School Board Business Meeting and Presentations 5_30 p.m. 9-25-23

001I asked that out of respect to everyone please silence all electronic devices at this time I would like to call the meeting to order the time is 5 30 PM I would like to recognize the superintendent for a series of awards and presentations thank you madam chair we have three very exciting presentations that ultimately reflect the hard work of our system uh and the achievement of our students and teachers and staff so with that I'll turn it over to Ms Maddox for these presentations thank you Dr Moore hello everyone thanks for being here with us tonight we have added one special video tonight because we were able to finish up our Patriot Day video we wanted to share it with everyone on September 11th our district recognized Patriot Day and 9 11 Heroes day while

002this is a solemn occasion in our nation's history that serves as a day of remembrance reflection and unity it's also a day to celebrate the countless acts of kindness compassion and solidarity that emerged in the wake of tragedy and paid tribute to the brave First Responders and honor the men and women who have served and continue to serve our nation the sdrc vows to never forget on the 22nd anniversary of September 11th our district paused to remember the victims and the families impacted by this tragic Act of terrorism on our country [Music] students and Educators join their communities to pay tribute to those who displayed the incredible courage in selflessness during the tragic events of that day in honor of Patriot Day schools held ceremonies paused for moments of Silence War patriotic colors in honor

003of those who lost their lives and learned about the heroes who prevented more lives from being lost let us never forget this selflessness and sacrifice of our First Responders military personnel and ordinary citizens who Rose to the occasion when our nation needed them most we will continue to recognize this day each year throughout our district to keep the memory of the victims alive and highlight a time when our country stood in solidarity in defense of our freedoms in memory and honor of the victims and their families on September 11th we will never forget [Applause] thank you next we have our Safety and Security Spotlight and I would like to introduce Mr Eric Seymour our assistant superintendent of Student Affairs Advocacy and access and John teskey our director of security and Emergency Operations to present this

004award yes thank you for this opportunity yet again we are always looking to put the brightest best people in front of our children each and every day and yet again we found a star and a person that uh actually replicates the pattern that our superintendent and our board has established for our adults over our children each and every day we want great people this person has done a marvelous job and continues to really do things that are beyond the scope of her responsibility she goes Far and Beyond to make sure that each and every child is safe she tries to make sure that everyone is happy and if you drop by that campus she's going to make you laugh as well we are so appreciative of her and the work that she does each and

005every day and at this time I'll let Mr teskey speak on her behalf thank you Mr Seymour I'd like to call Deputy David May to the podium there's no better person to speak on behalf of this wonderful special person than him as they have worked together for so many years so Deputy May um I wasn't told I was going to be speaking tonight so this is quick and Mr teskey said I got one minute so I thought about it I have three children that all went through the Indian River County School District and my granddaughter is now in first grade in the school district best District okay can't say anything more than that but when my daughter was born I lived next door to Liz and then when my daughter started school and both of

006my boys started school Liz was at the school and for the past 10 years I've been in school resource deputy and I can thankfully and graciously say that I am at any River Academy where my kids went and my granddaughter goes and after 29 years Liz makes every day worthwhile all right if anybody's having a bad day Liz is there and makes you feel better if she sees something that is security issue or conscious she's not afraid to speak up hey we need to do this hey let's do this okay and that is what we need in every school and Liz does it every day and nothing could repay her thankful or be more thankful to her um for everything that she does all right that's it come here Liz Ard tonight [Music] I just

007want to say thank you and I'm going out as your employee of the year but each and every day I'm still going to strive to make our school the safest and the best for our students I'm going to start my 27th year next year at IRA and um I love my school I love my school family and I even love Deputy May um and like he said we're a great team and John knows even in the middle of the night I'll text John if there's something going on that I think needs to be addressed safety wise be it at our school or another school I just want to make sure our community and our students are safe so thank you [Applause] thank you [Applause] next we have our casual for a cause presentation if you're

008not familiar with casual for a cause once a month our students teachers and staff members in exchange for a donation to a an organization in our community they are allowed a dress down day and last month we did our fundraising for Habitat for Humanity and we are proud to announce that we raised 2529.89 with Storm Grove Middle School raising the most with 487.35 and tonight we have Mr Trevor Loomis president in Chief and Jolene Garcia the development assistant with us if you'd like to come to the podium please thank you we'd like to present you with this check and if you would like to say a few words about your organization uh well thank you very much um it might be a little late to get this to the bank tonight but we'll do our

009best um we are going to put this this money to work addressing the affordable housing crisis that we're all dealing with here the school district not the least of which but um you know we are repairing and Building Homes we have plans to build 113 homes over the next five years um right here in this County but I also I want to thank you all for doing this program because it teaches kids the value and importance of generosity and philanthropy at a very early age and so it's not it's less about the money than it is about the education that you're giving kids for this program so thank you very much [Applause] thank you [Applause] take that one to the bank okay for our next presentation I'd like to invite Dr Kira shafty director of

010academic compliance and Equity to the podium please good evening cognia formerly Advanced Ed nationally recognizes districts that meet rigorous standards that focused on productive learning environments resource allocation that meets the needs of Learners and effective leadership earning accreditation from the cognia global accreditation commission means that the system and all of its schools are accredited and that the school district of Indian River county is recognized Across the Nation as a school system that meets cognia standards of quality and maintains a commitment to continuous Improvement system accreditation demonstrates to our community our commitment to Excellence our openness to external review and feedback and our desire to be the best we can be on the behalf of the students we serve additionally we recently were notified that our district has been selected for the cognia values driven Award

011of Excellence this award is one of three state level awards given by cognia and is presented to one education organization that systematically and systemically models the following values through their daily efforts to improve outcomes for their students they are dream big stand for the learner be bold and daring Drive potential be tenacious and build connections our district will be recognized at the upcoming cognia impact conference excellence in education awards ceremony on October 3rd we are incredibly proud of the work that is being done by our teams at both school and District levels that yielded this commendation at this time I would like to introduce Andy Martinez cognia's director of the Southeast region to present the sdirc with system accreditation as well as recognize two fantastic accomplishments by Osceola magnet school and Storm Grove Middle School

012please welcome Mr Martinez Miss Norris and Mr Taylor foreign good evening thank you for having me again my name is Andy Martinez and I am a state director with cognia we have the pleasure of of being or celebrating our 127th year this year with cognia some of you may be familiar with Saks KC or Advanced Ed we've been around for a while I haven't and I'm just dating myself but it is our pleasure we especially here in the State of Florida we are the most saturated state in terms of the number of accredited institutions in the entire world resides in Florida with over 4 100 different schools now there's only three directors so we take a lot of pride in actually coming out to the school boards like yourselves and actually presenting these Awards because

013of the work and dedication that is done by not just the students but the staff that implements this for the students and it starts with the high rigor that we expect from all our institutions so before I get with the accreditation for the entire District I'd like to show specific recognition to Osceola Magnet School please [Music] foreign also for Storm Grove Middle School these are words the beauty of these Awards is that these schools have become leaders in the state in the realm of stem science technology education mathematics and they are now going to become a leader they were asking me a little while ago hey can we reach out to other members I'm like don't worry they'll be reaching out to you very soon but the point is they need to be recognized for

014the accomplishment some other accreditation bodies are almost like a checklist we are not we are a continuous education body and we make sure that not only are you doing what you're supposed to do now but you're always improving for the good of the little ones and that's our goal and these two individuals and these individual schools deserve all the recognition and praise because what they have done is quite the accomplishment so once again please hear for the stem I do have one more this plaque if perhaps Dr Moore would like to come and and receive this this is the certification for the entire County of Indian River system it is quite the accomplishment for the entire system to be acknowledged as I mentioned before we've been around for 127 years right now we have over

01548 000 members in 95 different countries so this is quite the accomplishment and we are very proud to present this award to the school board of Indian River County [Applause] Dr Moore that concludes presentations for tonight you want to say anything talking about um just how thrilled we are to go through the the accreditation process and be acknowledged across all of the different systems in Florida uh some of the academic outcomes that we realized last year there's no um coincidence that we also went through our self-improvement process aligned to to cognia and we hold ourselves accountable to how we do continuous Improvement we are one system in the State of Florida that doesn't follow the generic template that the state puts out in terms of school Improvement we created our own aligned to our district

016strategic plan it is updated four times a year unlike the states which is just updated once to ensure that we're always looking at the data always understanding the reality in classrooms and responding in the fastest way possible to improve the outcomes and when you look at our outcomes there's significant they're significantly different than other counties in Florida that's because of our continuous improvement process I want to thank Dr shafty cni the entire Team all of our principals the two schools that were recognized last year they did what every other school did but they also went through an additional process to say they are in fact steam certified so they are as as mentioned leaders in the state thank you ma'am you talking more all right this will conclude our Awards and presentations for this evening

017the time is 5 46. our business meeting will begin at 6 PM sharp thank you today is Monday September 25th 2023 and I would like to call this meeting to order the time is 6 PM I asked that out of respect to everyone please silence all electronic devices also if you have any material you wish to share with any board member please give that to our executive assistant Mrs Maury please stand for the pledge led by Vero Beach High School Air Force ROTC major retired Dean Ragsdale um one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all post right thanks first [Applause] thank you very much board members now time for the adoption of the orders of the day board members are there any items you wish to move from the consent agenda to

018the action Mr Barefoot Miss Rosario just want to make sure we can hear you any board members want to move anything from consent agenda to action moving on okay any added items for discussion okay board members I would like to move up the African-American standards due to the last meeting we had about 53 speakers we didn't get to that discussion until about 9 30 or 10 so I'd like to move that up right after citizen input the chair now calls for a proper motion to adopt the orders of the day as Amendment I'll make a motion as amended second thank you Miss aaronberg with a motion Mr Dr posca with the second any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye .com hi okay thank you Dr Jones can I make a comment um I

019was going to pull the item but after talking to um Dr Moore and also um Miss Bayshore baseura sorry um we talked about the fact that um the school Improvement plans have been submitted for approval tonight however that's an ongoing flexible change and one thing that I was bringing up as I I spot checked a few of them and looked at was the fact that I'd like to see more inclusive ese goals and so for example I pulled up one school that had 32 ESC students but I didn't really see a lot of inclusiveness so I really would like to see those um put into our sip if that's okay thank you okay any other discussion all right we go on now to the superintendent's report based on time I'm gonna let the cognia presentation

020be a report for this evening now we will have the Havoc I have these up here each statement made by a member of the public shall be limited to three minutes duration I will be recognizing in the order in which your requests were made the time shall start when the speaker is at the podium and the public information officer will be the official time keeper as you will see the time clock is visible to your left on the Deus you will hear a beep at the end of your three minutes each person may speak up to three minutes at the beginning of a business meeting during citizen input as indicated on the order of the business and for up to three minutes to each action agenda item during the action agenda and each board member

021discussion item as indicated on the order of business if a consent item is moved to an action item when you come up to the podium you may speak at that time or defer to speak during the presentation of the action item people may only speak once about any given item the time period may be extended by the presiding officer only the individual submitting the speaker's form is allowed to address the board time may not be yielded to other speakers during the meeting please refrain from clapping or outbursts of any sort so that we can proceed with dignity and with decorum by not infringing on anyone's individual First Amendment rights I need to remind everyone to direct all comments to the chair not to individual board members or the superintendent board members may or may not

022address any citizen input statements at the end of all the citizen input comments as board members we listen to citizens without interruption citizens are asked to give board members the same respect as per Florida statute 1001 372 the presiding officer of any District School Board May order the removal from a public meeting held by The District School Board of any person interfering with the expeditious or orderly process of such beating provided such officer as first issued a warning that continued interference with the orderly process of the meeting will result in removal the first warning is to everyone at this time I would be calling you up two at a time the first person will be called the podium to speak and the second person will be in line to speak speakers shall not engage in

023personal attacks or abusive language the chair has the right to terminate any speaker's privilege to address the board if the rule is violated if you have anything to give to the board members superintendent please do so through our executive assistant 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 H House Bill 1069 on materials and school libraries we would ask that you visit staff in the lobby to initiate the challenge process finally the school district supports First Amendment rights of speakers and rights outlined in House Bill 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

024audiences knowing this please make a viewing decision appropriate for you and your family we have to go back to item 2B which is the student crime watch resolution just I'm sorry you want to roll I don't want to interrupt you [Music] so before public comment tonight we have are proud to present our student crime watch resolution I'd like to introduce Mr John teskey the director of security and Emergency Operations thank you good evening uh board chair Dr Moore I'd like to call uh two guests that were already up here earlier uh Deputy David Bay and Liz Geoffrey from Ira they're going to be reading our crime watch resolution this evening our student crime watch resolution is uh putting us into compliance with the office of safe schools and Senate Bill language 70 26 and 70

02530 adopting programs to assist Schools teachers and staff students and parents into reporting suspicious or criminal acts we're glad to have them here as two representatives of what's going on in schools to read our resolution tonight we appreciate the board's approval on this and at this time I'll turn it over to miss Geoffrey and Deputy May thank you good evening everyone the school board of Indian River Florida a body corporate under Florida Statutes the board does hereby adopt the following resolution in a duly noticed public meeting whereas the board is the governing body of the Indiana County School District the district and constitutes a body corporate pursuant to section 1001.40 Florida statute and whereas the board desires to keep its students safe secure and free from harm and whereas section 1006.07 paragraph 3 or the

026Florida statute requires the board to implement a student crime watch program by resolution to promote responsibility among students and improve school safety whereas the board provides a student crime watch program through the local see something say something campaign and fortified fortified Florida program which reports information it receives through anonymous tips to the appropriate law enforcement agency and school officials now therefore be it resolved [Music] the foregoing recitals are true and correct and are Incorporated herein by reference the school board of Indian River County Florida hereby implements a student crime watch program through the see something say something campaign and Florida fortify FL program and local law enforcement agencies to promote safety within its schools by providing a mechanism that allows students and the community to anonymously rely relay information concerning unsafe and potentially harmful dangerous

027violent or criminal activities or the threat of these activities to appropriate Public Safety agencies and school officials this resolution shall become effective immediately upon its adoption and witness hero of the undersigned school board of Indian River County Florida adopts this resolution effect of this 25th day of September 2023. thank you [Applause] we have to approve it first okay board members a motion to approve this resolution moved by Dr posca I'll second second any discussion all in favor say aye aye any opposed aye aye thank you very much again thank you very much for that we appreciate you [Applause] ready thank you right thank you the podium moved [Music] alrighty our first speaker is Rebecca siplak followed by Margaret Murray [Music] my name is Rebecca siplak I live in Vero Beach I'm a small business owner

028and I volunteer with the Gifford Middle School Garden Club during the school year I want to thank the board and especially Dr Peggy Jones for this time I'm here to speak because I'm concerned and dismayed by the recent changes to the history education standards for grades K-12 specifically standard 68 AA 2.3 I attended public grade school in Northeast northeast Pennsylvania graduating high school in 1991. my school in the town I lived in were predominantly white I went to school with very few people of color during my first quarter of college I took an African-American studies class and was embarrassed about just how little I knew of the black experience in the U.S I remember going home for the holidays and having a heated discussion with my father who is on the school board for nine

029years while I was a student how could he not have seen how little our grade school education was teaching us about the black experience in this country since being exposed to this knowledge in college I've made it my personal desire to continue my education by learning as much as I can about the experiences and realities of living as a non-white person in this country I just started reading this book The 1619 project and would like to re read an excerpt from the preface we are committing educational malpractice says Hassan Kwame Jeffries a historian at Ohio State University who served as chair on The Advisory board that produced The Southern Poverty Law centers teaching hard history report our preference for Nostalgia and for a history that never happened is not without consequence although we teach students

030that slavery happened in some cases we minimize slavery's significance so much that we render its impact on people and on the nation inconsequential this is profoundly troubling because it leaves Americans ill-equipped to understand racial inequality today and that in turn leads to intolerance opposition to efforts to address racial Injustice and the enacting of laws and policies detrimental to Black communities and America writ large our narrow understanding of the institution of slavery prevents us from seeing this long Legacy and leads policy makers to try to fix people instead of addressing the historically rooted causes of their problems in other words we all suffer for the poor history we've been taught in closing I want to be on the record as someone who stood up and spoke out against continuing to whitewash U.S history and public schools

031I believe the backlash that we are experiencing today from groups and people whom I will not give the pleasure of naming is a direct result of white supremacy rearing its ugly head in a last gasp before this country can birth and grow into as Valerie Carr would say a society thank you awakened to the truth of interdependent thank you Margaret Murray and then we have Jacqueline Jacobs my name is Margaret Murray I was born raised and spent my life in Florida I spent 45 years in Corporate America and Emma was a small business owner my area of expertise is human resources and executive recruiting within all 67 counties of Florida I've interviewed and hired thousands of people I know what leaders look like and Peggy Jones is a leader Jones his character credibility and conviction

032her Poise Grace and professionalism stand out to me a former teacher and Dean and principal with 50 years of experience is what we call in my business a seasoned Pro and to have that experience and wisdom here in Indian River County we're very fortunate and I thank you for your service and your leadership the August meeting was a shameful performance from the moms for Liberty and their group especially the out of town troublemaker it was Radical Reckless ridiculous but also a coordinated act which was not an accident the mom's strategy is to disrupt distract and dismantle the tricks are preventing the good work of this board and the board members that are condoning these tactics shame on you voters like me will not forget in The Ballot Box we don't need this type of antics

033in our meetings we need a normal productive and results driven School Board focused on real issues and real solutions I want to talk about a leader a true leader is produced by the public school system here in Florida where both of her parents are public school teachers our 104th associate Justice for the Supreme Court katanji Brown Jackson graduated from Miami Palmetto High School Harvard and Harvard Law School she's recently spoke and she said if we're going to move forward as a nation we can't allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge truth and history it is certainly true that parts of this country's story and history can be hard but it is dangerous to forget because the uncomfortable lessons are often the ones that teach us the most we can't forget because we can't learn from

034the past mistakes we do not know exist thank you thank you Jacqueline Jacobs ladies and gentlemen nope nope nope nope Jacqueline Jacobs and then Angela bowling good evening Dr Jones members of the board and Dr Moore thank you for the work to earn the accreditation through cognia it is who we have always been I am a retired principal of this district and proud of it each of you as board members is here to approve policy and budget so the professional staff can do the work of the entire system of our schools I want to speak to the standards that you have written as your code of conduct the first standard States board members have a sincere desire to serve the educational needs of the community decisions must be based on the best interests of students

035and not political or personal interest the first ethical principle in your own code States board members value the worth and dignity of every person The Pursuit Of Truth Devotion to Excellence acquisition of knowledge and nurture Democratic citizenship essential to the achievement of these standards are the freedom to learn and to teach and the guarantee of equal opportunity for all we need all of you to follow this principle even if you don't believe it when you support on social media the actions of an outside agitator and when you continually appear to be unprepared for and or absent from board meetings your actions suggests you do not value the principle many people new to Florida are shocked to learn that board members in Florida are paid you receive over thirty seven thousand dollars a year as board

036members and can also receive insurance benefits and still you miss meetings we need a board that is focused on the education of each and every student in Indian River County whether their parents choose to raise them with your values or not sit on the board of the public schools and should be here to improve them not put teachers and staff in fear this is our community and there are far more who do not support the tactics and the divisiveness that has been occurring in the public comment of this District our children and young people need leadership that is focused on the development of each and every student's knowledge skills and Humanity to be healthy contributing members of our society your behaviors are watched by them please do what you are charged to do and if

037you cannot perhaps you can have the personal Integrity to step down thank you thank you Angela bowling and then Cindy Gibbs [Music] I think it might be a good idea to move the citizen input portion of the school board meetings to the end of the meeting after the board's been able to conduct the important business of our district if we citizens have anything that's important to say we can stay until the end if that would limit the number of retirees speaking about books that haven't been even checked out of our Public School libraries in at least the last two years then so be it because it was a waste of the board's time to have to hear book excerpts from 20 books last month that haven't even been checked out in two years probably more

038another option would be to not televise the citizen input to discourage the speakers who come solely for the publicity and not for the good of our students would it be possible to not allow any personal recording of the meeting that's a routine requirement in other theatrical Productions which is what it seems like our citizen input is becoming um I realized well no never mind that okay so another thing is that Florida lawmakers expanded eligibility for the school vouchers this year and they gave parents expanded ways to be able to spend the money theme park passes 55-inch TVs and stand-up paddle boards are actually on the list of approved items that recipients of the vouchers can buy to use at home if they're homeschooling their children or if they have any money left over after they

039pay tuition at private schools the items are actually appear on a list of authorized expenses in a 13-page purchasing guide that was published this summer by the organization that manages the bulk of the Florida vouchers and I'm just wondering if any of our school district leaders who homeschool their children would like to voluntarily report on whether they're going to be using state tax dollars to take advantage of the vouchers it seems to me that 40 percent of our current board members do not believe in using our Public School System but that might be an issue that has to be addressed by the voters of the county another area is we need to recognize that we are a diverse School Community that's a beautiful thing it means that one group can't dictate and force everyone else

040to act like and to believe and to live like that group does when we don't allow certain things to be mentioned in school when we make it against the rules to bring up certain topics it's like we don't see the people who those topics refer to and when we don't see people over time and in larger quantities the being unseen can lead to being unprotected which can lead to violence against people as we have actually witnessed repeatedly this year in Florida thank you thank you Cindy Gibbs and then we have Logan Eastland good evening we keep hearing why don't teachers come to school board meetings why don't teachers speak up well we're also hearing that teachers are somehow teaching kids how to be gay or that history is somehow making kids feel bad about whatever

041race or Races they are we even have some school board members who support publicly these claims so let me remind everyone that the majority of our teachers are on annual contracts it didn't used to be that way but now it's pretty easy to get rid of teachers with any parents word against theirs so since it's challenging for teachers to come here to speak about how things are in our schools some of us ask them so that we can be their voices here is a short selection of the concerns we heard these are quotes excuse me the district opted to remove an entire amplify unit that students love an excerpt of A Midsummer Night's Dream because it contained inappropriate content it's Shakespeare we are no longer allowed to use relationship building nicknames such as buddy or

042champ and can only use students birth certificate names unless a parent gives permission for Jessica to be called Jesse or Thomas to be called TJ what is the purpose of this other than to make it harder for us the teachers to have a decent classroom relationship with our students people in the biz will know this topic RTI is a joke because we can only use grade level materials regardless of whether the student is reading on that grade level or not here are my former teacher words about that how is that even a thing how could anyone teach a second grade kid who comprehends at a kindergarten level with second grade materials real teachers know that this is ridiculous but they also know it's a reality continuing with our list you can't teach amplify without slides

043but the district didn't purchase the amplify slides so what do we do and it takes hours to create these lesson slides and nowadays teachers are terrified to create their own PowerPoint lessons because we might accidentally do something wrong we have no real consequences to give students who misbehave so they have no reason to change their behavior and we're no longer allowed to build relationships with them so why should they trust us to teach them it's not worth having a classroom Library even if someone has helped to vet it because someone is going to find something to be offended about we can't have kids bring library books from outside the school either because their parents might not know they checked them out and we don't have time to contact every parent to make sure they gave

044permission for their kid to have a county library book that might not be age appropriate in our room every word of this is true every bit of this all of this nonsense was planned by the local hate group to cause Discord rather than partnership between teachers and parents it is wrong and we need to stop giving in to it thank you I think Eastland and Angie johar jawar good evening my name is Logan gieslin I was born in public publicly educated in Vero Beach Florida when I was 10 years old 1956 I decided to read Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls this caused controversy in my family but my mom said I could read anything I wanted she never considered going to the school or public library and telling them I couldn't check out

045a book I am the third generation of college graduates in my family anyone who's afraid of books and thinks they are dangerous is not a reader the only person I know involved for moms for Liberty self-admits she doesn't read books very easy for these people to attack books they and their children are not inconvenienced and what cowards these people are to anonymously threaten the lives of school board members instead of swatting at flies these parents concerned about their children's exposure to the brutality of life should go after internet and TV content the 5 p.m local news is graphic about man's inhumanity to man say nothing about video games where the body counts and some of the ladies are amazing and even adults know a 10 year old intuitively manages the computer and can find anything

046on the Internet it's amazing I thought of Savanna Rolla and his bonfire the vanities the Spanish Inquisition and Hitler as examples of Infamous book burners for whom things did not end well and those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it Banning books in our school library is now a mood issue it is unimaginable to me a Cuban American graduate of Harvard and Yale supports book Banning Indian River County School board wants to make our schools number one in Florida and I feel that all the citizens of the county should join with our teachers and the board to make our schools the best in Florida thank you thank you Angie johar and then we have Heather Askin uh my phone might die so who knows um so good evening my name is Angie

047johar I'm an alumni of Sebastian River High School class of 2001. I have two children in our district one is in elementary school and one is a non-verbal ESC student at Gifford Middle this year quick story I've changed this up a little bit there was a little Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx that moved here the last month of third grade she gets introduced to the class after a brief intro goes to sit down and the little girl across from her said my daddy told me that specs don't belong here and Yankees need to go back to where they came from this was in 1992. that little girl is still in this very County raising her kids In This Very School District and I hope when Ashley sees me here right now as this very

048proud Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx that she feels ashamed and that she feels or is teaching her kids to be better um because unfortunately racism does exist in this very district and within our disc School dish School Board I'm just saying um also I would like to thank uh Dr Jones for her dedication and her leadership here in our community also while she was our principal she always made sure to remind students that they could be their true selves and to always strive for the highest in every aspect of life thank you for continuing to be an amazing leader I also want to remind people that this is public school if you want religion if you want political things to be intertwined in this school district and maybe you should be going onto the

049board of a private or religious school district not on a public school district because we have kids we have teachers we have staff we have admin of all different races religions sexual orientation and if you're not okay and don't support people a hundred percent then you're at the wrong position and you're here for the wrong reasons bottom line and maybe you should just quit while you're trying to be ahead thank you heather Askin and then Kevin asking good evening my name is Heather Askin and I'm parent of an Indian River County School District student and a former teacher I'd like to express my sincere appreciation for you Dr Jones and your like-minded colleagues for dedicating your time energy passion to our community and its children thank you for all that you do and you have

050my support I'm also appreciative of the fact that I have the Liberty to speak with you this evening Liberty is defined in the Oxford Dictionary in a state of being free within Society from oppressive restrictions imposed by Authority on one's way of life Behavior or political views I would like to thank the school board for giving parents the true Liberty to choose which books our children can or cannot read in our school library by giving all parents and Guardians a form to fill out at the beginning of the year and following up with reminders to fill it out in case it's been overlooked it's wonderful that we're being respected and given the choice to individualize our children's Options under these tense circumstances I understand that in addition to managing 27 schools approximately seven sorry seventeen

051thousand plus students and over Eleven Hundred teachers overseeing our curriculum and budgets you're under extreme pressures now to govern the selection of books in the library my husband and I truly appreciate you taking into consideration the liberty of All Families not just the loud and aggressive ones and providing us true parental choice in closing I'd like to thank all our teachers aides support staff School psychologists counselors bus drivers volunteers administrators and our beloved Librarians for the care that they take in educating my child and our community's children thank you thank you Kevin Askin and then Joanne Binford hello and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I am Kevin Askin and currently I'm one child in the union River School System I've had the pleasure to serve 28 years of my life in both

052the active duty and the reserve as a naval officer over that time I have taken several Oaths of office every time I got promoted to support and defend the constitution in the United States I know that I have taken seriously an oath that does not end with my retirement this is why I feel compelled to speak with you today through both my military and Airline careers I've had the privilege to travel around many countries across our world many of these countries do not enjoy the same freedoms that we do in this country freedoms that can be taken for granted among these freedoms that much of the world does not share is a freedom of speech it is hard to really imagine not being able to speak and express ourselves freely without the fear of punishment

053yet this basic freedom is rare in our world we can never let this Freedom be taken for granted and we can never let this Freedom be taken from us as a service member and a veteran of foreign conflicts I've not only fought for National sovereignty I've also fought for individual rights to peaceably protest burn a flag marry who we want read what we want engage in exchange in differing ideas and express our own individuality freedom is not about limiting others but encouraging Limitless potential so in the spirit of Freedom week I asked the board not to let a few people who are hiding under the banner of Liberty through their targeted agenda to ban books that they don't like and keep them from our ability to have our own parental choice if these people choose

054to read from published literature here in hopes to have them banned I say let them read it and then let all parents through the utilizing the processes that are already in place decide for themselves that is true Liberty I also asked the board to help Foster an educational environment where critical thinking flourishes where students and teachers can speak freely about our country about our world and the many points of view that makes up its entirety limiting speech in the classroom Banning books and dictating how our history can be taught is more reminiscent of 1940s Germany and current day Russia than the United States of America true Freedom does not ban limit or mute based on fears of some true freedom is truly Fearless thank you thank you thank you everybody I would like to start

055by thanking Gene posca for taking a moment to Advocate to to educate truth to a parent comparing the Holy Bible to a book that had pornographic material in it this is not about book Banning and I'm glad that you guys took all the books off that's good we really don't want our kids reading about sex and how to have sex and fondling and all that stuff we're not going to get into it now but that's not book Banning we are the guardians of children and yes we do have Liberty in this country and we have a diverse group of people I worked for the school district for 16 years from pre-k to high school I've had all age groups and I've seen all kinds of things in our school district my favorite time was before

056we had this Superintendent at the school district our school district was happy it had its problems we had kids hey I worked in discipline guys I saw the cases we had to pull a kid and have their parent come in because they were swapping potato chips for a feel that was before the books were on we had another kid having sex in the men's room in the boys room we still had those incidents happening in school we do not need those books so stop calling people book banners we love our kids we want them to be educated critical thinking comes with mastering your math mastering your reading mastering your science mastering the education and it's not race you know that you are never going to get rid of racist people why because we are individual

057people some people are just prejudiced because they don't like the color of your hair you cannot change that we are not systemically racist we are all different human beings but most importantly school you know the teachers I know a lot of teachers I've been here for I was here for 16 years and I know that the teachers work hard and they don't want to have to be Mental Health Counselors they want to focus on education and being creative and teaching the kids the kid you know this is not about the teachers doing a bad job this was about getting the books off the library floor that kids don't need to be reading we've already had sexual activity in this school District over the years we've already had cases we don't need to encourage that behavior

058and you know I just want to let you guys know I also wanted to talk about the csac committee because our superintendent is on the csac committee and we have had Learning Alliance moonshot moments Education Foundation for decades working with our kids K through three but guess what they are still making it to the middle school below grade level thank you next speaker is Benny Ryan thank you Mr Benny Ryan we will have Mary Brew [Music] I'll be showed here tonight I come to speak in reference to studies for African American history I'm a person who's a proponent of the truth let the truth be told and when it comes to African-American history I would like to see the truth presented and the unbiased unfiltered way that our students can receive and with their own

059intelligent determine what is the right action I make a reference here to a book that was written by Carter G Wilson called the Negro in our history and he says in the preference the preface in writing this book was to present to the average reader in substant form the history of the United States as it has been influenced by the presence of the Negro in this country the aim here is the supply also the needs of schools long since Desiring such a work in handy form with adequate references for those stimulated to more advanced studies uh I've been informed that this book actually been banded and it's one thing that I would like to say and Jesus is my hero and he says and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you

060free let our children hear the truth our clothes went for a statement by Dr Martin Luther King that says truth pressed to Earth will rise again No Lie can live forever thank you Mary Roo and then Marianne Bender good evening my name is Mary Rue father in the name of Jesus love we come before you this afternoon saying thank you God thank you God for being the God that you are Lord I thank you Father for what you are doing in this room right now father I thank you God for being the loving God that you are and God bless us to be the same what you made us to be father bless us bless the teachers and everyone that is control of our children bless them God that they will be able to learn

061what they're supposed to learn God and to love each other father we thank you God so much I am not the only biracial grandmother a great grandmother in this room I ask you God to bring us together to teach our children not to love and not to Hate In The Name of Jesus and father I ask you God the one that's on this board that is trying to help and do what is necessary to do bless them in a mighty way the ones that is not bless them too and let them know that they are not in charge you are in charge father in the name of Jesus and God we say thank you today we say thank you God for bringing us all together and to hear what each other have to say thank

062you Lord Jesus father I ask these and many blessings in your Mighty son Jesus name I asked every person in this room to hear my voice say amen amen and amen thank you Marianne Bender and then Christy Bell [Music] um good evening board um I appreciate having the opportunity to speak again and I wrote a speech and went over it and I've decided to go off the cuff a little bit um I brought my daughter who's 14 and her best friend to last meeting we got here late so we were the last to sign up so we were the last to speak so they saw heard all the things and you know we went through it in stride and besides the book thing but hearing someone stand up and say that we have to admit

063that slavery was beneficial was awful and then to leave with my daughter and her best friend who's an African-American student and be asked in the parking lot how would you feel in the classroom and she said I would feel not supported and I wouldn't want to come to school that's that's just not okay every student black white gay trans I don't care they should come to school and feel supported by their teachers by their friends you can't control the peer group I get that but then to be hear those words from your teacher that just really struck me at my core that you would send a student to school and them feel that way that's not okay so I just again I asked at the last meeting and I asked today to anybody that will

064listen to you all of you board members anybody everybody in this room to do what you can email write call to say we're not okay with this because no student should have to go to school and feel not supported thank you Christy Bell and then mink Tiner hi um I came tonight to speak about two things uh the first is the African-American studies curriculum and I just wanted to reiterate what I said last week or last month I feel strongly that it's imperative students learn from our history in order to avoid the negative things happening again obviously slavery should be taught in a way that's appropriate for different age students the horrors were so bad that it wouldn't be appropriate to teach the smallest children the physical tortures that the enslaved endured that however doesn't

065mean it should be put in a way that makes it seem that enslaving human beings is ever a good thing so I would ask the board collectively to continue talking with the doe and anybody else about this matter to try to work to get that changed children should be learning that treating all people humanely and with civility is important in order for our society to thrive one of the predominant ways that children learn how to treat others with respect and act civilly is by seeing that behavior modeled it's more than just the books they read or the curriculum they engage with in that vein I would like to remind the board through the chair that school board members are elected officials and therefore servant Leaguers I think that our elected officials are not only a

066reflection of the communities that they serve but they impact the behaviors of those they serve through their own role modeling I would like to ask the board to consider revising and adding to their code of conduct rules I saw multiple tweets that are derogatory toward many in our community posted by a local board member I have seen Democrats and compared to the Klan I have seen a satirical comment that would easily be misconstrued recommending opposing words should be equated to and met with violence I saw individual community members and Business Leaders people who have children in this District derogatorily called satanists and child traffickers I have seen the false accusation that a specific named local non-profit leader once porn in our schools a good Bible reading person who has children in this District being accused

067of trying to tear down the Bible these types of comments push buttons and can incite vile Behavior at a minimum none of that seems like the way an elected local board member should behave toward parents and community members in our district some of you have received death threats the violent rhetoric stems from somewhere I'm not saying it's from any of you at all but perhaps your standards could help reduce the anger and disrespectful manner that's growing within a small segment of our community language I would ask you to consider that is used in other districts would include language similar to will model civility to students employees and all elements of this community language that might say I would be fair just an impartial in my decisions and actions I will Accord others the respect I

068wish for myself and all those kinds of things thank you very much mink Tiner and then we have Delana Hilbert good evening so first myself and other parents and if there are any other parents that were here and present the night of the 28th we are going to be seeking for a full investigation under article 847 as there were children present and we are expecting a full investigation of the list of people they chose to get up here and disseminate obscene material to the miners so we will be talking to an officer hopefully okay thank you um additionally Jackie Rosario I have a question don't go there just facts as far as not going personal you go through the chair okay all right so um on Monday August 28th of 2023 at 6 30 a.m

069Jackie received a uh email notification that your 2022 form six full and public display disclosure of financial interest do you want 703 2023 has not been received by the Florida commission I want on ethics um person serving as of December 31st 2022 in persons elected in 2022 are required to file this year failure to timely file may result in fines removal from public office or employment or an Ethics complaint do not delay follow your disclosure you're given a deadline of 901 2023 I'm definitely going to be looking in to see if that was filed and I would expect that it was um especially given some past troubles that we've had regarding along those lines in your disqualifications for uh future employment here in the district I would also like to take this opportunity and this

070time to um kind of encourage you to distance yourself from hate groups and activity encouragement through the chairman through the chair tonight so um um now there's also we need to make necessary actions to uh get rid of any affiliation support and encouragement of any hate groups that goes by board members and such as uh groups like moms for Liberty um posca you definitely not highly okay through the chair or I'm going to cut you off to me okay so Madam members of the board made some highly inappropriate behavior and um depictions of parents and constituents of Indian River County Schools so um he basically claimed that I was on an outburst he was reveling in the uh wave that Mr Reverend a Montague or I'm sorry I don't know how to pronounce it had

071created here making a mockery out of our local system um you're a doctor of medicine you're a molecular biologist that you believe in unmasking which I support that right but uh you don't believe in lgbtq or body dysmorphia anything of that so much so that you supported anti-gay Twitter evangelists or I'm sorry he does um he likes guns I do too I really am I was actually born and raised in a gunshot by a marine that uh is a baddest man alive on Google with an m203 grenade launcher and um it does concern me when stuff like that is paired with uh all right thank you very much thank you next speaker is Delena Hilbert but I want to know no that's it you're done sit down please thank you you're done sit down and

072thank you very much go on Delena Hilbert and then we have Angela love [Music] are you ready hon yes thank you thank you not gonna lie when I came up here I was scared I wouldn't reach the podium good evening school board members my name is Delana Hilbert and I am a fellow student at a middle school in the Indian River District for a long time I have been interested in journalism and law and this would be the fifth meeting I've attended I'm a lacrosse player as well as a part of the yearbook Club at the school I attend and I have signed up for student student government as well as becoming one of the first junior members of the NAACP my family and I do lots of volunteering through various local organizations and my

073family has also attended Indian River schools for many generations I'm concerned about the school board meeting the night of Monday August 28th as a fellow student who attended this meeting to discuss the new standard attempting to be passed in Florida I find it incredibly crude the material that was discussed during a school board meeting in front of myself and other children watching from home or attending I fully understand the weight of the situation and how books as such discuss should not be in schools however this argument has been going on far too long and it is distracting from more important matters when people from out of town and people who don't do not even have children attending these schools in our district show up to speak opinions about books it takes up time that should

074be spent discussing more dire matters such as the pop the growing population of homeless students attending schools or how schools do not have enough food for all students during lunch it is disgusting for a grown man to high-five people and get excited to read crude passages knowing that children are attending or watching from home I came that night in support of the NAACP or the National Association of advancement for colored people and to talk about the new standard attempting to be passed but instead I was read aloud by grown men and women about the sexual scenes in books why weren't these people removed by my parents and I were for speaking out about it these people make the situation which they are protesting worse as they read these crude passages aloud and thus they have

075become part of the problem these people have taken away from that of which many people had come to discuss that evening I speak on behalf of the students of the students of Indian River County Schools when I say that I would like to be assured that school board meetings are a safe place to discuss important topics thank you thank you Angela love and David Flint hello and thank you school board for all of your hard work I know this has become not the easiest of jobs I am a mother of two in this District fourth and seventh grade Osceola and Storm Grove that got the awards tonight I came to read a couple quotes Benjamin Franklin said if all printers were determined not to print anything until they were sure it would offend nobody there

076would be very little printed John F Kennedy if this nation is to be wise as well as strong if we are to achieve our destiny then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books and more public libraries these libraries should be open to all except the censor we must know all the facts and hear all the Alternatives and listen to all the criticisms let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors for the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our Liberty Banning books is just another form of bullying it's all about fear I am against book Banning and censorship and I think it's quite ridiculous considering the most middle and high schoolers have phones in their pockets with way worse material than anything you can

077find in our libraries what am I for I am for freedom of speech freedom of press I'm for nonpartisan School boards getting the hard work done I am for complying with the desegregation order that is 56 years overdue and I want to make this County a beautiful example of community working together not the laughing stock of this nation and the world I took a picture of my daughter's classroom one year ago of the band library in the classroom and it went viral local press Harvard Japanese television Crews who came to my house and now in Munich Germany they are doing an exhibition on banned books it's going to be from October to February and there's going to be a picture of our Indian River classroom in there we are a poor example to the world

078in Germany they have memorials for their mistakes about banning books and I hope we can go in a different direction thank you thank you David flint and then Sean Sexton members of the board thank you for your time David Flint citizen of Indian River County and a parent to multiple children enrolled here in Indian River schools after the last meeting where a local hate group claimed that they won a battle they've now begun to publicly turn their attention to challenging books about African-American lives and lived experiences that they refer to as CRT that affirmation aforementioned hate group will tell you that these books are dangerous they're against the law and they must be removed but that's simply not true and you can do something about these challenges 1557 the bill in which this hate group

079is using to target books on CRT has been challenged by other districts guidance has been sought from the state of Florida due to the Department of education's lack of clarity in the issue the latest declaration from the State Attorney General on August 4th was an emotion to dismiss Pernell versus School Board of Lake County where Moody stated and I quote House Bill 1557's meeting is clear it applies to formal classroom instruction not library books the Attorney General also stated the legislature's decision the certain materials are inappropriate for classroom instruction does not mean that they are categorically inappropriate for the very different setting of a school library the books that are being targeted for CRT present a world view that I take seriously as a father of three children of color in this District as their

080father I have the awesome responsibility to direct their upbringing these hate group members have no right to tell me or any other parents what my children may or may not read and the state attorney has recently backed my rights for my children's access to these books in a public library the challenging of books on the basis of CRT is nothing more than a continued whitewash of history and I call on this school board to use the power given to it by the state to follow the law and to return these books to the library for Access by our students these challenges are not about protecting children as it was made so evident at the last meeting where the members of the local hate group decided to read sexually explicit material well knowing that miners were

081in the room the same miners that they say they're trying to protect it was a stunt it was a stunt to distract from actual issues drawing attention to themselves as they continue to try down public education and Gaslight statements to attack members of this community who would dare stand against them we need to stop this nonsense and focus on issues that are affecting our students and our teachers we need to focus on the importance of balanced non-politicized classrooms fully funding classrooms classroom materials should be balanced and fair and address All Families American history should be taught factually using materials that is not propaganda African-American history is American history and it needs to be told as it was not minimized to limit white fragility in closing I'd like to thank Dr Jones for her leadership thank

082you thank you very much Sean Sexton and Lance Lunsford so that I have that I don't miss it I'll thank you for your leadership ahead of time um I have I'm one year shy of seven decades of being a resident of Indian River County and um I have grown up and lived part of Florida's recent history and I have a strong recollection of some fabulous governors in our past Governors who left education matters to education professionals and I don't understand why the uh really the stupidest person in the room in the the chambers of government is determining things about education somebody who is not an education professional I don't understand why we're even having a discussion about censoring the history of of the black black culture in America why that's not something that we already

083want everybody to know everything about so that we can move forward together and I want to close in saying that I'm a product of public the public school system as our all of our children and some of you sitting there have been integral and their upbringing and it's a noble profession the people I admire the most in this world are teachers they're the people who have influenced my life and made it all the richer than it might have been without them and so I just want to express my gratitude for the Indian River County School System Dr Moore thank you very much for leading a wonderful institution in our lives and supporting him thank you Mr Sexton Lance Lunsford and Dr Karen hiltz thank you madam chair many important weighty topics haven't brought before you

084this evening and I want to encourage every citizen with a strong mind and a stout heart to make their intentions known before you this is an excellent example of what democracy is about regardless of your opinion on the issues however I'm here not to talk about these issues this evening Madam chair you know why I'm here I'm here to share about something beautiful that happened in our community Last Friday Night I'm here on behalf of the Indian River County taxpayers Association I where I had the privilege of serving as the chair of our first inaugural Community Council where we brought together all the heads of government from across the county state senator board chair of the County Commission our superintendent all the Mayors all the Constitutional officers that have a Roundtable discussion on the future

085of the county I want to come here to formally thank Dr Moore for participating and representing the school district in this important conversation when I I could not have planned this better I have to admit Madam chair because if I were to direct your attention to the seal right behind you that says stronger together nothing could more perfectly summarize the vision for our community council but as a community we came together to talk about the important issues of the day and Achieve something that's rarely achieved in government Unity and unity towards civility towards honor towards tashing out all the important issues in an open form where we had not 30 not 50 but 92 attendants on a Friday night at the IG Center considering that was competing with the Vero Beach football game we were

086very impressed by that and of course is a big ask to ask school officials to come on a Friday evening but we certainly are grateful for your attendance and I will also add at the very end Dr Jones that you know this is the first government hearing where we are officially you know going across the county recognizing people so when you're with accounting commission chair Urban you can say you have bragging rights on being the first government body that we are formally recognizing and thinking for your attendance and we look forward to hosting future events with this community council to for greater action and to hold government officials accountable and really discuss and act upon a few good positive future for our County for our taxpayers and so I want to thank you formally again

087for participating and we encourage we look forward to seeing all the great things that come from our school district and from all parts of government in our County thank you very much thank you Miss Lansford Dr Karen hiltz and then Anthony Brown good evening let me Begin by thanking the board for adopting policy that invites citizen involvement and input regarding curriculum review also thank you to miss Bieber Dr shafty Miss Rogers and Mrs basura for shepherding the process they were consistent diligent and responsive as a participant of the social studies Review Committee as well as previous Ela and math curriculum reviews our primary objective at least in my opinion is to provide basic appropriate fact-based curriculum to help children learn what they need to get a job and succeed in life I personally believe curriculum

088should be unbiased balanced and free of ideological agendas as you were informed on September 11th there were groups that reviewed either elementary middle or High School curriculum that consisted of a total of nine subjects with 37 sets of submitted materials Middle School world history U.S history and Civics was the group I participated in which included 17 of these sets after many hours of attending meetings reviewing material and recording scores and comments I was pleasantly surprised that our Middle School group concluded National Geographic cengage to be the recommended publisher I can't speak for the other members but what I observed is that NG presented the more balanced fact-based and unbiased materials they also included experts relevant to the subjects for example videos had archaeologists speak about artifacts found in various digs from around the world anthropologists

089provide research and findings relevant to human development and how it relates to societies and culture and she also had the most comprehensive original Source documents and they were relevant to the subject an example is U.S history and Civics weren't identical there was overlap as the Declaration of Independence in the U.S Constitution are applicable to both but there was also specific sources for the specific subjects regarding McGraw-Hill for high school I would ask for caution materials reflect bias ideology information is skewed and unbalanced in some cases and original sources were limited and not unique to the course this is important because Publishers use many consultants who interject their experience and develop patterns if you review one subject and have concerns similar concerns typically carry over into other subjects also my participation in a review of McGraw-Hill

090materials for another Florida District identified several concerns though I don't agree with all of the recommendations I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the process I ask you to diligently consider the recommendations as many of us were committed in our efforts to identify the best social studies curriculum thank you thank you Dr Hilt Anthony Brown and then Kevin Browning good evening Madam chair first and foremost Iris received recently some calls from friends and as of the 28th we are not looking so good in the eye of our nation I want to thank you personally Mrs barenberg and Mr Barefoot for your continued support and dedication to our children our school district I used to be under the illusion that the board was uh non-partisan but recently I found out it would be very

091much partisan recently people have asked for your resignation Madam chair but tonight I come with a different cause recently I saw some tweets where we use a mask in the Ku Klux Klan to identify Democrats undoubtedly some of those books that somebody wants to ban they need to read them because post Civil Rights era it was the Dixiecrats and the moderate Republicans the Dixiecrats were strong uh Thurman it was George Wallace and bull O'Connor they were today's Republican so get your history right read a book it's also a pair apparently to me that on our board we have a person that represents my community that does not reach out to my community does not interface with my community but gets into a confrontation with you about a black man who happens to be a clown

092coming in here to tell you all about who we are in Indian River County with that being said I feel that some people need to give up their position because they are not representing the people of this community it's uh to make a statement that uh systemic racism does not exist in Indian River County Floyd you can run that one by me also I look at some tweets it's deplorable some of the tweets that a board member would have and by the way we screenshot all of them so we got them in our file and they will be used at a later date ladies and gentlemen stop it you're destroying a beautiful Community you're not representing our people we have three board members who are standing up being told critical race Theory slavery African-Americans were

093complicit in the massacre and Tulsa African-Americans were complicit in Ocoee my grandfather is buried in Ocoee so undoubtedly some of you don't know history stop Banning the books and read a book Thank you thank you Mr Brown Mr Browning Kevin Browning and then Donald Baldwin thank you good evening thank you chairman Dr Jones for your unwavering professional leadership it's sad but in Florida we've seen Books banned by and about black and brown and lgbtq individuals and authors in regards to their history and experiences even Books banned about Anne Frank Roberto Clemente baseball player Rosa Parks and even Dr Martin Luther King Jr just let the kids read about and be taught the truth as it is and as it was regarding African-American history the victims of the Ocoee and Rosewood massacres did not cause violence

094to have themselves killed and their neighbors killed with businesses and houses being burned to the ground and slaves did not benefit from the horrors of slavery teachers should not have to teach those lies that make them uncomfortable and neither Should students be forced to sit in any class that teaches those dangerous lies please do the right thing thank you thank you Donald Baldwin and Tammy Bogart [Music] good evening today we have hundreds of political prisoners in jails in District of Columbia over 1.1 million people went to D.C back in on January 6 to protest election fraud they had believed that they had the right to assemble by Amendment one of the Constitution [Music] many were there were a handful that went into the capitol and uh hundreds were [Music] thrown into prison into jail in

095violation of Article 1 Section 9 the privilege of the right of habeas corpus they were not charged they were not granted anyhow they were accused of insurrection without firearms this would not have happened had our children been taught the Constitution and the history of the Constitution we need to teach our children the heritage of this country they need to know to learn the Constitution [Music] Article 1 States Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof this is not separation of State in church this is not freedom from religion an official can tell somebody suggest to somebody that they can should read the Bible if they're looking for pornography [Music] anyhow this constitution should be taught in the schools okay thank you very much Tammy Bogard and Thomas

096Kinney good evening I wasn't able to make last month's meeting but I did want to make some comments on what I observed first I want to address the insults and name calling by school board members claiming that reading pornographic books aloud was a stunt it was not a stunt parents and taxpayers went through the proper channels to have these books pulled off the shelves and you chose to put them back on the shelves in 2022 the statute that permits parents to read excerpts from obscene books aloud was knowingly and intentionally written so that parents and taxpayers had recourse with school boards who choose to be derelict in their duties so as parents and taxpayers they simply followed the law and used the rights afforded to them to hold our school board accountable and to expose

097your dereliction of Duty I would also like to comment on the malicious attacks by for on one of our school board members I'll remind the community that Dr Gene posca is volunteering his time on this board because unlike most board members he donates his entire salary to the Technical College yet despite not taking a salary and his busy schedule as a physician serving our community he still shows up for every meeting to serve the parents and children of Indian River County so the malicious attacks against a man with a servant's heart are divisive unwarranted and clearly politically motivated and lastly I would like to thank the superintendent and the school board for making the decision to remove 234 books from our school libraries to bring our school district into compliance with State statutes thank you

098so much thank you Thomas Kenny and then Michael Marsh thank you um what's this superintendent the other five board members thank you [Music] how's everybody this evening it's good online to get a picture of the back of my head um I just want to thank you all first for getting rid of the pornography of the library is making some shelf space for some quality literature I do know that our media Specialists are are skilled at what they do and I'm sure that that space will be filled very quickly with good stuff so I just want to thank you all pornography shouldn't be in anybody's hands especially kids there's plenty of literature that can Broach serious subjects without all the pornographic events within it everybody knows that a library is curated nothing is banned when you

099choose a book it's at the cost of not choosing another it's real simple but people want to use ban and political language much like this sap copy of the satire Babylon bee whose motto is fake news you can trust this is what Mr posca posted it's pretty hilarious I laughed at it Democrats continue proud tradition of wearing white masks to show political affiliation it's just a joke satire if you ever look over here on the side you know on the latest news Senate releases rules to allow fetterman to take a bath in the reflecting pool this is the kind of satire they do Nation torn between party that openly supports perversion and party that only secretly supports perversion and you see that down there nobody is isolated in their uh stuff it's satire but if

100you look on page two of my handout to you the Indian River Freedom Coalition removed all Babylon B uh marketing and everything and just put the picture up there and displayed something contextually that can look completely different any River Freedom Coalition the original name was actually for people who were in the mass fights it was started by uh Jennifer Pippen and a few others the name was and it was taken over by someone else and they went on to do we the people Indian River and now this group hear the some of the speakers who uh approached the the chair tonight are in line with that so I just want to thank you all that stunts or stunts HP 1069 allowed our members to reveal the evidence of books and what they actually contain on

101August 28th and you guys did the proper thing in unanimously voting three of you reversing your votes to get rid of them thank you so much thank you Michael Marsh and then Kenneth Simon foreign good evening it's just a joke just like quoting Hitler remember that we just had that moms for Liberty right folks it's just a joke what you have in front of you as it's been so eloquently quoted Democrats continue proud tradition of wearing masks it's not a joke happy Yom Kippur a day of atonement a day of apologies right will we demand an apology from a sitting School Board member for this garbage and I quote not my opinion through the chair Dr Gene posca post this on his page it's right here no opinion it's disgusting it's a travesty matter of

102fact the letter from Dr Jacqueline Jacobs makes it clear about the policy violation po0124 members of the board will therefore strive for professional growth and will seek to exercise the best professional judgment and integrity board members strive to achieve and sustain the highest degree of ethical conduct to maintain the respect and confidence of their colleagues students parents and of other members of the community this trash does not now I saw two community members to be attacked two community members that do so much but let's go back to the last meeting when we had the hired not higher The Hired fake false prophet Pastor that was in here what really bothers me is to see law enforcement shake this creature's hand one out of the four body cameras were working that night but you know what

103tonight our Sheriff has kept us safe with srds every side of the room but I want to know why that Sergeant shook his hand and why did we allow Tiffany Justice to jump in front and say well why are you removing this guy if Michael Marsh did it I would have a new booking number Madam chair now library books you know when they were answered what Tiffany Justice was here through the chair current board members that support moms for Liberty but we don't have that discussion through the Chariots that disgusting Doc Jones did it no no no no no 2011 I don't even think Doc Jones was here ladies and gentlemen not on the board but you know what she was doing she was doing the work speaking of the work through the chair Dr

104Moore it's actually got embarrassed since you've been here because you made sure that failed Educators who went on to fail to run for County Commission are no longer teaching our kids thank you Dr Moore apparently history is rough for some quoting the Insurrection from January 6th I I don't even know what to say I got nothing fam but last but not least as far as what I want my kids to be called we have this form well doc you know what I want I want them to be called interracial Queens because that's what they are doc they're on the back of my shirt and last but not least Doc Jones is here today tomorrow and she'll be here through 2028 as long as I have breath thank you okay Kenneth Simeon Simeon and then Jennifer

105Pippen Kenneth Simeon I'm sorry and Jennifer Pippen good evening I'm concerned that you hired the media specialist formerly known as librarians who chose those dozens of books with their Keyhole views into Lord literary pornography with descriptions of sex x including scenes of rape incest and homosexual eroticism and those Specialists selected approved presided over and maintained that collection of books keeping it within the reach of children for years now at a cost of around 15 million dollars you're bringing aboard a team of Mental Health Specialists to spread out through the county schools I ask you to hit the advice an old Captain once wrote to me watch out for White Water which is where many ships have grounded and busted their holes on a reef in December of 1973 Trustees of the American Psychiatric association voted

106to no longer list homosexuality as an abnormal psychological disorder they were made up of several who themselves were homosexual and their motive to vote that way were not based on Revelations of science or medicine but on personal preference my concern is that at this time you may hire some people for these jobs with master's degrees in Psychology who may have minored in LGBT studies and if a student refuses to use the preferred pronoun of a student who's wanting to transition into the opposite sex of their natural birth than the student who refuses to go along with those ideas will be diagnosed as homophobic and then be sent to the mental health specialist for correction with some kind of therapy ensuing you say diversity is a wonderful thing but like the word privacy it can be

107widely defined in an era of society in which the old immorality has become the new morality and the old morality has become the new immorality where children are being misled to judge others by the color of someone's skin rather than the content of the character and they hear instead of a boy can grow up to be a man they hear that he can grow up to be a woman and that a little girl can grow up to be a man I suggest we replace this with the Bible which inspired moral virtues for 340 years in schools in America until the early 1960s it was taken out of school and so was prayer please let our public schools be a sanctuary and an asylum for Learning and have books that employ children's minds and wills to

108attain unto Noble abilities sir Jennifer Pippin and then the last speaker on citizen input of this area is Melissa Kells verdict foreign good evening my name is Jennifer Pippen and I'm the proud chairman of moms for Liberty Indian River Florida I would like to thank the board for reversing their votes on the pornographic and sexually explicit books and a special thank you to Dr posca and Miss Rosaria for never wavering through the entire process thank you Dr Moore and your staff for getting the rest of our list out of the schools in record time parents had and have the fundamental right to remove their minor children from the last meeting or this meeting or from watching on YouTube at the last meeting or this meeting or any meeting in the future pocket constitutions have been

109donated all over the county except for our four public middle schools I'm asking please for you to discuss and revise the policy 9700.01 where donations tied to statute like the teachings of the Constitution the Holocaust African-American in history and Etc doesn't have to get a label not endorsed by the school district because it is it's tied to Statue just like teachers get permission for supplemental materials and this is is just that two years in a row now our County was the only County in Florida that offered free donations and students didn't receive in our Public Schools please look at revising that policy Dr posca is being attacked by the Liberals including the NAACP on a failing online petition for speaking Truth at the last school board meeting he's a medical doctor saving lives during the

110day and donating his salary to serve on the school board to trade school for students in this County I guarantee no one opposing him could say they do either of these things for the people in our community shame on the NAACP and the minority of the Liberals in this County and you don't speak for the majority of us saving education in this country thank you Dr posca for your support in our community and your career and donation of your salary on this board to children while speaking the truth while doing so don't let the minority of the population distract you and the vows you took as a medical doctor and and an elected School Board member I also would like to remind this board if we're going to talk about not following the law or

111not following ethics or not doing something right this school district was one of the only school districts that violated the mandatory masking against the governor's orders this was one of the first school districts that had pornography and sexually explicit content challenged in the schools and voted to put it back on the shelves while other Counties have superseded in getting them off some years ago right so there has been other things that this district has done that has not been aligned to statute and state law so if you're going to go after one person and one thing you need to look at the entire board and what they've done Mr Barefoot has a sunshine violation so again if we're going to look at all of these things let's just do the chair yes ma'am through the

112chair Mr Barefoot has Sunshine violation so again don't just focus on one thing focus on everything thank you thank you Melissa kellsbury Melissa Kells verdict thank you you never know what you're going to follow so I might have a somewhat of a solution I'd like to bear with me it's clear from last month's meeting that we are at an impasse with two ideological thoughts that cannot coexist uh the entire country and this county has spent the better part of the past two years trying to make one side agree with the other and all sorts of divisive moves have been played by both sides it's also evident that the Bible is well known and well quoted Within These Walls it's also noted that we have all fallen short of discourse and actions towards each other and

113our people who are once our neighbors so I include myself in this so I ask so what do we do so I propose a classical school track within Vero Beach High School I'm not saying Charter so everybody just get the charter out of your head it's it why would you do this well basic business is because there's currently classical Christian Elementary Schools popping up there's three of them right now there they are opening up in the community they are thriving and there's more on the way parents are going to want options when we're done with this also parents want choice this is evidence parents are awake they're invested in child's education and this is good for our community it's also evident in the increased attendance at school board meetings we speak about diversity but how

114do we really address what it looks like in Academia without race and sex being addressed further teachers do not want to be beholden to politicized unions and federal agendas they want to teach I was a teacher I know what I'm speaking of and I was also a union rep so classical education offers such Freedom lastly education vouchers have begun to follow the families in Indian River County and this is only going to expand with more options that means less tax dollars I don't have to explain this to you folks I myself was a recipient of those dollars it felt great it's my money it goes with my kid when more people find out that they can do this and there's more options they'll want it so it would be who the public school to say

115what are the parents going for how can we get this in our public high school how do you do this well you already do it with the AP track you already do it with the hosted track at the Vero Beach High School you could make it work it's not that difficult you could also model it as a Vero Beach classical high school as a feeder school for the new College in Sarasota which would be really an Innovative idea enough with the government stuff it's a good idea also a classical education was designed for a republic that placed the power of government squarely securely and entirely in the hands of the people all people we teach this one child at a time we do not need a village to raise a child we need a self-governed

116literate populace and that is what we are missing because we're arguing about the sex and the race we do not need we need parental involvement Dr Moore you spoke about boutique style school thank you this could be your legacy please consider it thank you all right the next thing on the agenda I move the discussion item of African-American standards next but I have several pieces of paper I want to make sure I don't miss anyone so we're going to take a 10 minute break I'm going to adjourn for 10 minutes and then we'll come back at 7 48. I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen I'm sorry if you don't mind sitting down for one minute uh I should ask for citizen input after this part before we go into discussion um so any board members any

117comments Please Mr Rosario I would like to make a few comments um let me see someone made a comment about why teachers aren't coming to board meetings teachers aren't coming because they they're they're fearing about your retaliation when they get back to school so that has to be addressed if teachers do not feel free enough to come up to the podium and share their First Amendment right because they are fearful that they're going to have retribution when they get back to the schools that's an issue in and of itself teachers and all School staff should be free enough to come to this Podium and feel safe enough to share how they feel at any time day or night no matter what we are here to support every teacher and every staff member and if a

118teacher does not feel that they are comfortable coming here it's not because of the board members or at least it's not because of me it's probably because of administration putting down uh putting putting that pressure on teachers or staff members so I just wanted to make that clear also I think it's um pretty ridiculous somebody mentioned something about the permission for the nicknames I have to admit I think that's absolutely ridiculous to be able to ask parents for permission to for their nicknames in schools I think that is just the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard um I know that I asked the superintendent for support on that he provided his answer was doe rule um but that's not what the law says the law does not say that we have to ask for permission

119for nicknames the law says that we just cannot force compelled speech on on uh on pronouns you know forcing a teacher or someone in the staff to call a student by a pronoun or another name that the parent is not aware of and or the school district um or the the the teacher or the the person um leading doesn't feel comfortable calling that child by that pronoun or name that's what the law says the law doesn't say anything about nicknames so you know if your name is you know um I don't know Jonathan and they call you John I mean that's John is technically a nickname for Jonathan I think that's ridiculous for a parent to have to give permission for the use of John in the schools something has to be done there I've

120already inquired about it I hope that there would be more information that would be provided um on that so for the record that's how I feel on that issue there were a couple of uh instant a couple of comments about citizen input and I will say that the chair has changed some of her I guess warnings or highlights at the onset of Citizen input the lobby has changed slightly and obviously there are no standing rooms I know a lot of it is strategy to try to quell uh citizens comments but I understand um based on the last meeting why some of these changes have occurred so I will also say that nothing precludes a person any person from coming up and using their First Amendment right to say whatever they want to say if you

121want to read from a book you can read from a book it doesn't matter who's out in the lobby with a computer if you want to challenge a book you can follow the challenge process or you can read a book here someone said something about children being present it's terrible that children were present if they heard those books it's also terrible that the books are made available to students in libraries and so the law says it doesn't matter whether a book is is uh taken out or how many books how many times a book has been uh checked out of a library that doesn't matter the law actually says that those books shall not be available that's the language in the statutes shall not be available means they should not be available whether you take

122it out once or take it out 500 times or it's never taken out for the life of the book on the Shelf it doesn't matter shall not be available means it shall not be on the Shelf gaining dust or being utilized or being checked out so that's the standard from the the the the statute so if a book is in our shell is on our shelves which actually is really the linchpin here is the um what is in statute that allows a parent because it actually says that a parent has the right to read a book from the podium whether the book has something bad in it or not you all should be the judge of that right if you all did not like it and you didn't want your children to hear it then

123you should be mad that the book was on the Shelf in the first place to be made available to children now we are not a public library system that's the difference we're not a public library system we are a school system that happens to have a public we are a school system that happens to have a library in it and we are responsible for what goes on the shelves in the library and it has to align with statue it has to align with our standards that's what we are required by law to do and so that's what we have been doing and so if the law allows a book to be read that's what we have to allow clearly First Amendment right does not allow and of course our attorney can um can confirm uh

124you just can incite a riot right you can't say anything and everything you cannot incite a riot with your First Amendment right but otherwise otherwise if you want to use this Podium you can use the podium uh clearly there are other parameters by address going through the chair and so on and so forth I will also say um there was a comment on a lawsuit regarding the Attorney General with Pernell etow versus the school board of Lake County that comment was taken out of context because that case is still not even hasn't been heard yet the judge has not declared a decision on that case yet so it's too premature to even make a comment such as what Attorney General Moody may or may not have said regarding that case there was another comment about

125the books that are in the libraries I believe someone mentioned Carter Woodson not sure who exactly it was I will confirm that we do have books from Carter Wilson in our library we also I think somebody mentioned something about Roberto Clemente those books have not been taken off of our shelves we have 16 Roberto Clemente books in our district um as far as I'm concerned we should have more um and then lastly I'm going to make a comment and this is a personal comment I am a tax paying Citizen and I do homeschool my child and quite frankly it's nobody's business what I do with my kid if I want to use the voucher system I could I'm not but if I do that's my business it's nobody's business and anyone else who is a

126tax paying citizen who is a homeschooler can also use that right because that's the right that was given to them by the law it's available to them but that's their business it's nobody else's business what you do with your children is your your concern in your business and you can and what I do with mine is my business and that is fine but to use this Podium to try to address a board member who homeschools and to ask them to that they have to actually give you an answer of what they do personally it's that's not the work of the board that is not the work of the board thank you Miss Rosario Miss barenberg yeah I um I want to say that I think the sharing of a Babylon B article shouldn't be deeply

127offensive it's a satirical comedy news organization I think everybody knows that but if it does offend you I'd have to ask you know to a certain extent why and is it because of the inherent element of truth about the history of the Democrat Party that offends you and and what is that truth since you've all brought it up today um the truth is that the desert sorry it's Dr paska's turn we listen to you you listen to us the truth is the Democrats were the primary owners of slaves in America they then fought and died trying to keep slavery the Democrats then fought black integration in America the Democrats created the KKK to intimidate and destroy the black community and frequently targeted patriotic black Americans who were activists and politicians in the Republican party as

128an example Senate candidate George Ashburn in the 1980s the CIA allegedly funded hip-hop artists including NWA Africa bambaata and Grandmaster Flash and the furious five with the intent to corrupt young black Americans and entice them with drugs sex and violence through its glorification at the same time in the 1980s the CIA also flooded black communities with drugs including a never-ending supply of crack cocaine which they used to fund their Contra movement in Nicaragua the current leadership of the Democrat Party was trained by these segregationists and former KKK members and subsequently enacted violent crime control and Law Enforcement Act that was sponsored by Joe Biden and signed by Democrat President Bill Clinton in 94. the result was the mass incarceration of primarily young black men for non-violent crimes including the possession of the very drugs the

129government helped to make transport and then distribute specifically into impoverished inner city black communities if you were truly offended by this I'm sorry because it's not my goal to offend you however I would recommend considering that maybe this Babylon B article offends you because the history is offensive to you I love and care about every person I meet and I always treat them fairly and with respect and I think the vast majority of people who are registered Democrats are wonderful people and I'm friends with many um any comments I have about a quote Democrat is referring to a leadership I'm going to continue to do my duty as elected to make our schools safer to focus on teaching not indoctrinating to fight for our communities basic human rights as this board has repeatedly fought to

130obstruct them as they tried to do just last week regarding our freedom of speech in these very board meetings I will continue to fight to allow an equal opportunity for every child to succeed including women whose rights are once again being taken away by men it doesn't matter if you call me names make death threats against me which started several months ago after I publicly opposed the racist Equity policy that has schools treat Asian black and white kids differently it doesn't matter if you blackmail me to vote with certain board members which a local political consultant did nearly a year ago regardless of these attacks I will continue to stand up for what is right in Indian River County yeah I'm going to address a couple of statements so we're made on this diocese um

131thank you I'd like to ask that board members not act as attorneys we have an attorney that person studied the law we can refer to law we can look at law but I would not want to interpret the law for my fellow board members I would refer to an attorney to do that so I'm going to say that the comment about strategy to quell speakers you know I didn't realize that we were going to limit people standing in the back as a matter of fact I went up to several people before the meeting and said why are we doing that I had no idea but I was told something and I did ask could that statement be told at the beginning of the meeting and it wasn't said so I would ask for after I'm

132done speaking if Dr Moore could explain that um it's interesting because the parent has the right to read from the podium is what I believe you you said and I I quoted you um Mrs Rosario but yet the statement right before that you said is that it's too early to make a comment about the speaker yet you just got finished stating that everyone has their First Amendment right so you talked about a speaker making a comment about an attorney general's statement but yet then you said it's too early to make that comment they have the right to make that comment you said they have their first amendment right so they did have that right to make the comments so please don't correct them that they didn't another thing that board members do is we go

133through ethics training every year maybe we should go through it weekly we represent the board corporate not as an individual which means in our training they teach you or if we should have learned that we're not all the same politically but we represent education we represent our our communities and our focus should be on education not on creating political divide and that's part of why they made this position for years nonpartisan because of the political divide thank you Tallahassee but calling other board members names and stating people with a fascist ideology would support you made that statement in the last Workshop Dr posca about me that is not how to no no she has no I have the right to say it I have the right to speak there's no point order this is for

134the attorney all right the question here was uh the comments the open comment was for us to make comments on citizen input are we doing citizen input or are we doing General I think we've done generally General board comments because if it's General board comments that should be reserved for a board member matters as framed it was response to what was stated during open citizen comment that said uh this has been pretty wide ranging by most of the board members I would recommend if we have comments that one we try to well let me strike that speak basically at the end when it's time for commissioner comment would be the appropriate time having said that we've we've gone pretty wide ranging so far on this and I think it's it's up to the board the

135point of order is if there's a rule broken or assembly you know rule broken and so forth so can you make the point of order she made a point of order about whether or not a rule is broken in Robert's Rules was a rule broken in Robert's Rules I do not believe a rule is broken and Robert's rules that said we are going wide ranging and there's nothing precluding these conversations from occurring during board comment this is important comment this is it is yeah this is it is an input board common is at the end of the board meeting I think we've gone a little wide range on this can I finish my statement I'm just going to let her keep going and then we'll keep going at the end with board member matters then

136I'm going to take a break before we start on the African-American standards my point being before I was interrupted was and this is exactly my point how unprofessional some behavior is happening on this Dice and it needs to stop this is not how a professional board Acts and it's disgusting to have an attack by somebody that literally was not involved in all the decision making that happened in the past doesn't realize all the attorney conversations we had over things especially about books which has come up on these comments so I'm going to refer to that you know do I want books that have those statements in them no but I was talking to Attorneys at the time about how we have to proceed with this and it's a very delicate thing to do because we

137don't want to get into the perception of banning books and so walking with caution of course now you're labeled that you either did one side or the other with a book and it's not fair especially coming from a fellow board member who wasn't there dealing with that at the time so I like to ask for a board member to please be respectful when they're talking to other board members be respectful to people at that podium be respectful to all sides it used to be in America you could come and say whatever you wanted about the opposite side and you had the right to say it and now it's gotten ridiculous it really has you know we represent our community the entire community and you can have a political thought you can have a political statement

138out there that's your right but if you're going to sit here as an elected official which I'm not sure being appointed to the board as an elected official but I'll just go with that if if we have a focus on education if you truly wanted to be on this board because you cared about education then care about education don't care about taking a political stand on something and causing all this strife and people to come to our meetings and talk about things that have nothing to do with what we really need to focus on we need to focus on our kids and the education of our kids and I'm so sick of all this fighting and the political nonsense that's going on and calling people names and interrupting people when they're trying to speak and

139all this other stuff please get to the point listen to people take it in make the best decision you can speak to the attorney and when you're at on this Dice and you're dealing with a really tough situation you talk to the person that actually has the attorney's degree okay Mr Barefoot do you have anything to say if you can hear us yes I think enough already thank you okay um okay um thank you to all who came out to speak tonight um I do listen to everyone we can see we have some um opposite feelings but what I still believe in and after 43 years in this community I will continue to fight for the best for our students here in Indian River County in the public school system you know when I was

140elected to serve in this role I took a very very seriously in every day I'm doing something regarding our schools and giving back as much as I can I do believe that when we take a look at all of the children and all of our parents and I our diversity we have a wonderful wonderful school system sometimes I don't think we brag enough like Dr Moore was bragging a little bit on cognia today I know what that means I've gone through accreditation it is a lot of work and then to have every school go through it a bunch of work as far as our teachers I know many of them been to all the schools going on my second time around right now and they are working their tails off what they are doing is

141teaching the standards and obviously we're assessing the students with our new testing and last year for the first year in the test we did a great job and Dr Moore um that's what we need to be talking about at all angles and I'm sorry that this has happened as far as this person here this person there but I too whenever I make a decision or a vote I'm trying to look at all of the aspects of what we're doing this is a community I truly love this is a school district that I know has great potential in public education you know it's a competitive field out there right now people can go to private or public schools and have vouchers homeschool people can have vouchers and what I want is to make sure that we

142do our best for those students who choose to stay in public education every single day so I will continue to fight for that we all have a right to say our opinion and then when the board votes that's how the board votes and you support it that's what you do so that's what you know as board chair somebody fsba said this is the toughest time to be on the board I thought oh great but I think if we continually move forward with disagreeing with respect if we do disagree and not really targeting anything as far as what we're doing I think we can do it and I think it's our job and it's our responsibility to do this and again or votes three two whatever it is we move forward and we support that and

143that's what I want to continue to do as a board Dr posca sure just in response of Prior comments um I didn't specifically address you Terry when I made that comment first and I went back at the time at the time we were discussing uh as a board a response to change public comment and restrict freedom of speech and those some of those changes that we were looking at were moving public comment to the end of the meeting so it really has no bearing or purpose on the meeting making it so it's not broadcast on the TV so the rest of the community can't see it preventing public comments and restricting it potentially to people who have parents in our schools adding extremely detailed personal information to the form so we know pretty much everything

144about you and others and I wasn't trying to call you a name and I didn't name you specifically I was merely providing an objective analysis of somebody who would support doing those things yes go ahead just one more comment one more comment I'm not going to go back and forth um I just want to refer to the fact that um I did not ask to censor citizens at all what I asked for was a check mark for a box to say are you a parent or not as Mrs Rosario just stated a parent has the right to read from the podium about the books because of the change of that law and so I wanted just that check mark so that the board chair knows who it is that's speaking at the podium I didn't

145ask for anything else so for you to just say that I trying to censor speech that's not true I just want the board chair to know who is speaking from the podium all right we're going to take a 10-minute break before we start the next discussion which will be on African-American standards and I would be calling the people up who want to speak about those thank you um I have moved the discussion item African-American standards right after citizen input so before I say anything we will have people who wish to speak on that and I've got several speakers so I will call you up and I want to make sure I don't miss anybody so it your name isn't on there by the end please let me know our first Speaker discussion 12a African-American standards

146is Cindy Gibbs there I think she's outside okay and after Cindy Gibbs we have David Flint I might have called a little early I'm sorry hey Cindy Gibbs on African American Standards followed by David Flint the clock sorry about that I was getting some air thank you I don't have anything formally written I just wanted to say that if we if we decide to block free speech about any marginalized Community it just opens the door to blocking the door for all marginalized communities I don't see any reason why we can't be studying in high school about Harvey Milk people should know who these people are in our community and I know that's a gay protester right and a gay person but when we start talking about marginalized groups of any kind we need to speak

147the truth about all of it and not be biased in any way about all of it obviously age-appropriate but I just I can't believe we're going down a path maybe even considering that we wouldn't include real African-American history in our schools and as has been mentioned at many other board meetings we have a font of knowledge in this community in Johnny may Perry and all of the people who are involved in the Gifford Historical Society when I first started in this district and I didn't really know so much about Florida history I went to the library and I studied as much about it as I could as a Philadelphian I can tell you anything you want to know about early American history Florida not so much so now I know because I went to the

148library and one of the things I did was to read about the Gifford historical society and the community was something I had never heard of from coming up north we have so many people from outside of this area moving here it's such an important history it's right here and we're wasting it so I certainly hope that people who live in the Gifford Community know the Gifford experience are willing to put together some materials or you know maybe it's a field trip something that is realistic and authentic to bring it to life for our kids thanks thank you Miss Gibbs David Flint followed by Angela bowling good evening again David Flint father of three African-American children here in the district um I don't have anything again formally prepared but you know this is something that I'm

149going to continue to speak on because it's passionate it's a passion of mine to make sure that my my children understand accurate history earlier this evening in citizen input there was a lady Marion Bender Who came and she spoke about her 14 year old daughter who brought or who is here with her 13 year old African-American best friend Marianne got a little choked up as she was speaking that African-American best friend that uh her daughter refers to his is my daughter who was here and spoke last month um when Katie my my daughter's best friend spoke to one of her teachers about the African-American history standards his response was I would be appalled having to teach that slavery was beneficial I would cringe having to look out over a class with African-American students in it

150even white students any students and make that statement and I would feel absolutely disgusted for the children that had to hear that statement be made and we hear that we heard that a month ago we've made that expression very clear my expectation was a month ago it remains today that every single member of this board sends a letter to the Department of Education and let them know that the African-American history standards need to be revised and specifically the standard that says slavery is beneficial needs to be removed now I know that Peggy Dr Peggy Jones thank you for your leadership on this I know you sent the first letter from the school board we appreciate that that meant the world to my daughter it did she came and she said thank you for it not

151because I asked her to but because it meant the world that she felt heard followed up by other board members who provided their own letters and then others that said they would support letters we still had one individual who said that he wouldn't and I again asked for this board to think about their constituents in the Fellsmere Community where 60 percent of the population are people of color that they would even consciously not not write a letter to the doe to call for that to be removed is is it's it's unconscionable it is so I ask you all to to be on the right side of history when it comes to these standards thank you thank you very much Angela bowling and Michael Marsh okay thanks I don't have too much um I appreciate that

152some of our school board members through the chair have contacted the State Board of Education about the proposed standards social studies standards and also the remarks at the last school board meeting that said essentially a reward the standards need to mean what they say and say what they mean we shouldn't have to be contacting the writers of the standards to find out that something that says slaves benefited from their condition in other words nobody should need to contact the writers to understand that what they really meant to say was actually slaves developed skills I'm sorry qualities of individual you guys I am messed up here all right no one should need to contact the writers of the standards to understand what they really meant to say with slaves developed skills which in some instances could

153be applied for their personal benefit rewrite the standard to actually speak of the quote qualities of individuals who went through slavery if that's what we're really supposed to believe that the clarifications intent was because in its current form it says nothing remotely like that um I don't understand why slavery is not even mentioned in the kindergarten through fourth grade standards it doesn't you know it has lots of nice things um about identifying African-American inventors explorers and artists and those who demonstrated Civic service and the oral traditions and folk tales of African Americans but it does not use the word slavery doesn't introduce the concept of slavery until fifth grade um so how can we and then but in third grade we're supposed to be teaching about Booker T Washington as he contributed to the Civic

154world um but but how can we teach about Booker T Washington if we have not actually addressed the first nine years of his life where he was enslaved on a Virginia Plantation um we knew we need to acknowledge the obstacles he faced in his accomplishments and his motivation so this is just that's just another issue I have with the standards that we should be contacting our Board of Education about also I wonder if if the standards were to be approved in their current form for next year do we have the option of the parents saying we opt out of specific lessons that we don't want our children to participate in and who's going to do the complicated work of notifying the parents in time of when those lessons are going to be happening that that

155seems like a really difficult situation so that's all I have on that too very much Michael Marsh and then Thomas Kinney by the point of the discussions right now were the comments right now are specific to this item yes so just as we have in policy if you've spoken to this item during citizen input you cannot speak to it again now so you can only speak to one item one item at a time that's correct Miss bowling did not I didn't accuse you of okay I'm clarifying point of clarification for the attorney I mean for the chair to take care of it that is correct thank you okay Mr Marsh thank you Michael C Marsh proud parent of two beautiful interracial Queens over at Oslo middle school and I'm here tonight to discuss our African-American

156history standards and I want to thank you Doc Jones for your Fierce and fearless leadership for writing this letter to our Commissioner of education and I just want to highlight a few areas Doc Jones and in your letter you talk about the standard is to be implemented in the Middle grades and it states the following examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves agriculture work painting carpeting tailoring domestic service blacksmithing and transportation directly below the standard is the clarification instruction includes how slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit I ask that you delete this standard as I do not think any African-American family in America really believes what their ancestors were forced to do or in many cases sold to do was any kind of choice the

157letter goes on to talk about the parental Bill of Rights that we love here the parental rights Bill States the following a parent can withhold their child from any portion of a curriculum if they believe such material is harmful I would not allow my children or grandchildren to listen to this material this is harmful because we are not telling the truth it is truly unconscionable saying that slaves learned a skill later for life this standard is simply an embarrassing mark on our state I ask that you quickly regroup with this committee and state board to delete this standard I also ask that you call on representatives from our state and local NAACP for inputting all these African-American standards as a side note the committee members who worked on these standards are clearly saying most did

158not agree with this standard of clarification only two out of the 13 agreed with this standard and now it seems like blame is being passed all around I leave you with this can you imagine an African-American student sitting in a middle school class when the teacher states that slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit I cannot in addition can you imagine an African-American teacher required to teach this I cannot I also cannot imagine a student of any race learning this information or any teacher of any race teaching this information we can never judge anything we have not experienced let the history book show that you as the commissioner of education did the right thing in this situation a true leader knows when to change something that is just

159not right regards our school board chair doc Peggy Jones and these two beautiful racial Queens would never learn this garbage that they the slaves benefit from slavery absolutely not and I guarantee that many teachers would not subject my daughters to this disgusting rhetoric so thank you Doc Jones for constantly being a Fierce and fearless leader even amongst those death threats good night thank you Thomas Kinney then Jennifer Pippin I'm going to read check one two one two is that on okay sorry didn't hear it I'm gonna read from an abolitionist Frederick Douglass talking about how his master wouldn't allow him to learn to read against the wishes of the Master's wife who wanted to teach him the very decided manner with which he spoke and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of

160giving me instruction convince me that he was deeply sensible of the truce he was uttering it gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which he said would flow from teaching me to read what he most dreaded I most desired what he most loved that I most hated that which to him was great evil to be carefully shunned was to me great good to be diligently sought and the argument which he so warmly urged against my learning to read only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn and learning to read I owe as much to the bitter opposition of my master as to the kindly Aid of my mistress I acknowledge the benefit of both [Music] Dr Allen acknowledged this passage from the

161autobiography of Frederick Douglass Dr Allen the retired U.S Constitution and political of political philosophy the Emeritus professor of Michigan State University and also former Commission on civil rights he said this about that Clause that everyone's crazy about I think every intellect can understand the language written there if people will only take the time to read it and it's only those who don't take the time to read it who will misstate it and the vice president of the United States misstated it and now Dr Jones is leading the political effort she started and she's using this for to run our school system in this manner so lastly the NAACP is the plaintiff in a 59 year old case of the desegregation order and on the joint Equity work group the chair Dr Peggy Jones sits on

162the defense team in her letter to the doe she wrote I also ask that you call in representatives from our state and local NAACP branches for input on all the African-American standards I I'm really calling for Dr Jones to step down from The Joint Equity work group at Monday's NAACP Town Hall this is back in August Tony Brown stated the Ocoee and Rosewood massacres were not being taught which by state law the Ocoee has to be HB 1213. only African-American history books were being banned that's another quote not true last comment was said after I pointed out to him that the task force was led by two preeminent African-American Scholars and three additional from the school system the others being Dr Frank thank you Thomas right thank you Mr Kenny Jennifer Pippin thank you good

163evening and just a point point of a clarification we do not have the AP African-American history courses and sdirc schools this was found out through a public records request this has been shared across the county including the NAACP shared on social media so just a point of clarification what I would like to know through the chair did you show up or make any comments or email or call the Board of Education before the vote on the updated curriculum with your concerns prior to the vote at the state level and I'd like to also know if the rest of the community did because that's absolutely their right I went back and watched the Board of Education video that's readily available online with the vote and I didn't really recognize anyone here that's been attending the local

164school board meetings and this was done at a state level so again you can't Trump what's going on at the state level if they make that curriculum it you have to Advocate it for it at the state level because local does not try Trump state does not Trump Federal okay so and also through the chair I know you may not agree with the proposed studies but the district still has to follow the curriculum you said you wouldn't require the district to follow the curriculum to a local liberal news source and even if you don't agree with something again just like the masking you still have to follow the line the law and the guidelines from the state your opinions don't Trump State Standards I'd also like to touch on the sdirc versus NAACP desegregation order

165again which is tied to the standards it has cost us taxpayers and parents in this County eight hundred and forty thousand dollars 765 and 10 cents from 2015 to 2023 that's eight years so that's on average a little over a hundred and five thousand dollars annually and it's 59 years ongoing it's ridiculous and this has been going on for way too long you know it's not discussed and and there's you know pro bono NAACP lawyers it hasn't cost them any money but it's costing us every single person in this room taxpayer dollars that should concern everybody that's not over political lines or anything again like pornography and everything else that should be non-political it should be a nonpartisan issue that this much money is going to this desegregation order um and the NAACP representative for

166the work group and their education director Kevin Browning he was making racist remarks at the school board meeting he got fired from his job for racist and sexist remarks in 2023 again this all ties into the desegregation order and what is being taught in the schools and what is not being taught in the schools as far as African history standards we do need this to segregation order to ends and how much more time and money needs to be spent you know of our taxpayer money on this desegregation order thank you thank you Miss Pippin I want to make sure that I called on everyone as far as African-American standards they have so much here I just want to make sure okay now I brought this up because I wanted to talk about it as last

167meeting we had so many speakers we didn't get to it to about 9 30 or 10. foreign August 1st that is correct I sent a letter to the governor and the commissioner and State Board of Education the first I had heard of it was when the superintendent received an email July 26 saying that we were moving forward with these standards then we received an email about a week and a half later saying that full image full implementation was not going to happen until next year 24 25 school year I wrote a letter and Dr Moore shared that with all board members I know Mrs berenborg also shared shared a letter she wrote and basically I said I would not support the teaching the standard and the clarification of the standard if the standard is going

168to be implemented and students have to learn it and teachers have to teach it then it is appropriate if a parent does not want their child in there to pull that child out of the class and I also talked with Dr Moore I hope we didn't get to the point where we were forcing especially an African-American teacher to teach us and we've had a little bit of discussion at our workshops on this and as I said I sent a letter Ms berenberg sent a letter and I still feel very strongly about this when you look at I'm just going to repeat that one area and as far as a comment with intellect I've looked at this very a lot examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves agricultural work painting carpeting tailoring domestic service

169blacksmithing and transportation and then the clarification includes how slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit I do not agree with that the education of children is a fundamental value of the people the State of Florida it is therefore a Paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education for all children residing within its border where this will end up I don't know but the fact that they are holding on it for another year maybe they are listening to a few things I don't know but um when we look at this I just thought it would be great if the board not my letter Ms barenborg's letter even just made a statement saying we have concerns about the standard and clarification that's the one thing I

170wanted to discuss with the board and we did have that last time but it wasn't until about 10 o'clock at night so I wanted to bring that up again that this is how I feel I wrote the letter it's something that I believe in we we are a majority minority District basically and we are here to serve all of our students and as a former Middle School principal I certainly could not think I could go into a classroom where a teacher was saying to students in general let alone African-American students that slavery is a personal benefit I just don't think that's right you know you do things right or you do the right thing and I think doing the right thing we've had a little discussion on it and there's no action item on this

171because it's not implemented yet but I'd like to hear from other board members and share their concerns or questions or just what they think it's very important sure did you get a response by the way when you sent that letter no I did oh okay I did not I got it last week from Governor Ron desantis's office actually sent it over to the DOE and they responded extremely long response and of course it's in defense of a lot of it but they did listen to the the fact about the wording so I was I was kind of anxious um to share a little bit of this with you and it did say um and I agree with this that at the meeting the the new standards for African-American history um I don't agree with the

172unanimous approval but it says that it marks the first time in Florida's history that African-American history standards will be Standalone Strand and that's true because before it would be embedded and if you got time and you got it done then it got done but if you didn't it didn't and I was a principal of a pretty much majority African-American School in Fort Pierce and we made sure that that got done because it was our kids history but what it says is it's the first time it's going to be Standalone strand which is great we got a good start and would no longer being embedded with American history so the standards were crafted by Florida Educators and Scholars and they went he went through the whole thing where it's located and he refers to the two

173standards that I brought up because I brought up two standards and I you know I just talked about the wording and how you can change just a few words to make it all inclusive and everybody kind of agreeing to something finally and uh he didn't really clarify that part but he asked me to follow up with a call and I sure will so I think that um it's a matter of tweaking and obviously the fact that they put it off they realize politically it's probably not the right time to do all this but it's also kind of on the back burner to discuss more which I'm really happy that that's happening I think that um you know their their defense of some of this stuff and I'll share this letter with all board members I'll

174make sure that um we get that shared but um it was it was interesting that I got a response and I got a kind of a quick response which was nice and obviously the governor's office is listening to some school board members and they are forwarding things so I'm really happy to see that thank you any other board member Mr barefoot no I think that the I know this apologize for this Echo I think the fact that that it's been slowed down as Miss barenborg just mentioned uh is good I think this perhaps the wording was needs to be changed or an emphasis changed um so let's let's see what the next iteration brings okay board member yeah I mean I think my previous comments uh stand you know still I'm generally happy though that

175we're making standards for African-American history I heard a lot of people concerned today that kids aren't getting a thorough education in African-American history it's not really a focus and they feel a lot of people are moving through life not understanding the horrors of slavery and what happened in America and I think that this standard is going to help to have a better educated Community when we focus specifically on African-American history I think in the end it's going to be good I understand there's people that are concerned with how this standard is some of the specific standards in it obviously the ones brought up today but there's a lot of misinformation going around and even one of the speakers today who was talking about I said we need to remove from the standard that slavery is

176beneficial and that's not in the standard you know I think that the way Nancy Pelosi vice president Kamala Harris and the media ran with this is they just saw a political opportunity to score points and get the community upset and the truth is that none of the people who wrote this standard want it taught in schools that slavery is beneficial and no one on this board wants it either and we're not going to let it be taught in our schools that slavery was a positive thing for anybody and nobody I've never met anyone that has that opinion and I certainly hope I don't thank you Dr posca Miss Rosario my comments um on this issue stay the same as as I previously stated from the last time that we had this discussion but my question

177is what's the purpose of this discussion now because I didn't hear it's your item I didn't hear um any other purpose other than let's discuss this again and the same comments that you made seem to be the same comments you made then so did I miss something what was your purpose I just chose to try to do it at an earlier time because last time it was around 10 o'clock and most people had left so you're just repeating the same conversation that we had last time I don't know if I repeated it exactly but my but I'm saying the purpose of putting it on the agenda was because it's just a repeat of last time just put that out there earlier because I know a lot of people left they didn't get to hear okay

178they didn't get to discuss it and bring up of course that's fine I just wanted to know like what the purpose was because I didn't know if you brought it up because you had another no ma'am just citizen input gave him a little bit more time okay that's fine thank you thank you for clarifying I thought I thought you also made the statement that you would have liked all the board members to make a statement together I would thank you and I don't know how that could be worded or what we could say but like what Dr posca just said you know nobody wants that so I mean I've written a letter Ms barenborg's written a letter maybe someone could come up with something as a board that we could agree to I mean you

179you said something the last Workshop about you would be willing to you know look at this and be willing to look at it but I don't know who I would love to if that were the case uh it would depend on who's writing it and what's being written so yeah rather than my name just being put down on something without viewing it first right you know but again it it depends on what's in the content of the letter so I don't know what's in the right and I don't know what would be in the content I would probably ask Dr Moore to take a look at it or somebody on a staff that we could look at I just think it would be powerful if we did it as a board and said this is

180how we feel and again the African-American standards as a separate strand very good move very very good move and I taught American history in eighth grade so that is something that we could do but just to make sure that um when our children are there when our teachers are there we feel comfortable with what is being taught but I could ask Dr Moore to take a look at it just in general and then whether we sign it or not is up to us that's my feeling all righty our next item we have approval of consent agenda items as amended I'd like to call for emotions Madam chair yes I I um I would like an item to be pulled it's um 5e the minutes that needs to be uh uh amended the minutes 5e need

181to be amended so I don't know if if you're willing to pull it for Action um that's fine I'll pull it for action 5e it's the minutes for 228 23. um Madam sure point of order yes um if we're going to go buy Robert's Rules we're going to go by Robert's Rules didn't we already have that section of the meeting where and somebody's here on time they can pull it okay I'm not going to pull that tonight the item has not been approved or edited appropriate to Robert's Rules I'm not going to pull that item that needed to be done at the beginning of the meeting according to Robert's Rules a board member can pull it next meeting though correct yes okay yes yes there we go okay sir I I want to defer to

182the attorney okay we have a question that was not pulled at the beginning of the meeting when we go from consent to action or just pulling an item for correction if we start that now then we'd have to do it every time somebody can no no not necessarily so sir the minutes that were pulled were amended but the minutes that were pulled were not correctly written and so according to Robert's Rules 48 um 4 48 section 4 and 48 section 15. the minutes have to be if they're being amended there has to be a motion to amend something previously adopted and then there also needs to be in the actual minutes there has to be the written in the margin uh what was actually changed and in here all that was done was a deletion

183they deleted the previous minutes and added new minutes so previously deleted the the vote of 3-2 that now no longer exists if you look at the minutes that were on the agenda right now that are is on the agenda right now it needed to be amended to 4-1 so all of those written margins and the indication of what was actually changed is not accurate through the chair you could move to reconsider an item that has been voted upon at the same meeting but again pursuant to your and again as I understood it everybody voted unanimously the last time so it would be someone who's on the prevailing side Ms Rosario is on the prevailing side if a majority votes to open it up and reconsider then you can reconsider if not it's done yeah it's

184just a matter of the correction of the minute so the minutes were corrected they just weren't corrected correctly that's what I'm saying you can't delete an item in the minutes without putting a strike through it and then adding the correct information next to it or in the the margin that has to be accurate otherwise we would be voting today on an item that we would have no record prior to what the corrections are being requested okay I'm not in favor of doing that but you're saying I should take a board vote to see if we want to do that to pull that item that was not pulled at the beginning of the meeting it is an item that was already disposed of and it was and it wasn't pulled at the beginning of the meeting

185no ma'am okay I have a motion would you make a motion sure I'd love to I'd like to make a motion to amend something previously adopted that would be the minutes of 228.23 second okay all in favor of this motion say I I all opposed say nay nay nay okay Nate okay motion fails okay but we if that needs to be corrected Dr Moore we need to have it in the next meeting as far as the minutes okay and Dr Jones just a little comment and the reason why I said nay um because I haven't had time to go back and see what the correction wasn't correct so I'm not going to vote on something just because I'm being told that it's wrong I want to know what it is that was wrong so I

186can vote on it correctly thank you all right the next part is the approval of the consent agenda item item as amended I would like to call for a motion to prove to approve the consent agenda item as amended so moved oh second Dr posca second by Miss bear born any discussion okay all in favor of the consent agenda item as amended please signify by saying aye aye aye I'm sorry Mr Barefoot what'd you say hi okay thank you that is approved four to one thank you and we had no consent to action items tonight so we're good there now action agenda and I do have some people who I want to make sure I do not miss that as far as the public hearing on the instructional materials adoption of social studies again this

187is not a vote this is just a public hearing and Mr Marsh I think you wanted to speak on this the instructional materials adoption and I want to make sure I get everyone I call for Mr Marsh foreign this is on the social studies instructional materials adoption public hearing before we start wait I'm going to hold on just a minute should we wait then I mean he had this as prior to that should we wait until we get into the actual public hearing on the input I would okay I would suggest that that would be the normal course all right all right the public hearing for instructional material adoption of social studies 2425 a list of recommended instructional materials for Social Studies have been available for public review for at least 20 calendar days the

188materials listed are subject to public comment during the public hearing the structural material adoption committee has reviewed the attached adoption materials for consideration beginning with the 23 24 school years these materials will assist teachers in providing standards-based instruction for the school district of Indian River County students this list of social studies instructional materials has been brought before the school board during the September 11 2023 School Board Workshop the list will be brought before the school board for approval on October 23rd okay this item deals with the instructional material adoption of social studies for the school year 2425 Dr Moore have you documented that the public hearing was properly advertised in accordance with state statute of cherry we have we now resist this meeting to conduct a public hearing as advertised the public hearing is now

189in session Dr Moore are there any written responses to the advertised public hearing to be read at this time and I have one from Michael Marsh you can come at this time if there was thank you good evening and thank you first off I want to thank the cni division because even tonight you have a whole table that allows parents to come here if they have any issues with this curriculum so let's mark this date because God forbid 90 days from now this curriculum that gets challenged in social studies let's go and look at this timeline April 6th the committee was the formation committee began I was proud to serve on that committee first meeting April 25th second one May 16th third one June 5th then yet August 15th the 16th the 17th then a

190nose probably hit public hearing went out he even had the super intense Workshop presentation on September 11th business meeting tonight if petitions are received proceed to the next step if no petitions are received proceed to purchase approved instructional materials there's been a whole process actually this process goes all the way until Christmas when they have the public hearing officer that submits the recommendation but let's talk about the role for a second this of the social studies committee the role here within the school district of Indian River county is to teach standards within the parameters of the law you got to follow the law the current Publishers submitted content that does both of those things if at some point laws change and there is a concern about content I am sure that this school district of

191Indian River County through the chair that our superintendent will make sure the work gets done we always must follow the law so once again I absolutely enjoyed this committee unfortunately some after they couldn't become chair left but I want to thank Mrs basora Mrs Bieber Dr shafty of course and again I don't know how many people came to the cni table tonight I'll do that public record in the morning but again we've opened this for all parents there is absolutely no reason that any of the social studies curriculum ever gets challenged because the school district of Indian River County has allowed for months upon months to come on in we want to hear you again a boogeyman that doesn't exist work is good the work will continue to be good and thanks to cni division

192the system's in place good night thank you Mr Marsh that is the only person I had on the schedule to talk about that I want to make sure I didn't miss anyone the chair concludes that the announced public hearing on September 25th 2023 has been conducted pursuant to notice and that ample opportunity to address this issue has been provided by all the board meeting is reconvened at this time there is no vote on this because that will be the October 23rd meeting but I just want to thank Miss Bay Sarah curriculum and instruction I did the science adoption about five years ago a lot of work I want to thank all the committee members on there as far as the recommendations Dr hiltz talked about that with National Geographic and so forth so um thank

193you very much because there's a lot of time and thank you to all the parents and um community members who assisted in this or members anything else on that no just thank you telling them I know how much work that is I also was on science adoption at the state level and it took a year so I appreciate all that work any others Mr Barefoot Miss Rosario yeah just to remind parents that if they're this is the this is the window in which they can provide input to the board sure so to find anything if you look at any of the materials if you want you know if you have concerns or questions this is the period within the next 30 days 28 days 30 days it's over there 30 days this is the period

194within the next 30 days that you would provide that input to us so that after the 30 days that's when the board will make our vote and then obviously within the 30-day window we would look into your concerns and then we would move from there so that's what the public hearing is all about thank you thank you very much all right our next agenda item is on our legislative priorities and I did have a speaker who wanted to speak here Jennifer Pippen and then Michael Marsh foreign first wanted to say thank you for putting that legislative agenda together I know last legislative session it wasn't put together in time and the speaker at the delegation meeting did a great job in what he was presented with but this coming from the board was wonderful um

195one thing about the legislative process is we need to make sure that it's getting implemented in the school district when it becomes law the past couple legislative sessions when the laws were approved they have not been put into policy and procedures here in the school district perfect example House Bill 1069 we still do not have a policy and procedure that's tied to that it was implemented into law July 1st of this year so um just moving forward with these legislative processes and laws when they become a law they need to be put into our policy and procedure please and also um we are talking to legislators with moms for Liberty about amending House Bill 1069 that 3 13 scene where the word salad would turn into parents and taxpayers can challenge at the podium so

196this way people don't have to go back and reference the beginning of the law for you know those challenges but other than that again thank you for your work with the legislative agenda and look forward to hearing it at the delegation meeting thank you thank you Miss Pippin Mr Marsh good evening first off I want to thank through the chair of the vice chair for all of her legislative priorities over the years and I want to highlight just a few items we'll start off with the first section school safety and student well-being increase safe schools categorical allocation by at least 100 million to narrow the funding Gap associated with the mandate to staff one safe school officer per school and ensure sustainable funding continue to provide funding for safety infrastructure needs inclusive of school campus

197hardening lightning detection alert systems metal detectors and cameras and school buses and on bus stop arms also increase mental health funding to support expanded Mental Health Services for students and families including funding to school districts for school-based needs thank you chair Doc Jones for that and also thank you for Safety and Security Mr Seymour fall he does next educational achievement Innovation expand vbk to include program options for three-year-old students thank you once again Doc Jones for bringing that to the Forefront Recruitment and Retention provide adequate funding to significantly increase teacher and student staff salaries on a recurring basis and minimize the negative impacts of the current employee retention crisis including mitigating compression compression resulting from recent legislative increases to minimum salary levels thank you through the chair Mr Barefoot and vice chair bearing board provide

198incentives and our funding to facilitate the development of Workforce housing especially for public school personnel that was thanks to our chair and vice chair and lastly in funding increased the distribution of fefp funding to districts with net State funding of lease of less than 50 percent of their gross state and local Fe FP funding upon request of any District authorize the Department of Education to distribute up to a maximum of 25 percent net State fefp funds on or before August 31st of each year through the chair thank you Vice chair Baron board last but certainly not least we here at Mike for Liberty we're talking legislators as well and we don't want parents and taxpayers in that house bill 1069. we think it's just fine the way it is and uh you guys have a

199great night thank you all right this is an action agenda item a School Board review of State Legislative priorities previously established and approved was conducted on August 28 23 at the superintendent's Workshop minor revisions were made in alignment with school board feedback the item is for approval of the school board's 23-24 State Legislative priorities I need a motion for approval oh I'll make a motion Ms barenberg a second second second Dr posca any discussion on the legislative priorities well thank you for that hard work putting it all together yes Miss Rosario Dr posca any discussion no discussion okay thank you all those in favor of approval of the school board State Legislative priorities signify by saying aye aye aye anyone thank you anyone opposed that's 5-0 thank you very much Dr Johnson yes um we

200need to share this with fsba are you going to be doing that or do you want me to do that as a liaison okay yeah as you as the liaison that'd be great thank you um all right the African-American history yes that should be a discussion between all of the board and not just between you and this is very important information with them yes all board members should have well when I was the um Advocate last year with State Legislative federal legislative in the advocacy I shared that with fsba so I understand what you did what I'm saying now is the request was directly to you the request should be to all board members we do not function solely through you we function as a board corporate Dr Jones yes go ahead I believe I'm

201The Advocate now right advocacy yes and the legislative liaison I have no problem having our secretary send it I just want somebody to send it to fsba so they have it on the platform okay any discussion on that if we have MS Maury send it that okay thank you alrighty we are now on board member matters and who would like to begin and any update on your committees would also be welcome to Barefoot how are you doing the other thing I would like to say is a I wish I could be the last few months but I'm getting closer to being able to travel so uh although I I'm not sure I really mean that given some of the opponent attacks of the last couple of meetings I it is what it is but I

202do look forward to being better in person thank you hope you're doing well and your wife also miss Rosario anything to share no nothing to show thank you no okay just a couple things for me um Dr Morgan congratulations on the cognia recognition that is huge for someone who's been through accreditation a lot of work um a statement I love the most is that we are stand for the Learners and I love that I attended the Hispanic heritage days at Fellsmere and of course got to see a little bit more with their dual language program and that was wonderful um the felsmere Planning and Zoning is continually talking about the growth in Fellsmere area there is a non-profit meeting led by Community Foundation this Friday at the Presbyterian Church where all of our non-profits will

203be there so I hope to listen to them a little bit I'm very glad miss baseura that we're bringing back the book battle that the teachers and parents wanted so much and I was in a parade this Saturday in Gifford led by Margaret Ingram and it's dealing with a student at Vero Beach High School who has sickle cell and I just wanted to thank Miss Ingram and everyone at Vero Beach High School for doing that parade because it was a wonderful wonderful thing for this young lady so um yeah okay I'm sorry you said no okay um yeah so I went to the Treasure Coast council local governments meeting and uh it was a really interesting um presentation on the Fort Pierce port and all the changes that are going to happen there and one

204of the things they're going to put in there is an education center um that's probably going to be down the road but a place where our kids can go for a field trip to learn about the Lagoon and about more to do with the inlet and how it works um the football game was outstanding Vero Beach just dominated Westwood and that was my old feeder school so I probably knew that was two weeks ago yeah we're talking about things I attended um last week no I know I was out of town last week I've had some family issues so I appreciate um you know Dr Moore um helping me with some of that um as far as trying to get connection and be on zoom and things like that so uh Vero Beach High School

205girls golf I went to go to the golf match and it got canceled at the last second so I was a little bummed by that but it was great to see kind of my old team there but there's different girls but it was nice because the parents were just wonderful and then Fellsmere Elementary I also went to the Hispanic heritage and I could only go for a little while I usually go and sit the whole time and watch everything but oh my gosh how does he do it I don't know all that energy and I'm referring to Mr E because he was I thought almost break dancing at one point so it was crazy it was great and then um just to shout out to Dr Moore you presented last week didn't you at a

206state conference the all 66 superintendents yes ma'am what were you presenting about uh systems that we have in place How We Do continuous Improvement ultimately about the outcomes that we realized uh over the last year and the processes that we have in place in order to attain those outcomes thank you again anyone else thank you very much for being here tonight we appreciate you the we are now during this meeting the time is 903.