he said you hypocrite who warned you of the Wrath to come thank you Mr Browning thank you thank you okay Thomas Kenny and then we have Michael Marsh Mr Kenny sorry TV how you all doing
109tonight I'm just going to get to the point September 2021 uh the chair brought forth an idea to limit public comment we start at 6 15. it's now almost eight o'clock the first 30 minutes would have been allowed most he wouldn't been able to speak if she had her way but that's not why I'm here we're here to talk about critical race Theory critical race theory in the book critical race Theory and introduction written in 2001 by Richard Delgado and Gene stefanik the authors clearly State the intentional undermine of the very principles that inform equality the authors write unlike traditional civil rights which Embraces incrementalism in step-by-step progress critical race Theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order including equality Theory legal reasoning Enlightenment rationalism and neutral principles of constitutional law they go on
110to say critical race Theory contains an activist dimension it only tries to understand our social situation but to change it it sets out not only to ascertain how society organized itself along racial lines and along racial lines and hierarchies but to transform it for the better at Best in my summation of this critical race Theory would say the Constitution is nothing more than a conspiracy for racial hierarchies ibrahamex candy I went to the library got this book some of you know it I'm a read from his book this one won't be banned here it's not in our libraries anyway [Music] a racial policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups and anti-racist policies any measure that produces or sustains racial Equity between racial groups by policy I mean written and
111Unwritten laws rules procedures processes regulations and guidelines that govern people there is no such thing as a non-racist or race neutral policy this is where this argument comes from equal race Theory policy at every institution every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or Equity between the races so in order to get what he would want in his book you would have to shut down the school system plain and simple you know what's really bugging me earlier this gentleman bought in a book by Ruby Bridges and held it up none of those books have been challenged thank you Mr Kenny Michael Marsh and then Bob Lipton thank you very much welcome to the circus I am Michael C Marsh Advocate father and Community healer woke if that means I'm aware that
112people are trying to steal my rights for me or my children then consider me Wide Awake if there was a Mount Rushmore of Indian River County school board members through the chair then Doc Jones should be the first one in 2024 through the chair Doc Jones Mr Barefoot get me the polls and I'll dig the holes baby bullies we talk about it with our kids what about the adult bullies we talked about all this legal stuff can I tell you a legal story yes I can I got this nasty email from our school board attorney you know why because I do public records requests because we live in the Great sunshine state where there's no darkness and what happens I get this email that says Mr Marsh you committed a crime what me no guess
113what happened our Sheriff's Office my Sheriff the one that was horrible Rec people tried to kick out investigated Michael Marsh guess what guess what I was cleared of all charges so when do I get my email that says Mr Marsh we're sorry guess what it said in there the board that's Collective we learn these terms right the collective board sent Mr Marsh to SEMA there's only one problem that three school board members said Mr Marsh we didn't say you send this letter and we can't be upset with the school board attorney she does great work or the superintendent wonderful job there but as a father I was almost taken away from my kids by a school board member a radical right one that wanted to take me away for public record requests it's disgusting we
114heard about who's next well just recently Vice chair she was targeted but guess what I see her on the day is so I will take being woke as a compliment but School District Indian River County it's time to wake up let's talk about that local Fringe group before I leave moms for bands says we don't co-parent with the government but apparently we co-parent with the governor though huh now I learned three branches of government legislative executive judicial I ain't the smartest but with four degrees I think the governor's part of the government just maybe for my last 30 seconds I want to pray and that is I pray that the division stops that the partisan Politics the pandering to local small-minded Fringe groups stops stops there's three places three places that there's no room for
115politics our education system and church and in non-profits guess what the school district of Indiana county is thank you very much once again I am Michael C Marsh your Advocate father and Community healer thank you Mr Marsh our last person on consent and this is before we get to action is Bob Lipton thank you for all [Music] her allow these voices including mine I appreciate it I have the feeling that no Minds have been changed tonight and that's sad closed minds are a problem I have a closed mind in the sense that I'm positive that it's that I'm right that books should not be banned but I'm not proud of having a closed mind anybody who does have a close bind if they're proud of it they've got it wrong that's a problem curiosity is
116a good thing having the facts is a good thing the way to get facts is to read to read as many viewpoints as possible and speaking of viewpoints having as many viewpoints as possible on the school board is a good thing so when people like Peggy Jones and Brian Barefoot are targeted for removal by our governor that's a problem I yield on time thank you thank you very much okay before we go on to our next part of consent approval of consent agenda items Dr Moore would you like to respond to anything with citizen input we'll start with you um thank you madam chair quite honestly my my heart breaks my heart breaks in the sense of the the kind of conversations that we're having but at the same time there's a glimmer of hope
117because so many people are here never been a person who's job scared never been a person who will shy away from making difficult decisions I think God put me here for a reason and three years ago what this County was is not what it is today it has drastically changed the landscape of Florida has drastically changed but I will continue to say why can't Indian River County be the county that sets the example look at all of you that are here tonight on different sides or different perspectives the reality is we're here because of children we're here because we want to act in the best interests of children and we can have different political views diversity is a wonderful thing but when this these people who are here and those who are not who feel
118the same decide to come together engage in the conversation about what we can collectively do to improve education for our children then we can in fact be that example because by God Florida needs that example and there's no reason these people in these rooms these board members myself this senior staff uh our principals and teachers can't be the ones that engage in the complex conversations that need to take place in order to do that for our children there's hard hard decisions that this board will make some tonight but at the end of the day they are here to be in service of our community and in service of our children as am I as is our principals and teachers I've always said it was a principle or two still in the room the best job
119you could ever have is being a principal I think there's some principles up here that that would agree with me um because you get to see the impact that a school has on children each and every single day the best things in the seven years that I was a principal and I was a principal of some very very tough schools very tough schools inner city schools but to have the opportunity to support my teachers who ultimately changed the lives of kids made that 45 mile drive to that inner city school each and every single day worth it to see that impact never to see my house in the light of day from the time that the sun went down on Sunday until it came up the following Saturday to the point where my wife is
120saying you're missing the growing of your children your two daughters and finally to have the opportunity to come a little bit closer to home was great but that's how powerful that impact was each and every single one of us should have a burden placed on our hearts to have that kind of impact for our children in these schools we are in a hard hard place our children are coming off a something that none of us none of us went through when we were children and having to come back into school and relearn expectations and interact um with everybody let's be the example let's be the example let's understand the complexities that are in our schools today let's come to the table and have the conversations in order to prove the quality of Education also want
121to mention before I close it was mentioned about the bullying every single student in this district has a right to a free and appropriate public education they got a seat and we're going to do everything to support those students to ensure that they display the behaviors that are positive and allows every other student in schools to feel equally safe but with all the support that we give and you don't uphold that expectation we may change where that seed is we may find you another place to go to school having the opportunity to be in a public education when you're not going to act appropriately impacts the lives of others I understand how hard it is but bullying in this school system will not be tolerated and that's just not the voice of the superintendent the
122voice of principles the voice and desire of this Boyd board it is the expectation of everybody it should be in community organization meetings it should be in churches it should be discussed across across our entire entire County not just pointing the finger finger but wrapping our arms around this community understanding we send our children's to these schools and some children are coming into these schools who don't have the loving caring nurturing environments that we are all blessed to have but by God they deserve our love and compassion they need our support in order to ensure we are that school system that every other county is looking for and saying if Indian River County can do it so can we thank you madam chair thank you Dr Moore Dr Pasco I'll uh I'll keep it brief
123because I know this meeting is going to last a while but I think the main thing I want to convey is I'm very happy and I'm very appreciative that so many people came to speak and be involved in our District's education it's imperative and you know please keep coming the most important thing that I've heard from parents in the district over the last year is bullying and safety in our schools and so I hope you continue to stay involved and come to our meetings and be involved in the code of conduct policy meetings to help improve that thank you yeah I just like say the same thing thank you all for coming out um I know everybody's here for different reasons and sometimes on different sides of the aisle but we appreciate hearing from everybody
124this is the United States of America remember that all for one thank you Mr barefoot well I'd like to thank everybody for coming as well and um it's been mentioned by a number of people this evening that are public education in this country is under attack and we turn on the news at night we read about the Ukraine and and National Security problems or challenges that we may or may not face but I would tell you in my opinion the biggest national security threat this country faces is a deteriorating public education system as we sit here today these kids 25 30 40 years I'm going to be dead some people like me dead sooner rather than later I guess these are the kids that work that we expect to be the leaders in this country
125and there being in my opinion Roth whatever side of the political allow you on these extremes they're being robbed of the same opportunity that I was given and my guess is most of you were given because it's become so polarized so I I applaud all of you for coming out stating your points of view and people got to start listening to one another you know there's a difference between listening and hearing people say I'm a good list here but are you hearing what you're listening to because if you're hearing what you're listening to you better get off your butts and get out there and do something about what's going on we've got to we've got to stop this divisiveness and we've got to get people focused on results and that's educating kids all kids as
126many people have said this evening thank you Miss Rosario there are so many things to address um there were too many comments for us to be able to address each and every one of them there were three in particular that um I'd like to just mention here and I know that we're going to talk about some that were going that are going to be on the action agenda or in a discussion so the ones that are not going to move into action or discussion are about the homeschoolers someone mentioned homeschooling um that homeschoolers espouse a Catholic curriculum I just want to clarify something there that is not true that's furthest from the truth homeschoolers parents who homeschool are of all sex they can be secular they can be non-secular and parents get to choose what
127that curriculum would be so it is not it has nothing to do with a Catholic curriculum or Catholic religion I also want to to share I'm going to actually support Mrs Shattuck on this an accusation came not long ago actually accusing Mrs Shattuck of accusing a citizen of committing a crime that also could not be further from the truth her letter actually stated that that using a person's name that is not your own can cause difficulty when responding to a public records request so you can anybody can request can request public records you can be anonymous even but there has to be a way for the public records department to respond to you either by telephone or by email or if you're going to pick it up you know that that note that message has
128to come to the public records department through that way but what that letter stated was that there was a concern that a public records request came in under a false name using another Citizen's name without that Citizen's permission uh could uh cause or making a false statement could be making a false statement and therefore there was just a warning there wasn't an accusation so I'm going to support Mrs Shattuck on that because she did not indeed indeed accuse anyone of a crime the other thing that I want to state is the discipline and the bullying I have mentioned time and time again we have a policy that says that we do not tolerate bullying but that is not the same as having a zero tolerance bullying policy and I think it's about time that we
129as a board discuss what that would look like to actually have a zero tolerance zero is zero um we have our code of con someone mentioned I think uh Dr posca mentioned the code of conduct we have been in the process of at least I have observed of course Mrs dampier can talk a little bit more on that if she would like but we have had citizens participate in um the review of our code of conduct which should be coming as was mentioned earlier to the board at the end of next month at the end of um March meeting whenever we have our March meeting I don't have the date in front of me March 13th 13th it's both March 13th is gotcha okay let me clarify so March 13th will be the only meeting
130of the month because of spring break completely forgot about that thank you so we will have a workshop during the day and then a board meeting in the evening so the workshop during the day is going to be a presentation of the recommendations that the committee is going to bring forward obviously through Mrs zampier's office and all of the staff that have worked really hard on that collecting input from the citizens of the county and I think it's very important that if you are concerned about bullying and safety and issues that are happening in the school district that you show up to that show up next month to next month's meeting be here and let us know send us emails if you can't so that we can ensure that your your requests for what should
131or should not be in these uh in the code of conduct uh could be captured in there we can only change what we receive from you we can only address what we know uh you care most about and we can make that difference if we can hear your suggestions moving forward and I think that's very important so I'll just leave it at that for now thank you just a few words I thank everybody for coming tonight it's always great to hear different perspectives um I think about my time in education and I'm old I started teaching in 1974 so you can figure that out but anyway in every position I've ever had and there have been many districts State school-based principals assistant principals executive director every single day they went on campus or I was
132at a district person and went to school so I taught my favorite part was teaching I gave 100 percent to make sure that those students have a safe learning environment and I think that's the premise of what Dr Moore was talking about each and every day every District person every site-based person every teacher every janitor every bus driver every person goes in with the same mission to make sure that our students have a safe learning environment from getting the school safely to feeding them the after school programs the Community Partnerships that we have you know I ran for school board because I love this district and community and wanted to do the work and I will continue to do the work and I just appreciate all of you coming out so thank you very much
133to everyone and let's go on board members we are now at approval consent agenda items motion to approve as amended so moved thank you Mr Barefoot any discussion vote all in favor aye five zero okay now um Madam chair yes just uh acknowledgment yes we just uh approved four donations yes um Rotary Club of Orchid Island thank you Mr Mrs Shepard gave a nice donation to one of our schools aldose of Sebastian and Beachland PTA we appreciate all of those people for helping us and also we received a Perkins grant for CTE programs so those of you that are concerned about CTE Career and Technical just know that Perkins grants are really important so thank you for that all right can we take a break yeah five minute break and we'll come back to the
134action items that were pulled think number 13 items pulled from consent to action and we do have public input on most of our action items the first one that was pulled 10A the removal of the racial Equity policy repeal of the racial Equity policy and we have a few speakers before the superintendent will speak and before I will speak and before we have the vote on discussion so 10A our first speaker is David dinen hello again this is going to be shorter I promise so in regards to the policy I'm glad to see it moved from the consent agenda to the uh action items but I really want to emphasize that this policy we just can't have a perfunctor republic hearing and then immediately repeal it I really think that the potential repeal of any
135policy anywhere Demands a really thoughtful and fully engaged discussion while the policy may be in conflict with state law currently it would be much better to do the hard work and amend it and bring it into compliance whether or not it's a challenging thing to do or if it is moved to repeal which I uh I I wouldn't like to see the district must then ensure that the three reference supporting policies do in fact serve as an adequate replacement and that the relevant parties and the stakeholders are wholly aware of where the necessary components are where they reside how to access them and how to implement them in addition it does seem to me to be a very poor choice to take initial steps to repeal this policy particularly during African-American history month in a
136school district that is still operating under a federal desegregation order so much of life is reactive we're all reactive beings it's hard to be proactive in this busy world but we can't be operating on knee-jerk reactions when we can't be positively proactive we must be thoughtfully not reflexively reactive thank you very much our next next speaker on 10A is Dr Maura ship so like I said I'm going to see you guys a few times tonight I I'm sure you'll a lot of what you'll hear tonight on this will be a little bit repetitive because I think we all feel the same way I will say though that it's ironic to say the least that in the same breath and on the same night that we celebrate Black History Month we simultaneously want to push for
137the removal of the racial Equity policy that I will add was enthusiastically enthusiastically passed by two current school board members of the board Mrs Rosario and Mrs barenborg as wet baronborg sorry as well as previous members Mrs Justice and Mrs Zorb who I won't say what I was about to say um but times have changed uh I'm sorry I uh there are things I want to say that uh in a public setting and in the spirit of of professionalism and decency I won't say however there has been no public discussion by the board on this issue there was a short conversation at the last superintendent's Workshop but that was short and it was tabled until further notice I personally would like to hear more discussion um about why this policy is being removed secondly I'm
138I understand that the state has said there are problems with the policy and the language and the policy what I'm not clear about is whether the state has issued clear policy or directives if so what are they let's hear them in public discussion let's have a full discussion in the sunshine about those directives as to this school district what's the impact of removing this policy on attracting and teaching uh attracting teachers of color and supporting students of color this is now in fact or nearly a minority majority District what message are we sending to most of our students about understanding and addressing their history and their current challenges when we remove the very policy that addresses the fact that we haven't done this very well in the past finally there's a reason we include words
139like diversity which is a making sure that a mix of all types of people is welcomed and represented Equity that resources are devoted to making sure all students get the support they need to be successful not all students need the same levels and types of support but different students need different resources finally inclusion this means that all students are welcomed included and have a voice in our schools all citizens all students all teachers all faculty all administrators irrespective of skin color ethnicity linguistic ability capacity origin physical mental or behavioral ability while this policy doesn't address specifically all of those it does address what is particularly important when we have been under a desegregation order since 1967 and this policy was very much intended to reflect and support members of our community who are affected by
140that desegregation order about which Mr Brown eloquently and articulately spoke earlier who is looking out for these children thank you thank you very much point of order yes ma'am point of order um we're accepting Pro um public comment on action items that were not originally on our action agenda we had this happen once before when Mrs berenborg was the chair and those comments during an action item were removed those persons were not allowed to speak to action items that were not on the original agenda so we shouldn't allow that same process to happen now I did speak with Miss yadic about that if any if anything is moved from consent to action and I did move this to action that people could put on the citizen input if it's moved to action they would like
141to speak then if it is not they would speak during consent is there an issue Missy attic thank you uh chairwoman through the chair that is correct um the way that we order our comment card allows for people to speak at the time in the meeting to address the item that they want to speak to and if people have a question well what if something is moved to action they can indicate that on the card if they want to if they would prefer that if it is indeed move to action that they speak at that time thank you my point of order still that's not on our card our card doesn't say if you want to move something from consent to action you can do that as a citizen and also citizens are only allowed
142to put submit one comment per consent item or so they can't pre-us presume prior that an item is going to be moved and US honor that if we made the decision uh when Mrs berenborg was the chair then it should be consistent with that well I disagree with the statement I believe that if people want to speak to this they were not sure if it was going to be from consent to action I moved from consent to action so they wrote that they would speak during that time I don't think there's any time where we need to say to somebody you don't have the right to speak and this is very very important for our public to be able to do for anything and if we have to amend the citizen input we could do
143that but I'm going to allow these people to speak on action regarding the racial Equity policy sure yes ma'am um I believe it's if they speak to the item during citizen input they cannot try and speak to it you cannot do the same time and I do not believe that has happened thus far yep okay Mr Browning thank you madam chair it's so refreshing to have a board and superintendent that takes action and cares about all kids uh if you could please let us know which word or words are allegedly in conflict with the state law and if you would then make that change to those words of words but it's important to have a policy that protects all the students of Indian River County and I think that's the county we want to have
144USB be the model of the County uh in in Florida now I'm having an issue right now because it appears that even though we ask for transparency that it looks like we don't want transparency or somebody to speak to the item there are a lot of people that this effects and everyone needs to have a chance to speak to it so thank you madam chair thank you board and please keep the policy words method if you have to thank you Michael Marsh thank you Michael C March father Advocate and Community healer thank you very much through the chair doc we we do live in a great Sunshine State and transparency is something we always hear from the school district of Indian River County I speak in support of the racial Equity policy I'm looking at
145many policies that if something does not conform to the Florida state statute we have an amazing group of individuals that can fix those words whether it's a couple little Wordsmith but let's go through the policy shall we what's the purpose of it well this policy confronts the instructional racism that results in predictably lower academic achievement for students of color than for their white peers why wouldn't we want to talk about this what's so bad I don't understand and I don't know much about policy or procedure but I do you know you have to have policy with the procedure I learned that from a couple board meetings ago so why not have another public hearing you hear that citizens are saying that we didn't get we don't hear much discussion let's open it back up I
146believe the last time it was adopted was 2020. a lot has changed since then in but let's go through what it also does it eliminates systematic systematic disparities invite and include people from all Races and ethnicities to examine issues and find adaptive Solutions which address the root causes and systems rather than Technical Solutions which provide one-time situational fixes like putting a Band-Aid on bullet holes so to speak we have to have this conversation to ensure equity why did Equity become such a bad word in 2023 Equity equality I don't get it leadership teaching and learning the implementation monitoring the board directs the superintendent to implement and monitor diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility in all district outcomes clear accountability standards will be designed and implemented to result in measurable decreases in District disparity and deep proportionality
147I don't get it I understand the law we always hear follow the law follow the state statute we have some amazing people that can edit whatever needs to be headed to make sure that we keep ourselves out of lawsuits I get it but if we repeal this what will you replace it with what type of policy everyone's so offended we can't say the word Equity oh scary so what what would we have instead that's my question so you repeal it goodbye what do we have there goes your equity I leave with that question what will you put in its place thank you very much for allowing us to speak tonight Doc Jones thank you um Dr Moore would you like to speak before I present the item for discussion open chair since it's I will
148present the item um what you have here is a item and I'll tell I'll give you the the history and what is the recommendation uh Florida Department of Education know to notify this in November that there is a possibility that this policy is in violation of house bill 7. let me pause right there because this is a policy that's not part of our new Neola policies it is above and beyond so each and every single year as laws change policy has to change because this one policy was not supervised or overseen by neolim it was missed in the initial conversation uh with then Chancellor and and now new Chancellor uh we looked at the specific policy they flagged one specific term which basically they did through a search of our policies because we have policies
149in place there is this is the best way of me describing it this would be like a cherry on top of the the the ice cream um we have policies in place that ensures we are not stepping away we're not taking a a lesser stance regarding ensuring that every single student in the school system has what he or she needs and I have been steadfast in my desire to keep the main thing the main thing I've been steadfast and ensuring that we allow staff to focus in on the complexities of doing this work so we did have a public uh conversation during a a board briefing I'm sorry we did have conversations during board briefings but we also had one during uh the last superintendent Workshop in which all five board members were there and
150as stated there was not a significant amount of conversation if the board would like to have that conversation have that conversation uh what is in front of you is to repeal that policy because I can give every Assurance um to everyone in the community we are not lessening or walking away from our current stance on ensuring we have a school system that does not discriminate and provides equal access in the appropriate level of services to all students in the school system thank you madam chair okay since I pulled the policy the public hearing and the repeal the racial Equity policy and putting it out for public hearing for 30 days in order to discuss I need a motion and a second to discuss I'll make a motion okay second can you go I'm sorry State
151exactly what you just said well I have pulled the policy because I wanted to discuss polling and repealing the racial Equity policy and putting out to the public for 30 days I think there's more discussion needed and I'd like to share that one second thank you okay [Music] when I saw this on the agenda of just pulling the policy I had some issues with it I don't think we just put on action items pull the policy or rewrite the policy I think these things really need to be workshopped and I think we really need to discuss something especially like this now just a review from our Workshop there was a little bit of a discussion I don't know if Mr Barefoot was there that day but I had some concerns and I raised it at
152the workshop when I saw that this was on the doe website that Chancellor Oliva wrote to one of the seven or eight counties to take a look at this policy I then saw Miss shattuck's response and I'd like to read that for the record sorry this is what I wrote to miss Shattuck on January 18th reviewing the doe website I saw the letter from Chancellor Oliva on November 18th and then your reply on November 28th with the corrections and stated policy they asked us to review has there been an official response from the doe after you sent the response on the 28th if so please forward to me am I assuming correctly if there is no response our Corrections were sufficient and then on her response good afternoon doc I did not receive any response
153to my letter the attorney from the doe Miss gay and I did have a telephone call on the matter after I sent my letter in the conversation she said that she couldn't approve our proposed changes to our policy but she would update the tensor that we were taking corrective action she said she'd let me know if the chancellor had any concerns with our proposed corrective action since she has not contacted me the chancellor must not have had any concerns and that was on January 18th now at that time we had a switch in Chancellor so I called Mr Burns the new one he could not make a legal decision and I understand that but no new Corrections had come to us and then I see that we just want to repeal this policy and I
154understand what Dr Moore said I worked hard on the achievement Gap policy we started out as sustainability and I know we have policies on non-discrimination and recruiting and retaining minority teachers but just to wipe it out I had a concern I don't think I don't think we had a thorough talk at the workshop and anybody can take a look at that I had some concerns and our standards for boardmanship the first line says make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of all children regardless of ability race Creed sex or social standings so I'm looking at this and a lot of my colleagues are looking at that and saying why are you repealing this policy just wiping it out all right so we go to the next one and I'll come back so that's the
155beginning of my discussion so we'll go from there and then I will come back to it yes yes all right I made the motion to have that further discussion you know when this first came up the Optics of it are horrible they are I understand why we had a crowded room especially this month um I also understand that there's more work than on staff towards Smith there's a lot of work when you're looking at something like this but first of all Dr Schiff brought this actually to us originally and we voted on it and it was unanimous I believe 5-0 and um you know we want to do the right thing nobody wants to not do the right thing but I also think and I was told and I need to be assured that all
156of the things that are in here are covered in other policies so I guess the best way to do that then because we didn't go to Neola for this before is to maybe discuss it with Neola and say what in here will satisfy the current statute or where is it in another policy to make sure so people don't feel like the Optics of this are so bad and I I do think that you're right it does need a little bit more of an eye on it and make sure before you throw out something you want to make sure that you're doing the right thing and it's covered up elsewhere thank you miss barenborg any other board member um I just make an observation it might be more familiarity with us because we deal with these
157policies all the time it's not necessarily familiar with the public and when you start saying and it's not a criticism it's just an observation that whatever this is a Consolidated policy in effect it's it's consolidating what is in three other policies which means if you tell people don't worry because it's covered in three other policies I can understand why that is a challenge for people that are not used to dealing with these policies and I guess I come out on the side is that we ought to take perhaps and see if there's not a way instead of repealing this to I don't like the word wordsmithing but um to have people refer to three other policies because this one's been eliminated seems to me to put a burden on folks that are just not used
158to having to search around for three policies to justify whatever they're concerns are so uh I think it has there's some value and and talking further and see if we can't come up with a consensus that seems to satisfy everybody which frankly ought not to be that difficult Dr Pasco sure um I'll just start by telling a quick story when I was working at Indian River Memorial Hospital I remember going to the emergency room to admit a very sick patient who had we'll just say three organs that were actively failing and had lost their heart beat earlier in the day so I did what I usually do I worked up the patient I started treating them and I admitted them to the ICU and part of that process is calling the ICU supervisor the nursing
159supervisor they informed me that there's only one bed available and there's a an elective cardiac surgery for those that you don't know surgeries are the money makers of a hospital so this was a very important thing to the hospital to keep that surgery she said there's no rooms available for him so I called the intensivist the intensivist reviewed the case and he said that I don't think that we can accept your patient we need that bed for the surgery so I asked him did you go see the patient there was silence he did not so I then went to the director of critical care and I explained the situation he spoke to all parties he once again said we don't have a bed form so I went to his boss the chair of medicine which
160always has his door open whether or not you want to walk through it's another question and I explain the situation um he started by initially saying I think you could treat this patient in a different floor and that's when I grew angry and I felt the fact that he was black played a role in this situation and I said if that was your father he'd be in that bed and I'm not going to stop till he's in that bed well I got the bed obviously I strive every day I treat people from all walks of life whether you're a CEO or you're homeless I treat everyone equally ultimately I think this policy it starts out by saying I'll read it so I don't misquote this policy confronts the institutional racism I think the premise of
161that is that the largest employer in the county is full of racist individuals and that's a lie so I think the premise of this policy is not true I think it undermines the hard work that we do each and every day to take care of our students and treat them all equally and provide the best education possible to them so I think this policy should be removed thank you Dr Apostle Miss Rosario Dr Moore are you able to speak specifically to those three current policies that this policy is actually Incorporated Within a chat I want to take your time but but yes I can have a Stampy or do that when when the time is appropriate yes no I mean can we do it now can we talk because if we can actually talk about
162it now we don't have to prolong the situation we've had this conversation obviously the board members have met and talked about it um the discussion here is about one of the recommendations or something that Dr Mr Barefoot mentioned was wordsmithing the current policy if the current this one the racial Equity policy were word Smith and we essentially we're still at four policies saying the same thing in different words so we're not not making any change we're not making a difference you're not stating anything different than what we already have currently in the three current policies so word smithing wouldn't really make a difference and would would you agree or wouldn't you I think the best thing to do is to start with Ms dampier those those three policies and the board can make a decision
163um thank you here with an opportunity to look at the racial Equity policy and look at the three policies that was a reference policy 3120.01 and what we did was do a crosswalk uh between uh what we had in those policies pertaining to what was currently in the racial Equity policy um there is the first part which was up under the purpose that was against uh the it contradicts House Bill 7 and policy 2260 which talks about the institutional racism um that section was um it contradicts contradicts what's in policy but there are other sections where it talks about the eliminate and eliminate systemic disparities this language is covered in policy 2260 except for a that particular item is not covered in any of our policies but B and C is covered in 2260 then
164when it talks about ensure systemic Equity that language the superintendent shall can't read that lead from a systemic-wide racial Equity all of that section is covered in 2260 as well as family student and Community engagement that particular area leadership we have this covered in policy 20 31 20.01 which talks about recruit recruiting employing supporting and retaining a diverse staff and then in teaching and learning um that section that language is covered in policy 2260 as well and if you pull policy 2260 which is a part of um the packet that was outlined it really covers non-discrimination and access to equal Educational Opportunity so it does state our role as a district to ensure that the school district of Indian River County ensures that the school district has a um the Indian River county maintains a
165school system that is free from discrimination practices and promote equality for all um we did a like a day's work uh worth of work finding and crosswalking that information me and two other employees thank you I appreciate that Dr Moore would and obviously Mrs dampier doing all that work with you and your team I thank you many of the con uh many of the comments today from citizens requested if we were to repeal this policy they were just asking for that information exactly where do our current policies state that this information captured in the racial Equity policy is actually in other policies and so I think what you just did was you proved that we have that cross that we have done the work to cross work we meaning you have done the work to
166crosswalk I would also like to mention that this letter the original letter from the Department of Education came on November 18th so this isn't an overnight uh review I guess of this policy this has been almost a little bit more than three months now um of conversation that I I believe the doctor more and your team Mrs dampier have actually looked very carefully at to ensure that we are not going to make the wrong decision here that we're actually going to do um or whatever is recommended by the superintendent that it actually aligns um and would be the right thing to do so in this case I would support repealing um the the policy thank you for that information I'm just going to add a couple things here we're missing a big picture when we
167sent a corrected policy up there Dr posca read the information about institutional racism the first two paragraphs were taken out that she sent to the doe and the third paragraph Was was reworded so when we sent that information and we didn't hear anything back from Chancellor Oliva okay and then when I called Dr Burns at the new Chancellor saying is there a change here do we have to do this or is it okay so we did take out those first two paragraphs and that was sent to the doe and it was on the doe website so again I I would encourage people to go back and take a look at that Workshop because there was discussion on it but I did not know that discussion would lead to repeal the policy so I'm going to
168add a few other things here too we talked about and Dr Morris mentioned this a couple times and it came about from our citizen input quite a bit tonight working together you know we hear about the words diversity inclusion and equity and boy when I started teaching a long time ago those words were fine there were no issues so if we have to take out some things according to the state why don't we work together to do it why don't we really sit together and look at it with our African-American population with our Hispanic population just repealing it and say those other ones the policies are there people could go and look those up sure here's what I believe I believe in diversity because we are basically a 50 50 majority a minority not only
169in what I teach my children should we not just recognize diversity we should celebrate it inclusion if anyone on this diocese thinks that public education should not be inclusive they shouldn't be up here we are inclusive with our children and we have to be inclusive and then we talk about equity and you know you always hear people for a year talk about Equity quality Equity equality and they found the best scenario definition equality in education is necessary for students to have the same opportunities to start off with positive educational outcomes and Equity helps to make sure those equal opportunities are adjusted to make room for students who might need extra help and attention can you even fathom the thought that a teacher would say oh you're not equal so I'm not going to try and
170make you equitable I'll make a motion a little bit on what I'd like to do but if there's any other board discussion I'd love to hear it thank you and I have a question as well um you know kind of ironically the first parental rights bill um a lot of the stuff in that bill was already in other statutes it was just brought together so that parents had a One-Stop shop that they could go to and say what are my rights when I walk into a school what do I have the right to do when I don't have the right to do because seriously you can go through all those statutes in law and try to pick and choose what it is that you're supposed to have a right to do and it was a
171really great compilation from Senator graul back when she was representative girl of putting all that information in one spot so the parents had an idea of what their rights were when they walked in and I think that this is kind of the same thing as people are looking at what are the rights of children for being having the same education as everybody else and I'm going to get to the equity thing for a second having been a principal of a school that was mostly African-American um I remember one of the first things that just shook me and this is a school in Fort Pierce just a couple miles from the ocean and I sat and talked to fifth graders and I got asking them because I was a science specialist at the time for the
172district and I got asking them about the ocean and what does it look like and they described to me what the canal looked like behind the school they had not seen the ocean and they lived just a couple miles from it and yet other kids a few other kids had the opportunity to go fishing in the ocean and see the ocean but a lot of the kids had never seen the ocean so we made it Equitable for all children to take a field trip at the end of the year to go see the ocean and have a play day at the ocean and just to see their faces going across the bridge to see the water was just amazing I still remember it it's just amazing it's opportunities that's just one example of how not
173all children come into your school with the same background and information and opportunities and it's our job to make sure they didn't understand what the ocean is we live near it you know it's that's just one example of this word Equity we got to stop being scared of it it's it's what does it take to have a child understand a concept they came to you not knowing what the ocean was how do you show them what the ocean is you show them the ocean you know so so we got to stop this we can't do this for kids because we're not doing it for all not all kids need everything I have three children the all three needed totally different things let's face it not all kids are cookie cutters so we got to stop
174that stuff I think that this is a good example of things being put together and one now are there some terms in here that I think need to go yes and we need to make sure we're following law absolutely but I think just throwing it out is wrong too thank you Miss Mr Barefoot I'm sorry uh Ms dampier what are the dates of the three policies that in the aggregate basically say what this policy says what are what are the dates when they were approved you have them there you've got them on the sheets yes we have the racial Equity policy which was approved on February 25th 2020 right we have the achievement Gap oversight work Group Policy which was approved on August 29 2022. the non-discrimination and access to equal Educational Opportunity was approved
175on October 24 2022 there were some changes from Neola and then Recruitment and Retention of diverse employment staff that was adopted and updated on January 23 2018. that means that we have not had any updates from Neil or pertaining to Recruitment and Retention of diverse staff you know if if I hate to rely fall back on my corporate but if we were sitting here looking at a set of corporate bylaws any good lawyer that's an expert on governance would tell you that that they should these should be Consolidated into one policy we shouldn't have three different policies it's confusing um it's confusing the people the people live in this world and here you've got one this four years five years old and then a couple of them that are that are obviously uh only a
176year old and in the in the middle is the one that you want to repeal if I had all the votes which I don't I probably I probably put a hold on this whole conversation and work on creating one policy then repeal four policies one policy that covers the whole gamut in the world that we live in today not the world that existed six months ago not the world that existed five years ago but the world that we live in today um I think I think what's I don't want to oversimplify it but I think we're making we're trying to um we're trying it's too complicated and we live in a complicated world so I guess where I come out on this is that um look I'm happy to repeal it but I don't know
177what what's accomplished what ought to be done is take the three policies that backstop the one with that you want to repeal and then repeal all and bring forth or bring forth one that's acceptable we can you know Workshop it we can have public input and all that stuff and when people are satisfied that what's Incorporated in that one Consolidated policy reflected in four policies or the three then let's go forward it's going to take another couple of months yes sir but you see you're going to simplify life for everybody otherwise you know you start referring back to a policy from five years ago and the world's changed I mean you know these words that you took for granted five years ago now are toxic in some people's minds it's unfortunate but that would be
178my suggestion yes sir and I'll make a motion after everyone's done discussing Mr Rosario um Madam chair you mentioned that um you didn't know that this policy would come to us to be repealed but we all did because at the at the last Workshop it was on there to be deleted and board members were um shared their concern that the entire policy had been redlined and so as a result the superintendent changed that and then discovered that we should be repealing it not deleting it so it it's not a surprise that it is on here as a repeal I would also say that no one on this diet said anything about being about not being diverse or inclusive you can you can agree to repeal a policy and still be in favor of diversity and
179still I mean I don't I don't know if there's anyone on this dice who's more diverse than I am in my personal culture so you can you can't assume that someone who might be in favor of repealing a policy such as this one would not also be in favor of you know having a diverse environment or you know having an inclusive environment for children um that that's not accurate at all so I think I keep coming back to what Mr Barefoot said even though because I I guess you're the last one who spoke again I still come back to we have the three policies that this one includes all of the content from the racial Equity policy Within if we word Smith still this racial Equity policy then we have four the whole idea is
180to have less not more the whole idea is to have one less policy obviously in this equation and then maybe if we repeal this one the three that are current maybe we can add another Workshop take a look at those as a board and see if we could word Smith those three rather than wordsmithing this fourth one since the superintendent is recommending you know repealing it yes sir um what I was going to suggest I don't know whether this is a compromise and it requires more work but I would be willing to vote to repeal this with a commitment on the part of Dr Moore Mrs dampier Etc to come back with a Consolidated policy here we go that takes the three that remaining these ones you reference come back let's make sure it reflects
181all the things that are in these three policies and then we get rid of those three and now we have one policy that addresses all this stuff so I'm happy to repeal it because I do think it's it's redundant in a lot of ways and it's offensive to some and it's critically important to others the only way I know to solve something like that is let's get rid of it with a commitment but it's got to be a commitment to to consolidate the three remaining policies is the one so we get rid of those three that's practical or impractical and then I'll talk I'd also like to say uh Dr Jason Jacobs also works on policy a lot and I know um it's it's tough for her to do this as well but I agree
182with you I think it's kind of like um the parental rights that it's a One-Stop shop to look at what are my rights and here concerning um you know anything that has to do with uh racial issues we should have that one stop shopping I know it's more work on you guys um but I agree with him I do want to say there are additional policies um we when we when we have a group of policies just like I think Mr Barefoot had asked about the cell phone we have them for the students we have them for the for the uh non-instructional we have them for the structural it's like four different sets so there are additional policies this is just the student the instructional one but we have the same policies for staff and
183for enough it's like three for each one of these so there's 12 policies we would be amending okay just just in general um Dr Moore has known uh immediately that I just didn't like this being repealed or deleted or whatever word we use um Mr Barefoot you had a pretty good idea there and um you could certainly make a motion on that but um if if we go that route and we just say repeal this policy instead you know we really have to put in there that we will Workshop the policy to align to statutes with Community input again if we're looking at racial Equity if we're looking at diversity and we're looking at coming together it has to be everyone together working on this you know I'm I'm not exactly sure about just repealing
184this let it go and then it takes us a while to get all those other 12 policies or whatever they are aligned but we have to make a commitment to our community to our students to our staff to our parents that this is something that is a priority not to just say we're just going to repeal it or delete it I just don't think it can go that way mm-hmm me Dr Moore thank you madam chair just as a point of clarity I know everyone knows this you're not repealing this policy tonight you're just setting it to I know but still goes to notice for for public hearing I know um the recommendation as as written is to uh repeal the policy and the volume of time that it takes and the scrutiny in which
185the system will be under um it's hard I I I I look at Ese and ese is such an opportunity to improve um and we keep referencing Mr ampere Miss dampier Ms dampier that's in the stampier's responsibility so for for my perspective and I if there are policies that in place that ensure that we are in fact compliant perfect so but my position is such high expectation in terms of the work that we have to do there's so few people that have to do the work um but ultimately I work at the will of the board and if it's the will of the board of two I'm sure okay thank you Dr Moore Miss barenborg um how about this then um she mentioned a couple places in this policy that aren't covered in other policies
186um if we were to go forward with this could we put a comment in there or statement in there that I'm fine with whatever the word is that we're going to do here as long as the items that are not covered in this policy or any other policies and there were okay they're within the statutes that they could be incorporated into another policy I dude I don't understand what that means okay so for example for example eliminate systematic disparities a right I wrote it down she said that that was not included anywhere else so looking at that seeing it whether or not it um can be within the guidelines of the statutes and if so could that line item be put into another policy yeah I I I can do whatever the board directs me
187to do policy belongs to the board well that's what I'm asking so the answer to your question is yes but as the one who does the work when you start shifting and changing policies that are designed to cover the totality of a school system um it becomes very hard to safeguard the protections of the school system in upcoming years well then the answer is you're telling us it's black and white I'm telling you it's not um she mentioned that one statement how many are there 12 policies there is a section that was um that's contradicts House Bill seven okay we can't use that and there is one section that says where it says eliminate systemic disparities disinter to interrupt systems that perpetuate inequities the superintendent shell a that's not covered in any of our policies
188okay is that what that's the statement I was just referring to is that the only one that's not covered anywhere else implementation and monitoring at the bottom it says the board directs the superintendent to implement and monitor diversity Equity inclusion but that is covered in our um the work group The so we're talking about one statement then that's not covered anywhere else right yep that's what we're coming down to we're coming down to the statement uh a yep and and was that okay within statute did we look at that I invite and include people from all Races and ethnicities that um wasn't flagged it wasn't flagged no so what's wrong with putting that one statement then Dr Moore into another policy to the chair it because it wasn't flagged that's what I'm asking me you
189cannot look at this and say the state identified this one specific phrase that's the only one they searched for if you were to go through the policy there are multiple statements in the policy that can be perceived as being a violation of House Bill seven I agree I agree I just want to make sure it's very very clear we've had a clear discussion about this that is coming down to one statement that we don't have covered anywhere else right I'm not done thank you um and because of that I understand your pushback Dr Moore on not wanting to then go back to another policy and change it but one of them was 2018. that one's probably due to be re-evaluated soon right no no go ahead just not necessarily any updates that are based on
190changes in the law of Florida statute that comes through Neola okay I will give you an example of the racial Equity if we were to get an update of any statute or law we will miss it because it didn't come from Neola right so when we're creating policies I'm now going to keep a running list but every time we get a policy update I'm gonna have to search all the non-neola policies to make sure that statute they have an updated statute I hear you nothing like that so okay when we get when it's we changing all of these policies Neola really you know does not cover it at some point okay you just you just made something very clear to me so I appreciate that I I understand now how I have to vote but
191I I do have a concern that the Optics of this Rosario um I I Dr Moore I see the concern in what you are saying in terms of um I'm just going to say have you had any conversations with anyone from the Department of Education that are of caution that have brought to you light that there should be more scrutiny in how we create policies especially in light of house bill 7. through the through the chair yes so and let me be specific the one term that was flagged within the policy was a simple search they did not review the totality of that policy it is our responsibility the board's responsibility to ensure that we are not in violation or we have policies or curriculum or programs that violate anything to do with state law
192anything to do uh with created statutes there are things and as as someone said this was approved 5-0 from a very conservative board three or four year uh what two years three years ago different day some words mean different things so that that is my caution to the board and if it is to revise and continue to work like I said I work at the will of the board but I there's can it be done sure it it could be done I'm I'm still okay this is chair okay I hear the concern and I'm glad that you raised um that uh uh piece of information you brought forward to us for the items that are non Iola recommended or that don't come from Neola and the difficulty in searching those within all of the policies
193that we have at this time I I would like to um move for the previous question and then no that that means I make a motion to stop debate that means I make a motion to stop debate there's no question to call the question is the previous question okay go ahead I'd like to discuss no no we read yes second first need a second I need a second to stop discussion to stop debate debate now I want to say one more thing um I want to ensure everyone that I the board every administrator would never put up with any discrimination of any student or employee that's not the kind of organization we run and this policy was flagged as being in violation of the law they didn't say one word was in violation of it
194if we go in in Wordsmith it's almost certainly going to stay in violation of the law and that's why we need to remove it I think thank you I want to say a couple of things now I too talk with Dr Burns at the doe and again he could not say that he could say this is legal and I just I just don't agree with just throwing it out I would make a motion later but I think this can be done with a rewrite a little bit what Mr Barefoot said bringing everything together aligning it with state statute and do this with a diverse Community diverse representation and then send it to the state to see if we're okay we're not trying to violate anything We're just trying to say that instead of having all
195these policies out there bring it together with people in the community from the Hispanic population from the African-American population from the white population I'd like to see some students on here in the superintendents advisory Council and I just think that we could really rewrite it so that it does align with state statute and have that Community input instead of grabbing it for five or six of the policies like Mr Barefoot said it's hard as it is and man wouldn't that be unique that we would do that together as a community um again when I talked with Dr Burns he said can't give you legal advice but I really think we could do it and do it together instead of just repealing putting out the public notice and repealing so sir six and one half dozen
196of the matter because you can repeal it and do what you just said yeah you could or you could not repeal it and do what you just said correct so I mean I'm getting a headache I could use a vodka on the Rocks this series there you go no seriously uh I'd like to make a motion then um I'm going to go ahead and make a motion it's his time it's still his time talking I'm sorry I thought he was finished I'm finished literally and figuratively all right this is um the motion since I bought this from consent to action I make a motion that we rewrite the racial Equity policy align it to State Statute with Community input from our diverse community that is my motion I'll second it second pardon me oh okay
197I'm sorry you're right [Music] it's my second day of before what was the motion on the table I'm just no no no no ma'am no ma'am no no no no I'll re I'll read this one again so we can discuss can that was just so we could discuss it right okay mind your motion all right I'm in my motion make a motion that we rewrite the racial Equity policy align it to State Statute with Community input from our diverse community that is my motion a second to amend that is your amended message emotion correct so can I'm sorry I don't can you restate it point of order Madam chair can you restate it as an amendment yes I can my amended motion it was we rewrite the racial Equity policy to align with State Statute
198having Community input from our diverse community that is my amended motion okay second all in favor say I I okay that fails you need Nays all the knees no those and those not in favor those not in favor no they they okay that one fails okay so where are we because action item because if we you got to bring it back it's you've got to go to the next action item I so miss chatting where do we go next so where you are right now is that you have you are on item 13 items pulled from consent to action you're looking at the item 10A that was pulled which was requests to set a public hearing to repeal policy 2260.02 you have had discussion on that you have a motion by barenburg and a second
199by Barefoot you're still in the discussion portion so you could just call the vote now we just voted oh excuse me what you voted on was the motion by the chairwoman to amend the underlying motion um which there was a vote on that there was a second by Miss barenborg but then the vote failed two to three so now you are back to the original motion the original motion um was on 10 a um which was the request to set a public hearing to repeal policy 2260 0.02 so now we vote on it so we're back to 10A original motion to set a public hearing and repeal the racial Equity policy do we have a motion I make a motion second can I can I clarify just so I understand I'm a little slow I
200guess what we're what that motion is to repeal it but it's not been repealed until after 30 days 30 days okay I'll say that again 10A the repeal of the racial Equity policy it goes to public hearing for 30 days all in favor I'm sorry the motion who made the motion this is I made the motion okay all in favor aye all opposed aye aye okay that passes three to two go to public hearing for 30 days all right Miss Rosario you are next with your pulling consent to action adapt um yes thank you madam chair this is an item that we talked about during the workshop um it is an increased purchase order Authority or the request to increase purchase order Authority from Mr Fagan who you know I respect you deeply Mr Fagan
201and your work is um I would use the word impeccable um but the item that I'm I pulled was because I I'm struggling still with the fact that we have so many items that are coming to us or rather the the requests is that are we in discussion yet no the item was pulled by you but it is actually my item to present well Madam chair just she just went to me so well the item yes sir my apologies so through the chair I have Mr Fagan present the item to the chair of the board members annually we always bring to the board sometime in June or May or June for a authorized limit for repeat vendors that we buy items through throughout the entire year these can be fuel these can be computers these
202can be Hardware there can be food for the Food Service program we base those numbers based on prior year expenditures School Board policy has a rule that says anything over 50 000 must be approved by the board but once you approve it up to that new limit if I go above that approved limit I have to come back to the board so two two things usually happen one either I have a brand new purchase that I must buy or what I'm buying starts to hit close to that limit that requires me to come back to the board currently we're for these six vendors I'm at ninety percent of that capacity which means another po or so is I'm going to be locked which means I will not be able to buy any more computers I
203will not buy be able to buy any more milk for the for the Food Service program and won't be able to buy any more Glover oil for the um generators this item really just increases that limit that should we need it to to have ongoing services for the district or buy more computers or buy whatever we need that approval is there it's kind of like if I was going to buy 10 pencils and five crayons okay now I'm going to buy five pencils and ten and I'm gonna reverse that I'm gonna buy more product a versus product B the budget is there either the budget will be shifted from item a to item D there is not an over expenditure no one's going to go in the deficit is just the shifting of those funds
204and just to add on to that this item was brought last year um mostly around very similar items whether it be fuel or oil or groceries for like a better way of saying it and prior to that it was not brought so it this is simple business management we have made a budget 10 12 14 months ago there has been increases in costs there's been shifts uh in terms of opportunities to to buy things you've accepted over four million dollars in grant money some of those vendors we would use for those these specific items but we didn't know that then so this is just simply ensuring that when a child has a lunch he has milk when a bus goes on the road it has gas when we have the opportunity when funds are available
205to upgrade technology we're able to upgrade technology I was over whom I had last year we brought the item five times so I had five different vendors last time this time I'm bringing six of them at one time a motion and a second to discuss I'll make a motion second okay discussion okay um May I met him um so what where does this fit in Mr Fagan in terms of um coming to a point where we create a zero balanced budget zero-based budget so the chair is zero based budget generally starts at the beginning of the year you come in to say these are the list of the items that I need for this year however the district is the dynamic organizations things change and things shift as case in point Dr Moore made a
206comment about a grant for CTE that was a that was a grant that was recently approved that we did not know we were going to have when we made that zero-based budgeting so buy that Grant coming in I need to buy more computer hardware that would be an example of where this limit would be increased the computer hardware isn't on this one uh would be under the CDW as an example so we've talked about it I don't know if Mr Barefoot was here at the meeting when we talked about it um it's here the 742 thousand dollars for this year and then the prior year there was uh 800 it was 850 000 um that the was requested for the increase um for the purchase Authority not that we're going to use it but just
207that the monies would be there in case we didn't need it my concern there is that we are pulling Monies to go into this bucket we need it that we would not and then we wouldn't use that money for something else if we needed it case in point the Vero Beach Turf we had to pull monies from other places so that we could say that we can afford new Turf where in this particular and that's just an example whereas in this particular situation we could have had some money and maybe we won't need the increase we don't know yet right based on my projections the 742 000 will probably consume most of that before the end of the year but that's a projection so I I'm not limit um I understand the need I get
208it you know you we need milk we got to buy milk I'm not saying let's not do those things I just you know in in the spirit of being fiscally responsible you know I just don't want us to um you know be short in an area where you know if we're trying to work toward and we haven't gotten there yet we're not there yet for sure you know a zero-based budget then you know we've got to be able to anticipate at least the the companies the vendors would be able to let us know not overnight they're going to let us know with time um whether something is going to cost more than what was originally projected um maybe this might help when we do this projection at the beginning at the end of the year
209for next year so mayor June we're coming in and saying I need 28 million dollars worth of approved purchases and that list has about 28 vendors on it 22 vendors that's based on an estimate based on a prior year it's not necessarily based on an individual by Department estimate that I'm going to buy X number of laptops I'm going to buy X number of projectors I'm going to buy X number of tomatoes it's based on a prior year expenditure because those program project managers probably don't know 100 what they're going to be buying next year they don't know if they got an increase in money there's been a rollover or they're going to get a new Grant so we kind of set that limit as a ballpark as we go through the year either prices
210go up or our demand goes up if our demand goes up we still got to provide the service of the product that's just a matter of Shifting funds around within that program to buy those additional products or a new Grant came in oh I didn't know I got a half a million dollars for CTE they need brand new computers at a B and C School no one knew about that so don't think of as shifting buckets it's thinking it was an estimate based on a prior year but this year that program manager could have gotten more money or a grant or there was Role and now they're going to spend more of it when we set the first limit we didn't know anything about that um I as I'm still in my time I also
211pulled it board members because I just didn't think that this was routine we typically put routine items in consent I didn't think that this is routine it is um not something that is recurring month to month it is something that has come to us um this one time this year in this way um so I pulled it for that purpose as well thank you Mr Barefoot this is standard business practice in any business I've been in a lot of them the only thing that sacrificed is the budget itself moving monies around from one light item to the next space the circumstances change that's part of a dynamic process of managing running a business it's pretty simple so uh we thought in the past and we will continue to do it and by the way if
212a month from now things changed again Mr Fagan may come back and ask for another realignment you brought forward I can understand why Miss Rosario is bringing this item because you know you don't want to rubber stamp everything I get that but I'm looking at the items that are being brought and they're all items that kids need this year so um I'm not gonna you know worry about this particular list but we have our eye on you Dr posca um yeah I mean the economies take a significant downturn where you know cost of everything has gone up in the last two years we we have to expand your ability to purchase things and keep the work going so let's let's do it Mr Pagan I've seen this happen over the years many times maybe not
213with you but many times and if we don't do this what happens there'll be certain products and services that we will not be able to purchase this year that could potentially get us behind in next year in any deliverables to the schools the other discussion the question okay all in favor of approval sorry go ahead second second Dr Pasco all in favor approval to increase purchase order Authority for multi multiple recurring vendors say aye aye all opposed when you call the question actually you vote on whether or not you want to call the question right now and it takes a two-thirds vote so you should vote on calling the question first and then vote on the underlying item I got a second on the question so now we're voting on whether or not to call
214the question yes okay all in favor calling the question say aye aye all opposed okay now all in favor approval to increase purchase order Authority for multiple recurring vendors say aye aye all opposed no four one hey thank you all right now we're going to is it public hearing but we have a few people who wish to speak 14a public hearing adoption of Neola policy update policy 2520 and 2522 Jennifer Pippen thank you for allowing me to speak so this policy is aligned with House Bill 1467 the parental rights and education it is aligned with House Bill 7 the individual freedoms and also the Department of Education library and curriculum training we do move to approve this and it is a much better policy than what we had before and when we challenged our first
215book October 27th and 21. the policy changed three times so I hope that when you guys do approve a policy and hopefully it's this one because this is good the people who did the work on this should absolutely be acknowledged in this meeting the school board member and the District staff that put this together did a wonderful job stick to the policy stick to the um people that you all chose for your candidates for the committee and um and just one thing that I do want to mention that is not in the policy it does say that the books have to be read in its entirety that is the case if they are going to be challenged with the Miller test the h-47.012 but if it's being challenged for pornography and pornography alone it does
216not have to be read in its entirety if there is one picture or one excerpt that is pornographic and that's what it's being challenged for the book doesn't have to be read in its entirety if it's being challenged for critical race Theory it you don't have to read the book in its entirety you can look at that one passage or that one picture again if you're looking at 847.012 which is the Miller test where you have to use the three-prong test then you do have to read the book in its entirety because that letter A you have to read the book in its entirety and I did bring this up to District staff and also some of the school board members as well but I just wanted to make sure that was very clear especially
217for the committee and to have it on record because that is in the department of education training and in case people didn't watch the video or didn't engage with that information I just wanted that to be very apparent and also for the challenge list because we are going to re-challenge the books that were on the original list we did not challenge one book for lgbtq Content we did not challenge one book like Ruby Bridges or anything of that nature our list is public record and also the District staff has it we have added books to it our work didn't stop because the policy and procedure was looking to get approved so again misinformation is rampant and I really do hope that you approve this policy and again the work that was done by the school
218board member and the District staff on this was Superior thank you thank you Miss Pippen Maureen Schlosser okay and 25 22. my name is Maureen Schlosser I'm an active member of the American Association of school librarians and the Florida Association of media and technology or in education I also have a master of education degree in school library and information Technologies I was a school librarian for nine years and before that I taught fifth grade language arts after reading policies 2520 and 25 22 I'm compelled to make a few points but I'm mostly going to focus on policy 2522 both policies quote Florida statute about how a classroom library is a type of school library and that books will be selected by a certified media specialist speaking from experience as a certified School librarian I could
219tell you that I would not be qualified to select books for classroom instruction it takes a different skill set to curate a classroom library that supports instruction I would need input from classroom Educators and the curriculum specialist to develop a collection that sets Learners up for success I would like to propose that the school librarian work with subject matter experts to curate classroom libraries rather than doing it alone page 3 under responsibilities section states that any material removed from one school shall be removed from all district schools this line needs to be deleted while it may be decided that a book is not a good fit for one Learning Community it might be a necessary title for another learning community page four step one states that challenge materials will be provided to members of the
220district objection committee from the current circulation inventory with nine members in the committee this rule would mean that the book will not be available for Learners all books under review must remain in circulation we can't deny the Learning Community access to a book because of a challenge I suggest that the district objection committee obtain their books from the library the public library or bookstores step one also requires Learners to gain parental approval before checking out a challenged book or a book that's under review this line needs to be removed because parents already set up permissions for their child with the access to library forms requiring readers to obtain another permission is redundant and creates a roadblock to access material what's missing from the policy is a statement that the school library will remain open while
221the school Librarian Is in meetings for objections or curating classroom libraries we can't deny access to the library or Library lessons when the school Librarian Is pulled for these meetings thank you thank you very much Michael Marsh good evening Michael C Mars chairman of Mike for Liberty as well as we the really real people of Indian River County I come before you this evening to talk about policy 25 21st and to quote the legendary Rick Meyer who was mentioned in this District we talked about Titanic and back then Mr Myers said well because of one scene what did we just throw away the whole movie and then also there was a part in there where we talked about the challenge books and Rick Meyer also said well I don't even believe these people are reading
222the books and as we hear tonight we're going to re-challenge what hundreds more books more work and for what how many books do we take off the shelf we go after curriculum subject matter experts the previous speaker spoke about again these teachers are on the front lines these media Specialists when did a local Fringe group get to be the subject matter Experts of our education for our kids enough is enough how much more work do we put this poor staff through to challenge more books where's all the parents look all the concern on this item all this concern for what we're doing this for how many people I move on to 25 20. we talk about on page three on five f a person should not be instructed that he or she must feel guilt
223anguish or other forms of psychological distress for actions in which he or she played no part committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex it's 2023 couldn't imagine having to be a teacher so what would happen if little Timmy raises his hand and asks so during slavery what group of individuals was mostly enslaved teacher what would the teacher answer well based on this God forbid we told Little Timmy I can't believe we're reading this in 2023 we're all offended we're so offended that we can't even discuss our actual history and on page five the process for parents and legal Guardians to contest the adoption of instructional materials reads parent legal guardian of a student in the district and a resident of the county I'm confused so does is that it
224says end so does that mean they have to be both because I'm so sick and tired of people who have no children in the school district telling me what me and my kids should be able to do so I asked that question what does that mean does that mean a parent would a student in the district or it could be a resident of the county or is it both because that's I'm confused and then on policy 25 22 it talks about hearing officers who's paying for this how can I be a hearing officer stronger together who pays for the hearing officers because I it blows my mind cost fiscally responsible who pays for the hearing officers and can I be one thank you thank you before we go into the public hearing board members any
225questions or comments we did go into the public hearing it was kind of it's kind of it well I have a question before we go into um Miss Bay Sarah I took part in the part where the administrators were trained for um and we had our media Specialists trading that same day in January and I don't recall so let me know if I'm wrong here if you see you don't have to read the whole book if you do see CRT in one area or you don't have to read the whole book I don't remember that being discussed it's not the CRT piece that I think was referenced it's the the alleged pornography or obscenity okay I'm referencing CRT the house bill that deals with individual Freedom breaks down language from the state that says unsolicited
226theories which they have in parentheses I.E to include CRT and levels of social emotional learning and that is in one of the last couple slides of the training that sets the tone that instructional material reviewers at the state level have to abide by the principles of individual Freedom so that's how it applies to this policy as well so what instruction are you giving then to your committee that we chose as far as when these things come up are they to read the whole book or or what are you doing our committee at the first meeting will go through two very critical pieces of training Sunshine training as well as co-participate in that full library media and instructional materials training from the state so if any questions arise we'll have District staff on hand to support
227with answering questions but we will also have an attorney present ready yes Miss Missouri are we going to allow for after the vote are you going to allow for comments after or well I know that he said we're already in the public hearing but I also was told if anyone wants to speak on it they speak it at the beginning that's why I call the people up there but I'm not I'm not talking about citizens I know but I just want to make that point clear okay I have no problem so I'll comment now then um I the school board's constitutional responsibility is to select and provide adequate instructional material for all students in the school district part of the requirements are that school boards are responsible for the content the library materials and all
228other materials either by adoption or otherwise purchased the school board must adopt a policy as we all know here which we have two before us regarding an objection by a parent or a resident of the county to the use of a specific instructional material which clearly describes a process there's our procedure to handle all objections and provides for resolution so what we have in front of us is a really good are two good policies that also include procedures these have been I we've been working on them months and months and months and discussed them and come back to them and in fact uh were actually put on hold I believe in September or October for uh waiting just to wait for the um decision on the work group so we got the decision on the
229work group we got the training Incorporated the training into the policy into the policies and the procedures and and here we are so um I actually am extremely proud of the work that I want to thank Miss besora and Dr shafty for the work that you have put into ensuring that you know all of the eyes are dotted all the t's are crossed and that we are um capturing all of the required uh the requirements of the statutes for us not only statutes but also the department of education required training that was something that we didn't know what would be on the training uh for this the community who didn't know um and so as soon as that came out you all kind of just ran with it so that's good and I appreciate that
230um we are charged with adopting a policy here regarding an objection for the parents um and allowing transparency in that process and we've done that Within These two policies we must clearly adopt and uh describe a process to handle those we've done that Within These policies the process must provide a parent or the resident the opportunity to proffer evidence to the district accordingly we have done that um and so I am very happy to support these two policies moving forward and I hope that board members would also support these two uh policies moving forward as well Miss barenborg sure um yeah we definitely have to put policies in place so concerning this but um as was brought up by Mrs Rosario about the last policy we discussed she made a point to say did Neola
231review it and approve it so my question is did Neola review this and approve it what other one the equity policy you made that statement I wrote it down and you you made the comment do we create board created policies or should we be using just Neola policies so my question is have we gotten anything from Neola that says that we need to do this or what direction does Neola given us Dr Moore through the chair we absolutely have to do this okay but did Nila give us direction that was my question through the chair yes do you want to look through the through the chair policy 2520 is a Neola rooted policy actually in the spring updates there's a the update to include the Elementary classroom websites has already been embedded in ours okay
232and but the adding the statue in there did that come from Neola that's not this Paul that's the other side okay the other side sorry all right so it's my question is has it been vetted and looked at by Neola I'm fine with it then public hearing January 23 2023 the school board moved approval to set a public hearing date to dobrevi's history School Board policies the purpose of the revision is to be consistent with present practice and legislation policy change process with follow in accordance with Florida Statutes under Florida administrative procedures act chapter 120 rule making in school board bylaws zero one three one this item deals with adoption of Neola policies 2520 and 25 to 22. Dr Moore have you documented that the public hearing was properly advertised in accordance with State statutes
233I have okay we now recess this meeting to conduct the public hearing is advertised the public hearing is now in session Dr Moore are there any written responses to the advertised public hearing to be read at this time not at this time okay the public is invited to address this issue at this time is there an individual representing an organization or is personal or public interest who wishes to speak the chair concludes that the announced public hearing on the adoption of Neola policies 25 20 and 25 22 has been conducted pursuant today to notice in that ample opportunity to address the issue has been provided to all our meeting is reconvened at this time I call for a motion I'll make a motion I'll second motion by Miss Rosario second by miss barenborg any discussion
234it's not not discussion but this is the first it's probably not the only but the first that where we've actually word for word quoted statute as opposed to referencing not this one not this one not this not this all right any other discussion okay all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed okay five zero all right now we are on action agenda number 14 B and we do have some public speakers and the subject is approval of school board legal firm attorney feedback protocol first speaker 14b is Thomas Kenny thank you Mr Kenny just in regards is this thing on okay just in regards to uh legal counsel review or whatever it's been a long evening I just want to say I received a response from Andrew King a legal counsel up at the
235doe in regards to um policy 2522 a lot and the the letter that was sent to the board and the and legal counsel's response to it and I immediately phoned him and we had a long conversation because I had to explain what I sent him was really about and it was about the decision last winter and so for the for the legal counsel here to address it the untenable position that they put in the email that you know we have stuff here that is says you're in an untenable position of violating sunshine in 2522 takes care of it and the person who sent you that serroneous that wasn't the case because I wasn't referring to 2522 at the time of the decision last February parental rights and education law didn't even pass wasn't signed by
236the governor and there was no need to update policy so 2522 didn't exist all that to be said we had a long conversation and um he called back and I understand the situation clearly because if I could interrupt this is about the school board legal firm attorney feedback you signed up for that so you're talking about that yes I'm getting to my point so all that to say is there's a lot of stuff you know that is questionable and I think to have this in place is very important you know that that there's there's legal feedback there is there's a Job review or quarterly review or whatever you do to review because I would say right now the legal counsel here has put you guys in sort of a position where you have civil suits
237coming over book reviews and so that's that's what I came to discover in all this and I find that to be sort of disheartening because law is really clear administrative procedure act we just saw it right here is policy 2522 in accordance with the administrative procedure Act uh at the time in March for example our attorney here said that 9130 was not but it was because it was tied to an enabling Statute in 1006.28 which that letter very clearly outlines and so I did tell you guys back in December that I would have been doing these things and I explained my case and I'm literally that's what I'm doing I'm continuing to find and understand how that decision which I believe was in violation of sunshine came about and why and I think there was
238bad legal advice in all that process and so you have to constantly review your lawyer to make sure everything is good thank you Mr Kenny next person on 14b Michael Marsh good evening Michael C Marsh father Advocate Community healer I'm here to talk about the actual item 14 B which is the approval of the school board legal firm and attorney feedback protocol my first question I pose as I was reviewing all the documents I see we make reference to Brevard County I would ask if we can look at counties like Palm Beach County Orange County Miami-Dade County before we start just looking at one County not quite sure why we have this fascination of Brevard County we can only take a guess so I implore you let's look at other counties as we are looking
239at this feedback also in board docs it makes reference to our parliamentarian Authority and if I may read the Parliamentary Authority governing the school board shall be the most recent edition of Robert's Rules of Order newly revised except as otherwise provided by special board rules and regulations and or statutes um I sent you guys a letter in regards to Robert's Rules of Order and I would like you guys excuse me this point of order just a moment let's yeah let's just talk about the school board legal firm okay Roberts feels the border is on discussion so Madam chair this is the this is a different item I'm sorry School Board legal firm attorney feedback I'm sorry so just talk about that Mr Marsh within that is parliamentary Authority not within board docs when you pull
240up on board docs they just look at legal firm attorney feedback protocol that was on the agenda correct but on the agenda does parliamentary Authority that I printed out that was under that same 14b so unless no I'll just if you can do that later okay I'll do it later no problem uh so in conclusion once again if we can begin to look at these other counties that would be great and uh in conclusion I believe when it comes to our firm the work is good work will continue to be good and I'm glad we have our legal counsel in place thank you Edition parliamentarian war dogs all righty the awesome 14c I want to double check that 14b 14b okay Dr Moritz says a board member has requested approval to proceed with school board
241legal firm not my item this is this Rosario's item yeah so I'm checking it said board member I didn't know who okay I'm sorry okay Miss Rosario okay we have um chairman calls for motion to proceed with the school board legal firm and attorney feedback protocol I need a motion and a second to discuss I'll make a motion Rosario second second Dr posca all right discussion Mr Rosario thank you um board members this is an item that obviously we've talked about um for months there was a workshop where we all unanimously agree that there should be an evaluation form of legal counsel and what came out of that was the discussion of what that looked like and then the superintendent brought forward a at that meeting we all agreed that we were looking for something
242similar to what Brevard had in place but the superintendent brought back something that was completely different in December since then we had another subsequent um uh Workshop over this item and I went back and I started thinking about it and so this feedback here in front of you is really uh the same thing that the superintendent had recommended in December the only thing that is different is the option for a board member to provide feedback if they wanted a guide right if so if you want some way to guide your conversation with legal counsel on feedback it is also no longer called an evaluation there is compromise there on that so that's somehow or another changed from the first meeting that we had but the feedback for the summary rating feedback in terms of rubric
243style that's also an option board members are not you know it doesn't say anything about needing to complete that it's just if you need it there you can use that as a guide for your discussions when you do have um feedback with the with the attorney but otherwise it's pretty much the same thing that the superintendent had in December so I'm hoping that this would be a good even compromise for everyone here and moving forward I'm I'm hoping for for support on this item okay any other board member comments well he seconded and said okay um I I uh I respect that people prefer not to have permanent evaluations in a in their file and things of that nature as somebody's constantly evaluated um in fact even my my salary is partially dependent upon patient
244evaluations most of the time by evaluation forms that um incorporate other people and other things so if a cardiologist was rude or a surgeon spend 10 seconds in the room it affects me so I'm very sensitive to that at the same time I think it's beneficial to have some sort of a process for this as probably every employee in the district gets evaluated and I think the biggest thing I think is that us board members are going to come and go the legal team is probably going to stay for many years and we will not leave any kind of breadcrumbs for the new people coming in so I think it's beneficial to have that available to them so they understand the quality of the council and things of that nature okay thank you Dr Pasco
245Ms barenborg sure um Brevard has a general counsel it was very evident because that's what it says general counsel we don't we hire a firm she is not our employee you mentioned all employees should have an evaluation you're right she's not our employee we have a contract with the firm so we should be evaluating The Firm not the attorney because she is not our employee I have said that over and over again I agree we do need to have some sort of performance feedback protocol I looked at the one that the superintendent has that's up here as one of the documents and I'm all for adopting that one Mr Barefoot ditto okay AI yes it is firm it says professionalism The Firm verbal communication The Firm slash board counsel but it has both of those
246in that particular case because we rely on communication from Mrs Shattuck not from some not from the firm us meaning the board written communication The Firm and board counsel organization and management the firm and board Council School Board relations the firm and board Council the school board attorney that's alone just for her that's board workshops board meetings specific to the function of the board attorney for that particular item but otherwise everything else is just firm all right thank you I'd like to speak to it um when I look back at the discussion I did say I liked some of the components from Brevard and I wanted it to be informal to be very honest with you we have a contract with our attorney's firm and for me it's real simple with the board you renew
247or you don't renew you have an action item you have a board discussion I'm not in favor of this I'm in favor of what Dr Morrison to us I think it was December and February just with the protocols Ms berenborg said so I think input is good I want it to be informal having those components to discuss I also said any kind of evaluation you're always looking at growth and that's something we can discuss in those components so I would just be in favor of the protocol that was originally sent to us it was December and I think February so any more discussion oh okay first I'm going to do chairman calls for motion to proceed with the school board legal firm and attorney feedback protocol I have a question on this Dr Moore are
248we talking about exactly everything that was added in here or just the protocol you suggested because that's a little confusing no matter I have the question thank you go ahead Madam chair the the only action I took was based on the conversation we had very long time ago where I presented the the protocol based on the initial conversation the board had I do think I actually uh accurately captured the consensus of the board at that particular time um I presented that it was on a discussion Ms Rosario is now proposing those particular changes so the item that is in front of you is from Miss Rosario to approve the document that she has attached as it is written thank you I just want to be completely clear on that all right chairman calls for a
249motion to proceed with the school board legal firm and attorney feedback protocol all in favor say aye aye aye all opposed okay bails two to three [Music] all right next item all right now we go into action agenda 14c keep up with this paperwork here discussion and approval of modifications for policy 57 and policy 57 80.01 and we have four speakers Miss Pippin we have the floor thank you probably said after a long time Mr bath hasn't spoke thank you his work's after 10. whoa why is there an echo online I'm going to keep it really brief because it's uh 10 o'clock but um moms for Liberty Indian River chapter does support this policy this is law this is quoted statute and we just wanted to thank you for adding this into the policy and
250we're in full support thank you thank you Miss Pippin David diamond edition of the exhaustive text first to policy 5780 which is highlighted in green appears really just to be summary of legislation into policy and it appears really redundant as many of the points including consent access to Services questionnaires immunizations are already covered in sufficient detail in the unrevised portions of the policy in my experience with policy development and revision which is fairly substantial but on the medical side it's never productive or helpful to lengthen policies that's where you usually get in trouble the addition of this text only makes the policy more lengthy more difficult to digest more difficult to apply it also makes it less accessible to people who might need to refer to it including staff faculty and parents when policies strive
251to exhaustively list examples and requirements rather than giving them relevant framework to execute the policy they're doomed to fail usually through inadvertent violations I think these ads at its place the district at risk for interverse inadvertent policy violations it'd be better to provide a simpler summary or just to refer to the legis uh the legislation in regards to policy 58 70.01 again the highlighted green text appears to really be just inclusion of the legislation again much is redundant making the policy longer and less accessible it should be revised to reduce the redundancy in length by integrating the existing and proposed text or should merely point to the legislation so finally in all my years with working with policies but again on the medical side it's not really standard to actually include the language of legislation
252in the policy rather you usually refer to it or you provide a succinct summary but we don't need to take legislation and then paste it into a policy it just doesn't make sense thank you thank you 14. see Dr Morrow Schiff well I will say um pretty much ditto with Dr Dinan just said um because most of my concerns are the same as his concerns um again we don't need to repeat reference legislation and interestingly having just had an entire conversation about how policy repeats and several other policies to now do the exact same thing on this policy would be completely contradictory of the extensive conversation that was just had on the racial Equity policy as Dr Dinan also mentioned it over complicates the policy does it then require that every time we reference legislation
253we put it into school board policies thus creating policies that are thousands of pages long because if we do it for this policy does that not set a precedent and a mandate that we do it for all policies why would we do it here and not elsewhere the um in the policy itself what I'm also not clear about and this is this the legislation says what it says and obviously we have to follow legislation but legislation is sometimes intentionally vague and then if it is intentionally vague it falls on the school board to set more specific policies so so in this policy it specifically references also medical decision making so obviously medical decision making needs to have parental consent I'm not debating that and I'm not here to debate that what I'm not clear about
254is how some of that procedure and process will happen whether or not that's appropriate for this policy or it happens in administrative policy I'm also not clear but if for example we have parents signed forms at the beginning of the year do we have a form that says you could administer Tylenol you can administer ibuprofen you can you can tourniquet my student if they're bleeding out you like what is the degree to which we have that so that if there is an emergency at what point who is the who is the decision maker and how do we protect the decision makers who are in the space of making an immediate and and sometimes if not life-threatening a decision that has to be determined the degree to which Medical Care is needed and who is responsible
255for making that decision I don't want to see administrative decision makers or teachers or anybody in our district get into trouble because they made a judgment call that they had to do what they believed was in the best interest of a student and could not reach the parent at that moment so how will the School Board address those those considerations the parents Bill of Rights is not it says in this policy the parents Bill of Rights is not exhausted but unless required by law the rights of a parent of a minor child in Florida may not be limited or denied to this end any employee of the state or its political subdivisions or any governmental entity may be subject to disciplinary action if they encourage or coerce a minor child to withhold information from his
256or her parent what I'm not clear about this and I'm not clear where this decision gets made who determines coercion what is the process by which this happens is there a review board is it who said what how will this happen What will be the process and procedure thank you Michael Marsh still Michael C Marsh proud father of two beautiful interracial Queens Advocate and Community healer I like to speak tonight and let you guys know that Mike for Liberty also supports this uh policy 5780 as well as we the really real people we also support policy 5780 and we thank you guys for this policy I'll go back to page three about the parent the parent Bill of Rights it's not exhaustive but unless required by law the rights of a parent of a minor
257in Florida may not be limited or denied to this and any employee of the state or any of its political subdivisions same thing we just heard from Dr Schiff that that's that's troubling I want to know the exact same thing who gets to decide that and what does that look like I I think that's a little bit vague and then as we move on to parental input and meetings meetings with school district Personnel parents may be accompanied by another adult of their choice at a meeting with school district Personnel I want to thank my Advocates Cindy Gibbs who's here tonight we had a great meeting with our ESC department and this is happening School Board I want you to know that I was able to get 17 people in a room to be a cheerleader
258for my daughter who's an ESC student of this County and it wasn't difficult at all and my rights were not infringed upon so I want to thank that it started off with Mr Seymour through the chair and then with Miss Dan Pierre and all those amazing individuals in ESC and instead of coming up here and discussing the problems I'm proud that I'm going to be part of that solution as a parent advocate of ese I move on to the other policy which is 57.80 and I have a concern underwear it's video and voice recording apparently have the right to give consent running before school employee makes a video a voice recording this needs to include any statements I I don't know how or why a student and I'm going to go more specifically an ESC
259student can write any type of statement and this is okay so I'm asking that we add some type of language in here I understand a video on voice recording are important but we also need to understand these statements do you know a child can get themselves in into some legalities based on a statement and then what so again we always scream about the parental Bill of Rights and I make reference to 10 14.03 infringement of parental rights a child should not be allowed to make a statement without the parent's consent first and I don't know I don't know why this is a thing this could even happen to stay any of its political divisions any other governmental entity or any other institution may not infringe as far as I'm concerned that's a problem and I
260would like to see that added in this policy and I go again and say specifically an ESC student with nobody from the ESC Department to be available that we can allow a child to make a statement thank you input the more a board member is requested to bring to bring 57 80 and 57 80 01 for consideration and approval to set the public hearing that would be Miss Rosario all right Miss Rosario Dr Moore is there reason why we don't list support members name through the chair I there's no reason why I should not so in the future is to help I'm thinking it might be you want to say something first Miss Rosario thank you okay so call promotion to prove the modifications for policy 57.80 is her item it's her item Madam chair
261I'm sorry I'm I was asking Miss shark for point of order in terms of are we in the right place basically to make sure that we don't skip a step uh thank you um through the chair so right now um we are on 14c and either we are having you present it for 10 minutes or if you are not doing that then it would be appropriate to take a motion a second and move on to discussion okay just want to make sure that we are where we're supposed to be right now thank you for that clarification um yes thank you um Dr Moore for um putting this on the agenda this is something that I noticed when going through some of the other policies that we did not update we needed to update our parents
262Bill of Rights there isn't anything controversial about what is before you um we adopted the parents Bill of Rights as a policy in 2021 based on House Bill 241 what I realize is that last year 1557 House Bill 1557 when that passed that is the parental rights in education that bill was not updated in our policies and that's when I started to have a conversation with Dr Moore over you know about updating the policy with it Mrs dampierre confirmed that Neola did not update the policies to include that bill which was last year's 1557 parental rights and education and so this isn't we're not setting a precedence of having policies come before us on the same evening this is just a a a timing they happen to be the right timing brought it from bringing
263it forward we can absolutely put it on an agenda because there's nothing controversial controversial in it it is you know it does very much align with the statutes it is part of our requirement to include those items in our policy as the bill states it is also part of our requirement to provide these items for parents and our constituents within our policies and so that's what you have before you I will um say as with regard to Neola Neola just makes recommendations um clearly you can see that as the uh the previous racial Equity policy that we had before us was not Neola recommended and yet the board unanimously previous board unanimously approved it um it happens right the board can approve any policy that it wants we also do not have to accept Neola
264recommendations that come forward to US unless they are statutorily required so we have the option that's the beauty of local decision making but in this case it does align with statute again there's really nothing controversial here and I'm asking for your support on this as we move forward and I thank the superintendent for his recommendation on these changes as well including again Mrs dampier and her team lastly I don't know if I just mentioned this but we did at least Mrs dampier um double check to make sure that there weren't any forthcoming Neola policies on this item and their word so this is timely it is it is being I'm asking for you all to support this item to go for public comment for public hearing and then of course next month we can you
265know voted in thank you Mrs Ariel board members um yeah I guess I'll say that even though this has been unusual to add the statute to our policies and it will not be a normal thing that we do I think in this case I support it um primarily due to conversations I've heard around the state from board members prior board members other people in education discussing how they can violate this law in fact even at the fsba conference several months back they had a session on Parental Bill of Rights and the attorney that presented it really did it in a fashion discussing really it was my opinion uh how you could bypass the law using loopholes so I think it makes sense in this situation to reinforce our policy make it very clear this is
266the law because we were probably going to have issues with people trying not to do it thank you Dr posca Mr barefoot I I basically agree it's a as long as we don't this doesn't this practice doesn't become commonplace where you've got a state statute word by word as opposed to referencing it right nothing wrong with this as long as it it puts it would put a burden on staff an unnecessary burden in my opinion so as long as there's that understanding there's there's absolutely nothing wrong with this it is complicated and much like a discussion before sometimes you can either be too wordy or not wordy enough on this particular topic there's an problem I won't say it's controversy but it's it's comprehensive particularly comprehensive and so more detail is better and I'm usually
267for in favor of executive summaries but in this case um I'm certainly supportive thank you Miss barenborg sure um no I think it's interesting that we're picking and true choosing when things go to Neola and when they don't um does Neola review a policy that we create I'm just curious in the past no if we created it so why wouldn't they then um update like you you mentioned at the last parental rights and education Bill didn't get updated why not well did we ask them they gave us well all of the policies right now we're getting a new we just received another version which Mrs Rosario referenced because she happened to be in my office that day that we were looking at the new updated um book of policies that came forward and it wasn't
268a part of that this information is from statute I mean you don't have to include everything that's in Statute in the policy I know I I just I understand why it is for this one and I'm fine with it I just don't think we should continue to do this I just think it's just too much all right um yeah I've got a few questions so not too long ago we were talking about the racial Equity policy and I suggested you know that we come together work it with our community have it be collaborative of course a board would be involved and now we're just saying we want to put State Statute into a certain policy so what what is it that we're doing here I mean um in our policy book you can see that
269all policies that are aligned to State Statute you have the state statute at the end so why is it specifically we're doing this am I am I wrong to say that we should Workshop policies we should talk about it not just put it on an action item to say this is what needs to be done this is a very important bill but if we're going to do that for that one why wouldn't we do it for every policy that is aligned to State Statute I think it's a bad precedent you know it's our responsibility that we really look at this as a board and I've got a couple questions for Miss Shattuck well City and Dr Moore will studying this precedent well that plays an undue burden on staff if all of a sudden we
270just bring up an action item to say this estate statute we want it in that policy but wait we don't want it in this policy how does that work through the chair and Michelle please feel free to add as Ms dampier referenced earlier she now has created a process um where as we enhance or edit or create our own policies above and beyond the work of Neola she will have to go back and work with the attorney in order to ensure as we get books as she calls them which are the changes that Neola provides to US based on based on changing law or statute we will have to replicate that process with now the the three Pro uh any policy that we have which is above and beyond Neola is that something the board
271can do absolutely if it becomes the the norm uh it is a significant amount of work um placed on staff okay so I'm just saying of all the policies we have that align to State Statute are we going to start writing the state statute and all those policies through the chair that would absolutely never be my recommendation okay thank you so I'm just saying why is this any more special than any other policy we have the policy we know what state statute and all other policies that align to State Statute it has at the bottom so I just think that you know and I'm going to go back to the racial Equity one where I suggested that we work together not just say this is it this is what we're going to do this is
272what we should vote on that we would take it out listen to our public listen to our diverse population and then really bring it together now this one is just saying okay we're going to put that in that policy we're going to put that in that policy and I don't know why we would do it for that one and not the other ones it is our responsibility as a board policy is huge and to just say we're just going to add that certain part and not do it for other policies I think is a terrible precedent um Miss yadiq do you think this is redundant with statute yes through the chair uh it does appear that what is captured here is also captured in statute something about that is that state statute trumps what's in
273your policy so also you have to follow State Statute irregardless so if something is sat in statute then you do need to follow it irregardless of whether or not you also put it in your policy so what is added is already in law from what I saw yes it was already in long Okay um okay got a minute would adding additional content if it's beyond neola's recommendation I'm not saying it is because this is law compromises in any way with legal backing of the district as related to policy that's a general question I know that so I would say through the chair that this would not compromise the district except for in so far as the superintendent already mentioned um it's already been mentioned tonight that you contract with Neola that they when there's legislation
274updates and changes in law they update your policies accordingly on a schedule and that staff will have to do extra work to track policy changes that are not Neola ones because Neola will not be tracking those so if there was a change in statute where now our policy did not follow it anymore that would be up to The District staff to to be monitoring that and to making those appropriate changes thank you and just in general before we have the bow uh Dr Moore I would really like it so if someone's just going to say that we need to change policy and you add it as an action item that we have workshops policy making workshops so that we can collectively discussed what is going on first it shows up on an action item here
275and again I'm going to go back to racial equity I wanted to bring that out bring that to the community I didn't put it on there saying this is what it should say and now we're saying we'll just put this in here and I I think it's a terrible just wanna the racial Equity was individually briefed with board members multiple times it was it was discussed or provided the opportunity during a board Workshop to receive feedback truth be told I did not receive a great deal of feedback which gave me the indication on which direction to take based on that feedback I this one is new for you it's being recommended by a board member everyone has said where they feel with it um but having the opportunity for the board Collective to have conversations
276regarding the board's policy um might be something I place on a workshop so the board can have that conversation so situations um like this and now there's two situations where we're being very specific and ensuring equal voice in the creation of policy when I say equal voice equal voice from the five board members on what that policy should be okay thank you for my final 17 seconds um you know I gave you feedback on racial Equity I just want to make that all right 100 and always consistent thank you all right that's any other board discussion all right may I yes I'm sorry I didn't see you um I just want to be clear the statute 1557 or seven pages long the bill analysis is nine pages long there is no way that every piece
277of the statue or the bill um the bill or the analysis rather was copied and pasted into what you have before you the only thing that was placed in the documents that you have before you were the actual rights of the parents that's it so I think there's a little bit of um there's an exaggeration of copying and pasting directly from statute because then otherwise you would have seven to nine pages more in front of you that are not there so this is only the bulleted items that identify the actual rights of parents and education that's it thank you no ma'am I didn't I didn't misunderstand that I knew that you were putting some parts of that in there but I'm just still making the statement if we're going to do it for that one
278we should do it for the other ones that was my statement I know it wasn't the whole law I'd like to call the question okay well you need the floor before you can call the question okay go ahead Miss barenborg I'm sorry Mr Barefoot if you want to say something go ahead I just I just you know this Line's the exception doesn't become the rule I'm fine but you're setting a bad precedent if in fact the next time around we've got to go through the same the process yeah you can call the question that's correct as long as you're not interrupting that's correct thank you correct no you need that is Robert's Rules yes you need the floor how did I not have the floor though go ahead Miss bear because she called Mr Barefoot
279that's why go ahead Miss barenborg okay I call the question all right can I interject um there was never a motion and a second yet so that's what I was trying to do okay chairman calls for a motion to approve the modifications of policy 5780 and policy 57 8001 as well as allowing staff to set the public hearing date for March 13th need a motion I make a motion second Motion in a second any discussion all right we have a vote all in favor aye aye all opposed I all right four to one It carries all right now we are into discussion and we do have a person to speak on 15a review of doe notice on Sunshine violation for district objection committee all right Tammy Bogart some research because I thought most surely the
280board could not have possibly been in violation of the Sunshine Law and while I'm I hope that is not the case whether intentional or not it appears to have brought about some litigation from the Florida Citizens Alliance or forthcoming litigation which is a taxpayer is just a wasteful use of taxpayer money when it could have been avoided had the board simply followed their own policies and procedures to provide notice and an opportunity for public input and by not providing that notice whether it was intentional or not it gives the appearance of a lack of transparency and a desire to prevent public input and it in my opinion the only way to cure this or to right or wrong is to repeat this by going back and providing the notice that is required to provide public
281input and there's a saying that if you have nothing to hide you hide nothing and the the appearance is that there was something to hide and that there was an intent to prevent parents or public input in this thank you thank you Miss Bogart Michael Marsh good evening I think what's very important about this is we keep hearing the focus on the sunshine violation well like I told you before I like to be part of solution and let's let's read the letter where we talk about there is no violation Dear Mr King I have the pleasure of serving as general counsel to the school board of Indian River County Florida Board Collective this response to your correspondence date February 10 2023 to board chair Dr Peggy Jones copied attached for user reference in that letter
282you question whether the district has contrary to law and board policy 2522 take an untenable position at meetings of the district objection committee are not subject to the Sunshine Law as discussed on the telephone today that is erroneous information as the district holds no such position as noted in your correspondence board policy 2522 requires the district's objection committee to meet in the sunshine since policy 2522 was adopted in August 2022 no District objection committee meetings have been held as no objections have been made again there's not one objection so in order to have Sunshine the district objection committee would have had to meet correct I'm no attorney but I'm reading from the board attorney if there was no objections made and the committee did not meet then how would there be a sunshine violation if
283the district does not receive an objection the district is required to and will follow its policy 2522 and applicable Florida law follow the law and hold such District objection committee meetings in the sunshine I believe that this correspondence should alleviate any concerns of the Florida Department of Education please contact me should you have any questions this letter was dated on February 20th 2023 and this came from your and our school board attorney so I leave again not one objection not one meeting how much time was wasted and how much money for our legal counsel now to have had to answer to this I I posed that question I would like to know how much this cost the taxpayer that we had to again chase a boogeyman that never came out the closet thanks again for
284allowing me to speak tonight to Marsh that is our only speaker for 15 . okay review of doe knows on Sunshine violations for district objection committee Miss Rosario you have the floor thank you thank the board members I put this on the agenda obviously because we received this uh I think February 18th if I'm if I'm correct about that shortly after it was received um I had a conversation with um Miss Mrs Shattuck because I had lots of questions as I'm assuming many of you did one of the questions because this letter was the initial letter I'm talking about the initial letter was so vague one of the concerns that I had was I think legitimate in questioning what committee this letter this person Mr King was referring to the assumption that I came up
285with after talking with Miss Shattuck and Dr Moore is that it is possible it was possible that Mr King the attorney for the Department of Education was referencing the library committee that met in January of last year but referring to the new policy that was approved in August and so in having this conversation with her I also recommended that I mentioned that I was going to put this on the agenda so that the board can have a discussion about this and so the board could give direction to her as to how to respond for example I would have wanted her to respond and ask specifically that question are you referring to the September to the January committee but referring an old policy because we had a different policy in place in January not the one
286that was approved in August and so referring to that committee not meeting in sunshine it didn't it it wasn't a sunshine held meeting it was a committee meeting that was assumed to have been Mrs barenborg mentioned in the March meeting and was also mentioned in other meetings that it was a fact-finding committee and Dr Moore was given Council that it was a fact-finding committee and it didn't need to meet in the sunshine that was those were the directions that he was given I had a different uh uh um view on that when I pulled up policy and procedure and I brought it forward to Dr Moore and to miss Shattuck and I brought it forward to the board after the February vote but I brought it before them before them Dr Moore and Miss Shattuck
287before the February 28th vote on the library books and um instead we were we were then told that he had superintendent uh privilege to do with whatever he wants with regard to policies um I mean procedures sorry procedures but we know that we have a policy that's that that's not true if a procedure is tied to policy it has to come before the board for a vote any other procedure he has the authority to create um in this particular situation that was the only reason why I put this on the board on the agenda so that we can collectively agree we have previously talked about communication from our Council and that uh when a particular item I had an item that I brought forward for discussion at the previous meeting as well um because there
288was we were talking about the letter from and to the doe November to December that did not come to the board first we were not aware of that communication from Miss Shattuck to the Department of Education a different attorney back then we weren't aware of that we were completely in the dark until after the communication happened even after the superintendent had a meeting uh at the um or appeared at the Department of Education board meeting to provide an update on that we still didn't know anything about what that supposed recommendation was which was ultimately the discussion on the racial Equity policy so in having those discussions about communication with the board on items that are of this nature this was one of those items that I thought we collected needed to provide direction to our
289attorney on how to respond instead mishadek responded without waiting for the board to discuss it and so subsequently we have what we have here I have I have come to understand that when there is a non-criminal violation of sunshine the law just basically wants to see that we have cured the situation that we have addressed it and that we have somehow or another created a new policy that says we will no longer serve in this out of the sunshine we will be sure moving forward that we will have this type of committee in terms of the library committees or any other committees that come before the board and make a recommendation serve in the sunshine and that's how it is that's how this letter came back from Mr King saying from this point forward you
290know I I the board has addressed it so he is satisfied the board has addressed it that's not saying that the going back to the committee that it did not that it did or it did not that it did not meet in sunshine because we know that it did not we've talked about it we have addressed it in open meetings um so that that's not Secret um so that's one of the so that's it that's why I put this on here um because we needed to address it as a board it remains on here post the re the the letters coming came that came from Mr King or the subsequent um Communications between Miss Shattuck and Mr King within that I will say that I have done some research on the Sunshine Law and in
291the sunshine manual it very clearly states that what Mr King stated in his letter what Mr King stated in his letter was that any committee that meets and makes a recommendation to the board should be a committee that meets in the sunshine if it doesn't make a recommendation to the board then it should not meet in the sunshine but if it does if there is a recommendation that comes forward as a result of the committee meeting any committee it could be an Advisory Board it could be a regular committee uh for a particular um uh purpose it could be a fact-finding committee it could be a selection committee whatever that committee is if the end result is to bring to us a recommendation it needs to function in the sunshine I also found interesting within
292the Sunshine Law the inaudible discussions and breakout sessions that occur within certain committee meetings and we have to be careful that when there is an advisory committee or any committee that meets that breakout sessions where the members discuss items for example at two separate tables that would be a violation of sunshine and I'll read it here a school distance from Sunshine Law a school district advisory committee violated the Sunshine Law when it conducted breakout sessions where the members discussed committee business at two separate tables which meant that members at one table could not hear what was being discussed at the other table and members of the public could not hear what was being discussed at the sessions so as a result even those meetings need to be held in the sunshine I'll finish here because
293I know that we're going to have to have a subsequent meeting on this I I know that we have some policies that need to be Revisited as we are discussing committees and how committees function here in the district so that we are sure to make so we are we can make sure that our committees will function in the sunshine if they bring us a recommendation I will also add to that just so that you understand what is in the sunshine manual it does state that the law is clear an ad hoc advisory committee even if its power is limited to making recommendations to the public agency and even if it possesses no authority to bind the agency in any way is subject to Sunshine Florida courts have determined that advisory boards whose powers are limited
294to making recommendation to a public agency and that possess no authority to bind that agency in any way or subject to the Sunshine Law and that the view the the filter in which we have to look at our committees thank you Miss Rosario I'm going to go to Mission see if you want to make any comments before any other board members um no unless there's any specific questions okay thank you chairwoman all right Dr posca anything I'll just say I you know I support the highest level of transparency and having everything in the sunshine thank you Miss barenborg um pending litigation on this correct through the chairwoman there is not pending litigation having to do specifically with the doe letter but there is pending litigation having to do um with a couple of alleged Sunshine
295violations one of them having to do similarly with the matter of the doe letter in so far as it pertains to committee meetings having to do with library book objections okay then it'd be inappropriate for me to discuss that thank you um I guess the only thing I'll say is that letter came directly to me it wasn't to the superintendent the attorney or school board members I gave it directly to miss yadic and Dr Moore and obviously looked at the email that Miss yaddick sent from Andrew King saying that no further action at this time and as Miss Rosario said it's we are in litigation in some sunshine so would not be appropriate to discuss okay anything I think I said that actually yeah I'm sorry what time is it okay thank you could we
296have a break it's been two and a half okay we'll take a five minute break then miss Rosario do you want to end anything else on this before we move on no I'm glad for the support I'm glad for the understanding of moving forward you know we'll figure out we'll figure out I guess at some point in the future which policies address the committee so that we can address those you know at a at a hopefully soon so we don't find ourselves in this position again in the future so I appreciate the support on that okay we'll take a 10 minute break minutes that's yeah items and then we'll go to board member matters our next discussion item is sel social emotional learning brought forward by excuse me brought forward by Terry berenberg thank you
297Miss he did not get brought forward by me that would be Miss Rosaria I'm Sorry Miss Rosario SEL thank you [Music] board members um I don't know if you received your email earlier today was not long before our meeting but we received an email I received an email from Manny Diaz the commissioner of Education I'm assuming that you all receive the same email it is regarding social and emotional learning and the um curriculum called Edgenuity or Imagine Learning purpose prep the email States thanks to the school board of Miami-Dade County the Florida Department of Education recently became aware of content within the edge annuity Imagine Learning purpose prep social emotional learning curriculum that upon preliminary review appears contrary to Florida law districts and charter schools may be using this curriculum as part of their teaching
298and learning process if districts or charter schools are using this curriculum in any way I implore you to conduct a thorough review to ensure all content is compliant with Florida law Edgenuity imagine learning's diver divisive and discriminatory content branded as social emotional learning has no place in Florida's classrooms um so there's another um another part to it so I wanted to bring that forward now because one of the down sides of meeting once a month is that our workshops are packed to the gills often and then we don't really have enough time to get into conversation about items such as these but this one but of course it just came to us so my question to the superintendent on this particular item is we have Edgenuity in our in our district we have a contract
299with Edgenuity or repurchase Edgenuity correct so questions to me sorry I didn't know who was going to answer that um so I don't know if you received this email yet if you did not you will I'm sure I can certainly give you this one or forward the one that I have I have it you have it um what is the plan or what do you propose uh would be the plan moving forward regarding this particular item that was brought forward to us and social and emotional learning uh in general through the through the chair um as you referenced the the letter came from Miami so I know a guy or two in Miami um so just getting additional information we do have Ingenuity we use it for course recovery in which is the major platform
300in which we we use that that's all aligned to specific content aligned to the standards we also use it for the five hours of required instruction for for mental health and what we have done in the selection of those units or lessons is to preview them in order to ensure it it is aligned what I did today after receiving that letter is asked Ms dampier to once again on in an abundance of caution re-review those lessons in order to ensure that the five hours of instruction which would be Loosely related to social emotional learning it's the mental health that we are in fact in a positive place for that so once Miss stampier completes that second review I'll inform the board if if there are any changes and what we did in terms of being
301proactive and would thank you for that and would this be the only curriculum that we have that contains social emotional learning in this particular um like this particular item you know in terms of curriculum through the Journey the answer to that question would be no I think social emotional learning what social emotional learning captured or spoke about a year ago versus now are different things it's I think the state's concern as would be all everyone's concern using uh any kind of platform or a device or content um to push an ideology on onto a student that would be deemed inappropriate aligned to state law so that's the eye in which we look at those particular programs at the beginning of the year so we have a deeper understanding as to where to look with these
302five hours the way Miami was using that product and the way that we are using it is in fact different but we do want to hedge our bet and make sure that the courses that we have turned on are in fact 100 percent crystal clear no objections in terms of what we're seeing in those content areas thank you appreciate that for I don't know if board members want to add to the discussion I do go ahead Miss bear okay um as soon as I read that I actually went up to Dr Moore's office and he was out and about um but Dr Jacobs was there answered my question immediately I appreciate that letting me know that it's been immediately looked at for a review and so we're making sure that we're well within our rights
303to um follow the law so I appreciate that thank you for being very very quick about that anyone else okay Miss barenborg cell phones yes there are two things I wanted to bring up tonight one was cell phones I brought this up at the discussion that we had in the last Workshop um we have a policy it's policy 5136 and it's a phone a cell phone policy or shall I say communication devices or other devices policy and the the concern I have is I attended the last student um what's the matter okay the last um code of conduct committee meeting and there was a lively discussion at the table I was at and I was listening um there was a principle there there was a parent there there was a citizen there and they were
304discussing him uh whether or not the cell phone policy should be stricter I'm an advocate for being stricter I'm going to be just real honest with you you know how I feel Dr Moore we have an opportunity and a duty as a board to stop bullying and to decrease fights and every single time there's something that explodes it's because a video set somebody off for social media sends somebody off there there's it's just out of control and so what can we control we can control policy and the policy that we can control is what we do about cell phones so there was a discussion back and forth I guess because I spoke to you today about the principles and that you know they don't make policy they can suggest policy they can say this is
305what we do and we can make policy but then it's ultimately their responsibility to follow through with it and my feeling is sometimes things aren't followed through the way I think they should be and I I get that a principal's in a tough call I was in that tough call you know what do you do about every single thing that comes towards you but I think it's to the point now where board members are hearing about fights and we're hearing about you know these videos that are going out when a student takes a video of another student without their parents permission and puts it on social media that's against the law and yet I asked what are we doing about that well the first thing is to talk to them it's against the law period
306so why are we doing that still why are we okay with kids breaking the law you know we and I'm not saying throw away the key but there needs to be some sort of middle ground and it's about when the cell phones can come on when they can come off I would like to see some data from our Middle School especially middle schools because that's where I'm hearing a lot of it high schools too but Middle School's a lot um the data of the three different Middle School four different middle schools sorry it's late um why is it that there is one principle that has a very strict cell phone policy compared to the others and I don't personally hear about as many problems at that school I don't know if it's just because I'm
307not hearing them or I'm not looking for it but I don't hear about it as much and I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it that that's a strict cell phone policy that can't be out except for the beginning of the day end of the day period and if that's the case why aren't we learning from that you know I sent a I forwarded it the to Ms esplin a video to have you all see that video was very informative it was before the Florida education employment committee for the House of Representatives for the state and it was Dr Nicholas cardaris and He was discussing the impact of technology addiction that it has on students and their behaviors and their outcomes if you don't think violence has any sort of impact on kids
308you're crazy that's why they have certain um you know age limits for some of these violent video games things like that so when he was referring to what the technology does the addictiveness of the technology to our kids I witnessed that recently I saw a 15 year old girl that was just hired to fold towels at a well that was one of her jobs was to fold towels at a place where I was and I watched her she could not fold one towel without checking her phone three times it was really sad it was constant constant constant it's an addiction and we are in the in the seats where we can actually do something about this and I think we need to be really strict on this and I'm I'm hearing that people don't want
309to be as strict and I get that that their precious babies have to have cell phones I get that you know if we had them when my kids were you know cell phones were there when they were young enough I probably would want them to have a cell phone too I get that part but I think they're to the detriment now of social media is creeping into their lives constantly and it's becoming a serious problem I think that we need to stand up now for kids devices cause social media scandals or challenges which cause bullying fights disruptions in class A teacher told me the other day uh yeah they're not allowed to check their phones when they're in the classroom but they're allowed to check them when they're in the Halls so they'll notice somebody
310posted something nasty about them or said something mean about them and all of a sudden it comes into my classroom and it explodes so why are we letting them do that in between class changes that distracted students do not learn teachers are being targeted as well and I don't think that's being followed through enough with what's going on with our teachers and how they're being targeted by kids it has to stop and I encourage everyone to view that video that I sent and I asked the superintendent if he would make that available on our website or somewhere because I think once parents realize what an addiction this thing is they'd have a different opinion about the rules that might be in place I for one would like to see a stricter policy when it comes
311to when we look at the student code and conduct and comes to us I'm going to be looking at that cell phone part and um it needs to be strict Middle School concept that was my second one unless somebody wants to talk about that any comments regarding cell phones Mr barefoot I'm sorry um I know that we're going to have an oh I'm sorry I don't mean to interrupt but um if I can interject um I was told that there may be some citizen comment that wrote down they wanted to speak to the discussion items that we haven't been calling do you have of those citizen comment cards I've got them all and the only one I have left is Mr Marsh um Robert's Rules I'm sorry okay I'm sorry I didn't see that Mr
312Marsh I had 47. um but all items so if you wish to speak then what I'm sorry what when did you want to talk about the SEL or the SEO okay well we've just done the SEL so if you want to speak about that first and then and I'm sorry I just had you for Robert Souls I'm sorry no problem okay go ahead once again Michael C Marsh father advocate social emotional emotional learning what is it well it's social it's the process of developing a self-awareness self-control and interpersonal skills that are vital for school work and life success but also it's just as bad as Equity because we're going after that as well what is the curriculum well social emotional learning describes the mindsets skills attributes and feelings that helps do and succeed in school
313career and life at its core scl focuses on students fundamental needs from motivation social connectness and self regulation as prerequisites for learning the five core SEL competencies are self-awareness self-management social work oh is that Snoop Dogg okay uh so we still got time okay social awareness relationship skills uh responsible decision making now how is this taught in elementary schools because we're doing it right we're encouraging positive self-talk self-awareness and self-regulation we're learning about students interests random acts of kindness writing a story together warning questions how do these teachers incorporate in a classroom start today with a student check-in we're doing it and it's a great concept create opportunities for partnering group work we do that nurture a culture of kindness we do that build social emotional vocabulary include reflective writing incorporate a calm down Corner
314allow time for talking teach mindfulness again SEL just like Equity it's not bad I don't know why we're even discussing it we need it there's no other words to even say about it thank you madam chair thank you and Mr Marsh go ahead now with the cell phones I'm sorry and then we'll continue a cell phone discussion up here so just quickly my main take I understand we want to be strict and I too went to a few of the code of conduct meetings which were great the input but I just want to be clear that when we're looking at these harsh punishments let's make certain that we're not giving a record because we do live in the state of Florida that is not a second chance state if you do any research on clemency
315so when we talk about the cell phones and vaping let's just make sure that the punishment fits the crime and I get it it's not right at all that a student would take out the cell phone they should all be guilty of something but let's make sure that we're handling internally at the school district level and now let's not only get law enforcement involved unless they need to obviously you know certain Acts obviously it should be Criminal but let's let's not let's make sure we explore diversion programs we have many of them with Juvenile Justice let's just look at all avenues first before because it's going to affect these kids it's going to affect them if they want to go in the military it's going to affect them for any government job so let's just
316make sure that now we're not giving these permanent records it's very important by implore you involve DJJ in these conversations that's what they deal with they deal with these type of things and I implore you all just watch a short video on clemency before we discuss these harsh uh punishment and and I agree there needs to be punishment it's disgusting with these cell phones I get it but let's just make sure that the punishment fits the crime so to speak thank you no no we haven't done that yet let me let me say one more thing okay go ahead Mr Burgin now we'll bring it to the yeah he brought up a good point and that is yeah I I don't agree with throwing away a key on a kid but um I do think
317that kids assume that when a teacher says or administrator at the beginning of the year says you know and and I heard an administrator say you'll get in trouble what is that tell a kid versus it's against the law don't do it that's a little stronger now the the question I asked was if a child does take a video of a child and post it to social media what happens oh well we confiscate their phone we talk to them and talk to their parents it should be a mandatory parent has to come in and have a conversation and then there has to be some sort of punishment it can't just be a conversation it has to be some sort of punishment to realize you broke a law because I'd rather a kid learn the punishment
318that way then learn it in the real world and I'd rather that they learn what's right and what's wrong and it won't ruin their record versus ruin their record when they're older so we we've The Bullying thing it's continuing with even on teachers taking a picture of a teacher's backside and put it on a website is wrong and yeah kids aren't getting punished for that that's wrong okay thank you Miss barenburg Mr Barefoot nothing Miss Rosario I I agree I also know that we're going to have a a meeting and an update on our code of conduct that would be the another appropriate time for us to collectively have continue this conversation then just a few comments I left the principal ship right when cell phones were becoming the thing we did then we just
319took it the parent picked it up at the end of the day and it didn't happen more than once it wasn't an issue but if if you have time to watch that video Miss barenborg shared it's excellent it is an addiction and taking a cell phone from a child now is not the same as it used to be and with the code of conduct I just sat in on one meeting and listened and uh listen to the principles and whatever we do we've got to make sure that we support our principles on whatever that is we don't box them in and also we will need great parental support because I can tell you right now that's all administrators would be doing on write-ups on cell phones and somehow we've got to work that together with
320our community not used during the classroom not use it this time whatever it ends up being we've got to work together because um again we understand why students have cell phones today we understand that but they should not be part of the Interruption of schools or doing things they shouldn't be doing with cell phones and yes we we do have to get stricter and I just want to make sure whatever we do we support the principles because the minute the phones are taken or they get this and this calls to the superintendent calls to school board members so it's got to be a community effort whatever it is okay all right our next one miss barenborg is Middle School right oh Middle School so I taught middle school for six years I teach it still
321online it's different when you teach it online than when you have the kids in the classroom but I also taught in a K-8 school and that experience was a little different at first I was worried about the eighth graders being around the little kids and everything else because there's such a big difference but I realized right away and I and I was at a really really rough school it started out rough and it didn't end up rough because we watched those kids the older kids develop into older brothers and sisters and be guiding of the younger children and having been at the same school for many many years all the teachers knew them it was like a big family and there was a really good positive 2K and we should learn from that concept you
322know I'm I'm hearing most of the concerns that I've heard about in the last couple months have been our Middle School issues and I know I worked with those kids you know the hormones are flying and anytime somebody says something that immediately has to be reacted to that way the past so knowing those those children and what they're going through sometimes it's impulsive and they don't mean to be but they are that's just them um and if you've never been really trained to work with middle school kids you know there's an art to it teachers will tell you I was cut out for either high school elementary or oh middle school and I went right to middle school out of my um out of college and I didn't think I was going to do it
323but it was wonderful experience I just think those three years that the kids go they're going change from fifth grade then sixth grade and then we're changing them again to ninth grade it used to be they changed again from eighth grade well the flick there you go we go from eighth grade to ninth grade to 10th grade we're making all these changes in the years that they're going through all this change in their body and I just think we need to look at it I'd like to ask for a study of the KA concept to see if it decreases behavior issues Mr barefoot Miss Rosario okay I was in the Middle School junior high for 24 years and you really had to love it and I loved it brought the Middle School concept to Gifford
324Middle School and I opened it and that was teams 100 teams plus personal plan and and it was it was wonderful and then I brought that to the high school um I love the Middle School concept especially if it's done right but I also am very interested in K-8 I have not taught in that or had in the administration for it but I think that's what we talked about at one time when we were looking at Capital plan a couple years ago and what our schools could be so thank you Miss barenborg for bringing that up for our last item Robert's Rules of Mr Marsh you have the floor good evening once again I just want to make mention that Robert's Rules of Order is right in policy zero one six one that was adopted
325back on August 13th of 2013. clearly states the Parliamentary Authority governing the school board shall be the most recent edition of Robert Rules of Order newly revised except as otherwise provided by special board rules and regulations and our statues I want to discuss the fact that I listened that a board member would like to bring in someone hire someone named Barbara Proctor to negotiate a fee to hire a board I'm asking that you you vet these people okay because this this is very problematic again there's no partisan politics there's no room for it this isn't an individual okay that has been touted by a local small little Fringe group and we want to bring this lady in this is problematic so I ask that you guys consider other Robert's Rules of Order experts here and
326I didn't even know that a board member can negotiate any type of fees to hire I thought that would be something that would come through to superintendent so again and this was during a publicly recorded meeting I am currently waiting on public record requests since this was done in official capacity by a board member I've yet to get it but I'm sure eventually I will so again I leave you tonight with the fact that there's no room with this disgusting political pandering that we've seen now for years it's got to stop so please vet whoever this person is and let's look at other individuals if we even need it I don't even know why we would need an expert to come in if we have the board attorney I it baffles me so thank you
327very much Madam chair in the board thank you um since it's my um item we just want to say a few things thank you to miss Shattuck for being parliamentarian when you have a I'm trying a six hour meeting it's tough when you have 47 action items or 47 citizen input some are regular some are action actually when I um became board chair I did training with the fsba and I had some online training about a year and a half ago but believe me I'm always a lifelong learner if we can learn anything as a board or I can learn anything as a chair that's fine and I am going to recommend to Dr Moore a couple other people one is fsba the other person I have not talked with at that time so and
328then I would like to see obviously letters of reference training that they have provided to school boards um certification obviously and then obviously the board can decide on it I don't think we've set any um dates or any training yet I haven't received anything and obviously other board members can recommend others and the we as a board collectively can decide the fsba has a um strong they're a supporter of public education and as people sit on this board we are here for our fourteen thousand five hundred students so I will be recommending at least one more person I haven't heard from her for sure and maybe two and I just wanted to bring that up as a board because I really think it's important that um we also have an outline of the proposed training
329so we know what we are wanting so that I can improve as chair and as a board we can make sure that we collectively do our best to follow Robert's Rule so that's one reason I brought it up any other discussion good uh no yes I'm sorry I thought you were going to ask for someone else if they wanted no go ahead um one of the um things that I wanted to mention um with regard to Barbara Proctor is there there's nothing political about this there's no political pandering going on uh Barbara Proctor is a very well respected uh professional parliamentarian the idea of getting a professional parliamentarian is someone who is the expert in Robert's Rules not someone who has had experience on a board our attorney is are parliamentarian but she is not
330an expert in Robert's Rules of Order that is something that she has said herself most uh attorneys are not experts in Robert's Rules of Order um so there's this whole you know rhetoric and the false statements that are being you know slung around is just not true um there was there were no negotiations on my part um it was just a simple question how much do you charge and she told me how much she charged it's very simple there were no negotiations and I was very transparent with the board uh brought it Forward I mean we've even reached out already to her to ask for certain dates I think it's very unprofessional of us you know when the board at a duly noted meeting makes gives consensus to an item then it's up to the
331superintendent to move forward with that item we have the right to bring an item back in this case this is a voting item this is just based on consensus but we've already moved forward he's already moved forward in the process of getting a Miss Proctor in um if we were if we were to discuss having a uh someone else come in I would prefer that it be a licensed professional parliamentarian not someone who thinks they know the rules or has had years of experience in it the idea is to get the expert years of experience non-political it has nothing to do with anything else and there is no you know side agenda Robert's Rules is Robert's Rules it is based on the book that we all have there there can be no other interpretation about
332it so I I just think that that we already have given direction to the superintendent and um to his staff to move forward I just recommend that we just move forward I agree 100 non-political um and I'll look back at the notes again and again I said I'm a lifelong learner I don't mind doing this but I don't think there was any kind of Vote or anything that said that this will be the person because I started thinking of fsba in my training and um that's why I brought it up may I respond because it's I think it's still is it my I don't know whose turn it is I don't need three minutes you know I I respect fsba I I respect the training that they provide but they have not they are not
333experts in it I mean and and the the the training that you have been given uh Dr Jones with all due respect clearly after tonight's meeting we know that we need help in it we need an expert to come in and guide us in Robert's Rules not fsba who only give one hand out and say follow these cheat sheets so with all due respect it's needed okay and with all due respect I think fsba does have good training I would have to check to see if they are absolutely certified in the um certified and I understand that but um yeah it's been a long meeting and uh with 40-somethings that were going on but I'm going to continue to look at other people and then the board can decide that is my opinion well the
334board already decided that's the whole thing I don't think there was a vote or consensus or movie there was a vote on moving forward with training that's for sure or talked about it talked about it but Mr Barefoot do you want to add anything I just said enough okay all righty so peace Dr Moore anything else to the chair we did have a discussion at the last meeting um in the absence of voice leads to consensus so if there's a desire to move in a different direction no date has been set we're still trying to verify with all five board members availability okay um so we haven't gone to a space in which we can't pull it back but I do not want to have myself in a situation in which I'm receiving two different
335directions so the board is there's four board members here if it is to put out a a request I would like to hear from other board members so I have the appropriate direction to take and I'm not putting myself in a in an awkward position okay Miss barenborg no comment it's a Barefoot right you see it's always good to find somebody an alternative and then and then you can put forth the pros and cons of One Versus the other all righty but but are we talking we should be recognized yes okay are we talking about just anybody you can't just vet anyone for this that's my point is that we have to give direction that it has to be certified someone who is a certified professional and I said they had to be certified he
336already acknowledged that can we move on to you make that clear and I'll tell you why because then Dr Moore goes back and says my team interpreted what what happened at that meeting differently it happens all the time if we are not clear yes it does if we are not clear as to what the expectations are it it morphs into something completely different all right we're clear on the expectation the person should be certified okay we're clear on that Dr Mark I heard the person has to be certified correct did I hear experience with with the board did you say that an experienced certified professional parliamentarian got that Mr Fagan all right we're on it all right now we're at board member matters anyone like to begin sure okay it's been a while since we
337met um I went to uh judge science fair for the secondary or Elementary one is coming up um the secondary fare was good I want to see more kids participating we've talked I asked the superintendent every week the same question what is it Dr Moore it's 11 20. [Laughter] the question is the question is the the science how we coming along with a level two lab for both high schools I got it the hoods the hoods the hood yeah it's not the hood it's the hoods that you put over the ventilation right of the hoods okay Mr we don't have them in the schools we just need to make sure those teachers are aware of them and have access to them correct all right um so science fair is good but it can definitely be
338improved as far as the numbers go um downtown Friday the board members participated in that it was very cold but it was good I'm sorry I couldn't go to this last Friday I was a little incapacitated um Vero Beach Elementary had a little science fair that I wasn't I attended and so did a lot of very interesting people that were judging too wow she really did a good job getting a lot of people out uh wow those kids were prepared it's so nice to see elementary teachers just getting into something like that and the kids were so excited to present I know science fair can be overwhelming I know I've done it for years but when you have the opportunity for kids to be able to speak to an adult and have the adult listen
339to them it's kind of a neat opportunity for them a safer Family Fun Fest was awesome as usual and it's nice to see that continue to go and grow and then Sebastian River High School CTE exploration experience um the video we saw tonight was of that it was not of the gala but it was of that and I got to go and it was just wonderful I learned some things I didn't know about CT so I'm so glad I went there and then Gifford Middle School mascot and colors happened and that was a wonderful experience I know um Dr Jones you and I participated in that and and it was nice to see people get so excited about their high school colors coming back and then ESC pack meeting so I wish more parents would
340come to those I wish more parents would understand their rights for not just parental rights but their rights for ESC and what their children what the meeting looks like what all the acronyms are that sort of thing I think we need to do a a really good job of getting down to the school level to help parents understand what their rights are as far as their kids and those meetings that take place and that's all I have Mr barefoot the only thing I would offer is the mpo you know meets once a month big topic of conversation besides bike safety because there's been a few more accidents of late is really the intersection of US-1 and Aviation Boulevard and all the activity there it's in part Hospital related there's a lot of conversation going on
341but whatever the ultimate solution is it's several years off and it'll probably change a number of times the ideas will continue to change but other than that I have nothing further thank you Miss Rosario I wanted to I went to the executive Round Table meeting and of course their conversation centered around communities that care creating a vision statement for communities that care so that is still ongoing and then at the next meeting they will come back with a proposed vision statement the other thing that is coming up is steam Fest so I am trying to find the website steamfest is this Saturday um March 4th it is something that I look forward to every year it is on uh at the IG center from 10 a.m to 4 P.M Indian River steam Fest is hosted
342by a small home home school Co-op but they do a fantastic job there are 65 plus Hands-On seam exhibits live shows immersive virtual reality Arts conservation science obviously and Hands-On experiences that children and adults will all love we do have some schools that are participating this year and I'm excited about that so Dr Moore can you please let us know which schools are participating in steamfest so through the chair we have six schools off the top of my head I don't know which six elementary schools they are Mrs feverishly going into her her laptop if it's still still working uh in addition to those six schools we also have a an art display which is made up of each of our elementary schools uh where it's a art room or an art gallery for a
343lack of way of a better way of saying it so we will be well represented between um the culmination of all of the art that will be on display from a from our elementary schools as well as the six specific schools and I'll email the board which six schools those are unless as she looks it up yeah it is it's really really fun um I if if anyone in the community is free on Saturday or you have children um or even if you don't and you just want to go and support um please just do that because it is it is wonderful it really is there are tons and tons and tons of activities something that I mention every year that stood with me the very first time I purchased painted in steamfest was dissecting
344a squid I didn't even do it my son did it but I've won it it's just it it was something that I wanted to do right I wanted to take the squid away from him but they you know all the kids in the room they dissected the squid and they use the ink of the squid to create ink art um it was just fantastic it was gross but it was fantastic there's also the Florida Institute of Technology that comes from I believe from Brevard they come down and there's a race car and the kids can get in the race car I mean it's really really fun so please come out and support them please do your best if you can again community members I don't know who's watching at this time but if you're reviewing
345this video tomorrow save the date for March 4th the other thing is let me get my website up um is the Agnes people's Memorial Scholarship the deadline for that is fast approaching March 13th at 5 PM I know that we have a lot of notifications of things that are happening on our website but this is one of those that I thought was important to mention it is for females only and it is a scholarship for seniors so if you are interested of course go on our website and take a look at that it is the Agnes people's Memorial Scholarship application it is due again on March 13th by 5 PM to miss Nancy esplin so that's nancy.esplina indianriverschools.org Madam chair yes sir the schools will be Glendale Elementary Dodger Town Elementary School Treasure Coast Elementary
346Pelican Elementary Rosewood magnet school and then Gifford Middle School will be representing our middle schools thank you just a few things I went to the county commissioner meeting past Tuesday in Hanover Black History Month they recognized Dale Dawkins and William Holt to Gifford um community members who continue to give back in many many ways thank you to Mr Browning and Mr Brown for the proclamation today and thank you to this school board for supporting that Proclamation the career fair for 8th grade at Gifford Middle and then Storm Grove career fair were both excellent I attended both of those and the Community Partnerships that were there were wonderful and the students were having a good time and they were very very orderly and ask great questions the deseg order work group still working we have good
347dialogue working on key performance indicators and we are moving forward a lot of you have been given notice about the literacy Summit on April 13th that is held basically in Alliance with the Learning Alliance and mkn and we're all bringing business partners we have at least 100 people attending attending so I hope you can get there I also hope that we will continue to talk about the moonshot school and support which I know Dr Moore will bring to us as we begin to move forward that in the Learning Alliance with Miss barenborg and I being at Gifford Middle I had the pleasure of opening it for Middle School in 1995 and then having the program with Gifford High mascot in colors was absolutely outstanding I'm not sure if that video ever made it to our
348website but the history in that video is just outstanding and unbelievable and this is something our students can learn took part in the Sebastian Elementary door contest for black history on Friday Mrs Hart did a great job the students came out and presented each of their um black Americans they chose to honor and I got to judge kindergarten and it was excellent um I also bought visited Dodgertown the community school there great visit what they do for our community and the partnership that we have and then just a very very special thank you to all of our teachers support staff District staff and administrators this is always a hard time as you approach into spring break and I know people are tired and still a lot to do with testing and end of school activities
349and grades but thank you for all that you do for our community and our students and our parents and at this time unless anybody has anything I'll join the meeting 11 30.