School Board Business Meeting and Presentations 5_30 p.m. 3-18-24

001right thank you all right welcome everyone to the Indian River County um meeting for school board we are in the Ender River County Commission building though and we thank the commission for the use of this room um it is the evening School Board Awards and presentations I ask out of respect to everyone please silence all electronic devices at this time I'd like to call the meeting to order the time is 5:30 at this time I'd like to recognize the superintendent for a series of awards and presentations thank you madam chair we do have three I'm sorry four recognitions tonight and I will turn it over to public information officer Miss madx for those presentations thank you Dr Moore um it's a bit strange having my back to the audience tonight but thank you everyone for

002being here and our first presentation tonight is casual for a cause and for those of you who are not familiar with casual for a cause each month we have a organization that we um fund raise for so our students teachers and staff members in exchange for a donation are allowed to dress casually for the day and last month we did some fundraising for Treasure Coast girls Coalition and I'm happy to share that our school district raised $2,538 34 cents and we have Miss Shayla Edwards the executive director edwinna Lavine a volunteer and Vashon King one of the Treasure Coast girls Coalition parents here tonight if you would please like to come up to the podium to receive your [Applause] check yeah right ahead good afternoon everybody thank you all so much for the opportunity to

003be here today I wanted to take the opportunity to express sincere gratitude for being um a Grassroots mission that has been chosen for the um the support we're receiving tonight as an organization that is just three years old I can imagine where we're going with a seed I planted in the ground just three years ago so I am just really really thankful there are some individuals that I'm probably going to forget so I want to thank everybody for all their help the entire Community for um embracing a vision that I've had in my heart for many many years but two people I want to make sure that I Express gratitude for always always supporting and cheering me on is Mr Eric Seymour and Dr pegy Jones thank you all so [Applause] much [Applause] okay you're

004very welcome for our next presentation we would like to recognize some of our perfect audits in the district and I would like to welcome Mr Bruce green our CFO to the podium thank you madam chair board um so as you know every year we are audited um this year we had a single federal audit and a financial audit combined in one the selected areas for the federal audit were food service and the Esser funds that we received and the annual audit of course is all of the financial statements the internal controls the procedures the compliance um everything and almost a $400 million budget so as you can imagine there's a lot of work and effort that goes into that every three years the auditor general conducts that audit instead of us Contracting with someone and

005for last year's financials that's who conducted the audit and um it's very it's it's an honor to be able to say we had almost a nearly perfect audit in those areas no internal controls no compliance issues nothing with a material or standard weakness one um one additional matter out of the entire audit for some budgetary line items in three different areas so I would just like to um call up some of the people that are responsible for doing that work each of these individuals have their own fund that they manage individually and then they come together collectively to do the work and I can tell you that work a lot of late nights to get through this so um with that I'd just like to recognize the following people Kim Copan Director of Finance Stephanie

006lets our accounting manager Deb heler and Jim Higgins both are senior accountants Kathy Heat our accounts payable manager and Deb girthofer our staff accountant and I would just like to recognize Carlos Swain our payroll manager and Britney Brown um our other staff accountant who both of them could not be with us tonight so um thank you all for everything that you do two and so as part of that audit as I mentioned what this year the single federal included Food Service which uh there were no findings in that Financial audit however the food service department got another layer of audits um from the USDA and I'm going to turn it over to Deputy superintendent bass to talk about that good evening through the chair um yeah the the food nutrition audit uh the administrative review

007every three to five years five years um I don't think that everyone in here except for that those two rows of people people know what's involved in that so if you just bear with me I'm going to give you a little opportunity to educate you on it so every five years USDA will come in and audit your food service program now they this is this is very complex they look at the foods that you've purchased and the Commodities that you've brought in they take that information and they look at the number of meals you served they audit your serving that you do they audit your production record how many meals served how many you know you had to throw out excess waste things like that they make sure that you have all the nutritional components

008in it they check your recipes and then they either a lot of times a lot of districts have to pay back money that's why this audit is so critical I have been in this realm for 20 plus years I've never seen a perfect blemish free audit on the administrator review and that just speaks volumes for Dr simonon and her team and Tracy would you come up and and introduce everybody that's here believe me some some of these audits for Food Service completely shatter a school district financially because this it's big money that you have to pay back so Tracy anything you'd like to say um I appreciate all all the support that I get from everybody in this room Mr Bass I'm going to miss you greatly um but I couldn't do this without my

009amazing team that I have here as well um and I just wanted to take a moment to recognize them for all of their hard work um where do I start um Melissa T perser is in charge of putting together the recipes making sure every food item meets the sodium requirements that it's whole grain compliant um the recipes everything having to do with nutritional information is all Melissa um Amy exclusa is in charge of submitting the claim every month to the state making sure that the meals that we are claiming are claimed under the appropriate category free reduced or paid to allow for the proper reimbursement to come back to our department oh let's see Wendy Washington mlen and I almost did it she got married on me um Wendy is new to our department this

010year she is the field manager and she goes around to the schools to make sure that all staff are following the policies and the procedures set forth by USDA um Shelley Geeson is actually a new hire started with us uh in January about two weeks before the audit came um but Shelley comes to us being a previous director from Ohio so she has joined our team in charge of marketing quality control um part of the audit also includes uh looking at the meal applications making sure verifying that the income limit is not um exceeded um but between these four ladies and myself you have over 100 years of experience in Child Nutrition so that's huge speaks volumes to our dedication to our children um in addition like Mr Bass said they also visited several School

011sites um and I have the managers here who are in charge of the operations on the in those specific facilities let me think crystal mner is at Sebastian River Middle School Stephanie Garcia at River High School and Jackie Ramirez is at Dodgertown Elementary again with these ladies and all the other managers in their role making sure that every child receives the meal that they should be getting they have their fruits their vegetables all their components um so again every single one of you I appreciate all your hard work and dedication we couldn't have done this without you you are excellent role models and excellent employees and I'm so glad you're on my [Applause] team two and [Applause] next we have our Safety and Security Spotlight and I would like to welcome Mr John T tesy

012up to the podium thank you John thank you Kristen good evening board members Dr Moore cabinet all seated guests on behalf of Mr Seymour and myself we're here once again to acknowledge and recognize another outstanding school district of Indian River County employee for this month's Safety and Security Spotlight tonight we welcome a veteran employee uh someone who is serving and working currently at ver Beach High School he was a former athletic coach he's a current mentor and a friend to all students I'd like to ask Dean Robert Leslie to come up and stand in front of us please Dean Leslie also known as coach Leslie is here tonight with his family and friends um I didn't know you had a first name till a few days ago because you've been coach Leslie to me for

013about 20 years my wife reminded me said John do you know his first name I said honestly I don't he's just coached Leslie so Robert Rob Leslie now Dean Leslie is also joined by his administrative staff from ver Beach High School his assistant principles and Mr o'keef thank you all for coming tonight to honor him um he's being honored tonight for his outstanding service and dedication and commitment to ver Beach High School's Safety and Security protocol his selfless service and constant focus on security has ensured ver Beach High School and all of its stakeholders stay safe each and every day coach Lesley has initiated new and positive Safety and Security protocols when dealing with the cell phone use policy the open gate metal detectors assisting the school security monitors and all the while he's serving

014as one of the Deans by enforcing the code of conduct I have witnessed him firsthand during the school's monthly emergency drills assisting with the special need students clearing their classrooms and then communic communicating clear and precise directions back to his administrative team and school resource deputies his day starts bright and early at 6:00 a.m. assisting with the student body entering through the metal detectors he's always on the Move monitoring the hallways restrooms working alongside the school security staff there hasn't been one occasion where I've walked down the administrative hallway and peered into your office coach Leslie and I didn't see you with students you're always counseling mentoring or disciplining students but your safety first mindset and your boots on the ground mentality is ensuring that ver Beach High School stays safe every day so from

015all of us at the school district of IND River County thank you coach Leslie for going the extra mile and keeping us [Applause] safe there we go one two and [Applause] three so back in uh February was Career and Technical Education Month and on February 22nd we hosted our CTE Community Showcase tour where several community members joined us to tour Treasure Coast Technical College ver Beach High School and Sebastian over High School to experience the secondary and postsecondary CTE programs that we offer from cuttingedge technology labs to Dynamic Hands-On experiences our CTE programs Empower students to explore their passions and prepare for successful careers in various Industries get ready to witness the real world projects industry certifications and impactful Partnerships that make our CTE Community thrive in recognition of Career and Technical Education Month CTE

016month the school district of Indian River County held a CTE Community Showcase tour which highlighted the variety of CTE programs available at Sebastian River High School Vero Beach High School and Treasure Coast Technical College this tour allowed our community and partner organizations to tour each campus to gain a deeper understanding of the many Career and Technical education programs available to our students through CTE students can explore their interests Gain real world experience and develop the tech Technical and employability skills needed to excel in their chosen Fields CTE plays a crucial role in preparing students for success in high demand careers and postsecondary education these programs provide students with the knowledge skills and hands-on experience necessary to thrive in today's [Music] Workforce so tonight we have principal of Treasure Coast Technical College Mrs Christy Shields and

017our culinary arts program teacher and students if you all would stand in the back please so the beautiful pastries that you enjoyed as you entered the meeting or if you have not gotten any of them yet please when you exit the meeting make sure that you stop by the pastry table we are not eating them in the chain just want to make note of that cu no food is allowed but I'm sure if it were everyone in here would have a pastry um so anyways thank you so much for the freshly baked pastries and I have to admit that when we first came for the tour I said to Dr Moore I said I think they got these from Panera because they were so beautiful and they were in the little professional baskets and sure

018enough you guys you beat Panera hands down 10 times 10 times better so thank you for being here tonight and thank you um board members you have in front of you each of your little boxes of pastries um and those those are from our our Culinary Arts students so enjoy and thank you again for being here and that concludes presentations and just want to congratulate um all that were recognized tonight whether it is in the cafeteria under a federal audit uh auditing the systems and structures for a $400 million nearly a $400 million budget uh absolutely Monumental keeping our students safe uh they reenvisioning and Recreation of our Career Technical education programs uh this although it be short recognition ceremony is a direct reflection of all the hard work and commitment uh that our teachers

019staff and administrators put to work each and every single day so congratulations okay all right this will conclude our Awards and presentations for this evening the time is 5:50 we will be um having a presentation before our meeting you are welcome to stay or not it's an invocation thank you e in case we needed to [Laughter] you want to add [Laughter] anything amen have a good all right we're going to get started in about oh 30 seconds good evening everyone for those of you just joining us I would like to welcome you to the school board business meeting today we are H having our business meeting in the Indie rer County Commission Chambers and we thank them for allowing us to do so it is Monday March 18th and I would like to call this

020meeting to order the time is 6 o'clock I ask out of respect to everyone please silence all of your devices and also if you have any material you wish to share with any board members please get handed at this time to our executive assistant Mrs Mor the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Vero Beach High School's Air Force junor RC Detachment 043 under the direction of major retired Dean rasdale and senior master sergeant retired sha Roode please stand team left face present ladies and gentlemen do you please join me in Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands indivis post right we'd like to thank [Applause] our it was also nice that we had a fly over during that

021all right at this time board members I'm asking for an adoption of the orders of the day are there any um items that board members wish to move from consent to action or add to discussion yes Mr Rosario I'd like to add um public comment to discussion and and I and I'd like to just ask or remind um the superintendent or have him add the code of conduct yes ma'am so if you're ready Madam chair I'd like to ask add the following action item uh which shall read as follows to add the following statement in section five page 40 of our student code of conduct 42 sorry2 we we'll look I would like to add the following statement in our code of conduct and Page yet to be determined um that simply reads student ocation

022cards must be worn on their person and visible during the instructional day and while utilizing SDC transportation to and from school and I'll I'll present the item at the appropriate time okay any other board member items yes ma'am I'd like to add a discussion HB 1557 settlement I've talked with Dr Moore and Mr ansbacher and I would just like them to have a review for that for our teachers students parents and administrators thought we had a short agenda anyone else any items moving from consent to action all right can I get a second on Mrs Rosario second oh and Mrs Rosario second all right second on the superintendent second item okay second on uh the HP settlement I'll second that all right I'd like to call then for a motion to accept all of the

023adoption of the orders of the day as amended so move Dr PCA second Dr Jones all those in favor say I I I I anyone opposed okay passes 4 Z thank you okay make sure following our agenda here superintendent's report thank you madam chair we do have a presentation this evening and for this evening's presentation uh we thought it would be very exciting to kind of review uh all of the work that's been done over the course of the last month so the report that you have today uh kind of captures um all of the events and activities uh over the course of our lap from that our last board meeting till today uh and we'll start off with February 15th with our employee health and wellness uh Fair which was a tremendous success we

024actually had a competition to see which office had the highest level of competition and it was Mr Bass office who was able to have the highest level of competition uh so in the future they will be the healthiest uh office that we have um in February I had the opportunity to take all of our secondary uh administrators we spoke a little bit about that um this this morning uh into two schools um in the inner city in Miami to look at the systems and structures that they have created uh and it was just a great opportunity to see um you know the work that we're striving to do and in some cases doing significantly better uh while at the same time problem solve and Define what are our natural next steps to ensure that we

025are uh a top performing School District indan Indian River County great conversation great dialogue and great action planning as a result of that visit uh we were able to award our high impact grants as you know these are individual teachers who are doing Innovative things in and around their schools and in their classrooms so we are excited to have Glendale Oola and Sebastian River High School uh support the Innovative thinking of our teachers through uh these high impact grants uh FPL classroom makeover I see Dr bacon in the background he's not here for this he's here to celebrate Mr Bass um but on February 22nd many of us had the opportunity to unveil the new Innovative space uh brought to you by the FL FPL classroom makeover and this is a classroom that is state-of-the-art

026high levels of Technology integration drones you see a student in this picture here just just loving it really transforming uh what students are doing in a classroom uh so we're very proud to be able to bring that to our students uh we just watched the tour and and some of us are tasting the um Delights of our our adult students at Treasure Coast Technical College um we had the opportunity really to go around look at each uh Vero Beach High School Sebastian River Senior High School as well as a technical Arts Center uh really ensuring everyone in our community has a deeper understanding of all of the programs that are available in CTE I've always said it's one of the questions that I'm asked the most and it's one of the areas in which we

027have grown the most so having the opportunity to connect uh our community with those services and those programs was absolutely outstanding we pushed out and we'll talk about this in some coming slides uh last two weeks ago we took our final I ready assessment We Are One District that takes it extremely early as soon as we possibly can why do we do that they have the most appropriate and upto-date information as we lead into that final push for our uh assessment so we wanted to motivate our students we had I ready challenges both in elementary and K8 honoring and celebrating uh The Faculty who had the highest level of growth and ensuring we're also acknowledging and celebrating our students by having a little Fair carnival let me not overp speake as I said Carnival uh

028two years ago and we had to spend a lot more money than we anticipated um the down we are very committed to downtown uh Friday which is the last Friday of every month uh we highlighted Brook flood in her early learning program uh services at the particular school it was just a great time to hang out with our community answer questions uh really have intimate conversations whether it be about Early Childhood or anything else in our community it was a a long evening uh but very fruitful in terms of the conversations and relationships that were able to create uh during that space um that's an awful picture of me so I will not stay here very long but this was the opportunity uh for me on ESPN to throw out the first put first pitch

029at the Andre Dawson classic uh which is a historical black University and colleges coming to Indian River County uh to have that tournament I did not make it all the way to home base um but the catcher did pick me up and and the ball out of the ground um we are committed as you know to development so you're going to see a couple slides this is February 27th uh really investing in our assistant principles one of our big pushes this year is to ensure that all of our administrators just not our principles our instructional leaders each of our assistant principles are assigned to a grade level or a Content area in our secondary schools they own it they are responsible for it they support the teachers uh they support um getting them what they

030need and making sure they're getting barriers and obstacles out of the way so we can hit the very lofty goals that we've set for ourself uh so significant Improvement uh from our assistant principles uh as a result of that commitment our ESC parent advisory council meeting this was the superintendent meeting uh this has always been a meeting I look forward to uh great reports we we'll be separating and we're creating basically two superintendent advisory councils here one for our gifted students while continuing to engage in that conversation and continuing to improve the quality of services for those students while at the same time uh with our our ESC parents as well continuing to have that conversation uh just a lot of improvement over the last year specifically uh in turning this work around uh still

031work to be done um and the feedback that these parents give us and the push that they provide for us really really helps us move this work forward and here obviously is our principal meeting uh once again very individualized uh plans for them looking at them as just not instructional leaders but CEOs leaders of very very expensive organizations that they are leading uh working having a hundreds of people work for them uh really putting systems in place so we can grow them uh and they have responded an absolutely outstanding way very proud of what they're able to do on their schools on a daily basis I know many are here uh today not for this presentation from Mr Bass but uh very very proud of the work that they're doing uh We've also had our

032College and Career Expo this is the opportunity at both our schools to allow uh our ninth grade students to get access to the programming or the CTE programs that are available at their particular schools it's incentivized because if you go you come you get early selection to those vocational programs so they're both very well attended uh and once again it's making sure a student is full fully aware of all of the program offerings uh at each of our high schools uh we finally have opened I say finally it has come very very very quick the Billy Wilson track in field at the Jimmy grav Sports and Community complex it's open to our students for a supervised prati practice it's still basically a construction site we are in the process of um finalizing the plans for

033the concession stand uh the the um the um the the seating the Stadium uh the surrounding connection the entrance way that will lead into the park all of that is in plan uh process so we're looking forward uh to get Beyond this soft opening uh and having it wide open for complete use also want to acknowledge this is a lot of music and arts going um during the month of March so music changes lives that is music month also have youth art month during the march of 2024 um W with all of the the impacts of Finance es in Florida over the last several years this county has remained committed to the Performing and visual performing arts and we will maintain that commitment to our students to make sure they they get uh academics absolutely

034uh but they get a full range of services and support which includes the Visual and Performing Arts and we are committed to that in our school district uh women's History Month also celebrating uh over the course of this month uh this is and you'll see the um the banner right down there uh the city of Indiana River County H or Indian River County actually uh hosted a awards ceremony where they acknowledged uh individuals who received their golden impact award and they were able to surprise us and giving us one of those Awards so we were very happy to excite that uh to accept that they were acknowledging uh that we are an a school district tomorrow morning we'll be back here at the chambers uh where they will do a proclamation for us honoring uh

035the leadership of our board uh and all of our leaders and teachers for moving this school system to an a uh we we cannot forget Dr Su had the opportunity to go see green eggs and ham and and green slime and all kinds of other green things uh on this day uh but to see the kids connected uh was very very rewarding for me it is also March 3rd through the 9th was social worker week so we acknowledge and celebrate our social workers uh in that um shark outfit that's actually Mr Bass in one of those no I'm kidding it's not um but we did celebrate March 4th through the eth and the outstanding team who was here um those are the people that are in those shark outfits just going through celebrating uh School

036breakfast week and increasing our students participation in that program um this is the Sebastian River College in career Expo uh once again very well attended uh mathletes Middle School challenge this was something that we thought of doing something a little bit different so rather than just taking a midyear assessment uh for Algebra 1 in gometry we said let's call them mathletes kind of like athletes and let's give them real world challenges using the content and instruction that they've been exposed to to solve those problems so not only did they have to master the math content they also had to problem solve and collaborate together uh so we had all four schools competing virtually at the same time uh to determine who were our top 10 winners in each of the different categories so later in

037the week we had the opportunity to celebrate all of our mathletes it was absolutely outstanding and you'll see a picture of that uh coming uh we are also very committed to Growing our assistant principles and our principles but equally committed to Growing our district uh leader our district leaders we have a district leadership Symposium which is four to five times a year uh and this is really growing the skills needed to enhance and move our strategic plan forward so very focused development around creating and supporting those leaders and the skills that they need to have uh to fully uh Implement what is a very uh aggressive uh strategic plan so it's always been great conversation great pushing and as a result great growing of our leaders one of the things that we are able to

038push out um this year at that syposium has been about a three or four month process where we're looking at our onboarding uh process for all of our employees so we identified the opportunity uh really to problem solve look across the entire organization to enhance when we bring an employee into our school system whether it be at a school a district office or one of our facilities they feel accepted they feel embraced they know where to get information from uh and as a result they'll stay with us longer and become part of our family even quicker so this has been um an absolutely great deal of work and you see in this presentation you have individuals from multiple offices who came together and looked at that body of work uh from their perspective in order

039to ensure we're being comprehensive and welcoming uh individuals into our school system and then this is the community resource Fair which was the opportunity it was team success that that held this event and this was the opportunity for us really to go out and connect with all of the not for nonprofits that are in our community we probably have more uh on our size of District than most counties throughout our state and for us to connect with them and have the opportunities to make sure we're maximizing all of their resources supporting their mission and connecting them to our kids has always been something that's very very important to us well at the same time us you know having a table and answering questions or issues that may arise was a outstanding day just last week

040at this time last week I had the opportunity to speak at the youth um sailing fundraiser this was the opportunity to give an update on our school system where we are uh and where we we are going very well received and then earlier last week we had the voo Beach city council moonshot Proclamation that was the opportunity really to talk through uh and you know reinforce to our community that we are number five in the State of Florida in students scoring at level three or above in Reading uh and we want to continue to support that that work to get even higher and then these are our superintendent I ready challenge winners Sebastian River Middle School one for our middle schools and then Treasure Coast Elementary School one of our largest elementary schools one for

041elementary schools I'm clicked so much okay and that concludes the presentation I thought I had one or two more all right so in summary it's been a very very busy month this is just a a typical month for us um but we continue to push and looking forward uh for this final push over the next couple weeks I can tell you um board members this is not a school system that's going to ease into spring break uh we will be very aggressive we have data meetings all week this week uh in order to ensure uh when we take spring break we can rest and relax because we know all of the planning is in place when we return for that final push thank you madam chair thank you sir okay at this time we're going

042to I'm going to read the guidelines for citizen input we have two proclamations oh sorry sorry sorry you said thank you sir I thought you were no with without that my presentation so tonight we'd like to recognize a very important month a vaping awareness month and I would like to ask our presenters Mrs Sarah a our coordinator of Mental Health and Social Services and Mrs Heather Holden our director of student services to come and introduce our presenters good evening it has been my pleasure to work closely this school year with the substance awareness Center of inan River County the partnership formed between SDC has led to every student in grades 6 through 12 to receive an opportunity or the opportunity to receive a lesson on the dangers of vaping as well as healthy choices to

043substitute the addiction the month of March is dedicated to vaping awareness and here tonight we have Carrie Lester executive director of the substance awareness Center of Indian River Michelle buildo director of prevention and community Outreach and Kylie seavoy data and outcomes manager with with the safer Coalition of Indian River to read our vaping Pro Proclamation all right thank you I'm going to go ahead and start with reading the March Proclamation for Vaping Awareness Month whereas the federal government declared youth ecigarette use or vaping a nationwide epidemic and whereas youth vaping has increased dramatically across the country and in Florida whereas in 2022 23.3% of high schoolers and 13.2% of middle schoolers have tried ecigarettes and whereas ecigarettes are unsafe for kids teens and young adults and ecigarettes typically contain nicotine which is a highly addictive

044chemical and the developing youth brain is more susceptible vulnerable to its effects including reduced impulse control deficits in attention and cognition and mood disorders whereas ecigarette aerosol is not harmless water vapor and the aerosol that use that users breathe from an ecigarette device and exhale can contain harmful and potentially harmful substan substances including cancer causing chemicals and heavy metals such as nickel tin and lead whereas the focus of March 2024 is to get accurate information about Youth and ecigarette use into the hands of our students and parents which is important step to reversing the alarming Trends in our schools and whereas Indian River county is committed to the goals and objectives of vaping Awareness Month through a variety of Public Health activities and programs now therefore the school board of Indian River County hereby proclaims

045March 2024 as vaping Awareness Month adopted this day 18th day of March 2024 good evening my name is Carrie Lester I'm the ex Ive director of the substance awareness Center of Indian River County and I just want to thank you tonight as a parent and a prevention uh partner for your attention and your focus on The Vaping epidemic as we heard vaping puts our youth at risk for serious and potentially lifelong Health consequences in addition their brains are still developing making them far more susceptible to addiction to mood disorders or deficits in um cognition and attention I do have a little bit of good news that overall as a county we have seen reductions in our past 30-day vaping of marijuana and vaping of nicotine and it is our hope that through our joint education

046and our continued Community collaborations will continue to see a downward Trend and again we just want to thank the school board of Indian River County for their partnership and their their attention on this [Applause] matter we're going to vote on the proclamation first okay I just didn't know if we had another speaker I saw several people okay we're good um before we vote on it that something I brought up this afternoon was that we had three vaping bills and Tallahasse this year all three died in um committee and and when I go on campuses and speak to students I ask them about vaping and they say it's an epidemic it's out of control kids can't help themselves so we need to do something about it so I appreciate this but we need to do more

047thank you all right at this time board members um I get get a motion to uh adopt our Proclamation today so move we got a first and a second over here okay Mr Rosario and Dr Jones and all those in favor I I it passes 4 Z thank you all [Applause] all right here we go here we go all right so the next item is a proclam for our Deputy superintendent Mr Scott bass um we do have cabinet who's been rehearsing all day um to to read the proclamation but I can just say from a a a personal perspective when I was hired to be the superintendent of the school district of Indian River County and they gave me like 14 15 days to contract prior to starting in January it was about day three

048or four where I came to the understanding um like what in the world did I get myself into um I come from a very large Urban District um and the politics are hot and heavy but they're nothing like a a small town so everyone like yeah we know um so I immediately began to to assess my skills and my abilities uh and look for a solution that can Ure longevity um I actually met Mr Bass at the what was it the fads the The Joint fads conference I'm not going to tell the total story um but it was then I said W would there or could there be an opportunity in which he could come uh a sitting superintendent and come serve as a deputy superintendent really um to help me transform this system and

049do it in a way um that would rightsize the system just not for the time that we were collectively here but for a a very very very long time um I don't know how I did it um but I was able to convince Mr Bass to move his family uh come join us here in Indian River County uh and help support our principles many of which or most of which are here today uh support uh a large number of offices uh and support me be a friend to me uh have opportunities to give me guidance and support um so where we sit today as an a school system uh the most improved School District on the Treasure Coast I'm I'm sorry no I'm sorry in the State of Florida um I don't think would be

050NE would would be possible without the the support and Leadership of Mr Bass so personally cannot thank him enough for his commitment and coming here and now we're going to read your Proclamation go ahead whereas it is with profound gratitude and deep appreciation that we recognize the distinguished career of Mr Scott bass Deputy superintendent of the school district of Indian River County upon his retirement and whereas Mr Bass has devoted four years of unwavering dedication passion and Leadership to the advancement of Education within our community consistently leading with dedication passion and integ bringing dreams of the district to reality and building a team that has thrived and achieved great success and whereas Mr Bass has greatly impacted all departments with his positive relationships and work with the unions in a manner that has increased the

051positive interactions and expectations between staff and administration and management and whereas Mr bass's leadership has supported physical plant and Facilities with steady and consistent follow-through on important facilities projects and whereas Mr Bass increased Transportation safety and transparent writers ship with the approval of the zpass system which requires the use of student ID badges to identify student writers ship each day and whereas Mr Bass has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the enhancement athletic facilities fostering a culture of excellence and in inclusivity within our school community and whereas his innovative ideas and tireless dedication have transformed aspirations into reality providing students with the state-of-the-art amenities through the construction of the Bill Wilson track and Vero Beach High School beach volleyball courts and whereas Mr Bass has always been available to attend department and staff recognition events which

052was much appreciated by the leaders and staff members and whereas Mr Bass embarks on on this new chapter of his journey it is fitting that we express our deepest gratitude admiration and best wishes for a retirement filled with joy fulfillment and well-deserved relaxation now therefore let it be proclaimed that on March 18th 2024 we honor and celebrate the remarkable career of Mr Scott bass Deputy superintendent of the school district of Indian River County uh extending our heel heartfelt thanks for his unwavering dedication remarkable contributions and endurance Legacy of excellence and education his leadership is the epitome of a champion adopted this March 8 this 18th day March Mr Bass would you like to say anything I would maybe they should approve it first go ahead not yet I'm kid oh okay um usually I don't

053talk much at board meetings for a couple of reasons number one I don't want to make the meeting any longer than they usually run and number two Dr Moore kind of gets a little squeamish when I have the mic cuz I think he doesn't really know what I'm going to say um but I just you know you think about the day that you're going to retire and it gets there a lot quicker than you think it will I mean it doesn't seem that long ago that I was sitting in a classroom in Glades County and I was getting on the Internet with with a dialup 14.4 modem and I was excited when I got the 28.8 because it was a lot faster um and you think about the things that you see over a lifetime

054and I think about the things I've seen over a lifetime in education and and the changes and the trends and how things come and go um so it it has been an extremely extremely rewarding profession I feel like I need to I want to see people back here too um rewarding profession and I think it's been rewarding because it's the work is great but it's the people that you encounter it's the students you encounter it's the parents you encounter it's the community members that you encounter and building that Bond and that relationship um that was something I saw early on that you know if if if you were going to be successful in public education you had to treat everyone with the utmost respect you know back when I was a kid you respected an

055adult because they were an adult things have changed if you respect that student in your classroom guess what you will never have a discipline problem never will if there's any teachers watching that please I want you to hear that you respect a kid they're going to respect you back um and same goes with with working with staff and you know it has been a great four years it's been a fast four years here in Indie River County I mean it doesn't seem like that long ago principles we were sitting in the Tec and I was trying to figure out just what in the heck social distancing was it just didn't make sense social distancing how does that even happen um but you know we we we made it through um I want to thank some

056people and I want to start with my wife and my family it it seems like all of my years years in public education there has been a gravitational pull away from the time that I could have and should have been spending with my family and I appreciate you Shannon supporting that and my kids too thank you and I love you all um cabinet and I I've enjoyed working with each and every one of you and I've made some friendships that are going to last forever you know who would have thought me and a 6' n guy would become as good of friends as we are and golfing partners and everything else and I just I appreciate each and every one of you Eric you're special to me and uh I just appreciate it and Beth

057it has been a pleasure working with you the past two years um trying to instill as much knowledge that I have whether it's right or wrong just remember be confident they think it's right um but it just it's it's truly been wonderful and you know being in a school district for 26 years and taking a plunge and going into a new District you don't really know what you're going to get and the directors that I've got to work side by side with with second to none School Board um Indian River County you have got an unbelievable group of educational leaders and you know I know Dr long is here um uh Miss chrisa Foley um Dr simonon Who was here who left um Miss idet oh she is still here miss idet Transportation um uh

058Dr suit with HR uh Nick westenberger and Bob Michael with facilities I mean those these people are second to none um just it just a really made my job easier and enjoyable and we were able to accomplish things um principles that are here you know it has been a pleasure getting to know you to see you grow to work through things um I don't know how many phone calls I've got from some of you text messages and you know it was always your heart's always in the right place and that should make everyone in this County feel grateful for the principles that we have in this District because I I can't think of a single time in which I had a conversation with a principle that they were not trying to do what was best

059for their students and you know it is as wrong as this may sound that's you don't get that everywhere you don't get that everywhere you get some people that are just looking for that paycheck but these principles they care um it's great to see some of you here who who were APS and to see you come through the system and and stepped into the principal role um just the students in in the school district are in good hands great hands um board I I appreciate it very much you you I know a couple of you were were on three of you were on the board when when Dr Moore brought my name to you I appreciate you having the confidence in me I've enjoyed working with you I've enjoyed getting to know you as friends

060I think I can call each one each and every one of you a friend and that is that's that's big to me that is big um and Dr Moore I appreciate it because you know Dr moris from a large Urban District I came from a the fifth smallest District in the State of Florida out in the country um looks a lot different than it does in Indi River County I was just thrilled that we actually have resources Financial Resources because the district I was in there was no frivolous spending because there wasn't any money there's not to say there's frivolous spending here but it was you're able to do things that's one of those things where he gets kind of cringes when I talk um but I I appreciate you letting me come on this

061journey because um I'm going to tell the story I'm going to tell my version a little bit it was um it was prior to the pandemic and and Dr Moore Mr Meyer who was here and myself we might have been out in an establishment um and we were talking about we've been all been in the district for I was only here for 3 weeks before the pandemic happened but I was here long enough to know wow we we've we've got some changes to make and I'm going to take the Liberty to say this um and some of you principles who were in The off in the role then you'll know our our administrative staff were paralyzed because they were not afforded the opportunity to make decisions to to run their schools like they should run

062it um Dr Moore we've got to empower our people we've got to empower our leaders don't come to the district and ask permission for everything you're going to do you're in that school you know what's best you're in that department you know what's best do it and we're just going to hope we don't screw anything up and if we do we'll fix it but let's just move forward and we were we were at that establishment and it was like we we were talking and it was like wow you know what would really be cool is if we could just strip the district down to Bare Bones and start over again just start over again different systems different different procedures expectations just strip it down and start over that was I believe Monday of the week

063that we had the conference call with the governor on Friday and said we are closing school for the rest of the year I looked at Mr Meyer I looked at Dr Moore they were like two kids in the candy shop oh my gosh we're closing school I'm and they were like their wheels were spinning like we're going to break it down we're going to break the school district down and basically start over again we're a district now the the most improved District in the state and you know the pandemic I don't care which side you're on with it I know the side I'm on with the pandemic it provided this school district the opportunity to clear the slate and start over and look at where we're at now that is because of your leadership sir

064and you know Schoolboard I'll go ahead and tell you this you need to do everything in your power moving forward to keep this leader in this County um being a superintendent for almost eight years assistant superintendent prior to coming here for nine years I've met every superintendent and every Deputy superintendent assistant superintendent over the past 20 some odd years he's one of the tops and you need to do what you can do to keep him here um to and lastly the the the students and families that that I've come in contact with and I've I've met through the last four years that my family has met just really appreciate developing those relationships you know again coming from another place you you wonder how how is how are things going to fit in how how are

065we going to fit in how is my family going to fit in and I think from weekend one we made some of the best friends that we've had in the past four years um just just a testament to to Indian River County so thank you so much and and Mr tesy I see you there Mr tesy was with me when we first started and you know I appreciate what you and our law enforcement officers do and and I wish Captain Thornton was here uh to thank him for all the many conversations we've had about school safety and and keeping our kids safe but anyway thank you so much I'm sorry I added to the meeting I'm glad we didn't start the clock so so um before we vote I think board members would all like

066to have a little say as well we get to talk about this uh Mr Rosario um let me see I I hold on to your um your comment about friendship and I um take it to heart and um it is absolutely true and I am grateful for you um coming here um and your wife and your family of course um I don't know if you're actually going to stay anywhere here or if you're going back to Glades guessing you're going back to Glades if you if not I do hope that you come around and that you make yourself visible um friendship wishes friends wish friends the best um I pray for you I pray for you and your family I pray for what is to come for your travels and for um blessings upon blessings

067and um I do pray that God would extend your territory and so much more thank you so much for everything that you did for the school district for being here and I'm extremely sorry that you are leaving but also extremely happy for you thank you you're welcome Dr Johnson Mr Bass before I was on the board um I attended one of the first negotiation meetings that you attended I think you'd been here about a week and you were meeting with the irca and what I noticed that you set a tone you set a tone of understanding you set a tone of listening and you set a tone of positive feedback I noticed that I think it was I know you had just come in so that was my first DOC do Jones that was my

068second day on the job okay I remember it um I know when you first came here I know Miss um chrisop fole is our principal contact now but when you first came here you were principal contact and I never had that as a principal we went straight to the superintendent but having that person you know who has lived it who has experienced exped it who has um been there if you will it is just a good thing for principles because I agree 100% the principles we have in this District they are always trying to do the right thing always and um sometimes that's hard or sometimes we don't have the funding but they need someone to talk to and that was a positive um you know your updates on legislation with what you send us

069what Miss barenborg sends us what fsba sends us I can bring it all together together and figure it out and it is helpful when we receive those things obviously you work with HR and personnel and I know you worked hard every meeting to make sure we got those people uh on the board agenda because your priority was getting them to the schools and getting them ready for our kids um one thing that I always believe is very very important for anybody in the school dist district is to respond when a question is asked and whether I emailed you or text texted you or called you or saw you on the football field you were always responsive what you've done for athletic fields not only the the new Turf the beach bball the Bolson track will

070forever live in this District um I've gone by the Wilson track several times I know our kids are practicing on it um but those are the kind of things that will mean so much to the community that area is where a lot of children grew up a lot of our children grew up so that is really really cool um I guess one thing I wrote down to is that you show up uh whether it's a recognition or a long committee meeting on some of those with you in the community um you show up and and to me half the battle is showing up just showing up every day um I wish you and your family the best thank you for these four years you'll be in my thoughts and prayers thank you can I can

071I reject one more thing M and I where did she go there you are I see you and I did not mean to leave you out I'm going off off the cuff here but thanks Dr JN for reminding me Dr Jones for reminding me at the both of our unions our instructional and our non-instructional um great leadership Jennifer you and I have have developed a working relationship that I would put up against any school district and and teachers union in the state um you know so many times when when the public hears about the union they think oh my goodness it's you know them versus them and stuff we can't be that way you've got to make sure that our students have adults in the room that are in a good place and the only

072way that you can do that is collaborative collaboratively working with our teachers unit and also our non-instructional Union so Jennifer thank you for for everything you have done and I've really enjoyed our relationship and just like I told you on the phone the other day you're good and and and and I appreciate it and also I know I don't think anybody from CWA is here but you know really enjoyed working with Mike Murray and Marin Weisberg in their presidency too so sorry I just thank you for the reminder Dr P thank you so much for your service here in the district and uh I know you're going to be missed by a lot of people so I wish you the best thank you um we still have a golf date at some point can't wait

073to take money from you you got to give me some you got me give me some Strokes um you made a comment people you encounter um that's the one thing that I will take away from knowing you um we have sat in meetings across the state we've been in Tampa at a breakfast meeting we were in Tallahasse at a breakfast meeting I don't know how many people you know across the state but they all know you they all come up to you constantly and I think it's because you're so darn personable and that Charisma that you carry has really helped I think change a lot of things here in our district and I know you know not that you're not personable Dr Moore but I think you both have really good skill sets that have

074been a ying and a Yang to each other and and I think that's what's made it work so well so um I wish you all well I know that um a lot of times people you know get upset when they say oh you're you're retiring I wish you the best you deserve it you've worked very hard your whole career and I know your family wants you to retire so good luck to you thank you at this time board members would like to um take a vote on the proclamation may I get a um a motion make a motion second okay got to write it down somewhere I sure were okay and that's Dr Jones this was Ario and I was a second okay and all those in favor say I I I anyone opposed it

075passes 4 Z thank thank you can we get District staff to come up um in cabinet to take a photo and of course uh Mr bass's family if you'd come up and getting a photo too we'll make sure that we get photo to thank you all right stand up t one two [Applause] and Dr Moore are you all done that concludes this portion of the agenda okay thank you sir all right we're moving to Citizen input I'm going to read the guidelines at this time each statement made by a member of the public shall be limited to 3 minutes in duration I will be recognizing an order to which the requests were received the time shall start when the speaker is at the podium and the public information officer will be the official timekeeper as

076you see the time clock is visible right here you will hear a beep at the end of your 3 minutes please wrap up each person may speak for three minutes to at the beginning of the business meeting during citizen input as indicated on the order of business and for up to three minutes for each action item during the action item uh agenda and each board member discussion item as indicated on the order of business if a consent item is moved to an action item when you come up to the podium you may speak at that time or defer to speak during the presentation of the action item people may only speak once though about any given item the time period may be extended by the presiding officer only the individual submitting the speaker's form is

077allowed to address the board time may not be yielded to other speakers during the meeting please refrain from clapping or Outburst of any sort so that we may proceed with dignity and decorum by not infringing on anyone's First Amendment rights I need to remind everyone to to direct all comments to the chair not to individual board members or to the superintendent board members may or may not address any citizen input statements at the end of the citizen input comments as board members listen to citizens without interruption citizens are asked to please give the board members the same respect as per Florida statute 10001 372 subsection 3 the presiding officer of V District School Board May order the removal from a public meeting held by The District School Board of any person interfering with the expeditious

078or orderly process of such meeting provided such officer has first issued a warning that with continued interference with the orderly processes of the meeting will result in removal the first warning to everyone is at this time no personal attacks please no inciting and no disrespect I will be calling you up two at a time the first person will be called to the podium to speak the second person will be in line to speak speaker shall not engage in personal attacks or abusive language the chair has the right to ter to terminate any speaker's privilege to address the board if that rule is violated if you have anything to give to board members or the superintendent please do throw through our super our executive assistant Mrs Moray it is clear that the board has taken action

079to comply with the law regarding instructional materials including library books if you are here to express your opinion regarding HP 1069 on materials in school libraries we ask that you visit the staff in the Lobby out there to initiate the challenge process finally the school district supports First Amendment rights of speakers and rights outlined in HB 1069 regarding Library materials as such some individuals may choose to exercise these rights which may include reading material with language or content that is not appropriate for all audiences knowing this please make a viewing decision appropriate for you and your family all right at this time yes sir I just want AI we do Havey that speaks specifically to signs and blackards they are not allowed I just want to remind the board and our audience members all right

080thank you sir okay at this time I'd like to call Margaret Murray and she send in an email so is someone reading that or is she here okay and then uh Jennifer Pippen will be on deck and both both mics are open right okay okay thank you you can go to either Podium when you speak I see in a time where so many people are tragically misin informed I have some facts and data for you today findings from a recent December Southern Poverty Law Center survey of more than 1100 Florida residents found Floridians overwhelmingly support public education four out of five of Floridian surveyed said they support public education and think it's a right one of the most striking statistics is this one 92% of Florida parents say educational experts alone should be charged with

081writing curriculum this means that actual teachers educational policy experts should write curriculum not Tallahassee politicians who in many instances have zero classroom experience zero academic experience in educational policy and zero interest in solving the actual challenges facing students teachers parents across the state this of course is in direct opposition to new state laws that dictate what students learn what they read and the manner in which they're taught so to recap the survey for out of five Floridians say public education is a right 92% of Florida parents want Public School curriculum created by educational Pros 87% of Florida parents support increasing funding to Public Schools but this fact 75% of Florida parents say it is more important that children have access to books and information that challenges their thinking or their personal experiences so as an

082elected body perhaps you should be listening to the majority of parents and residents of Florida in Indian River County and not the small number of loud negative voices that stifle parents' choices the future of our community depends on rational database findings not culture wars thank you thank you Miss Murray no no clapping please miss Pippen is next Heather Askin is on Deck good evening my name is Jennifer Pippen and I'm the chairman of moms for Liberty here in Indian River County and I just wanted to give the board an update I served as one of the three parents of the six um person committee for the Department of Education update training for the uh library media um as memory serves I um served on the first committee for um House Bill 1069 and serving on

083this additional committee um I did want to bring back to the board that um the governor is looking at the frivolous challenges um specifically in our district the dictionary was um challenged last year and there was a book challenged earlier this month and the um short-term effects of that is the Department of Education is going to look into that with Governor DeSantis um the age appropriate work group that was started when our um work group started um it is kind of fizzled out the Department of Education is looking back into why that group did not finish their work so I'm glad here that we did not wait for that age appropriate work group because we would still be waiting two years later um library books um are instructional materials the Department of Education did acknowledge

084that and they are going to start working on that um there was some um questions here in the district with District staff wanting possibly to separate the trainings between the library media and the instructional materials but um again with further documentation Prov Ed to the Department of Education we're going to get further guidance on that and also the link to the PowerPoint is going to be updated with the new slides and information from our training and also the additional um information that the Department of Education is working on currently um they're hoping to have this approved before the start of school um through the Department of Education then the board of education for implementation of this coming school year I also wanted to um educate the public um I've had a lot of emails recently

085about some books that were we're challenged here at the district um through our organization um saying that nudity in children's books in children's libraries do not fall in line with statute I would like to provide that statute it's 8471 peren 11 um it starts with nudity means the showing of human male or female genitals pubic area or buttocks again that applies to some of the books that were um altered in our school district they did draw clothing on some of those um characters in the book so they can return to um you know the uh shelves for children and uh finally um I wish I would have known that um the item was going to be added about the settlement um just so everybody's aware the liberal activists lost their case for the parental rights

086and education they lost the appeal um the settlement was basically just spelling out in elementary form what that law um said in its entirety there was no changes to the law there's nothing that going to change in the state or with our school district in um regards to the settlement thank you he Heather Askin and Michael Marsh is on Deck hi good evening um I'm a mother of a public school student and I want to thank you all for what you're doing for the kids of our County coming from the background of having a father who is an administrator who was went up through the ranks and a mother who was a teacher before she chose to stay at home and then a substitute teacher I then went into education and then retired to become

087a mom full-time I know that it's more than a 9 to5 8 to4 it's weekends evenings and so it's not just all summer break you're working during the summer also to plant so that being said I wanted to say that big thank you um I brought my I come to the school board meetings um with interest in regards to books and choice and um that's kind of what I wanted to address tonight I hate moving backwards but I did want to talk about what was said last meeting it seemed necessary to put on record for whatever reason quote unquote there was hoopla about rumors that no organization or group was resp responsible for Banning books of course there's not an organization that has the final say to make the decision to limit access to books

088in our library but there is an organization leading the fight to challenge books in our County the chairperson of moms or Liberty has admitted challenging 242 books in Indian River County alone at one school board meeting in her word she wanted to make a comment about the books referring to challenging books because you all know meaning you all know on the board that's my baby perhaps these rumors were mentioned to challenge the Optics of what was coming down the pipeline moms for Liberty members now make up three out of six members of the Department of education's workg group that will be redeveloping an online training program for school librarians and media Specialists and it will now advise school districts on how to select titles and when to pull them off the shelves so now maybe

089the hoopla and rumors have come true there is an organization who will be responsible for limiting access to books in our County and the whole of Florida there's one other thing that I'd like to address and I'm really curious because I'm an interested parent and I'm very thankful for the education my son is getting at Vero Beach High School it's a huge school I'm not used to that but the teachers are interested I'd like to know more about the new um classical model and what the plans are for that thank you Mr Marsh and Edward Holmes is on Deck Michael C Marsh you know I was going to come up here tonight as it was mentioned about my challenge to Dr Seuss and I was going to remind you about all the racial epithets and

090how much Seuss hated Japanese and blacks but you know what what's the point because then I would be feeding into the circus right so tonight I'm going to talk to you about Redemption and what that looks like you know just like how we gave Seuss a second chance at what point do we give me a second chance you know I absolutely enjoyed the Black History Month slash the Michael Marsh is a CRI criminal month and as we all know that once upon a time yeah yes I've seen a jail cell many times and I tell you what I'm damn proud of where I've been since see no one in this room has done what activist Michael Marsh has done but I've shifted gears from activist to Advocate because of some of the things I've done

091in this community I can go and look at those two beautiful interracial Queens at night and say you know something sometimes Justice is not just and sometimes no is that next opportunity I am very proud that I graduated not once not twice not three not four five times write that down for the next article Mr Kenny five times but you know what what's more important to me and I had this conversation through the chair when Dr Moore first came and Dr Moore made good on this promise I said Dr Moore we always talk about how important it is to keep the substances away from kids but when do we have the conversation of what life would look like as a convicted felon because we know that's the life that I led am I proud of

092all those arrests absolutely not I beat everyone one except for three Mr Kenny but at the end of the day you know what it's about grabbing that teen and making sure that they don't have to lie on an application when they go for a job that they don't have to figure out can I get into a shelter with my kids oh wait I got a background from 20 years ago so you know what I'm going to be a solution waiting to happen that promise is going to come true very soon but I won't let the cat out the box not the Dr Sue cat but the cat that I'm working on because I'll make certain there's not another Michael C Marsh felon that has to go through what I went through when FAU said you've

093been arrested eight times I said nine but who's counting because I never had someone grab me and say what you do at 14 15 16 17 will follow you for the next three decades to come and that was me but I turned my mess into a message and I turned my test into a testimony so I may not come back here and I know there might be some Applause and maybe even from the de but when I do come back I'm going to show you how I keep these kids out of the system cuz it's a system you will never get out of clemency if you do your research you will never live in the state of Florida and have that second chance it wasn't given to me damn it I took it and I'm

094proud because I turned $700 to 50,000 and at the end of the day Michael C Marsh has left the building thank you sir um Edward Holmes and track other two coms okay and then Anthony Stewart is on Deck name is Edward Holmes I'm the vice president of Southern Christian leadership conference and on January 29th of 2024 there was a public records request made by our president of our organization and in this public records request it was that I am requesting the names authors and ethnicity of all books that moms for Liberty has removed from school libraries then on the meeting that was held on February 26 when Mr Stewart uh brought the information that he had up an email was sent out on the 27th to say that Anthony Stewart was incorrect in his information

095he presented to the board last night and I wanted to clear up the misinformation again I also cced him on this email as well as full transparency and of course you know 22 other people receive this email thank you Miss Rosario for correcting the issue of what governor DeSantis said about frivolous book challenges like the Bible dictionary and Roberto Clement not the good work SDC is doing thank you for following the law and for the great policy and procedure governing our district in fact no books were banned and there was way more than 39 books permanently removed from minor children in our schools in 2023 not one book was removed because of the color of the author's skin not one book was removed for the color of the character's skin this is Flatout lies and

096misinformation shame on on you Mr Stewart for your lies at the podium to try to push your personal agenda on our community if you are referring to if you are referring if you are referring supposition contrary to fact if you are referring to the August 2023 meeting of the books remove I implore you to go back listen to the citizens input starting at 59 minutes if there indeed was any misinformation that Mr Stewart gave it was the misinformation that he was given if Mr Stewart is indeed from these facts a liar uh then he was lied to because all of the information came from public record uh request it is amazing that a group that started during the pandemic for covid guidelines has grown to such proportions that they are are willing to take back

097our school board in the words of Tiffany Justice thank you thank you sir Anthony Stewart Thomas Kenny is on Deck yeah my name is Anthony Stewart and to kind of piggyback on what Mr Holmes said I gave each one of you all a folder that had a copy of the public records request as well as the books that was supposedly banded I did have a poster this size big siiz poster to show the audience exactly the books that Mom filiberty according to the school board had taken off there was 39 books number 1 through 39 but there was only 35 books that was at that time taken off the shelf according to them out of the 35 books once again eight authors of those books was black my problem is that black authors only publish

0985% of all the books in America if you take eight out of 35 you don't took 25% of the books was black you tell me you not targeting them and not only that Mrs Rosario I understand is District Two now she referred to Mr zerel and I I uh she opened up that door District 2 even though in River county is a a district district 2 had two schools in them fa below SE gford middle sir address Us address US gford middle and uh Dodger toown now there's some problems I have with that period because there was not one book taken out of Dodger town and only one was taken from Gord midle that's on this list now you tell me is there someone being targeted and again M fber name is ringing all over

099Southern Poverty Law Group and they will be in vau soon because you can't keep doing this and don't expect national attention to get to you they will get here you can believe that we going to have some changes there was another poster I had five posters I had I had one poster of of the clue clu Clan picture on it I had one of black panthers picture I had one poster of uh uh of of Airborne unit in Vietnam that was propelling out the helicopter I had one of you all and I also had one of moms for Liberty and my question is which of these picture is a snapshot of America's melon Pot and also one that has not been labeled as anti-democratic and the only one on there was the one out of

100Vietnam because when I this is not a snapshot of America Mountain melon Park no matter how you look at it it is not never I was born and raised here 75 years I've been here in in River County and I have not yet seen one black County Commissioner thank you sir Thomas Kenny is next Robert Connelly is on Deck how y'all doing Mr Bass first time I met you you were uh I was wearing a hat from an election in Glades County that I was working on and I always look on the sunsetting Glades and go wow what a beautiful place so you'll be happy to go back hang out on the river so congratulations to you um a little cleanup first off mom's for does not recommend books to any school district on you

101know what to purchase or what to do the only thing we do is find pornography if we find the pornography is in the book and the book is in the library we ask you to remove it it's called a challenge there's a process one of the easiest ways to do that process is just actually come up here to the podium and read it because that's direct evidence and we are in a board meeting where we Supply evidence and give you guys ideas with evidence so you can make proper decisions that's what public comments All About that's what action item comments are all about everything so you that's what we do and we're very uh good at it because we do a lot of research the research the truth leads us where we end up here

102presenting books presenting ideas presenting all these things that we do because that's what the truth does in regards to his comment about 20% no we didn't Target African-American authors we targeted pornography I can tell you right now all those books were removed by the uh board in a unanimous 50 vote that evening because all they heard out of each title was pornographic content uh five of them um were not read that night because the people who came up with them just they couldn't read them in public they were so harsh they were so graphically horrible so pornography can be written by any color of a person can be participated in by any color of a person and it can be taught by any color of a person and it shouldn't be taught by any color

103of a person in this school system or allowed or participated ated in we just had a Sheriff who wasn't even a deputy wasn't even in 24 hours on the job graduated from this school system in 2022 asking girls for pornographic pictures on Snapchat we're about cleaning house in regards to pornographic content and the behavior that comes with it and we hope that is very clearly heard this evening thank you Robert connley is next Jennifer Freeland is our last speaker thank you board for having me Robert Chuck conlay I go by about a year or so ago I uh spoke here and uh I want to go do a little year in review I really enjoyed uh Dr Moore's review so I just thought some of the things I said during that time and see where

104we stand after a year uh people that know me and uh the groups that I address sometimes I talk about we're we're here at this time of place for a reason I I firmly believe that everyone in this room at this time is here for a reason we we were destined to do something with our lives that means something We're All God's Children we all were blessed above the other animals on Earth We're God's children we have the choice to be here and to do the right to do to do right you know and natural laws and God's laws what we follow and this that was part of my discussion almost a year ago and it's was the foundation for this great Republic is the Judo Christian values that we all share in this room

105I know we all share it I know there's differences I know there's different uh ideologies but guess what in essence we're all the same and there's no reason why we can't share ideologies in a peaceful way and sit down and uh in a committee or a discussion and and do something do something about it then I also talked about what was going on around the world and even in our County here I use words like decadence dysfunction division in our little gem and I and I and I see uh I feel good that I see some daylight now you know there's some things that happening that have changed you know uh although some of the rhetoric and the newspapers some of that hasn't changed but uh our ideologies that we represent that we represent in

106this room whether either side on I'll go back that we're all people together take time to think about what uh uniqueness that each person has and what they believe in and where they came from and why they have that IDE ideology and you respect that I love what Mr bash said about respect that you guys have managed to uh do s such a great job and by the way that's also I said earlier last year that I'm proud to be part of the the school district that does so so many great things so again I'm running late like I did last year but my main message is uh before I forget I love that we had the prayer before we when we started that was a great addition and uh I love all you guys

107for what you do and everybody in this room remember we're here for him and ourselves and we should serve each other with mutual respect and love 24 seconds what can I say better than that uh three things books however you whatever side you're on doesn't matter um wokeness I talked a lot about Marxism which I didn't get to today in nine seconds uh Dei is dying wokeness is slowing down think good things are happening in our country so let's enjoy it and let's celebrate together in good faith thank you thank you Jennifer Freeland it will be our last speaker Save The Best For Last thank you good evening to the board Dr Moore in the cabinet I want to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation to all our teachers for the extraordinary efforts

108you've put in this year your dedication and hard work are truly inspiring as we approach the end of the fourth quarter tomorrow remember well deserved break is just around the corner spring break is only four days away so hang in there use this time to unwind cherish moments with your family and friends and rejuvenate when we return we'll face the final challenges of of the Year together and I have every confidence in your ability to make it except success you always make it happen and I know you will again this year you've got this I also want to let you know that negotiations will be starting very soon please keep an eye out for an email and a survey later this week teachers your input is invaluable and as we work together to shape the

109future of our educational envi environment and your voice matters and we want to ensure that it's heard at the table in addition I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Mr Bass for his unwavering support and guidance as we navigate it through an introduction of a new model for negotiations and collaboration between irca and SDC Mr Vash Your Grace patience and open-mindedness during my transition into the role of President admit a covid-19 shutdown and reopening have been nothing short of remarkable unheard of in fact your ability to listen and consider new ideas has been crucial in fostering a positive and productive working relationship your departure will leave a significant void and your presence will be greatly missed on a personal note I agree our relationship couldn't be matched anywhere in the state with that relationship

110we've managed to start working on a whole new culture between our unions and administration and sdrc we've gotten a lot of work done over 27 pieces of language have been adjusted or created I don't know what else to say except we miss you I'll miss seeing you with the with the team and I wish you and your family truly truly a blessed retirement okay thank you all right board members anyone want to speak to Citizen input Mr Rosario thank you um resp though not not that not that I'm aware of do they put together committees uh that have parents and Educators on it yes um but I'm yet to meet a politician who's creating curriculum okay thank you the designing curriculum correct the um actual the curriculum writers write the curriculum correct mhm okay um

111are we limiting books in our County in our school district there's no limiting books no thank you are we complying with the requirements to adhere to our standards do we teach our standards 100% are we complying thank you sir are we complying to the rules to ensure that obscenity obscenity are not in our school I think we're leading from the front in that area yes perfect thank you sir um has moms for Liberty banned books in our County the that would be the responsibility of the system itself thank you sir um have there been challenges on sexual content or pornography in some of our in our books yes some of our books I guess yes okay thank you um so I I I could do that at all meetings I mean I it's just incredible

112how you know the misunderstanding of some of these things um just happen and I get it because there is misinformation everywhere so I appreciate you your willingness to answer I will say um I'm not sure about the key findings that were provided to us in this survey I mean it was their own um survey which is fine but one of the bullets States 92% of Florida parents and 90% of the the general adult population want Public School curriculum created by educational professionals and I might say that's exactly correct maybe more maybe 100% of parents who support public education want the curriculum to be created by educational professionals I that's how that's my bet um it's one of the reasons why I say parental rights and parental choice is critical so we have to support a

113parent's right to choose whatever is in the best interest of their child I would also say um there was um a another comment by Mr I think his name is Mr Holmes I don't see him here but I just wanted to thank him for his comments um and uh to Mr Stewart who I think left as well uh something Mr Stewart said or implied was that um the author's background and cultural makeup or the authors um the books of the authors or a comment regarding the authors of the books that were deemed inappropriate for our children um M Dr Moore have we had any challenges and to my recollection we have not to do have we had any challenges regarding specific authors about their background their cultural makeup or anything of the like all every

114challenge we've had had has been in association to a book contents of the book yes not the author nothing no okay perfect and then there was another um comment about Dodgertown and gford Middle School that said that there was that maybe or the implication was that maybe those schools were being targeted because no books were removed from those schools or no books were found or challenged at those schools I'm not sure where um that information is coming from but just to be clear if no books were removed or found to have pornography or sexual content in a particular school I would venture to say that's a good thing Dr Moore your thoughts I think my response to the Dodger town in gford was in regards to their school grade which was inaccurate there are no

115D or F schools in this District okay good so there's no conspiracy no one is being targeted I'm glad for that um we certainly do not want to have that um happen here in our school and I think Madame chair I am um done with my comments there thank you any other board members I just want to continue to thank citizens who come up and express their opinion or give facts it's very important for the board to listen to everyone thank you Dr you all right yes thank you all for um sometimes it's not easy to come before uh a microphone especially on a camera so we appreciate that all right at this time we're going to uh call for the action agenda and uh the first one is approval of appointment of a citizen

116to the county commission's value adjustment board for this voting position okay in reference to Florida State Statute 14 194 point 015 the value adjustment board is an independent Forum created by the Florida statute uh chapter 194 to provide Property Owners with an opportunity to appeal their property value or denial of an exemption classification or tax deferral the committee meets each year as needed and the appointment will be effective upon approval of the County Commission so our approval then goes I believe to the County Commission is that true the the board itself we we're selecting a representative to serve on the board who would make a recommendation to the the way this is worded it says the appointment will be effective upon approval by the County Commission they approve this position no we approve the position

117okay because it's written this way so we need to make sure that that's Mor I can you understand what I'm saying okay um so Augustine Curran was appointed by the school board last year the position is for calendar year tax cycle and I know that we have brought this position forward before Dr Moore would you like to speak about this uh no the the item is to um as it as it reads to select the one individual who has um submitted her name for consideration we had staff as well as legal review uh the requirements and this individual meets all the requirements and is able and willing to serve in this position for us is Andy shephers here tonight okay so she's not not in the audience all right I'd like to call for a

118motion then to um appoint Andy sheepers to the um value adjustment board position for the school board so go ahead make a motion second second is Jones all those in favor say I I I now it's saying discussion but I think um um we don't have the person here so we unless anybody knows her and would like to speak okay okay all right then with that then we just voted in Angie sheers for um this position to serve for the school board we appreciate her service all right um Dr Moore you have a second item it is the code of conduct um change I I do have have that but we may want to approve the consent agenda before I present that item oh okay yeah it's not here so all right I'll call for

119a motion to approve the consent agenda so move second that's jonesa all those in favor say I I I anyone opposed Boro okay Dr Moore now from the action the agenda item we already voted on the first one so you have a second one yes ma'am based on the conversation that the board had this morning door this afternoon during its Workshop there was a discussion regarding adding a simple statement to our student dress code um so when it goes out for public hearing the code of conduct which incorporates the dress code when it comes back it would have the appropriate amount of time to be uh available to our public prior to your final approval uh so by adding the following state uh statement to section 5 yes page 42 uh we would be able

120to enforce or or give our principles the ability to um enforce the wearing of our um our student IDs we are simply adding to the dress code this simple bullet student identification cards must be worn on their person and visible during the instructional day and while utilizing SRD uh SDC transportation to and from school um the first offense for not compliance the student will be given a verbal warning warning and parent Guardian contact will be made second offense the student is eligible to participate in extracurricular activities for up to five days and the third equence uh third consequence leads ultimately to suspension for continuous uh Defiance so um this allows us to have that safety measure in place while at the same time providing a system for our school side ad administrators to um hold

121hold students accountable for wearing this ID system that is the item okay board members could I get a motion to approve this make a motion okay Mr Rosario with the first Dr PCA with the second all those in favor I I I anyone like to discuss the item um I just I just thought of a comment I just wanted to thank uh Dr Moore and um and cabinet for adding this on there I'm glad we were able to see it I think it was perfect timing for us to be able to discuss this earlier today add it on there and still be able to bring it back um at the April meeting so thank you for doing that yes go ahead um when I brought this up this morning when we talked about safety I

122think it's absolutely crucial and as long as our parents and students know are this going in because we used to do this and I think it's even more important to today's world especially with our Safety and Security issues thank you I just have one question about them um do they have a breakaway um absolutely okay because if a child gets caught and the bus whatever okay oh I have a question it's probably you already know I mean it's you all probably have the answer but for a student who has um touch sensitivities if there's autism if there is any kind of OCD if there's anything you know with regard to having the lanyard around them are there Alternatives there's accommodations pin clips that they they could use um so administrators are very okay skilled in

123making sure that that happens perfect thank you okay moving on to discussion uh the first one is um Mrs Rosario added public comment um you want to discuss that with board members yeah I do um we have a policy um I've brought this up before um that is very clear about public participation at our board meetings um one of the things that is specific in here um is is ensuring that public participation um is allowed for Citizens based on what is printed on the agenda so it actually says um in our policy let me pull up sorry let me look at the um citizen guideline the speakers form and our policy the policy is 01691 uh and it actually states that uh members can talk at uh to any item uh that the board is

124going to take action on as indicated on the order of business as indicated on the order of business is when they walk through the door sorry the order of business is printed on the agenda prior to coming in here as indicated on the order of business it's not the order of business that has been changed after we gabble in and so that's not limiting um citizen comment we've had this discussion um and I just want us to be sure that We are following um our policy the other concern that I have is um that citizens can talk to discussion items and that was added in 2022 one of the um things about uh talking during discussion items that I have a concern with is that citizens are coming up and discussing things that we haven't

125even discussed yet so the assumption is they or they're just looking at a title and I guess they're assuming um what we're going to discuss when we haven't had an opportunity to discuss it um my second point is we don't take formal action and discussion we don't allow formal citizen comments during Workshop time when we are discussing during Workshop we should do the same during our business meeting and so I'd like to ask ask our attorney um to come back and to do legal analysis on this or to give us a legal uh opinion on those items um so that we can revisit this and ensure that we're are following the policy um discussion items are not items in which we are um uh talking through or being proposed the word is a proposition where

126we are taking formal actions on a proposition that's what's in the law our policy actually tells us what a proposition uh definition is and it says that a proposition is an item before the board for a vote and includes but is not necessarily limited to all the items on the agenda and I would and that would be consent obviously so uh I this is where I put it on the agenda because we've had people come up time and time again just want to willy-nilly put things on an agenda and it's just all over the place and then you know this is a board meeting this isn't a you know open Town Hall discussion about just anything that you want um and it really should be about the items that are before us so anyway I

127would like our attorney um to call it legal analysis or a legal opinion or um whatever you will uh but if you can come back to us uh of course after board's discussion on this and and and give us your opinion you weren't here when this policy was changed so I would appreciate that sir any other board members like to discuss it um I guess I'll add um I think we've kind of already had this conversation in the past a little bit um I think the specifically the the input on discussion probably does not make sense you know and we've seen time and time again um when someone does come up and speak to that they they don't even know what they're speaking to right you know and of half the time they will come

128up and not speak to the item essentially um so it does interfere with uh the business um and then as far as uh following the policy you know I'd be interested to hear the leap opinion on that Dr John um when you look at the first line of the policy public participation says the school board recognizes the value to school governance of public comment on educational issues in the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest so I mean the first thing I think about it might not be on the agenda but it might be of community interest or School matters so um I'd want to look closely at that [Music] um as far as discussion right um when we bring that up as a board member

129um it may not pertain to what that person thinks it is so I could look at that but I I just want to make sure because it may not be on the agenda but it could be a community interest that we don't deny that that's the one I might be concerned about yeah I have a concern with limiting people's free speech so um sometimes people when they're speaking as citizen input something comes up during the meeting and then when we go to an action item they say oh I wish I was able to speak to that or discussion um had I known they were going to talk about that I would have liked to have spoke spoken to it because literally citizen input is getting input from you know citizens to tell us you know

130how they feel about certain topics so I have a hard time limiting citizen input um and their right to speak I know that we had workshopped this a long time and we looked at this uh form for citizen input many many times um Dr Jacobs put us through a lot on that and um we put her through a lot to to be able to all agree to this form and I know Mr rarel you agreed to the form at the time so I'm not sure what's changed that you want to limit um citiz an input but I think before we have one board member direct the attorney to do some work which you know would be costing the board um we need to have all board members kind of in consensus with this so not

131all consensus is not all well we've got four people yeah so we need three of us yes and and by the way this is discussion this isn't an an action item understand but you're directing you're directing the attorney i' like to hear from the other board members to see if they agree that the attorney should do this work yeah it's it's perfectly acceptable for Jackie to ask a legal question to the attorney so I don't know the legal questions going back and and redoing all this with research is another no it's it's a basic question she's asked um if we're following the policy as written and I mean objectively it appears we may not be so I think it's a pretty obvious she doesn't need board approval to ask an attorney a question okay my

132interpretation was it wasn't a question it was research because that was the word that was used so it's a little different uh a little costly I'm not against it I'm not against it I'm not saying that I just want to be very careful when the board is suggesting that we direct the attorney to do something that's all um Dr Jones I'm fine with it all um except the I think there's a good point on discussion um whether we have someone come up for discussion but everything else I'm with okay if if that's the case then I think we also need to look at the citizen input form because that goes right along with probably I'm we're doing so that would be another thing I think to add to research then is um looking at our

133citizen input form to see if it aligns with decided because we went through this fine tooth and comb for hours um not so long ago I don't know if you were on the board when we did that were so it was within the last year and a half okay all right um Dr Johns H thank you Mr thank you for that um thank you yes I I um I'm sorry oh I'm sorry sorry I'm sorry madam chair I think Mr anacker wanted to say something no I actually just wanted to say this is a surprisingly short work product just for what it's worth it it's it's very binary okay thank you sir okay I asked and I asked Dr Mo or I relay to Dr Mo and Mr HB I wanted to bring this up

134because there were so many questions and so many calls that I received on House Bill 1557 settlement the parental rights for Education Bill uh news broadcasts questions and settlement agreements calls then I know there was a email to superintendent and he was supposed to share with principles so Mr ansbacher could you settle or for summary for our school district and our parent parents in our community and our teachers had questions I did not want to do that um what this settlement agreement basically says and it was between um I believe equality Florida and then the State of Florida and the State Board of Education Florida Department of Education so if you could do a summary so we can make sure and then I want to hear from Dr Moren how he's relating that to principles

135hey um this is one of several related cases where questions have been raised whether standing or scope in federal court because the Office of the Attorney General has said that people who have sued have sued Ironically in light of the unrelated discussion we just had based on what they thought the statute said as opposed to to what it actually said and uh the position of the attor of the Office of the Attorney General is that uh the 22 legislation created a new subsection in 10142 subsection 8c3 uh that quote limits classroom instruction by school Personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity in Florida's Public Schools kindergarten through grade three or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards and the complaint in

136this case was dismissed an amended complaint was dismissed it was taken up to the 11th federal circuit court of appeals in Atlanta and the parties uh reached a settlement the heart of which is in paragraph F and basically recites much of what the position of the Attorney General was in the case uh noted that um the statute was amended essentially in order to respond to uh the perception that one or more districts were not notifying parents and that uh there was um volunteering of uh information regarding the the curriculum the instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation and subsection F really drills down on instruction and classroom instruction saying it is that instruction is the action practice and profession of teaching and the statute restricts only in instruction that occurs in a classroom setting

137classroom instruction as uh quoted and this is basically out of the Attorney General's pleadings is the formal work of teaching that occurs in a classroom setting statute restricts classroom instruction only if it is on sexual orientation or identity so as the settlement agreement states and again quoting to what the Attorney General position was accordingly the statute restricts only teaching on the topics of sexual orientation and gender identity in a classroom setting and it goes into greater detail and I think that the Department of Education general counsel transmitt uh will expand on this um I will note that uh the point of several of the comments in here is by way of example to say what instruction is not uh they point out uh the that typical class participation in schoolwork are not instruction uh even

138if the student chooses to address sexual orientation or gender identity the statutes lead the statute would leave teachers free to respond if students discuss their identities or family life uh provide grades and feedback if a student chooses lgbtq identity as an essay topic answer questions about families for kindergarten through grade three they simply must not handle these situations by teaching the subjects of sexual orientation or gender identity um yeah essentially uh says it doesn't prohibit instruction against bullying people with one or two moms doesn't prohibit mere references to moms and dads or any combination thereof um and what they point out is the nondiscrimination is supposed to be gender neutral that and and and Viewpoint neutral that after third grade uh it says um I'll just quote rather than paraphrase the statute applies equally regardless

139of viewpoint but differently the statute restricts classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity not homosexuality and gender and transgender identity for example it would violate the statute to instruct students heterosexuality is Superior or gender identity is immutable based on biological traits but basically these and these are quotes out of briefs from the Attorney General's office so um there's a question also as to um there's a reference in the statute that says third parties can't teach what they're saying the reason for the statement about third parties is to prevent uh being done indirectly what cannot be done directly IR L that you can't bring in someone to essentially be a guest teacher and discuss these topics um the comment uh in F the statute does not restrict debate only classroom instruction uh for example the

140statute does not restrict student to student speech um doesn't prohibit classroom reference to a person's family gay or straight transgender or cisgender um doesn't restrict gay and transgender teachers from family photos on desks referring to themselves or spouses or children does not prohibit intervention against lgbtq bullying does not require removal of safe space uh stickers uh which are not classroom instruction doesn't prohibit extracurricular activities such as gay straight Alliance or Book Fairs um it uh doesn't restrict lines referring to lgbtq issues and musicals dancing between persons of the same gender at a school dance uh wearing clothing inconsistent with gender assigned at Birth and again this is straight out of the Attorney General none of that is classroom instruction then there's a subsection saying library books library books without more are not classroom instruction and

141are thus not covered by the statute um and notes with in footnote two Library materials are separately governed by section 10628 Florida Statutes um and the gist is this is to be implemented through Council by fdoe providing a copy of the agreement including the recital set forth above to uh school districts superintendents are to distribute this to principles and there are some miscellaneous things but really the gist is um the adoption essentially of positions that the attorney general has thus far taken in every federal case in every State case that I think has been removed to Federal Court um and that is in in terms of 10142 that uh strictly speaking that new subsection from prohibits classroom instruction is statutorily defined that includes um the two prohibited doc or or are topics and that's it

142Dr more or Mr ansbacher when has of fdoe when when is that going to come out to you the superintendent as far as their report I guess you could say you know when that's expected I I I assume uh as as soon as possible because it's clear this is a thoroughly developed settlement agreement and uh I I would expect any time now I have a call into Judy bone who's Deputy GC At Doe on several matters this is one of those questions Dr Mo have you talked to principles are you just waiting for that uh directed from fdoe through the chair the this information was sent to superintendent mid last week or late last week um and as requested it was sent to principles I do have principles Wednesday where I'll be to clarify and

143answer any questions they they may have I just want to make sure that you know we're following the law and the our teachers and parents and Community know about it that's all that's it all right yeah no it doesn't um thank you for reading that it's my understanding um that everything that you read is still the same as what it is now I mean what we knew before this opinion was you just couldn't teach it everything else was acceptable or allowable except the direct instruction of um gender identity and um sexual orientation so there there's there is nothing more that is significantly different other than uh an extent other than the Attorney General adding some of the things that are and are not allowable but otherwise of that would have been assumed anyway I mean

144to me it was just I would have those conversations those questions asked can they have conver can they talk about of course you can the teacher just cannot provide direct instruction on so it doesn't seem very different I mean it's not like there's you know massive change here it's not like anything is significantly changing oh no wait wait a minute I'm still talking so because I I see he is thinking no no I I actually I was listening I I is that in the form of a question no I mean I'm I think it's kind of I mean am I correct I mean no that's why that's why I keep saying I'm quoting straight from the filings of the Attorney General the thing I just want to point out and I've mentioned this previously is

145the Office of the Attorney General has taken positions in multiple Federal cases so far that have differed from uh County school districts and saying this is how we read it and until a court says otherwise we are essentially putting it too simply but we're the law th this is the position they've taken I think to the extent there is any clarification it's the first time to my knowledge that this is actually going to be incorporated in a resolution because part I think of what a couple of the cases that have dragged on have been has not been the state position but that Lake and Escambia and particularly Escambia thought it went farther than the state thought it did and so I would say on balance your point is is accurate yeah I mean as far

146as I'm concern as far as I was able to see um even the Department of Education attorney said um the law is not changing interpretation of the other parts around that law might be clarified through that opinion but otherwise the actual law is not changing um I do have a hypothetical um which I'm I'm sure as lawyers you hate hypotheticals but hypothetically if the um statute the current statute um statutes were to change to include language that would say library books are considered classroom curriculum or library books are considered an extension from the classroom and therefore are classroom curriculum can be part of classroom any of those kinds of things if that were to happen um then the one part on that opinion would then therefore change because where it says um the opinion said

147library books are not classroom material and therefore are not included but if the current statutes do change in the future future if the state legislature takes that up and says yes we want to determine that classroom that library books are an extension of the classroom and therefore considered curriculum if that's if the question is as I understand it I have two answers okay one is of course if it is amended you read it as it's amended but you also have to note that the language that the Attorney General used and that's Incorporated in the settlement is library books without anything more are not instructional materials and are subject to 1,628 which of course we've reviewed and I think that indicates if the library materials are used as part of curriculum maybe that that's something different

148but purely as Library materials and nothing more the position of the Attorney General right now is go to 1,628 for Library materials and the several curriculum statutes well actually no I don't want to overstate it the only one they really have taken a direct position on really is this one okay and and anything that I've said otherwise has been by inference and as I I've said to this uh body before you know if the doe or the Attorney General takes a different position we are Duty bound to follow it thank you and uh Dr Moore can you please send that to us or Mr ansbacher sure thank you appreciate it one of us all of us one um yeah one other thing I I know I've heard some concerns that teachers you know I think

149that the definition of direct instruction needs to be very clear um because direct instruction can mean a couple of different things to different people uh I think the original concern that I was told by some people was what if a student comes out to you and wants to talk about something that this is in line with you know they they were so afraid they were going to get arrested or something like that so I think that Clarity still needs to be out there because there's still some concern about that and I would suggest you have to read that together with the parents Bill of Right statute and and that's why both Dr Moore and I I think have received our copies from associations uh we got ours on the on the school attorney blog um

150I I really am looking forward to seeing what the a what the general Council as to say but but yeah I I'm sorry we should have send distributed that before and we will do so one or the other of us before tomorrow just one thing just one thing um I'm just grateful that this came out with the specific questions because people weren't sure and they didn't want to break the law and they were a little bit fearful if they said something would that be against the law so I'm very glad that these specifics came out for our teachers who are in the classroom every day and when the doe sends out something next I'll be glad for that just so that we know nobody's breaking the law we're following the statute and just gives a

151little bit more specifics on the answers well I I stand corrected on one thing apparently Dr Moore did get his from the GC but I understand the general counsel is supposed to be issuing something regarding how to implement it and that's what I'm waiting on thank you thank you members matter um Dr jnes yes uh where's Mr Green where'd he go I stepped into a budget meeting uh was at the district office the other day and the format was great the principles were liking the procedure I'm not sure they liked what their final budget was but uh uh I it was a really good thing because you had Finance in there Mr HR in there cni in there prek all at the table so if there are any questions it was right there and I'd

152not seen that like that before so it's good um this happened after our last meeting the African-American student council presentation at Vero Beach High School was wonderful it was after school till Mr Hart next time we've got to get it at night for the community Dr Moore it was wonderful I think they taped it but um and also I'd like to see maybe some of our history classes see it also uh Vero baseball's going well we talked about their trip going to DC they're excited the elementary track um uh Miss Lucas Wilson is running that at Sebastian for high school it's in April that's a fun event for everybody to get to the College and Career night at ver Beach High School I didn't get up to Sebastian but uh Dr Moore and um Miss

153baser I I saw you there was really great especially when you go into those breakout sessions and parents learn a little bit more about applications and financial help um one thing everybody has to get to next year it's like a mini prism is the night of Enchantment at felsmere she was one of our um M our teacher finalist Miss Courtney and what she has done in three years there with that program is absolutely outstanding and um probably one of the best nights of the Year for me uh I am on a couple scholarship committees and um most of those are due right around March 15th time some of them have a little bit more time but seniors start going on that community resource Fair um with Team success I think there were about a 100

154nonprofits there saw a lot of the District staff there and what this community does Dr Mo for our children and their wraparound Services wonderful felsmere Planning and Zoning always a great event executive Roundtable this week and um actually that's tomorrow where we talk about some things uh coming to Indian River County I'm excited for that so thank you I'm good okay Mr Happy Spring bre everyone coming up soon yes is that all that's it all right um I have three things the homeless Forum I attended was um offered by the United Way It Was eye openening I learned a lot um we have and and we thankfully Karen Mallet does this heads it up but her group um that she works with has developed on our website all kinds of resource pages that are there

155for homeless opportunities for people to spread the word and our logo is not at the top so that somebody can give it to somebody or an organization that needs it so we need to spread that message that that information is out there and um it was it was really good met a couple people in town that are really trying to coordinate things so uh I know that there's a plan for that so that's that was positive and and exciting to see uh Agnes people's interviews I sat with both principles last week and we got to meet some outstanding young ladies um couple that wanted to go into Finance but the majority wanted to be doctors so it was really encouraging to see that um but today I got to meet a girl that wants to

156be an astrona and um I think she will be I was really really impressed with her and uh Dorian and I got to meet her over at St Nets today and uh she was she was a Dynamo so I'm I'm excited for the uh Vision that these girls have in their own lives they're very very determined so it's really nice that we have so many girls that are determin that went applied for the scholarship and then um the ESC advisory Council has grown I remember attending that last year the year before and just a handful of people and now we have an entire te filled with people so it was really nice to see um good job Dr Moore on growing so many things not just our academics but um the way that people can

157give input and we so I think that's kudos to you and your staff that's all I have Dr just want to I I thank the County Commissioners and our County Administrator for allowing us to use this space but I need to thank our team who picked up our entire show and moved it over here and that's not an easy lift so Dorian Michelle uh Kristen Dr J Dr vegan uh Chris in the back although I think he enjoyed it because he's not in the control room um I just thank you so much extra work to make this happen you guys made it we just came in sat down and had our board meeting so thank you very much yeah um thank you to the staff working back there and um also to our staff for

158all this changing it was a nice change I think it was um but you know I think we gave up our space for very important things so make sure you get out and vote if you can and um I'd like to thank everyone for viewing or coming tonight and uh at this time unless there is an objection I'm going toj the meeting at what time is it 8:12 thank you