001good evening and welcome to the tuesday june 15 2021 meeting of the leon county school board we're so happy to have you with us this evening and we're meeting at the aquilina howell center at 3955 west pensacola street here in tallahassee florida our opening item tonight calls for the pledge of allegiance that i think the superintendent is going to lead us in i am actually not i saw a young man walk in with a prepared statement he wants to speak to us a little later all right and his tradition we usually have students lead us in the pledge so i'm proud to introduce uh terence harrell from oak ridge elementary school be a rising first grader wonderful and he bravely as soon as i said yes sir wonderful to his mom he's here with his
002mom so you want to leave us in the pledge wonderful mr 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 good jobs great job all right mr superintendent changes and additions will be read into our record by vice chair dale jones madam chair june 15 2021 business meeting changes and public content the superintendent recommends approval of changes and additions to the june 15 school board meeting agenda as presented first item 17.0 2021 2022 employee health insurance options replace documentation second item 17.06 voluntary 2021-2022 products replace documentation and change the public content to reflect these changes third item 7.04 approval of personnel actions june 15th through 2021 replace documentation and change the public content to reflect these changes fourth ad
003item 1911 the superintendent superintendent recommends approval to nominate a school board member as a representative to the children's services council of leon county for a term of one year this item has been added by the request of the superintendent and the pending children's services council resignation of school board member stripling fifth item 7.04 approval of personnel actions june 15 2021 replace documentation those are our changes and additions thank you mr jones is there a motion to receive these changes in addition approval second second by moved by wood second by stripling question hearing none all in favor say aye aye pass this unanimously item 3.01 special recognitions mr superintendent madam madam chair thank you thank you and we have uh two two this evening yes the other day i was at lawton charles high school i'm
004trying to remember why i was there before the graduation ceremonies last week having a discussion about the summer and coming plans and i ran across a former colleague of mine from amos p godbey high school miss pat phelan and so miss phelan and i started teaching the beginning of my career back in 1989 it got me i was there from 1989 to 93 and i started talking to miss phelan about her career with our public school system and didn't really realize that she has given over 50 years as a classroom teacher at godbee and at charles high school and she's still going strong teaching dual enrollment and we had a really wonderful discussion about her life and her career and i didn't want to wait for her to retire whenever that is to recognize this
005accomplishment as her husband snaps his fingers i'm sure he's ready but i just want to thank you pat so much for all that you've given literally thousands of children young adults over the past 51 years with our school system and i don't if you would you might come in just maybe in talking to the to the board just briefly about your career but as she makes your way up how about i ran our applause for miss pat [Applause] first of all thank you for the honor and it has been my pleasure to serve 51 years in leon county schools and i have had the great fortune uh to have and work for and work with principals who have understood the actual role of teachers in the classroom beginning back in the day with john lawrence
006and uh bill montford and mary ortega and ben koenig and alan cox and of course joe burgess and each one without exception has been a person who supports teachers and supports what these children need in their classrooms so i'm so grateful for that and that has of course made my experience a wonderful one and i'm enjoying i was at god b for 30 years uh when i went in to drop and then moved to childs after child's opened and i have been there about 20 years and it has been the joy of a lifetime i must say i mean it doesn't rank up there with my children and grandchildren but right below it and it is fantastic and i've taught over 6 000 students many of them are probably your nieces your nephews i taught
007pleasure and lydia and many other students and just one last thing because i know you have a full agenda a couple of years ago at the open house in the fall this sweet student of mine um and i recognize the lady sitting behind her as my former student she said do you remember my mom and of course i did i was so glad to see her and she said miss phelan this is my grandmother you taught her to oh my wonderful so that that was great that was a moment i'll never forget because i thought she must be wrong that's that you know she's re confusing me with someone else and sure enough when her grandmother came up i absolutely did teach her my first or second year at garvey high school so you can
008imagine what a fantastic journey it's been and i i am grateful for the opportunity to continue that journey thank you rocky well and you know nothing in life is guaranteed including life itself and i did not want not did not want to mess it up not anything both i have three daughters um who graduated from leon and they said mom rocky's trying to tell you something no i'm really i'm really not i know because i know you don't want to miss i don't want to miss an opportunity to recognize someone you're the exception rather than well thank you so much and thank you to all of you for your leadership for our students i really appreciate all the work that you do to make everything happen for le and especially this year my goodness my
009goodness i could not have imagined better leadership uh better support it was unbelievable experience something like i've never experienced but something i'll never forget and all of you deserve a lot of praise for making leon county shine in the whole system really i'm serious thank you so much thank you feeling [Applause] back today good i love you thank you all right mr superintendent mr superintendent i tell you what i think i'm starting to notice once you work at a job that you really really really enjoy then you can look as good as she looks right now so i think i'm going to work a few more years okay thank you miss palin i remember many many many graduations with you that's right at the civic center we'll be back here soon thank you ma'am and
010mandatory i have one more mr poncello [Music] there there he is would you mind coming to the podium y'all might remember this face we recognize mr poncell from pineview who is also over over 50 years yes and just this year has announced his retirement from what i understand you know it's hard to believe so they 51 years and how many years mr poncello 50 50 i'll be 57 i'll be 57 next week so that kind of but just again i think he was a man we recognized that that recognized someone was in distress but behind the school that saved that saved that man's life he's my brother yeah right your brother yeah but you have been at pineview for how many years now 50 years off i also graduated from time southwest then well it's
011the same thing i told miss phelan i don't want to miss an opportunity to recognize people while they're with us and no really i mean it just makes sense you know we should man we should have recognized but thank you so much for all that you've given that school those children and the impact you've had on thousands and thousands of young lives yes and and may just made that school shine thank you principals have come and gone but the two of you yeah weathered the storm and uh we just very appreciative especially this year especially this year thank you so much thank you mr council did you want to say one word to us two or three i knew you did say so sir yes uh first of all i want to thank the leon
012county school board district number one all right because when i first came i came looking for a job but now i'm leaving with a career oh okay and i just want to say since i've been in this school district all the years i've seen so many principals come and go but the love that i had in my heart i could have been somewhere else but i've seen these kids come up to me and say mr poncello you so nice mr poncello you know i said okay but you got to get your work now you got to get to work and it was like my own kids so i feel good about that and i have a lot to be thankful for my family number one they kept me straight they kept me out of trouble
013and made sure that i went to school and got my education and so i'm just really excited tonight knowing that i'm leaving but i'm not leaving for good because my heart will always be sick leon county school board wonderful i see mrs rogers back there she's one of my she's one of the teachers when i worked in there great lady greatness rogers you know it was just a blessing so i just thank everyone tonight that they recognize me for the work i've done and i think i did pretty good because my administrators miss connor and mr mccann told me that it was upon sale we don't want to see you go i know but you know it's time so i feel like it was time for me to go so i just thank god for
014all that he's done so far wonderful thank you from this point that we have a party and you may need this yes yeah yes sir retirement certificate and um [Laughter] [Applause] wow so we just keep on with the recognitions mr superintendent because you're still on number four i am on so this time i'd like to bring our director of leon county schools foundation mr eric clark and dr jasmine smith from oak ridge elementary school okay oh they're out in the foyer yes okay they're coming in all right so we'll get them out of the foyer to come to the podium to make a recognize as a special partner of our school system and something they've done to help out to oak ridge elementary school wonderful all right mr clark you're up we got a full
015house tonight tell you what get the mask off and everybody shows up it's good to see everybody tonight we're very blessed to have um our good friends with prime meridian bank with us and they have a presentation that they would like to present to our wonderful principal and her assistants at oak ridge elementary school so if the prime meridian folks will come up and tell us what great news they have to share good evening ladies and gentlemen we would like to present a check for four thousand dollars to oak ridge elementary to help with the book fair so they can provide books to their students for over the summer [Music] [Applause] yeah we can take a picture in just a minute is there anything you'd like to say dr smith or i think i see
016our rising first grader our new star terence with you my name is terence al the third i i just completed kindergarten at oak ridge would like to thank prime meridian bank and mr daryl jones for this sponsorship you are amazing [Applause] and one of the things that terence forgot to mention that he likes to tell everybody what's your claim to fame you finish kindergarten but what do you want everybody to know that you what going to first grade and we are so deeply appreciative of this donation for our boys and girls summer is often a time for students with some of our boys and girls that isn't as structured as we'd like for it to be our boys and girls are readers we want to be sure that they have as many opportunities to read
017as possible so i cannot begin to thank you enough for this tremendous donation which is going to ensure first that we have a book fair for our boys and girls but that they all get to leave with something thank you very much [Applause] you ain't done working yet man um all right oh [Applause] ready wait wait she didn't get her picture let me see if we can get a picture of like just you guys just because it was so spaced out you didn't really get the chance to see it billboard pretty soon before prime meridian leaves at oak ridge elementary school i'd like to uh also add my comments i want to thank mr sammy dixon we reached out to him directly on behalf of oak ridge bart gunner rogers gunner and vaughn i see
018miss hunt is here sponsored a book fair also at the pineview elementary school and so following that i then reached out to my own bank i am a a client a member of the prime meridian family and i asked mr dixon would he support a book drive at the oak ridge elementary school and he said yes and just smith told him the number of students that she had and subsequently we have this check presentation and i just want to emphasize it is that type of collaboration with our business community that will have the type of impact and the type of demonstrable results that we know will make a difference in uh creating lifelong learners and i want to thank also not only prime meridian but dr jasmine smith and her entire team for creating the
019type of climate where our young people thrive so thank you so very much to everyone involved into again prime meridian we are grateful thank you [Applause] thank you all right you're welcome to stay but i think you should go all right there you go and congratulations again to dr jasmine smith on having been admitted to lt class 39 she left her welcome reception to be here to get those four thousand dollars yeah well first things first thank you i'll thank each of you for being here tonight we really appreciate all you do for the students of leon county that's a great thing okay i think they're going to stay with us a little longer mr superintendent so we now move to unless there are other community partnerships you will recognize a recognition so we're at
020item four i think that's you the national weightlifting lifting federation is that you yes ma'am it it is and i'm trying to see if i have miss jessica lowe the principal of leon virtual school here nikki now there she is okay yes so ms nikki bradley if you would come up and introduce a very special student yes good evening so i'm nicki bradley i'm here on behalf of leon county virtual school and we are excited to recognize one of our amazing students this evening jakair berry she is here with us she just recently placed first in the state of florida weightlifting championship wow very excited [Applause] she's traveling to detroit with family june 28th is the big day they head out for the national championship so we're excited we're going to be rooting her on
021from tallahassee wonderful so her name is jacary berry yes and so how much weight did you live in so i put up a 313 pound total out of state championships with 100 140 pound snatch and a 176 pound cleaner okay wonderful i'm practicing with my purse [Laughter] so you said your snatch was what one in a snatch is when you squat down and snatch the ball straight over your head straight from the floor overhead and that was 140. okay and then the other one's uh clean and jerk which is when you bring it to your chest and then jerk it up the top right that's right mr superintendent does that every day well no no not anymore my younger days i coach weightlifting at gabby high school my guys weren't that strong and what grade
022are you in i'm going to be a junior next year just graduating my sophomore year thank you you represented so well i wa wonderful thank you safe travels along this journey and continue i think you must enjoy it i do wonderful so what do you plan to do after you complete high school with all of this kind of stuff so i'm hoping to do university weightlifting because it's a growing program so they have more scholarships you can earn one of my teammates actually got a scholarship to fau he got a full ride um after the national championships last year so i'm hoping to get an opportunity like that and also with my connections with my coach she's an olympian so i'm hoping i can get some type of exposure with that good thank you good
023good good good good is there anything else you'd like to say to us that's just so positive um no beth i can get your support wishes from home you've got it let's give her a hand please you [Applause] thank you so much okay good job mr superintendent good start i think her mom is here uh mom are you here denver would you wave uh so denver can pick you up on the camera we'd like yes we'd love to have parents with us [Applause] thank you for for supporting her through this this is so important we we just uh so blessed to have you with us and i can see the love and feeling all the way over here congratulations all right y'all take care you're welcome to stay with with us but i don't think
024so all right now are we at persons to be heard yes ma'am turner williams if you have any people madam chair yes i just noticed there are a lot of principals here and i know they have to work tomorrow is there any way that we could skip up and recognize them or you just want to wait i'm i'm just wanted to give you an option i mean i sure i i i guess i can put him as part of recognition so i would usually wait until after consent agenda but i think we should go ahead and do it like yeah so uh schools to run as it you know this time every year we have some uh administrative changes as people retire uh or switch uh different from school to school and it kind of
025has a domino effect when one person retires then this person replaces and which is a hole here to fill and so this year we're proud to uh announce several several changes first and she's not here tonight and i'm glad she's not cause i probably would tear up sue crawl is retiring as our elementary school directors long time principal sue and i were colleagues for many years at leon high school and she is just amazing i'm going to miss her dearly i mean so sue is retiring which has opened up a spot a director's spot to oversee elementary school education and so mr eppine and i had had a talk and he's been at leon nearly a dec nearly a decade now and i could tell you first hand that is not an easy school to
026run it takes a little no it does it's to run the large high school to run any school it takes a lot and it's a commitment and a sacrifice for your family as you know uh board member would and so i asked billy if he may be interested in the change and something different and uh he's accepted so billy you want to come up just just 15 seconds um now i thank the superintendent for the offer uh it has been a privilege to serve at leon high school as its principal uh as mr hannah said i've finished up my ninth year and i wouldn't no matter what i do after my career that that's been the pinnacle of my 35 years in education is to serve as leon high school's principal but i'm looking forward
027to the challenge i had the opportunity to be the principal at canopy oaks elementary school for two years uh and loved loved the children and that aspect of it and i'm looking forward to the opportunity to work with our outstanding elementary school principals but thank you thank you thank you billy so sue retires billy moves up from leon which then creates a spot at leon mr michael bryan would you like to come to the podium briefly so michael uh the former administrator at leon high school was currently the principal at kate sullivan elementary school and uh after discussion with i know how i felt like it was you know like this bittersweet for billy too and it was bittersweet for me you know to leave leon during that time but it made me feel really
028good that it was him uh in my in my place and i know it makes billy feel really good that it's this man that's going to replace him so with that michael good evening um when you said you and billy had a conversation you really had a conversation [Music] but thank you school board mr superintendent for the opportunity that's in front of me i'm excited i'm humbled uh grateful i know the tradition that is long-standing that makes leon high school leon high school i'm looking forward to being a part of that again i'm very mindful of the big shoes that i will need to fill many of them are here in this room and so i hope to to fill them well and i i promise you i will not mess it up thank you
029well you know marvin henderson used to have a saying i remember saying many times not on my watch right and you're absolutely the right person the right place at the right time michael thank you i appreciate the support which then opens up a spot at k sullivan elementary school and we had you know principal interviews and this young lady scored very well so i'd like to announce miss julie lawson as the principal of kate sullivan elementary school miss lawson has a long career as a special ed teacher and administrator in our district and again would really impress the committee so we're proud to offer her this position at k sullivan so i'm excited to return to my roots in leon county i started here almost 17 years ago my first job was at riley elementary
030so kind of coming full circle i've worked in middle school and high school and i am super excited to be a crocodile sam thank you superintendent thank you thank you miss lawson uh in addition we had april night we we had an opening in our title one office and april knight who has been the principal at riley expressed interest in working with all of our title one schools and they've been working with ms gregory and mr seifert and so she accepted a position in title one which opened up a spot at john g riley elementary school so what did i do i did what i did same thing i did at bond i stole one of gaston county's finest mr maurice stokes comes highly recommended being administrator of the year numerous times in gaston county
031i'm sure i'm no longer on their superintendent's christmas card list but he'll get over it so with that i'd like to introduce maurice stokes the new principal of john g riley elementary school good evening everyone good evening to the board and to the superintendent again thank you for the opportunity to serve i look forward to serving at john g riley and serving the community and making sure that the students there have every opportunity to succeed in life thank you so much thank you very excited to have you mr stokes uh in it in addition um we had jennifer ricardo we had a position open up i moved candace galtney was an assistant with a assistant principal at adult community ed we did some rearranging some adjusting of that organizational chart with shelly bell who oversees
032that program which then left a spot there jennifer ricardo who was at appalachian has moved over to work with the dalton community and our transitions program and our adults with disabilities program which opened up a spot at appalachia last year the principal at sale high school tiffany williams asked to take a leave a lot we hadn't met several people that asked during this cove time especially with life circumstances and uh things like that and she came back this came back to me this spring and said all right i'm ready to get i'm ready to go back on the field coach put me in and so i'm proud to announce tonight miss tiffany williams is the new proud principal of apalachee elementary school good evening everyone i am so excited to be back after a year
033for the past 14 years i've had the privilege of serving the sale high school community i'm grateful for board member wood for her mentorship and i am beyond ecstatic to get started tomorrow at appalachia i look forward to finding some community partners i look forward to working with the teachers and staff parents and especially our students our shining stars so i can't wait and i just appreciate the opportunity and can't wait thank you congratulations tiffany in in addition michelle prescott has served as a proud principal at chairs elementary school for the past 13 years and again after 10 a decade 13 14 years it's really it's tough and it wears on you but we had a position we really need to focus more on what we're doing to support our multi-tier support systems for our
034children especially those in level three and level four as their struggling readers and to make sure that each of our schools is doing everything they possibly can and has all the resources they need in order to provide interventions for those students and we really need someone to oversee that process and so michelle we reached out to michelle she's well respected uh chairs with the title one school that she can work with principals she has the respect as a former principal to come out and work in jillian's shop to help with interventions for our students their struggling reading with that opened up a spot at chair so i went and looked in their community also did well very well with our committee and uh mr michael holmes had expressed an interest to become a principal he'll
035be leaving richard's high school and going to the land of little people but former uh member of the united states army and just veteran just very thankful about michael and his leadership and moving in to chairs and taking taking over the reigns so mr holmes thank you superintendent board members for this opportunity little people's right i did a walk through the campus and i walked into a kindergarten class and i saw the chair that was about this big and i was like this is definitely not records high school anymore but i do appreciate the opportunity i've served under some good administrators in this county and they've i've learned from each one of them and i appreciate this opportunity i'm very excited michelle has left the school in great shape she's done a great transition with
036me and i'm really looking forward not to get through the summer too fast but i'm very excited about next school year and i appreciate the opportunity yeah it's it's going to be great and then uh last but not least so sally stevens retires this year is just been amazing on the tharp street corridor to serve that community i don't think we ever i don't know sue's not here but she runs her i mean she is she's a she's awesome and for the last year whenever i go to ruediger or whenever uh she comes to visit me she says i will i will haunt you for the rest of your life if you don't make shannon hare the next principal of ruediger elementary school now i go back to what i said about how much stock
037i put in the advice of an outgoing principle to their replacement especially sally someone is respected as sally she had tears in her eyes because she is so passionate that shannon is absolutely the right person to replace her after a long career at rudiger so with that i'd like to welcome miss shannon here as the principal now this will happen effective december 1st when sally retire retires with shannon if you'd like to come up um to say a few words to the board and congratulations thank you i was totally composed and fine until you brought up sally and my upcoming senior whispered in my ear mom you're gonna do fine i was okay until those two things occurred um but everybody should have a sally in their life so i appreciate you saying that um
038i mr superintendent board i really appreciate the opportunity i'm very proud to continue to serve and work with the most amazing faculty and staff i'm invested in our children and in our families so i know we will continue to thrive i won't let sally down i won't let you guys down or our students so again i appreciate the opportunity thank you so much and we do and y'all saw y'all saw it shining through this year we have some amazing school administrators and they were the ones on the front line day in and day day out that's along with our teachers and uh all of our school-based personnel that saw our children safely through this pandemic and what they i said this at graduation ceremonies what they were able to pull off this year was nothing
039short of miraculous and i really do believe will serve as a defining moment in the history of public education for years to come so congratulations and good luck go get them have a round of applause [Applause] said he'd like to take you out for some some dessert i think madame share vice chair jones yes if i may also add to the comments made by our superintendent here in leon county schools we all we would i believe sincerely that we are a district that has been blessed with good principles but then there are principals who are great principles like the principles found in district 3 jimbo jackson anisha rim robinson carmen connor jasmine smith uh benny bolden dashona jackson and cook and other great principals like michelle gail rocky hannah and kathleen rodgers and jillian gregory
040alan cox great principles and the difference that i have noticed in my brief time on this board but as a person who's lived in this community for 35 years the great principles are the principles who love first and lead second when you love the people who you work with and the people that serve you it creates an infectious enthusiasm that translates to our children and so as i've said before when we've had these moments where principles have come before us my my if i may offer anything just love your people they'll love you back and that same love will translate to our children thank you mr jones uh may i just say um are there other comments from other board members thank you may i say on behalf of the lien county school board how
041very pleased we are to have you with us and to have you continuously engaged in the learning opportunities for all of our children i enjoy the work i do because you're out there undergirding everything else so i ask you if it is to be it is up to me i hope that's what you say each and every day when you come out and you see little boys and girls and you talk to about love and you find those individuals that come to you wet mad bad and sad you still have a responsibility to do the right thing for them we're here for you you make us look good welcome to each one of your sites and i've got to say what i've got to say miss rasmussen welcome to the thorpe street corridor i know
042thank you for being here and unless you choose to stay you're certainly welcome to leave i suspect you're saying yes because you're excited about tomorrow thank you very much we're here for you and you have our support thank you very kindly have a wonderful evening okay as we continue with our agenda now we go back to persons to be heard thank you madam chair there are six speakers on non-agenda items all right we will start with the first speaker sarah sprayberry please come to the podium give us your name in the event i misspoke an address for the record and you'll have three minutes hey my name is sarah sprayberry my address is 2015 done eagle lane tallahassee florida greetings esteemed members of the school board and thank you for allowing me to voice my
043concerns here tonight i am here as the mother of an elementary age child that is not yet old enough for covenanting vaccination it is my understanding that the school board recently announced a mask optional policy for next school year for all students staff and visitors i am concerned that this action would endanger the health of my child based on the information i have gathered the leon county health department is still advocating for unvaccinated children to wear masks when gathering indoors also the cdc is still recommending that unvaccinated individuals wear masks when gathering indoors the information that i have gathered seems contrary to the school board's decision that masks be made optional for all students though i understand the reasoning for a mask optional policy as it pertains to middle and high school students i do
044not understand why the board feels that unvaccinated elementary children can safely gather indoors unmasked we simply do not have evidence to suggest that that is the case nor do we have a medical or public health authority that is advocating for the gathering of unmasked unvaccinated individuals indeed the very success of mask wearing in schools this past school year to control the spread of covid within the school environment would suggest that there is no reason to abandon the mandatory mass policy when dealing with an entire population of unvaccinated students to the individuals who maintain that i can choose to have my child mask if i desire yes he will wear a mask but if he is in a classroom of 20 other students who are not masked and are not vaccinated with a teacher that is
045also unmasked and potentially not vaccinated since only around 50 percent of school staff has been vaccinated that he will most certainly be at great risk from others who may be shedding virus the studies we have regarding mask wearing demonstrate that the greatest benefit occurs when both parties are masked therefore i am asking you to reconsider your mask optional policy for the 2021 2022 school year or at least until there is a vaccine licensed for elementary aged children thank you for your time and consideration thank you for your comment if i could uh briefly i don't have a question for um but i do want to make it clear before other speakers come up that this was not a policy made by the board this was a decision after consultation that i made and made an
046announcement last friday but this wasn't something that the board voted on it's not a board policy obviously the board could enact a policy uh supporting it or not supporting it but as far as the action that was taken friday that wasn't an action of the board it was an action by me so i want to take full responsibility for that uh madam chair the second speaker isabel ruano forgive me if i'm said that mispronounced um please come to the podium give us your name and address and you'll have three minutes my name is isabel ruano 2631 yarmouth lane i am also here to i also have a child in elementary school uh it's a child that is not old enough to be vaccinated and i'm also very concerned about the next school year i kept
047him home um almost all the past school year until march when i saw that transmission was not happening at his school he only his school only had five cases in different classrooms so i could tell that he was not spreading within the school i waited he we were home for a long time to make sure that he was going to be safe in the school he went back in march and i'm now again i'm very concerned because i understand everybody was wearing masks in the classroom i went to echo and back what sarah expressed she explained all the numbers all the science behind it cdc guidelines um recommend against this this new change so i would like to see if the board could come up with a motion or something so that at least elementary
048school kids will be asked to wear masks in the classroom not not outside like they haven't they don't have to but while they're in the classroom and as well as their teachers because as a parent i don't have the right to ask a teacher if they are vaccinated or not and i do ask my dentist and my hygienist because i want to know i want to be sure that i'm safe but um i can't ask my child's teacher so that's that's when i'm here today um thank you thank you for your comment the next speaker madam chair is laura mcdermott please come to the podium give us your name and address and you'll have three minutes hi i'm laura mcdermott live at 2438 button bush court tallahassee 32308. um dearest school board members i have
049been an elementary school teacher in leon county for 18 years i love my school and my profession but i'm very concerned about the loosening of the math policies for elementary age students next school year it is likely there will be no vaccine for this age group before school starts in the fall of 2021. i'm also concerned that only approximately 50 percent of our school employees have been vaccinated we have learned this year that mass do work to prevent the spread of coven there is no evidence that it is safe for unvaccinated students to be in class with one another without wearing masks we don't have a report from the department of health stating that unvaccinated children are safe indoors without mass however we do know leon county is well below the national average and number
050of residents who have been vaccinated let's be patient and cautious enough until children and adults are vaccinated to reach herd immunity enough children and adults are vaccinated to reach herd immunity herd immunity cannot be achieved until at least 70 percent of the school population has been vaccinated mass are uncomfortable but we must think long term we know in some cases this virus can cause long-term damage to our organs and central nervous system i'm also concerned that the new variants are more contagious and cause more health problems in young children the cdc has only approved that vaccinated individuals can gather safely indoors without mass however our younger students will not be vaccinated so there is a greater risk of spread without mass for that age group as educators we must follow the science be responsible we
051should not formulate a policy on optional mask worrying until there is sufficient reliable scientific evidence to support such a policy thank you for your time thank you for your comment uh madam chair the next speaker wendy haleda hellado halid i'm so sorry it's alec okay please give us your name in the podium through the microphone and your address and you'll have three minutes my name is wendy halleck my address is 852 madeira circle in tallahassee florida i'm the grandmother of a now second grader at seeley elementary school and a granddaughter who will be entering seeley as a kindergartner i'd like to start we didn't mention miss um clemens who i adore and so i'll begin by thanking principal clemens and all the teachers and staff and students who pulled together this last year to keep
052sealy students safe my grandson re-entered from digital in january the classes were mass the teachers and the principal did an amazing job there and we felt comfortable and safe being at sealy and that is the reason that my daughter enrolled the children in the seeley summer program so we're not facing this fear of what's going to happen in august we're dealing with it today today the children went to scott summer camp and with the new mask optional policy i was going to go over some data that other speakers went over so i'm not going to do that instead i'm going to tell you what happened today the seven-year-old my grandson walked into the camp with his mask on and he is a diligent mask where he learned well this year from miss clemens and he
053wore his mask all day long the kindergartener my granddaughter or the soon to be kindergartner who is five years old some point during the day she decided she didn't want to wear a mask and so she went maskless all day so what's happening when there's no rule in place to keep elementary students masked those decisions are now left to the child because there is no adult there or counselor or teacher who is going to tell a child to put their mask on when there is no rule to wear masks therefore the five-year-old today made the decision to not be masked she's not old enough to make her own health care decisions she's a child and without a rule in place for elementary children elementary age school children who can't be vaccinated you're leaving the choice
054essentially up to that child because once the parent and today it happened to be the grandparent drops them off and i dropped them off mast picked her up unmasked she was sitting with some 11 and 12 year old girls coloring and having a great time but it would have been much better for her to be masked i'm also speaking from experience here my grandson was at sealy where everyone was careful and doing their best he never contracted covid and most of the children in that school stayed safe and there was no sign of spread my granddaughter went to a vpk program where teachers were masked but students weren't she contracted covet and let me tell you when you see a young child coughing all night long and straining to breathe covid becomes very real to
055you and although our numbers here in leon county are declining on the day that she tested positive for coveted there were only 11 cases in leon county that doesn't matter much when your granddaughter is one of them she's fine now i appreciate you giving me the time to speak but i'm asking you to reconsider this thank you for your comment to make mask optional thank you thank you ma'am next speaker shari gawanter please give us your name and address she'll have three minutes shari gawanter pontiac drive tallahassee florida first let me start off by saying that i am so thankful to be here to stand here before you tonight after completing my not 50 but 24th year of teaching of what i believe was the most challenging school year ever i know that many would
056agree that this recent school year has brought to light many lessons that will guide us moving forward i'm here tonight to keep in your focus a topic that is near and dear to my heart though i have not taught pre-k uh in many years my heart is and always will be as an early childhood educator a fact that informs every lesson and every activity that i teach today to my present young students there's been a long history of not recognizing pre-k teachers as professionals nationally and locally it's been seen in inconsistent messaging that is more often said as k-12 rather than pre-k-12 it shows up or rather doesn't show up in our school speak our policy decisions and in legislation this oversight impacts our ability to attract and retain high-quality early childhood certified teachers in
057our foundation classrooms leon county schools can take a more definitive stance in stating clearly in decisions policies and messaging the vital role of our early childhood and the value of our pre-k teachers the time is now for us all in the light of achievement gaps only exacerbated by covid to reflect pre-k-12 over k-12 language in all platforms it must reflect the value brought by our pre-k teachers even in the light of the forward thinking stance of our leon county school board to early childhood education best practices let's work together and build our best foundations to this schoolhouse and make a real impact on the achievement gaps it has been stated that we want to keep the spirit but not kill the professional and in the spirit in this spirit we should bring along all of
058our instructional staff including our counselors and slps coaches ese and pre-k teachers in cooperation with administrators and support staff we are all in this journey together this task of providing public school education for our children pre-k teachers play a vital role and are professional certified teachers all of our teachers are teachers and they should be at the table and included in every conversation we can do this better and we can do it well and i know that we can we might even be able to set the standard for the state i believe that this leon county schools that i stand here today as a veteran teacher looking forward to brighter days yet to come thank you thank you thank you for your comment and the last speaker on a non-agenda item marianne d'arcangelis i am
059so sorry please give us your name and address at the podium and you'll have three minutes hello board member superintendent hannah my name is mary antarcangelis and i reside at 1306 circle drive i am as well here to express concern about the guideline of making masks optional for elementary school children forgive me for repeating myself but we all know there's not as of yet a vaccine available for those under 12. the cdc clearly states that the pre-k through 12 operational strategy includes universal and correct use of masks and physical distancing it states that all schools should implement and layer prevention strategies and should prioritize universal and correct use of masks and physical distancing it was so nice i had to say it twice and i know it's itchy i go to my office where we're
060mostly all vaccinated and wear the mask and it it gets tiresome and i have a wonderful niece and and nephew and you know they are pretty good with it they stick with it i see kids around in stores who are using it um i would like to point out that only 38.9 of our county are vaccinated also the cdc regulations i just stated were updated may 15 2021 so this really is taking into account uh the nationwide dip um superintendent hannah i would like to know why you're going against the cdc guidelines and respectfully ask that you reconsider thank you all so much for your time i appreciate you thank you ma'am thank you for your comment madam sure that's it for non-agenda speakers all right not agenda items non-agenda items all right um mr
061demarco you've asked to speak on item 19.03 and that's a public hearing so you'll speak at that item you've only got 19.03 i'm not hearing i don't see that you've asked to speak on anything other than 19.03 okay i'm sorry i have said enough time another time okay you may proceed we will proceed okay we will continue with our agenda uh persons will be heard thank you for sharing with us your thoughts on your on the topics of interest to all of us item six is reports to be heard let me just say uh from 6.01 to 6.04 there are no reports so we now move to item 6.05 early learning leon advisory council kim sunith chair and brook bruno early learning director i think that's where we are right now we're ready for that
062report if you would yes hello hi can you hear me yes we do perfect well thank you for your time this evening um i really want to highlight early learning leon's leading role in the initiation of the grade level reading campaign this is a statewide campaign focusing on children from zero to eight years of age in areas of attendance school readiness and summer learning the campaign will provide a community profile and crew including what programming we have where there might be duplications or gaps and then through that process in partnership with the lecto institute we will create a csap or community solutions action plan so our letter of intent has been submitted um with wide community support including dana knowles and corey melton with the greater tallahassee chamber and we have recently received word from
063jen faber the executive director of the florida children's campaign that our letter letter of intent was accepted and so we're ready to move on to that next phase um other things that we've been up to we've been busy with some literacy drops um since the last report we've had three um we had one at tabernacle church it was a little rainy that day um and then following that sable palm um we also had some rain that day and then we went over to griffin and that the food ran out at that one so quickly within the morning like by 9 a.m but our next one is this saturday the 19th and it's going to be a gene cox stadium and so we're expecting a really great turnout and that to be a bigger event um
064in the area of kindergarten transition our web page is up and live and elementary schools have been reporting successful virtual orientations um and there will be face-to-face orientations to be announced in august as far as the specific dates um but we're seeing the results of the lit drops when it comes to the virtual orientations as far as the number of kiddos that have already registered for kindergarten at this time of the year and that we can see that the families are taking those surveys using the qr codes that we provided um coming up there will be a developmental uh community-wide developmental screening at wesson on june 25th that'll be for kiddos six months to five years of age and i am gonna toss it over to brooke i think you might have a few updates
065on health initiatives yes um we we do have two um health clinics scheduled um so for the littles we've learned a little bit i'm sure that um dr cox can speak to this more but through this we've learned that many of our littles require a live immunization and so those um that health clinic must be held at the health department and so that one will be july 25th i'm going to double check that date for you but our families can attend the health clinic and receive a free physical and free immunizations at that health clinic thank you uh let me just ask you you you were referring to the littles were that this younger children is that the new acronym for these darlings of ours i lovingly refer to them as our littles um yes
066okay just my my term of endearment for them are our five and belows okay and could you speak just very quickly about the six-month screening for six to six months to five years what might that include i'm curious yep this is the second year that we provided a community screening at wesson this is a comprehensive screening that we do in conjunction with whole child leon and so typically whole child provides the comprehensive screening one in the fall and october and then typically one occurs in may our last two have been virtual and so that's it's a little bit difficult to attend and receive the same type of resources that you would in a live comprehensive screening and so um like kim said it it covers children ages six months all the way up to five
067years and it includes services and resources in the area of dental care social emotional screening nutrition screening vision and hearing and then we also do a pre-academic screening at that time so we're really excited to offer that again at wesson um we typically um fill up pretty quickly um i checked our seats the other day and we we still have some availability um and so parents can find out more about that by visiting our webpage or contacting fiddlers directly to schedule their screening appointment it is by appointment only as we want to make sure that we can service our families and provide them the time that they need to see all of our medical and educational professionals during that time okay thank you for the comments the questions good job ladies that that's the wonderful
068service that you are providing thank you so much we look forward uh mr jones madam chair i just wanted to talk to brooke and mr nathan miss bruno mr ate no this was an excellent report extremely informative i look forward to doing anything i can to assist you in putting that information to our community your work is enormously impactful and i'm just excited about what you're doing so thank you thank you very much all right thank you ladies again uh we continue now with the agenda we're at safe start strong finish and he's at the podium oh we finished all right with the with a bang as you all know i think the first night i almost knocked miss wood off the stage it was they told us it was going to be loud i
069didn't realize it wasn't quite that loud so uh yeah we we did we did finish strong great and uh brought to a close the 2020-2021 school year last thursday teacher final work day was today right had awesome graduation ceremonies and mother nature cooperated two years in a row now that mother nature has cooperated with our drive-in ceremony last year and then this year moving outdoors to gene cox stadium so it's quite the success all right so as we roll into summer our summer program started uh today our 21st century and edep programs began on i'm sorry on monday the the 14th and then we'll start our elementary and k-8 8-5-0 programs beginning on june june the 28th along with 21st century so with that i'm going to let dr cox come in and give an
070update from his shop and conversations with the health department on on numbers and then we'll kind of kind of move from there okay thank you the superintendent school board members here every chance i get i would like to remind the board members and tell the community who's listening at large about our relationship with leon county department of health so let me let me go over that again real quick so by florida state statute local county health departments are responsible for screening of students it's just what uh brooke just talked about so that's the early process of our child fine because we have to make sure physically that that's the ground floor that they're able to hear see and we also do so as hearing vision screens we also do bmi we also do scoliosis and
071so by state statute they come into the schools and they do that every year so several years ago in our district we said well we're already having to work with landcare department help for these mandatory screenings to help early identify physical problems with children why don't we contract with them for them to run our health services they actually have a doctor they have three epidemiologists and they have lpns and rns that we work with and so that's what we did and so here in about a month i'll come back before the board with our contract for the next year and it's a large contract but it allows them to hire our school health assistants our lpns six to seven rns that oversee those folks and so that's the relationship we've had with them now it
072was a the last 16 months has been a little different because it's been covered right so we dealt with that's that's taken my job which was health services was five percent of it made it 105 but so that uh so we meet with them literally every day now coco is not on tonight she's on a very deserved vacation same with susan young and so uh so that's why they're not on so that's that's our relationship with the department of health now when it comes to covid when it comes to the last 16 months in dealing with them we have a collaborative relationship they help get us information they help talk to us about the center for disease control what possible changes are coming down how do you interpret some of cdc stuff obviously there's some
073interpretation there they've had a disagreement with world health organization i mean we've so they help us with that however they cannot direct us they uh they all give us information answer questions um provide feedback in those kind of areas but ultimately it is our our decision our discussion one thing i want to mention everybody is that way back when that when we got march the 12th when we got shut down there um and we started meeting in groups and meeting with task force in the summer and all that cdc's first recommendation the first page of it talked about what's reasonable and feasible for your organization those two things and i've mentioned them and i uh over and over and over again because ultimately cdc are guidelines and so organizations can make those decisions in many
074many districts and i'm not putting a plug in for either side it's just a fact many districts in this part of the state have gone optional mass actually before we have so that does that's neither here nor there but i just want to remind everybody that they are not mandates from cdc they are guidelines and and folks can choose to follow them as they may what i've got in front of me right now is i want to read the numbers that we've been reading these numbers to you now for several several months it is they report uh these are as of may the 30th to june the 12th as far as our positivity rate remember positivity raise you take a number of folks that are tested on any given day you divide the number that
075were positive into that you have that's how you get a positivity rate and you really and it's been you know over the course of 16 months we've seen that thing in the double digits but it's been declining as a matter of fact we're down to 3.48 percent uh in since the county lifted the mandated mask and i don't have all the reasons i'm not about to try to defend why that is but we i'm looking at it right here this came from the florida department of health and it we do have a decline since then this information um was shared with the superintendent and with our group when we started to look at what are we going to do going here forward in regards to mass so the positivity right now is 3.48 that's down
076as in two weeks ago from four percent from positivity rate i'd like to read you a couple of things that uh that i was that i was given this actually a lot of these things came from cdc themselves and these are some of the items that uh that we looked at when we met and started talking about our mask mass cloth face coverings do not equate to the same level of protection as cova-19 vaccines the department of health is strongly encouraging vaccinations among those who are eligible as the best source of protection against coba 19 and as you all know we have gone out of our way to get people vaccinated everything we possibly can do to try to increase the number of employees and the number of people in leon county vaccinated every person
077in leon county over 12 years of age now has the opportunity to be vaccinated and there's absolutely no shortage of supplies studies show that school-aged children are more commonly asymptomatic or have mild non-specific symptoms cdc the primary concern for school-aged children has been that they may transmit cova to higher risk caregivers at home that was one of our big fears those caregivers are at risk have now had opportunity to become vaccinated as demonstrated by on on the cdc and that's an information graphic that shows mass and risky environments without mass the risk of contacting covet is not removed by wearing a mask families will need to understand the risk of sending unvaccinated persons to campus and accept responsibility to make the best decision to support their personal and their family health we also have got
078some government involvement in this above us that's in regards to our governor and to our education commission so i'm going to read to you a memo now from the florida department of education commissioner richard corcoran this is quotes we ask the district which currently are implementing a mandated face covering policy revise their policy to be voluntary for the 21-22 school year corcoran says the educated education commissioner went on to say the face mask inhibit peer-to-peer learning and may also impede instruction a couple of other things i just need to read to you this is straight from cdc from their data tracker and website as well coven 19 among children and adolescents although children can be infected and can get sick from cover 19 and can spread the virus to others less than 10 percent of
079coca-19 cases in the united states have been among children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 years of age the last two weeks we've had 22 student cases not in the leon county school system in the leon county general area the populace 22 from age 5 to 14. our largest group is still that 20 and above group the the ones that are after they're through with high school that's still the largest group but in the last two weeks 22 total cases compared with adults children adolescents who have had cover 19 are more commonly asymptomatic never develop simpsons symptoms or have mild non-specific symptoms that's from the cdc based on the data available in person learning in school has not been associated with substantial community transmissions i can tell you that is true with leon county schools
080i've got all the stuff from this past year although national coca 19 case incident rates among children adolescents over time has risen this trend parallels trends observed among adults let's see increases in cases among school-aged children school reopenings do not appear to predate increases in community transmission and the uh so we have commissioner corcoran's statements and then as we know we have executive order 2101 that's from our governor and that would stop districts if that comes through from mandating mass so we've got information we're getting from our our politicians above us and then we have that information in regards to prevalence among our our elementary age students it is our hope and we will continue to push push push for vaccinations it is a problematic area awful large segment of our population will not take
081the vaccine not get vaccinated and that will be true with our believe me i've handled the immunization which is required by law in this district for 10 years and and uh i can tell you with a voluntary vaccination we will be looking at large percentages of students unvaccinated for quite a while unless it's somehow mandated i have no idea about that mr superintendent that's the numbers and the information that i've gotten through collaboration with round king department of health thank you dr cox and he mentioned you know the governor made it clear his feelings on this issue the commissioner corporate made it clear i think both of them prematurely before the end of the school year and it was our goal to abide by all the guidelines set forth by the cdc and leon county
082department of health and finishing out strong this the current school year but then parents needed to know what's next and um i know obviously i mean i have great respect for the people that spoke at the podium earlier about differing differing opinions about children wearing mass mass moving forward i think this is the right thing to do i think if you talk to the vast majority of our of our employees and our parents they would agree with that decision but ultimately this board wants to take a different course of action you certainly may do that to dr cox's point as well we have visited every school we visited every district administrative complex and with vaccines and offered our employees even our children their parents and the community at large the opportunity to come be to
083come get vaccinated before school got out last uh last thursday uh if there are other ideas other things that you all think we can do to try to push as far as our school system is concerned and we're we're all ears but again i think we have seen to the other side as far as the school year is concerned i'm proud extremely proud of what we were able to accomplish and um we're looking forward to our summer 850 program and then moving into the fall so with that we'll entert entertain any any questions or comments madam chair mr jones uh this part of our agenda uh has a particular name is it safe start yes so you finish strong finish safe start finish strong as we talk about this most pub this this our mask
084ordinance most publicly one of the things i think will go a long way in making our community feel more comfortable and perhaps prepare i think a school board as a school board and superintendent and all of us as a part of the this political machine that runs a school district i always think it's important that we be as the bible describes repairs of the breach and i think one of the ways we do that is to continue to communicate to our public that what we have continued to do from the very beginning from march until now and that is to rely upon the expertise of of healthcare professionals to inform our decisions and that although we make a decision although we have made a decision now that doesn't mean that we take our foot off
085the gas and continue to remain in conversation with the experts and so though so there's nothing sacrosanct about the decision that we hold now because we're nimble enough because we're continually seeking guidance to inform our opinion i think as we'd also look to issues relative to vaccination there will be we will not be the only district every school district across the country will wrestle with these issues as we call as as as the beginning of the fall school year starts we will have seen some best practices some innovation and ingenuity perhaps exercise beyond our community that may fit and may work for us and we will then embrace those options too i just think that one of the things i think that our our public needs to know is that we are not leading or
086stoned or concrete or cemented in our point of view but instead we will continue as a board and as a district to continually to be advised by the science as we have throughout this entire process and to and that we too take seriously the safe environments in which our teachers at work and our children learn and i think we've done a very good job of that and although it may somewhat wax laboriously i think these types of conversations at our every meeting are important to be a part of the public record that they might know what we know and how that informs our decisions moving forward i hope that i didn't mean to talk that long but i just thought that it merited that type of emphasis that we are continually evolving as a district
087as it relates to issues relative to our classroom safety well i think to your point mr jones if we see that there's a variant or something changes in our community and these numbers spike we can always turn i mean that's certainly and that's a good point is that nothing is set in stone we've made an announcement for june the 14th if something happens july the 14th august the 14th we can certainly turn we've shown it before we can turn on a dime and we know how to do it we did it for the last 16 months amen thank you for the report dr cox thank you mr jones thank you well said mr jones uh dr chap a few questions um we've been getting from you uh updates on from chp to the best of
088their knowledge what our employee uh percentage is could you update us on that i didn't bring that in tonight it's it it very slowly i think the highest i presented y'all was around 53 from their numbers but between um because remember they don't have it's not reflective of everybody so we're thinking it's more around 60 percent so 60 to 65 of school board employees the good news is is that our numbers vaccinated within the school system even with just their data is higher than leon county as a whole so when when uh they first called me with this offering this information they said tell you right now y'all have some of the highest percentages vaccinated um yes that's good because we're educators we should be educated on the importance of getting a vaccine and that
089just sort of goes to the you know i hear these elementary school parents and i know it's both ways you know there are parents who are saying their children really need to take their mask off i talked to ms rasmussen about that uh in the hall but um i guess i'm not supposed to say that but it wasn't a policy issue we were just talking about i got myself in trouble just now no no no no no no no no no i'm sorry um but she worked with you we weren't voting on anything um but parents also like the ones we heard tonight are concerned and they have you know legitimate concerns so you know i think we need to do everything we can and as dr cox said the best cure is for people
090to be vaccinated and some people cannot be vaccinated some people are going through chemo treatments and they're they're not eligible for a vaccine so i really think that you know since there's been a lot of uh publicity about getting vaccinated we need to work on our approach i think as mr jones was talking about you know keeping our foot on the gas to educate people that's our job and there's different ways to educate people some people are motivated you know by self i want to be safe and of course i think all of us have that in us because that's the human nature to keep going but others can be motivated to protect others and the more families and the more of our employees who are vaccinated helps those people who can't be vaccinated helps
091protect them and i just think that that could be a strong message from us um maybe not delivered from us because people most people don't know us personally but they do know their principle of their school and i really think if we had each school from the principal and the teachers really asking the parents please do this for the person who can't get vaccinated might you know might net some more people might might give them a reason when they don't have feel like they have a reason for themselves and so i'm really now that we are through with graduation we we were promised that the next step would be a full out vaccination campaign an education campaign and i would ask that we gather all of our pr friends that we know to help us
092with this and to try to find the most effective way to help people understand that they're not just protecting themselves they're protecting the ones who can't protect themselves and i would also like to know again from dr cox uh you mentioned that there wasn't much elementary spread but and i'd like to hear a little more about that but also well i'd like to hear about that first actually can can you talk about that when you say not much that's a very relative term can you tell me what our elementary spread was from children child to child do we know you know we don't have within the school day i don't want to say zero but no reported cases within the school day the cases we've got were outside of the school day okay so that
093was uh either through d.a cases students that stayed home students involved in activities got it from somebody that lived in the house our biggest probably our biggest um cause of it was a household protocol somebody bringing it into the family okay and that's why i'm saying i know several months ago our big concern was the student getting at school taking it home giving it to an elderly caregiver and that just did not manifest itself in our in in in our situation now people would say well how do you know this alan how do you know these kind of things is because we tracked it those early months i was i could look at it i could look and see okay i've got these five kids at stable palm or some school and then i looked
094at their cases and none of it came from the school it all came from a protocol from a family trip somewhere and i stayed on that all the way till november now when it got into november i don't y'all remember terry anderson i had over a hundred calls in one day when we came back from the winter break that was the oars time when we came back from medicals everybody traveled there was no vaccination and we had a lot of cases so that's how i know that early on is looking or what about now we did put thousands of students into quarantine so much so that it cost a lot of students their ability to play athletics participate in other things parents started uh actually taking students and and going d.a because they didn't want
095to be caught up in a quarantine so but we looked at a quarantine cases so these are kids that were quarantined from an exposure during the school day and we didn't have any of them get sick and so i'm very careful about saying zero because i'm not 100 sure that but that's how i know those kind of things so i don't i cannot give you specific numbers at a at say elementary level um i can go i can go back and look at the number of cases i'd have to get with uh um susan young and uh our leon school covet group we have a separate group that answers those emails but that that's how and so when we started hearing things in the news that schools actually have been our safe place and they
096have not become the spreader event that was so brought up so much i started saying you know they're right those things are right that's not that has not happened to us here and i remember i remember telling you all that as well now we had cases and we got cases now but a drop in the bucket compared to uh you know what it was at one time could you go over what our protocol is for the summer uh yes regarding that quarantining is that sort of thing yeah a matter of fact let me read this part to you right now so we're still going to do we're still supporting continuation of hygiene hand washing cleaning disinfecting areas we still have a strike force that came out of rob mcqueen's group but at this point after
097this many months we actually have a strike force at every school every school they have the materials and supplies to clean an area if they have to we're still going to try to do the social distancing one thing to help generate this decision to do a mask optional mask is that we only have a ten to one ratio in the summer so we can we can spread out pretty good and of course the edp programs extended enrichment program summer camps they're outside which i've sent out and noticed no mask outside we're going to run into a whole other bunch of problems with that social distancing where possible student cohort groups so as a reminder to the board masks were taken out of the equation for contact tracing way back several months ago cdc's just took
098that out of it and said you we're going to look at 15 feet 15 minutes and 6 feet and that's what we did that's what we did pretty much all year to determine our contact tracing so hand washing all that stuff continues all the posters are still up social distancing where possible continue with the student cohort keeping them in the same groups that's one of the reasons i think the school's ended up being a safe environment much of the country went to those cohort groups outside classroom activities as much as possible and uh now we did go with a change that the cdc recommended and that was the number of days quarantined so it's 10 days now and students can come back in as little as seven with a negative test and it used to
099be to be it had to be a pcr test which is the gold standard but that took a couple of days to get back now it's a rapid i got those in my office we've got you know those rapid tests and remember we couldn't use them for a while but uh now the cdc says if they have a negative rapid rpcr they can come back so at the most a student would be out would be seven days unless it's in the household and that's household protocol which is a little bit different so we still are going to have a quarantining absolutely all the stuff everything is still in place masks are optional that's where we sit right now if we now and mr jones said it i that was perfect the way he said it
100that and and what rocky talked about turning on a dime i think we've proven that we can do that and if we have something come up we start having a lot of outbreak a lot of cases we'll turn on a dime you count on that we'll make the adjustment that we need to make but everything's still in place i still have the leon scovid group a group of folks that answers all the emails all the concerns uh we still notify the principals the students out here's his return date everything we did in the year is still in place okay thank you thanks for the questions hearing on thank you dr cox okay good report we are informed and updated okay i believe now we are at item seven i will consent one madam chair if
101i may yes before we move on uh the consent agenda yesterday we had a uh fairly detailed presentation by ken banks in a discussion about insurance premiums and some adjustments that we would like to make in our interpretation of the existing contract with our three bargaining groups when i sat down tonight i have a letter from the leon classroom teachers association to cease and desist from this addict this item and pull this item from the agenda and they are demanding that the parties negotiating good faith it so you know our goal is to reduce the cost of health insurance for our for our families and our employees plus one we talked about that we think in in miss banks and reading the contract and looking at the numbers i think was very creative and applying
102the contract as it's written today in the 80 for the individual employee and the 60 contribution for the the rest of the family i applaud her efforts i don't think we're in violation of the way the contract's written to be quite honest with you but i also don't want you know to get in a i asked him if we pulled this item tonight and we put it back on for the 28th are we still okay time-wise because if this could potentially save our families a lot of money and our employees a lot of money and not just teachers our bus drivers food service workers all of our employees but i think it would be prudent for for me to request to pull this item tonight just to ensure we're not in violation of any bargaining
103agreement with the teachers union but it is my goal and my sincere hope and we've had this discussion many times this would basically reduce the family insurance rate which is currently 850 a month to 600 and reduce the employee plus one from 600 from 800 i'm sorry employ family rate from 850 to 600 and then the single employee plus one from 650 to 400 250 savings by the interpretation the miss banks has with the current contract we talked about this yesterday the teachers union has taken exception with that and does not want us to take any action tonight so i'm going ask that we honor their request uh after you all discuss it pull the item for tonight then bring it back on the uh at the end of the month on the 20 20
104on my birthday on the 29th madam chair um mr jones let me just ask legally please uh a madam attorney with this being negotiated are we still in legal status to do this well it's an item that's on the agenda that the superintendent has put on uh recommended action for the board he is now indicating that he's going to pull that item all right from the board agenda so the superintendent can pull the item from the agenda we've had that occur in the past okay all right i have no objections mr jones well if he's going to pull it then i guess i have no questions i would be interested in knowing for what reason yes does the lcta find it necessary to call for cease and desist madam chair uh mr smithson um i
105was going to ask on a not not directly related to this but with regard to lcta i know we're currently bargaining the open the open book and i was going to ask for an executive session at the next opportunity which i was going to suggest would be during maybe right on or before or after our agenda review on june 28th but if this gives cause to have it sooner i think an executive session with mr dietzen went based on his availability it would be my request so okay for the request uh so at this point let me understand are we legally not even allowed i say to ask of as to why there is the um ceasing to this order and i can give you you can read that uh our office was informed that
106payouts to teachers within the lcta leon county teachers association are set to be voted on at tonight's school board meeting i'm not sure what the payouts mean as beneficial as this may be changing employees terms and conditions of employment including health insurance premiums is a mandatory subject of bargaining it must be negotiated and they quote a case from the leon county police beloved association versus the city of tallahassee i don't know if i don't know if it is or not i think we had a discussion with miss mckinney williams about talking to discussing this in an executive session it wasn't being bargained because we didn't feel like it it needed to be bargained we felt like we were interpreting the language as it set forth in that our employees would receive 80 percent more contribution
107and the family member 60 and we're driving down costs significant significantly but they've taken exception with this which is fine so i so i am recommending that we pull this item for tonight make sure we're in a good a good place we're not in violation of the contract and then potentially put it now if we don't get it back on by the end of june then okay objections to pulling this are we at that point no i don't think no i think i i think i can do it without your approval i'm just letting you know that i'm that it is cool all right all right then i'll go back to moving consent with the exception of 17.00 with the exception of 17.00 okay that's what i was thinking so we need we don't need
108a motion at this point mr jones has moved the consent agenda and ms striplin has seconded i haven't heard the motion in the second questions hearing none all in favor say aye aye it passes unanimously and so now yes ma'am may ask about the status of my request for an executive session can we schedule that can are you willing to schedule it staff are going to there's actually there was a plan to schedule an executive session on bargaining to give you all an update with my understanding um and so that's already in the works you're going to be there's going to be one schedule and my request would be that mr includes facebook around his availability yes around mr diesel's availability i'm sure staff is listening right yeah miss dean mrs mcallister's right there and
109thank you danican here it is right here thank you okay thank you miss mcallister all right i'm going to see if we can now move to item 1708 are we there yet 18. then we're at item eighteen i'm just gonna consent constructions with miss rasmussen i need to abstain due to an appearance of conflict with my employees she abstains is there a motion i move that we moved by jones second by woods questions from anyone hearing none all in favor say aye aye aye it passes unanimously the vote of four and one of them i'm sorry thank you for that correction uh one abstention the other four all right every 90 and we can count to four so now we move to item number 19. 19.01 [Music] madam chair yes ma'am there this is uh
110the next this item and i believe the next four items all need a public hearing just giving you that yes okay so is there a public hearing would open the public hearing we are opening the public hearing now there are speakers there are no speakers on this item all right no speakers so we can close the public hearing and now we can vote on this particular item you've got a motion i believe a second and it's been second by stripling questions hearing none it passes unanimously i did not hear a vote i'm sorry did i miss it i didn't uh but i heard questions and then i heard it passes unanimously i didn't hear all in favor all in favor aye aye all right opposes none can she do that then the initially any objection
111can you do that that way or not with any well is there any of that is there any objections can you can you do it that way instead of saying all four or all against yeah but i didn't did i hear that i'm sorry that it was a completely different way of doing it but because you usually say all four opposed i move 19.02 for acceptance mr jones hang on just a second we've got a lot going on um i'm sorry the the board clerk is asking who moved item 19.01 mr jones who seconded ms striplin thank you all right sorry miss coffee that's it all right are we ready to move on to i move acceptance right it's a public hearing yes we need it's another public hearing and it is and are they
112speakers madam attorney no speakers on this item all right is there a motion i will accept it is it closed we'll close the um the public hearing we've only done this one million times it's okay a little late tonight sugar's dropping no excuses all right all right um there is a motion second it's been seconded by ms stripling um all in favor say i opposes nay it passes unanimously all right the next one is a public hearing item 19.03 and madam chair there is a speaker there is a speaker mr speaker anthony demarco please come to the podium give us your name and address and you'll have three minutes anthony demarco i'm in tallahassee florida um i was just looking over policy in right off the bat in general first line it says in general
113the school board prohibits discrimination so does that mean um sometimes we discriminate or you know we just in general prohibit discrimination um i'm well aware of what this is in relationship to i suggest that you guys like look deeply into bostock versus clay county um it's eeoc it's impossible to discriminate against gender and gender identity without discriminating against sex and that's title vii title ix falls back on that ruling in every case that's a federal case so the moment you pass this that's going federal there's plenty of attorneys and mr hannah do in the spirit of sheryl mars want to apologize for all the skirmish last year um it's a new year um you guys all know that you know transgender gender non-performing students are extremely important to me i've been communicating with um dr
114rogers non-stop asking to be notified and kept up as things moved along and you know it's really surprised to see this on the agenda i mean just the way it's worded the first two lines i haven't read through the whole policy yet but to say in general we don't discriminate is already a violation thank you for your time thank you for your comment thank you all the speakers no other speakers all right i move acceptance second moved by jones second by strickland questions hearing none all in favor say aye opposes it passes unanimously 19.04 public hearing yes madam chair that's right other speakers no speakers on this item all right so we will close the hearing have you accepted i've warmed up okay second all right moved by jones second by wood uh all in
115favor say aye proposal it passes unanimously we're at item 19.05 public hearing yes madam chair yes um speakers no speakers on this item then we close the hearing motion i move acceptance moved by joan second by wood all in favor say aye aye opposes it passes unanimously oh we're really getting warm 19.06 i move acceptance uh that's moved by jones second by wordsworth by woods all right woods all in favor say aye aye opposes hearing it passes unanimously 19.06 did you want to speak oh yeah hold on wait wait wait i'm sorry yes on that item no no they've yeah so we just went through the uh we discussed yesterday with dynamic integrated services and i think we have a representative with that organization tonight so chief funkyard thank you madam chair mr superintendent school
116board members i will be brief um as you were aware we had a workshop yesterday on school safety updates and i briefed you on the uh current where we are currently with the uh guardian proposal uh i have uh with me from dynamic integrated security mr mario crespo uh me and my team had an opportunity to meet with him uh he is with the company he came all the way up from palm beach and uh he's here just to have some brief remarks for the board this evening mr crespo please sir welcome welcome thank you ladies and gentlemen i appreciate all the hard work you guys put into it's super apparent that you love your community and the hard work and dedication from everyone else it's uh this is inspiring to move forward as we
117deal with the young children everything that they have to encounter throughout the coveted crisis um so my name is mario crestron with dynamic integrated security um it's a little misprint says services but we are dynamic degraded security and um we service 13 counties throughout the state of florida we're the number one provider and certified safe school officers and maintaining the standards um do what we do we we're super excited to come to uh leon county integrate and support uh mr hunk here in the mission of school safety uh with uh superintendent hannah and if there's anything you guys ever need from me or i could do for you guys please let me know okay mr chris but we thank you for coming thank you and thank you for staying through this meeting mr jones through
118our whole meeting and then also what we also what you may be unaware of is that yesterday when our general review workshop both the superintendent mr hunkier talked about your vast experiences and the other school districts that you're presently serving so which made uh this presentation today we were just thoroughly impressed with everything that he had to describe and also equally impressed by what we know will be the local impact that your company will have as you identify persons of people your workforce and serving our leon county schools yes thank you very much miss woods and mr smithson oh senator something we spent a good bit of time on yesterday i think it bears repeating by either uh mr hunky or yourself is uh the qualifications we're looking the experience the training those were all
119big discussion items i think the public needs to understand that we are not uh taking this program lightly that we are really serious about having super high qualified trained people um and so if you would just talk a little bit about that what the criterion's going to be sure absolutely that would be helpful i think well in the beginning of the program it's 144 hours for uh an individual in our case a security uh certified security officer to become a guardian we send our cap our candidates to academies that are 170 178 188 hours even more and we do 40 hours in-house youth mental health de-escalation report writing we do so much other things that we don't have time to get into but we we definitely have a high standard and we maintain it through
120the 13 counties we service pasco county directly we do a couple of things with palm beach county directly so we're extremely proud in our services we also have a 10-year minimum first responder in leon county so when you say 10-year 10 years of experience as a first responder so you're that this is the only county who has required that and we have been able to get such candidates and train them are we'll be trained shortly next month um so you guys definitely have a fantastic community even better candidate pool and they're all excited to be serving the community okay thank you so much and we appreciate your being here tonight we look forward to the opportunity of your service absolutely we look forward to working and forging a partnership thank you thank you thank you
121for coming yes and thank you for staying through our meeting as a matter of fact mr hunky is taking you to dinner i'm sure um we are now at let me see that was 1906 1907. did we vote on that we didn't were good we devoted okay yes and and yes we did we're at 1907. is that motion liverpool moved by stripling second by wood all in favor i say i oppose this name for those listening uh we have looked very closely at this agenda and we don't want it to appear that we're just running through without having looked at it but we have homework that we do before we get to this point when that project matters to your point we've talked about the you know the improvements at john g riley elementary school
122on several different occasions and this is just not coming as an action item all right this is wonderful did we get that accounting of uh all in favor with the yes all right then we moved to thank you mr superintendent 19.08 so 19.08 also we've discussed mr albright has discussed before as a roof repair project at fort brayden school we had some problems with the installation of the pry roof we had a settlement we received from the people that installed the roof and now we are reinstalling the roof fit for braden with the set up with the settlement money move approval second second by jones moved by wood all in favor say aye opposes nay it passes unanimously 19.09 renewables that was the is that the that one was taken up that's not the one
123that was possible oh that's cyber number one yeah approval second moved by jones second by stripling all in favor aye was there someone to speak i guess not mr pusky is here but mr stepski is here and we want him to mr stevsky and mr dawson have been sitting over but i thought we approved it yes and the prior item was also approved and then mr chief honkier spoke after i believe we talked about this yesterday we talked about it yesterday i think we're good whatever you need i love that you're here but i think we've i think we talked about this thank you so much thank you for the hard work and for staying through this meeting we really do appreciate it your job's much harder than mine thank you yes yes yes yes
124yes mr dawson is taking mr stepski to dinner don't go to harry's okay all right 19.10 leon county i move approval planning commission represents who is that mcqueen okay good it's moved by jones second by stripling that's good all in favor say aye opposes it passes unanimously 1911 madam chair yes ma'am uh as i announced yesterday i need to resign my position with the children's service council due to two really important things one is a new job in my life well with the fsu college of law that i want to be able to devote a lot of time to and the second is my husband's firm is being considered for general counsel to the children's service council which would definitely create a perception of a conflict not that we would discuss those things at home
125but you know just so it's out there so i have announced to the children's service council today they are aware of my departure um it is uh don't take it lightly it's very bittersweet but i would like to make a motion that we appoint mr daryl jones in my stead i know he will do an incredible job he is passionate about the issue the children our community and he brings a great deal of energy and resource to the council and they will be very excited to have him all of the above we agree uh it's been moved by strickland uh second by a wood phantom chair yes if i may no there was a question yesterday raised about whether um whether there would be any potential conflict from mr jones serving on the csc i
126did speak with the county attorney chasity osteen and she did some digging and she informed me that mister by mr jones's position is a is under blueprint which is a separate entity from the county um and so there would not be any conflict as under chapter 112 any issues with him serving on the csc um uh because of his employment because employment is not within the county so i just wanted to answer that question from yesterday wonderful we appreciate that that is in the record mr jones did we vote yet if we didn't then we should all in favor of mr jones opposes nice mr jones we are so proud that you take this job on we know that you will do an exemplary job you're the right one for it the right man for
127it and you bring the kind of diversity and experience that is needed on that council i'm speaking very fast because i can feel the synergy from this group that y'all are ready to go okay moving right along where am i i'm on um 20 point something information information items right yes ma'am that's a good place to be so all right we continue to move no upcoming uh financial statements 2020 reports from board liaison are you all there yet no did i move too fast now i don't think there are any okay let me just say to you that uh i did attend the fsba summer conference it was outstanding we represented you all it's a great thing to do uh we hope that you all will be able to come to the uh fall conference
128november 30th through december 3rd uh i will say in this vein that you need to also remember your iris our disclosure forms however that's not related right now what is related for us is that as we open school we the superintendent staff i would like to recommend two of the outstanding speakers that i heard last week at the uh fsba conference to be considered as opening um presenters for diversity and multiculturalism one is and i'll give this to uh dr gail um brandon fleming and the other one is a i've forgotten her name right now a doctor helen fagan outstanding enough very riveting speakers very informative a an eruption in a way of standing ovation after each one of them spoke so the florida school boards association continues to be the voice for education i
129say that very quickly but it is a sincere plug shamelessly do consider as you attend this meeting being one of the board of directors for uh next year and consider also i'm hurrying being on the nominating committee this is a good thing to do with all of the issues we've got going forward okay so we're gonna oh go ahead superintendent's comments so i'm gonna bounce back to what so it's come to my attention that our esteemed chair received an award while she was at the conference she received the president's award and i can't tell you how proud i was to receive that news as i know the other school board members were as well and there's a picture dimmer lee has a picture of you receiving that award and we would like to give you
130a bouquet so those flowers that i've been teasing everybody about were for me all the time [Laughter] oh my that is so oh it's gorgeous thank you yes you may oh you may applaud thank you all so much this is so nice i'm only as good as i am because you're better than that i stand on your shoulders i love each of you you know that and i love the work all of the stuff we do we do for the children and i just tell you i'm working within my call and i'm working within my calling i'm working on an anointing and if you don't understand that don't even worry about it i'll talk about it later thank you i am thank you so much this is good work now this is really good work
131well as well as well deserved congratulations so much okay if i just but finally and i'm wow i am not a good superintendent and i um dr gail i can't thank you enough for and i don't have flowers but i can't think i know it that's what happens when [Music] we had countless planning meetings [Applause] [Music] [Applause] y'all you have no idea how much work went into last to last week and um mother nature cooperated but all of that planning on the front end was her i know it was a team but but the team had a leader and that was and that was the leader and she was there every morning in the heat every single graduation rehearsal she was there every night uh during the event well after the event till midnight helping
132pick up and set up for the next night i am forever grateful michelle for what you did to give those kids something special they would remember and cherish for the rest of their life in denver if you want to step out real quick because like denver like michelle said denver we're running on red bull or monster whatever so he won't do it he's like waving from the window through the window he's turning off the tv come out wherever you are oh if you haven't seen this we should watch it it's really good so start go back to the beginning i hadn't seen it oh it's really good do we have volume everyone should post it it's really good oh wonderful sale kids good times a simple equation the more education you have the more opportunities
133you have [Music] take the time to find love and joy and beauty in your life a time to say thank you to your family and friends for their support we're calling from plano texas for our granddaughter elizabeth fancier senator lots of love and best wishes to all of the graduates and during this last year and a half i found what i've missed the most are human connections the small everyday things i took for granted [Music] gabi has never been about the building it has always been about the people each member of this graduating class is included in the specialness that exists at gagy high school and half of us completed our senior year online but even with the distance that separates us we have stood together pushing through this difficult year [Music] dr may jemison
134once said never be limited by others people limited imagination as official graduates of amos p gabby high school graduates of james s richards high school each of you graduates of sale high school and once i trojan always a trojan graduate you may turn your attack castle [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh good job [Applause] [Music] good job denver hard work too great all right all right report from beyond liaison superintendent's comments i guess that was that no no report but coming back in just a minute i just want to clarify for the upcoming meetings we are in retreat next week right twenty twenty fifth and twenty four twenty five not next week not next week next week right that is the next one okay just clarify [Music] i'm just making sure
135i just didn't see it on the business meeting and agenda or um calendar so i just want to make sure that was still okay okay send us something so that we can be reminded you know how you have to do we know where we're planning to be that day yeah whatever where it will be held right 9 a.m do we have to auto launch that kind of thing bring a blanket if we're in here okay thank you bring your blanket everybody yeah bring a blanket okay uh let me just say as you're thinking of other things yeah i'm still you're still smiling my flowers mister superintended me too um the american history task force uh is meeting did meet today the florida commissioners of education and they will be meeting tomorrow as well i suspect
136you know that but we just offer that as part of the announcements um of what's going on in the county uh michelle gale of course is out there and involved in this as well so check your emails and other information about that madam chair yes ma'am i have a motion to reconsider all right we may quickly um a few weeks ago about this time of night when we were kind of tired i made a motion that we have all of our committees report to us quarterly and since then we've gotten feedback especially from the dac who's represented by every school in the district it's been around for probably 50 years and the title one advisory council also and so i would just like to reconsider that motion and in in place of that ask them
137to continue to report to us monthly and i'll say as needed because if they don't need to report or want to report that's okay but we welcome them i think that's the point that we want to make sure that they understand and i would ask that other committees at least come quarterly and i'm making that in terms of a new motion a reconsidered motion do i have a second my exception is to the second part to your motion okay the motion was that all of them would go to quarterly and as needed or as desired meetings i think that the motion should be a unilateral return to what we formally had with the continuing option for them to stand or to not report if not necessary that's fine with me i would but i wouldn't
138that's probably i wouldn't designate anything quarterly for any one of the committees because all of them may have the interest to want to return and that way we'll have taken care of all them we would have turned back the hands of time to what we formally did and but i guess i'm just trying to also make it clear that if they don't have to come to report to us because we say they have to come every month if they don't have anything to report or or that's fine also we just want to hear from them when they have something to tell us so i'm rescinding my emotion i guess is what i'm doing from before is that the best way to do that i i would request for miss coffee that you restate or state
139what your emotion is now in uh after i accept mr jones friendly amendment and i would just say that um i'm i think it's called a motion to reconsider the that's what he told me motion to reconsider the earlier motion no that's not how we do it i would just ask that you just state what your emotions okay my motion is that we return to uh our prior practice for the committees that report to us and add that it is not required for them to come monthly but they are invited to come monthly to report to us second it has been moved in second all in favor say aye aye aye closers saying it passes unanimously okay thank you are we at board member concerns yes we are madame shear mister i think i wanted
140to make these comments because i think that they are very important that they be made uh words like legend and icon are words that are loosely banded about and we hear those comments oftentimes applied loosely but i want the public as well as my colleagues who already know what i know and that is that our chair is indeed a legend and an icon in our industry of florida school boards across school boards in the state of florida she enjoys the enviable distinction of having been the only person from our leon county school district to have ever been elected chair of our statewide organization right as as president of the florida school board association not only that i had the pleasure of being present when she received a rousing standing ovation when she received the president's
141award and i know that sometimes there are those who would think that prophets have no honor in their own country but this moment where the proof superintendent presents these flowers to her on behalf of a grateful board and district i just want the public to know that she and for her to know that she is equally esteemed by her colleagues and her district and that i am certain that for her and in her service the best remains to come and we just wanted to acknowledge you tonight for just being a wonderful awesome leader and with that thought in mind i would like for our our capable and competent staff we have all had our focus most specifically on issues relative to the pandemic that has been our focus to ensure the safety and security of
142our students and our teachers in our classrooms and in our sites but i would like for us to and because she received her award regarding equity and equality for which she has been a standard bearer for the entire state of florida i'd like for us to reconvene that conversation i know that dr gail had convened a blue ribbon committee i'd like for that committee to be read to be reconvened i'd like it to be publicly noticeable so that any one of us as board members would like to join this bowen and that discussion will be permitted to do so but i'd like for us between now and when we meet next to be able to identify a time doesn't have to happen between now and when we meet next but that time could possibly be
143scheduled i remember there were names specifically michelle pledge your former student uh tyler mcclendon over at hartsfield and other interested persons shane seifert and others who could were a part of that committee i'd like for us to come back to that discussion okay and if we can get that scheduled i'd appreciate it which then provides me with an obvious segue as we all know this is pride month where we take the opportunity and the moment to celebrate love and to celebrate people who love one another and i think that that is important that we take a moment to celebrate love but then we also during this same month take a moment to observe and to remember and to memorialize hatred many of you like me recall waking up that sunday morning five years ago to
144hear them on see i was watching the cbs sunday morning news which is my tradition and i remember the body count increasing over the course of those two hours from five to seven to nine into fourteen into fifteen and i just want as we observe and celebrate love that we will also remember that there is hatred in this world i also want the children the students of leon county schools the faculty and staff of leon county schools to know that they are loved they are valued and they are seen whether they may be homosexual gay lesbian transgender that they are loved they are valued and they are seen furthermore this mo this week we also as a nation i don't know if you saw it on your phone that it has now become a national
145holiday juneteenth you may applaud right that is now a national holiday where we observe the emancipation of african-american people i want my black children to know that they are loved they are seen and they are valued in this district and that anybody who talks about anything other than love has no place in the conversation of our leon county school district and i just wanted to pause to take a moment particularly as we honor the standard bearer of equity inequality that that is a value that we all share in the leon county school district thank you you know i i could never say that better and i will never ever try but i will say this um we each on this board just bring so much to the work i so appreciate the individuals that we
146are and the skills and abilities that we show forth every day and every time i think i'm going to just have to pinch my good friend little nick off over here he will come out with something and i just have to love in him you know that i love it and so tonight i'm not pinching this little nick off that's a joke between us i'm sorry so that the public won't think that we're fine she's threatened to slap me i just want y'all to know that in the public put that in the record speak and you can imagine why okay uh but this work is so important what i'm expecting next year and we've talked about this earlier this year is that before we go into the school session next year that there will be
147some diversity training for the from the top down in our district the superintendent has already set the tone for that and he said it will happen and so i'm excited about it and much of the work that we've been doing which i guess gave us this award uh incorporates everything that mr jones has talked about we've talked to students we've had gay students we've we've just done the gambit of trying to deal with the students that are just there and so i'm very proud of what we do and i know i'm just gushing all over the place right now but to continue incorporating equity diversity and inclusiveness in our training sessions for leon county schools dr rogers is listening uh deana mcallister is listening dr gail and the rest of us this is so important
148we're a good team thank you very much is there other business to come before this board then we're adjourned thank you thank you all you