001Heat. Heat. Thank you. Heat. Good evening. I would like to call this meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Tonight, our reflection will be provided by Miss Rodriguez, followed by the pledge of allegiance. If everyone can please stand. I respect your right not to participate just as I hope you respect the rights of those who choose to pray. Our invocation is voluntary and intended to solemnize the meeting, not to compel anyone to adopt a particular belief in a diverse community. Protecting freedom means respecting both the rights to pray and the right to not pray. We thank you dear heavenly father for this time together to reflect to come together for the students for the teachers for the parents for the families of this district. We thank you God for bringing us all together so that we
002can fellowship and we can have a strong respectful meeting. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. You may be seated. >> Item number 126-3892, approval to adopt the agenda dated June 23rd, 2026. I have reviewed the revisions to the agenda and find that there is good cause to permit the revision to item number 726-3878 approval of the personnel recommendations. Item number 26 26-3848 accept notification of the annual comprehensive safety inspection for district schools and facilities for the 2526 school year will be added to the consent agenda. Can I have a motion and a second? Please vote. And that
003motion passes. 4 Z. Do we have any elected officials in the room who would like to speak tonight? Okay. Moving on to item number 2, 26-3890, recognition of the 2526 Hernando County School District retirees. Mr. Elellman, welcome. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. Superintendent Pender, community members, students, faculty, staff, and honored guests. At this time, on behalf of the Hernando County School District, I would like to recognize all 2025 2026 Hernando County School District retirees. We greatly appreciate appreciate your dedicated service, commitment, and contributions toward positively impacting the lives of countless students throughout your career. Tonight we have with us representatives Sharon Twimman and Cecilia Solomon of the Hernando County Retired Educators Association who will now say a few words. And after we invite every 2025 2026 retiree in attendance to the front
004for a group photo. Good evening. Congratulations to the district retirees. Welcome to Retirement Land. It's a great place to live. The Hernando County Retired Educators Association is a unit of the Florida Retired Education Association. Educators, excuse me, educators association. Any school district retiree is invited to join our organization. We plan events and activities to support the Florida Retirement Education System. One, we support public education. And the way that we do that is we volunteer in the schools. We help with um reading fifth grade essays. We do a practicing educators um scholarship. And we provide fellowship opportunities. So, we have fun. Come join us. we go on a field trip, maybe eat before and after. Um, but we also encourage community involvement. So, our organization, you will see out in the community um serving food when
005there's a food drive, drive up food line, or even in the soup kitchens. We we often help there. And, um, we're a source of information and materials. So to any of the retirees that is watching online or in the building, we have some information to give you about joining us and more detailed information about what we do. We'd love to have you. >> So come have fun as you meet new people, go new places, try new foods, and learn new things. >> Thank you. >> And thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Pender. >> Thank you, ladies. Do you guys have contact information or if people are interested in joining your group that may be listening, you just want them to contact Mr. Ellerman and he can pass them along. >> Is that fine? Just for
006them to contact Mr. Ellerman. >> I'll make sure that Mr. Elellerman has some and it's hcre [email protected]. >> All right, >> perfect. Thank you. There you go. >> And at this time, may we have our retirees come up for a group photo, please? So, we had a gathering in the back before the with our retirees and spent a little time together, told a couple stories, ate a little bit. So, this is just an opportunity for those that remained to take a picture. I told them, I know that you're very busy in retirement and maybe you had to leave. So, uh these are the people that remained and we'll take a picture and we thank them. >> Mr. Ellerman, would you um be so kind to introduce each of them? I don't know. >> As he
007calls your name, if you'll just step forward so that the constituents watching can know who it is. >> You have to use the mic. Here with us today we have Mr. Marvin Gordon, Miss Dana Pierce, Sir Rodney Bird, Miss Jerryanne Fernandez, Tina Dagliieri, Mary Beth Longoy Gizler Geisler, Tina Clifford and Toana Basso. Item number 326-3893, approval of the minutes from the informal workshop and regular schoolboard meeting of June 9th, 2026. May I have a motion and a second? Please vote. And that passes 40. Item number 426-3836. Public hearing and final approvement. approval of the 2627 instructional personnel evaluation system manual and received tenative approval at the May 12th, 2026 board meeting. Do I have a excuse me board workshop? Do we have any white speaker forms? Item number 526-38. I'm sorry. May I have I'm
008sorry, I went too fast. May I have a motion and a second? Any discussion on that? Please vote. And that passes 40. Item number 526-3850. Enter a final order expelling the student in case number E20260053 for one year with educational services. May I have a motion and a second? Please vote. And that passes 40. Moving on to our citizen input on agenda items. Item number 626-3894, citizen input on agenda items, green forms. Are there any green speaker forms? No green speaker forms. Moving on to the adoption of our consent agenda, items number 7 through 24 and item number 26. Would anyone like to pull an item from the consent agenda? >> No. Okay, thank you. May I have a motion and a second? And please vote. And that passes 4. Moving on to our citizen
009input on general topics pink speaker pink pink speaker forms item number 2526-3895 citizen input on Hernando County school issues on which the school board customarily takes action. Are there any pink speaker forms? >> Okay, we have one. Mr. Myers, if you could please read instructions for this item. >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. This is an opportunity for public to address any general topics of relevance to the operation of the Hernando County Schools. To speak at this time, you should have already completed a pink citizen input speaker form located at the tables at the entrance to the boardroom. If you have any attachments you wish to share with the board, please provide them to the board secretary prior to speaking. Each speaker will have three minutes during this segment of the agenda. Speakers will be
010called by number to come forward by the chair. Prior to making your remarks, please state your name and address for the record. Inquiries or comments made during citizen input may be followed upon with the speaker and reported to the board by the superintendent or staff thereafter. Those are the instructions. >> Thank you, Mr. Myers. Speaker number one. Good evening, Madame Chair, board members, Superintendent Pender. Uh, members of the US Senate and Congress have introduced the keep public funds in public schools act legislation that would repeal the federal private school voucher program included in the so-called one big beautiful bill act. a measure that could divert as much as $50 billion dollar in taxpayer funds to K12 private and religious schools. Increasing political efforts pushed by certain groups, congresspersons and governors, including our own, to redirect
011public funds to private schools, threaten to drain resources from local public schools, leaving far fewer dollars for students, teachers, and essential services, which can even result in public schools closing. Sadly, that's the actual goal of this federal administration as well as our state's administration, which is truly unbelievable. To further erode the Department of Education, our federal administration is transferring the Office of Special Education to the Department of Health and Human Services. What could go wrong? If you think private schools are vastly superior to public school, not so fast. They are overwhelmingly not held to the same transparency, civil rights, academic quality, fiscal soundness, or reporting standards, oversight and accountability as as public schools are. Uh the teachers don't need more than a bachelor's degree and sometimes just a teaching certificate to teach, not expertise in
012a subject matter. Please contact your legislators to support proposed Senate Bill 4297, the Keep Public Funds in public schools act and save our schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. And that concludes our pink speaker forms. Okay. General counselor, Mr. Myers, do you have any closing comments? >> No comments tonight. >> All right. We'll start over with Miss Bonszac. Any closing comments? >> Thank you everybody for coming out. Thank all our retirees and continue to enjoy the summer. >> Mr. Johnson, >> thank you. Um, yeah, congratulations to retirees. This, uh, is our long break. Our next meeting is in the end of July, July 4th at Sand Hill Reservation. There's a celebration of the 250th anniversary of our country. Starts at five o'clock. There's a program that's going to last about an hour and there's going
013to be a drone show and fireworks and it's free. Free parking, free admission. So, if you have nothing to do on the 4th of July, come celebrate the birth of this great nation we all live in and enjoy. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson, Miss Rodriguez. >> Good evening. Thank you each for coming out and supporting our district as you always do. and happy early 4th since we will not see you at that time and I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Thank you and everyone drive care. God bless each and every one of you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Pender. >> Just wish everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July. Um and we will see you at the end of July at the next meeting and have a great night. Thank you. And
014for thank you to all of our retirees, some of which retired this year, but I still see people that come back year after year that come to our meeting. So, if you retired this year or at some other time, still, congratulations. Still have a great summer, and we'll see you in July. >> Thank you. As we move through the summer months, many of our employees are hardworking, preparing for another successful school year. from facility improvements, curriculum planning to our teachers preparing their classrooms um and supplies getting ready, there's a tremendous amount of work happening behind the scenes to ensure our students are ready to come on day one. During the district leadership training many of us attended last week, a common theme emerged. Every decision we should make comes back to one simple question. What
015is best for students? While we may not always agree on the path forward, I truly believe that we all share the same goal of helping every child reach their full potential. It takes an entire team to make our school successful. And over the past year, I have witnessed firsthand the hard work, dedication, and care demonstrated by our principles, our teachers, the support staff, district leaders, and families. Their commitment to our students is inspiring and does not go unnoticed. Thank you to everyone who participated in tonight's meeting and all of our retirees. And may everyone have an enjoyable summer. I know the countdown that the district keeps posting gives a little bit of anxiety for some of us as we see those days dwindling. Soak in every uh last day and get ready for a brand
016new school year and ready to have fun. With that at 6:19, good night. Meeting is adjourned.