School Board Business Meeting and Presentations 5_30 p.m. 5⧸20⧸24

001e e e May 20th 2024 welcome to the Joan idet Jr Tec and this evening's School Board Awards and presentations we welcome you all I ask out of respect at this time please check that you have silenced all of your electronic devices you don't want to be that person thank you at this time I'd like to call the meeting to order and ask the superintendent to go ahead and um recognize those that are giving us Awards and um you are giving awards and presentations to is 5:30 M Madam chair we're the ones giving awards yes just as a a point of order if you're on that back wall if you just make sure there's a a pathway so people can get in and out I know the folks over here are here for the presentations

002but we just be intentional of making sure we have a clear path to the exit so we're not in violation of of any kind of code um thank you very much and with that we do have a number of recognitions and I'll ask our public information officer Miss Maddox to facilitate those for us hi good evening everyone and thank you for being here tonight uh first I would like to recognize Miss Anne Bieber the director of academic success for secondary school she she will be recognizing our state science fair winners good evening we are here to congratulate the team of students who represented Indian River County at the state science and engineering Fair of Florida at I also must thank the teachers the Specialists and Dr Nikki MOS and Miss Lisa presty this would not

003have happened if it weren't for that group of people receiving recognition for your science fair project is a remarkable achievement whether you've explored a new hypothesis conducted groundbreaking research or developed an Innovative solution your dedication and hard work have paid off reaching the state level not only acknowledges your talent but also celebrates your commitment and hard work we encourage you to keep exploring experimenting and pushing boundaries your curiosity and passion are invaluable assets to the scientific Community as your name is called please come forward to receive your certificate and please stay up front for a picture Ariana Bolton Emily Carlson Alice cheritan Uma chrisa [Applause] Giana deell Harper Hall Mia Harold Mia Christian Harris meline Holbrook anela Kelly Ella kilman Addison Lerman Sienna malan Jacqueline parin hoel Ramirez Grayson Smith Olivia stoval Brianna Swindle Kimberly

004Ang Davy ja vernice Luke Wagner Bella Wangler and we have one additional recognition as the award was not announced until this school year Ariana Bolton's project from last year was selected as one of the top 300 projects in the United States to receive the thermofisher scientific Junior innovators challenge she received a prize package from the Department of Defense stem program and this year her project was a continuation of that project and she won first place at the State Fair wow [Applause] congratulations to all of our winners and parents if you'd like to take a picture we'll all be working for you one day all right now can we take a photo for your parents please ready two and go for it family thank you guys thank you and congratulations so we do have um science

005Testing tomorrow so let's get these kids right home into bed [Applause] for our next presentation we have our casual for a cause presentation for those of you who are not familiar with casual for a cause it is some fundraising efforts that we have every month for a predetermined organization our students and staff members uh in exchange for a donation can dress down for the day at their schools and last month we raised money for Halo and the total raise by the students and staff of school district of in River County was $1,617 121 yes and I would like to invite Allison King the director of development for Halo to the podium please to accept the check okay hi guys I will keep it short and sweet because I know you guys have a lot to

006do tonight um but we want to say thank you so much for this um Halo was founded in 2006 to provide a safe haven for the abused and abandoned animals in this community um over the past 18 years we have saved over 21,000 lives and we couldn't have done it without people like you in our community so thank you thank you sa some right [Applause] now okay next um we have a recognition of our plcp that's our professional learning certification program completers and I'd like to invite Dr Kira shafty director of academic compliance and Equity to perform that presentation good evening the school district of Indian River County offers an alternative certification program called the professional learning certification program or plcp the plcp is a rigorous program for new teachers that have not graduated from

007a College of Education the program develops highquality Educators using job embedded professional learning this evening we would like to recognize our District's PLC completers this year's program completers successfully satisfied the following requirements passing general knowledge tests at least one subject area test and the professional Educators test esol coursework reading endorsement coursework and learning about classroom best practices managements assessments and learning theories this amounts to about 800 hours of coursework all while teaching in our classrooms each and every day at this time we do have one of our completers we would like to recognize this evening uh Mr Oscar Escobar [Applause] excuse Shereen come all right did she not know she was coming I'm get my moment congrat congratulations you came right at the right moment congratulations guys a lot of work [Applause] congratulations during the

008week of May 6th through 10th our district celebrated teacher and and staff appreciation week during this special celebration we visited schools to hear from parents and students and created a video highlighting the incredible Educators and staff members who Inspire mentor and guide our students every day to my favorite teacher to our custodians to my bus driver to my coach to our school secretary thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for being the best and thank you for being super kind and thank you I love you thank you Miss and Mr FIA for helping me so much thank you Miss FL for helping all of us I love you Misty cuz you are the best teacher cuz you sing with me thank you Mr Peter for telling me I can do

009the test I will rock the test thank you for office staff are always greeting me with a smile thank you to the school nurse for helping us when we're sick and also just being there for us thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for teaching me very well thank you for teaching us math it's my favorite subject to our school secretary thank you for being so positive every morning and starting my day off amazing thank you for being my teacher Miss O'Neal we love you to my bus driver thank you for getting me home safely to our custodians thank you thank you for keeping our campus clean Miss Dei I'm thankful for you always being my friend thank you Miss nson to Miss Erica the cafeteria manager thank you so

010much for helping us practice our Willy Wonka lines and the Coro and just helping everyone with lunch making everyone one smile and just thank you for making this school year a great school year thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you to all the security guards thank you very much for keeping us safe and in order to my favorite teacher Miss marnelli thank you so much for realistically preparing us for our next chapter in life always putting your students first and accommodating our needs to help us best succeed to my coach coach Maul thank you for the opportunity to wrestle and teaching us how to wrestle to my favorite teacher Miss lell thank you for giving me motivation making me feel appreciated in being the best Ela teacher that I could

011have ever had in my years of being in Middle School to my math teacher Miss Rickard I am very grateful for her and helping me pass my algebra 2 EOC to my favorite teacher Miss held you I love having you as an open person to talk to and you always find a way to make me smile to my ROTC instructors and my guidance counselor thank you it's been an amazing year and couldn't have gotten here without you guys to all of our teachers thank you we love you and we appreciate you thank you thank you thank you thank you I am most thankful for the entire IB Department here at Sebastian River High School their guidance their wisdom and their support during the college application process was seamless thank you to the coaches not only

012have you supported my kid on the field but also in the classroom and in life to the teachers and staff of Indian River School District thank you for all that you do for our children from the pit parents and PTA members thank you thank you thank you to all the teachers and staff of the school district of Indian River County thank you for your dedication passion and hard work you have a lasting impact on the students and families of our district and you truly make our school district a special [Music] place if you're one of our teachers or staff members would you please continue standing let's give them another round of applause Yes W and I can't forget to recognize a staff member in the back in the control room who put this entire video

013together for us Chris Heiser is back there thank you [Applause] Chris and uh next we would like to recognize um our retirees with 30 or more years of service in Indian River County we have a couple of them here with us tonight miss Connie Clark 35 years of service good girl miss Connie are you here tonight just come here well miss Connie has 35 years of service and she's currently the head custodian at gford Middle School congratulations Miss Connie and Miss Gilda Brown is Miss Gilda here yes there she is and and Miss Gilda Brown has 35 years of service and she is currently secretary at Beachland elementary school thank you Miss Gilda Brown you would like to stand up here now we do have a few others you can uh look at the screen

014and see their names Unfortunately they could not be here with us tonight but let's get a great picture of Miss Brown and give her a big round of applause [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay our favorite color oh yeah I'm leave I'm GNA leave that alone I'm not saying anything [Laughter] R High School everybody taught in Sebastian River High School break down and last but certainly not least we have a special recognition of our scholarship recipient of the Florida Prepaid 2-year scholarship and uh before I go on about her I would like to ask Shila Smith to please come to the podium here she comes all right Shila got to brag on you a little bit shila's mother is Barbara Williams Mom are you here tonight oh there's Miss Barbara Williams and her sister is April

015Williams she is an admin assistant for the school district she's right over here proud sister filming Shila is a graduate of ver Beach High School with a 3.7 unweighted and 4.0 weighted GPA Shila will be graduating in the top 20% of her class or has graduated in the top 20% of her class you said all that her accomplishments are honor student selected as National Honor Society for year HOSA be Beach High School band woo clarinet section leader Trio Upward Bound salutatorian gford youth achievement center youth employability program she's active in her church greeter Ministry Jen Z praise team Fine Arts and her community as a member of hoses Shila Pastor state board tests she is now a certified CNA and patient care technician she has been accepted to over 10 schools in in and out

016of the state of Florida including bethon cookman University Florida Memorial Southern University Jacksonville University Jackson State University Albany State University fville State University Grambling University Texas Southern University Benedict College you can clap Shila will be attending college to become a registered nurse and continue her education to become a nurse practitioner Shila wrote an inspiring essay about overcoming and learning from failures her topic was on her experience in the high school band using her failures as stepping stones and her growth from her first ever audition to attain a place in the top band and I would just like to say that uh Shila is awaiting to make her decision because she has a couple of very important auditions for schools of music coming up go girl all right so congratulations Shila everyone give her a big

017round of applause congratulations sha now Shila will be um awarded this two-year prepaid scholarship to use at any of the schools um that she elects to go to not just Florida schools absolutely hold on hold on [Applause] shla congatulations [Applause] Dr Moore that concludes presentations there you go all right thank you um just a a point of I just want to say how proud I was of that video that was amazing video brought tears to my eyes that's why we're here kids so thank you thank you for that all right we're going to conclude the awards and presentations at this time it is 5:52 we will start the next board meeting at 6 o'clock but at 5:55 and 3 minutes we will have an invocation thank you e e e it is May 20th 2024

018we are meeting in the Joe and idlet Jr Tec I would like to call this meeting to order the time is 6: p.m. out of respect to everyone please silence all electronic devices also if you have any material you wish to share with a board member please give that to um our um thank you our superintendent executive assistant Mrs boel at this time we are going to do the Pledge of Allegiance and it's going to be led by the Vero Beach High School's Air Force Junior Roc detachment 043 under the direction of major retired Dean rasdale and senior master sergeant retired sha Ru please stand aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Applause]

019they always do such a great job thank you students no all right at this time I'd like to ask for adoption of the orders of the day uh board members are there any items you wish to move from consent to action or add to the discussion no ma'am but I have information on an action agenda I'd like to propose to you information on an action agenda on the action agenda okay item 10B we have three policies that are up to discuss and then put before um the public instead a public hearing date the two are very similar the first one's dealing with citizenship and the moment of silence the third one is on board member matters a completely separate item so I'd like to split the first two in a vote and the second one

020in a vote so we can discuss each one of them do you want to bate all three that would be fine with me okay I need a second second okay thank you thank you Mr McDonald any discussion okay thank you any other items board members yeah I'd like to add um the per exam as a discussion item per per P RT it's the postsecondary education Readiness test is there a second second Mr McDonald any discussion no okay any other items board members all right thank you so I'm going to call for a motion to accept the orders of the day as amended so move okay Dr Jones a second second Mr McDonald thank you all those in favor say I I I anyone opposed okay I saw Dr PCA but I do not see him

021now okay so 40 vote okay at this time I'd like to recognize the superintendent for the superintendent's report Dr Moore thank you madam chair we're gon to put the report up real quick that is not it I don't know what that is so as they load the the presentation May is an extremely busy month but it's also probably one of the best months in a school year because it is the opportunity to attend uh all of the closeout events and celebrate all of the hard work that's being done so when you look back on the month uh we have have been extremely busy we kicked off right after the last board meeting uh with our school volunteer week and that was the opportunity to celebrate all of our individuals whether it is parents or outside

022organizations who help and support our schools uh we have a number of slides and pictures to demonstrate this but for time sake we cut it down to just one uh April 23rd uh we brought back this was an event um that we hadn't done for a number of years but now that we're back in full swing uh the demand was high to bring bring back the elementary Battle of the books and it was absolutely outstanding to see each of the elementary teams uh go through their research defend their responses and and work as a team uh based on the readings that they had done uh this is the student uh business presentation this is the Vero Beach Senior High School had this for their um Diversified work career we also had a fire drill right

023in the middle of it uh which was interesting uh but to see these uh young professionals come up and make their sales pitches and their uh based on their businesses was absolutely once again just a a different way of demonstrating their knowledge uh we are excited to announce and I'm sure you saw this on our social by South Ridge senior high schools Media Center was featured in oured edtech magazine highlighting that Innovation um and we're we're hoping we're going to get back in there when Vero Beach is going to be open next school year uh this is Administrative Professionals Day which just was an opportunity to celebrate all the people behind the scenes who keep us where we're supposed to be doing what we're what we are doing uh this is my superintendent uh student

024advisory Council from each of the schools we had our close out event which was April 25th and this was me with each of those um individual leadership teams the work they did absolutely outstanding this year they took a strong stance around improving the culture and climate in their schools um working with the principles around kindness and putting very specific initiatives in place uh and working with the principles while at the same time always giving me the constant reall live uh feedback from the perspective of a student and this is each of our secondary schools um this is National Security conference in Orlando you can't see it here but Mr tesky was caught on TV um for this event and it is just clear every time we have one of these conferences they're always saying go

025see Mr tesy go see Indian River School District uh because they can tell you exactly how to get the work done uh this is scholarship night uh this is the one at voo Beach uh this was the trike race for um United Way we did not win we came in fourth place uh but we had an absolutely great great time figuring out who was going to represent us uh and thank United Way for putting on that event uh this is the wabaso 100-year celebration which was so neat they actually put a time capsule in the ground uh and we'll open it up in a hundred years so maybe Dr shafty will still be here at that time I I don't think I will um but just a a great event uh to hear some of

026the history of that school um they are a gem in our community um this is the realtor's presentation uh very strategic on what we're trying to do to connect with Realtors give them information so when they're selling a house they're selling our school district at the same time so very unique information we're giving them a flyer has a QR code where you can go in and not only you schedule a tour of our house through the realtor or you can schedule a tour of a school uh so we can help them close the deal and have folks move to our our beautiful County uh this was just us at the district office we try to have as much fun as possible almost as hard as we work but this is Lay day uh and and

027we celebrated that all day long then we had principal appreciation day which was May 1st uh and once again we had the opportunity to pull our principles here and celebrate them at the district but the events that took place at each of our schools was absolutely amazing to see how they love uh their principles and support them was just absolutely amazing uh and then this is the lunch in that we had for them a lot of fun school lunch in hero day that was um May 3rd there's a picture of me and a shirt but I didn't make the cut um but I did have one of those shirts on and as we said in the video just wanted to acknowledge and shout out to our cafeteria workers um this is our SDC Community career

028Fair um humongous event uh opportunities for our students to go in we had it at um Gord youth achievement Center and it was just the opportunity to go in and see uh reall live jobs that are out there for our students and make those connections uh interview get the skills needed uh to create a resume uh just an absolutely powerful day from our school district this is one of the highlights of our school year as I was saying May 3rd this is the uh Sebastian River Senior High School Dance inclusion show so if you ever need to refuel your spirit uh this is the opportunity to see some of our general ed students work with our ESC students uh it is just absolutely amazing uh this is the kids tag art reception and awards uh

029a number of our schools our students and our schools acknowledge just an absolute great Community event and then this is the upper bound um Trio graduation I the opportunity to attend that one of the students that we just recognized uh was part of trio trio uh works with students as they move throughout High School providing partnership guidance for them helps them in resume writing so some of the accolades that we heard earlier today uh from Shila um comes from her partnership and interaction with Upward Bound uh this is as we've said before May 7th is you've been souped so we souped both student services and our ESC that's what we do at the district office to acknowledge uh different offices and individuals who are just going above and beyond we surprise them decorate their office

030and just celebrate them for all of their hard work um another absolute powerful day was grad walks um had the opportunity to hit a number of schools I was at Citrus as well as aola and to see those students return to their elementary schools and walk the halls and their cap and gowns and give high fives to our students uh it was truly motivational and the timing was perfect as we began assessments like the very next day um so it was super encouraging for our um elementary students to say hey that's going to be me one day great event um this is the leadership class presentation this was an opportunity for me uh in and partner with the Chamber of Commerce and and these are individ these are young leaders in our community uh so

031I gave a hour presentation on the structure of the school district uh our finances how we operate and what our goal and Mission is just an opportunity to deepen the community's understanding around our work in the school system this was the actual trike race war which we lost and this was uh just last Monday this was the spring football game we got not all of the game in because of rain um but we did get uh some of the game in and it was it was great to be back out on the football field uh this is our new initiative which I mentioned last time we do this now quarterly uh every individual who's hired in the school system system has the opportunity to come here uh and meet with staff ensure that we are

032making 100% connections and building relationships with our new employees retention has always been a strategy for us uh to not have openings whether it be uh any work unit and it really has just helped coordinate and build relationships and make a great first impression as a school system uh and then graduations are off this was the first graduation that we had this is Treasure Coast Technical College one of our best graduations because you have moms and dads and grandmas graduating folks who have made the decision to go back and get an additional industry certification uh to improve the qualities of of their life is just very very inspiring you can see it was an absolute full crowd uh this is the staff appreciation uh Joe from first priority is almost a member of our staff

033at this time uh just bends over backwards and has really took us under his wing to make sure that we at the district you know a lot of celebrating and praise goes to the school sites uh so Joe work will work with different churches and come in and make sure the folks behind the scene have the opportunity uh to be recognized and celebrated you could just feel the love in the room uh and can't thank him enough then this is an away game but South um Sebastian River had their spring game last week and then this is our state baseball team while we were getting ready to graduate some of their classmates we had three or four of our seniors who were not at graduation because they were competing um in the semifinals versus stowman

034Douglas uh they lost nine to7 right um but what an opportunity they weren't expected to go as far as they went uh one game away from a state championship absolutely outstanding so proud of them yeah you can clap for them y this is our wabaso graduation it was the one one of two uh on that day wabaso is is always a special graduation uh it just reminds you of the special place uh we all should have an our hearts for our teachers um just what a family over there and they take care of some of our our most special students uh and they truly are a family so what a great way to start last Friday uh and then soon as that sun went down it was much cooler voo Beach Senior High School graduation

035where we had about 660 students walk across the stage and receive their diplomas uh outstanding and then we did it about 14 hours later at 8:00 in the morning uh with Sebastian River we had about 450 students cross the stage it was just a reminder of why we do this work uh just done both graduations done in absolute class uh and now we're at another board meeting so thank you very much that is our presentation Madam chair okay at this time we're going to get ready for our citizen input we have 41 speakers tonight so relax sit back all right I'm going to read the guidelines for speaking please listen carefully each statement made by a member of the public shall be limited to 3 minutes in duration I will be recognizing an order in

036the order which requests were received the time shall start when the speaker is at the podium and the public information officer will be be the official timekeeper as you see the time clock is visible to the left on the Das and you will hear a beep at the end of your 3 minutes please wrap it up then each person may speak for up to three minutes at the beginning of a business meeting during citizen input as indicated at the order of business and for up to 3 minutes to each action agenda item during the action agenda and each board member discussion item as indicated on the order of business if a consent item is moved to action item then you can come up to the podium to speak at that time or you can defer

037to speak during the presentation of that action item people may only speak once about any given item the time period may be extended by the presiding officer only the individuals speaking or submitting the form can speak and address the board time may not be yielded to other speakers during the meeting please refrain from from clapping or outbursts of any sort so that we can proceed with dignity and decorum by not infringing on any individual's First Amendment rights I need to remind everyone to direct all comments to the chair not to an individual board member or to the superintendent please board members may or may not address any citizen input statements at the end of all citizen input correct comments as board members listen to citizens without interruption citizens we ask that you also give board

038members the same respect as per Florida statute 10001 372 subsection 3 the presiding officer of any District School Board May order the removal from a public meeting held by the dis District School Board of any person interfering with the expeditious or orderly process of such meeting provided such officer has first issued a warning that continued interference with the orderly processes of the meeting will result in your removal the first warning is to everyone at this time no personal attacks no inciting no disrespect please I will be calling you up two at a time the first person shall be called to the podium to speak and the second person will be in line to speak right after speakers shall not engage in personal attacks or abusive language the chair has the right to terminate any speaker's

039privilege to address the board if this rule is violated if you have anything to give to board members or the superintendent please do that through the superintendent's assistant Mrs poel Right here it is clear that the board has taken action to comply with the law regarding instructional materials including library books if you are here to express your opinion regarding HB 1069 on materials in school libraries we would ask that you first visit the staff in the lobby uh to initiate the challenge process finally the school district supports First Amendment rights of speakers and rights outlined in HP 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

040for you and your family all right at this time I'm going to call speaker number one and number two will be on deck speaker one is Sandy kale and speaker number two is Dr Jacqueline Jacobs I must have gotten it in really quick then um good evening this will be short because I tried hard to take out all my gotcha statements um I grew up in Vera Beach and graduated from Vera Beach High School as did my children and grandchildren and we all had wonderful experiences there my father was chairman of the school board in the mid 1960s and we have had the same seats in the football stadium for nearly 60 years although I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to climb up to RQ so I have been an

041observer and sometime participant in school board issues for many decades there are always hot issues and differences of opinion and even some disagreeable people that is normal but current times are way in excess of anything I have ever seen before disruptors seem hellbent on trying to create Havoc at the same time there are school board members who show Integrity fairness professionalism and the Deep desire to work with others to improve our school system for the benefit of all the students and teachers in the county I referring to a matter coming up later regarding the election of officers now in my opinion now is not the time to try to change Schoolboard leaders ership I think it is in the rules as well as being an historic practice that leadership changes come after elections or in

042the fall let the rules in the process play out now is the time however for all the school board members to demonstrate Civility goodwi and the ability to work together rather than making premature power plays thank you Peggy Jones Terry barenburg for keeping steady hands on the tiller and doing an excellent job of fulfilling the responsibilities that you were elected to do thank you thank you Miss kale Dr no no no clapping thank you though um Dr Jacobs says next mayeno is on Deck Miss Baron Borg members of the school board Dr Moore and fellow citizens of Indian Murr County I am here today specifically to address what I believe is is the misuse of the individual school board members time to speak based on recent comments from at least one member of this board

043you are concerned about modeling respect for veterans I am a Vietnam era veteran of the United States Navy I therefore request that you show your respect to me by putting down your phones and looking at me as I speak to you on September 12th 1965 I took an Nots to uphold the Constitution of the United States and to defend our nation against all enemies foreign and domestic I have tried to honor that commitment all my life in November of 1965 walking down the street in a city of this nation while in uniform I was Spit On by two passers by at that time I thought it was part of my oath to defend the right to free speech I know better now it was ass salt pure and simple you also took an oath to

044serve on this school board which included being nonpartisan and apolitical in your responsibilities as board members if you truly hold the military in esteem then perhaps you will consider the following in the military we learn to solve problems at the lowest level closest to the event if it could not be solved there it went up the chain of command as a board you are the last level of appeal for an unresolved problem if you were aware of something in a school environment then you're only only recourse is to charge the superintendent with addressing it it is not your role to put yourself in the place of the superintendent more importantly it is definitely not the role of the board members to condemn teachers staff or administrators I'm sure that every teacher and every principal in

045this District would say to you as I did as a principal come spend a whole day any day with me and do my job then let's sit down and talk about what it takes to do this work and how our school board can support us it is easy to criticize and disrupt and wreck havoc to put your name and face in the public in my opinion as Schoolboard members you should be models of good citizenship and serve on the board to improve the system not make disparaging remarks and most especially not to make untrue remarks several of you have already made clear your views of public schools because you choose to homeschool your children which is your right you have exercised your parental rights now let other parents exercise theirs Indian River County has a

046long long history of quality public education and it can only sustain that good work and improve when we work together as a community join our community and support our Educators remember this the children and young people of this community are watching what we do as the adults please make your choice to uphold your oath as members of the school board thank you thank you thank you for your service no clapping please thank you may enso's next speaker Melissa K's berdick is on Deck I wanted to thank you for um beginning a discussion on the topic of standing for the Pledge of Allegiance in our national anthem during last month's board meeting I want to encourage the board to find ways to address this and help our students achieve a level of patriotism that this country

047needs for it to survive at last month's Schoolboard meeting we honored veterans and of veterans and I can only imagine what it might feel like to have a parent in the service defending our country and have your fellow students not honor the flag of this country by standing during the pledge it was encouraging however to hear some of the comments made by board members uh Dr pasca for example mentioned that it was deeply disturbing and that a um it was a disrespect to our military and Constitution I was happy to learn that we do have a policy on this issue students are expected to stand for the pledge unless the parents have request in writing that their child opt out of having to abide by this policy we just need to ensure that the policy

048is recognized by staff and students and it's being enforced um there was some back and forth whether our teachers are adhering to policy and standing for the pledge themselves and if some of our teachers are not standing then that's truly disheartening uh in my opinion it's unacceptable why would any student feel that they have to stand if their own teacher is not even following the rules uh we all know how your Pressure Works students that may otherwise stand will feel that they should remain seated seems to me that teachers in public schools that are being paid for with American taxpayer money should respect the American flag while at the job one great point was brought up by Mr McDonald education is key perhaps at the start of each year more focus at all grade levels

049should be placed in explaining why standing for the pledge is important globally other countries teach their students to love their country respect it fight for it we should be doing the same because when patriotism dies when love for our country and our flag dies so does the country my parents brought me to the United States when I was only 3 years old they taught me to love and stand up for this country and the American flag and in an era when college students are actively showing hatred for the USA and expressing more respect for the flags of other countries countries it is ever more important to teach patriotism to the younger students in conclusion I'm here to just request and encourage you to please find ways to address and enforce this policy with our teachers

050and our students and to educate the children on how important this small gesture of respect truly is to the future of this country thank you thank you all right we have Miss um berdick is uh our next speaker and then we have Cheryl h Hy it's Kel berdick sorry Melissa Kell berdick and Cheryl is it Hy Hol thank you asking yourself a question that's how resistance begins and then ask that very question to somebody else so before I get to my question for you I'll take a minute just to explain the proposed changes to Title 9 regulations the Biden Administration through the doe media will have the public believing otherwise bearing in mind that the media is by big Pharma the largest financial benefactor of the lgbtq plus ideology scheduled to go into effect this

051fall the definition of sex discrimination includes various factors such as sex stereotype orientation and gender identity furthermore it mandates changes in school policies related to access to bathrooms due Pro process and protections and the use of preferred pronouns by teachers and students without the consent of the parent or guardan and of course it's all tied to Federal F funding if compliance is not met female Athletics First Amendment rights and parental rights are once again in Jeopardy the original intent of Title 9 was to protect females from discrimination in education and offer athletic opportunity equally to their male counterparts this Chang is another attempt to promote far-left ideology in k312 and how do I come to this conclusion well it's all part of the big lie gender ideology and believing children were sexual from birth is

052a Biol and biology is a social construct dates to two men by the name of Alfred Kinsey and John money the man who invented the term gender roles when you want to know how something's going forward it's the old ad a follow of the money in this case it's both figurative and literal money's theories are the root of the gender movement proposed changes to Title Nine are rooted in his debunked trailblazing sexual Liberation theories that upon reading suggests more of a fraud a pervert and he's also known as the most unethical sexologist in history which leads me to the Dutch poet's suggestion regarding resistance do you believe the lies do you believe that biological sex is more of a social construct and not something that's biologically inherent do you believe that people should be compelled

053to say what they know not to be true do you think gender should be taught in K through 12 classroom without parental consent or knowledge do you believe students and teachers should be compelled to use preferred pronouns for the record safe and effective was a lie six feet was a lie masking was a lie gain of function was a lie big Pharma is dictating policy to our politicians and they're profiting off of our children's health our mental health of the children has gone down dramatically and this is what has we've kept us in here since 2020 that's not a lie voters have a right to know if you support another lie thank you all right thank you Miss Kel bck um Cheryl Hol is next Peter biset is on Deck welcome good evening my name

054is Cheryl Holz and I have been a teacher in Indian River County for the past 23 years I taught at ver Beach High School for 17 and I've spent the last six at Sebastian high school I love my school my students and my country every day at spash high school The Pledge is said and we all stand this has been the same daily routine that has been followed in these in the three schools that I've worked at in my 24 years of education I have never had my patriotism question by a school official until recently these accusations are upsetting when school board members openly attack schools they undermine the Integrity of the administration and staff this can lead to poor Behavior by students in an environment where families are not interested in partnering with the

055schools for the betterment of the community you see in education we strive to maintain an environment of trust and respect with our students and their families we value these relationships and we work hard to maintain them this is difficult to do when Schoolboard members are trying to erode that trust I grew up in Sebastian I love my community when I had the opportunity to join the staff at srhs I immediately applied I wanted to give back to my community that gave so much to me my children have grown up here my oldest graduated last year and my youngest as a freshman at Sebastian High School this year you see I'm not only an srhs teacher I'm a parent I would never send my kids to a school where I did not trust the staff I

056have wonderful hardworking co-workers as well as trust a trustworthy administrative team if you doubt this please feel free to stop by so that you can get a clearer firsthand understanding of the culture of our school I have never been to a school board meeting I've never felt the need to attend but as a parent and as a teacher I cannot sit by while misinformation is being passed off as fact it is the responsibility of all of our leadership to make sure that we speak with honesty and integrity from from now on please focus on issues that affect our students and school not on unfounded accusations Let Us return to boring board meetings where business is conducted for the edification of our community thank you thank you no no please all right Peter biset is next

057Jerry Galler is on Deck first please let me say that my views and opinions do not reflect United States government Department of Defense or Department of the Navy wearing this I have to give that disclaimer My Views and opinions are strictly my own distinguish members of the school board community members educational staff and faculty present thank you for being here and for granting me the opportunity to speak first and foremost I'm here to build up not to tear down I've heard the patriotism of my alma mater and his staff and faculty called into question I understand patriotism to be Devotion to and vigorous support for one's country I can tell you personally as a member of the service like my fellow Navy sister we sign a Blake chick to the United States government up to

058and including our life as a graduate of Sebastian High School I represent the second now 38 Sebastian for high school graduates to attend the US service Academy countless more have enlisted or served in various capacities all were encouraged and inspired by their families and Sebastian ver High School staff and faculty as a 20-year Navy veteran I returned to Sebastian ver High School to teach at the Navy jrtc program since arriving at the fall of 2022 I've continuously been impressed by the support and dedication of our staff and faculty for the njrtc program and all our students who have chosen to serve I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank my colleagues for their Devotion to and vigorous support for our students who choose to serve and their country God bless the United States Florida

059IND univer County all its residents and the students and staff of Sebastian River High School thank you thank you thank you for your service Mr Galler is next Judy whan is on back good evening uh Mr Moore or Dr Moore and school board members my name is Jerry guer I'm a proud staff member of spe River High School I would like to say I would like to uh say I stood for the national anthem at graduation as I have every time that I've uh participated in one of the graduations at speci River High School I stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance as an example to my students I want to share with you that during last month's Schoolboard meeting I received several texts uh from peers asking are you watching the Schoolboard meeting unfortunately

060I was not but later I was glad to find out afterwards that I wasn't watching at the time to hear my school being attacked for not standing for the national anthem and being unpatriotic this was almost a year after the situation elig occurred we all see things in our own perspective but I am here to say everyone when I could see was standing what I understand is why was this brought up 11 months later if I was a concern at the time why didn't you investigate and try and find out more information sooner if you were concerned for the education of our students why didn't you seek out and ask questions I encourage you to speak with superintendent speak with the administration come and speak with our staff at our school to share your concerns

061to publicly put down our staff and our school the way you did that was wrong I would like to say thank you you spark a fire in sash River High School we work hard or twice as hard to show everyone how wonderful we are this smear was on our reputation we will overcome this and we will come out on top we stand for each other we work together to make our school the best we can we do everything we can to enrich the learning and the lives of the students we have I have the utmost respect and faith in our Administration to lead and give us our students what is best they come first and foremost in all that we do we have a saying as spash River High School you can't hide that shark

062Pride even more so now we do what is right in the interest of what is best for our students students in conclusion I stood for the flag I stood to be an example of what we want our students to be lastly when it comes to school board member matters please uh keep it to what is relevant to the school system and what is best for our schools and our students your personal opinion for things outside of the school district should be shared elsewhere not during a school board meeting thank you thank you sir Judy whan is next Kim whis is on Deck hello how are you um I don't have anything to read I just wanted to share that um I am a 38-year veteran of this school district I'm a speech and language pathologist

063I'm a 38-year member of Indian River County Education Association which is also the union and I'm a 10 year-ish School rep and I'm recently um been sworn in as an Executive Board member and I wanted to talk about something completely different um I have been an alternate on the negotiating committee and I've been to many negotiation sessions in my 38 years and it's always been a you're on that side of the table we're on this side of the table adversarial us again you know and we are are now involved um thanks to our president Freeland and Dr Moore in something called interest based bargaining and I don't know if you know about it I'm learning about it but it is a conversation it's a how can we both win how can the school district win

064how can we win how can we both feel like this is a win-win situation to make our teachers happy and the district it's a camaraderie and um and what we did in five days or five sessions of bargaining was what I have seen sometimes take a whole year to create so it's just it's it it was really amazing to be a part of even as an alternate and um and I just wanted you to know that you know we're a team we're all a team and I wish that we could all work that way and um and let's see I wanted to say something else about my little I teach um three to 5 yearolds and when Mrs Jones is saying the Pledge they all stand up no matter what we're doing their hands over

065here their hands over here their both hands are on they're tummy we don't they don't know what's going on but they're looking at that flag and they know what it means and um that makes me very proud as a um mother of a young man in the Army so thank you for your time thank you for your son's service and thank you for being an outstanding speech teacher for my grandson appreciate that Kim whis is next Margaret Murray is on Deck good evening my name is Kim whis and I am the media specialist at Sebastian River High School this school year is my first year at Sebastian River High School but I have been teaching in the school district of indan rivy County for 20 years this year I have had the privilege of becoming

066a Sebastian ch starting with my first day I was welcomed with open arms by the staff at Sebastian River High School The Faculty staff and administration are highly encouraging respectful and always make choices to be best by kids we are dedicated professionals that uphold high standards of conduct and expect our leaders to do the same setting a positive example for students I 100% trust my son next year as a freshman at Sebastian Riv High School to be in their care daily this year Sebastian miver High School opened our newly remodeled and red designed Media Center I would like to thank Dr Moore Miss barenborg and Miss Rosario and the superintendent's cabinet for attending our grand opening in November and Doc Jones I truly appreciate that you had sent me a personal email that you could

067not attend that evening due to a deseg workg group meeting as Miss barenborg and Doc Jones I want to thank you for making many trips to our Sebastian River High School Media Center to check on progress before we opened and throughout this last semester to check in with me and see the amazing magic that is happening in our media center I have had the most amazing school year and honestly I cannot believe it's almost over on Saturday I was able to volunteer and help with the srhs graduation as a line leader and as you all witnessed we all stood for the National Anthem being able to help with graduation was so special to me because I've always taught Elementary and coming to srhs gave me the opportunity to see so many of my kids from

068over the years some of the graduates were even once my kindergarteners so many years ago I've been a part of many kindergarten and fifth grade graduations and moving on ceremonies but the high school graduation it hit me very differently I cried happy tears and sad tears happy tears for the Memories we've made together and the feeling of excitement for their Futures sad tears were only because I feel I may not see some of my kids again and as many of us hugged after the ceremony I think they could feel it too the connections that we make with our kids is undeniable and the most import important part of the work that we do daily and let me end by sharing a quote I heard this weekend at the SR graduation to quote Theodore Roosevelt it

069is not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of Deeds could have done better the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood and who strives Bently who airs and comes up short again and again because there is no effort without without error or shortcoming but who knows the great enthusiasms the great devotions who spends himself in a worthy cause who at the best knows in the end the Triumph of high achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid Souls who knew neither Victory nor defeat thank you Margaret Murray is

070next Joanne Dunlap Dunlap is on Deck thank you my name is Margaret Murray and I'm the vice chairman of the education champions of Indian River County the Southern Poverty Law Center survey done by the ipsos research group was questioned last meeting for its validity and representation remember in the survey the huge number 92% of Floridians said that educational experts alone should be charged with writing curriculum and that they wholeheartedly supported public education and 75 % said it's more important that children have access to books and information that challenges their thinking or their personal experiences well first the Southern Poverty Law Center commissioned the survey be done by the ipsos research firm they did not do the survey ipsos has been in existence since 1975 and raid the most Innovative insights and analytics company in the

071world World in 2023 so their validity and accreditation as a premier firm is well established secondly the question of sample size and validity of the survey was brought up with 1100 Floridian survey most surveys are conducted with 1,000 to two to 2500 participants each year approximately 350,000 national public opinion surveys are done that's a small fraction of the estimated more than 105 million households still ipsos and the researchers accurately represents the views of the US adult population how because they have a random system selected survey participants it gives every household in America or Florida an equal chance of being selected for every survey that ensures that a random cross-section of the population that represents adult of every gender race religion region party affiliation Etc in the country are in the correct proportion and third a

072robust representation of broader Trends and opinions the key is in the rigorous methodology used to select and analyze the sample along with understanding the margin of error and other statistical principles so the outcome of this Florida survey has accurate statistical backup perhaps now you should look closer at the results of this survey because it speaks loudly to what parents and residents of Florida are saying about public education in our state thank you thank you Joan Joanna Dunlap is next Marilyn Leia is on Deck yes this is the first time I have spoken spoken I am a simple career housewife and mother I've raised three sons three stepsons and rescued all kinds of teenager boys from various uh families rled with uh unrecognized learning disabilities and alcoholism I had to learn very quickly as a housewife

073and a mother to focus on the goals of parenting I wanted to raise my sons to be of High character to be well educated to be kind to be honest and to learn personal accountability for their behavior so they could learn the value of making mistakes and and learning from that so you can imagine when I heard Dr Moore speak at a meeting last fall how impressed I was to see that Indian River County had started a five-year program to initiate all these things which have always been so important to me as a parent I thought to myself what can I do so I decided to come to these meetings to listen and learn and I have been inspired by the first part of the meeting when recognition and appreciation and value is given to

074the hard work of the students and the staff and I've been very disappointed in the wasting of time and culture wars and personal arguments it's more like sitting around the table with a bunch of 15-year-olds and this does not seem to be promoting the fiveyear plan that I heard Dr Moore talk about so I guess what I would like to say is to make a call toward everything I've heard tonight is people saying my I what I do and what I am interested in and helping the community and helping the school system has value and so I would like to make a call toward getting back on track of cooperating and working in harmony with one another and trying to set an example not just the school board but the public for our children and

075and for our staff to let them know that we are behind them they work hard they're underpaid and overworked and I just so appreciate those of us in the public and on the school board that cooperate and work with one another so my message is stay on track and if there's anything that the champions for public education can do to support or begin given an appropriate job we're here and willing to help thank you thank you Marilyn Leia I hope I said that right and uh Susie Stoler is on Deck good evening my name is Marilyn Leia and I'm a founding member of Education Champions advocates for public education in Indian River County thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today as a concerned taxpayer homeowner and voter in our County

076I grew up in my Miami and attended Miami Dade Public Schools Miami Dade community college and Barry University I'd like to acknowledge how fortunate we are to have Dr mois our superintendent and also to commend his team of exceptional administrators under Dr moris leadership and guidance we have seen tremendous progress and growth being rated as an a school district and moving up 26 spots to a ranking of number five Statewide in third grade reading Mee I look forward to more of the same in the coming School Year and thank you chair B Baron Borg and Dr Peggy Jones for your leadership dedication and commitment in your roles as elected school board members we have a number of pressing matters of importance deserving the board's focus and attention such as improving literacy declining enrollment chaplain in

077the schools elevating underperforming schools classical education and Florida's falling from 48th to 50th in Teachers Pay in the United States among other critical issues to the chair recent comments and actions by several members on this board are inappropriate and taking up valuable time that should be spent instead on addressing these very crucial issues what purpose does it serve for a board member to make unsubstantiated accusations against Sebastian River High School for an event that happened a year ago which had no re re relevance to what was being discussed during the April board meeting to the chair one only has to look back at May superintendent workshop and April school board meetings to hear a board member referring to teachers as Marxist theorists or another member stating during a discussion on classical schools that people should

078not be bitter if classical education is part of our school system nor should a board member risk fueling flames of distrust among their col colleagues by asking a board member if she's going to sue another board member of slander during my 40 plus year career managing people and building teams I learned that this is not how you gain consensus and build trust among colleagues and clients you serve in PIV pivotal roles and demonstrate ethical leadership by fostering trust and accountability with our students teachers academic leaders and citizens of our community as board members your actually set the tone for the entire community and we look to you to shape our educational experience of our students by supporting our teachers just as it is the citizens responsibility to Advocate and vote it is the responsibility of

079every board member to act with integrity and uphold ethical standards thank you all right next is Susie Stoler on Deck is Mary Ley good evening respectfully chairperson barenborg Dr more school board members and friends I'm Susie Stoler a retired School social worker and an educator an education champion and an advocate for public education I speak tonight because I am frightened and appalled by the direction our schools are taking I am fearful that we are approaching the downfall of public education in Indian River County School boards were not designed to be political but rather to ensure free public schools provide high quality qu education despite only minority support not by election but rather by political appointment moms for Liberty politics has taken control of our Indian River School Board the first and 14th amendments of the

080United States Constitution are being challenged the Constitution protects the rights to speech protects the separation of church and state and guarantees equal protection to all unfortunately censorship separation of church and state and equal protection are all on the August 20th Schoolboard election ballot attempts to waste scarce dollars already inadequate demeaning and lying about our Educators skills and patriotism paying teachers substandard wages I believe 50th in the nation attempting to reinstitute reinstitute prayer in our schools attempting to change history by rewriting curriculum and removing textbooks censoring literature and prohibiting the acknowledgement of the diversity of our families and students particularly with regard to race gender and identity put our students at greater risk we truly stand on the precipice of an endangered School District this is an SOS we can save our schools together on August

08120th as a community we must elect positive school board members our children are our future we must put them first we must tell moms for Liberty their politics is not welcome in Indian River County Public Schools I hope you'll join me in voting on August 20th bring along a neighbor relative or friend better still bring them all your vote can make the difference with hope for restoring health to Indian River Public Schools I thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening thank you our next speaker Mary Ley and on Deck is claudet peler good evening I'm Mary Ley uh I'm an MSW I'm an Adjunct professor at Indian River State College I teach uh in human services so I teach C uh I teach students who want to be counselors social workers uh and

082so forth behavioralists hopefully some of them will be in your schools um I'm also was a therapist for hibiscus Children's Center and I'm a guardian at Liam so I go into your schools and advocate for foster children I spent 22 years as a social worker in Northern Indiana as a school social worker and 18 years as a social worker in a County Health Department so I've spent basically my whole life working with atrisk children and at atrisk families and I assure you that the children that these teachers are dealing with have enormous problems Florida has one of the highest unmet mental health needs in the country we are not meeting the mental health needs of our students and where do they go they come into our schools and we are expect we are expecting our

083teachers to not only educate these students we are expecting them to deal with all the social and emotional issues that come their way while we pay these teachers the second worst salary in the country we pay them only less than the poor state of West Virginia and I've not heard one teacher come up here and complain about that they come up here and they talk about devotion and yet they should be able to they should expect the school School Board the Indian River County School Board to support them to care for them to show them the kind of respect that they deserve and if we don't do that we not only hurt teachers we hurt students I heard a board member suggest to another board member that they were taking the position of the teacher

084over the student let me assure you they are the same good teachers make good educated students thank you thank you claudet peler is next and Debbie Martins is on Deck Madam chair thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is claudet peler I've been a member of the education Champions advocates for public education here in Indian River County I've lived in Indian River County since 1990 I had a business here I served as a guardian at liem I've worked with children through my career and I um I've not been an educator but I have served on a board of a charter school for some time I presently have a granddaughter in a public elementary school here the same Elementary School same Elementary School that my daughter her mother went to I'm very

085concerned about the direction that the public education is headed in Indian River County and uh the group of people people who are very vocal uh while hailing parental rights and keeping you only their parental rights not others I I note that on today's agenda consent agenda is an item uh under Student Success and advocacy to oppose a resolution to support uh title n Title 9 is a requirement in order to get Federal funding how does it serve our educational needs and our students to oppose something that's going to take their Public Funding away I don't quite understand that uh in addition um I question that we had our Dr Jones heading as on the joint group working on the 1967 desegregation order and she was recently replaced I'm just when progress seemed to be happening

086um why was that change made how is that helping our community and our students I commend Peggy Jones Terry barenborg and Dr Moore for the for their move in trying to make this County go in the right direction the focus needs to be on promoting educational standards for student competence and achievement and teacher retention attacking our teachers based on false information calling them unpatriotic is is not moving Us in that direction let us please move in the right direction and thank you thank you for your time this evening thank you Debbie Martins is next Bob Bruner is on Deck good evening my name is Debbie Martins and I am a member of Education champion advocates for public education in Indian River County I'm concerned about the district's plans for a classical education Magnet School Dr

087Moore recently stated our Public School enrollment declined by over 800 students this year with a loss of almost $1.5 million in District Revenue increased competition by private schools and homeschooling fueled by vouchers may result in further declin supposedly offering a classical education Magnet School will offset these losses by luring students back to a public school option personally I believe such thinking is misguided and not the best use of our educational resources District staff and board members mention visits to classical schools to see how they operate including one public Magnet School however the overwhelming majority employing a classical model are private Christian Schools including one that a board member chaired studies show that parents interested in a classical model for their children are more likely to a opt for a religious curriculum the county has a

088minimum of 90 churches and 11 religious schools with more being built and planned soon to assume that parents choosing homeschooling or private religious schools will returned to public education because because of a classical model is without Merit and data to indicate otherwise Pro proponents of classical schools trumpet that the basic course of study is liberal arts and sciences based on Western philosophy with instruction in the principles of moral character and civic virtue this sounds innocuous until digging further one scholarly criticism of classical schools says that the classical models are dangerously incomplete recently there was a survey on the district website to determine citizen input into constituent preferences for future directions however unless you knew the district was conducting this survey you wouldn't know to look for it even many of us who regularly attend school

089board meetings had difficulty accessing the survey on the website hidden among scrolling messages of District highlights thus whatever results were reported may not accurately reflect Community opinion further there is no data to prove that providing a magnet school with a classical curriculum will offset or prevent enrollment losses I'm curious if parents of private and homeschooled students were aware of the survey or participating in it personally I think we're taking steps backwards rather than forwards thank you thank you Bob Bruner is next Arlene Jameson is on Deck thank you thank you for having me uh I'm a retired educator and I'm a member of uh Educators for public education for advocates for public education uh I've addressed the board once before on vocational education you might remember me but today I'd like to talk to you

090about the teachers and some of the things I I actually apologize for not coming sooner I've I've felt like I needed to get this off my chest but uh I'm disappointed in the the the the teachers the the staff the superintendent the the principles you know in our in our Public School System you see the the the uh the uh the clerks the the teachers the the librarians they're not the ones that are uh removing some of this curriculum from our books the libraries and some of them from our our school system here the the removing of these books it it seems to me like that's almost just like insulting the teachers who have taught this for years and Ed these books in their curriculum now all of a sudden they're feeling like they've been

091wrong or they have been been doing the wrong thing for years and uh I'm just disappointed that they're not the ones the teachers and the administrators in this public educational system aren't the ones that are bringing this curriculum to the your attention it's a a group of cons concerned citizens that are basically motivated by political or or religious feelings that they have the about what public education is is teaching uh some of the books that you're removing the the history the science the government actually math books have been taken out of the classroom too uh if if these books are continually taken out of the classroom over the period of time when they become Juniors and seniors they're going to be deficient in a lot of the academics and a lot of the public school

092curriculum that they need to be College Prep kids to go on to continue their education and uh I'm worried about the students and I'm worried about the teachers how they feel with uh these uh educational material being removed from their curriculum um I think that uh what we need to do is we need to look at the curriculum and we need to teach our students uh that there's a lot of things out there that we disagree religiously or maybe politically but it's there it's it's still all out out there and we need to we need to promote that in our school system we need to teach our students when they graduate that they can function in a structured Society thank you sir and congratulations on another school year thank you Arlene Jameson is next Heather

093Askin is on Deck hi my name is Arlene Jameson I'm a member of the education Champions having attended the last school board meeting and watch the superintendent's Workshop I am astonished at the tone and remarks of some of the board members listening to some of you I feel as though I'm watching the Army McCarthy hearings with tiny little Communists running rampant surging throughout our school system accusing our teachers and principles who are probably the hardest working most underpaid and least appreciated group for the skills devotion and caring they provide to students of Indo rting their quote radical Marxist ideologies end quote on first and second graders is and above is both ludicrous and Beyond The Pale attacking the teachers union is no better adding insult to injury some members have accused others on this board

094of either being proponents of said Marxist ideologies or just quote not that sharp end quote how appallingly insulting apparently this all STS from last year's Sebastian River High School graduation at which a school board member insists not all teachers and students and saluted the flag some of you are asking an outside company to come into the schools and Via cameras to investigate despite Dr Moore's assurances that he would look into it apparently big brother in 1984 is finally here this member also accuses the school system of being unresponsive to military families coming from a long line of military members in my family including a lieutenant carnal lieutenant colonel in Military Intelligence I couldn't disagree more I am struck by how overwhelmingly suppor of the superintendent board members staff and teachers are towards military personnel and

095their school-aged children so to those of you on the board who either spout or support these Furious theories and egregious accusations against dedicated lifelong Educators on the board such as Dr Jones and Miss barenborg I implore you to focus more on teaching students how to think acquire a good education prepare them for the workforce and enable them to make a living to support a family if they so choose and teachers are not here to teach students about God patriotism and love of country yes but as I've said before at these meetings we must separate church and state by not allowing chaplain in our schools mandatory prayer or proposing religious classical schools in our district or book Banning some of you may think me a communist for that but please remember why our forefathers left England

096to start this wonderful Nation free from religion thank you for your time and in the future please leave your incivility at home thank you Dr Moore Dr Jones and Miss bar thank you please please thank you heather Askin is next Dr Margie Flanigan is on Deck hello good evening good evening I'm Heather Asin and I come from a military family my husband is a retired Navy captain and I'd like to thank the members of the board who go above and beyond to visit our schools support and thank our teachers and help our community student students strive for Success on whatever personal level that is I started coming to meetings Schoolboard meetings almost a year ago after attending August the August meeting and then learning that our cherish board member had received death threats to become

097it became clear to me that I needed to make more effort to attend future meetings so that I could bear witness show appreciation and learn more about the successes and challenges of our school while showing my support for the hardworking members who dedicate their lives to the betterment of our children regardless of their economic background orientation or race I have witnessed many people during the open Forum like to talk about the importance of the Bible I personally love the Bible verse Luke 12:48 to whom much is given much is required we have board members who were given their seat on this school board and by running unopposed and were not voted in by a majority most would agree they were given the privilege to participate as a school board member whether it was by their

098own motivation to be part of a team that helps our schools and students or if it was a political aspiration regardless of what brought them here much is expected of them now after witnessing questionable Behavior I looked online to see what is expected of a board member Clear Vision of a district communicating actions with the community working as a team collaborating adopting uh budget but it also said an ineffective member would be a Schoolboard member who didn't conduct themselves in a respectful collaborative manner in public a school Bo member uses their position on the school board as an opportunity to put forth a political agenda with little relevance to the student achievement I would like to request that all board members refrain from using ineffective unnecessary potentially slanderous remarks while at any and all School

099Board activities trust me it's not a good luckk you thank you no no no clapping please thank you Dr Margie Flanigan is next Dr Karen hiltz is on Deck good evening and thank you for the opportunity to provide citizen input my name is Dr Margie Flanigan and I am chair of the education Champions advocates for public education in Indian Indian River County I'm a product of Florida public education having attended Miami day uh schools the University of Florida for my bachelor's and master's degree and Virginia Tech for my doctor of Education degree after a 40-year career with both high-risk and underrepresented students and in higher education I remain passionate about providing quality public education to all students we can all agree children are our future Tom Harkin stated public education is our greatest Pathway to

100opportunity in America Amica and I couldn't agree more that is why we formed education Champions our organization's purpose is to be a positive proactive Force for public education advocacy we all know that there are many challenges to reaching our goal of having all students attain High academic achievement graduate and enter the workforce career and higher education ready become great citizens and positive contributing community members and we also know that with highquality public education we can meet these challenges and ensure our goals become reality caring qualified teachers supportive and Innovative administrators dedicated support staff a nonpartisan school board that focuses on relevant issues in a non-political manner putting students first adequate resources and strong family school Community Partnerships enable us to reach our goals and students to reach theirs education Champions are here to help our

101organization boasts cumulatively thousands of years of real life experience as Educators businessmen and women legal and medical professionalist professionals journalists creative artists veterans Homemakers and perhaps most importantly as parents grandparents and great-grandparents we know that stronger together is more than a motto it is the truth by focusing on our goal of top quality public education for all students and student Excellence we will be giving our children the brightest future imaginable chair barenborg Dr Jones Dr Moore and your excellent team please know that education Champions has observed your professionalism and commitment to moving Indian River County Schools forward and we applaud you thank you thank you Dr hilts Karen hilz is next Joanne Holmes is on Deck good evening um I'd like to offer some food for thought regarding Title 9 discussion to date there are

102seven lawsuits filed in six federal courts that include 22 States as well as nonprofits 18 school districts and private plaintiffs this this is a rule not a law it follows the administrative procedures act regarding notice and comment and allows for a period of public comment then releases a final rule based on public submissions the ACT requires courts to set aside agency actions that are arbitrary capricious or an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with the law it's clear this rule has multiple substantive and procedural legal vulnerabilities ities with that said a biological fact reveals two genders male and female we all know boys and girls are physically different but are also mentally developmentally and emotionally different this hasn't changed since the beginning of time Governor DeSantis and commissioner Diaz have exercised their 10th

103Amendment right and communicated no changes will be made while there is pending litigation a prudent action to take let me interject that our Founders knew the importance of separate but equal therefore devised and therefore devised a constitution and Bill of Rights for this purpose the foresight expressed in several Federalist Papers to understand how the federal government could grow and overtake the authority of States was intuitive unfortunately we have an overzealous Goliath siiz federal government back to the rule the scope is intrusive and rather than reducing discrimination perpetuates an increase indiscrimination it illegally incorporates the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity forces females to compete with biological males which denies equal access and forcing boys into girls locker rooms constitutes a violation not to mention the rule implementation conflicts with State's laws forced pronoun use

104violates First Amendment rights illegally lowers the liability standards for sexual harassment vagueness in that various Provisions lack objective standards violates due process and more states must free themselves from the carrot and stick way of doing business accepting federal dollars is equivalent to taking drugs one ta State takes the money they are once States take the money they are hooked this continued cycle of going back to the supplier and asking for more and more must end education is not a federal issue should not be a federal department and didn't exist until 1979 the department should not be dict in a one-sized fits-all model with every new government action taken individual choices continue to diminish Governors have a responsibility to exercise their 10th Amendment Authority as Florida is doing and end the addiction our governor was elected

105to manage the business of the state and education is a business big business thank you Joanne Holmes is next Ronald G giry is on Deck good evening my name is Joanne Holmes and I'm a volunteer at Sebastian River High School I'm here to speak about the comments that were made last month I'm not going to repeat them because everybody knows what was said it was disturbing to me because I know a lot of our teachers and our students is Sebastian River High School so I want to give you a little bit of Education about our school in the past sebas River High School has consistently been among the top schools in the state for military appointment several years we have been number one in the State of Florida this is not by accident even during

106covid our students maintain this consistency we have appointments appointments to every branch of service our Roc program is one of the best in the country we've been told we have teachers faculty and staff who are veterans several of them one was here earlier today went through our ROTC program joined the service came back to our school teach with us through several different administrations this cons consistency has continued this takes dedication hard work and support from everybody including parents students faculty and our Administration and also members of our community our students work very hard and they bring their patriotic values with them just to let you know there are about 2700 veterans in our community these V veterans have children grandchildren nieces nephews and yeah most of them go to Sebastian High School and they bring

107that patriotic Pride for our nation and our flag with them because of our flag people people can make comments like what were made at the last meeting but that doesn't give you the right to lie about our school the flag also gives me the right to disagree with you and I can when you make statements saying that you wouldn't trust your student at our school I can disagree because I have a a daughter who was a teacher and an administrator at Sebastian high school and also have a granddaughter who is a proud shark graduate she went off to UCF and now she's enrolled in law school she learned her morals and values at home but they were taught her again at Sebastian River High School by teachers and administrators I'm not sure what teachers were

108being referenced because no names were ever mentioned but the next time somebody decides to make a statement about Sebastian River High School and ridicule them I think you need to check your facts first because you were wrong about our school our teachers our faculty our staff and administrators even our students deserve an apology we're waiting thank you thank you Ronald giry is next Cindy Gibbs is on Deck good evening my name is Ron yeri II I'm a proud alumni and a teacher at Sebastian Riv high school and also the communications director for the Indian River Education Association I'm here today to address the false accusations made against my school family it is crucial that we as a community uphold the truth and set a positive example for our students the truth matters our students look

109to us to learn about honesty and integrity and responsibility when false accusations are made against teachers it undermines the values that we strive to instill in our classrooms we teach our students to stand up for what is right and to always tell the truth as Educators and community members members we must hold ourselves to that stame standard the recent attacks on teachers do more than just spread misinformation they attack the Integrity of those who have served our country and our community among our staff are veterans spouses of active military and Veterans former Law Enforcement Officers ordained pastors and community volunteers who serve and dedicate their lives to serving others many of these indiv individuals are also parents of students in our district to suggest that these Honorable Men and women are unpatriotic is not only

110false but deeply offensive as someone who feels many roles at our school I have helped to plan several 911 remembrance or Patriots Day ceremonies I have yearbook photographs of multiple patriotic events hosted at our school and even once when photographing a basketball game I stepped in to lead the crowd in the national anthem when the PA and the sound system failed for all these things I have emails photos and videos in other words unlike our false accuser I have the receipts our teachers are committed to their students into this community they work tirelessly every day to ensure that every child receives the best education possible they are Role Models not only in the classroom but also in their personal lives they serve in local churches they volunteer throughout our community and demonstrate the values of

111service and dedication when teachers are attacked it sends a harmful message to our students it tells them that the truth and integrity are not valued it erodes the trust that is essential for a positive educational environment we cannot allow this to happen the Board needs to consider the impact of these false accusations on our students our teachers and our community let's focus on supporting our Educators and providing the resources they need to help our students succeed let us model the truth and integrity that we expect from our students thank you thank you sir um Cindy Gibbs is next Anthony Brown is on Deck good evening my name is Cindy Gibbs I live in Sebastian and I am the mom of a rising freshman and a rising senior at Sebastian River High School I also just

112want to point out really quickly I always have to add notes as the things go on forever I really enjoyed the presentation from our superintendent about District happenings and it was very nice to see the connection between the realtor community and our school district and I think it's lovely that Dr Jones has been honored by them words are nice actions are better enforcing the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance is about a as far a symbol of the land of the free as I can imagine we've heard the Sebastian River High School was targeted for being a poorly L school and yet the data doesn't support this at all my daughter is a junior now a rising senior at Sebastian River High School I am so proud to note how many people are in this

113room that have taught her and I'm so proud of them for finally coming and speaking up for themselves because they deserve much better than that what they recently heard I know for a fact that the children are LED in the Pledge of Allegiance every day at Sebastian River High School because it's done by the assistant the assistant principal Josie Williams who was one of my daughter's teachers before she started working at the high school she was at Pelican she is the wife of a military veteran and I can just imagine how proud she is every day to be the person who leads our kids in the pledge I'm going to shift gears for just a second Sebastian River High School has been an IB International borate School since its Inception since the school was opened

114in 1994 Sebastian River Middle School and Liberty Magnet Elementary schools are also IB World schools the IB the international baloran is a global leader in International Education developing inquiring knowledgeable confident and caring young people I'm so glad my kids go to to of those schools these programs Empower stud school age students to to take ownership in their own learning and help them to develop Future Ready skills to make a difference and thrive in a world not just a country a world that changes fast and yet we have board members who are very publicly clear about how concerned they are on global views I'm a little concerned we might lose the IB program and I certainly hope we don't I just want to mention because I'm running out of time the title n is that happening

115in our schools I know you can't answer me right now but my my children are athletes in this school district they're I have daughters two of them they have never been pushed off a team is this really more important than having enough sporting equipment or uniforms or books or computers or other engaging materials to educate our kids let's get our priorities in order thank you okay uh Anthony Brown is next Jane Hayden is on Deck good evening Anthony Brown inion River County Branch incp 5151 I'm also uh with the education Champions they made me honorary member I'm here uh because it's appalling that we have to go through this as I told Dr Moore some years ago the pyramid it should be inverted you all sit at the top it shouldn't be it should be

116our students our teachers our support staff our administrators and then then you all you all are the ones that are being paid by the results of these students and all of that so I just in come to that you do what is necessary this flag thing 3 years 11 months 28 days 2 hours and 15 minutes how long I served in the United States Air Force I did three tours of Southeast Asia I left some friends and some bodies over there but it is appalling that somebody who has not been in the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scout has the audacity to sell somebody they unpatriotic I purposely stood back there this afternoon when the pledge was being done and did not honor it and I was daring someone to say something to me because

117I served I paid the cost and I did not do it so that you could stand on people who serve the right to say I'm not going to do it I'm also a little bias because I was a shark I spent 11 years as a coach and 14 years up there with my my children you're wrong what you're doing is trying with the classical schools our teachers have been druged through hell and soed for damages and then to have to deal with the vital coming from the de about them and towards them is unacceptable as it's been stated they're underpaid overworked but then they have no support when it comes to the people who are responsible for and to them you need to get it right it's wrong this classical school I think some of

118you have the agenda the IDE ideology of going back to classical schools but I'm going to keep it real for you A Rose by Any Other Name is still a rose it's reverse segregation get over it it's not going to work we have a school district that is going on moving forward and what we saw on the 20th of August was Juvenile and it reminded me of the Little Rascal thank you okay thank you Jane Hayden is next on Deck is Paul amaru thank you I had some papers to share okay they need to be given to miss poisel thank you Mr Seymour good evening good evening hold on one second till we get them thank you thank you okay Miss Hayden thank you okay well I sort of had a speech written out but

119I'm going to make it quick this has been quite a you have three minutes go for it a while oh okay okay thank you um uh so I'm uh been in Indian River County for a few years I'm retired law enforcement having worked a special unit with crimes against children and as a victim advocate so I a little disgruntled or dis or concerned about why uh the the textbooks in question are still being questioned or they're still being voted to uh remain on in the library and being taught to kindergarten through 12y olds so my question is do you all have these books in your homes are you reading them to your grandchildren and those you know those are the books that are were con you know that are uh I believe in inappropriate for

120children um and are uh do you give them to family members as Christmas presents uh of course you're not going to answer that I don't expect it but um uh we do know that you're not voting them out so who knows and my other um observation is has anyone looked at who the authors are and how they write these books uh someone comes up with an idea somewhere are they getting it off child porn on the black web or what or and then someone has to illustrate it so they're making graphic designs and uh uh the pictures so they can um I believe they're uh enticing the child's curiosity to normalize the acts and minimize their their fear and then you have editors and proof writers they go over the books over and over and

121over before they're put into Printing and then they're uh um perfected suited for the children so the other uh observation is has anyone done a study on any of this that seems like it would be like the best way to handle it uh how are other states dealing with it uh has anyone done a 5-year study or a 10year study to see what any kind of problematic acting out or uh conditions May uh stem from something you know uh like this uh the do the books promote self-confidence positive healthy lifestyle do they kle a spirit of wanting to be a scientist a veterinarian a nurse a policeman a firefighter the president a cook do they want to go to space and fly planes or build homes I mean those answers can be left up to

122our own imagination after looking through or or uh being taught those books so um the documents I handed out going to finish up here with some facts so the facts are according to John Hopkins University thank you apprciate it in 2021 the cost to taxpayers was $5.4 billion thank you for incarcerating child sexers thank you all right our next speaker is Paul amaru and on Deck is Dana King good evening good evening you know when I started teaching propellers were on the front of the airplane long time ago speech has been bandied about here a lot your speech what you say reveals your character truth how often do you find it necessary to deviate from the truth is truth something you find unattractive false witness idle chatter gossip slander and abuse all that needs to

123be avoided not just in their obvious forms but also in their overt ones subtle belittling tactlessness and Barbed wit are often more vicious because their hatred or dislike is veiled ignorance and its spread that's what's terrible about our life not sin but to spread ignorance and mask it as truth so what is it that you truly want is being on the board give you a license to act impolitely to act as a kite going this way and that with no Direction with no control to continue to believe in a discredited cause is a sign of serious mental illness classical education in my day that meant Aristotle that meant Latin and Greek and rhetoric I don't think that's what we not what we're talking about today thank you for your time thank you sir Dana King

124is next Phil trero trero is is on board thank [Music] you good evening thank you for having me my name is Dana King I moved to buau a year and a half ago I attended my first school board meeting on April 22nd and um I was appalled uh concerning comments that were made alleging that the staff and faculty and students at Sebastian high school did not stand nor recite the pledge at a graduation from a year ago I understand as do many others in this room that the interpretation of that invent that event in facted not occur and that the school board has received letters to that effect I'd like to know if the board considers such conduct worthy of censure of the board member who either deliberately manufactured that information in an attempt to

125malign faculty staff and students at Sebastian high school or if Miss representing the truth is a regular issue with this person and short of censuring this person will there be an apology forthcoming seriously are there any rep percussions when someone lies and violates the public trust from a position of authority what are our children to learn from that and now to the second issue this evening that I want to discuss the 70th anniversary of the 1954 Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka was celebrated by many people on May 17th it was the culmination of a well orchestrated campaign by the NAA ACP which continues to battle school boards to this day like Indian River School District which continues to Stonewall against integration which began with their lawsuit with your lawsuit in 1965 we are

126coming up on 60 years three generations of children have been born since the lawsuit in this County deprived of the opportunity to learn play and grow together denying those generations of students their constitutionally guaranteed right to an integrated education the burden to prove the need and value of integration has already done the burden of proof is today as it was nearly 60 years ago it is the duty of the school district not the NAACP to dismantle segregation root and Branch I haven't found it yet but I will find how much money has been spent to maintain an unjust and morally reprehensible system of discrimination here in this school district I'm guessing it runs into the millions of today's dollars money that could have been better spent and used to educate black brown and even white

127children and wouldn't it be great to have that money now considering the school vouchers are leeching students thank you ma'am appreciate it thank you Phil trero is next Barbara hirers is on Deck good even good evening uh I may get off a little bit on script here um but I want to comment that uh well I'm not a public speaker so I'll be reading anyway I'm reading to or excuse me I'm I'm talking as in the context as a father grandfather and taxpayer and I would not have mentioned this but I will now because apparently you need some kind of educ ational bonafides to have some credibility but I was a former Child protector Serv as social worker for the state of New Jersey for 1973 1978 investigating child abuse and neglect of children uh

128of children for the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services now the department of children's services where the prevailing mission was that children are vulnerable and need protection and given nurturance both physical and emotional to have a safe nurturing and productive life under the care and actions of their adults we were if not the first or the second set of eyes that saw children hurt um now I'm probably about four months six months behind events but I came here because I wanted to commend the board for their solemn effort taken to remove books that I can only describe as objectively sexually salacious from my school libraries how do I know that well because I volunteer Ed before the board to read some verses some paragraphs from the books that I had um and I

129had to give a contact excuse me a um a warning a Content warning uh to the board so certainly if that was the case then certainly it would seem to me common sense that would be offensive but I'm gratified that the board withstood pressure from those that Carri character characterize such effort as book Banning or Worse fascism which was a word that was used some time ago now I'm not naive we can all see that sexualization of our kids is occurring all around us in our music social media like Tik Tok films politics fashion and language nor do I think that that was or is the last word on the subject that might come up before you again I take pride that the IRC school system has said yes that the board with parents and

130educators will continue to partner and dialogue to what is in the best interest of children in their schools I'm reminded by qu Thomas Jefferson that said who said and actually he might have been one of a few that that uh had this verse but the price of freedom is eternal vigilance so so as a concerned taxpayer and citizen of this County I My Eyes Are Open also I want to commend appreciate it thank you Barbara hirers is next Dr Kat n is on Deck when when I start go ahead good evening four years ago In This Very Room Dr Moore held one of his first town forums as our newly appointed superintend can you speak a little closer to the mic thank you at that time I stood up to say that my daughter a

131self-contained ESC student would like to know what Dr Moore proposed to do to create better inclusive opportunities for her and her peers Flash Forward to today when I had caused to compose an email to the board in Dr Moore which includes a picture of my daughter at the senior celebration at Sebastian River High School last Thursday evening here is the picture in case you can't see it well it depicts my daughter at the senior celebration in the auditorium standing alone eight or nine rows behind the rest of her graduating class I want to stress that I am not looking to blame this on any one individual it doesn't matter how it happened it matters that it did happen it highlights the systemic failure of this District to create a culture of inclusivity for all of

132our students why did not a single one of the adults in the room say oh no this doesn't happen here and take steps to fix it I wish I could say that this was the only time my daughter has faced such discriminatory and appalling treatment by this District over the past 15 years but it's not it may however be one of the more glaringly obvious examples I have to ask Dr Moore is this an example of best bu kids is this with itness now I'd like to read the email that that you all will be receiving shortly dear board members and Dr Moore we are attaching a photo of our daughter a self-contained ESC student at the senior celebration at Sebastian River High School last Thursday evening please don't attempt to Plate us with a

133phone call or apology we are bringing this to your attention so such a thing never happens to another student and family in this District again please don't place any blame on her teacher as one of our daughter's biggest Champions she would never have allowed such a thing to happen she just happened to be outside assisting another student at the time as soon as she became aware of this situation she not only corrected it but convinced us to stay trust us when we say that wasn't easy please do work towards creating a culture and atmosphere of inclusivity any one of the numerous School administrators and employees present throughout the auditorium should have noticed and taken immediate steps to make our daughter feel that she was a part of her class and the celebration sadly no one

134did please don't let another student and family have their memories of what should have been a joyous time ruined inclusion matters do better the highest family thank you ma'am Dr Katie null is next Michael Marsh is on Deck ER I would just like to compliment the board and the um everyone present on how wonderful we've been able to voice our differences I think that being able to do this in a simple manner is really important um we have had three children go through the Indian River County School District of public schools and they are all um successful and contributing members of society I now have two granddaughters at um Indian River County Public Schools and I'm very concerned about them when there are things that come up that are maybe points of discussion for instance

135books um your allegiance to the country or anything else I think that's something that we talk about in our home and it's something that we get a chance to decide I believe that the board has a lot of responsibility and a lot of things to do and that those things that need to be done probably are time sensitive and that the amount of time that we take for things that are not directly related to our students in terms of for instance leadership or working on a government mandate that was given to us decades ago that we are still working on and for that reason I'm implore the board to maintain the leadership so that we can move forward as an entire County thank you thank you Michael Marsh is next Wanda Scott is on Deck

136good evening how's everyone tonight you know the irony at the main person that caused all these people to come out just couldn't make it you just couldn't look directly at that person and say you know it's a travesty to talk about these amazing people over at Sebastian high school you know almost a decade ago I went and visited the Chum Bucket I'm sure many of you guys are familiar with that I couldn't believe the sense of just I I I don't even know the word because I was astounded of what was happening over at that high school so it's also ironic that during the pledge I got to see the two Schoolboard members that got their seats didn't really stand and didn't really have their hand over their heart ouch the irony we'll go back

137cuz the video Don't Lie right again this is what happens when we allow individuals to go on and post ladies and gentlemen so as great as it was to have 40 people here tonight and I tell you what it was amazing to hear those people from Sebastian High School to have a voice and not be afraid and I tell you if anyone else needs to speak in the future just call me like Jordan I had to come out of retirement tonight now the work group The how in the world did y'all let doc Jo through the chair Doc Jones come off of that the main person who's fought alongside the NAACP and for our students and you're going to have someone replace her that couldn't find Gord on a good day now Robert's Rules I

138heard that like 19 times let's talk about robbit rules do you know in the revised version it says you should not call people by their first name it hurt me through the chair that Dr PCA called Doc Jones Peggy as the young kid said put some respect on her name it's doc Peggy Jones now did we fix everything cuz how much is it going to cost to go after these poor teachers and everyone else at Sebastian high school did we fix the hundreds of students that are still homeless do we get past those early warning indicators that we know a child as young as third grade may drop out do we fix all that cuz if we fixed all that let's spend tens of thousands of dollars to check the cameras let's bring everybody in

139cross-examine them you got people over here on the Schoolboard that play as attorneys alongside your real attorney let's do it let's spend the money don't worry ladies and gentlemen August is right around the corner and in August we'll get back our school board of Indian River County and we'll continue to be safe as Sheriff flowers protects our kids thank you Sheriff flowers not sure if you heard the most recent video it was touching but this is what happens when we don't stay informed that we let people get on the board and I don't know where Dr shiff is nowadays probably out of the country but we should have had someone else ready to go cuz this is what we got ladies and gentlemen you guys have a great night the work is good continues to

140be good there's systems in place and we need our do more good all right thank you sir Wanda Scott is next Anthony Stewart is on Deck good evening good evening my name is Wanda Scott and um I'm a member of the group who paid the ultimate price for Freedom that means I'm a veteran I have 40 plus years of uh service my graduate of u n class of 1980 um I just recently lost a nephew who was a graduate three years ago his name was barari Mosley he was killed in Texas so the flag means a lot to me because a lot of US veterans that are here we gave our undying sacrifice our one nation under God indivisible and justice for all not Justice for you all but justice for all of us a

141pledge commitment of an individual to a group The Flag represents many things the stripes represent the original 133 colonies the stars represent the unions of the 50 states red represents hardness and Valor white Purity and innocence the blue pres pres pres okay and Justice the the line states that we we loyalty loyalty committed ourselves to our country as a whole and to the Republic for which it stand the definition of republic is a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representative which has an election or nominated uh president rather than a monarch Monarch the flag itself represents that one nation under God many veterans here uniform not uniform um I just want to digress just a minute it has become urgent and necessary for us to bring the pledge

142back to the Forefront of our our minds and offer to our children as something they understand instead of they simply recite the pledge of allegion they pay respect to those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom that um America we uh the American pledge to the meaning of the question is who or what is you who paid the ultimate peace for Freedom many men and women in this audience and we stand for the flag thank you ma'am Anthony Stewart is next Lewis Holmes is on Deck good evening school board and Dr Moore uh I like to kind of regress a little bit and take us back to uh April 23rd 1635 when the first public school was instituted in Boston Massachusetts and it lasted uh threatened up until 1894 when the daughters of

143the Confederacy was organized and formed with purpose in mind to spread and spread Venom of hatred and spew and Division and then later on in 1954 with the Board of Education other groups came with the same type of purpose it remind me of something I kind of read in the Bible where in in the Garden of Eden there was a serpent that caused a lot of problem then in Matthew 23 and 33 that seem to have grown to a Viper and that Viper was threatening at that time Generations in Revelation CH 12 that Viper had grown to a dragon and that Dragon was threatening countries right now the Venom that has been spreaded in our school system and among our communities this hatred that these organizations are forming they are have grown to such proportionate

144to they got us wondering if we are sane or not re M nutry the reporter for 32963 did an article on one of the school board members and I was sad as I was reading that this guy says that all of this stuff that was Venom was spewed about Baston River High School was a lie he said that the YouTube had videos to show where he was lying about the kids and the staff that was sitting down and Raymond he said one other thing that really got me because I have a little like degree in Psychology he said that this guy was delusional and he have a tendency to create imaginary enemies now I don't know if you know but dsm5 says anybody with those characteristics are psychotic they are not neurotic they crazy thank

145you sir so that mean now we got crazy people Mr Stuart thank you thank you Lewis Holmes is next Kevin Browning is on deck in 1954 Brown versus the Board of V education was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court that US state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality the decision partly overruled the Court's 1896 decision which was ply versus Ferguson which had held that racial segregation laws did did not violate US Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality in a doctrine that had come to be known as separate but equal now the plaintiffs in these case they were represented by our future uh Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall Jr uh he represented these plaintiffs

146the US Department of Justice rarely takes a position in Supreme Court cases that do not involve federal law but it made an exemption for Brown versus the Board of Education filing a friend of the court brief that maintains separate but equal facilities were unconstitutional president Dwight D Eisenhower on the other hand was less supportive while the case was still being considered he told chief justice Earl Warren that southern whites are not bad people and after the Court had ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional president eisenh how was reluctant to use his presidential authority to enforce the decision however this case had a sequel the Supreme Court included no guidance in the Brown versus Board of Education on how to actually Implement desegregation which is the same problem that we still look at today no one

147has found found a way to implement or to comply with the 1964 desegregation order that has been on the table for 60 years new schools have been built children have been born and died and we still can't come up with the way to fix this the disparity is real the inequality is real if you look around this room you're going to see about 13 black people in here as compared to the rest of this room and that's the ratio that you have to stop with uh compared to teacher to student ratio and the administration ratio and the teachers ratio that we do have or don't have we never get to it God bless thank you sir um keev board members it is 802 would you like a break uh we've got one two three four

148five six hold on hold on we've got six um more speakers um are you okay with going yes break after okay Mr Brownie you're up uh Thomas Kenny's on Deck yes ma'am I was sitting on that floor over there and I thought I might have to sue Dr Moore I almost couldn't get up it's hard over there chair board members superintendent I believe that most of us are here to speak on behalf of fairness and progress in various areas we have seen lately in this County book challenges book bans attacks on diversity as well as lies about about critical race Theory being taught and then even attacks calling teachers groomers and we come to talk about fairness fairness to staff and fairness to teachers like the ones at Sebastian River High School who were accused

149of not saying or standing for the pledge and being non patriotic marxists or other madeup things but a few minutes ago I didn't have my glasses on as I sat over there but it looked like the TV screen wasn't saying the Pledge I had the hand on the heart so we check the video on that later but like I didn't have my glasses so I saw what I saw I could be wrong but we're also concerned about the attempted disruption to the desegregation order workg group that is making progress that disruption comes by removing Dr Jones perhaps one of the most knowledgeable persons in the school district about the deseg order and lastly the attempt to rewrite the organizational procedure that has been in place for many years because it works and this is probably

150being done as a power grab trying to replace the effective chair and vice chair chair Baron Borg and Dr Jones they are two of the most educationally experienced members of the board that this county has ever seen and the reorganization has been traditionally done after the election after the people of Indian River County have spoken through the ballot so finally if we could please let's return to being kind and improving our school system and being supportive of our employees teachers staff Union presidents who fight for fair wages teacher and staff pay we need to be one County a nonpartisan School Board supporting all students and just a couple more thoughts you know I couldn't say that I don't trust football coaches when I haven't had a child yet in football so how do people say

151that they don't trust the teachers if they have never had a child or don't have a child in the public school system now and if we want our future kids to love the flag and love the country and fight for the country as we say we want them to some people suggest that we ought to love them and show them kindness in their diversity and inclusiveness and move towards their future and away from culture wars thank you Thomas Kenny is next Jennifer Pippen is on Deck how youall doing I just want to say congratulations to all the graduates at Vero Beach High School and Sebastian River High School can we applaud for that thank you for the uh Liberty um couple of things first off I think if we looked at the desegregation order and

152we looked at the original decision you would find your school systems been in compliance with it for quite a long time the 1967 order that had certain parameters set in it to desegregate schools it was changed to the 94 order we've talked about all this stuff right now and now the the parameters for what we call desegregation on the 2018 joint action plan are completely different than the 67 order which was originally adjudicated so things have changed theory about the law and how it's applied has changed and as a result you're still in a desegregation order when the school pretty much the school system is integrated Dr Moore mentioned that in March he believes it's fully integrated and the data is right on the website you can go look most schools meet the parameters in

153terms of integration of students right now I think all of them but like one and it's off by a couple of points another thing I want to talk about is what happened at May 6 uh the the workshop there was something brought up about an article in the 32963 that someone mentioned here earlier and I want to talk about this someone was quoted the author Ray mcnalty called it one prominent schools official said speaking on the condition of anonymity we knew this was going to happen as soon as they got a majority this is just the beginning it'll get worse I have never seen an anonymous comment in that newspaper not like this a highlevel official now Mr McDonald brought it out in the uh workshop and he immediately exonerated the executive staff and and

154Dr Moore because in all honesty I've talked to all these people and they're the politest people you ever meet and they do their job to the best of their ability politically I don't even know where they come from and we don't have to know and that's that's how professional they are but someone did this or this person's flat out line in this newspaper the the reporter and if he is this school system should never go there for a quote again I rest my case Jennifer Pippen is next Ren Rob is on Deck good evening my name is Jennifer Pippen and I'm the chairman of mon for Liberty here in Indian River County um there's been so much disinformation misinformation this evening it would take me 300 minutes to go through all of it but I

155just wanted to pick a couple of points that again um with our organization it is our job to educate the public as well um so when a Schoolboard member resigns it is the governor's um option to either fill that seat or leave it vacant until the next election there was some disinformation on that um also um there is a pack here this evening that's a political action committee um you see them in the shirt so I think it is um ironic that they're talking about keeping politics out of school and keeping partisan politics out of school but yet they're a political action committee here this evening in your presence so I find that kind of hypo you know hypocritical for them to say that um people spoke of book Banning it's probably the ones I'll

156speaking and interrupting my speech now um there was book Banning mentioned um again where um you know this school system is in a very good place right now and again I would like to thank the um Librarians and the um curriculum instruction staff for their hard work that they've done working very hard now on the Vero Beach High School um library system after they finished the Sebastian River High School um replaced a lot of Staff moved a lot of Staff around the district is in a good place and from the organization that challenged all of the sexually explicit pornographic inappropriate materials for minors thank you you to this board for voting 5 Z to get the majority of those books almost a year ago out of the schools and continuing the work thank you for

157that and thank you to the teachers and the media center Specialists who have been putting that work in as well and I want to say thank you for the First Amendment everybody here even though I may not agree with the majority of them they do have the right to come to the podium and say what they think say how they feel doesn't mean that we all have to agree we can agree to disagree but you need need to know that a lot of the misinformation um that has been coming to you is not all fact-based and I'm not going to go into you know in depth with that because again everybody does have their First Amendment right to say what they would like to on the dis and in this room as the audience also

158I know that there was um talk about the africanamerican history standards um for many months in this uh meeting um I'm not sure if one of the board members were going to bring it up but if anybody's interested in Miami on May 29th um at 9:00 a.m. there is a Board of Education meeting and they're going to be addressing the African-American history standards so if anybody in this room or anybody listening would like to um have a comment on that or go and speak to that um this board does not have responsibility over that the board of education does again just educating the public you can make public comment at that time or you can do it online as well thank you very much for your time okay thank you uh Ren Rob is next

159and Marley Silverman is on Deck good evening board members and Dr Moore and friends and colleagues my name is Ren Rob I've been a teacher of ver Beach High School for approximately 35 years um in fact uh when I saw Peggy poel earlier this evening she reminded me that uh that she was a very Beach High School when I started as an administrative assistant there and she's been in the district now for 50 years yeah makes me feel young thanks Peggy I worked with Eric Seymour in the Dropout prevention program in the early 90s when I first started he's not here now so he can't hear me say that um I support Sebastian River High School and irca and I'm on the negotiating team and I'm proud to say that uh with the negotiating team

160we work as one we worked together for the first time in my career the district and irca works collegially and it's amazing I stand every day for the Pledge of Allegiance and ask my students to stand as well what if they don't should I have them disciplined should I call their parent Guardian should I check for a letter on file that is evidence of a religious exemption or should I simply continue to lead by example and nurture our mutual trust and respect as an experienced educator I choose the latter trust and respect between teachers and students is mandatory for a positive Ed educational experience trust and respect between teachers and school board members is important too false accusations erode this trust when a school board member denigrates the Educators he is responsible for supporting by

161publicly making blatantly false accusations without properly doing his homework he undermines the educational system he sworn to protect and causes people to question his loyalty his commitment and his Fitness for the office that he holds thank you Michael Marsh and Kevin Browning for for saying at the beginning of your presentations what I wanted to say but now I don't have to when a school board member attacks fellow school board members who have far more knowledge of the educational system than he does people with good reason have to question his motives and his ability to make rational decisions thank you sir that was a quick three minutes they go quickly Marley Silverman and our last speaker is on Deck Jennifer Freeland hi good evening good evening my name is Marley Silverman I owe my education to

162Florida's public College in University system graduating from Miami dat community college in Florida International University in southeast Florida I am a member of the education Champions advocates for public education group this is my first time attending an arc school board meeting and probably as things are developing it won't be my last my husband and I moved here from brow County we are disappointed by what's happening in our local board we watch in this may board members engaging in cultural Wars and imposing religiosity in Miss gu of values through moms for Liberty politicizing and dividing the board primary Mission which is to educate every and all children in our community our constitution gives freedom of religion without government interference more importantly our constitution give us freedom from religion we need solutions to ensure our children are

163educated and given the right to to succeed their future depends on all of us working together our board members must must be part of solutions not creating division or looking for problems where none exists lastly let us be kind to each other our children in our community deserve better thank you so much thank you Jennifer Freeland will be our last speaker number 41 good evening to the board Dr Moore and the cabinet um normally at this time I would be thanking teachers oh I got yelled at for this last time my name is Jennifer freland I've been a teacher in the county for 17 years and I'm currently the president of Indian River Education Association the teachers union and normally this time of year I would be giving some kind of talk and thanking teachers

164for another year in the can but here we are we teachers create something precious and shiny in the connections we have with our community each other and the long- lasting connections we have with our students we put our love into the work we do every day for the for other people's children we have great respect and love for the work we do and see something shiny in every child in support supporting these children to spread their wings to be free to fly there has been some highly diversive propaganda from a member of this board and others and this is a clear attack on the good honest hardworking teachers in this County through the chair Dr Pasa and his supporters will never have what teachers have for you will never comprehend the bright and shiny things

165we cultivate we will not be bullied and we will not allow you to tarnish our craft or our reputations we will fiercely defend our students our fellow teachers and our community for when you attack teachers and in turn public education you attack our children when you create a trumped up issue and then you ask to defer money to monitor the problem that simply does not exist you take money from our students when you attack teachers you are in fact attacking the heart and soul of our community and our democracy it takes a lot for a board member who has never received a single vote from residents of this County to jump in and tear the County Down but that is not what students in the county need and it is certainly not what a leader

166of Educators should or would do whom do you serve sir the Educators students and the community of Indian River County or another master through the chair I asked Dr PCA What policies have you brought before this board that helps our students what schools have you taken time to visit what students and Educators have you talked with and taken the time to have a conversation how do you understand and know what resources we need and how we might better support our students it's easy to lob accusations and falsehoods from the cheap seats especially when you receive the seat for free without any effort or work but book those in the arena know the score we our students in our community have already started to rebuild our public school to be bright and shiny spaces for our

167students to thrive in and Thrive they have we are again an a district and we have one of the highest graduation rates in the state this did not happen by accident it's by teamwork with with all stakeholders SDC teachers students parents and the community asking for an apology and correcting the record and finding the truth that someone has willfully for their own benefit is not the same as taking someone's speech away rather just asking for an apology thank you ma'am all right Dr Moore would you like to respond to any of the 41 comments that we just heard comment comment one no okay um I'll will give some overarching remarks um and then I hope we can move forward um the reality is when you look at where the school system was and where the

168school system currently sits it's gone from 38th to 13th and Based on data that's coming in uh now as students are taking their assessments it's going to continue to grow and move forward um and that is something we all should celebrate and be proud of but at the end of the day we need to drastically transform what public education looks like it needs to change and if we want to hold on to the way it was 50 years ago or 60 years ago or 20 years ago that will be the death of the school district of Indian River County we need to have a deep understanding as to what our community needs engage in the conversation and the dialogue to figure out how we can in fact transform the student experience to meet the de

169meet the needs of today's Learners conversations like this is not going to get us here civility is important engag in the dialogue is important everyone owning this public school system is important because it does not belong to this board it does not belong to me it belongs to our community it belongs to our community everyone who lives in our community regardless of their political affiliation so I would encourage all of us to step back and evaluate how we move forward because we have to we have to absolutely have to some things that were said I just feel as if we need a a level of clarity um it is the state of Florida that has moved from 48th to 50 in teacher pay Indian River county is in Florida I cannot take it out of

170Florida this board can't can't take it out of Florida and that's not a bad thing but when you look at the push from this board over the last four years we've gone from 23rd 24th in teacher pay to six in teacher pay below the state average to above the state average in Florida in Florida what did I say yeah thank you for whatever gu in in Florida that's not easy that is making sure you keep your priorities straight and it is finding the finances uh and pushing as much money away uh from this District in this office to get it in the hands of teachers and Educators when we go into the sessions I might break a law here Sid about what we're going to negotiate every single board member is clearly saying get as

171much for our teachers as we possibly can are you supposed to say that oh it's truth it's speak truth to power it it is straight it it is the truth everyone is saying it when you look at those increases we all should be proud when we speak of classical schools I would encourage you I don't know the actual first time that we brought that conversation a lot of things that were said about it tonight is simply just not the truth it is simply just not the truth it is not christian-based it is not uh a a troan horse it's it it is simply a traditional way of educating children that if people in our community want to have access to it let let's let's give access let's have Choice uh and we look forward to

172bringing that information back to the board in our June uh Workshop um curriculum it was mentioned a several times regarding removed curriculum a great deal of the success in this school system is the curriculum that we've gone through a CommunityWide process to select it is the curriculum that is aligned to the standards that is extremely rigorous um in all of those curriculums whether whether it's suras whether it's amplify they are hard hard teachers ask our teachers uh from what they the curriculum that they had which was this I'm get in trouble again said this spoonfed follow the manual and say these things to these kids versus authentically teaching them where they're at it was hard but trust me those successes um are part of the reason that we're there so there isn't curriculum that we

173have removed or taken away uh that this board did these these awful things we followed a process collegially and we have better content in front of our kids um because of it um a lot of conversations about the uh desegregation order and the truth of the reality is over the last four and a half years um this team before you the principles who are leading our schools our teachers are going above and beyond um to ensure that we have a fully integrated school system yes we have a fully integrated school system we have a 2018 joint plan that identifies a process that leads us to unitary status that is the process that we are working on that's the process we're working on and it is an emotional lot of feelings attached to it but there

174isn't a put it on the-shelf attitude by this board all of the board members are very very intentional and saying what are we doing how how come it's been so long it is a very very hard task to accomplish but is Absol absolutely not an ignored task by by any means hold on hold on I was taking notes um the floor is yours sir curriculum I I think I'll I'll stop there those were just some of the overarching remarks but at the at the end of the day it's encouraging that people are here uh and people are expressing their their opinions but we need to connect to this work and connect to each other we all live in Indian River County the system belongs to everybody and because one person uh has an political affiliation

175uh doesn't give them any more ownership than anybody else it surely does not in civility uh being rude being disrespectful that's just not who we are um and I would want if I was to stand that Podium I would want my two daughters to say Dad I'm proud of you I don't know that everyone who stood that Podium tonight with their children would say hey I'm proud of you because we have no room or no space for being disrespectful or rude or belittling other people difference of opinions wonderful great but little in people that's not what we're all called to do so Madam chair that's those are my remarks I'm hoping we could just go forward okay board members Miss Rosario Please Don't Clap Dr Mo Please Don't Clap Dr Moore you took my points

176away um so thank you so much for addressing so many of those um comments and uh great job tonight on that um indeed there was something that I think when you mentioned chojan horse just wanted to I think the comment about classical education Dr Moore was that it was Reverse Racism or reverse segregation or something like that um so I I'm I'm don't know if that was your comment regarding Trojan Horse but um I think that was the the the particular comment and I have to say that I agree with you 100% that is not what the classical education model is um it is it is indeed some gentleman came up and said to him classical education is Aristotle Latin Greek and rhetoric and that is exactly the conversation that we have had um as

177a board if you go over all of the um um meetings the workshops that we've had on this um and I'm I'm certain Dr Moore would agree with that um that's the conversation someone said something about no one has advocated for uh that we have advocated for mandatory prayer or religious schools that is not what any board member has ever spoke about we have not advocated for mandatory prayer or religious schools um but I will say uh there there was there were several other comments I think I'm just going to end on a a good note uh with regard to coming to the podium at our last meeting um I don't know if um it was even mentioned prior but there was a veteran that came up and actually gave a really great suggestion about

178uh providing veteran parking spaces I don't know if anyone remembers that who might have been here and we actually do have it um citizens were heard that night or a citizen was heard that night and just about immediately I almost think it was the next day if not a couple days later there are three veteran parking lots veteran parking spaces Dr Moore moved his over and gave three uh veteran parking spaces um dedicated to Veterans so kudo OS to that there didn't need to be any reminders it just happened and I love it um I am very concerned about um the parent who came up here regarding the IEP um that shouldn't even need to be said but I know that Mr Seymour is working on it and certainly Dr Mor am expecting that you

179will follow up on that one um 100% And with that I just thank everybody for being here and in case we miss you have a great summer okay anybody else Mr McDonald um I'll just say just a couple of things there were a lot of things said that were I think inaccurate but I won't try and address all those um it would be nice if we had a format where we could get together and discuss things that we think we know and things we think are facts find and work them out so that we can come up to things that actually are true in our facts to take away some of the animosity that might be between us because I felt and heard a lot of animosity here here I can understand where it comes

180from but I don't know how beneficial it was to us um this on top of 45 minutes of it um to weeks ago is getting to be old I will make a couple of quick points just because they're so glaring um one of the persons as uh Dr as Jackie rosari mentioned uh said that classical schools as he knew them were about Aristotle Latin classical books in virtue that's exactly what classical schools are about today one small example among many that are Mis understandings they're not Christian because a Christian School chooses to have a classical education doesn't make classical education Christian there are 18% of the public schools use a CL classical education model now hopefully we might add to that there are some people in this community that think think that's valuable a new

181classical school just opened up this year there are people who are our customers our customers are the parents there are customers many of them seem to like that because they're going to those schools Dr M I give him great credit for that sees the opportunity to serve that segment of the population serving a SE segment of our population our customers to the de in a way that they see valuable is appropriate it is what we should as best as possible seek to do it's not for everybody it might be for some we're going to try and find a way to determine it if that is appropriate uh uh curriculum for some of our students um but there's a lot of misunderstanding of it I wish that people would try and gain understanding of what is

182being talked about before they form opinions um a comment that was made that would just had to be addressed uh about uh board members not receiving any votes I am the board member who's not received any votes unfortunately this not possible to receive a vote but I was appointed by the governor but all of the other board members have received votes one of the board members ran was not opposed and the votes he received put him in office it's called an election and that happened so if you deny that you're an election denying he's received votes but what's more important getting up here and trying to um demean various members here is not appropriate to encourage that is not appropriate I would like to see us try and remove our differences and find Civility and

183find some ways of getting along and find some ways to find compromise where we can live together as a community rather than have to battle back and forth and we may all guilty to a degree of causing that I would hope we' we all be part of finding a solution to that okay Dr Johns first of all thank you for all the speakers tonight we saw some great Community spirit and I just appreciate you being here um it was a strong Community spirit I think we can all say we're all here for the same reason and that is Student Success every student to be successful so when we see these wonderful graduat ation this last week we hope they're going on to their next Journey whatever it may be ready to go and that our

184teachers have done the job they need to do and I can't remember one comment but um unless you've been a teacher let's say in the last five years and I T for 12 years before I went into Administration you don't have a clue of what they have to do on a daily basis forgetting everything that's mandated by the state from standards to testing to certification to end of course exams to graduation requirements everything there they have a lot to do and they do it well um I've said this many times I'm a Public School advocate Dr moris said something about owning it I have owned it I have walked the walk for 44 years we had three children that graduated from the school system two from Vero Beach High School one from Sebastian I put

185him in Sebastian he's my son so I could see them once in a while and I wanted all of those students all of my three students my children went on to get their master's degree and that's because they have a great Foundation from the K12 system here at sashon Vero Beach High School and they also went to Glendale and gford middle but I give accolades to every one of our schools um you know we could all say public school has some challenges now we do and we are in a competitive world and we've got to you know step up and do that and competition sometimes is good we know that um but I just you know what Dr Moore said about owning it I own it I walked the walk and I'm just proud of

186everyone who came here tonight and said what they believed was in their hearts um you know we've talked about Civility and decorum and I remember looking up the uh definition of Civility have that somewhere um formal politeness courtesy in behavior and or speech you can say something very nicely but it could still cut to the core and that's what should never happen on the school board or even even in citizen input and I think um when Miss Borg talked about personal attacks personal attacks mean the same to me whether you're attacking a school or a teacher and they're not here to defend themselves so we have to look at how it affects our children our teachers our administrators and our schools it doesn't help we have a policy that says all communication should go through

187the superintendent and I tell Dr Moore after I hear things a couple times I'm I'm relaying it to him and he can see what he wants to do with it not my job so I just say when we talk about Civility and decorum and I encourage anyone in the public to look at the meetings the last three years and see where you see it and see where you don't but it is our responsibilities as board members I think it's policy 118 or bylaw 118 we are responsible for the education of these students so we've got to keep our focus on student achievement so when we talk about anything in board member matters or what we want to talk about that should be our focus and just thank you everybody for supporting our public schools here

188in in River County thank you okay uh Dr PCA I see you're on now sure yeah I'll respond um I'm glad to hear well your camera on so many patriotic staff members that came to speak today can you guys hear me okay yes yes okay um I think our comments over the last month were clearly not directed at you um however it appears that members of the community have organized an angry mob against me um I'd like to ask you know why is that is it because I suggested punishing teachers for being unpatriotic no because I did do that was it because I suggested that most teach teachers at Sebastian River High School were unpatriotic no I said most teachers at Sebastian River High School were outstanding so why is there outrage and I I

189think it appears it's because I had the audacity to suggest that all teachers stand and put their hand over their heart for the national anthem and Pledge of Allegiance um although my words were certainly Twisted by many people in the community um including here today I concerns were certainly Hur by a lot of people um and this is why it was very surprising me to see this last weekend during our graduation ceremonies as I looked out over the crowd during the National Anthem being played by our proud kids to once again see more black robe teachers and staff not participating liar hey hey please you need to leave thank you not participating in our country's great Anthem by failing to place their hands over their hearts for even a moment um I'm proud to say

190it was far less people than last year's ceremonies so clearly my words had an effect um I won't say where it happened because clearly that caused her feelings but it it did make me continue to wonder why it's so hard for some to honor the flag and the country um is it an act accident or is it a Kaepernick style silent protest it and it makes me wonder why the unions response was to declare it never happened that I'm not allowed to speak of it and then participate in an angry mob Against Me based many of the statements on false statements twisting of my words um I can't help but wonder if this simple Act of obedience of putting your hand over your heart and pledging to a flag is maybe just too much for

191some individuals um however few or far in between they may be in our excellent School District um but my message to the teachers um is that I support you far more than you know and I will stand by you um and I would ask you to reflect on the teachers Union's representatives and their behaviors and actions and see if that truly represents what you stand or don't stand for anything else Dr pasca okay all right um I'm going to say a couple things first of all thank you for all of those that um were willing to stand up here and say whatever you want to say um to help our community understand what's important to you about educating our children obviously people have very different op opinion as to what is important to them for

192educating our children we as a dis have a very different opinion as to what we need to do to educate our children um somebody mentioned the 911 ceremonies at Sebastian River High School I remember attending those a couple of times now and it was so unique and different I know um M Rosario has attended them with me and I was just taken back with how wonderful it was th those are special moments I know it's not all of the staff but it was a special moment that I think um a school did back in the day that nobody else was doing did and so they took the lead on that and I appreciate that Sebastian River High School I didn't see anybody not standing for the pledge this year I looked while I was peing

193at the flag naal and the national anthem thank you not the pledge we didn't say the Pledge um it bothers me though that we're pointing fingers still this when you say the word civility it means to be civil it means to be kind to other people if you are pointing out that somebody didn't do something you know our job is not to be the police on that our job is to point it out and say you know Dr Moore I I believe there's an issue I need you to address it as a board member and that's our job every board member has that right to do it Dr PCA has that right to do that I just feel like we need to be careful what we say on this dis to each other and how

194we treat each other we have a difference of opinion we don't have a right to call each other names we don't have a right to call other people names and we certainly don't have a right to point fingers at people as a board member be professional speak to the superintendent when you have a concern that's my point that I would like to make and I think you know Rising above all of this if we're going to continue as a board to be civil to each other and to the community it's going to help us grow together as a board to betterment for our students not having the school district rise despite all of this but rise because we are working together even though we have a diff difference of opinion and I think that's the

195important part right here trying to figure out how to come together um did you want to say something else I do want to say something hold on one second you know I just I feel like sometimes there's a lot of attacking that goes on and we just need to sit back and think you know what's best for our community what's best for us obviously people are listening obviously it's out there of what's going on with the school board and somebody made the comment School boards used to be really boring I don't know I've been on I've been listening to the school board for years since I've been here 3 some years now and I don't know we've always had a really interesting school board and meetings so um you know I think it's okay to

196have a difference of opinion it's okay to listen to all the different varieties of things that people are bringing to us that's important you shouldn't have a board that all agrees but you should have a board that treats each other with respect and that's what I ask board members to please do respect each other and respect our community and our kids and our teachers that's all I ask doc just respectfully through the chair and I'd like ask each board member to comment um I looked very carefully at sebas high school and Vero Beach High School and as you notice the graduates come in and nobody sits down until all graduates are in and then we have the colors and then we have the national anthem and I looked as far as I could see and

197I saw everyone standing participating in the national anthem and everyone that I could see putting their hands over their heart so um I would like to disagree with the statement made earlier by a board member and I'd certainly like to hear what other board members saw this isn't discussion I understand that I was just asking through the chair that's fine problem we can we can discuss we can discuss that later Dr PCO we're we'll we'll move that to a discussion item how's that board that's fine um because I think it's time for a break it is 8:47 we're going to take a 10 minute break e e e um after citizen input we're going to go to um before we go to our consent agenda Dr Moore would like to speak do I Madam chair

198my thought was after you approved the consent agenda spent since the majority of the public speakers were around um policy 8800 and 8810 it might make sense just to take that item right now versus going to one topic and then going back to the topic we just spent um two hours on but that's completely up to the board okay board members um you're talking item number 10 I think 10B it was bifurcated to hear on each indiv ually so if you did 8800 uh then 8810 and then 01 well 0165 is not related to the the topics but at least it would the conversation might flow better I'm okay board members is anybody have an objection to moving action agenda item 10 B first it's fine okay it's been asked to be bifurcated Y no

199but I thought I understood I sorry I thought I understood Dr Moore saying to keep 8800 and 8810 together is that what I heard I did have that same question I I thought Dr Jones was requesting was to have those two as one item and then the next policy as a separate item as a separate item that's what I thought okay Dr Jones I did ask her that and then um the chair asked me if she if we could buy for Kate each one I said that was fine okay I don't care either way all right right so um before we do that though and the reason why I say by I think we need to clarify for the record well actually the reason why I said that is because we have speakers on these

200and so it might be helpful to bifurcate them okay all right so we're going to start with um jumping to our action agenda boy you really really challenged me all right um we're going to go to action agenda item 10B start with that okay so we're going to go to 8800 um Dr Jones you asked for this to be bifurcated but before you do I'm going to ask the superintendent to please bring this um item to our attention wait I'm sorry chair this item is actually 8800 and 8810 these were two items that we discussed at Workshop um the M Rosario made recommended changes the board had a great deal of conversation around both of these policies um and those changes were captured and sent to the board uh probably the day after the board

201meeting um so the item that is before you is those changes the board discussed and School Board policy 8800 and 8810 okay so before we bring up um each discussion about each one so 8800 uh is the one about the Patriotic programs y patriotic programs okay uh we have a speaker Mr Marsh is that the one you'd like to speak to is he in the room no okay Madam CH the the speaker list has items for 10 a what Mr Marsh said was anything added anything it says this was not added it was already on the agenda okay it says item number anything um um hold on one second please anything added okay because under item number it says anything okay all right we're good we're good okay we don't have any speakers yes we

202do now for 10B sorry okay we're good yeah I just wanted a u clarification from our attorney on citizen input and the citizen form this was an issue quite a while ago um and Mr ansbacher was um provided not was he provided a a bit of guidance on our forms and our forms again I I I think we need to clarify this this needs to be an an issue for us to clarify when a citizen comes in they are filling out the form based on what is printed on the agenda not any anything else they can't just fill out a citizen form and say I want to speak to anything that is on there or I want to speak to anything that would be added to the agenda it has to be based on what

203is printed on the agenda originally that's what's in our policy and that is what is on our form sir could you please um um confirm that for us Mr ansbacher that falls into the yeah but category um the if we are um changing the agenda then what then is added if it's an action item or if it's a consent item um where there's going to be any vote that's a proposition and as such um citizens under 28614 are entitled to speak on the item if it's added so yeah I I would say anything that's on the agenda constitutes a proposition and both under the statute as and as interpreted by a um Florida bar article that also interprets Robert's Rules and of course we follow Robert's Rules so the only question becomes I I think

204more what do we do about a discussion item and you know that's not necessarily a proposition but I think for anything where we're going to have a proposition whether it's on the agenda or added to the agenda um 286 114 would require it but we don't have anything added to our action agenda today our action agenda has remained the same no ma'am we do from time to time though but not tonight no ma'am so we don't so you there's nothing to request for anything added to speak to anything added there isn't anything added the the only question and again is we've basically taken uh 10B and converted it to 10B sub one sub two sub three so I think but that's bifurcating yeah that's that's but that's not we're not adding a topic to the

205action agenda we're not adding another proposition it's not a new proposition that we're adding to the agenda we're but they're going to be presumably if we're doing three different items conceivably we're going to have three different votes know but we don't have anyone who's speaking to 10 be that's fine we're we're okay with that the the item that is being bifurcated no one requested to speak to that Mrs barenborg already clarified that I'm asking in general if we don't have any added new proposition to the action agenda then we can't then there should be no no no uh request to speak to a particular item that wasn't added you would have to comply with the policy as far as as it was printed as well basically within the time frame up until the 5:45 up

206until 5:45 and also the the day before for the online yes sir thank you okay thank you for the clarity so yeah as as I stated we don't have a speaker for 10B not yet nope okay I'll be back thank you thank you for not taking my so um at this time uh Dr M this is your item updated approval to set public hearing date for the adoption of the revisions to Schoolboard polic 88800 because it's bated that is uh religious observances and patriotic programs is there anything you'd like to say um no Madam chair um just a I I presented both those items together five minutes ago okay Dr Jones you asked for the bifurcation yes on 8800 just a question Dr Jones this came from a few teachers and parents Dr Jones you

207I'm sorry Dr Moore sorry it's it's later Edie I get it sorry and it was brought up by one of the teachers I think today so if um and basically I'm okay with 8800 but if a student does not have an opt out from a parent and doesn't stand then what happens through the chair you are correct that was referenced today um that would be the opportunity to provide the student with the form uh send them to the counselor uh if he doesn't want to get the form um at contact the parent and say hey um I'm being placed in this situation I want to honor the parent request uh please let me know by completing this form and I think as you know we go into the school year we're going to be extremely

208focused in making sure uh that information is captured in Focus so teachers have that information readily available so they can conduct their class appropriately during this time okay just like they would I think um oh I'm gonna speak um just like they would I would think a dress code a students's out a dress code you're going to send that form home for the parent you're going to contact the parent I think that's appropriate that's for anything else that we have in our student code of conduct anybody else no all right um so we'll take a vote on this item then I need a motion to approve I make a motion second okay Dr Jones on the second all those in favor say I i i i anyone opposed passes 5 for 8800 okay 8810 the

209American flag um Dr Moore would you like to say anything before Dr Jones brings this up this is a item that's captured the board's conversation at the last workshop and presented to the board for approval to send it to work um public hearing okay Dr Jones um I think it's written well I I had a question from a teacher um if the teacher's religion does not allow him or her to stand there would be no consequence correct that's not in this policy I'm I'm just asking the question through the chair not in this this specific policy but yeah we would be we'd be able to okay we still have to make sure that we provide the opportunity for the students thank you anything else all right going to call from anybody else want to comment

210NOP okay I'm going to call for a motion I'll make motion okay uh Mr McDonald all those in favor say I I I any anyone opposed it passes 5 Z all right now on to the third item which is um revisions to bylaws uh p01 65.1 agendas Dr Moore you want to say anything um yes Madam chair very very similar this was the conversation at the last um Workshop it was held at the very end of the meeting initially I did not think we needed uh a policy to to capture this this change I think the board discussed it um but then we did ask uh the attorney and the attorney did reference that we would need a change in policy um so being that I believe there was consensus at the workshop I made

211the um this change um and is in front of the board now okay uh Dr Jones um I don't remember consensus at the workshop but I'll look back on that because I know we discussed this at the very end and adding it to our agenda policy um for the past 45 years this topic has been the practice and the precedent the part of the agenda was used for board members to talk about school events attended community events and committee reports and I said before it's the best part of the agenda and obviously we run the business of the school district policy 118 education of these students lies with the board and we have a big mission to educate 177,000 students and the orderly conduct of business is our goal and I I don't understand why

212we would turn a Schoolboard meeting to a discussion on any other topic we have important work to do as board members I've been a part of many boards in the school Community Athletics and we always stick to the mission and I just have to wonder why now all of a sudden do we have to go into other topics I mean our job is to create policies that focus on building better and successful students who care about this country and we try to do that each day and we start with that in our elementary schools with our students standing for the pledge so we started at home and then we continue it in our schools um we talked about this a little bit before with you know topic and we could get off topic as far

213as or on different tangents and I just think this should remain it should not go into policy regarding agendas our agendas are pretty specific is consent action and then we go into other parts so I do not think this is a good move to put in to policy it's been a past practice for at least 45 years that I know and a precedent to talk about school events attended community events and committee reports not getting to other tangents that's what I wanted to say about that one okay any other board member comments yeah I'll make a comment okay um I I think it should be a policy change uh because at the last Workshop you had an item specifically to reprimand me and my board member comments um which actually were related to the school

214board now since you brought it up I'm going to bring it up and explain that again um we had a vice mayor Linda Moore who requested used and dirty dildos from around the county be brought into her restaurant which is a clear public safety hazard and is very unsafe um this is somebody who's designing and choosing how our roads are built that our children are walking and bicycling on every day to and from school so so the relevance is that if somebody thinks it's safe to create a repository for used dildos at a restaurant they are not mentally capable of doing the calculus needed to build safe roads for our children to walk to and from school on every day so it's obviously a directly related issue for our community and our school district and

215apparently we need a policy because you bring uh agenda items to specifically reprimand me for my speech anyone else like to speak yes I would yes other items could include anything other than um just local information we might want to include items um to share regarding maybe discussions that we have had with members of our legislators or maybe even include information and update on uh memorandum that we we have received from the Department of Education or um the commissioner or even the governor and so on and so forth I mean other items could be a lot of other things still related to our work but just not specifically under meetings and events so I think it is important for us to be able to have that in there um I this wasn't even an issue

216for me before but this has only come up because there seems to be a willingness to squash or to silence uh board members because you don't agree with what they say um and and that's I don't agree with that um everybody is entitled to their First Amendment right um this is not an item that is a uh negotiated item we're not voting on these items where these are just items that we are bringing up to the board either as an FYI or as a report um and so I do think that it it it would be important for us to include it as you both Mrs barenborg and Dr Jones mentioned um at the this actually was a result of your comments from our last Workshop so um and again as Dr Moore mentioned um

217Mr ansbacher suggested that it be a policy um since it is uh part of um administrative procedures so um I think we should have it on there Mr McDonald um well after sitting through three hours of public comment it does seem that there is a there is no other place other than the discussion area for board members to uh make similar public comments and make their thoughts available I would hope that we um use uh Prudence in what we decide to speak of but having that freedom as a board member um seems only reasonable I will actually have to agree um I think board members have the right to say whatever they they need to bring up as a point of um that's their time that they can bring up anything and although I don't

218agree sometimes with some of the things that are said and the words that are being used that's somebody's right to do and um I think as a board member we have the right to bring something forward and it may may make other people uncomfortable I don't think we have the right to criticize other board members though of things so I I would be wary of that but I I think that we do have the right to bring up other things um so I'm going to call for a motion motion to approve yeah motion motion approve I'll second okay all those in favor say I I I I anyone opposed I okay oppos it passes 4 one all right moving back so we are going to go to our consent agenda moving backwards okay so our

219consent agenda as amended uh I would like to call for a motion so move Dr Jones the second second Mr McDonald any discussion on the consent agenda items it's been so long I don't even remember them anyone have a a concern or an issue okay so I'm going to um call for the vote those in favor of um approving the consent as amended say I I anyone opposed passes 5 Z okay now we are moving to action uh back to action action uh letter A the approval of resolution 2024-the um actually I apologize M Rosario did profer this item so it is actually item being profer by a board member okay so Mr Zario I'm going to ask that you just present the item at this time with no discussion in that because we have

220a speaker so just present what the item is why don't you have this we usually let the speakers go first well all right then I'll just present the item um so it's a Title Nine School Board resolution added by Mrs Rosario uh we have a speaker we have several speakers on this uh the speaker is Dr margarine margerie sorry Flanigan good evening and thanks for the opportunity to speak on this my name is Dr Margie Flanigan and as you heard earlier I'm the chair thank you I have to stand on my tip to horizontally um chair of Education Champions advocates for public education in Indian River County and I'm here to speak on the what I consider to be an ill-advised resolution uh by Dr by Miss Rosario on the title 9 proposal I really

221believe that this is going to be a state issue that's going to be decided by the courts and I don't see a reason to put Indian River County in the Forefront of this by adopting a resolution further the American Psychiatric association research shows that only uh 5 to 14 of every 100,000 males experience gender D dysphoria the number of females is even lower two out of three of every 100,000 young ladies teenagers self-report dysfunction at a higher rate and that becomes confusing because this is a sexual development time during these developmental years most are on a journey to maturation and don't really involve gender dysphoria or require medical or psychological intervention Indian River has 177,000 public school students APA research suggests only two to three of these students would be experiencing a gender identity crisis

222singling out these vulnerable students for harassment is really akin to bullying for these young people who are having difficulties and it's really institutional bullying of the meek who are not able to protect themselves because they're so few in number Indian River has more than 3,400 of its students living below the poverty level the overwhelming majority of these students have deficiencies in literacy and are at risk for a life of dependency on public funds and dysfunction the tital 9 issue is not where we need to be putting our efforts is into literacy and improving um educational efforts for these children so my comment is and I have to admit I really wasn't prepared to speak on title 9ine I just found out that it was on the agenda that the resolution so I put my name

223in to speak on it but it will be decided in the courts not by a board of education and we don't need to waste valuable time of board time on this so please do your duty to the students don't make a mountain out of a mole hill for the two to three students who are searching for the correct bathroom to use during the school day thank you um Margaret Murray first of all I'd like to say I'm marget Murray and I'm the vice chair of the educational um Champions and uh we are not a pack we are just a group of people that got together who care about public education so that is a falsehood um you know there's been a lot of discussion about the Pledge of Allegiance and I want to read it

224the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all now let's reflect on liberty and justice for all and what that truly means Liberty refers to the freedom for each individual to pursue their own path in life make their own choices and express themselves without undo restraint or opposition it's the right to live without fear of unjust interference and what is what is really justice justice means that all individuals are treated fairly and equitably under the law without discrimination it ensures that everyone regardless of background has access to the same same opportunities and protections so together liberty and justice for all embodies the principles that every person in this nation is entitled to

225to Freedom fairness forming the foundation of our democracy and guiding our actions as a community so if you really stand up and put your hand on your heart and pledge the flag then you need to care about every single person whether they're white whether they're black whether they're Hispanic whether they're green whoever they are my dad fought for this country he was 17 years old when he went into the Navy he was in Bunker Hill in Pearl Harbor he got the Medal of Honor his brother died on the beach so we know what sacrifice means and I'm here today to tell you Title Nine is not our business right now we have a lot of other business and this don't add something else to the conversation thank you thank you um Phil trero went home

226okay uh Thomas Kenny how yall doing again um Title Nine some people are speaking to the obvious things about uh sexual uh identity and things like that are that are being changed definitions of words are being changed on a law where the definitions of words were very concrete talking about biological sex and there was 50 years of established organization around those definitions if any of you ever read a statue in the Florida book of statutes or federal there's always a definition in the title the definition of terms these terms are being changed on the Fly which is literally obliterating the law but there's also something else that's going on here and we talked a lot about tonight the desegregation order that was born out of Jim Crow era where in Jim Crow era people did

227Sir Sir you need to speak to the title N I am speaking to the title n and I will and and the reason I say this is because in the Jim Crow era people didn't get a lot of due process and one of the things that's happening in title n is the Biden Administration is returning to what is known as quote single investigator process and what they are doing is the single investigator will be the fact finding agent and the decision maker as well as being able to dispense with live hearings cross-examination of evidence and expert testimony so no one's getting due process under this Title Nine if there is a complaint of sexual harassment the defendant nor the plaintiff this is something the Trump Administration put in in 2020 it's being removed there won't

228be proper Court hearings adjudicating this then you muck up the definitions and right now you just have chaos we need a resolution that sticks to the terms this resolution proposed by Miss Rosario sticks to the terminology and the terminology is what the state is saying that was formed in 1972 on behalf of women the state is fighting cases along with 22 other states and multiple organizations that want to protect civil rights as well as the rights of women thank you all right um Jennifer Pippen is next I have something for the board thank Youk you thank you oh yeah good evening again my name is Jennifer Pippen again Chapter Chair of moms for Liberty here in Indian River County um what I passed out to you is the um lgbtq plus administrator resource guide that

229was removed from our school system um almost two years ago to date um this is a guide so it was not put through the school board um because it was not a policy or procedure it just went through the administrative process and this is exactly what is being put into Title 9 now um so when our school district looked at this two years ago and removed it um again this is in direct correlation of what Title 9 is um wanting to do and moms for Liberty National is one of the um suitors on the um lawsuit against um the Biden Administration as well as um like people have said in the past Karen hiltz and Mr Thomas Kenny uh many states have um filed lawsuits against this as long as well as of many um

230parental rights um advocacy groups and such so this new rule means that boys would be on our girl sports teams Boys in their locker rooms gender ideology in the classroom and secrets potentially being kept from parents by government schools this is absolutely unacceptable and I do appreciate this resolution and standing with the Department of Education that sent a letter um to this board and the superintendent and um also following all of um the rules that this community again two years ago this is so important two years ago we said this was not for our community and got rid of this um resource Administration guide you can even see on the bottom when it was revised and then removed so I implore this board to accept this resolution and if there is any school board members

231that don't I would love to know why um again this is just a copy if anybody in the audience would like to see it I'll meet with you on that this is just a copy of what was implemented in our school District by Mara Schiff a previous School Board member and equality Florida that was removed from the school district please do the right thing and approve this resolution stand with the state stand with the Department of Education and parental rights here in our County in Florida thank you okay um our last speaker on this topic is mayeno I urge um the five of you the board board to vote in favor of passing this resolution Title 9 policy and procedural hold as you know the governor and Attorney General of Florida filed a federal lawsuit

232challenging the constitutionality of the federal department of education's recent changes to Title 9 it makes sense to hold off making any impactful changes until the courts make their decisions regarding this case in 1972 when Title 9 was enacted into law it was meant to put in place protections that would open doors for girls and women this was during a time when there were a lot of barriers for women in many areas and few opportunities existed for females it was meant to provide fair and equal treatment of the sexes in all areas including Athletics this law is credited with decreasing the dropout rate of girls from high school and increasing the number of women who pursue college education and complete compete their uh complete their degrees you can see how Title 9 is an important law

233that has helped girls and women for over 50 years it clearly states Title 9 clearly states that there are only two Sexes section one 10 6.41 refers to members of both sexes too there are other examples as well but now the current Administration is changing that and allowing young girls to be put in situations that are psychologically disturbing and have the potential to be unsafe as the resolution on the agenda States we have to commit to ensure the safety privacy and protection of students and acknowledge the importance of Single Sex facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms Title 9 is most commonly known for the protect CS it has afforded girls in sports but to allow biological males to play on a female team is providing the male an unfair advantage and limiting possibly eliminating

234opportunities for females I'm not sure where the feminists are with this why are they not screaming about this situation the women that wanted more than anything for females to succeed and be provided the same opportunities as males but the opposite is happening males are taking away opportunities meant for females males are invading space is meant for females to feel safe and secure and by the way not everyone in the LGBT LGB community agrees with this change to Title 9 it took a long time for women to gain the benefits we have today women sports teams have ch chances at a women's now have chances at athletic scholarships fairness in admissions to colleges and so much more that we did not have 50 years ago let's not change title 9 let's keep safe spaces for girls

235safe and let's start with approving this resolution and allow that these changes be decided in the courts where if life is just it will die thank you thank you okay Miss Rosario okay um so thank you board members so this um resolution um it isn't changing Title 9 it isn't recommending for a uh for new language to Title 9 I think there are some misunderstandings about what the resolution is um on April 24th we received a an email a letter um from the commissioner Manny Diaz of the Department of Education I should I should add um just reminding the actually directing the superintendent um and Charter School leader that the governor is um at the direction of the governor um no educational institution should begin implementing any changes to potential Title 9 um uh changes

236that are set to begin I believe it is August 1st um and so based on that letter um that's where this resolution comes in it is not a policy it is not a procedure it is essentially putting teeth to the email ensuring that the superintendent will not set um any policies or procedures um to any uh potential changes until after the lawsuit or until further notice that he receives further notice from the the Department of Education or the governor's office directly it is very unfortunate that federal funds are TI to Title 9 because it kind of strong arms the district or other districts and I hope that Florida stands firm because it is I think it's a travesty um to kind of Hold Us hostage uh to some funds that would hurt students um you

237know if we don't receive those funds it will definitely hurt students but in the long run the changes that are being proposed for Title 9 actually changes the definition of biological sex which our state legislators just made sure that our laws include biological the biological sex and the definition of biological sex as based on uh by birth it also um it also changes if these changes were to go uh into place it also makes sure that anybody could basically choose any locker room any um sport any bathroom any anything essentially I mean there really wouldn't even need to be a Title Nine because anybody could claim Title 9 privilege over absolutely everything when it's the complete antithesis to what Title 9 was originally intended for um but you know it is what it is right

238now this is where we are and so essentially this resolution just kind of puts teeth into it the last line of the resolution commits that no policy or procedural changes shall be considered or implemented while legal challenges ensue and hereby acknowledges the Paramount duty of the district um to make adequate Provisions for the education of all students residing within its borders again um that is what the resolution is um and so I am seeking for uh board member support on this um so that we can um make a statement not only to our community but to our um to our state officials and then of course ensuring that Dr Moore is in compliance with the Department of Education okay Mr McDonald you want to speak thank you um I had to chuckle that somebody suggested

239that we shouldn't waste a board time on this after three hours we just spent um and they also mentioned that it should be without discrimination well being without discrimination is the opposite of Title 9 Title 9 is been put in place to discriminate for certain functions and and activities based upon the presence or absence of a y chromosome and so and that was put in for the protection and for the advantage uh of those who otherwise did not have a fair uh and even um playing field to play on literally as well as figuratively uh as mentioned now that the definitions are being changed because the ideas are easy but to confuse people and change their thinking they're applying different words to old ideas so that people get confused uh it's uh the fact that

240there is no due process in Title 9 should strike fear in everyone's Hearts because we see what happens when legislative uh uh law fair gets applied it will happen to you as well um the fact that it the fact that it was that it did EX exist this document exists but we put a put in place a policy that says it should not exist it existed because we had no written position this proposal would provide a written position upon which the administration can act and be guided that's the role of the board is to give that guidance uh for the administration um I have a close family member who's 20 years old in college called three weeks ago said we might have to go down go up and take her out of jail because for

241the Third time in 3 weeks the college told her that she had to accept a 200 lb man as her roommate because he identified as a woman she knows that I've promised since she was one I would protect her and I started to think what I have to do to do that fortunately that has not been imposed on her and she'll be out of school in a week but it's gotten to that I guess that I'm a true feminist because I support women and support the women's rights and protection of women um but I also stand with the state department and a Department of Education so I would I would encourage for all those reasons that everybody would approve this doc you want go next sure okay Dr Moore who wrote this um resolution through

242the chair I it was sent to me by Miss Rosario so who was the author Miss Rosario who was the I I I wrote it and I gave it to the to the attorney to review okay it was a t there was a template from another district and then I edited it for our district um I shared it with our attorney who looked it over and said it was all good and well and then I sent it to the superintendent okay when I was doing my research um because usually when we have a resolution or a proclamation I have a little bit more knowledge on it like we have a proclamation regarding autism month or black history month or like a resolution with prayer before a meeting so I just wanted to take a look

243at it um May I I'm still talking I have the floor just a moment um I want to be very clear I'm a proponent of Title 9 and will work hard to protect our female sports I was the first athletic director in the state of Illinois for both boys and girls Sports and in those mid 70s I was working hard to get sports for our females Florida High School Athletic Association has a statute 8.6 and it basically says participation is based on biological sex at Birth got it understand it support it uh then we have a state statute 106205 fairness in um in the sports and women Sports women's sports yes and um I know the lady who proposed that and at the FHS a&n State Statute I'm very much a a supporter of that

244um and not only title 9 with sports but Title 9 in general with women and making sure that we have equal opportunities uh the one thing that I saw in the letter um and we are following it at Governor Dan Sis's Direction no educational institution should begin implementing any changes we're good there and then the last paragraph we keep pressing to accomplish these goals as legal challenges unfold and the department has the opportunity to analyze this rule I will releasee guidance on how to implement in a way that is consistent with our goal to keep fla number one in education obviously well wrd um as far as the resolution some things I want to highlight uh Title 9 was passed to ensure that females and males receive equal educational opportunities both sexes whereas the commissioner

245of Education the State of Florida at the direction of the governor of the state of Florida has instructed that no education institution should become should begin implementing any changes while legal challenge ensue got it um commits that no policy or procedural changes should be considered or implemented while legal challenges ensue and hereby acknowledges the Paramount duty of the district to make adequate Provisions for the education of all children residing within its borders I I taught several sports girls Sports I understand how important it is the one question I have if um this is for Sid if we don't comply wither I'm sorry Mr h sper I'm tired if we don't comply with Federal rule um or should we wait until resolution until we receive more guidance so that we do it right and don't have

246a have an issue I support Title Nine and what we're doing for female sports I just want to make sure there because in that letter it says we wait for guidance so when federal and state law conflict then what what happens to a school district if we say no we're going to file state law and not federal law so let me just preface this by saying I'm probably the only one in the room who's actually dealt with an OCR investigation for a school board dealing with uh bathroom and locker room choices as couple of people on staff no sniffen the sniffen Spellman firm worked with with our firm when we were General still general counsel to St John's river or St John's uh School Board um in a case called Drew Adams versus St John's

247school aard and that case actually started as an OCR investigation because uh a principle was trying to respond to a student who was in the middle of changing and we ultimately actually prevailed at the 11th circuit took several years but the OCR investigation ultimately resolved um where we are right now is if we take this letter we are doing what as Miss Rosario said Sarasota County did to Tuesdays ago and uh passing a resolution uh we may very well get an OCR investigation that said um there is every chance that it that the matter will resolve with one of the litigation ations the several litigations including the one that the univers or that that Florida attorney general rather is um involved in Alabama Alabama uh case in the Northern District where there is a preliminary

248injunction hearing on July 1st on this August 1st effective rule should they prevail it's it would stay the effect of the Federal Register notice um should they not succeed or should they're not be success in any of the several other cases seeking a nationwide injunction then um we're out there as taking a position that a court has not yet decided having said that um you know I think that the position of this resolution does appear to be consistent with the substance of what the Department of Education is saying but but yeah I I would be um I I would have to say that an OCR investigation would start by saying you are risking Federal funding okay just one more comment um and again I worked very very hard to get women's sports in Illinois when

249this first came out with Title 9 as legal challenges unfold and the department has the opportunity to analyze this rule I will release guidance on how to implement in a way that is consistent with our goal to keep Florida number one so that guidance will be forthcoming and I'm just wondering if this should be signed before the guidance is coming so that we understand the expectations that is in the discretion of this board but I do but I would acknowledge that at this point we don't have guidance other than um the Sarasota resolution and both of these resolutions do track the position of the State of Florida uh both the Department of Education and the attorney general and the rule says will not take effect until August 1 so that's why they have some time

250on the guidance yes ma'am okay that's all the questions I have Dr PCA yeah um I'd like to say that first I certainly don't think anyone should be bullied or mistreated regardless of their differences um regardless of any policy changes or title line it's never okay to bully anybody um but the fact remains that the doe under uh Biden has gutted Title Nine uh which existed essentially to protect women's rights and opportunities from encroachment by men um their changes to Title Nine allows men to take those resources and rights away from women as long as they essentially declare uh that they have a mental illness and think that they're a woman um in a man's body uh these catastrophic changes to Title 9 eliminate all its protections and make it essentially useless um I have

251a 10-year-old daughter and uh her name's Naomi and she's a very smart little kid and has a bright future ahead of her and that future is now threatened and in Jeopardy um by radical liberal Marxist policies that are being handed down as decrees by federal agencies um ultimately being in direct conflict to individual rights and state constitutions across the country uh there's no place for Biden's doe in the State of Florida um and you can't pretend to support women or their rights and also support the changes Title 9 that the Biden's doe made um so I'm a hard no on supporting Biden's Title 9 changes um and I think this resolution uh lets um the state and our community know what we stand for okay um all right 1972 I'm going to show my age

252here I was 12 years old this law changed my life I was extremely athletic my dad was given an opportunity to um have a try out with the Yankees taught me everything he knew about pitching I knew more about baseball than I knew about anything else when I was 5 years old I wanted to be a baseball player when I grew up but I was told I couldn't I was a girl um Title 9 passed in 72 I tried to play baseball for years was told no I was the first girl to play baseball to my knowledge in the state of New York on Babe Ruth baseball team I still have the picture of me with all the boys first day I went to my practice I was on every channel news was there I

253had pigtails and ribbons my grandfather made me put those in I had dish cloths thrown at me I had pots and pans banged when I hit balls I was told I had to play right field B last because I was a girl well that pitcher made a mistake and threw a ball a little too close he regretted that I played Short Stop and batted forth the rest of the season and I only say that not to not to say my athleticism I say that because I had to do that in order to play I had to be better than the boys in order to play and still get bullied for being a girl and after that of course the bullying continued to the point where finally we had softball in the area and I just

254played softball even though I didn't really like softball because of the ball thank God girls Sports just just exploded in my hometown and we had lots of opportunities to do that and because of that I became a PE major in college of course took a lot of Science and wound up teaching science but it was my absolute life to play sports was told over and over again I couldn't do things this was my Saving Grace this law and I would I would not want to see my daughters be forced to go use a bathroom with somebody else that they're not comfortable in the bathroom with I have a real problem with that I have a problem with us not protecting children and girls because I wasn't treated that way either and so the fairness and

255liberty and justice I've heard we give that to our students that are transitioning and it is a small handful of kids it's not a large population now we do that through a very discreet thing that the superintendent does that not every everybody needs to know but should they compete on athletic athletic fields with girls I'm very strong no on that my daughter is a an LPGA golfer she plays on the LPGA she has gone up against this already and it's not fair that somebody plays on the men's NCAA team and turns around one year later and plays on tries to play on the LPGA I will say she beat him on the okay okay but um I I obviously this hits home with me and I'm thinking about all the little girls that have the

256opportunity to play sports but because of our size of our bodies and testosterone and things like that no matter what you go through and I have read lots of things on the doctors that do these surgeries say it takes years to go through this and change a body and if that's the case then is is it fair to go up against a girl that doesn't have the same equality of size to me no um and that can be debated Beyond this I'm sure somebody will correct me on this but that's my own feeling because I've dealt with it um I'm very much for protecting Title 9 for girls but I also am very much for protecting our taxpayer dollars and the concern I have is that if we have to go into this um Mr

257ansbacher is it going to cost the district money if we don't like if we wait until July to vote on this then we're waiting until this um lawsuit is settled or not settled and at that point I'm all for fighting it but I'd like to see us wait until July just because I don't want to see our tax tax dollar is going towards fighting this before July you may have a preliminary injunction that is entered in one of the other cases before you may have a preliminary injunction that's entered after your July meeting so I just want you to understand just because it's being heard on the 1 doesn't mean it will be effective prior to the July meeting um but you know I think again the bifurcated analysis is the language tracks almost perfectly

258the position of the state both doe and attorney general um [Music] we would by doing this before a decision I would have to say we we increase the chance of an OCR uh letter can't deny that and so Dr Moore we would spend ta taxpayer dollars on attorney costs correct if that's AE case it could be the case that's my question through the chair if it exceeded our retainer something like this it probably would but this is I think it's important to note the system right now is is your policies everything that is aligned to these policies is aligned to what the governor is asking us to do yes so to be very honest with you if you did not approve this tomorrow I'm going to wake up and operate the same exact way if

259you do approve this I'm going to wake up and operate the same way the same way all other 67 districts are in fact operating did you answer my question I'm just curious through through the chair obviously if if we go to court and we're going to have to have a lawyer and we would have to get additional we will receive guidance prior to then so it's extremely unlikely that that would be the case there you go if I may um yes have you all had and I assume the answer is yes have you all dealt with OCR investigations here so what the typical OCR investigation doesn't go to court immediately the typical OCR investigation and I've had clients who've had a number of them um is um letter response letter response and can go on

260for years the the ultimate risk is you could lose school lunch Ida um Title One funding but um I also would have to say that um the odds are pretty good the suits one of the suits or more will be resolved before you finish an OCR investigation so it would probably not certainly be documentation that would be generated from your staff principally with some assistance from legal but it it would go on probably for a while until the litigation resolves at the at the big picture the state level so yeah my big concern is taxpayer dollars so we're looking at that wouldn't really be the case then it you know it could be I you know and and again um you know they could they could be more Draconian than they normally are but you

261know that's I'm just saying that's the most typical process mam cheer uh yes Dr Jones so I just want to double check what what Dr Moore just said right now we're following the FHSAA bylaw 8.6 participation based on biological sex at Birth and then the fairness of women's sports statute 1000 6.25 so if we don't approve this to July to see how things play out nothing changes correct because we this law doesn't even go into effect until August 1 correct correct so nothing changes so so I guess my question to Mr ansbacher if we wait till July and see uh where it's going or what the um was said from um commissioner Diaz he will send us more information he'll release guidance would there be any harm in waiting till July we have the guidance

262it's the only question is as a policy do you want to get out ahead of it and that's really a policy question for this board um it certainly is but but it's not a policy that we're talking about a proc and when I when I say policy I don't mean capital P policy I'm saying it's a discretionary decision of the board um obviously there's less risk if you know you aren't facing a potential OCR letter but again it's yall's Choice yes Mr McDonald just to clarify um if we were to pass this now and if different Direction came in July or August there's nothing that would preclude us from uh acting and revising this in light of that new correct correct so so if we were to if we were to get out in front

263of it as you said now we would still have the option to if new different information comes forth we can revise this and adapt as needed yeah I mean I while everyone's talking about what the Title Nine amendments do I will tell you candidly anyone who knows it is a much better reader than I am because it's 1395 pages in the Federal Register but um you know I I think that yes you could take a position OCR could still say but you jumped out and you put yourself out there um but you know in terms of mitigation or response sure it you can always change it it's a resolution it's not etched in stone anyone else yeah I I I just want to follow up um you know part of this res a part of

264uh getting support for this resolution now is not to wait so that we send a message that this is not okay these changes are not okay they do not support girls in sports among a myriad of other things of other changes because it's not that's not the only change that is being recommended in in the title 9 uh rule so um you know waiting doesn't actually say this is what we believe as a board um if we say it now then um you know it might reverberate throughout the entire State um and I'm sure that there and I know that there are other board members in other districts um just waiting and they're watching us and um they're wanting to do the same thing and are feeling a little uh leery about making those decisions

265and sometimes you just have to stand up for what is right um you know one of the the changes here um is as I mentioned before the definition of sex has changed but it's also to in it's to include you know gender identity there are 68 73 different gender identities out there you know how many different accommodations can one particular District make to accommodate all of those identities um it's it's just a a Whopper it's just a small minute change but it makes a huge difference in you know then how many policies do we have to then change and how many statutes have to change to um the fair the women's In fairness Sports Act is going to have to be completely thrown out I mean it it's just I can't even be begin to

266imagine the impact that this would have on our community and on the entire nation um but at either rate I I do hear consensus um and uh Madam chair I'd like to um just add that there is one edit there there is a a typo in here um and so um when we move forward I'd like to ask for approval as amended uh the 1 two 34 the fifth whereas States Title Nine is and then refers that is needs to be removed so I don't know who's taking notes on that Dr Moore we got it you got it um other than that it sounds like there is support for it so I thank you uh board members for your support on this and Dr Moore thank you very much as well and Mr ansbacher Dr

267johnes um I believe in this resolution but I also believe uh our due diligence to taxpayers is to really wait until we have the guidance from commissioner Diaz on how to implement it in a way that is consistent with our goals to keep Florida I don't see the issue with waiting till July because nothing will change change we have the bylaw and we have the statute I just again um as Mr asbacher said with OCR and who knows what can happen but I just would would you like to make a motion then to move it to what to change it yeah I would do that um make a motion to we wait till the July meeting until we have the guidance from Mr de um commissioner Diaz and do our due diligence to our taxpayers

268okay I'll second that is there a discussion no you you got to wait you got to wait for the vote yeah you have to wait um sorry I'm seconding the um the change to amend it to July um all those in favor of moving this to July meeting say I oh there's no discussion no we just discussed it um this is on just to change we're not voting on the final we're just Ching voting to change it to July um all those in favor say I I all those oppose say no no okay 2 three to change to July okay so that has been voted down um I like to so I need to call for a motion I make a motion okay Mr Rosario for the second I'll second that Mr McDonald all those

269in favor I I oh I'm sorry this is a roll call um I've got to ask uh Miss poisel to do a roll call for this one Dr PCA hi Mrs Rosario I Dr Jones no Mrs Baron Borg I Dr M Mr McDonald hi I'm just going to before we finish um and I announced the vote um Dr Jones the um two3 vote was to change to July this vote is to vote yay or nay on the um resolution itself you still vote against well I wanted to have it in the month of July I I understand that got voted down Madam chair I'm sorry I know that you're trying to get her support on it but she already voted I have the right to ask if she'd like to change her vote before I

270finish the vote we did finish the vote no Mrs Dr jnes um point of order trying get consensus here and and trying to get civility on this board and bring us all together this is civility Mr ansbacher um you could have someone who was in the majority moved to reconsider um that'd be about the only procedure I could think of but you have four to one as it is okay there we go Moving On fight fight fight item c c c I'll have Dr shafty uh present the item and then after that I do believe we have speakers Madam chair okay through the chair in accordance with District policy 2522 District level appeals a petitioner made an opening statement addressed to our district OB committee to include the specific objection uh to ban this book

271the petitioner's basis for the objection was that the material depicts or describ sexual conduct as defined in section 8471 on April 17th 2024 the members of the committee voted and recommended to retain ban this book by Alan Gratz through a vote of 6 to2 in accordance with the previously referenced policy that vote and recommendation is now submitted to you the school board for a review and rendering of a final determination okay we have a few speakers on this item uh Diane perella is our first speaker thank you I'm here to speak about action item regarding the district Review Committee and their recommendation to retain ban this book by Alan Gratz beginning January 1st 2020 2 3 library media Specialists were required to complete the state training program developed to comply with Florida Statutes any new

272book purchases must follow the school district's collection development policies and procedures from said policies and procedures quote the primary objective of each School's library program is to enrich extend and support the instructural program of the school the school library program makes available a wide range of materials on varying levels of difficulty attending to the divers needs interests and viewpoints of students and teachers also included is the requirement to have input of stakeholders ban this book was reviewed by the three school media center collection committees at the three schools that purchased ban this book ban this book was approved by you the school board at your July meeting when it was presented one of the other requirements from the state training for librarians encourages the use of r reviews here is one of the four reviews

273for ban this book this one from Publishers Weekly fourth grader Amy Anne allinger is an Avid Reader and when she learns that her favorite book from the mixed up files of Mrs Basil E frankweiler is on a list of titles removed from the school library she decides to read the other books on the list from the likes of Bloom doll and pky other students want to do the same and so the band Book Locker is Locker library is born Amy Anne and two friends friends collect the books store them in her locker and organize a checkout due date system when their secret library is discovered Amy Anne is suspended the school librarian is fired and her classmates including the boy whose mother initiated the books removal come up with a plan to get the books

274restored to the library shy readers will recognize and respect Amy Anne's struggle to stand up for herself and conversations about book Banning censorship and the Bill of Rights are primed for discussion in classrooms and at home band this book was reviewed ban this book was approved by the school board parents have the right to manage their child's level of access in the school library media center parents should not have the right to deny access for all children I urge you to accept the recommendation from the district objection committee and retain ban this book if you vote against the committee's recommendation in the future who's going to want to serve on your committee thank you okay Tomy Kenny so we're talking about ban this book because we're not going to ban the book we're going to

275curate and decide whether or not we want to keep the book or all three or four copies and that's what we do uh in regards to the Schoolboard quote voting for the purchase it was probably on the consent agenda and the media specialist sent over a title and an author there's no description of the book or whatever anything of that nature so that vote really isn't an informed decision and this book came up to be challenged because this book tells kids to basically violate decisions of their school board anyway it abuses the notion of Authority number one and all Library materials are instructional materials on the back of this book you got websites where you can go find the quote other band Book books including books with a lot of pornography in them um yeah

276you don't want to be doing that you want to be sharing that with a kid kid doesn't have check the book out you just go oh I look at this little hey I'll go check at these websites on my phone at lunch time they're engaged in porn pornographic material out in the courtyard possibly so ban this book should be removed from the school system now it doesn't have a lot of crazy words in it it doesn't have a lot of overly descriptive scenes like some of the other books but it reers students to those books so what you're saying is hey let's backd door promote the books that we've just removed after hearing the evidence of them remember three board members changed their vote that they had in February 22 in August because they heard

277evidence the factual reality of what the literature says and now you have a book being put in our libraries that teaches them to find that stuff all over again that doesn't make any sense that does definitely doesn't Express the goals of the board in a 50 vote back on August 28 2023 definitely doesn't Express the intent of education and virtue and just you know basic Common Sense Authority that led to that 5-0 vote on August 28 2023 and that's the important thing it says hey let's subvert that we'll give this innocuous book we'll talk about titles blah blah blah and then we'll you know we'll show you where to find the pornography kids no that doesn't work sorry it shouldn't work and you should vote no thank you Jennifer Pippen thank you good evening again

278so as the um petitioner for band this book um this again was brought to uh the committee and this board today because it um has mentioned multiple times and ban this book to refer to It's Perfectly Normal and the attorney said during the committee meeting and also um when they went to vote that we as finders of fact again I'm not quoting him exactly but as finders of fact can determine whether this book mentions this book enough those pages that were distributed to you were just two pages of this book so multiple times in ban this book it refers to children to go read It's Perfectly Normal and to have this um book in the locker room with the band books so if you see in front of you um there is um it tells

279children how to masturbate um again I have the same pages that you have on page 51 from It's Perfectly Normal it says when people masturbate they usually rub their sex organs with their hands or with something soft like a pillow these things are often called sexy feelings again on page 60 after a bit um a person's vagina becomes moist and slippery and the clitorus becomes hard after a bit a person's penis becomes erect stiff and sometimes a bit of clear fluid comes on you get the point so I would like to let the board know that ban this book is available in elementary and middle schools and the elementary school that it is currently in it is pulled for review was also had a VPK in it so children as young as four could be

280reading ban this book which refers back to this book to read okay it's telling children multiple times and ban this book to read It's Perfectly Normal and it's a Banned Book also it tells children to go um onto the Ala and read band books as Thomas Kenny said it's on the last page of the book and um the ala is um president is a self-proclaimed Marxist she said um and it's in your back of information I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that Collective Powers possible to build can be wielded for a better world I'm the president-elect she is now the president of the Ala Library I'm so excited what we could do together that's by Emily D drabinsky so again you're promoting children to go read books like it's perfectly normal

281and then in the Ala list there is four books that were permanently removed from our school district for pornographic and sexually explicit content you're telling children to go read these books seek out these books and again as young as four years old in our VPK and as old as 12 through our middle schools so I implore this board um I respect the committee's um decision but I respectfully disagree with them wanting to retain the information thank you okay we do not have any other speakers on this except for Stephen Bud who is he here no okay all right um okay so uh Dr Moore is there anything else you'd like to say about this item before we have a discussion no Madam Madam chair the item's been presented okay board members who would like to

282go first um I I'd like to start okay um I I have a question because I was watching the um book Review Committee I couldn't be there I was working I watch the video um and what it looked like uh was that I was missing part of the meeting and I just wanted to ask the attorney um was the entire meeting on the video or was part of it missing as far as I know it was on video I actually attended remotely yeah I saw you there um um because what it looked like was there was a large part of the meeting missing on the internet um and my understanding from the people who were there is that significant discussion was made between board members during that period uh of that committee meeting um so

283I guess the follow-up question is if that is the case um and there was board discussion happening off camera um that was meaningful uh were we in compliance with Sunshine Law we we complied with Sunshine there was notice and the meeting met all notice requirements so the the minutes being kept by video is that a a part of the compliance the minutes are intentionally robust and that's part of 28611 if you if you know frankly the minutes I I think that Miss shafty would would or Dr shafty would agree um go Way Beyond the minimum requirements for the sunshine act intentionally so precisely because there was such a robust discussion okay yeah I've just my confusion is that it looks like I'm missing a large piece of the meeting online um but either way I'll

284move on uh after reading and reviewing this book um you know there it essentially is looking at kids and showing how um they stage kind of a rebellion against the authorities here who wanted to remove and curate a life and make it appropriate for kids um so this book kind of details how they can re against it collect those band books and keep them in school anyway um and share them with their friends and it creates a very positive narrative that the books that were removed from public school libraries that had um significant disturbing depictions of pornography beastiality um pedophilia child pornography and other deeply disturbing things um that somehow these books are good and positive and directs our children to then go read them um and you know additionally there's a significant um theme

285throughout the whole book that really demonstrates to me that this book is really um just a a liberal Marxist propaganda piece um this is not something with real literary value that belongs in a children's Library um and I was prettyy disappointed to see that uh five people voted that they thought it belonged in a kids Library um you know that this really what it looks like is textbook Marxist propaganda um they were sold they said yeah this belongs in our library um no concerns here um and voted to keep it uh so I would recommend removing it I don't think it has any positive benefit um and parents that want their children to read it can very easily go to a local library um or buy it online for their children anybody else yes Mr

286raria yeah um I I do agree I don't think that this book has any literary value sorry um I didn't mean to move your paper um I will say that I you know in looking at in taking the book obviously cuz we have the book available to us um I'm just going to point out on page 35 um it does say the following um I'm not for censorship I'm for common sense we have to protect our children it's not censor censorship to keep things away from children that aren't age appropriate and then it follows up with immediately it's common sense I'm sure Mrs Jones wouldn't call it censorship to keep a adult magazines filled with sex out of her Library I mean really do we really have to have a conversation about what a librarian

287would think you know to to keep sex books in the school because that's appropriate or common sense that's not and then page um there was a reference about some books that somebody should get you know somebody said you know I was going to buy the Egypt game and it's perfectly normal um whatever that was and I was going to read both of them and on the very next page it says so it turns out it's perfectly normal is not a novel it's a non-fiction book all about sex as Mrs Spencer would say with pictures it says that with pictures on page 65 it mentions um the same book It's Perfectly Normal again I whispered the sex book It's Perfectly Normal I grabbed a braid and held it close to my mouth but I can't buy

288that one that was the one on the list I'm sorry that was the one on the list you don't have to you don't have to buy that one I've got it my eyes went wide she had a copy at her house and obviously gave it to the students so here you have have multiple references to a book that has these absolute insane disgusting pictures um I don't understand how this could be acceptable for us to think that this is okay for our elementary schools and not even for our middle schools or our high schools should we have this kind of reference available M please so um I will also say um as I move on on October 1st of 2023 we received an email um and uh you Mr McDonald you weren't here but we

289received an email from Dr Moore uh a little bit of History because I know you weren't here there were some a recommend there was a recommendation for some pocket Constitution books to be donated to the to the school district um and uh in response to that Dr Moore said uh the following in his email again it's dated October 1st um he said after conferring with legal counsel on Distributing the 197 the 9917 society pocket Constitution and I have some here so I don't mind sharing if you can I'm sure you've all seen it um it is this one right here 917 Society pocket Constitution um let me begin again after conferring with legal council on Distributing the 9917 society pocket constitutions we are being advised that we meaning the district this is from Dr Moore

290we are being advised that it would not be in the best interest of the district the pocket dictionaries provide a website with links to various educational lessons and resources which possess a potential liability if the information is not in alignment with parental rights and or statute Distributing a resource the Constitution of the United States of America Distributing a resource which directs students to a non-district approved educational content and lessons also poses a liability to the district I mean God forbid we Pro provide them with lessons about our constitution but we can provide them with a reference to sexual acts I mean where does that stand and it continues additionally legal council is concerned that if we allow the distribution of these materials this one in particular the district opens itself up to challenges by a

291range of of other organizations who may wish to distribute Resources with links to non-district content Andor educational materials and resources so I would venture to say under the same guides as our superintendent I would not recommend this book at all because this book first of all we don't ban books we curate them secondly if it is banned it should not be in our schools and if there are banned books we shouldn't be recommending students to get access to them neither should they have sexual content in them so I mean I think that is where the common sense comes in Pocket Constitution should be in everyone's hand irregardless of whatever resource is attached which by the way I went on that re those resources and they were all very educationally sound so my recommendation is that

292we do not um accept this recommendation and there I I'll end with this um there was a comment uh by Mrs pentella who came up and said who will want to volunteer on the library committee if we don't accept or approve the committee's recommendation um and I would say we will cross that bridge when we get to it because I'm shocked that we would have District staff not fully vetting this book and I think two two or three of them were chosen by Dr Moore um who would actually recommend that this book remain in our school libraries it is our responsibility to ensure that students receive a high quality education I don't understand how this supports our curriculum or how this would support any of our state responsibilities okay Dr Jones Mr oh I'm sorry

293go ahead uh well I guess in addition to everything that uh remember Rosario mentioned um I read the whole book and um the specific purpose in the theme of the book is to overtly super uh subvert School boards and at the same time promote inappropriate books I I thought it was pretty ironic um when I saw this that for all that I've uh gone through to try and win a seat in this board and to be appointed as board that and along with the other the four other people here who work very hard to represent our parents who are our customers uh I was I thought it it was ironic that this book is intentionally and overtly saying that school boards shouldn't matter only 9-year-olds and Librarians should matter their opinion should should Trump the

294opinions of those who are elected to represent them um and it was just very ironic that that I'd be facing something like this uh the question is who should who should be deciding what we do we we the school board uh all of its actions and spendings should achieve uh strategies and goals as set forth by the school board the whatever we buy for the school should add value whether it's a book or a chair or a building we are repres we are elected I was appointed a vote of one but we are we are uh here to represent the parents decisions and the school board is the final Authority for our citizens and it is always the final Authority the theme of this book was to rebel against the school board and the administration

295in favor of the nine-year-old and the librarian uh the book has tacit the librarian gave tacit approval and encouragement for the activities that the that the student pursued uh the title itself and the theme challenges our Authority it even goes so far as to not only mention books which AR inappropriate are deemed inappropriate by school boards including ours it not only mentions them but it lists them on the back cover so that you don't even have to check the book out to get the real books that eight or nine-year-old might want to might want to read um Google a while ago a few months ago had employees that came in and protested and challenged the CEO's Authority they occupied his office for a short period of time they no longer are working at Google which

296was the appropriate response the outcome of this book was that the warnings that the book that the original Mo the the mother who raised the issue in the book she warned that the child that children would read this that they would um they would lie cheat and steal as a result of what they read in the book she concludes at the very last two pages that indeed she did lie she did cheat she did steal as a result of this but then she blamed the school board for her lying chea and stealing because the school board by removing the book tempted her to go out and find the REM remove books and to read them so therefore the temptation to school board Justified whatever she had WR that lesson alone is at the heart of

297the corruption of our society that we we can take no responsibility for anything that we do somebody else is always at at fault I don't think that we are at fault by doing our job and doing it right uh the my conclusion is that this book does not fulfill any goals or any strategies apart apart and aside from the offenses that it's got it does teach opposition to Authority um and we can spend our money more effectively and I I appreciate that several members of the um committee voted to keep this which is fine but I think that we have to balance all these factors including the factor that two of the five parents representing parents decided that this was not appropriate if this was a different subject there are other subjects which we defer

298very quickly if we're a racial item if it was a gender issue they're they're very they're subsets of our of our society that we are we very quickly and appropriately so go an extra mile not to offend there's no reason that two fifths of our of our students or our parents rather represented by the people in this committee if they are offended by that by a book that that adds no value and it says that what we do on this board here is at best worthless and should be ignored I think we should and could spend our money more more effectively and when we're finished I would like to make a motion every board member will speak first when we're finished Dr Jones thank you first of all thank you to the uh committee who

299reviewed this book I know it takes a lot of time and effort and I too read the book I just want to begin with it's already been said the book was approved by approved by oel sack team on April 24th 2023 School Board July 24th 2023 at the 4 to1 vote in District objection committee 6 to2 on April 17th uh I reviewed on the petition or form the reasons for the um objection first one dealing with a a link to book Banning the second one talking about adult magazines with sex in them that's page 35 just just for the um Public's notice we don't have adult magazines in our libraries page 53 talking about a book with pictures of cartoon sex in them I understand this has been mentioned before we don't have that book

300in our library that would have to be a parent um getting that book for a child and then suggesting the checking out of the Ala site at the end of the book and it's removed from Florida and ran by a self-proclaimed Marxist not a good example for children and why would we want them checking out books that have been permanently removed from our district um I look at this book and um I see that obviously there is some um things that ided in here that we don't have in our library and if we don't have them in our library it would have to be a parent with a child getting that I look at not Marxism but I look at a democracy that we live in and we are challenged that is the purpose even

301in the school board we can be challenged that is the right of everybody I don't look at these people or these students as um I I think they're just speaking their mind on what they believe in I kind of I'll quote John Lewis on that they got into some good trouble because they believed that those books should be in the library one thing I've always said when we talk about books um first of all 98% of our parents say it's okay to read a book if you don't want your child reading any book you can fill out the form that's not an issue we respect that I respect that um last time I did a data check for check out in books in middle school and high school I didn't do it last year because

302Sebastian had their books off the shelf for the most part now V has her books out the shelf for the most part Sebastian looks great and I know Vero is going to be great but this went to all board members the end of 22 average for high school checkout for a traditional book to read and enjoy was 2.3% for Middle School at that time was around 12.3 and that's only because we have one Middle School maybe two that really will still bring in their language arts classes and so forth they're not checking out traditional books for enjoyable reading that's our issue and ask teachers that's what I'm very very concerned about and again 98% says it's okay to read the books on their Media Center shelves that's up to a parent whether a parent wants

303a child to check out that book um in the committee and the sack team and the board last year uh we all approved it and if we're going to just say none of that counts then I think we need to look at ourselves for that um we we live in a democracy people have the right to challenge I read this book uh if it cites another book that you don't want your child checking out or or buying that's up to the parent um I just want to thank the committee for the work they've done is that all okay y um May I no oh I'm sorry you didn't go first I'm sorry I thought my apology it's all right are you GNA make a motion you want to speak no no I actually I wanted

304to want to speak go ahead well you go ahead no that's all right chair goes last go ahead okay I I just wanted to add and uh I think that was a very good observation and if it were in fact the case that by removing the books from the library that students could only get those books with the approval of their their parents I think that would be excellent but we know that's not the case and this book is written specifically with the objective and the theme that that's not the case that children as young as 9-year-old can and will find these books in other places when they want them and they won't necessarily involve their parents she involved her her parents for the book that she liked but she didn't involve her parents to

305getting all these other books the book itself testifies itself against itself that this promotes something that children once they know it's there they will go out and find it and when they find it they'll blame the school board because we told them not to go find it okay Dr Jones and I forgot to mention this I I did the request for this and I went to to all board members it this book is in three libraries not been checked out in two of them and then been check in the two elementaries been checked out three times in one Middle School okay so I did read the book I read it right away so it's been a little while um so I don't have specific things written down but I remember the gist of the book

306took me three hours to read it maybe uh 4th grade level book um so it's not a book that prek children are going to read it's fourth grade level it's not a book that a lot of high school and middle school kids are going to pick up it's a fourth grade level book it's a book about a little girl that tries to go against the establishment and you know isn't that our right as a society to speak our mind and fight for what we think is right now whether or not the girl was right in her the way she went about it in the end of the book she does say I got in trouble rightfully so um and she gets punished and she learns her lesson from that um and it is a lesson

307to kids that you know you shouldn't do some of things that she did in the book If we don't allow children to see what's right and wrong when they read books how are they going to learn everything about right and wrong because not a par parent can think of everything to teach them about right and wrong so we have to have books that challenge their ability to know what's right and wrong um this book is being challenged because of one thing it says right here identify the basis for your objection the material depicts or describe sexual content as defined in that section if you go to depicts it says show or represent by drawing painting or other art form there was none of that so we can't say it depicts anything um if you go

308to let me go back to that if you go to Define uh describes insexual sexual conduct it does not describe sexual conduct it might refer to another book that does that but she also says I'm not old enough or comfortable enough to read that book and she does refer to that book as being something above her level and not comfortable with good for her to teach other kids that there are some books that she's not ready for she's not ready to learn about those things and she recognizes that um so I'm going off of just what the basis is for the objection which is what probably what the committee did which is what they should do look at the objection and say do I agree with that or not I don't agree with the objection

309here for that book because it does not depict or describe sexual conduct period maybe it refers to other books that do but it does not do that itself it's a cute little book about a little girl that's trying to defy establishment does she go about it in the right way no does she learn her lesson yes could somebody learn a lesson from that yes it's ironic that the book is a about people coming to school boards and asking to ban books that is kind of ironic that this is the first book that's before us um but I find it also interesting that the petitioner who brought a fourth grade level book that took me three hours didn't read the book themselves and that concerns me um that we're looking at hearsay and other information that's

310out there to ban or try to get a book removed I won't use the word ban get a book removed from our shelves without yourself reading the book now could I go back and read 181 books that were on the thing before no I read eight of them because that's what I could get through and still do my job here but when there's one book coming before us yes I think it's my job to read the book and I thank the committee for doing that job reading the book and going to this exact line the material depicts or describes sexual conduct as defined in that section if we're going to follow statute let's follow statute there it is black and white boom depicts or describes sexual conduct as defined in that section the book doesn't

311do that it it spells the word sex s hyphen e hyphen X in it I can't remember what page it was on but there was there was that word spelled um if we're going to start picking apart every little book like this just because we don't like the fact that it's maybe bringing to light what's going on in the the world right now with school districts that's shame on us for not allowing kids to have a difference of opinion or somebody else have a difference opinion the concern I have also is our parents can choose for their child whether or not they choose to read this book or not we already have that in place so why s should somebody else determine what another parents's rights are I have a hard time with that if

312the book is already here now if we're gonna buy the book vet the book and that's what a committee of people did so we've had several eyes on this book before it came to us but yet we're going to be the five people that determined that we know more than all those people that determined that the book was okay before it got to us I have a hard time with that because we're asking people to get on committees review things give us their recommendation but then we're ignoring those and this went from committees that put the book in the library sack committees that had committees look at the books I mean our poor teachers and and Librarians have had to vet books like they've never vet books before and I sat in that seat for

313a year I'm going to tell you it's overwhelming to go through every single book you can't do it it's overwhelming and so that's why you depend on other people to be able to really vet this for you and I have to be able to trust people that are professionals that have gone through it and vetted it and when I'm look looking at this this EXA example right here the identifying basis for the objection if we're not following statute and following exactly what that says and we're going above the statute shame on us Dr Jones I forgot to add one thing I'm sorry um thank you madam chair um I know there is concern with the book that was cited here um and of course I also said that would have to be a parent choosing

314to let a child read that but if we're going to be concerned with books that are citing other books we've got 110,000 volumes of books in 6 through 12 that would be an enormous task because it cites another book that's not even in our library our media centers and that is an issue for me enormous task Miss Rosario um so uh one thing that was mentioned was the sack committee the sack committee only gets the title in the author um and often times you don't know what you don't know and now that we know it we have to take action on it um just because and we're I'm grateful for the committee um but we are the authority to make the final decision that is our statutory right as board members as elected officials you

315may have an issue with it but that is your right and your responsibility to act on it it um and then the other question that was just mentioned before um you know once you are aware that something is inappropriate or not age appropriate I should say uh or doesn't follow with the statutes then you as board members have to make the right decision based on what the law tells us and we can go right back to um the August meeting meeting when we had all of the people come up here and Mr ansbacher said I stand corrected because there are several ways in which a book can be removed or curated it is number one obviously that it is a violation of Statute it has sex uh sexual content in it um I'm sorry a

316violation of the obscenity statute or it has sexual sexual content in it and so on and so forth or it's harmful to minors um the other one or one of the three or four ways is that board members can find that a book is just not appropriate not age appropriate not um um uh something that adds to the literary value of our educational system um and we get to make that decision and now that it is before us here it is we're not dissecting every single book we're only dissecting the one book that is being challenged right now before us we have a great um process right now a great policy a great it took a long time to create that the two policies um including the library objection committee policy um it took a

317long time to get it right we got it right it was a it's a great I I would say it's probably one of the best in the entire State there are districts everywhere who are struggling to get it right the way that we've done it and I want to say thank you to Dr Kyra shafty for actually you know spearheading it and you know getting it to where it is now it was not like this years ago so I'm grateful for your work in it that said it is before us right now and we get to make that decision so um Mr McDonald you wanted to say something oh I wanted to say something else sorry um Mr ansbacher at the meeting at the the very first one actually a conversation came up um a

318question to you was raised about an external link or an external resource you actually said sir um that I believe it was something to the as a matter of fact um if there is an external resource or an external uh source that a book is reporting that we should uh use the same scrutiny with that external Resource as we would with the book that's right before us I'm not using your exact word sir but I know that that was what you mentioned that through the chair for the second time tonight I will give you a yeah but um but I think you're you're mostly right but what happened was I looked at M Pippen's objection and it appeared as though the Crux of the objection was was to say that the three sentence chapter at

319page 53 um that referred onto its perfectly normal um was so integrated that uh it made the book itself that was objected to uh objectionable under 1 628 because the sexual conduct in the one uh was incorporated into the other and what I did as a result because I'd never seen this argument was I called Judy bone who's the deputy general counsel at Department of Education and I've dealt with Judy she's like me she's been around for many years um and her analysis as I described it twice to the committee was it essentially if the finder a fact committee below this board analyzes the incorporation by reference and makes the determination even if that book is not on our shelves that it's so integrated that whether it's that it's an attractant or or whatever again

320that the finder of fact ultimately can make that determination and that's the advice I gave below that is what I would suggest here um I would say um there are as with any statute there are ambiguities on and a couple of things so I just want to make sure two things are known one is um normally if you're looking at something from a subordinate board that is a record review it says if the record below shows X then you can uphold it doesn't say that so the what Judy had indicated because I was going through the process Doe's general counsel takes the position that you all have what's called denovo review that is to say you look at it um almost as though it's for the first time what that means as far as the

321committee below I didn't draft the legislature did and I'm just telling you what the Doe's legal said and the other is because Ms Pippen's objection was regarding the sexual conduct are ument whatever your vote is I I'm not saying you can't go under subsection 4 which is whether it's um whether it's grade or age appropriate but subsection two if you're going I think that there is a discussion overlapping both of those subsections I would request that any vote tonight be based on the issue as it was framed which is whether or not not with that integration um one you determine it's sufficient that the sexual conduct that's described and and exhibited and it's perfectly normal is deemed to exist within ban this book and then two that you if you do find that that you

322make the vote based on that I I don't I'm not saying you can't do it based on subsection for I'm just saying it's probably the cleaner whether it's thumbs up or thumbs down thank you sir yep okay before you make a motion no actually one more comment go ahead okay thank you um the word curated keeps coming up so I looked it up in the Oxford dictionary because I've never heard the word curated substituted for the word ban so I wanted to know what exactly that meant as far as removing books I can't find in the definition curated that it's referring to removing removing books what it says is selected organized presented using professional and expert knowledge um to select organize and look after the items in a collection and to select the performers or

323performances that will feature an Arts event or program or to select organize and present online content merchandise information it doesn't say anything about removal so that word curate does not refer to what we're doing here okay what we're doing here is being asked to remove a book from our shelves I just want to point that out go ahead um to that point um I think everything we do in the school district is curation we determine what we're going to spend our money on what's appropriate what achieves our goals and what fulfills our strategy and everything we do should be every penny that Bruce looks at and proves should be curated towards those goals and strategies um whether the whether we particularly if we don't own them we shouldn't be buying them um the point was

324made that parents can control whether or not their children read the book but I'm positive that parents can't go in cannot control whether their child can look at view a book that's in the library much L I don't think we have a system to control whether they can take it out but they can certainly take it off the shelf and they can look at it and this book particularly publishes the list of of those books on the back cover so that children don't even have to check it out they can pick it up off the shelf and they have it however the point was made that um nine-year-olds need to learn right and wrong at some point we all need to know learn right and wrong but it's pretty far back for me to remember

325being nine but at nine I needed to learn what was right I didn't need the schools to teach me what was wrong yet I pretty much found that on my own but later in my life is the appropriate time to find out what now that I know what's right what isn't right and ideally we teach them why we think this is right and why we think this is wrong when while they're making that decision and that's not what this book is doing and it's at an inappropriately inappropriately early age and I think that if it were in a high school we probably wouldn't have the decision if it was one of the Six Million books that we don't see we wouldn't see them we do have a process to surface those books that we should

326review and should make a choice on this process surfaced this one book and as M Rosario uh mentioned it is now our responsibility to determine whether this is an appropriate book for an eight or nine-year-old to be picking up off shelf and um and reading and and do they get the right um kind of information and is it of any value at all and I think that it fails on on all those counts in addition to the count that it recommends books that we that would not fall within our jurisdiction in terms of being inappropriate um phonography do you want to make a motion I'll be glad to make the motion okay I move that we direct the superintendent to not purchase this book and remove the four from the shelves as it is not

327appropriate for elementary schools and that it promotes books which are deemed to be inappropriate for this age um and age group and it teaches rebellion of school board authority by a nine-year-old and by the librarian and it is offensive to a large segment of our parents I'll second second okay I'm just making sure that we can go with that um motion okay um so we have a motion by Mr McDonald a second by m Rosario all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say no no 32 it passes all right moving right along item C on the action agenda is a recommendation from the board to identify a board member actually it's item D um the mo Committee Member so if Madam chair if you facilitate a conversation in order and then

328a vote to figure out who is going to replace Mr Barefoot on no is there anybody interested I'm will okay anybody opposed all right Mr McDonald I believe you will fill that role thank you we usually don't vote on that at the um November meeting we just all agree to whoever's going to do it um item e yep um same same item but this is the Indian River Shores Planning and Zoning commission however it needs to be amended what's written here because the commission now meets on second Tuesday of the month at 9:30 in the morning at City Hall um for Indian River Shores this position was previously held by Mr barefoot are there any interested board members I don't like 9:30 but I'm willing okay thank you Mr McDonald anyone else willing or oppose

329to that okay thank you all right action agenda item F this is approval of resolution 2024-25 millage by local referendum Dr Moore um as you just said uh Madam chair this is the item that we've had in place since 2008 uh heading back to the voters in November to continue along the same three tracks that it did in the previous uh election expanding uh School Safety and Security recruiting um high quality Educators recruiting and retaining high quality Educators and then sustaining the technology that we've have in place um so I will not give the entire presentation but I've given it probably 12 13 if not more times in the last January uh all received extremely well across our entire Community um and I will say this as a school board um you are very diligent

330in making sure that we are extremely efficient with the funds that we do have available and we have you know maintained um expectations regarding the ex what we use for these funds and we've delivered uh in a high and Powerful way so we have a one-on-one initiative completely across our district with technology uh We've expanded um te um technology greatly as well as security and as we referenced earlier we've been able to move um to the sixth highest uh paid District in the state and we want to continue to do that and looking at surrounding counties uh they all assess more put a more of a burden on their Community whether it is a half a half Mill as we have but in addition a sales tax or a full Mill um so they receive

331significantly more funding than we do um but they are looking at up looking up at us when it comes to academic outcomes and we will continue to be fiscally responsible with these funds uh and continue to be um the highest achieving District on the Treasure Coast that is the item okay can I get a motion for the item so move okay Dr Jones second by Mr McDonald um this one ask for roll call um Dr well first of all it doesn't call for discussion but can we discuss or does anybody want to discuss this it's getting late thank you Dr Pasa um yes so just a a point of order um just because it keeps happening a roll call is uh when you're determining who's present a roll call vote is you want a documented

332vote um of an i roll call vote it's a roll call Vote Yes yeah y i he said I okay thank you Mrs Rosario I Dr Jones I Mrs Barbor I Mr McDonald I okay the ma the motion passed with a vote of 5- Z action agenda item G uh Indian River education fund founding board members Dr Mo this item is as you did last month you approved the board this is the founding three board members John katuna who was the CEO at Piper Airline which is the private the largest private employer in our community uh says William but we all know him Miss Bill Penny who is the president and CEO of marine uh Bank and Trust and the Matthew uh rundel who is the senior director CEO of Northern Trust um these are

333significant individuals who are solely focused in on helping us guide the creation and development of the Ed fund and will come back in November um with our official launch okay any board member discussion all right I'll call for a motion for a vote May I I do actually um it's maybe it's just a comment and I'll have Dr Moore kind of add to it um I just want to um clarify Dr Moore that these three initial board members are are just to get it started but we still can fill up to I think it it's 11 or 15 board members through the chair I I won't do like Sid and say yeah but but uh yes they will do the initial work founding board members uh and then we will come back we'll have the

334opportunity to expand up to 15 you were correct okay thank you call for a motion so move okay Dr Jones second second Mr Rosario all those in favor favor say I I I anyone opposed passes 5 Z all right um we are now to our discussion items discussion a bylaw 0152 Dr PCA we have several speakers on this first uh is Mr Marsh still here okay I'm sorry I no good evening Michael C Mar I'm sorry I'm sorry point of order uh Mr anspacher uh citizen comments in discussion items we're not taking formal action we talked about this before you said no we do not have it this isn't a a uh it's not required by Statute your policy is sort of murky it's not murky it says items in which we are taking action

335on it's not mer it's not murky it's pretty clear actually I'm sorry I don't mean to you're the lawyer but it is it is pretty it is pretty clear it it's it's items that have uh that we are taking action on that would be consistent with 286 0114 thank you it is the pleasure of the the board I F thank you I spoke in the past so please don't take my fre spee you did so I apologize for that hold on a second I I have a question we have a um we have a form and on the form it says I wish to speak to a board discussion item as printed on the discussion agenda so are we not following the form anymore um you know frankly particularly given that we're going to be

336out of here around midnight I'm as far as I'm concerned I would suggest if we're going to change the form which gives notice to people that they will have the opportunity for discussion we need to change the form um it's but it's again it's it's the pleasure of the board but if that's what and we have done it I I would suggest that we change the form but not in this meeting this we changeting but it but Mr anspacher as a point just one second because I was speaking to him okay go ahead um so in order to change the form though that should be brought to the board for an action item correct and and to be CED if we wanted to get hyper technical the policy controls but the form creates an expectation

337I think for one night let's say we're going to change the form to comport with the policy but my recommendation would be one last time please just do speak all right so so I think that maybe we could put that that on our next agenda that would be wonderful our next um thank you wait I I have a question still um Mr ansbacher um if we've spent more time on this and had we just let him speak for three if the board um chose CH not to do this right now this discussion no have citizens talk to discussion items if the board chose not to would that be by motion it would be by motion but I would again suggest that if a form says on discussion and we have someone who signed up for

338it I I would recommend you do it I don't think it's illegal I just just think again we've spent more than the three minutes I'd recommend you just I could have been done with per and I understand the point and and and the polic is correct but thank you it's easy enough to change the all right for you Mr ANB I won't make a motion so miss Mr Rosario will'll put that on our next U I certainly would love to thank you Mr Marsh I'm sorry is this per or are we doing bylaws I'm so we're doing the bylaw one 0152 then I come back for per right yes wasn't on the printed agenda we we'll get we'll get to that next just speak to this item pleas take what you got we'll talk about

339that on Tuesday good evening Michael C Mar proud parent of the district Wildcat Champions thank you very much so I'm looking at this policy I'm a little confused because this one here is back from 2013 over a decade ago and um this smells a little suspicious I'm not quite sure looking to remove the chair and vice chair and my other legal question would be so does the State statue Trump what this policy would be because I believe there's something in State Statute that already speaks to this does it not um so I hopefully we'll get answer to that listen let the voters speak in August if those who are running hey let the let the vote speak for himself you know we heard all night about you know I got the seat from the governor

340and un imposed here so I don't think we should change any policy and or let's just wait till August what's the big deal why all of a sudden we do it now think it's just to remove the amazing chair and vice chair I'm a little sleepy hey look the time's not going so I got unlimited time thank you very much no no that I I'm no how long have I been speaking who's taking a minute I'm sleepy anyway good night thank you Jennifer Freeland did she leave okay we missed you Miss Maddox um I think that's important Ren Rob here not here um Anthony Stewart he's here he's there I'm Anthony Stewart live resident of this County speaking Vietnam veteran thank you on tour to and I've been here and observed so much in my

341life I was raised in gford and I witnessed clu clerk Clan burning crosses in front of people houses Etc I remember rallies they had I'm not too thrill about getting for right agendas in seats that I know going to perpetuate hatred and I think that their records speak for themselves if a person who hate hate because of difference a person that love can love also in spite of difference these are choices that people make and we allow these people to come and make decisions for our children people who making decisions about books ban about sex and yet their Founders was in jail in court last week about some stuff that they done sexually illegal and probably should be in jail we talk about Flags people making decisions I fought for this country and the flag

342but I never thought I'd see the flag being used to beat police officers to jab them I never thought I would ever live to see that day but yet we got people here don't see nothing wrong with that but they see something wrong with a child who know nothing about the flag simply because they haven't taught him they see something wrong with him sitting down on the flag pledge Madam chair we have with people talking about Marxism yeah um but yet in still we still have Mr stick stick to the agenda item which is um about yeah I'm sticking to it because I'm saying some of the same people who want those seats of the people whom I'm talking about I'm sticking to the agenda if you can talk about Marxism and support autocracy you

343don't have no business leading our chur children and leading this school on board not at all and we know the agenda of these people you've seen it over and over if a person tell you who they are you watch them if they show you who they are believe them they have shown us who they are they want to sit up in those seats thank you sir Madam chair thank you sir Madam chair yes uh this is one of the reasons why it's important that we not have citizens talking during discussion because we haven't even discussed the item yet we don't even know what the item is going to be okay uh Lewis Holmes still here okay yes sir good evening I'm sleepy um we were talking about this item I think first of all that

344for people to sit in that chair they have to be competent they have to be capable they have to have experience I don't think that any of the people that we have that are posturing for this position that you now hold are capable I don't think they're comp uh competent and I don't think point of order yes sir I don't think speaking to members of the board is appropriate I haven't called a name yeah I haven't heard a name did you hear a name I haven't I haven't called sorry I'm really tired me too I haven't called a name okay my time is still running while you're talking it's supposed to be a monologue but it's turned into a dialogue exactly so my time is still going did you stop it but we'll give it

345I would appreciate that okay um competent capable and don't have an original thought that can be given there was an indication early I heard of some member I don't remember I don't recall which one it was that produced uh a paper that was edited um but plagiarize would be a better word because the only thing that was put in was Indian River County instead of where it was stolen I mean where it came from but it's plagiarism and if you can't have an original thought if you can't have your own thought if you're trying to Foster your own ideology it spreads like cancer and this school board becomes really a fact simile of what it once was and this was a great School Board this County was great but pushing personal agendas and shoving it

346down people's throat simply because you've bought into an ideology and you're going to force it on everybody else it makes no sense thank you okay thank you sir all right Dr PCA this is your item so the bylaw 152 um discusses the uh appointment of the chair and vice chair and uh I think it would make sense to amend it uh currently the in our County the chair and vice chair are elected by the board majority um and they ultimately are supposed to serve the board majority um I think the the board majority therefore should have a procedural power um to replace these positions um this is a common sense function um on many boards um that should probably exist on this one um in the event that a chair or vice chair are perceived

347by the board majority to no longer represent the board's interests or carry out their Duty appropriate um appropriately um so I would recommend amending the bylaw 0152 to include a statement on removing the chair and vice chair um by a motion a second um and a majority vote um by what date are you giving us a date on that discussion because it's already there it says that and it says November I'm sorry what are you asking well it's already there about the vote and it says we do it November according to statute you should amend the bylaw 0152 to include a statement on removing the chair and vice Chair by a motion a second and a simple majority vote oh you're saying for the November vote a motion in a second is that what you're

348saying no basically at any time you can make a motion to vacate the chair or vice chair with a second and a majority vote anytime board members it's a discussion I I he's he's it's a discussion I do have a question for the um attorney uh it's right now it says the organizational meeting shall be called to order by the superintendent um this policy does not have the month of November in there um it is understood that our organizational meeting um occurs in November but this policy doesn't have November in it um that said are there any statutes or laws If This Were recommended to be changed the way Dr PCA is asking are there any rules or laws that we would have to be aware of so as not to violate them well the

349organization of District School Board statute is 1,371 that's the one that says it's supposed to be done each November I will say because I've been asked this U I asked several people who are election experts and I've asked people who are schol School Board counsel and while I've been told that this is done elsewhere and I know that it's certainly been done um in other types of boards I've dealt with I've not seen it in a school board before um the only thing I have found and Molly and I I think found it separately but it's um there's an old attorney general opinion ad42 that is from 1980 under the predecessor statute before it was recodified to the 1000s but it's still basically the same statutory framework that um asked if certain limitations and changes

350could be made as far as um how many consecutive terms whether they could term limit and there's General language in there that says the only thing that is sacran is the organizational meeting and selection of the chair and the vice chair um other than that if you wanted under the home rule authority of a school board to otherwise modify the election uh you can as long as it's not inconsistent and inconsistent in preemption in Florida law is either it's prohibited which it's not or it renders the other one impossible to perform which it's not I will caution that in doing it you can create create sort of a freefor all but I don't see anything that's a Prohibition the only other thing I could say would be you could ask for an attorney general opinion

351but by the time you get that it'll be August it'll be September as it is if you were to try to do it during this term it would be almost the the blinking of an eye that you you'd have a different board chair and vice chair but those are just observations board members no comments oh none none for me okay well when you look at statute 10001 371 it does say that in November of each year the district school board shall organize by electing the chair and then Vice chair um and that coincides with our policy the organizational meeting we don't say November but that is in State Statute looking at something like this we would be superseding State Statute is that correct um I I don't think it's preempted having said it if we

352weren't right up against the end of the term which we would be by the time that you would be able to notice the workshop and and the effective date you know I would I would recommend an attorney general opinion only because I couldn't find it anywhere and and what I found is not on all fours by any means but you know it it would indicate that it's not preempted okay so as far as you know there's no other school board in the state that's done something like this other than the organizational meeting which is in State Statute and I I've not found it but I've not got answers from everyone I've reached out to but everyone I've reached out to no one has seen it I I do know again other boards I I've seen

353County commission for example where they've done it but you know I I've never seen it with with any school board with which I'm familiar of course I don't know every school board and it's it states clearly in our policy the chair and vice chair have no other you know Powers than the regular school board members I mean that isn't our policy Mr ansbacher the last part of one1 371 says this section does not apply to any school district with the District Schoolboard chair who is elected by district-wide vote do you know of any um situation like that no ma'am okay it's interesting okay so I I just think that uh the organizational meeting which is a November State Statute says it's a November we should not changes I think it' be a precedent that um

354would not be good for the school district in general anyone else um I sorry I um I do have um just some questions um to throw out to Dr PCA I mean he's free to you know write up whatever he wants to write up and give it to us at the next Workshop of course um but um there was something that Mr ansbacher mentioned that is concerning um and if it's just broadly put in there then we could wind up voting with you know one majority or another majority every other month for a new chair or a new Vice chair um so I'm not I'm not sure how else to word it to prevent that kind kind of abuse um so I don't know if it would be like for cause or for a good

355cause or for you know a violation of Ethics or something um that that would certainly be up to you Dr PCA but um so that that would only be that would be my only concern you know what Mr anspacher mentioned um because we certainly don't want that to happen yeah I mean I think if you just think about this logically um the board appointed a chair and a vice chair um certainly they had that power to elect those two individuals um it makes sense that they would also have the power to remove them if they according to their perception fail to live up to the expectations upon them um I think in general the worst case scenario have really the only negative is that as you're saying frequently someone is trying to yeah elect a

356new chair or vice chair um I I I kind of tend to think that it's not going to be used very often it's going to act essentially as a safeguard um and at the end of the day it is the board majority that's going to make the decision um so really it's the will of the board um the chair and the vice chair because it was the old board um I think it makes that they're no longer serving the boards will board can then move them um certainly as you said the biggest negative is if if there's constant changing or attempts to change um which I would not want that would be a negative I don't think it's going to be used very often um I think it's going to be used when people feel

357that ultimately those positions are not being fulfill to what they should be yeah I mean I think you certainly have the right to find I mean maybe fine-tune it or you know put in the words that would that you would be recommending you know if there was a caveat like you mentioned you know if if there is for cause or you know whatever it it is um I'd certainly you know it's up certainly up to you to to kind of craft it bring it back to us if you so choose yeah no I I think we can have more discussion at the workshop I my opinion is that I would probably not put in stipulations about essentially like a four cause issue um because ultimately it's going to make the process a lot more difficult

358and upsetting for people and that's really not the goal of it the goal is to get back to business that that business is ultimately going to be the will of the board majority so there's a concern I have and that is um when we vote on this in November there's also um some legal stuff that the um board chair is responsible for um not just running the meetings but I sign all the contracts so you're looking at an issue if you consistently are changing chairs or change a chair more often than a year you're going to have to look at some legal changes of contracts and also um the least seen organization Corporation stuff um that goes on in November for and it's for a year it's a year contract so um that concerns me

359that we're going to be flip-flopping on this and then we're going to be out of compliance with some contracts so um there are some things to consider consider here not just who's running the meeting it's um contractual um legal ease and um you know at this point we're following statute I don't know why we want to go above statute because we tend to um quote statute a lot around here and that's important to us and I think the legislators are the ones that put laws forward um so this is a law maybe go to our legislators and say have you ever thought about you know changing the law a little bit to tweak it and give us more Direction because the legal part of the contracts are concerning to me very yeah but the attorney

360already said we're not going above the law so to claim that we're going above the law is is not accurate because the attorney said we're not that's my opinion I have an opinion to that um any other discussion on it okay moving on uh moving to item we are on 11 thank you just popped off yeah mine just left me okay 11b this political activities by Miss Rosario um the item States um business meeting agenda discussion information on political activities we do have as speaker is Mr Marsh thank you very much uh through the chair I'm so glad board member Rosario brought this up because I do support this but there's a couple of things on the supporting documents I'm a little confused on I only made it through a pargal degree so no attorney

361here uh but we're referencing a 2007 legal opinion we we couldn't find one that was a little earlier than almost 20 years ago the Hatch Act that we also reference I believe that's just for federal employees so I'm a little confused on that one I don't believe they're federal employees here um but what is important is for many many months we had this beautiful sign outside and I I'm not sure how that's legal I I don't know at what point do we stop and allow people to campaign utilizing School District property so my question is if we allow that I don't know this huge billboard a fixed to a pickup truck if that's okay tomorrow can we bring in electronic billboard on a box truck I don't know with a sheriff candidate's name on it

362what's the difference we allowed this months upon months also in this policy it talks about that School District staff should not be involved pretty much any which way with political candidates and via Facebook I seen a bunch of smiling faces with a couple Sheriff's Office candidates at a school function I don't get it I I I don't understand how that's allowed so I really look forward to hearing the board member present this item because schools are not for our political races period let the best man win or woman cuz Coy is a woman and keep an eye of the schools and some of these poor people who don't want to be involved in politics get dragged into come take a picture and I'm going to post it on my Sheriff's candidacy page that's disgusting absolutely

363disgusting and again I'm going to finish up and I hope there's discussion on it I don't know how that little pickup truck out there for months upon months was able to stay out there and I know they're not a school district employee I get that because I was told that by higher leadership however that sends a very bad message I don't care if it's a personal vehicle if it was a vehicle from the sheriff's department either which way it should have never sat here and was allowed to campaign month after month after month is that in any of these policies what do we do for employees I don't know let's just bring up the sheriff's department what what if we get a captain that's over Schools are they allowed to have these signs of fix

364during a political race is that against the policy I really want to answer to that because months upon months as all these School District employees had to come to this building they got to see that mighty mighty sign but don't worry August is right around the corner take care okay Mr raro your item thank you um again until we discuss an item no one understands what we're putting the items on here for nor can we explain what what uh uh you know which uh backup items um are on there and why so a little bit of a Backup backup background on April 15 2024 the superintendent um send out an email to all staff um as he generally does during political season um just letting uh faculty and staff know what they can and cannot

365do during this time a few uh policies were included in that email um they were policies 3232 42 32 all three of those of course um and essentially uh these polic say uh what was in his email which is that employees must remain mindful of not participating in political campaigning for an elected elective office while on duty with the district essentially what that says is if you are a faculty or staff member and you are running choosing to run choosing to be a political candidate in some other office you cannot do that while on Duty that's what that says because the language is very clear um you cannot uh participate in political campaigning for an elected elective office um and that is supported with um the statute which I do not have right in front

366of me I have it in my other tab so looking at those policies though um the policies the ones that I just mentioned um speak specifically to uh Florida statute 10611 on what is defined as electioneering communication which is essentially what is prohibited in our school district and electioneering and again this is specific to people who are uh choosing to participate in political campaigning for an elective office and that is um electioneering Communications shall mean any communication that is publicly distributed by a television station radio station cable television station satellite system newspaper magazine direct mail or telephone Flags car magnets and stickers personal stickers or stickers on personal vehicles is not a part of election engering communication so I'm going to come to that in just a second um that is the same messaging on

367all three of those policies the other um so the question that I had when I looked at that email which I have during every time he sends out the email we have the same concern I have the same concern so finally I think it's time that we address it um this same kind of question has come up time and time again well what about my car can I have magnets or stickers on my car what we don't want which has happened in the past many times is where faculty and staff members are told well you have a political sticker on your car so you have to take it off uh we don't want that I don't want that everybody is entitled to their First Amendment right um so I think that that should be addressed

368by the school board um I there was an email that I received from um Suzanne Diaga who was our previous attorney previous previous uh two previous did you say that Dr Moore uh political and it was it was really about political signs on cars I mean we go this goes back all the way to 2020 um and essentially and her email very specifically says and referencing a different policy that that we have policy 9150 she says in response to your August 11th 2020 email below um Schoolboard policy 9150 addresses political activity she says the political the policy prohibits political signs on or in Schoolboard property buildings and vehicles however the policy does not prohibit passive political expression such as bumper stickers on personal vehicles I believe a car magnet would fall into the same category

369as a bumper sticker so long as it was not on it so long as it was on a personal vehicle and not a Schoolboard owned vehicle and so that policy um is one of the backups as well and that policy um is pretty it it it could be understood two different ways there's one area in that Sony way so that was that's that right so that's what I'd like to add is language that is very clear that helps guide the superintendent's messaging to uh faculty and staff that it is clear um that passive uh political expression such as bumper stickers or magnets on personal vehicles not work vehicles [Music] um be uh I suppose allowed so if you look at 9150 it's really not very clear in one area 9150 says that you that it

370is prohibited to have um that no officer or employee shall participate in any political activities while on duty and then it goes on to say and not otherwise prohibited we're in displaying a bumper sticker and then on the other side um it says other political activities political signs as used herein shall not include advertising on clothing bumper stickers and sun shades so it just needs to be fine-tuned a little bit I think we need to just be clear about what is allowed and what isn't allowed um so um that is why I um am bringing this here I talked to the superintendent about it I not going to speak for him um and but I do believe that he it would help guide his work if we just kind of just clean it up a

371little bit um the biggest question or the biggest concern um that I have of course is uh what is provided in statutes what is provided in yes the very the old 2007 um Ashley Moody um um opinion and that actually says which is what happened in Monroe County uh there was an issue with Monroe County that anyway so um it actually States in here Public School authorities May reasonably conclude it is not possible to permit instructors to engage in classroom political advocacy and at the same time successfully disassociate uh the school from such advocacy um that was just specifically talking to classroom advocacy um but essentially it is the responsibility of the district however to determine a narrowly tored means of accomplishing its purpose without infringing upon the Free Speech rights of its employees so

372I just want to make sure that we get that clear there was a question about a car that was out in front with a big sign on it um it was clarify it was cleared it was clear that that uh individual was not an employee our policies do not dictate what non-employees do our policies can only dictate what employees and um faculty and staff do here in our in our district um the Hatch Act was put on there as a backup only because we had a citizen who bring bring this brought this to our attention um and so I think it was out of complete transparency to add that in there it is for um uh it does I do know um talking with um our attorney uh um it it's not something that we

373would did I not talk to you I think you did yeah because you're you're okay so it's not it's not something that is really uh going to affect my recommendations here um I've just decided to add this on there again to be fully transparent um so you all have all of the information in front of you well just very quickly sir on the record um the Hatch Act does apply to certain local and state individuals or entities that get Federal funding um employees in educational and research institutions are categorically exempt and uh there are several opinions Federal opinions that say specifically that if if you are an employee in a uh essentially in in something like a school district you would be categorically exemp so maybe someone else who works with us who gets Federal

374funding in another agency might be an issue but none of our people would be affected by Hatch Act question yes sir um I'm wondering I just dawned on me because I didn't see it when I went read through this previous ly but does it someplace Define what um political activity and political signs consist of ises that does that apply specifically to candidate or uh this it doesn't say it's just it just says political you know so I I would assume if you have you know a Biden sticker a trump sticker or somebody on some ballot yeah I think there are other issues which are like or your your name on your card or could be other politically oriented things that are not something the reason why this came up with um Miss aggress I'm sorry

375Mr McDonald that's right no the reason why this came up with Miss di uh Diaga um in 2020 was because there was um I had I think my own sign I don't even know another another sign from a local candidate I think was on my car um it was either a magnet or a sticker um and so someone was like well you should shouldn't have that on your car it's my personal vehicle I'm not going to take something off of my personal vehicle I'm allowed my f and anyway so she clarified no problem with that we're still it's not a big issue here according to what I know um it has happened where there have been employees who have been a target of someone saying you got to take your sticker off of your car

376a sticker um but it's it is rare nonetheless I think it still needs to be addressed I think it still needs to be fixed cleaned up so are you asking the superintendent then to bring that to our next workshop with clarification yeah I'm just bringing it to your attention um I wanted your feedback on it so that um I'd be happy to work with the superintendent and staff to just and of course Mr ansbacher as usual to just clean it up and make sure that it is clear question yes so has there been an issue this year other than the sticker on the car that um could be on there has there been any other issue Dr Moore chair other than that one inue issue not that I'm aware of yes sir yeah actually there

377was the issue with the one of the sheriff's uh employees did have a rather large side in the back of his pickup truck which was put to your put to your attention now that by the reading of this that is not a violation not a violation at all uh even a much larger truck a panel truck might not be a violation it might be something you might want to consider putting a size limitation on a 2x3 Magnet or something some reasonable size limitation that goes beyond a a personal so are we going to do that for everybody then that comes to visit at a board meeting that has their car parked out here no sorry you know that that's my concern what I'm saying like that you know if you're asking it not to be

378an employee I think we're running into another issue um that's he's not an employee that's a question to do we want to because up on here it says uh folling forms of political activity shall be prohibited at all times at school facilities we can't impose limitations on anyone doing any kind of political political activity on the property so I'm necessarily promoting that but I think the issue was raised Dr Moore had to to deal with it at this point it was legitimate but we might we might with this topic want to review that again and determine if we want to put some kind of a a reasonable limitations such that Dr Moore would have more grounds to respond to Dr John just I think we're getting to the weeds a little bit he can take

379a look at it see what major issues are and then bring it back to the board yeah we can discuss that in our next Workshop that's okay all right um item 11 c m wait we didn't hear Dr PCA had any I'm sorry Dr PCA um yeah I'll just say that it it sounds like we might want to look at this further and um at least make sure the staff are fully aware of the expectations that we have for them um even though we we may or may not have recognized that it's an issue I don't think it's something we're really looking at closely um I think in general we probably want to avoid large political dialogues in our schools um especially about local politics and uh you know for instance like Biden versus Trump

380is that going to help the kids in their classroom if there if there's a constant discussion between teachers and signs and stickers all throughout the parking lot probably not going to help them um you know I think in general what apolitical okay okay um we are to 11c which is child trafficking prevention for schools is mrar item but we have two speakers Mr Marsh thank you good evening it's another great item Through The Chair by board member Rosario Florida became the first state in the country to mandate child trafficing prevention education for students in grades K through 12 the rule was advocated for by students at the FSU College of laws human trafficking and exploitation law project you know it's it's very good that I know that through Drew all of our systems in place

381I.E Raptor uh that those individuals who do not belong on our campuses they're not getting in so thank you very much to the chair Dr Moore Sheriff flowers and uh that's it it's late and I'm done okay it's Kenneth Simon here okay thank you this is an article I copied from The New York Times May 1st 2024 edition of their newspaper um page 12 of section A and it was a reporter that came down at the end of April 2 12th in Delaware or A Woman's World Abortion Center in Fort Pierce and I go there on Saturday morning's early uh sir excuse me one second does that have to do with child trafficking yes okay and if you'll look at the underlined uh last column the words that are underlined and I wanted to bring

382that to your attention uh because we have seen this with young ladies of that age uh being escorted in and out of the place often with tears just um prepubescent appearing children string beans of little girls and it's a heartbreak sometime getting into a a large Mercedes SUV or a van and um we noticed the driver one time had a diamond in his ear and um it's a heartbreak to see this and I've we called the police Fort Pierce police there they came down and said there's nothing we can do heaw HEPA stop us from doing anything I've notified this uh County's sheriff's department when they gave lectures on child trafficking at one of our big uh Co um churches and I went to the head of the detective department child trafficking from the sheriff's

383department mentioned it to him he had no idea this kind of stuff was going on he wasn't even very familiar about this Abortion Center which is the one for the counties around us the center it's been going on if you read this for 31 years and so I would like to bring it to your attention because you have one of the greatest detective agencies of 177,000 children's ears and eyes and if they they pick up on some of these things going on I'd like you to consider not just turn it right over to the sheriff or call the police but look at some of the national organizations which have 800 numbers that you can call you know there was a movie out uh with Jim cavel as the ACT main actor but it was discussing

384child trafficking and uh importing children and and they can move around a lot I don't think you'll have students from your school involved in it but they may pick up on it in their neighborhoods so if you please be alert to that if you're going to work on this subject thank you thank you okay um Mr Rosario this your item yes um so at the January 9th uh Indian River County Board of Commissioners meeting Michelle cig expressed um her gratitude to the Commissioners for raising awareness um uh to this for the on this issue of child trafficking um they uh unanimously supported a proclamation uh recognizing human trafficking awareness in Indian River County I'm going to just share this with you all you can take one and pass it back it's their actual Proclamation um

385and this wasn't the first one of its kind that came to my attention recently there was another one um that came to my attention um in St Lucy County in Martin County um and I believe there is also one in uh West Palm Beach um there are several um and so as I looked uh further into this um oh let me also say that there is another one also at uh the January 25th meeting held in Indian River Shores it was their regular Town council meeting they also pledged a proclamation for the same purpose for Florida um State Al for the Florida Faith Alliance um to end human trafficking um at this meeting uh mayor Foley read the proclamation um in the record and of course he presented it to one of the um representatives

386of this organiz ation so the founder of visionary School of Arts and Florida Faith Alliance her name is Lynn Barletta um Lynn Barletta began her professional career um uh teaching art and writing curriculum um and uh really her focus is in the Arts I would I would say um but she has already met with Mr Seymour which I found out after um I didn't put the two together she's already met with I believe it was Mr Seymour and um someone else uh to present this um so there I I'm not sure exactly where we are in the process um but I think that it would be a welcome invitation to allow her some I don't know maybe 10 15 minutes at our next Workshop to present to us what it is that she does and

387why um Martin County um um is supporting a partnership with her in this um effort I do know that there is a child trafficking uh prevention program that she offers through a video series with curriculum we are we do have a statute um that uh makes sure um that we are addressing um child trafficking and the issues that are that come along with that um the human trafficking if you go to the Department of Education uh website the human trafficking um resources all of the resources are there um including links to uh abuse hotlines obviously and then some um other materials that uh school districts can um um or people anyone really because it's open to the public can access um so nonetheless um just kind of bringing it to your attention because I would

388like to invite her um to present at the very least you know we can kind of give if we're if we like what we hear um we can always give the superintendent and U Mr Seymour the thumbs up and say this sounds like a great program um if not you know then the opposite could occur but certainly I am open to having her come in um and and and just presenting to us I mean we have nothing to lose um other districts are grabbing hold of this and um and they're loving it so I think that um it is certainly something that we can look into okay any other board members discussion on this just one yes yeah I I'll just say um it sounds like a very good resource and I would recommend bringing

389her into the workshop to hear more about it hear their presentation and um I think we should consider using materials and U see what she has to say thank you okay Dr johnes um when I was here with Miss dampier for the year we met with somebody from Martin County and I know Pam Miss dampier followed through on that but I too would like to see her coming I don't know if she's the same person but okay any kind of information we could get would be great wonderful thank you I just know um I've heard uh about this through from Martin County when I was at the Treasure Coast council local governments meeting um that was discussed and also um I guess uh Milo Thorton also has been meeting with her so um I know

390that he has a process already in place so we might want to know what's going on there before we go any further with that I'm but I'm for having her come and speak at a a workshop wonderful okay so Dr Moore I will share this information you probably already have it and we'll get it set up for the next Workshop thank you okay next item is per exam and um Mr rosarios has this item and I I will say um I know Mr Marsh you asked about whether or not you could speak to that item but I am looking at the discussion items and you didn't put down that you'd like to speak to any discussion item so I'm so sorry okay Mr sorio go ahead but you let him speak to the other discussion

391items because it was printed on there that he wrote on okay this he didn't all right bullet we got to fix this thank you um so the per uh discussion so I've had some um people come to me and just say hey you know our website doesn't have per information so I went on our website and I did a a search and it really doesn't um the only thing that comes up when I do a a search for per is dual enrollment and action step 1.28 so it really doesn't have anything specific to per um and the per for those who don't know is the postsecondary education Readiness test um it is the purpose of it is to determine uh placement if students want to dual enroll um in Indian River State College they can

392you know take the per test in engl in Reading in writing and in math and if they get a certain score they can start taking um college classes so um then I I just started to get curious and I started to do some searches on other websites um and I will tell you that uh bravard county has a per um study guide for each one of those sub subjects um and it's actually with a link to Florida State College at Jacksonville um the other ones that I have seen have been in Duval County um Broward County Oola County um so there are quite a few Hernando County uh but in our County we don't so I would just like the superintendent to look into this if um and and you know give us a report

393back on that if you can and if we if indeed my search was wrong and there is a link if you can send that to us if not why not create it we need something to help students on their own if they're interested they can just click on it they could take the the study samples with links to wherever these uh per resources might be it is incredibly important for students um and it certainly will help help them obviously if they are interested in um advancing while in school um so not not a big discussion item but I if we're going to do it I'd rather not bring this up at the next meeting because then we get closer to the opening of school and I didn't mention it to you in r10 because I

394forgot so here it is okay and any other board members want to speak about per Dr MO is that test still used for yes Accord scores as well as uh as M EOC okay all right in the pass rate on that is do you remember Dr Moore compared to 14 for the math no I mean percentage of kids making it on the per vers the algebra EOC or I know that's off the cover I I'll include that in in the update to the board I I probably do three hours ago I probably could have just recite that off but right now I can't okay okay and so the last discussion item is mine it's civility um the reason I brought that up is because this term has been used a lot by these board members

395my self included um and I did notice other um districts have actual policies for board members about civility or they have codes of Civility or they have statements of Civility there's lots of stuff that school boards doing it's actually a very hot topic um so I'd like to maybe ask if um you know if the superintendent could do a little bit of research because you know we don't have the ability to um for our policies to really go through and and do a quick search of the word civility um but if you could bring to us in our one-on-one discussions about civility um statements or policies or something like that I'd appreciate that all right anything anything else on that okay board member matter we are to board member matters who would like to go

396first I do okay Dr Jones go for it yeah this is a good part of the agenda uh went to the guo Gord Youth Orchestra Spring Concert great job led by Casey Lansford Christal bjo and all the volunteers I went to a Mother's Day event at Hope for families flowers and breakfast were provided by team success in Hope Depot and I sent Tasha Jones an email today because most of the students from Hope Prof families attend Citrus and they love going there they feel welcome they feel accepted and you said it made her dat I know Dr Mo has talked about this uh Vero baseball shout out to all the parents in the Press Box and volunteers all year long we lost by two runs to a nationally ranked team and if anyone and I

397used to run the state U events for Florida high school atic Association great event for our students great event for participation and kudos to that team because they were really Scrappy very proud of them um end of your testing and activities I talked to Dr Moore about some testing and when we will finish when's the last day Dr Moore um hopefully this this Friday okay so good luck on all of that and the activities United Way fund day I witnessed the bike race and um you did a you had great effort and very proud of that United away did a great thing I had the privilege of serving on some panels this year for finance and governance um the St Edwards had the Scholarship Foundation the other night 39 students were awarded about $700,000 very

398glad to be there and I um